Prof Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery - A beautiful puzzle game for Linux

Remember the time when I reviewed a very beautiful game called FizzBall which runs on Linux and which was developed by a young gaming company called Grubby games ? Well, they have released yet another game called "Prof. Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery" - this time a game of puzzles. The protagonist of the new game is again Prof. Fizzwizzle and the story line goes thus :

While on vacation, the professor Fizzwizzle comes across a simmering volcano. And his ever inquisitive mind prompts him to find ways of studying the volcano. But alas, on the way he meets his former pupil turned evil genius Penny Pyroclast who with the aid of her trusty flying robots (bat-bots) make his job that much difficult by spreading across his path a number of devious puzzles. And to reach the volcano, the professor will have to solve these puzzles.

Game play is quite simple and involves moving Prof Fizzwizzle from point A to point B. But in between, he has to surmount many obstacles. To aid him in clearing the path, he can use different objects such as magnets, barrels, crates, teleports, guns and many other things.

Fig: Move the Prof from point A to point B.

Prof Fizzwizzle can move only in four directions - left,right,up and down - which is controlled by the four arrow keys of your computer (The keys can be changed from the settings dialog) and his movements are restricted by the fact that you can't make him jump. So while it is easy to move him from a higher plane to a lower plane, to move him up, either the terrain should allow him or you have to make him use the objects at his disposal. And this calls for thinking through the steps which is what the puzzle is all about.

One thing I really like about the games developed by Grubby games is their rich cartoony graphics painted with a hew of colors. The games are developed with the kids as well as the adults in mind. And Prof Fizzwizzle is no different. I was so engaged in playing the game that I did not see the time fly by. And my whole family had a whale of a time playing the game.

Fig: A random level in the game

Coming back to the game, Professor Fizzwizzle and the molten mystery provides three different level sets, them being Regular levels, Advanced levels and Kids levels.

Fig: Yet another level - move the professor to the location pointed by the red arrow

While the regular and advanced levels require applying some logical thought, the kids levels are simple to solve and require little out of the box thinking.

There are numerous objects and terrains in this game and the interesting thing is that all the objects follow the laws of physics. For instance, when like poles of magnets face each other, the magnets repel each other and vice versa, crates can't move on gravel - unless they are freezed, hot metal objects transfer their heat when they come in contact with cooler objects and so on. And, you have to use these laws of physics to achieve your goal of solving the puzzles which is to help the Prof. move to his final destination.

The game is amazingly well designed. There are 210 levels in all and each one of them are unique. The levels are automatically saved which means you can close the game anytime and then come back later to pick up where you left off. Each users score, his game options and levels completed are tracked separately so different people can play the game simultaneously without any overlap. The developers have also been thoughtful in embedding a level editor in the game to help you create and play your own customized levels. And the "Level Manager" will help you manage the customized levels you have created. Grubby games provides additional levels which you can download from within the level manager and even upload your own customized levels to their website to share with others.

Fig: Kids levels are great fun to play

So what happens if you are unable to solve a level? Like for instance, I solved the regular level set up to level 59 and then in Level 60, I got stumped. To circumvent such situations, the game has an inbuilt "Show solutions" button which you can access from the menu. Instead of wringing my hands in despair, I navigated to the menu and pressed the "show solution" button. And guess what, Prof. Fizzwizzle solved the puzzle by himself. This is a very helpful option which has been incorporated in the game play which enhances the overall value of this game. Because as all puzzle games go, you reach a stage where the puzzle is a tad complex for you to solve and showing the solution makes it easier to move to the next level or even retry the level keeping the solution in mind.

Fig: Game settings screen - the game remembers each player's settings

This game is full of pleasant surprises. There is a pedometer on the lower right corner of the screen which records the number of steps Prof. Fizzwizzle took to solve each level. This is useful to know who among you solved the puzzle in the least number of turns. The professor can access up to 12 objects spread across the puzzles to aid him in solving each one of them. And you'd better watch out for bat-bots which will chase and overpower the professor if they lay their sights on him. To solve some levels, it is also required that you get your timings right.

Fig: A level from the advanced level set

I noticed on the Grubby games website that they have released an earlier version of the Prof. Fizzwizzle game and when I had a chat with Ryan Clark who is in charge of coding the game, he told me that there are a lot of enhancements in the new version. For one, you have 3 new power-ups namely the heat gun, inflatable teleports, and inflatable bridges which you won't find in the old version of the game. Then the bat-bots are a replacement for the older rage-bots with the added benefit that they can be placed under the terrain which increases the potential number of puzzles that can be created. You can share your score with others online which is yet another enhancement in the new version.

But the number one incentive for me to try this game apart from its excellent features was because the two co-founders of Grubby games - Matt Parry, Ryan Clark and their team have released the game not just for Windows and Mac OSX but also for Linux. I tried the game in four Linux distributions - Debian, Slackware, Fedora and OpenSuse and in each case the game started flawlessly. Obviously, the game does not depend on system wide libraries and is a standalone package which makes it possible to play the game in any Linux distribution.

Considering the sheer number of levels in the game coupled with enhanced graphics, superb gameplay and user friendly options, this game is well worth the $19.95 dollars charged for its full version. Mind you, they have also released a Linux version which is doubly exciting.

You can download a demo version of the game from their website and try it out before you decide to buy it.