Crazy Machines Golden Gears Review

Our Review by Ruairi O'Gallchoir on April 16th, 2013

Rating:

:: PUZZLING FUN

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A fun and intellectual puzzler that forces players to think outside the box in order to achieve success within the game.

Developer: Viva Media
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.8
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4

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A Rube Goldberg Machine is basically a contraption that performs a simple task using deliberately overdone means - and this is exactly what players create in Crazy Machines Golden Gears.

In Crazy Machines Golden Gears, players are given a specific task to be carried out and are then left to their own devices. For example, the game might tell you that it wants a vase to explode. The player must then use every tool at their disposal (and trust me, there are a lot of tools to choose from) in order to get this to happen.

What separates Crazy Machines Golden Gears from the current flock of similar puzzle games on the App Store is it's Rube Goldberg inspired approach to making these contraptions. For too long games have been telling players to make a contraption using the simplest means possible, making thinking outside the box very difficult. To say that it's a breath of fresh air to not have to do this would be an understatement.

Unfortunately, Crazy Machines Golden Gears also has a very steep learning curve. I spent the first ten minutes just learning to navigate the game. Of course, that's not to say that the game doesn't offer a helpful tutorial - it does, but there are some areas that definitely merit a second look at in order to comprehend.

In a recent update to Crazy Machines Golden Gears, the developers added the ability for players to craft and share their own levels. This means that in the incredibly unlikely event that a player manages to burn through the increasingly challenging in-game levels, they have a vast plethora of downloadable content to look forward to.

Once I got the hang of Crazy Machines Golden Gears, I found myself getting more and more enthralled within the game. The fact that the game encourages players to think for themselves and use more unorthodox solutions to puzzles definitely makes this game a worthy part of any puzzle fan's repertoire.