Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
If you're not already aware of it, this isn't the first time we've seen Amazing Alex on
the App Store. Those who owned an iPad around mid last year should be aware of Casey's Contraptions
(CC) by Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut - its Rube Goldberg inspired physics gameplay wasn't
new, but it was seriously addictive. The game was subsequently bought out by Rovio, of Angry
Birds fame, touched up, and now we have Amazing Alex for the iPhone and iPad.
In this iteration you play as Alex, an imaginative child that creates and then solves various
problems using every-day objects including shelving, balloons, scissors, pipes, wind-up
toys and many, many more. It's up to you to use the remaining pieces not added in to the
'machine' to pass the level, hopefully picking up all three stars in the process.
In a slight improvement over the original version, the earlier levels have been smoothed
out, simplifying the challenge and teaching players how to use each new gadget before
ramping up the challenge. Shamefully, despite the year since its previous release, many
of the original levels have been kept in-tact. This isn't a terrible thing by any means,
as their complexity was tuned just enough to allow for unique solutions to its many
problems, however it does make it much harder to convince those who owned CC to come back
for more.
Also left in-tact is the focus on social gaming, with solutions to each puzzle being shared
automatically with your friends, while levels created in the editor are placed on an easy
to use website and are downloaded with a single tap.
However, what Amazing Alex does have in its favor is the weight of a company like Rovio
to not only polish the visuals to an adorably crisp level, but also the promise of more
content to come. If any company can guarantee a continuous stream of new levels it's this
one - and best of all, it's available on the iPhone too, so more people than ever can join
in.
The addition of a smaller iPhone version does have its downsides, notably, placing puzzle
pieces can be extremely fiddly, though a switch to a single-touch system has slightly helped.
The final verdict is a fairly clear one - if you can't get enough of Casey's Contraptions
and you're itching for more content, jump back on board. For everyone else, it's a Rube
Goldberg style physics puzzler of the kind we've seen many times before on the App Store,
only with someone like Rovio at the helm you can at least expect continued support.