Mechanismo Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

More brain puzzling mechanics

Having already reviewed The Incredible Machine it would be impossible not to draw any comparisons between these two games. In fact you may be mistaken for thinking that Mechanismo is a repackaged and rebranded version of The Incredible Machine. The similarities are obvious and there are only subtle differences. Place items from your inventory onto the screen to solve various ingenious puzzles. They both use similar items such as torches, springs and scissors but the mad professor is missing in this version.

Mechanismo has a few more toys for you to play with and there are also more choices for rotating objects. There are 60 levels in total and while this may be 20 fewer than its predecessor the difficulty level has been cranked up a notch or two. The game hits the ground running and is a perfect unofficial sequel for any fans of TIM. The laws of physics in the game have improved, for example, a bit more thought about the bounce and spin is required when using the various balls. The controls seem slightly more intuitive; open your inventory with *, rotate the object with 1 and switch on/off with 3 and obviously use the Dpad for positioning. There are also no grades; so no penalty if you accidentally hit the run button too early. Completing some of these levels will be enough satisfaction.

One major advantage over TIM is the in-game help. Some of the objects are not exactly clear on what they are (I've never seen an anti-gravity pad in B&Q so I wouldn't know what one looks like) but the Mechanipedia is not too far away. Mechanismo also sports a workshop where you can create and save your own puzzles. The only snag is that you have to complete the first 45 levels to unlock this mode.

If you have already bought and loved TIM then Mechanismo is definitely a worthy addition to your collection and takes the contraptions another step further. There is very little to choose between the two but TIM will undoubtedly have a more mass market appeal thanks to the prof and its more cartoony graphics. In this instance we've calculated our ratings directly against The Incredible Machine and thanks to Mechanismo's additional controls and better gameplay, it has just sneaked past.