Mind-O-Mania
|
| Mind-O-Mania

The real difference between a game like chess and most every other cerebrally challenging puzzle out there is the forethought required before making each move.

You need to plan a great many steps ahead, and that's a concept Mind-O-Mania aims to achieve in this unique puzzle/platform hybrid.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail

The princess has been captured, as seems to happen a lot to royalty (not that anyone would be likely to nab Princess Anne, but anyway). Your task is to free her, and as Shrek so eloquently explained this means helping her true love climb to the highest room in the tallest tower.

Each room is laden with traps and dangers, but your hero is a bit too impatient to find his way around them. Before he sets off running without regard for his own safety, it's up to you to plan a route for him around these dangers.

A variety of different objects and pieces of equipment are at your disposal, and must be positioned about the room to provide safe passage when you tell your character to set off.

It can be a tad irksome positioning the cursor, and starting a level again is a bit of a chore, but the puzzle mechanics are rock solid.

Running before you can walk

Where Mind-O-Mania struggles is in its execution and course design (as well as having a title that doesn't really have anything to do with the game).

The graphics are overly basic, and the menu system is a chore when it comes to moving between levels or starting a failed level again. The difficulty doesn't seem too well balanced, either, with some levels being ridiculously easy to saunter through while others (often early on) are frustrating enough to bring the game to an unceremonious end.

This rough design work does redeem itself with the inclusion of an excellent hint system, in which a ghost runs through the path your hero needs to take, but doesn't give away which items you'll need to use en route.

And with well over 50 levels to go at, the puzzles are plentiful enough that anyone who finds themselves addicted (and that's very likely) will get more than their money's worth.

Mind-O-Mania

A superbly unique puzzle game that suffers from some rough design work and a ham-fisted user interface, but is more than entertaining enough to overcome these superficial hurdles
Score
Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.