Einstein Enigma

The average person doesn't think much about what Einstein's private life was like, but we like to think that he would never smoke a bubble pipe and stare at you condescendingly as you attempted to solve whatever puzzles he threw at you.

In Einstein Enigma for iOS and Android, the brilliant scientist stares at you from under his heavy eyelids and bushy eyebrows whenever you pause the game to take a breather. It's clear that he's judging you, even if he doesn't say as much.

You'll probably keep on pushing forward, though, because Einstein Enigma is a unique and terrifically challenging puzzle game.

The gameplay in Einstein Enigma is based around the machinations of the enigma rotor cipher machine that Germany used to send messages during the World War II.

Each puzzle board contains at least two differently coloured axels that are surrounded by four separate pieces. The contents of the axels tend to overlap, and you need to slide your finger or thumb along the sides of the wheels in order to match up the coloured pieces with their proper axel.

Easier said than done. When you rotate the contents of one axel, all the surrounding pieces respond regardless of colour. In other words, you may think that sliding a single wayward puzzle piece back into its proper home would be easy, but chances are that pieces are going to wind up everywhere and the whole game board will look like a madman hacked up the wheels with a cleaver.

Working through the puzzles in Einstein Enigma takes foresight, patience, and a strong stomach for a lot of restarts.

Each puzzle also takes time, and oh, by the way, the game counts how long it takes you to solve each visual riddle. Thankfully, the count ascends rather than descends: you can take all the time you need (just remember that Papa Einstein is watching and judging).

Each puzzle has four difficulty levels - Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard - and you're awarded stars according to the level you solve.

One of Einstein Enigma's more unfortunate flaws is the large jump in difficulty between "Easy" and "Medium." Most of the "Easy" puzzles are dead simple - almost insultingly so - but when you make the move to Medium you're often left scratching your head.

Frustratingly, you need to collect stars in order to move on to new puzzles and gimmicks. This restriction makes some sense: after all, if you can't handle the opening puzzles, who's to say you'll make any progress on the puzzles that completely fill the screen with wheels?

That said, sometimes you just want to move on without any restrictions, especially since the later puzzles utilise intriguing accessories like cog wheels that move together whenever one is nudged.

The presentation in Einstein Enigma is also pretty bare bones. There's no music, the sound effects are a bit dull, and the brightly coloured wheels may hurt your eyes after you've looked at them for a while.

Despite its problems, Einstein Enigma is almost as clever as its namesake. If you need a punishing puzzle game that will make you hiss swear words while you're in a queue at the bank, consider yourself covered.