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Professor Fizzwizzle <
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Found this fantastic shareware game the other day. For some reason it reminds me of Zep's Dreamland, although it is, of course, completely different. Well, maybe not completely; the hero can't jump, the game has one-screen platform-based levels, and like DROD you can figure out what has to be done simply by looking at the level; there's no hidden elements. Also, the aim of each level is to get from the entrance to the exit. That's it for the similarities, though.
You play as Professor Fizzwizzle, a tiny man who has come on the wrong side of his robot friends thanks to a rather unfortunate design decision. As a result they threw him out of his lab, and now it is of course up to you to help the poor man getting back in. Naturally, he can't just walk there -- oh no, the road is long, winding, and filled with devious puzzles. There's three different puzzle paths to the lab, one normal and one advanced, as well as kids mode. There's also the alphabet path, in which you can learn the alphabet if you are so inclined.
To get to the exit of each level, the tiny Professor can climb ladders, push various objects, walk on barrels, and use magnets, gates and pulleys. He can also get chased by robots, unless you find a way to disable them or sneak by them unseen. In addition to this, he can also come across objects that can be used within the level. There's inflatable crates, barrels and magnets(!) that acts just like their solid counterparts and can be placed anywhere the Professor can reach, as well as a few tools he can use that affect objects in various ways.
Just to complicate things a little bit more, there's also three different types of ground: Grass, ice and sand. On grass, crates can be pushed around and barrels will roll until they hit something. On ice, everything (including the Professor) will keep moving until they hit something (at which point the something moves on if it can). Ice can also act as a trap for the Professor; if he gets stranded on ice, he can't move at all. On sand, barrels will behave like crates do on grass, and crates won't move at all, unless they're frozen...
The game is mostly turn-based, although it does have real-time elements -- mostly the robots, but also timing of other moving objects in some levels. This haven't been much of a problem for me so far, though. There's usually a way to stay safe from the robots.
The game is very well polished, with great happy cartoony graphics and great sound and music as well. The story is funny and written in verse, no less. The game also includes a level editor.
It's available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It's not free (costs about the same as JtRH), but a demo is available. It's well worth the price, in my opinion.
- Gerry
The story is amusing and quirky, and there are user-made levels for download somewhere (and an editor). It's a freeware release of an old game, and it's for Windows now, so try it out if you want a relatively unique puzzle game.
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