I Need a Doctor!! Puzzle Dimension by Doctor Entertainment

First things first, this game should come with a warning label due to high probability of addiction.

Puzzle Dimensions developed by Doctor Entertainment takes an old concept to a new playing field. Players will guide a rolling ball around a track suspended in mid air collecting flowers and escaping through the level exit. Par for the puzzle course are gaps and crumbling blocks, fire, ice and spikes in the way. Each puzzle cluster offers different environmental challenges. There are even under water puzzles. Fire and crumbling ground are probably the most difficult to strategize for me. You can roll over these blocks one time. After you roll off it will A) if a fire block, ignite or B) if a crumbling block, break apart leaving another gap in the track. It is important to be careful when navigating these blocks to avoid cutting off a route you might later need to take. The object is simple. Yet, the strategy can be tricky.

One of the highlights that separate this game from other puzzlers is in the track itself. Smaller squares connect to make up oddly shaped three dimensional tracks which are in  constant hover mode. Having the track suspended like this enables two major things. The first I found out quick. It is possible to roll right off the edge to failure. Secondly, it allows rotation that opens up the underside as travelable ground. This is truly where you get pay off for playing it on a full HD monitor. ** I played it on PC but it does run in full 1080P on the PS3. ** To get the puzzle to rotate, roll around curves in the track and perspective will change. It doesn’t work the same for every curve and there was a lot of trial and error on my part sorting that out. It was puzzle eight in the fire levels that not only left me stumped and wondering what to do. It also was what I kept finding my mind wandering back to whenever I tried to do anything else like watch tv, read a book … or sleep. This is the reason I can attest so firmly to its addictive qualities.

Graphics and sound are more of what makes Puzzle Dimensions unique. As you begin each puzzle the world is mostly pixilated. However, it is transformed to full HD images as you make contact with various objects.  The sound works quite the same changing from 8 bit chip tunes to cleaner HD quality music. This transformation is not just for looks. It does serve an end game function for the completionist. Higher points are awarded for “unpixiling” each puzzle completely. A fully unpixiled world is marked on the puzzle selection menu with a green dot. If your finished puzzle shows a white dot, then you’ve missed something.

There is no time limit to Puzzle Dimension. However, if solving puzzles is not all it takes to satisfy your gaming needs there are also eleven leader boards and twenty-five achievements which give incentive to finish as fast as you can. Scoring is handled through receiving points for unpixiliing, collecting and even destroying some objects. Along with the points comes the multiplier bar which is housed in the top right corner of the screen. This bar fills a bit for each item unpixiled and can reach a maximum of x32. But, note that the bar is also slowly draining. So, you’ll want to be as quick as you can be if you want to make a showing on the leader boards.

Game control can be handled in a few different ways. I personally used the keyboard arrows to move and spacebar to jump. I’m not going to go into great depth on controls because Doctor Entertainment has released a thorough game manual and it has a section of controls very easy to understand. You can find that here.

http://www.puzzledimension.com/sites/default/files/support/Puzzle-Dimension-Manual-English.pdf

With a hundred puzzles available I have to admit now that I have not played each and every one thus far. If that leaves me under-qualified to write a review then I hope you’ll consider this article a strong recommendation from a friend who’s having lots of fun with it. There is a reason I didn’t complete it before stopping to express an opinion. The fact is this. I would equate doing a marathon session of Puzzle Dimension to picking up a book of crossword puzzles and running home to do them all today. It’s not really how this kind of game works. With a hundred puzzles to do it has what I like to call stay power. It can be a longer lasting form of shorter entertainment sessions. Even the game flow itself seems to suggest such by producing a menu screen at the end of each puzzle prompting you to choose whether or not to move on, go back or quit. This forces a game play break that in my opinion was necessary to steer clear of burnout. When you consider the sheer addictiveness of the game I think this was a necessary addition that works.

There are so many things worth mentioning about this game I could literally sit and do edits all day as it comes to me. However, at this point I think the most important thing left to say is try this fantastic game! It is available now for the PC or PS3/PSN.

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Visit the Puzzle Dimension website to find out more.