Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game
by Viva Media
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Software Reviews of Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game
Customer Review: Great for any age
Summary: 5 Stars
I teach computer classes at an elementary and a Jr. High school. All grades from Kindergarten through 8th grade play Crazy Machines when I give them game time. Not only do I enjoy this games myself, my engineer husband enjoys it, too. This version comes with two games: an easier game for the younger kids and a harder version for the older kids and adults. Even when the children finally tire of the puzzles, they are willing to spend many more hours on building their own experiments. I love how the game encourages the children to think logically and stretch their minds in a new way.Customer Review: Crazy Machines (PC Game)
Summary: 4 Stars
Good game, alot of fun and educational. Installed it on an XP home PC with no problems. My son loves to play it (sometimes with a little help from dad) I gave it 4 stars because the directions are not very good. I think it would really improve if either the directions were better or it provided better online hints. I had to search the internet to find out how to complete level 4 and it won't let you continue until you finish a task.Customer Review: Lots of educational fun, but too many crashes
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my 12 year-old son hoping it would engage him and stimulate his problem-solving abilities. Surprise! It has. I didn't have too much hope, because he generally prefers the shooter games on his PlayStation and I was worried he wouldn't think this was "cool". But once I got him started, he liked it (especially once we figured out how to turn off the annoying "Professor") and returns to it without being prompted.
Only downside: if you play it for a while, you can expect a crash, at least that's been our experience on our new iMac with the Leopard OS. Otherwise, I'd rate it 5 stars.
Customer Review: Bring out the Mensa in your kid...
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a member of Mensa and I've been searching for years for software that would help teach my kids' problems-solving skills in an entertaining package. Crazy Machines is it. I ran across the game at random while searching through Amazon and bought it on a whim. I received it about a week ago and my kids, especially my 6-year old, have been bugging me ever since because we all want to play it.
Don't get me wrong, the game isn't perfect but I've scored it a 5 out of 5 because the entertainment and educational value far overshadow any minor shortcomings.
This game rocks. The learning curve is very short - within minutes we were solving puzzles. The puzzles vary from super simple (some virtually solve themselves) to very involved. One took me over an hour to solve - others just a minute or two. After a week of playing we have solved about a third of the total levels so playing time should is not an issue.
My 6-year old can solve some of these by himself, maybe a quarter, but those he can't figure out by himself serve as an opportunity for me to teach him problem-solving skills. I give him clues that walk him toward the solutions but he is working it out for himself.
Another interesting feature that he has already latched onto is the ability to build your own puzzles in the in-game lab called the "Sandbox". You can play with all of the game elements: fire, steam pipes, electrical, levers and catapults, balls and boxes and various gravity options. It's harder than it would seem to come up with an interesting puzzle that is challenging yet solvable.
The graphics are superb - very sharp and pleasing. I am running this game on a new 22" monitor and it looks amazing. The background music is fine - you stop noticing it pretty quickly.
Actually, the physics engine that drives this program is impressive. The items interact with each other in a manner that is very realistic and the game is supersensitive to even very minor movements and angle changes.
A couple of cons...
You can't skip a level. If you get stuck you can't move to any other level until you solve the puzzle. That is fine for me but it is a pain when the kids are playing.
Of the 103 levels in the game there is no pattern of difficulty. You would expect there to be a general progression from easier to harder but it doesn't play out that way. Except that the first couple are easy, the difficulty from there on is random with some hardest levels coming relatively early. I wish the levels were ranked as to difficulty so you could sort by harder or easier levels at will. It is a pain when the kids get stuck.
The "Professor" pops in every time you start a new level with some tired platitude like "this one was hard for even me to solve". The problem is that he only has two or three things to say and it gets old. If he said something different every time or if his statements bore some relationship to the actual difficulty of the level it wouldn't be so bad but it gets very annoying very quickly.
Finally, unless there is something I've missed, the developers have missed a huge Web 2.0 opportunity when it comes to creating and sharinglevels. When you create a level in the Sandbox you can name and save it but there is no mechanism, within the game or at their web site, to upload, download or otherwise share levels. I can imagine this being bigger than the original game. Too bad.
Overall, this game is great fun and a bargain at the price they are charging. Now if I could just find someone to trade levels with I'd really be happy.
Customer Review: Avoid it for Macintosh
Summary: 1 Stars
Bought this for my iMac core duo machine so my granddaughter could play it. It will start up, but then does nothing. Loaded it to another iMac with same results. CHecked their website for support and find there is none. No discussion groups. No FAQs covering issues. THen noticed that this software is several years old. No recent updates or bug fixes. All the publisher wants you to do is send them an email.
Looks to be a real cute fun piece of software, but not for more modern machines and OS's.
Look for something else.