Rooms: The Unsolvable Puzzle
By Michael Lafferty,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Well-made sliding puzzle stuck with repetitive gameplay.
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Rooms: The Unsolvable Puzzle
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What’s It About?
ROOMS: THE UNSOLVABLE PUZZLE is based on the sliding-puzzle mechanics of platform games. A famous toy maker and his mansion have completely disappeared and then magically reappeared with his rooms completely mixed up. The mansion is filled with gadgets that can help players solve puzzles by jumping from room to room, resorting the entire puzzle or blowing up impeding rooms. The goal is to get a little girl (Anne, the central figure in this tale) to move from a starting location to the door that leads to the next level.
Is It Any Good?
Rooms: The Unsolvable Puzzle is a sequel to a Wii and DS game that came out in 2010. Success is achieved by sliding the rooms around to get the little girl from a starting location to the door that leads to the next level. As players solve each puzzle, they're awarded one-to-three badges (three being the highest) to show how quickly it was solved. The problem here, though, is that rooms aren't randomly generated, so if a player solves it once and receives a low score, she can revisit the level and solve it much faster to achieve a higher score. That also ruins the replayability of the game, since players can memorize the solution.
The graphics are very nice, special effects are handled well, and the background music has a nice feel that accentuates the gameplay. Though the story is told well, there's a major disconnect between the story and the gameplay. Namely, there isn't any explanation as to how or why the story relates to the increasingly difficult puzzles, which doesn't help to draw in players. As a result, this is a game that's good for one play-through, especially for puzzle fans, but there isn't much replayability or a story to keep them playing once they're done.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about which skills players can use to solve puzzles or how to think through problems in the real world. Do you feel the same sense of satisfaction when you riddle out the answer to a tricky puzzle as when you defeat a difficult enemy in an action game, or is it different somehow?
Talk to children about balancing screen time and physical activity. It's important to spend time engaged in activities that promote good health and not only spend time glued to a computer or television screen.
Game Details
- Platform: Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: HandMade Game
- Release date: May 1, 2015
- Genre: Puzzle
- Topics: Puppets
- ESRB rating: NR for Rooms: The Unsolvable Puzzle is not rated by the ESRB. That notwithstanding, the game is very simple and is puzzle-based with no violence, language issue or anything that might concern parents.
- Last updated: November 5, 2015
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