Customer Reviews

Puzzler World

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

-I'm a puzzle lover, so when I saw this game for sale on Amazon.com I preordered it and it arrived yesterday Friday December 11, 2009.

-The game has over 1,000 different puzzles on it which will keep you busy for a long time.

-There are two different puzzle modes which are:
Challenge mode- where you are given a large scrolling menu that contains all 560 main puzzles and the bonus puzzles which are given to you after you complete each of the puzzles
Quick play- in this you could play all of the different types of puzzles except for the bonus ones, but they give you easier puzzles and will give you a hint of what you will see in the challenge mode

- There are eight different types of main puzzles which are:
Wordsearch- my favorite and one of the reasons why I brought this game. In this they give you a list of words and you have to find them in the grid
Fitword- another one of my favorites and why i brought this game. In this they give you a list of words and you have to fit them into a grid
Sudoku- I basically just thought myself how to do this type of puzzle- You have to fit numbers into the grid.
Link-A-Pix- I have no idea how to do this type of puzzle, but I think when your done it will make a picture
Crossword- I don't like them that much, but maybe I'll try them
Silhouette- this is kind of cool. In this game they give you a grid of different shapes, and you have to fill in the ones that have a dot in them and when your finished it will make a picture.
Spot the difference- this is another one of my favorites. They give you two images of a picture and you have to spot the differences
Codeword- I have no idea how to do this type of puzzle either. I think you have to fill a grid with letters corrsponing to numbers to make words.

- The bonus puzzles consists of:
Hangman
Equate- which is a type of math puzzle
Jigsaw- you have to unscramble the pieces to make a picture.
Picture quiz- you have to look at a picture for 30 seconds and memorize all that you can and afterwards you are given three questions about it.
Chain letters- that give you six letters and you have get the correct sequence to make a word
Missing piece- a picture game where you see a picture with a missing portion and you have to pick the correct piece to complete it.

Overall I love this game and I also have other puzzle games for my Nintendo DS such as: USA's Today Puzzle Craze, Crosswords DS, Margot's Bepuzzled, and this one. Out of all the puzzle games I have on my DS I think I like this game the most.

I would recommend it for people who are puzzle lovers like me because this game gives you a lot of different puzzle types.

I'm a "senior" (over 65) and I bought this game because it looked like something I would enjoy, since I love doing puzzles. I was not disappointed, for the most part. In the beginning levels (I'm only at the 65th puzzle out of a total 560), some of the puzzles (especially the Bonus ones) seem a little too easy, e.g., Equate, Hangman, Anagrams, Wordsearch, but from some of the other reviews, I see the puzzles will get more difficult as I get to the higher ones. After each puzzle is complete, you get to pick a prize - which is usually 5 hint tokens, 10 hint tokens or a letter for the word PUZZLER. Once you get all 7 letters, you get 100 hint tokens as a prize. You can use these hints in increments of 5, 10 or 20, when you get stumped and need a little help. Currently, I have over 600 hint tokens accumulated, so you can see the puzzles haven't been too difficult and I haven't needed to use many!

My favorite puzzle is Link-a-Pix. It's a little confusing at first, but doesn't take too long to figure out. My daughter, son-in-law and grandkids have all taken my Nintento away from me to do this particular type of puzzle! It is everyone's favorite. One reviewer said there is no replay value once you've completed a puzzle, but that's not really true since the puzzles are timed and you can try to beat the "personal best" time for some of the ones you don't really remember after awhile.

I just wish you were able to link with another player so you can work on a puzzle at the same time to see who gets to finish quickest. However, this is not an option. You can set up three different profiles, but can't link up and work at the same time.

All in all, this is a great game!! In fact, I'm buying one right now for my daughter, so she will leave mine alone :).

Puzzler World is a MASSIVE collection of simple puzzle games. There are 560 individual puzzles of various types. When you complete one, you unlock a bonus puzzle, for a total of 1120 puzzles. The main puzzle types are:

- Wordsearch: find words hidden horizontally, vertically, or diagonally on a board full of letters. All the words are related to a particular theme, eg. dogs, marine animals, birds.
- Sudoku: self-explanatory.
- Crossword: self-explanatory.
- Fitword: the reverse of a crossword. Fit a list of words onto the crossword board.
- Spot the difference: find 10 differences between the 2 pictures. You can tap randomly on the screen until you get it right, as there's no penalty. Not much thinking involved.
- Silhouette: not really a puzzle. It's a paint-by-dots coloring book. Just fill in the shapes with a dot to complete the picture.
- Codewords: using a crossword board, but filled with numbers 1-26. Each number corresponds to a scrambled letter and you have to figure out the cipher. 3 numbers are filled out for you as hints. I find this very hard.

- Link-A-Pix: Probably the most confusing and ill-conceived of the game types. You get a huge board scattered with differently colored numbers (like Minesweeper). You're supposed to connect the same colored number with each other using that many squares. Example, if you see a red 4, it means to link it to another red 4 using 4 squares. The numbers go up to 14. The lines can snake around and bend to achieve the required number of squares. When you've connected all the numbers properly, you're supposed to have drawn some sort of picture. You can think of it like a knitting pattern. This game type is somewhat difficult, but only mildly interesting, as the resulting picture is doesn't really look like much, just a mess of big pixels.

