Today marks the launch of Amazing Alex, a physics puzzle game made by Rovio Mobile, the same company that brought us Angry Birds. The question that begs for an answer is: will Amazing Alex be better than all the other physics game?
I find Rube Goldberg machines fascinating. The fact that one of my most recent articles written here, at Walyou, is about a 3D projection mapping of such a machine should be proof enough. Amazing Alex, Rovio Mobile’s latest game, is an attempt at such a device. Will it become as popular as Angry Birds, the company’s biggest money-maker? I kind of doubt that, since the game seems to lack originality.
The goal of the game is to arrange objects in such a manner that all of the three stars available in each level are touched. It would have been a lot more challenging if it was demanded that all three need to be touched by the same object. Speaking of objects, the first few levels feature wooden benches that need to be put in place and rotated accordingly so that the tennis or soccer balls touch the stars. The company should have thought of something else, instead of stars, as these remind me of Cut the Rope, which is a far better physics game, in my humble opinion. Besides wooden benches, there are also balloons and cardboard boxes that need to be placed in certain positions so that the Rube Goldberg machine works. I found the first few levels annoying, as the place and the position where the objects should be placed were marked on the screen. I wish they left more to our imagination, instead of spoon-feeding us.
Amazing? Far from it! Moreover, it seems that I’m not the only one that thinks that way. Some of the comments that adorn the Google Play Store page of the game are not favorable, either. Some users claim that the game is a rip-off of The Incredible Machine, a very old computer game that I used to play as a child. The complaints do not stop here, unfortunately. People are far from being satisfied with the low number of levels. This problem will be most probably solved by the future updates of the app.
Amazing Alex is available both in the iTunes Store and in Google Play for $0.99. Besides the free, ad-supported versions, there are also available paid, ad-free versions. In addition, on Google Play there is a separate version for tablets, identified by the suffix HD.
If you liked this post, please check these Angry Birds nail decorations and the injured Angry Birds illustrations.
