Customer Reviews

Puzz3D CD: Neuschwanstein Bavarian Castle

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Bavarian Castle puzzle, at the "beginner" level, was the most difficult jigsaw puzzle that I've ever attempted--but I had never constructed a 3D puzzle before. Once I got familiar with the program design and controls (pieces can be rotated in two and three dimensions, construction lines help snap completed sections into place, sorting trays can be labeled and made "recloseable"), the jigsaw became deliciously challenging. I could barely tear myself away from the computer, once I got going.

As of now, I've completed the castle at the bronze and silver stages, and have enough understanding and memory of how the pieces fit together to consider skipping to the platinum level on my next attempt, to get full access to the castle interiors and puzzles. Despite having considerable experience with challenger jigsaws (both real and virtual), I doubt that I could have put the Bavarian Castle puzzle together if I had begun at the highest level, which offers no construction helps like architectural guides. (The Victorian Mansion puzzle was much easier, by comparison.)

The video clips of King Ludwig annoyed me, because of the actor's condescending approach to his character. However, the sound clips of selections from Wagner's operas are very nice.

The puzzle ran beautifully on my Pentium-100 machine with 128megs of RAM. The only problem with using this slow machine was that the movie clips ran with the audio and video slightly out of sync. In fact, I was totally impressed with the program's design and freedom from bugs, at least on my equipment.

I like the visuals for this game and the premise. But the interface is awkward and the technical prowess of the designers is minimal -- they can't even change the video mode for the required 640x480 screen size...

But my largest problem is with their technical support. My game continually crashes in the "exploration phase" of the game and all the pointers sent me to the truly heinous DYAD.com site. So although the game is/would be cool if it worked, I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.

I found this one at a store and I love puzzles, so I bought it. It's fantastic. I love a challenge, so I picked the hardest level of play. Even after solving the mystery, I have assembled the castle at least 6 times. Of all of the Puzz 3-D puzzles, this is my most favorite. Hope they come out with many more Puzz 3-D's. I currently own all four to date.

Great fun! The only problem was the patch that I didn't know about. Long hours doing the last level and I only got the gold key, not the platinum. I had to start all over after getting the patch installed.

I had a lot of fun building the castle, but when I went inside I kept running out of memory and it would crash. I assigned it more than enough to run according to the system requirements, but it still quits. Maybe I am the only one with this problem, but if you want to play this game, I would suggest having enough memory to hold the Library of Congress. I leave you with this final thought: SAVE OFTEN!

Do not buy this game if you own a mac with a Mac OS X operating system. The game will not run, it says that the classic environment is not longer compatible. Even though the game says it is if you have a Mac OS 8 or higher. It's too bad because I was really looking forward to this game!!

This is my second puzzle of the castle. The first one got "lost" when my computer was replaced. Am looking forward to completing this one. Wish the instruction book had instructions for increasing the puzzle size on the computer. Very pleased to have it again.

Be aware that these games all required a patch to play. Victorian Mansion has problems in the explore phase, bavarian castle has problems with the sword part of the game, etc. They are NOT available for download anymore so if you purchase one of these games you may get no further than just putting the puzzle part together. Contacting Hasbro who now owns wrebbit says patches are no longer available for games that are discontinued and Wrebbit website where they were available is now nonexistant.

For those of you who are puzzle geeks like me, this is an innovative twist on jigsaw puzzles. You can learn how the game works on the beginner level and work through 4 total levels. Exploring the castle is really cool, but finding the missing sword pieces will make you crazy. My only complaint is that you can't control the viewing zoom level on the pieces. Still worth the time. I plan to buy all of the editions.

I have not been able to travel to Germany yet, but on my first visit I want to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. This video game was a dream come true. It is a challenging puzzle, but once you have finished the most difficult level, you can continue to enjoy again and again the beautiful vistas inside and outside the castle. I put it in often, the game is like bringing an art museum inside your home.