Crazy Fred (11.7Mb)
Crazy Fred is a Sokoban (block pushing) clone with impressive 3D isometric graphics. There’s a white ‘help’ character you can ‘talk’ to on each level with a new feature for hints, and you have an animated figure as your playing character. The 3D isometric view sometime makes moving blocks or your character more interesting, as you or blocks, or even home squares may be hidden or partially hidden behind structures.
There are normal blocks to get home, colored blocks that block a 'home' square when they are put home, special action squares, movable destructible blocks that don't have a home place, lasers with activator switches, hidden home squares, movable single shot lasers, bidirectional lasers, laser-reflector mirrors; destructible fixed blocks, indestructible fixed blocks and more! Try not to get zapped by your own operation of laser activator switches!
There are great animations eg walking, pushing a crate, help guy when you complete a level with a new feature, your character animation when you have to restart a level. The gate lifts when you complete a level, and you exit via gate passage to the next level. The levels vary in difficulty, for instance level 14 is a real cracker; also needing very adept timing. There's a very good selection of puzzles to solve and while the Sokoban element may sometimes be relatively straightforward, some of the puzzles need a good deal of thought, or sometimes trial and error to solve! You also don't usually have too many different elements to deal with on any one level which is very good for a puzzle game. The features are introduced at a steady pace during the game. I played up to level 25 for the review; there may be some more surprises in the remaining 20 levels!
Move with the 'arrow' keys, 'F' key switches frame rate and level number on/off and 'M' key switches the music on/off. 'X' key to select level and 'H' key for help.
F4 key to switch to/from full-screen, 'Esc' key to quit. Progress is saved though you can easily delete the data file in the game folder for other family members or friends/colleagues to have a go! The game has plenty of replay value as it also saves your best time for all levels solved for you to try to beat this, rather than counting moves. It also shows levels with best times on the level select screen. You have to work through the levels in order. As there aren't any walkthroughs (yet!), you'll have to try to solve the levels yourself for now!
Give the game a little while to load. When you can switch languages (Arrow key, Enter key), it has loaded - (English and Spanish available). New levels load quickly.
It's a very competent and polished puzzle game that might have you playing for a good while, especially if some levels later (or earlier!) on have you puzzling for ten or twenty minutes, or more, to solve a level. The game has 45 levels. Music and sounds are very retro, which is a good accompaniment to the game! Gameplay is excellent!
Level 14: Lots of lasers and activator switches!
It is only listed at YoYo Games so I’ve had to write the review from scratch. Very well worth a download!
Note:- The download file is Fred_Vista, already patched for Vista, but runs fine as is, on XP!
Download HERE
