Parents' Guide to Krystopia: A Puzzle Journey

While this puzzling adventure puzzle game could do a better job explaining itself to newcomers, fans of similar games will find it clever and engaging. In Krystopia: A Puzzle Journey, you are space ship captain Nova Dune, who lands on the planet of Krystopia to investigate a distress signal coming from the surface. This leads Nova into a mysterious structure, where she has to solve the kind of clever, situational puzzles we've seen in the Tomb Raider games, the game Myst, and even in the Indiana Jones movies. These include following patterns, moving things into the right position, and similarly visual mental exercises.

Now, this does have one fatal flaw for people who've never played a game like this: It doesn't explain its mechanics. That's why newcomers to the genre will probably spend 10 minutes poking at the opening screen before eventually giving up and playing something else. But if you've played this kind of game before, and are thus familiar with the mechanics, you'll find this provides a nice cerebral challenge. While some of the puzzles are tough, especially later on, they're never unfairly so, and always follow a sort of internal logic (even if it's not always obvious). And while the game does have some technical glitches that cause it to react slower than it should, the thoughtful, clever puzzles make Krystopia: A Puzzle Journey an engaging good time for any adventurous space captain.