Marble game

 You cannot go wrong with Eureka games! Usually they are logic  and challenging game with around 60 or so challenges from easy to mind-bogging.

Let's dive into this one that I found very curious and original. It's called "marble circuit"

First you put the pieces as shown in the card challenges. They you put the bar on the top and the marbles in their holes.

The goal is to arrange the pieces so that you have a certain amount of ball bearing going to specific places. And it's far from being easy-peasy!

The pieces have different paths and you have to plan how the balls will run through the paths (or the visible maze. Personally I found to be like a maze). It's funny to slide the ball going down....and not in the way you initially planned to would go...!

I find this game challenging and entertaining, more difficult than I expected and for me it's a total novelty among the games. It changes from the same (and boring) packing puzzles :)

You can buy the game from Puzzle Master webshop

I tried to upload a video I've made to show the marbles going down, but for some reasons it does not work. So just have a look at the video on the link just above.

Crazy chain

Here is another Lonpos puzzle, again with a small size, so very practical to play with everywhere.
This brainteaser is composed of 7 plastic and colorful pieces.
A booklet is provided (again with no solutions...) with the game and has 2 parts (2 ways of playing).

The first way of playing it to use all the pieces to arrange them into the game plate.
The red obstacle cannot be removed. You need first to choose a level, let's say 1. This level indicates that there are 75 ways of arranging the pieces. The 44th level says that there is ony one solution!
Then you put the pieces. I began with the 1st level and that's not easy at all even if there are many arranging ways of putting the pieces. I struggled quite a lot...!!

1st way of playing

The second way of playing (2nd part of the booklet) is the following: you have to put one piece on the game plate (as shown in the booklet), and then arrange the remaining pieces. And at least, you need to find out the level of the challenge and put the L piece (the level piece) on the  game plate. Again, this is difficult, even for the easiest challenges.

Ok I found that it corresponds to level 2 (which has a total of 64 solutions)

What I like is that, even if the goal remains the same (arranging the pieces), the rules are different as well as the shape of the pieces. There are a lot of challenges.
Again, I personnaly think that, even if it is for everybody, this is pretty difficult. If you like difficulty, go buy one!! :-)

If by chance, any of you guys has enough programming skills to be able to write a program that shows all the combinations for all the level, I think it could be very interesting.

You can buy this puzzle HERE

Temple trap

In this brainteaser from SmartGames, you're Indiana Jones (the green pawn, a little imagination come on^^) and you have to find the exit while avoiding the crocodiles in the blue squares.

To do that you can taking up the stairs or going down, but to be on the green pieces, you have to take the stairs before. You can slide the pieces, but remember a rule: if you are on a piece you cannot move this one, so you have to leave this piece to be able to slide it.

As you can see (or perhaps not, because the picture is not very big), there are some marks (round, cross, etc.) on the pieces, so that you recognize them better and that helps to put in the correct way the pieces to start a challenge. So everything is well thought and the quality is good.

There are not a lot of challenges and I find them rather difficult. Sometimes you can win the challenge by making more moves than required, so sticking to the required moves are sometimes not so easy...Luckily the solutions are provided in the small booklet.

Honestly, this is a good game, but I prefer City Maze (I've already reviewed it).
However, I am sure you will have fun with it, especially if you like the brainteasers from SmartGames and if you like sliding puzzles.

Roll, roll, roll......

This time I will review a very different game from Lonpos company: rolling games!!!


The goal is to make a small plastic piece roll from the starting point to the finish point without rolling on the 2 obstacles.
There are 48 challenges (not a lot in my opinion...) but as the difficulty increases a lot, don't worry you will have enough to do with those challenges.
So you put the card challenges below the acrylic (notice that you can also put your 2 pieces in the hole under the acrylic) and you take the appropriate plastic piece and then you can start playing!

There are some challenges with the red piece and other with the blue piece. With the red you cannot roll on the obstacles, but you can with the blue piece!
For the most difficult challenges it can take up to 20 moves, which is very huge!! The number of moves required are written. Sometimes you can solve one challenge using 9 moves, but it requires 8 moves, so you have to think more...When I had some difficulties, I started from the finish point and went to the starting point. It can help if you're blocked, but not always :-)

Again no solutions are provided but there is a sheet of paper in which you can write the directions to follow for each challenge. But to remember all the 20 moves in the right order is more than tough...
I really enjoyed this game because it's easy to understand and fun to play. And also I don't see a lot of those kind of games. So here it's an opportunity to try rolling games :-)

The challenge below is the easiest: it requires 2 moves. So as you understand the directions are: one right and one up.

  

The second puzzle looks almost the one above except that it has more plastic pieces (4 vs 2) and so more challenges (around 230). The rules are the same. In the small booklets are written the number of moves required for each piece.

In my opinion, I prefer having the playing card as with the 1st game rather than this paper booklet that you put below the acrylic. But I assume that, as there are more challenges, it would have been too thick.

So which one to choose? Well I recommend the second one because there are more challenges. But if you have already the first one, no doubt that you will also like the second one.

You can buy your rolling puzzle(s) from Lonpos HERE

Cosmic creatures

Don't be afraid no cosmic creatures will invade our planet, that's just the name of a puzzle by the Lonpos company :-)

Lonpos highlights a lot the fact that brainteasers are for everyone because they increase your memory, your attention and patience. So whether you're a child or an adult, you can have fun with them.
I recommend, however, to make some breaks because your nerves can be broken by some very difficult levels. Sometimes, the solution becomes clearer after a small break :-)

Due to its size, this game is perfect for your travel, but of course you can have fun at home too.

