don't really like 3d puzzlers but the demo of this ball-roller 10 years ago convinced me enough to buy it (it's still available). had even lower standards then but can't complain much about settings even now, except [b]there's no undo[/b]. an immediate dealbreaker and obviously wouldn't have bought it more recently but it is what it is.
separate volumes, resolutions, windowed mode, languages, anti-aliasing, texture quality, shadow quality, v-sync, gamma settings, [b]redindable controls[/b] both for keyboard and controller, plus vibration and easy jump toggles (can hold jump and press a direction after, no need for it to be simultanous) and an in-game achievements screen ('progress'). most games developed in the last decade don't offer half of these and they are available anytime. it even has a pdf manual. [b]level reset isn't assigned by default[/b], so make sure to do that at some point.
too bad nearly 15 years after release, [b]in 2024 the price sneakily got quadrupled(!) from 2.5 eur to 10[/b]. a ridiculous base price might not be grounds for a thumbs down on its own, and 10 bucks for something like this might not even be ridiculous to begin with, around release and/or nowadays, but unannounced and extra greedy price ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ absolutely is. don't pull shady ♥♥♥♥ and don't get downvoted, it's that simple.
no mouse cursor anywhere, so it's not perfect, but mouse wheel still scrolls, and more efficiently than in most games with mouse-based menus, then lmb to select, rmb to go back. the help screen describes the basics with default controls and without mentioning the mouse anywhere (the manual does at least): arrows move (it's tile-based but can hold for continuous movement), space jumps (not much point without pressing a direction), wasd and shift+arrows deal with the camera (rotate left/right and look up/down), 'c' switches to camera mode for exploration purposes without moving the ball. only there can you zoom in/out because the [b]wheel also moves the ball back and forth[/b], as I accidentally found out. lmb jumps, holding right click deals with the camera, mouse wheel click switches to camera mode. would've been infinitely better if 'c' simply zoomed in/out and the game could be played either way.
there's also a [b]multi-stage interactive tutorial[/b] explaining what to do and how. collect flowers to unlock the exit, then leave. handy flower counter in the corner, [b]no move or time limit but it could've been more accessible by letting you leave and progress with any or fewer flowers[/b]. if the ball climbs a wall, as it were, the world turns with it, but [b]falling off a level means it has to be restarted[/b], or you can go back to the main menu or change puzzle. even if it had undo, it might not have worked from a fail state, but it's a moot point. a toggle to disable falling off would've been helpful too, press twice to confirm or whatever.
100 levels in 10 clusters (level packs), each cluster needs a certain amount of flowers to unlock but all 10 stages within can be played in any order. there are also 4 themes, 3 of which are also unlocked with flowers. all the usual mechanics: blocks that break after moving on, ice, fire, springboard, spikes, sand (can only leave with a jump), portals, etc. no level numbers anywhere, the level complete screen has select puzzle and main menu options. a separate 'next level' button and numbers at least on level select and the pause menu would've been nice.
there's also a [b]competitive element only the manual talks about[/b]. not sure why it's even a thing but 'unpixeling' blocks is one component. there's a green bar with a counter, just go near all of them, don't have to step or jump directly over them. multipliers is the other thing, turns a could've-been-chill-with-undo puzzler into arcade nonsense, as the multiplier slowly depletes, but at least the devs must've enjoyed it, otherwise it wouldn't have made it in. there are separate leaderboards for each cluster and an overall one but [b]the blue multiplier bar that's essentially a ticking clock can't be turned off[/b], whether you're going for a high score or not. the cooldown stops while in camera mode though.
nice colorful graphics and 8-bit music, and with undo, a 'timer' toggle, better camera and without price ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it would've been recommendable, even if its 3d nature is more often a curse than a gift, as usual. and I guess [b]with all the jumping, often quickly due to ice, it's almost as much of a platformer than a puzzler[/b]. don't like those and I prefer not wasting time on messing with the view, time that should be spent on puzzling. I also prefer not restarting the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ level because I accidentally pressed move left instead of camera left to see where the ♥♥♥♥ I'm going. would've liked to see and play more but I had to drop it much sooner than expected, didn't even finish all of pack 1, just got enough flowers to unlock and peek into pack 2, which was just as frustrating.
