Who says you can’t learn anything from video games?  After playing this jigsaw puzzle title, I learned that Mandie Manzano is an artist whose fantasy paintings have a distinct stained-glass look to them.  And now you can do virtual jigsaw puzzles of her paintings, including new ones, with this free-to-play app for iOS devices (reviewed on iPad here).

Gameplay is pretty much like any other jigsaw puzzle title.  You have a selection of 8 paintings you can piece together, and can buy more packs if you like.  Before starting, you can choose how many pieces you want to have.  It can be anywhere from 12 to 2,000!  You can also choose to rotate the pieces or have them always be in the right position.  Once you complete a puzzle, you can view the whole picture in a gallery and see how long it too you to put together the puzzle.  It’ll save time records for how many pieces you chose to have as well as if you put it together with or without rotation.  You can also save puzzles and come back to them later, as well as read a short bio of the artist.

Use the touch screen to slide pieces, and tap on pieces to rotate them if you have that option turned on.  You can also zoom in closer, which is handy if you have a puzzle with lots of pieces, and need to see them better.  Pieces that fit will permanently connect to one another, which is convenient.  The only problem I had with the game is that when I tried to do a 2,000-piece puzzle, the game would crash every time the game would load the puzzle to about 95 percent.  I don’t know if it’s because my iPad is old or if the game needs an update.  Although I don’t really think I’d finish a 2,000-piece puzzle anyway.  If you like jigsaw puzzles and Mandie Manzano’s art, you’ll want to check this one out.

Kid Factor

None of the paintings have anything objectionable as far as I could tell, and since you could have puzzles with only 12 pieces, even very young kids could do this game with little to no help.  Although the game said the 12-pieces puzzles were for ages 2 and up, I think 2-year-olds may be a bit young for it, but not by much.  Parental supervision is recommended for the in-game purchases.

Tags: Game Reviews