Magic Match LE

by Eric March on October 10, 2008 at 7:01 pm

(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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App Name: Magic Match LE
Developer: WEsoft
Category: Games: Logic & Puzzle

You remember way back, when you had these little puzzles played with matchsticks where a bunch of them were arranged in one particular configuration and you had to rearrange them into a different configuration by moving only a set number of matches?  Yeah, they predate even me, but they’re still around — probably not using matches these days because that wouldn’t be PC now, would it? Now you can play with matches again — safely — with Magic Match LE.  The real question is, would you want to?

Magic Match LE is a nice, simple idea with some effectively rendered graphics.  Unfortunately, it behaves like your senile uncle Chester after too many years in the retirement home.  Whenever you try to play checkers with him, he just sits there drooling at the board, completely unable to comprehend why the pieces aren’t moving by themselves anymore.  Then, for no reason at all, he’ll pull out a chess rook from his bathrobe pocket, smack it down on your end of the board and declare, “Gin!”

Half of this is the main menu.  It looks innocent and straightforward enough; title graphics and two buttons labeled “Play Game” and “Choose Puzzle.”  Naturally, your first desire is to play the game sequentially.  But when you tap “Play Game,” it displays the puzzle occluded by a large dialog box giving you the name of the puzzle, your goal, and the options to show the solution for the puzzle, go to the next puzzle, or quit to the main menu.  No, you can’t dismiss the dialog.  Show solution, next puzzle, or main menu.  Those are your only options.

So it’s back to the main menu to stab the “Choose level” button.  Now you get to pick a level, and you’re presented with a completely different dialog that shows the name of the puzzle, your objective, and a play button.  So you play, rearranging matches and double-tapping to rotate them into place until you think you’ve got the solution.  There’s no telling if you did, really, because It won’t tell you, so you’ll just have to tap one of the darkened screen corners to pop up the earlier three option menu and have it show you the solution so you can check it against yours.  Got it?  Good.  Now you get to go back to the main menu again and pick another puzzle — because you don’t deserve a “next puzzle” button here.  Press one of the corners by accident?  Your screwed because there’s still no way to dismiss the dialog, so it’s back to the main menu for you to start that same damn puzzle all over again.

Frankly, Magic Match LE so half-baked it’s still runny.  A bunch of real matches and paper instructions would be less confusing, and you could burn them both afterward for bonus pyromaniacal fun.  As you can see by the screenshot, that was the most fun I with the game — and I had to attempt that four times because I kept trying to drag a match out of one of those darkened corners only to accidentally bring up that damned option dialog again.

But if you’re bound and determined to buy the full version anyway because you want more than 5 puzzles and you’re a complete massochist, it’ll cost you a buck.  Hey, it’s cheaper than a dominatrix.

Gin!

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Posted in Games: Logic & Puzzle