I picked up Chutes and Levers as part of a Kickstart campaign. It’s a set of one-card puzzles where you have to rotate and flip the card as you mentally keep track of where you are.
Which makes it at least the third set of puzzles like that I’ve looked at. Flipuzzles and One-Card Mazes are the other two. And, in case this as far as you read, I honestly consider Chutes and Levers to be a distant third.
Chutes and Levers is themed around platforming video games. Each card is a maze with a distinct beginning and end point. Your goal is to move from the first to the latter.
You can only move left. You can jump over one-space gaps and jump up one space. If you go though an opening on one side of the card, you warp to the other side. If you are in a space with a lever in the lower right corner, you can turn the card 90 degrees clockwise. If you are in a space with a chute, you can flip the card to the other side.
The theming is a strong element, maybe one of the strongest elements. By framing the puzzles as video games, the mechanics become very intuitive. The puzzles are even broken down into worlds, 1-1, 1-2, etc., reminding us that it’s Mario’s world. The rest of us just live here.
However, compared to the other two system, I find Chutes and Levers much more limited. The restrictions are wonderfully thematic but they also make the puzzles feel very similar.
In comparison, Flipuzzles are very inventive and have a lot of rich variety, even if they make my head hurt. And I am amazed at how One-Card mazes reinvent themselves to the point where I always have at least one in my wallet.
Chutes and Levers is charming. And some of the puzzles are stumping me and probably will for a while. If you want a wide variety of card-based puzzles, they are worth adding to the library. But I think there is better stuff out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment