![]() ![]() Hey, kids, here’s a fun way to make your parents worry about you. It makes something much more usable than what was basically just a toy, and it’s actually pretty fun putting parts together into an actual puzzle. It’s fairly robust in that regard – you can set it so victory happens when certain things are in the right place are off the board, when objects have reached a certain state, or if there needs to be a delay before victory happens. The sandbox mode is also here, and for the very first time, it’s possible to set things so the game actually recognizes when a solution has been achieved. It’s possible to play any puzzle in the game like this, as well, which while not the intended experience, makes for a neat touch. The two player mode also makes a return, with 50 unique puzzles you can challenge your friends to see who can come up with the faster solution. What really helps, however, is that every item you can move comes with an icon you can click on for a brief description on what it does and what will work with it, which can save you a big headache. It’s never too game-breaking, since the further you get, the less hints you’ll receive, until they eventually stop showing up entirely. In the game itself, the easier puzzles offer optional hints you can click on, which will give you clues on what needs to go where. The menus offer a help button to explain what the various buttons to, along with a “tour” mode that runs a demonstration on how the various modes work. The entire game is a little more user friendly overall, from the puzzles themselves to the user interface. Some of the previous issues of earlier games still remain, like times when pixel perfect item placement can mean the difference between victory and failure, or the way repeated attempts can’t be made any faster. The difficulty curve feels a little smoother here, with puzzles that have a few less red herrings and are somewhat more obvious what you’re supposed to – at least for a little while, before things begin to ramp up. Unlike previous games, every puzzle can now be played at once – to be honest, it didn’t really make a lot of sense that it didn’t work that way previously. Much like Incredible Toons, puzzles are now separated into four different difficulties, plus a set of tutorial levels. Curie won’t care unless the food is in her line of sight. There’s also can openers, which somehow aren’t as effective as luring cats as they are in real life. ![]() There’s a lot to play with, and it’s generally fairly intiuitive. Pipes are useful for getting anything that’ll fit through them quickly from one place to another, with curved pieces helping them reach further off into new directions. Fire itself can be created through candles, bumping flint rocks together, and can be used to get tea pots boiling, light fuses, or send hot air balloons soaring. Laser emitters need power but will fire off a beam that’ll light fires, reflect off of mirrors, and activate certain switches. Unlike the weird toon logic of the previous game, the new parts here make a little more sense – in that weird, Rube Goldberg way, at least. Just about every part from The Even More Incredible Machine makes a reappearance, along with a wide supply of new tools to work with. To be truthful, it’s not that different at from the original game, but this sequel also took what worked from Incredible Toons and applied it to what was a more solid foundation. It makes for a much more solid, polished work all around, and it’s not a huge surprise that this one game served as the basis for almost the entire rest of the series. It was worth the wait – Incredible Machine 2 offers everything that made the original game work, while adding on just about everything that a sequel at the time could have needed. While Incredible Toons made for an interesting detour, it’d take one more year for the series to receive a true sequel.
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