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Great Puzzles - Annoying Environment

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 31 / 32
Date: May 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a huge fan of puzzle games, and was really eager to give Smart Bomb a try. It's a mixed bag - really great puzzles, but a really annoying environment.

The plot - which is really pretty meaningless to the gameplay - is that you are a bomb disposal person who goes around from spot to spot in the world, defusing sets of bombs. Really, the way you defuse the bomb is to do a series of puzzles. So the game is all about solving puzzles.

I *really* enjoyed the puzzles. They were inventive and fun. There were rolly-marble games, like in Mercury. There were train moving on track puzzles. There are turn-the-tile puzzles to connect the lines, as in TimeSplitters. There are direct the laser puzzles, with mirrors. There are Simon pattern-matching games, musical hit-the-button games, and more. It's like having all the mini-games you enjoy most all together in one spot.

But my big problem here is that they make the games incredibly NOT fun by putting super-fast time limits on them. There's no easy mode, and even puzzle fiends I know were annoyed right from the start. What they want you to do is play, fail, play, fail, play, fail until you figure out the technique to solve it and do it quickly enough.

Normally in a puzzle game they have a time limit set that is reasonable - and you get extra bonus points for doing it quickly. In this one, there is literally pretty much no way to solve it in time on your first or second pass. You have to get the movements down on instinct to get through them in time.

And the REAL problem is what happens when you fail. It doesn't just say retry. Noooooo. Instead, the screen starts to flash, the alarms blare and then BOOOOM the entire screen goes white, it sits white for 5 seconds, and then eventually you can ask to restart. Then you have to sit and wait for it to load - and it goes back to the BEGINNING so you have to re-do all the other puzzles again. It's very frustrating.

Yes, there are other modes than the story mode. You can do arcade or challenge mode. Arcade mode is a series of puzzles in a row. Not much difference. Challenge mode lets you re-play any level of puzzles without time constraints, just to get the fastest score. On one hand this is VERY nice - it is so much more fun to play the puzzles without the buzzers blaring and white light blanking out the screen. But on the other hand, all you can do is play the entire level, meaning you have to go through all the puzzles in the set. I like some puzzles, and I don't really like others. I really would enjoy being able to play all tile-spinning puzzles, for example, with random configurations.

Usually the appeal of a puzzle game is that it's great for all ages. There's no violence or adult themes. But this puzzle game starts out so hard that I doubt that most kids will get through the puzzles - or want to deal with the very nasty penalties of failure. It would get frustrating very quickly. Even their "easy" mode in arcade mode just means you only have to solve 5 puzzles in a row - not 10 or more.

In general, I am so fond of some of these puzzle styles that I really hope that the same makers come out with another puzzle game that doesn't involve the bomb theme. I would gladly play those puzzles for hours and hours if they randomly generated and let me try to beat my previous scores. But the way it is - with you having to race against time, many times over and over, getting frustrated by the long pause between tries, and restarting at the very beginning each time - it's not fun. I have a long, hard work day. I play games to help me relax. I don't play games to get even more wound up and tense.

Rating: 3/5

This game wants you to explode...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: September 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In two words: VERY ANNOYING

Well, first things first, lets start with the graphics. Terrible. The PSP can hold a lot better graphics than that, infact, the PS1 might get those graphics in.
Presentation: From the moment you load the game, you can tell this is going to be annoying. Why? It is such a slow reaction time when you press the start button. You press it. half a second-1 sec later, it finally starts to bring up te next screen. You need a quick reaction for a puzzle game like this, otherwise, you're dead.
OK, but the most annoying thing in the game is the very slow loading. So, the bomb explodes, the screen all goes white, and start loading. After 10-15 secs or so, it shows a crudy 5 sec cut scene that no one really wants to watch. Once again it loads, and brings up a game over screen, you want to try again, and once again it loads. Then you have to start all over again! ARRGGHH!
I must say though, the puzzles are quite challenging. They get your brain working ;)
Overall I only recommend this game to absolute puzzle addicts who really love their puzzles. There are plenty of other games for the PSP out there that are so much better.

exercize your split-second problem solving skills

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was very impressed by the video previews I saw of this game. You can check it out on www.ign.com or on www.gamespot.com. It seemed almost like someone took the idea of split-second puzzle solving from Wario Ware and removed the insanely cute part that prevented anyone from taking it seriously.

The premise of the game is that you are a rookie on a bomb squad chasing after a mysterious criminal who plants sophisticated AI-bombs. Each bomb has several modules that each contain a different kind of puzzle. If you take too long on any of the modules, the timer will expire and the bomb explodes. Only by solving each module in the bomb will you be able to gain access to the detonator pins, which allows you to finally disable the bomb.

My initial impressions were pretty spot-on as I started the game. The first few bombs had very simple puzzles that you could figure out how to solve the instant you saw them. But Smart Bomb quickly picks up the difficulty by increasing the complexity of the modules and adding new modules.

