Hello again Time Wasters!
It’s been a while since I’ve played a puzzle game that consisted of actual jigsaw puzzles; and since I’m a person who doesn’t like those kinds of puzzles to begin with, it’s a surprise I even gave this one a shot. The only reason I picked it up is because it said that the puzzles were moving. It was an interesting concept, so I tried it out for your sake.
As promised the puzzles were indeed moving. Well, the picture at least. No, the puzzles pieces themselves aren’t moving or trying to escape from you (not that that would be a bad concept), the pictures you’re trying to put together are what are moving around. I’ve seen the same thing in the picture editor on the Wii where you take a video, chop it into pieces, and then try to put it back while it plays. This meant that I already had a taste of what this game had to offer.
You start off the puzzle by seeing what you’re going to be trying to make, and once you break the puzzle apart you put it back together. All the pieces are square of course, so you can’t count on piecing them together by matching shapes, but if you need help there is a preview button that lets you see how the picture is supposed to look (since there is obviously no puzzle box lid to look at this time). With this picture you can tell exactly where certain moving parts are at that moment. I used it during the first two levels, but that’s the only time I found it useful.
Unfortunately for this game that’s pretty much it. But what more do you expect from a puzzle? Well, I for one expected there to be a little more of a challenge. After the first two puzzles I got the hang of matching up things based on what’s moving when and where, and the challenge was all but gone. More complex or confusing pictures and a lot more pieces would have made things a bit harder, but that’s not what this game offers.
Live Puzzle is not a terrible game though, if you’re someone who likes puzzles (which, remember, I’m not), and some people out there might enjoy spending half an hour playing through it. But the game is average at best, and the only compliments I can give are that the pictures were nice and the music didn’t get on my nerves. Other than that though, there just wasn’t enough of a challenge to keep me interested for an extended period of time.
Live Puzzle’s pieces fall a little short, earning 2.5 GiN Gems out of 5.