Game: Professor Fizzwizzle
Creators: Grubby Games
Genre: Puzzle/Action
Platform: Windows, Macintosh, Linux
Version Reviewed: Macintosh
I was graciously sent a review copy of Professor Fizzwizzle a few months ago, so this review is roughly (a few – 1) months late in its publication. However, I believe that the game is good enough to warrant the wait.
To call Fizzwizzle a “puzzle game” is to give it entirely too little credit. The gameplay is an odd mixture that defies precise classification – part The Incredible Machine, part Lode Runner, part The Lost Vikings with a little Gyromite thrown in for good measure. You’ll miss that summation if you simply rely upon Grubby Games’ websites’ description of the game:
Professor Fizzwizzle is a fun, mind-expanding puzzle game, where you take control of the diminutive genius, Professor Fizzwizzle. You must help the professor use his brains and his gadgets to solve each exciting level. Do you have what it takes to get past the Rage-Bots and bring the prof back to his lab?
Gameplay is, in and of itself, a very simple affair. The goal of each level is to get the Professor to a transporter to exit to the next one. The good Prof. can only run left and right, climb up and down ladders and push items (barrels, crates, magnets, etc.). He cannot jump, nor can he readily defend himself. Between the Prof. and his goal generally lies a series of obstacles, from gaps that must be filled to icy patches that cause him to slip uncontrollably to Rage Bots that pursue him relentlessly to gates and trapdoors that must be activated by remote switches. However, this simplicity of play mechanics leaves open vast opportunities for truly diabolical puzzles. Many of the puzzles require advance setup and placement of props before one activates the whole affair and, in a Rube Goldberg-esque fashion, the path to the exit is cleared. If you get stuck, there’s an option to have the game show you the recommended solution, which you can interrupt at any point, meaning that those who are missing that last little tweak to the puzzle before they can solve it can watch the solution up to the point where they were stuck and then take over the controls from there. Each level can take anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes to play through and the game saves your progress after each level, meaning that those who are free time-deprived can get in a few satisfying levels before moving on to the demands of real life.
There are three different difficulty levels and a fourth set of alphabet-themed levels intended for children, totalling well over 100 levels to play through and, if that weren’t enough, a level editor is included so that you can construct devious puzzles of your own (an active level-building community has developed around Fizzwizzle, so there’s plenty of user-created fun to be had as well).
Taken in total, Professor Fizzwizzle offers a compelling package: it runs on the three main desktop OSes, it’s engaging, addicting, easy to get in to and all for the bargain price of $19.95. I heartily recommend it to any PC gamer with a penchant for puzzle games.
