Puzzle Labyrinth

Genre: First-Person Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Puzzle Labyrinth is a First-Person Puzzle game released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016. This game has players exploring 60 floors of a… it’s not really clear what this place is supposed to be… with each one requiring the player to solve a puzzle to open its vault-like exit door.

The presentation here is perplexing. The text scrawled on the walls throughout the game, and the presence of monsters (depicted using 2D character art), would seem to indicate that this game’s locale is supposed to be a dungeon of some kind, but the bright white and yellow backgrounds and geometric shapes of the dungeon walls themselves seem to indicate that this game’s location is something abstract. Perhaps this game was cobbled together from pieces from other projects, but whatever the case, the presentation simply does not fit the game well at all.

Unfortunately, this odd and confused jumble of elements extends to the game’s puzzles, which are often nonsensical, and with extremely poorly-localized instructions that make the solutions inexplicable. One puzzle seems to be about using a bow and arrow on… fairies? Walls? It’s hard to tell… and you need to do them in a specific order? But the hints are so poorly-localized and cryptic that it’s easier to just brute-force things and try every order until you hit on the correct one. Another puzzle requires you to dress like a panda and eat bamboo on colored panels to change their color from blue to orange, because… I seriously don’t know why.

As bad as the nonsensical puzzles are, they’re made worse by a clunky interface and the game’s insistence on making its abundance of text take far too long to clear. This results in slowing down the pacing considerably and making the game a horrible slog.

I suppose I can say a few nice things about this game. There’s certainly a good variety of puzzles, and $5 for 60 floors seems like a decent price… or at least it would if this game wasn’t torturous to play. Unfortunately, those minor good qualities don’t outweigh a game that’s slow-paced and filled with inexplicable, poorly-localized puzzles that make no sense. If you’re looking to expand your Puzzle Game collection on the Nintendo 3DS, don’t waste your time with Puzzle Labyrinth.

tl;dr – Puzzle Labyrinth is a First-Person Puzzle game filled with inexplicable, poorly-localized puzzles that often make zero sense, made worse thanks to absolutely terrible pacing. Skip this one.

Grade: D-

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