jp
Home Talks and Slides My GameLog Research and Projects Publications Resume Teaching
Back  //   GameBreadth Project  //   Game Ontology Project  //   GameLog

Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity (DS)

Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
I started playing this game on Monday 22 May, 2023  //  I stopped playing this game on: Wednesday 31 May, 2023
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

May 23, 2023 10:37:17 AM
I wonder what the story behind this game is - I've assumed that Professor Heinz Wolff is a real person and that they somehow got roped into endorsing a videogame? Sort of like the Japanese guy (Kawashima?) who endorsed those brain training games that were such a hit when the DS first game out. I'm also going to guess that this professor is german - just from the name...which would make the whole thing even more odd? Or unusual? Or, maybe the professor doesn't exist and they just made up the character!

Anyways, it's fun to speculate here - and I guess a few minutes searching would find an answer BUT, it's still perhaps a bit of a sign of interesting times? (the DS years I 'm thinking here)

So, the game is basically a physics-based puzzle game where you need to touch a "bell" and there's empty space and you get items to place and a ball (or a little wagon) will spawn at a location - and then you need to Rube Goldberg-device your way there.

At first I thought it was SUPER hard - I had trouble clearing the first few levels because manipulating the pieces you get was really hard (you get certain pieces per level) and then I realized that the trigger buttons do a nice crisp 90 rotation of the pieces and it got a lot easier...

Interestingly there's a few puzzles I was able to clear with fewer pieces - which is always a nice thing since my expectation at least is that puzzle games like this (I'm also thinking Super Crayon Physics Deluxe) shine when there's a certain amount of open-ness and flexibility that allows for creative solutions and surprise.

The game comes with 100 puzzles - I did about 20 of them, it's not too long, but there are also some minigames and a sandbox mode. Strangely, the sandbox mode is locked (perhaps you need to finish the 100 puzzles?)...and the three mini games weren't that interesting.


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria