Puzzld! To Go - Wood Puzzles, Beautifully Illustrated, for iPhone Review

Puzzld! To Go is an iPhone app consisting of six beautiful wood puzzles, each with a different theme such as a jungle setting or outer space motif. Each theme has three jigsaw sections that fit together and when completed, then becoming pieces of the larger puzzle. There are options offered to personalize the experience, and I really like how gravity can be is used effecting the puzzle pieces creating the nuances of a physics game as well. It is also nice that one can also choose to rotate the pieces or not, depending on the difficulty one desires for these puzzles.

Puzzld! To Go is based on an earlier app, Puzzld! - Wood Puzzles Beautifully Illustrated for iPad, from the developers at WindUp Rocket. From what I have seen after gathering information about these applications from the developer’s site, these puzzles share the same wonderful illustrations and wood grain textures, along with the possible use of gravity and rotation of the puzzle pieces, but the main difference is that in the original Puzzld!, the pieces are less of a jigsaw and more like the chunky puzzles that my son loves where individual pieces fit into specific holes which don't interconnect with other pieces. In Puzzld! To Go, the landscapes have three missing pieces that need to be filled, but after tapping, these spaces become mini jigsaw puzzles themselves that need to be fitted together to be completed. When these jigsaws are put back together, the spaces from the larger puzzle landscape are filled in.

I think Puzzld! To Go is simply a wonderful puzzle app. The music included is great as well, with a different theme per puzzle. The farm section has a wonderfully upbeat country sound. The jungle has a lovely African-inspired beat which I really enjoy listening to, and the use of the The Blue Danube Waltz, also famously used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, during the outer space section makes me smile.

I really love the look and details of these puzzles as well. I am a big fan of wood puzzles in general, and I am always fond of seeing the wood grain peaking from the empty puzzle holes like that shown in this application. This app is full of whimsy and I really appreciate all that there is to see in the various scenes, especially what appear to be faint steampunk style blueprint details, or the like, seen in the blue-black sky of some of the outer space jigsaw puzzles, a really nice touch that parents will notice and appreciate.

The use of both gravity and the choice to rotate the puzzle pieces stands this app apart from other puzzle applications. The gravity is a lot of fun here, and in the majority of the puzzles it effects the pieces exactly the way one would expect, with the pieces falling to the bottom of the screen if the iPhone is held upright. For fun, shake your device and see your unfinished jigsaw falls apart the way it would in real life. Even without gravity in use, one may have to move some pieces out of the way of each other as you put together these jigsaws, something that I like a great deal.

I also appreciate the sometimes gravity works differently, as in the under water section, where the pieces float up to the top of the water instead of falling to the bottom of the screen. In the outer space theme, the pieces just float around in in mid air. These really fun and creative choices that pleased me a great deal. These last two puzzles, Outer Space and Under Water are locked to players until they finish the first four and their special uses of gravity indeed makes them real treats worth waiting for. It is also nice to be able to turn off the gravity and rotation which may be helpful for the youngest players. I found the completion of these puzzles with the rotation challenging, making game play enjoyable for many age groups.

I have really enjoyed this app and I really interested to see what the developers at Winduprockets come up with next.