Publisher: Big Fish Games
Developer: Tuttifrutti Interactive/Casual Mechanics
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9, 272 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Hidden object
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Who doesn’t like The Flintstones? While it’s a short, fun show satirizing 1950s suburbia, most importantly it’s a known quantity. You always know what you’re getting. Fred bumbles about his marriage, Barney offers questionable support, while Wilma and Betty are the brains of the operation. Casual games often get a short shrift for their similarity with one another, but like The Flintstones, that’s its selling point. While Casual Mechanics’s hidden-object game Antique Mysteries: Secrets of Howard’s Mansion colors within all the lines, it’s built so well that you might not care.

Mr. Howard used to collect art until he went mad and started to build secret passages and hidden rooms throughout his mansion. You play a renowned antique appraiser (all that Antiques Roadshow paid off!) who’s been brought in after Howard’s passing to put his art back in its original collections and solve the mystery of his mansion.

In this case, “art collector” is a euphemism for “hoarder,” as most rooms of the house are hidden-object puzzles, while the others are, well, everything else. While primarily a hidden-object game, Antique Mysteries features many other relaxing puzzles tossed in for variety. It’s paced well and nothing repeats too often. While moving between hidden-object rooms, you often collect items, which are used adventure-game style to solve more puzzles and open more rooms. Everything has a cohesive flow and feels like something more than just the airport brain-teaser book it actually is.

Items are placed semi-randomly, which offers some replayability, but also insures that the objects never fully match their background. Of course, the trick is to find the items on the list, not simply the ones lying around the scene. There’s no mechanism that stops you from click-spamming, so often the best course of action is to just click on everything that looks out of place. If that’s too much for you, there’s the hint button, which shows you the location of an object. It’s on a cooldown timer, but that’s not much of an impediment. Better yet, most puzzles can simply be skipped outright, making Antique Mysteries only as difficult as you want it to be.

And yet, the entire thing is just so relaxing. From the calming piano music, the satisfying click of the buttons and the simple brain-ticklers, to the gleeful “ding” of every found item, it’s remarkably easy to see the appeal of this genre. Everything about this game feels like a kindly housemaid who knows you just came home from a hard day at work. Your slippers are out, the kettle’s on, and here’s a nice plate of puzzles to enjoy right now. Don’t feel like forming palindromes? It’s OK. Let’s just skip it so Master can move on to his favorite bits. Oh, and I did all the hard crosswords for you, so you can just fill in the rest, unless you feel like a challenge today.

Antique Mysteries admirably performs its casual duties. Like romance novels and other formulaic genres, your preference for the theme has more to do with your enjoyment of the whole product than anything else. Even so, you might find the game a bit too short, especially considering you can skip or hint your way through the entire experience. If you have the self-restraint and enjoy mysteries involving antique mansions, consider booking an evening or two at Hoarding Howard’s humble abode.

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