Clockwiser (4.5Mb)
I have today an interesting and unusual free puzzle/logic game by the same author as Pushover posted in Week 40 Here. It’s called Clockwiser and it’s a remake of an ‘Amiga’ game. You select a rectangle and then rotate it clockwise or anti-clockwise to try to arrange the items on the left side of the screen to exactly match those on the right. Gravity takes effect when you rotate the blocks, bombs and diamonds, and you can also use teleporters and anti-gravity machines to assist, where these are available.
It becomes very (indeed sometimes brutally!) challenging as you progress through the 133 levels provided (100 as from the original game). The difficulty level is carefully graded as you move up through the levels. There’s a level editor provided, and also a special color-blind screens option for those who have difficulty recognising some colors. Items are introduced gradually over the first 10 levels to act as a tutorial. You can set the difficulty level (normal, double time and no time limit), and the number of undo moves available. You can also select whichever level/level sets you want to play. Levels completed are indicated in the level select menu.
Rotating clockwise or anti-clockwise may produce different effects on the items moved. To make playing easier, you can turn the time limits for each level off, and use the undo option when rotations produce unexpected (and damaging!) results. Normal tiles just fall when rotated, bombs destroy everything close by when they reach the bottom, or if they collide with something else on the way and gems fall and multiply on reaching the bottom.
There are three types of special tiles; metal blocks which are immovable and the only type of block that can’t be destroyed; bricks which aren’t affected by gravity, (which are also useful to lift items upwards); and sandstone blocks that can’t be moved. You choose the location and the size of the rectangle you wish to rotate items within and you can make unlimited rectangle selections and rotations within the time limit, or at your leisure if you switch off the time limits. Each rotation can only move blocks one space at a time unless they are then made free to fall. You can also select rectangles using spaces for part of the rectangle. It can take a good number of rectangle selections and rotations to complete even one of the ‘simpler’ levels!
The graphics are excellent, as is the music, with sound effects also provided as objects rotate, fall, and explode etc. You left-click using the mouse to select the rectangle/square and then drag the mouse holding the right button along one edge in the direction you wish to rotate the items (or click on the direction arrows at the base of the screens, where you will also find the undo button). It plays windowed or full-screen directly from the extracted folder in XP, Vista and Win 7. Mouse click to proceed through menu, and menu or Esc key to quit. Menu options include sound, music levels and screen size selection.
It’s a great game for expert (and inexpert!) puzzlers alike and nothing like as easy as it looks even on the earlier/middle levels of the game. It’s well recommended to watch the video just to get the basic idea. (Sorry, no walkthroughs - shame!)
It’s a truly excellent puzzle game and Clockwiser will certainly have you puzzling for some very good while!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP_bTl7K5eM
Download HERE