The goal is to put all the pieces on the tray. Some pieces are irregular and when turned another side they are different and thus it increases the possibility to put them of the tray. Those pieces are marked with a triangle.
Each piece has a letter, which helps putting them of the tray.
Just note that sometimes the letter shown in the booklet is not exactly the way they are put in the tray, it's not a problem at all, but I would have liked a "perfect match". Look below the C piece (llok at the booklet and the piece):

With all the 111 challenges, I assure you that you will perfectly know these cosmic creatures :)

The starting levels are very easy, but it becomes much more difficult at the end!!
Also sometimes there are many ways to complete a level, so there is not a unique solution for each level. Look below with the A and I pieces (the 2 on the bottom right hand corner):

I really like the design of this puzzle, the colorful pieces and the size of the puzzle: it will not take a lot of space at home and you can bring it easily with you.

What I don't like a lot is the fact that the color of the pieces is not  precisely the same with the colors of the booklet, but well it is the same with some other brainteasers...
I don't like that they did not put a solution booklet (it is the same with all their puzzles!), again I like having the solutions because it can help adding a piece if you hide half of the solution, for example.
Instead of that they put some hints about the puzzle. But first you need to go on the internet to see the hints (after searching the right puzzle you're playing with), then the hint is just only one piece shown, which may not be enough to help you sometimes...And finally there are some errors about some hints (some pieces are wrongly orientated...)

To conclude: a fun puzzle with a funny design for many hours of playing. The hints and booklets can be seen on their internet page in many languages. Good point!

To buy your Cosmic creature brainteaser, go HERE

No GPS allowed if you're lost!

For this review I will speak about City Maze, a colorful plastic game from Smart Games.
This is not a big puzzle so you can easily take it for your holidays or if you take the train.

The goal is to create a way with different shapes of arrows from the starting arrow to the cross.
All the arrows (and crosses) have a double-color side. One is red and one is blue, and depending the color the arrows don't indicate the same way, of course.
The rules are pretty easy to understand, but you need to get used to them:

• A route always follows the paths of the current street until the direction is changed by an arrow that is the same color.

• A route only changes direction if it first encounters the back of an arrow in the same color.

• Puzzle pieces (arrows, start position and destinations) do not obstruct any route. Route can pass through these pieces.

To illustrate these rules I put below 3 examples:

1st picture: there is no need for extra arrows because the path is already made. The route goes straight away from the starting arrow, and then turn right (because there is a curve in the path) and then go straight to the cross.

2nd picture: the route is not made correctly because the back of the middle arrow is not correctly placed.

3rd picture: the route is correctly made.


There are 2 booklets with 60 challenges each, so a good amount of challenges. Each booklet has 5 levels of difficulty (starter, junior, expert, master, wizard). I found that sometimes the expert levels were easier than the junior levels, but perhaps it was because I became too good ;-) but if you're worried about the difficulty, the starter levels are easy because they give you the basis, and after I assure you that it becomes challenging. Yes, the expert level is a more difficult!

The first booklet is called "express delivery": you will have only one color in the plate and you need to pass through the 2 crosses (sometimes there is only one cross).
The other booklet is called "on the double": you will have both color on the plate and you will have to switch the color on each arrow so that you make a path from the blue starting arrow to the blue cross and at the same time a path from the red starting arrow to the red cross.
Both are challenging. I began with "on the double", but it's up to you.

I found this game very entertaining because first, there are many challenges, then it has a good design and also you can try to create your own challenges.
You need to be concentrated because with all the arrows you may lose your way. Sorry, but here no GPS will be useful and allowed. Just the power of your brain will help you.
You need to place correctly the pieces. Once I didn't put correctly the starting pieces and I didn't find any solution (whereas the it was not a difficult level!)...then I understood my error. So be careful!

If you own this puzzle, I have created for you 4 challenges (hey Smart Games, if you see that, you need to ask me permission to use them!).
Are you ready to beat my challenges? Yes? So let's go for a big trip!


Challenge #1
You need to go through each direction (crosses) by using all the blue pieces (except, of course, the other starting arrow!)

Challenge #2
You need to go to your destination (the 2 crosses) by only using the red pieces. You need to go through the 2 crosses during your route!!
Try to go from the left arrow (very easy) to reach your destination.
Once done, take the pieces for the next challenge, more difficult: try also to go from the right arrow (more difficult).
The 2 red arrows and crosses have to stayed in place, of course!

Challenge #3
Use all the red pieces to reach your destination.

Challenge #4
You need to go from the red arrow to the blue cross by alternating the colors: if you have a red piece, then the next one needs to be blue.
So you may assume that the first piece after the red starting arrow will be blue and the piece before the destination cross will be red. Same color pieces can be close in the plate, but they need to alternate during the route. Try to do that with as many pieces as you want then try to use ALL the pieces, both can be done (but I think it is more difficult using all the pieces)

Try these 4 challenges and please let me know what you think about them.
Also, as I created them, I don't really realize the level of difficulty. So also let me know which level of difficulty you would put for each challenge.
Perhaps there are many solutions, but there is at least one that works!

To conclude, a good game for a reasonable amount of money and for many hours of route finding. And as you may have understood, I love it!