American McGee's Crooked House Review

I’m always impressed when a game can really make good use of the unique functionality available to the iDevice lineup. American McGee’s Crooked House does just that. This puzzle based game uses an Aurora Feint approach to moving items around by shifting the orientation of the iDevice.

The goal of the game is to get the small rat mouse through each level by working the pieces into a path from start to finish. The levels increase in difficulty as the game progresses, making the levels require a higher level of evaluation to solve.

A major complaint I found with this game is the tutorial pictures that are shown before new features are added. I always found that the pictures either failed to adequately identify the “new” game strategy I was learning, or didn’t seem to be incorporated into the level at all.

Other than the one issue though, I found myself engaged in trying to defeat each level. With that said, after a few levels, things just seemed to get more and more repetitive. There isn’t much depth to the game, and even with the more complex puzzles, I really found myself having trouble getting into it.

With that said, it’s a well made game and just because I had difficulty fully enjoying my experience, it doesn’t mean that someone else won’t have a great time with it. If you’re into this style of game, give it a shot. At only $1.99, it’s not an expensive title to try out.