Aqueduct

Transport puzzle? Tour puzzle? Elimination puzzle? Rearrangement puzzle? Trying to define Aqueduct is almost as taxing as solving some of its final stages.

What I’ve eventually settled on is slide-puzzle-meets-pipe-puzzle-with-a-dash-of-river-crossing puzzle. I hope that makes sense.

If you’re familiar with Pipe Mania or any of its multiple clones, you're certain to immediately recognise the Aqueduct setup. As a virtual plumber, you must construct a piping system by dragging and positioning three types of track: straight, elbow, and T-shaped.

Unlike some of its pipe-connecting ilk, however, Aqueduct makes all of the conduits required to connect the faucet to the drain available from the get-go.

Each of the game’s 140 levels, spread across six chapters of increasing difficulty, consists of a grid. Of sorts.

Whilst the game’s opening chapter serves as a glorified tutorial, introducing you to obstacles (conveyor belts and gates) and enablers (warps, blocks, and switches), later levels throw another, often overlooked, ingredient into the mix: empty space.

The third main aid to your pipe dreams is the bridge. Acting as your very flexible friend, this particular tile can be freely manipulated around the void as and where it’s needed for tubing transportation.

Speaking of freedom, Aqueduct doesn’t employ a timer. As a consequence, replay value is sacrificed in favour of a more meditative and thoughtful approach.

By omitting a time limit, leaderboards, points, Facebook integration, and visual cues/hints (à la Edge), Kieffer Bros has largely stripped away anything viewed as extraneous to the pure puzzling experience.

That’s not to say Aqueduct is perfect. A minimalist, downright bland soundtrack allied to merely functional graphics and the linear unlocking of levels prevent this novel puzzler being a stone cold classic.

As a test of how well you lay pipe, though, there aren’t many better.