Woozzle Review

Woozzle is a much more cerebral puzzler than I'd initially given it credit for. Assuming it'd be pretty standard fare for a casual puzzle game, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there's a fair amount of head scratching required when playing Woozzle. The basic concept is much like the classic board game Downfall. You have to help navigate a series of balls down a path by rotating the cogs that transport them. To complete the level, each of the cogs has to have four balls in the relevant positions. To further complicate matters, you have to match each ball and cog to the appropriate color.

Woozzle does a good job of introducing such elements gradually though. There's more depth here too with the addition of flippers that direct the balls, colour changers and even teleporters. The first few of the 60 levels teaches you just how to use all of these to your advantage. Controls are simple too with just the matter of tapping and sliding required. It's the kind of game you can just take your time with, figuring out the best course of action. Things certainly get complicated enough once you've settled into the basic mechanics.

This is slightly juxtaposed however with the fact that you're scored on how quickly you complete each stage - something which does encourage you to rush. Considering the rest of the experience feels more controlled, even right down to the chilled out soundtrack, it feels a little uneven encouraging players to progress quickly. Having said that, you can always just ignore this. While the GameCenter support offers a plethora of leaderboards, I'd recommend playing through for fun the first time then rushing through the levels for the best scores during a second playthrough.

There's certainly enough to enjoy here and with the promise of a level editor in a future update, there's a very good reason to keep Woozzle on your iOS device for a while to come. Don't expect an easy title or one dependent on luck, this is an intelligent puzzle game well worth your attention.