More puzzles. What can I say? I like ’em. Corners, u-turns, ramps, hills, obstacles, centre and side routes. Hole in Won is a mini golf physics puzzle game. Fill in the missing tiles to get to the end, maybe even in style.
Priced at only a few bucks, it’s a fundamentally solid game with 100 campaign puzzles plus an editor to create and upload your own for everyone else to play in the arcade. I found the campaign started to get going around level 25. Took me about 3 hours to play through, mostly relaxing stuff, although definitely has some toughies and the oblique angled blocks take a lot of getting used to how it affects the ball direction. When the hill tiles are introduced the ball has the potential to go anywhere rather than in the previously neat lines. That’s when experimentation can get really random and fun.
One issue for me is tiles must be added in the order they are on the stack. It adds some challenge as, if the tiles are out of order, I need to hold the solution more clearly in my head. It also means that too many tiles can become a chore to handle as I’m trying to move them around and swap positions. Having to remove a few tiles just to change one. I found up to seven tiles in the stack is fine, which thankfully most puzzles don’t go beyond. I would prefer that tiles could be placed in any order to aid quick experimenting and making large puzzles a better prospect. The only properly large puzzles are in the user made arcade.
Hole in Won’s presentaion is clean and enjoyable to interact with. Mucking around with the possibilities of the ball physics feels good. Some puzzles have multiple solutions and I’ve cheesed a few in ways I’m not sure were intended, and had a laugh trying my best to be subversive.
The editor is good. Could do with a few instructions to be sure how to make the tile stack, but otherwise great for a budding puzzle designer or as a sandbox. There are some tiles there that don’t feature in the campaign. Clearly scope for future expansions. I’d like to see a new set of levels, even if it were only a hand picked selection of user made ones. On a related point, the arcade could do with a rating system or other method of organisation to improve discovery. I can imagine potential for lots more tiles. I’d like to see something that further exploits height, maybe a multi level block that captures balls in flight.
Anyhow, it’s a nice cheap puzzle game. Try out the levels I made. The end.
Available from Steam.
Vid is of some player made puzzles. You know who you are.
mishmash 