Developer: Big Fish Games
Steam Release: February 2008
Hours Played: 10.9
Similar To: Blue Toad Murder Files / Puzzle Agent / Puzzler World / Safecracker
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips
This is one of those gentle games for those who loved getting their teeth into that old-fashioned puzzle book that grandma gave for Christmas. It's about solving traditional classic puzzles in a quaint setting and guaranteed not to offend. As such, it probably won't over-excite you either. Azada is a timed puzzle game with each chapter consisting of nine puzzles. There are ten chapters in all and the time limit is around 30-40 minutes for each. There are 24 types in all that you can redo if you wish by entering a screen with all the puzzles lined up suitably on a shelf. The variety is excellent and they really are all your old favourites with a few new ones thrown in. Two or so puzzles in each level, however, involve a still picture which you interact with and it's these that can sometimes be a little obscure or baffling.
These puzzles have an adventure game element where you sometimes have to join two items together or drag them to another picture within the scene. Personally, I got stuck with a few of these and had to use an exploit to overcome it. (Do them using hints and restart the level again.) Using a hint takes 5 minutes off your time. You may also skip a puzzle if you wish, using special orbs. The puzzles are generally fun to get your teeth into but there is a bit of inconsistency; some you can zoom through in a matter of seconds while others, albeit very few, will have you stumped. I wouldn’t complain if I never had to do another matchstick puzzle ever again. In short, most puzzles are sufficiently challenging and accompanied by satisfying sparkles and wondrous sounds that are enough to keep you coming back for more.
Overall, the soundtrack can seem a bit twee with its nicey-nicey, cheesy feel. Sure, enhance the feeling of mystery and wonder but I felt the game leant just a tad too far towards being Disneyfied. I liked the squidginess and sparkle when navigating the menus however. The art-work is heavily based around wooden textures and shades of brown and grey giving the feeling that the puzzles were hand-made or constructed from expensive wood or mahogany and this gave the game that class and polish. The old look of the paper in the game also added to the overall antique-like feel. In conjunction with the old puzzle-book feel there are also glowing lights to create mystery and sparkle. Your hub is a picture of a study which you arrive at on pressing Play from the start-screen. Each click comes with a satisfying squidge and a sparkle.
After clicking on the twinkling bunch of stars that hover over a random section of the study, you're taken to a top-down view of a desk with nine old looking pages. Each piece represents a puzzle which you can do in any order. Clicking on one takes you to the puzzle and after a short description of what you have to do, away you go. Completing a puzzle signals the arrival of a sparkling animation involving the opening of a notebook along with the appearance of three pointless stats because it's info you see in the puzzle-selection screen anyway. The other stat shows you how quickly you completed the puzzle but this is redundant info also because there are no best-times or high-scores to speak of. Progress is also shown in the portrait of some bearded geezer in the study which is divided into ten rectangles - each representing a level.
CONCLUSION
The game is solid and fun for those who like the old-fashioned classics even though they varied quite widely in difficulty. Some were breezy and light while others like the matchstick puzzles and the interactive / adventure style ones may well have you scratching your head. The game was intriguing enough for me to want to pursue it to the end, which I duly did - and a game that can do this has obviously done something right and is certainly deserving of creeping into my Top 300.
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