How to Play
In Amazing Alex, you are given a goal each level you have to achieve: in the first levels, its getting a ball into a basket using ramps and a force called gravity.
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, Rovio's newest physics puzzle game is great for people of all ages, but you won't find yourself quite as addicted as Angry Birds.
Rovio released its newest game franchise to the Apple App Store and Google Play on Thursday morning. It's a rebranded version of Casey's Contraptions, which was released last year for iPad and was well-reviewed then. It's interesting that Rovio decided to simply purchase and rebrand a game rather than coming up with their own new game ideas, but with the success of Angry Birds, they have cart blanche to do what they like. So this review is partially for a game that has been out a year, with some changes.
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Amazing Alex takes place in a young boy's messy house. Each level presents a different physics puzzle that involves cleaning up: you have to put balls in a bin, topple some books, or pop balloons. You then use the objects available to you to solve the puzzle, earning bonuses for each of the three stars you collect.
The physics puzzles are a little more clever than some games, because there isn't just one solution to every problem. You can place several pieces -- like shelves or pipes -- on a blank canvas to experiment with the game's physics. You don't also need every piece available to you (and they change every level) to solve a puzzle, meaning there is room fiddle with your designs.
This is where the game could have extra challenge, and it misses the boat. There are no time bonuses for solving a puzzle in one go, for not using all your pieces, or solving it an allotted time. The only achievement is collecting the three stars each level, which you'll have to do to unlock new sections of the game.
The game's difficulty isn't too challenging; the first few levels serve entirely as tutorial, and it won't be hard for you to breeze through the first couple of zones. The joy in the game lies more with its sandbox nature, and it challenges you to create whatever Rube Goldberg can most creatively solve the level. That might not satisfy the most achievement-hungry player, but it is far more creative and would be a great title to help kids' problem solving skills.
This is especially true in the section of the game that allows you to create your own levels with the same simple household objects. Players will be able to publish and share their own levels with friends, giving the game an extra creative level lost on many mobile titles.
Rovio says they will offer regular, free updates to the game, similar to their support for Angry Birds. The game is easily worth the 99 cents, but those looking for a serious challenge might not get into the game.
Check out screenshots from the game above, and let us know what you think in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable .