Crazy Machines 2

Do you know what a Rube Goldberg machine is? It is a mechanical device that takes a simple task and makes it incredibly difficult by adding pulleys, rolling balls, dominoes and all sorts of other things completely unnecessary for said task. Remember the board game mousetrap? It's like that, instead of using a simple latch and lever, you have bowling balls, bathtubs, switchbacks and all sorts of other nonsense all in the name of fun and creativity. My sons and I have made these machines in the house much to my wife's chagrin and watched some of the better one's on Youtube. We like them, and appreciate their creativity. So when I saw this game was available for review, well, I just up and asked for it cause I was thinking my sons and I would enjoy the tinkering involved. We did; enjoy my review.

Crazy Machines is kind of a quirky title. You suspect the game takes place years ago from some of the clues that are seen on the walls of the puzzles, only the developers know for sure. What I know is, that when you play the story mode, you are challenged by the Professor (sort of an Einstein-looking fellow) to complete several puzzle-style challenges each with primary and secondary objectives. Each puzzle is basically a wall with several items already fixed on the wall and then several items found below in your equipment bin. Placing the cursor on each item tells you what it is and doing the same in your inventory gives you a more detailed description. As the puzzle starts, the Prof. comes on and tells you what to do and where to make it go courtesy of a John Madden-like chalk marks that appear on the puzzle. For example, the Professor would like his bowling ball placed in the trunk in the basement, before he leaves for his trip. You must do this using only the items in your inventory; in addition, I would like that red balloon popped before I go as well, cheers! And there you go, you must use items both for their intended purpose and your imagination to make things happen.

 
"Mensa ain't got nothin on me!"

Now don't go thinking that this is going to be easy; in fact, it takes quite a bit of ingenuity and imagination to complete some of the game's challenges. Using crossbows that mount to walls and barrels to crash on other items is only the tip of the iceberg. You will learn how to deal with wind power, electricity, ramps, force, weight, wheels, bowling pins, candles and literally hundreds of other things. My favorite is the puzzles usually involving steam engines that (naturally) have no heat to stem them. This is a slick, creative game that forces you to use the grey matter in your head. Admittedly, the initial puzzles were fun for my 7-year old, but now we have passed the point of him being able to play the game by himself, so now we play together and he loves it - as do I.

There isn't too much required in the graphics department, but the game does allow you to zoom in on any smaller point of the puzzle to get a better look. You can see the grittiness of the bricks in the wall, the teeth in the gears of mechanical devices and other small details that make the game interesting. When you have everything in place where you think it should be, you hit the start/stop button and watch the magic unfold as basketballs roll down stairs and flaming arrows shoot across the screen. In some cases quite a bit is going on at the same time and there is no breakdown in visual quality. Not that there should be - most action games have more movement while your standing still, but the visuals ring true and look equally good. Shadow effects, flame, steam, they all look very nice and give the game some credibility.

 
"How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop? This machine will tell you."

The same could be said about the Prof's voice work. This is done clearly in a humorous voice to further move the zaniness along. Our man the Professor promises to bring you on his world travels as long as you can prove yourself as a good thinker. Lighting the hallways of the local college or barbequing the kids dinner is all par for the course in a game that really has some strange challenges portrayed to you by the Prof. Still, the game sounds nice and the noises made by your weird contraptions come through clean and sharp. The game has had some real attention to detail put into it. 

Now the game has like 200 puzzles to complete, which is an a astonishing number considering you are given a point value and a gold, silver or bronze lugnut after each completion. Some puzzles will only take you 55 seconds or less to complete, others will take much, much longer. I have worked on some puzzles for almost 40 minutes before putting it all together. And, after completing a puzzle, the game is not real keen on you trying it again if you failed to complete secondary tasks. Nope, if the primary task is beaten then you move forward, which stinks because on more than one occasion I "literally" stumbled into completing the puzzle's main challenge while working on the secondary, only to be forced to move forward. Oh, you can back out and play that puzzle again, but your score will remain the same unless you start another file. This is the one big thing that irked me.

For you aspiring inventors, there is a sandbox mode where you can make your own puzzles and Rube Goldberg machines. This will only appeal to a select few, although I suspect most players will at least try the puzzle editor for the curiosity factor. If you come up with a good one you can send it online for other to try and figure out. This is an ample add-on because there are real devotees to this stuff and they will have beaten the game in record time and be looking for their next fix.

Gameplay: 8.3
Easy to use, forward thinking and inventive, the game is really a delight to play.

Graphics: 8.0
Simple, yet spot-on graphics that make the game a pleasure to watch once you have assembled your machine.

Sound: 8.0
The Professor is a quirky fellow who enjoys spending too much time thinking up over complicated ways to cook a hot dog, yet totally great voice work.

Difficulty: Easy-Hard
The game starts off the way all puzzle games should and gets really tough.

Concept: 8.2
The only other video game like this, is the previous incarnation of it. This is good clean fun.

Multiplayer: N/A
You can post your puzzles online, and play others' puzzles but there is no real interaction with anyone.

Overall: 8.2
I really like this game; chances are, the puzzle fan in your family will to. With all the violence and wanton sexuality (not that this is a bad thing) in games, this is truly a game anyone can play without fear of anything even remotely offensive.