Publisher: Doctor Entertainment
Developer: Doctor Entertainment
System Requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7, 1.7 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card with Shader Model 3 support, DirectX 9.0c, 500 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
Release date: Available now

If you have ever wondered what would happen if you gave a 3D puzzle game a set of gravitational laws that were warped to suit the whims of its developers, then Puzzle Dimension might just be the game for you. This puzzler advertises itself as a “Brain exercise in 3D,” and they are not kidding.

The goals of the game are simple: collect the sunflowers and exit the level. But between dangerous tiles and a gravitational pull that always pulls you down no matter what three-dimensional direction you’re facing, developer Doctor Entertainment has come up with a puzzle game that requires both real thought and an ability for spacial awareness.

Your avatar in the game is a simple ball. You control it with the arrow keys, and can make it jump with the space bar. You roll your ball across the various tiles, trying to pick up the flowers and avoiding any of a thousand ways you can be destroyed. As you might expect, this simplicity belies the complexity of trying to solve most of the puzzles. After all, slippery ice tiles and springboard jumping tiles can turn a simple navigation exercise into a dangerous lesson in adequate forethought.

In addition to providing stimulating gameplay, the designers have also taken the time to do interesting things with the graphics and music. Every level starts pixilated, but as you explore it, the pixilated graphics morph into crisp, colorful 3D visuals. The music changes as well, starting out in a midi-beeping kind of register that’s a throwback to 8-bit days, then turning into a nuanced, techno theme as you explore the puzzles.

As I played through the 100 puzzles, the closest thing to a complaint I found about Puzzle Dimension is that the designers allow you to jump up and down in the same tile. This would seem to be standard practice, but a number of tiles become lethal the moment you leave them. As a result, I accidentally killed myself many times by jumping in place rather than in a direction.

Aside from this minor quibble, I found Puzzle Dimension to be a wonderful casual gaming experience. Priced at $9.99, it has plenty of game to offer any puzzle enthusiast. If you’re looking for a great casual puzzle game, you should run out and pick up a copy— unless you get vertigo easily.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation: