Puz: Professor Fizzwizzle [by Grubby Games]

Game: Professor Fizzwizzle
Release Date: July 2, 2005
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Grubby Games
System Requirements for the Game: Windows or Linux, Pentium 200MHz, 64MB RAM, 18MB Hard Disk Space; Mac OS X, G3 200MHz, 64MB RAM, 22MB Hard Disk Space
Players: 1
Price: $19.95
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In a nutshell, Professor Fizzwizzle is a charming puzzle game with sensibilities that hearken back to the good old fashioned days of 8-bit gaming and graphics gamers that want the latest and greatest. A kid's game at heart, Professor Fizzwizzle includes enough content to keep Junior interested and enough challenge for Senior to start losing his hair prematurely.

Professor Fizzwizzle is a brilliant, diminutive scientist who built a legion of robot helpers. One day, however, the Professor absentmindedly changed the robots' setting from helpful to rageful and the robots kicked the professor out of his laboratory. Now, in platform-puzzler style, the Prof needs to work his way back to his beloved lab and you've got to help him get there.

Fizzwizzle features just a single gameplay mode, but has four different level paths for gamers to explore. Two of these paths are for older gamers (Standard and Advanced) and two are for younger gamers (Kids' and Alphabet). The Standard and Advanced level sets feature the Professor navigating various scenarios, trying to outmaneuver ragebots or the environment to get to his goal. Along the way, he'll employ barrels, magnets, boxes, freeze guns and other devices to manipulate his environments and forge a path home. In the Kids' and Alphabet levels the conceit is the same, but levels are now designed more for aesthetics than for challenges. One level may be designed to look like a giraffe, another like a giant koala. On these levels, Question Mark markers that the Professor gets to will reveal some fun text for kids to read. The Alphabet levels feature tons of alliterative text with words related to the featured letter for the level and the Kids' levels tend to feature a bit of quick learning about whatever object or animal has been created for the level's layout.

Grubby Games are to be commended for making a game that can truly be said to be for all ages. A good number of standard level challenges are mind-bendingly difficult (although the “Show Solution” option is never too far out of reach) and there are a hefty number of levels overall, giving a certain degree of longevity to the game. However, Professor Fizzwizzle suffers from the curse of all puzzle games of this type, once its been beaten, there's no reason to go back to it. Wannabe stumpers, though, can break out the Level Editor and design their very own puzzling scenarios for the Professor. In fact, hit up Grubby Games' website to find roughly 100 user-made levels posted and sorted by difficulty. This is a game that looks and plays great, can appeal to an entire family of gamers and will stump even the wiliest gamer at times.

Graphics: +
The graphics in Fizzwizzle are silky smooth. The lightly cell-shaded graphics make everything crisp and cartoony. The look is kidsy and innocent without being overly cute, thereby turning off older gamers, and some of the animations are genuinely funny, such as the Professor kicking back and break-dancing if you let him idle for too long. The kids levels have a fun design and it's entertaining to see how in-game elements like barrels and magnets are employed to help form whatever shape is being highlighted on each level.

Sound: +
There are a few different tracks in Professor Fizzwizzle, but gamers would be hard pressed to distinguish them from one another. The tracks are quirky tunes that makes me think of the music from the old LucasArts adventure titles like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, but I found myself muting the music entirely after only a couple of levels. In all fairness, though, it was mostly to help me think. The sound effects in the game are as vibrant and crisp as the graphics themselves. Everything, including the Professor's tiny footsteps, comes through nice and clear.

Gameplay: +
There's just nothing about Professor Fizzwizzle that's hard to control. The game is designed without time-limits or (for the most part) enemies to worry about. Even the ragebots in the game are immobile until the Professor triggers their ire. The game is played at the gamer's pace. There are also just enough items available to the Professor to keep variety up without making the game too confusing. There are a limited number of tools, but a wide array of ways to employ them for those gamers with enough ingenuity to find them.

Value: +
There's a lot of gameplay packed into Professor Fizzwizzle. Sure, not all of it is for everybody—little kids will find the advanced levels too hard and adult the kid's levels too easy—but there's is something for everybody and a good amount of it, too. The ability to generate content and share in other user created content is a wonderful addition to the game.

Concept: +
The puzzle-platformer is nothing new to the gaming world, but Professor Fizzwizzle does the genre proud. The execution is smooth and challenging all at once. The inclusion of usable items spices things up a bit from the norm, but overall the idea behind the game is an old standard.

Fun: +
The simplicity of Professor Fizzwizzle's obstacles and the creativity it takes to surmount them kept me glued to my screen trying to solve as much as I could as fast as I could. When I got burnt out on a level, I would wait until the next morning, when I would attack it with a fresh brain. Puzzle games inspire a primal need to solve in those who play them. The frosting on this core idea is a neat main character, cartoon graphics and plenty of learning for the young ones that make for a very fun game.

Overall: BUY
Professor Fizzwizzle is an outstanding puzzle game that can be picked up by parents and children alike. It looks good and plays great and is guaranteed to leave gamers stumped more than once. If you're tired of relying on your twitch reflexes to get you through a gaming experience, warm up your cortex and pick up Professor Fizzwizzle and get your brain a workout.

Category Scoring Key:
+ Positively impacted score
= No effect on score
- Negative effect on score
Added: November 5th 2005
Reviewer: Michael Scarpelli
Score:
Hits: 2942
Language: english