Movin’ Maze: more paired movement

In various earlier post I presented mazes which are made more difficult because different objects are moving at the same time, constrained by specific rules. Movin’ Maze 3D (and the free version Movin’ Maze 3D Lite) presents yet another variation on this theme (a screenshot is shown to the right here). It is a nicely made puzzle, though there are so many options and possibilities that the puzzling aspect is a bit lost in the joyful chaos.

In Movin’ Maze you are little smiley that needs to be guided to its home. There are many objects blocking your way, some fixed (the red ones in the screenshot) but most moveable (the ones with the arrows in the screenshot). The basic problem is to move the moveable blocks in such a way as to open up your path to the home. There are numerous other objects, like coins, bombs, hearts, ramps, vortexes, etc., which make it easier to reach the goal. However, I will disregard these here—and as a aficionado of abstract puzzles I would actually have much preferred if they would have been left out of the game altogether.

The basic principle of the puzzle is really interesting in itself, and as far as I can see highly innovative. The basic principle is that the moveable blocks all move together with your move when their arrow points in the direction of your move. So the whole maze is changing with every move you make. Only using this principle seems to allow for very interesting complex mazes, but unfortunately this abstract kind of puzzle was not what the current developers wanted to make. Because in such a setting one will very quickly become trapped in a dead end.

The solution to prevent dead ends is that the direction of the arrow can be changed. Actually, they are changing constantly, because every time that a block should move (because its arrow point in the direction of you movement) but is unable to move (because it is blocked) then the direction of the arrow changes 180 degrees. This makes the movements of the pieces on the board highly chaotic. It is practically impossible to look ahead, because there are too many changes with every move you make. Yet, only this aspect of the game would be completely sufficient to make highly interesting puzzles. All the other object are a waste of time, as far as I am concerned.

Oh, and please remove the stupid clock. There is no reason whatsoever to force the player to start over again when a level is not solved quickly enough. Still, Movin’ Maze is based on a brilliant idea, so check is out. But do not expect much puzzling depth in the current implementation.

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