When you complete any of these, you get to choose 1 of 3 gift boxes. They contain either 5 coins, 10 coins (used to buy hints), or a letter. Spell out "PUZZLER" for a 100 coin bonus. Then you can play a bonus game:

- Missing Puzzle Piece (timed): Choose the missing piece from the 6 jigsaw pieces presented.
- Equate (timed): Fill in math symbols to make the sum shown. eg: 1 [+] 2 [/] 3 = 001.
- Chain Letters (timed): Solve the anagram by stringing together the scrambled tiles.
- Picture Quiz (tied to the Spot the Difference game): look at the picture for 30 seconds and answer 3 trivia questions.
- Jigsaw (timed, tied to the Silhouette game): rearrange 9 tiles to form the original picture.

At higher levels, the puzzles get harder. For example, at lower lowers, the sudoku squares are only 6x6. At higher levels, they go up to 9x9.

In Quick Play mode, you get unlimited hints, which removes any challenge the game offers. Of course, you don't have to use hints, but there's no penalty, so you can cheat if you want to.

One major complaint: The DS buttons are all turned off. The DS's screen is already small, and interface buttons take up 1/4 of the screen on some games, competing with the gameboard for space. They really don't need to be that big, or even shown at all if the developers had left the DS's direction pad enabled. Up and Down are buttons on the touchscreen, but they could've saved space by letting you use the game pad to scroll lists, instead of having to use the stylus. There's no quick way to quit or reset a game. You have to push Start button then select one of the options. It would'be been better to let you push B, or X, two buttons commonly used in games for canceling.

The game can be set for lefties and righties. The handwriting recognition is a bit spotty, and requires CAPITAL letters for best results. For example, "e" and "y" results in "O" or "J", becoming a big problem if you're playing hangman, though you can train the game to recognize your particular writing style.

To sum up, this game is a good way to kill time for puzzle freaks, especially fans of the printed puzzle books. The large number of puzzles will certainly keep you occupied for a very very long time, though the quality of the games is of inconsistent difficulty and replay value is low. The puzzles and bonus games never change. Once you've completed each individual puzzle, there's no reason to play it again. The questions and answers will always be the same every time you play that puzzle.

I watched the pre-order and the release date of Puzzler World for weeks before it became available with much anticipation. I thought "Wow" just look at all the puzzles and it's coming from Atari! Upon it's release in January, I purchased this Puzzler World DS game. I held off reviewing the game as I was mystified by all the rave reviews the game was receiving. Had I missed something? Let me try a few more games.

As a puzzle fan, I was disappointed in this game as I buzzed through game by game. I found the games too easy and that indeed I was "buzzing" through them without needing much attention to the game no matter which of the variety of games I was playing. For me, it isn't one of those games that you get all involved with and time flied on by. It was more like how many games could be done in "x" amount of time. I did find I needed more attention for the Sudoku puzzles but the Sudoku in either of the Brain Age games were more challenging, interesting and time consuming. I had issues with the game identifying the letters I wrote in the answer box...something that I don't find happening in other puzzle games like Crosswords DS. I love Fit-A-Word puzzles, but they, too, were easy and quick to work. The Word Searches were interesting but how long do they last? I found even those went by quickly. I was excited to see Hangman as one of the extras until I got one to work. I'd say most of those school age kids could have solved.

The most annoying thing about the game, in my opinion, is the ditty song that plays as this game program runs no matter which kind of game you are playing. For the time I played Puzzler World, I had to play it with my sound off on my DS. I like to kick back and relax before going to bed. I found the song to be "busy" and not conducive to ending one's day.

On the positive side, Puzzler World does have a lot variety in the puzzles offered and in total games gives the puzzle solver quite a lot to do. I don't think it's a "bad" game as much as it's a game that is geared toward quick solving puzzles. Sometimes those kinds of puzzles are great for using short waiting periods of time. It's all in what a puzzle fan and consumer is looking for and what they like that I think will depend on how well this game is enjoyed and reviewed.

It just so happens I'd rather have a kick back & chill time with my puzzles and for me, Crosswords DS, the sudoku of Brain Age and games like them provide that and the difference leaving me disappointed in what Puzzler World had to offer. I also like it better when my letters written with my stylus are indentified better by the program in the game. I have cleared out my puzzles worked and my name in the game and passed it along to a friend who may very well enjoy the game.

I'm 58 years old so lots of games are just not for me. At first I was sort of disappointed with the games because they were pretty easy, but they get progressively harder and you can skip over the ones you don't like. There is a variety of different kinds of puzzles, like sudoku, crossword, fitword so you're not playing the same kind of game over and over. The games are faily quick so you don't have to devote hours at a time. It's not a Professor Layton kind of puzzle game, but its fun for a coffee break. Older players won't find it too childish and I think younger ones would like it too.