It seems unfairly difficult at times since the time is very limited and it can take a few tries to get the hang of how each puzzle type works. But perseverance is the key, and you will eventually figure it out. Also, once you clear a bomb, you can go back and take as much time as you want in challenge mode.

In all, if you like puzzle games, I'd say pick this one up. It's not as addictive as Lumines, but then again, if every game were that addictive we'd all stop eating and die.

**UPDATE**
Let's reduce the number of stars by 1 or 2.

The game itself is still challenging and fun... WHILE YOU'RE ACTUALLY PLAYING IT. Every time you make a mistake and a bomb explodes it takes a good minute to get back to playing the game because of the ridiculous load times. First, it takes 15-30 seconds to load a 3 second cut scene of the bomb exploding, then it takes another 15-30 seconds to reload the bomb. I've looked and there's no way to disable the cut scenes. Also, all of the reading from the disc probably drains the batteries faster.

This is a pretty major oversight and it makes the game tedious. I'd think twice about picking this one up now.

wow......what a dumb game..............

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This my friends is what I like to call a HORRIBLE game. Where to start....... how about with the wickedly long load times? Or the confusing game play? How about the overall boring factor in this game. Mostly this game is not worth the 15 bucks I got it for. To further talk about the load times, It makes you wait a very long time to get to the start menu and after selecting a few options, makes you wait an extremly long time AGAIN. I guess you can come to expect this from the psp, but seriously, come on! Anyway, on to the GAME play. Wow. You try to defuse bombs by moving little mirrors to deflect light in a hole, or tapping a random sequence of buttons, or rolling marbles into different areas. AMAZING! Not..... Anyway, another factor that makes this game bad is the confusion some of the games cause! I picked one of the bombs and it told me to match something and I did, but the timer until the explosion kept ticking. So I consult the instructions in the game, and I find it tells me to do what I have already done, but some how differently? To sum this up, I gave up after a few tries. On to the next topic, the fun factor. Fun? Hardly. This game is about as much fun as TRYING to get shot in the face. Overall, this is a terrible game, filled with long loading times, boring game play, and confusion. Don't waste your money folks, go get a good game like soccom navy seals or Untold Legends, if those aren't your style then just get Lumines! Get SOMETHING OTHER THAN THIS GAME!
1 Star....

Can't Get Started

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: June 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is just what it says- a "bomb". It is not the least bit fun. I have been trying to figure it out and after 3 tries have given up. The tutorial mode is a joke. The tutorial instuctions are very fast instead of staying on screen and letting you move to the next page on your own. The puzzles are very confusing and it would have been better to show you how to solve the beginning puzzles instead of just blowing up and having to restart. The time limit is ridiculous. Very frustrating. As in other reviews the load and reload times are pittiful. As in LONG. Also, the instruction manual is basically useless when you look for help to get started. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do. This game is a total waste of money. Normally I suggest that someone rent the game first to see if it's for them. I wouldn't recommend even that for this game as I wouldn't want anyone to waste their hard earned money. When you see the list of credits at the back of the instruction manual you would think that so many people could have put their heads together and come up with a really super game. As it is, it looks like the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Too many people were involved in putting this game together. As the saying goes-"Too many cooks spoil the broth." This is definitely a game to stay away from.

I should have read the reviews

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If I had read the reviews for this game, I would never had bought it. It has beautiful graphics but that is the only good thing I can say about this game. If I could have given this game zero stars, I would have.

"ACHOOOSUCKSOOOO"

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: July 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this game sucks do not buy it it is a horrible game with annoying stuff around you and the puzzles suck...

A real "Bomb"

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: June 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the worst games I've ever played. Within minutes of playing the game I knew that this one was headed for the junk pile. The other 1 star reviews have done a good job of describing the problems. Save your money for Mercury or Lumines if you like puzzle games.

Good puzzles but not a good game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am always a puzzle fan. Smart Bomb has some good puzzles but the interface of the game and the timer is very annoying. When you first started, the game gives you instructions but it is very quick and you do not have time to get used to the control or sometimes the objective of the puzzles. It is very difficult to solve a puzzle the first time you see it. Once you get a hang of it, the puzzles are quite fun. However, after playing it several hours, I realized that some puzzles are the same for each level. If you failed to solve a puzzle, you have to wait for a long time for it to reload and you got to start from the very beginning. The load time is very long and there are many hickups in the framerate. The graphics are not great and there are not many action going on, Eidos and Core should have solved the framerate problem and the loading time before rushing it to the market. I wish there is a mode that does not have a short time limit to really enjoy the game and most of all, I wish the puzzles are not the same in some levels. I would not recommend this game.

Great mind expanding fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm not saying you have to be an intellectual to play this game....No I'm not. You just have to be able to focus on the superbly intuitive gameplay. This game is wonderfully ambitious and a great fillip to the inane racing and shoot 'em ups already invading the psp. Love it!

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