By John Walker on November 26th, 2008 at 12:50 am.
Physicsy puzzles are a bit in vogue just now – the ones where you’ve given a bunch of bits and bobs and told to create a device to turn on a light or press a button. Here’s a demo of another, and it’s pretty cute. And best of all, it’s got Professor Heinz Wolff’s name on it. Remember him? Off of The Great Egg Race? It’s Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity.
The demo has six levels, of the full version’s 100. So it’s not exactly a hefty chunk of what’s on offer, but it’s still fun enough to get an idea. It’s impressively not-fiddly, which is too often a problem with this style of thing. Crazy Machines II made that mistake, daunting with its twiddly bits. And it also doesn’t require a physics and structural engineering degree like others. It also looks pretty cute.
The only real problem is the objects don’t ‘know’ where they’re being held. If I pick up a metal bar at one end, I’d prefer it swing down accordingly. That way I can throw and catch the pieces as I wish. In this to rotate you hold both mouse buttons down and drag the mouse up or down. It feels peculiar. Other than that, however, things are instinctive and entertaining. For these six levels at least. And not too easy, either.
I’m not entirely clear what it’s got to do with Professor Heinz Wolff, beyond having a cartoon of him appear every now and then. I was disappointed not to hear his voice. However, you can hear a frightening robot version of the 80 year old’s voice on the game’s website.
Actually, how many fluid mechanics games are there? There’s Ichor, and Plasma Pong was removed due to “Pong” being trademarked, but it’d be interesting to see more advanced physics toys as computers get better, now we know we can pretty much do solid-body physics.
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Perhaps a year ago this would’ve proved a worthwhile distraction, but there’s just too many of these physicky 2D puzzlers nowadays. Saturated market and all that.
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Two totally contrasting comments?
Downloading the demo now, hope it actually works unlike Crazy Machines which just refused to start ¬_¬
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My internetz r capped, how many Peggles is this?
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50 something MBs. Dunno what that is in Peggle units :O
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the “The Incredible Machine” guys must be SO PISSED OFF right now. So pissed off.
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Downloaded and rather enjoyed. The 6 demo levels had me scratching my head for a good while in some cases before the solution presented itself.
Tempted to buy, but can’t decide if it’s worth the £16.99 price tag. Hrmmmm…
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This should really be available on Steam…
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“Actually, how many fluid mechanics games are there?”
A long time ago there was Wetrix. It would be pushing things to call it fluid mechanix, but it was about water.
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I can’t believe I just wrote “mechanix”. Bloody stupid game names.
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Also: See Fluid wars. That was quite fun.
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Gauge Invariance: The Yang-Mills Syndicate?
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Not worth the price to me. But its not crap. Too many awesome browser games in this vein. What about a 3d world of goo-a-like.
I’d drop 20 of the queens god blessed currency on that in a blink.
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It’s a shame these things weren’t so popular when Tube Twist came about. Totally lacking all the art and style of a World of Goo or Eets, but it’s got a much better gameplay core, and allows for a lot more creative solutions then you would think funneling marbles through tubes should…
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It’s probably just because I’m tired, but the words “Fluid Wars” are making me giggle obscenely.
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Ooh, Prof. Wolff is brilliant. I attended a lecture of his years back, and it’s pretty much the only one that ever taught me anything interesting. He’s a great scientist, and very interested in people, society and philosophy (as all great scientists are), and a nice bloke to boot.
Pity his voice isn’t in it. He fits the stereotype of a professor perfectly, and his voice would have fit right in.
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