At first glance of the cover this looked like a cheap little game thrown together by Atari of a bunch of old games they could never sell on there own, but I was quite surprised at how much I have been returning to this game each day. What this game features is multiple fun little games that are just mostly relaxing and fun. Featuring crossword puzzles that the DS styler actually responds well to, and you can see the letters clearly, unlike other versions of cross word games that took a few taps of the screen and a magnifying glass to see them. As well as other familiar games such as Soduku, Hangman, Spot The Differences and a few other games to make pictures and things. One game I particularly have enjoyed is a game that shows a grid with numbers on it and you have to join each number to each, so if the number is 1, you just fill it in, but if it's a number like 4, you have to join 4 to to the next 4 and fill in the squares in between... it may not sound like much trying to explain it in text, but it is quite addicting.

When the cover and listing here says over 1000 games; Please note that it means there is over 1000 variations of the same 10 or so games there is to choose on this, so that may be a little misleading to those who may think there is over 1000 different types of games on here. But overall, it's fun, relaxing, addicting and well worth purchasing if you enjoy these type of things. I would definitely rate this one as the best multi-puzzle style game. It's great for quick playing when you have a few minutes to kill, or you could enjoy playing it for hours on end for sure.

I am 63 years young and never played video games of any sort till this past December. Wanted something to keep my mind sharp so bought a used DS. First game was Professor Layton's curious village. Loved it -so when ordering The Diabolical box saw Puzzler as a pre-order. Fair price so thought I'd give it a shot. What a GREAT game- hundreds of puzzles and bonus games,some very easy progressing to quite challenging. Would recommend this to all ages, pre-teen and up. I hope they come out with a sequel.

Watch out this is an addiction game. I have never had time to sit and play .I have not play many games over the past 20 years. Grew up with Pac man and such. My children bought me the DSI XL and a few games. Bejeweled, Mario Bros. and this one. I have only played the Bejeweled a few times, Mario never, I just want this game. All the games are great, I dont like code word but that is probably becuase I dont care for crosswords. I need games that tend to be quick because my day is full but I find I am playing more at night. Love the Sodoku which has surprised me becuase I did not like this at first but now I am hooked and the wordserch is great as well. I play with my grandaughter who is seven, she has leard Sodoku as well and she is getting hooked. We have to play one game at a time because we both love it so I have now bought her her own game. Recommend, but beware you wont want to put it down.

This has easily become my favorite DS game and my other ones have been shelved since I got this one. I can't recommend this one enough if you enjoy puzzles. It has the perfect mix of them at varying levels of difficulty. I love that you can pick between challenge mode and quick play. The graphics on it are fun. The only puzzle on it that I'm not a fan of is the link-a-pix and maybe that's because I just don't understand how to play it. I've been too into the other puzzles to take the time to read the instructions on it to learn how to play it.
I like this game so much that I've wanted to buy a ds system for certain friends just so they can play this game. Unfortunately my budget doesn't fit that desire but they can create a profile on mine and use it anytime they want (provided they can peel my hands from it first).

I'm a strong puzzle solver, amateur puzzle author, and I solved every puzzle in Puzzler World without hints. I review from this perspective.

On the plus side, Puzzler World is polished and addictive. The puzzles are fast and light, and you get a nice reward flourish when you solve one, so you want to just keep going and solve more and more of them. The game was definitely fun enough to keep playing and was a great way to kill small blocks of time. Also, there were some puzzle types that I found particularly enjoyable -- my favorites were Link-A-Pix and Codeword. Overall, I found Puzzler World fun enough that I wanted to solve every puzzle.

However, on the minus side, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this game, for many reasons. About half of the puzzles were designed for children and could be solved in less than one minute. In fact, an expert puzzle solver could solve many puzzles in less than 15 seconds. Example #1: there are many "puzzles" that involve filling in a diagram where some spaces have dots in them. This is mildly fun with pencil and paper, but with the DS, you just poke the dots with your stylus and the spaces fill in automatically, so there's zero challenge and zero fun from drawing. There are also way too many word searches, hangmans, simple jigsaws, simple math problems, and other trivial, boring puzzles. (Though I have to admit, I do enjoy the simple anagrams.) But besides the many trivial puzzles, there were also too many sudokus. I don't like sudokus, I find them repetitive and a "grind". Fortunately, you don't have to play any puzzle type you don't like -- I chose to solve them anyway so I could beat the entire game. Sudokus were a fraction of the puzzles in the game, but I'd guess that I spent most of my time playing sudoku, just so I could beat all the puzzles. (In fairness, there is a way to get past the grind parts of any puzzle, by using "hint coins" that you gain from solving other puzzles. I just chose not to use any hint coins.) Lastly, I wasn't impressed with the crosswords. I dislike pseudo crosswords where clues are only available in one dimension for some squares, as it means you are more likely to get blocked on a single word you don't know. Again, I could have used the hint coints, but chose not to. In the end, there were only two puzzle types representing about 10% of the puzzles that I found very fun and compelling. In Codeword, you have to decode a solved crossword where all the letters are replaced by numbers. In Link-A-Pix, you have to draw a color picture based on logic.

Bottom line: expert puzzle solvers will not find these puzzles challenging, but, you are not required to play any puzzle type you don't like, and it's still a good way to kill small blocks of free time.