Triazzle - Animated Puzzle Challenge
Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Berkeley Systems

Age Group: Age 8 and Up Type: Puzzles/Memory Price: $20

Description:

Berkeley Systems, Inc. describes Triazzle as "a brain teaser that comes to life with beautiful animations from the world's rain forests. This program is the first in a series of "Living Puzzles" to be released by Berkeley Systems, and is based on the board game created by Dan Gilbert, Inc.
Triazzle!

Installation

It took 5 (five) attempts to install Triazzle. The first time surprised me by presenting a screen for entering the serial number of the program. (This number is NOT on the CD-ROM, it's on the Quickstart Card. Heaven help you if it gets lost.) Of course, I immediately went into "hack" mode with no success. Then I looked at the card! Next, the choice of a Full Installation to the hard drive OR partial installation with CD-ROM in the drive for each play. Since hard drive space is lacking around here, I chose the partial installation. It partially installed, then aborted. Twice. Uh-huh. Finally, I tried the "Full Install" option, which takes up 5 megs of hard drive space and of course it completely installed. The installation process was painfully slow when it finally worked.

puzzle in progress...

How to Play

Select any piece by clicking on it and holding the mouse button down (drag and drop.) Rotate a piece quickly by clicking on it, or it can be rotated once it's in the puzzle. When you solve the puzzle correctly, the puzzle becomes animated. There is a High Scores list available.

Customize your Puzzle.

Board Menu

The game offers three levels of difficulty: Junior Triazzle (Beginner), Star Triazzle (Intermediate), and Triazzle (Advanced.) You may select a puzzle shape and level of difficulty; there are five levels of difficulty for each shape. The Custom Board allows creation of a custom board with shape, background and characters you desire. Here the number of hints available and number of showing edge pieces can be selected.

Need a harder challenge? It's here.

Options

Triazzle offers options for game sounds, rain forest sounds and timer on/off. Click Ctrl + H for a Hint.

About the Rainforest offers information about the rain forest environment. The information here is extremely limited and a disappointment, more a "token" attempt at edutainment than a genuine educational experience.

In Comparison

Triazzle doesn't offer the depth of puzzling that Playskool's Puzzles does. There are no print options here, no depth levels and not as much fun. On the other hand, Triazzle will appeal to those who have outgrown the cutesy Playskool Puzzles title.

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