Arizona Rose and the Pirates' Riddles
4.5
5
49
49
Much needed relief from standard HO games
Here's a fun game you can play for a few minutes or a few hours. Standard grid puzzles, but with other stuff mixed in to keep it interesting. My 5 star rating might be a bit premature, as I only played about 15 minutes of the demo before buying, but based on what I saw, I don't anticipate being disappointed. Give it a try... it may not be your cup of tea, but I have been looking for something different. Fairway Solitaire is still a great go-to game, but I've been all the way through several times.
July 5, 2012
An interesting treatment of the nonogram/picross genre
This is a game based around a type of logic puzzle called nonograms/picross. It utilizes a similar type of thinking to what you'd use for Sudoku.Try the demo to see if you like them, because almost the entire game involves solving these puzzles.
There are also a few hidden object scenes where you get a list of images to look for and a couple of different types of puzzles where you try to fit pieces into a specific shape. There aren't a lot of these, but they do break up the nonograms nicely.
Another nice addition is "powers" that you can use to help solve the puzzles. Some reveal a selected row or column while others randomly reveal tiles that are empty or occupied. I would have appreciated these except that the puzzles are all so easy that none of them are that much of a help. Most of the biggest 25x25 puzzles could be solved in under 5 minutes. In comparison, the 20x20 puzzles from another nonogram game I play typically take 10-15 minutes to solve.
Overall this is a very welcome and refreshing treatment of this puzzle genre.
August 19, 2012
Totally engulfed in this game
I just burned dinner. My husband says "you've been playing that game a long time". Two, three hours go by and I don't even realize it. I cannot stop playing.
The visuals are excellent. My only complaint is one background in the game was so busy you have a hard distinction between the tiles and game board.
The difficulty is "just right" to the easy side. I have never done this type of puzzle before and can not wait to find more.
The premise is finding the pattern of tiles according to number patterns on the sides of the play board. This is very enjoyable.
January 5, 2013
Fun to Play but nothing special
I wasn't expecting a nonogram game when I started this but it was enjoyable to play for the hour-long demo. It would have been extremely repetitive for me to have played the entire game.
The HOG is by matching pictures and I thought the scenes were much too small.
July 9, 2012
Nice go to game
I have been looking for another go to game in between HOPAs. I like the combination of the HOGs, nonograms and tangrams and other puzzles. It is a fresh mix! I played the demo and immediately bought the game.
An advantage of this game is that the puzzles seemed to be grouped by size so if you want to get a specific level of challenge you can go there or you can do the adventure and follow where it leads. Hoping for more like this.
July 5, 2012
Something Different
This game is a real thinker. There isn't as much hidden object game as many other mixed category games. The main block-breaking game reminds me a lot of mine-sweeper and I have always liked that game.
I think this game is a good combo type game.
August 23, 2012
Very, very good game
I think this is one of the best "paint by numbers" games out there. My main complaint is, as other reviewers have noted, that the dark backgrounds can sometimes make it very difficult to tell the difference between a cleared space and a dark-colored filled square. That has led me to make errors a few times, so I hope the developer will note these complaints and tweak the backgrounds/tiles to create more contrast.
Aside from that, this is a really well-designed game. The puzzles start out very simple 5x5 and work up to pretty difficult 25x25. The graphic quality, with the exception of the contrast issue already noted, is excellent. The minigames are kind of fun--you gain powerups by completing hidden-object and mosaic puzzles. There are a LOT of levels, so replay value is high; I'm currently on my third play through of the game.
August 18, 2012
Pretty good game
The background is distracting as you are trying to solve the riddles...very annoying. Overall the game is fun and a good distraction from the outside world for an hour at a time. I would love to be part of a panel to make changes to this game or for future games. This game offers three different types of games and that what makes it interesting. Big Fish....keep supplying the world riddle games but with improvements!!
August 14, 2012
Most Enjoyable
I loved ths game as I have just played it for over an hour and not realized that the time had gone. I find it absorbing as you have to concentrate on what your doing. There are minigames and the occassional hidden object level. All in all a very time consuming and satisfying game. A coupon well spent unlike the one I spent on Worlds Greatest Temples majong game which was a wasted coupon.
August 1, 2012
Great game
Although we don't play many brain-teaser games, we did try this one and found it to be very enjoyable game play.
The game has both puzzles and hidden object scenes.
There are also power ups & trophies to collect.
I think the trophies and/or achievements were defined with a different language than English. That didn't really matter since it was still fun to get the achievement.
The graphics were great and the instructions very helpful.
This is added to our buy list and will be checking on the "world mosaics" game mentioned in other reviews.
July 6, 2012