First Impressions:

Professor Fizzwizzle caught my attention immediately, and I was quite psyched to play it. After spending only a few minutes with this gem, I was hooked. It delivered on all of its promises. Unfortunately, love went sour and I discovered a few design problems that kept a good game from being a great one.

Graphics:

One thing that has been lost with more mature games and subject matter has been the charm and innocence of classics such Super Mario Brothers and Mega Man. Professor Fizzwizzle fights to recapture this cartoonish appeal and succeeds. There is no darkness in the Prof's world; everything is bright and colorful and not even the enemies look threatening. And anybody that's ever laughed over the oh-so-subtle (and arguably intentional) acid-trip allusions in SMB (he gets strong by eating a mushroom people) will have a good time with the level design of this game; dinosaurs are frozen comical poses, platforms float in the air, and excellent animations have the Professor riding barrels and sliding across ice.

Sound/Music:

There are two tracks on this game's soundtrack, and both serve their purpose well. The background music stays in the background, adding to the game's design without overpowering it or annoying the gamer. The sound effects are crisp and clear. I have to say, however, that somebody is a Metal Gear Solid fan on the development team (pick up an item and see what I mean).

Gameplay:

While the keyboard controls are easy to pick up, the gameplay is where the game starts to fall apart. The premise of the game is simplistic enough; Professor Fizzwizzle must get through his lab to turn off the “rage switch” that has his otherwise friendly robot subjects wreaking havoc. To advance through the levels, the gamer must manipulate the environment around the player-character to clear a pathway to the exit while avoiding capture from an enemy or falling off of the screen. Anybody that has played the original Prince of Persia will have no problems adjusting here; until they actually start playing. The PC classic that inspired the much-heralded Sands of Time for current-gen systems was known for its precise control. In Professor Fizzwizzle, holding down a direction key will have the player-character falling to their doom, or pushing a crate off of a switch that it needs to weigh down. It's difficult to get the Prof to stop just where you want him to without tapping on the direction keys like a chicken at feeding time. A handy “walk” button similar to the original Tomb Raider would have been quite welcome.

Another major problem with the game's design is that the Professor cannot jump. That's right; the player-character in a puzzle/platformer cannot jump. This is a serious video game crime, chiefly because of the hindrance it presents to the enjoyment of the game. If you push a crate too far, you can't jump over it and push it the other way. If you misstep and fall on a ledge below, you can't jump back up. You have to restart a level to correct your mistakes for the most part (some levels include ways to get over and around objects, such as ladders, but even then they have to be positioned right). While you can restart the level as many times as you wish, it's annoying to do so over and over again just because you pushed a crate a little too far. This is seriously over-penalizing the gamer. However, you can't complain that the game is unforgiving; there are three difficulty levels to play at and you can see the solution to any puzzle at anytime. Also, the solutions to all of the puzzles are quite obvious once you learn how all of the items interact with each other; this lack of cryptic layering means that you will never encounter a puzzle that asks more of you than you are willing to give (unlike the combat in games such as Ninja Gaiden for the X-Box). In short, Professor Fizzwizzle keeps the "game" aspect of "game" in mind, even if the gameplay itself is suffering.

Enjoyment:

Professor Fizzwizzle is a fun game to play, but it’s not as much fun as it could’ve been. The puzzles will definitely make you think, and they're not so easy that you can blow through them in no time. With well-over two-hundred levels, you definitely get your money’s worth when it comes to content. Don’t get too excited though; there is no real challenge to the game despite the head-scratching intricacy of the level design. At any time you can view the solution to a puzzle. This is handy if you’re just plain stumped and for those gamers who just need a head start it’s a great option. However, if you choose to see a solution the game will automatically play itself out unless you stop it, allowing the gamer to advance through the levels without doing any real work themselves. On top of this, you are still rewarded with the occasional humorous illustration that the game uses as hidden prizes even if you allow the game to play itself on every stage.

While puzzle gamers tend to be less concerned about unlockable goodies than the game itself, this still just doesn’t seem right. There’s nothing motivating the gamer to plan the solutions for the levels out themselves. A better system would be one that plays a bit of the solution at a time, and a scoring system that penalizes the player for viewing a solution. Of course, being able to let the out the solution for you wouldn’t be so bad if there was more than one solution to each puzzle. It’s a good thing that there are so many levels because if not this game would be good for one play-through only. There is a fairly sophisticated level editor, but even its potential is not fully explored.

Multiplayer:

While Professor Fizzwizzle offers no logical reasoning for death matches, there could be plenty of multiplayer fun to be had. Any game with a custom level editor should allow gamers to upload their levels to the Internet so that they can share them. There is no such options in-game or that I could see on Big Fish’s website. Also, if the game had a proper scoring system then players could post their scores online and compete; that coupled with the previously-suggested penalties for letting the itself could make for some truly competitive and further encourage the gamer thinking through the solutions themselves.

Overall Impression:

Professor Fizzwizzle is a good game; unfortunately so are most titles available, be they from the major distributors or from budding independent development teams. There is nothing in Professor Fizzwizzle to make it stand out from the rest of the lot, and the most disappointing fact is that there could’ve been. If you’re into casual games, or want something that will easily play on your bare-bones laptop so that you can goof off when you’re supposed to be working, then this game is a safe bet. As long as you don’t abuse its many help features you’re getting an enjoyable mental workout.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

It’s something of conventional wisdom that female gamers are more attracted to puzzle games than their male counterparts, and if that holds true then this game already has a solid built-in audience. Parents may want to take note that there is no violence, gore, sex, profanity, or drug use in this game. True, a three-year-old couldn’t figure out the puzzles but they would enjoy the characters and the animation. Older kids will enjoy playing this game with their parents, and it’s a valuable tool for enhancing their problem-solving skills (even watching the solutions to some puzzles can help them with others).