Thanks to the touch and motion capabilities of both the Nintendo DS and the Wii it has opened the door for some really creative titles that go beyond the normal scope of gaming. Deep Silver’s Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity is the latest puzzle game that attempts to give gamers a new and extremely different experience for both consoles. While it sounds like a great concept on paper, how does it ultimately measure up?

Chances are unless you lived in Britain in the 70s and 80s, the name Heinz Wolff means absolutely nothing to you. Professor Wolff is a University professor of Bioengineering but has done a lot of work on British Television, including a show called The Great Egg Race. The game his name is attached to is a puzzle challenge title where you need to assist an object, such as a ball or a cart, to trigger a button in order complete various levels.


Each of the game’s one-hundred levels are structured differently. The placement of the completion button, the starting point for the object and the number of assisted pieces you have varies. Sometimes it’s all about placing certain blocks in such a way that it helps the object move towards the target. In other situations, you might want to hit a block for it to fall and trigger the target. As long as something touches that red button when the test begins, you complete the level.

The game is completely physics based. All the objects in the game outside of the actual layout of each level have proper physical properties. Place one of the level’s blocks or items a certain way and it will react accordingly when something else interacts with it. This is a great concept but unfortunately it can be exploited quite often. There is no single way to complete a level and because of that, even accidental moves can help you complete a puzzle.

Set-up on the DS is extremely problematic and makes it really un-enjoyable on that system. You do everything using the touch screen and often trying to rotate the pieces in the position you want can be a challenge. Also, simply tapping the screen brings up the object box, so if you’re trying to rotate a piece, you may accidentally open up that box and return the piece you were using or bring up a new one. There is the ability to rotate pieces using the Left and Right buttons but still feels out of place.

What is really lacking here is an incentive to play each level. A scoring system or even a timer would have given an extra layer of depth here. If you were given points for how quickly you completed a level or for the amount of objects you used, it would given you more reason to play a level again and it could have also pitted you against your friends to see who is the smartest. Even some sort of penalty for testing a level a certain amount of times could have added more to the gameplay, but as it stands now, you can attempt a level a hundred times with no fear of punishment. Because there is nothing there to entice you to play again, once a level is done, you won’t ever go back.

Graphics and Sound

The level designs vary slightly but nothing really stands out. The background images are generic and do not factor into how you play a level. There are plenty of objects that you will use, but again, this game doesn’t even try to look remotely impressive. The game looks nearly identical on both the DS and the Wii, and only those who nitpick will notice any major differences between the two.


The game sound is also nothing to marvel at. In fact, the music sometimes gives off a really odd feel to the game. The music during the level select screen sounds more like something in a horror or suspense game than for a puzzle title. The tunes available in each level do vary, although you will probably enjoy the game more with the music turned down or off.

Value

As you complete the game’s 100 main levels, you unlock Sandbox levels which are essentially free to play sections that let you have some fun with physics. It’s a cool distraction for a few minutes, but nothing more than that.

The game also features a Party Mode with 3 options on the DS, but it only consists of the ability to retry the various games and pass the DS to let someone else try to do better. There is no real incentive to invite people to compete since the mode does not actually contain any sort of scoring system. The games are ok, but again, lyou will probably only play them once and never again.

Conclusion

The concept behind Deep Silver’s Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity is good on paper but it was poorly executed in every possible way. There are some salvageable parts, just not enough to warrant a purchase. If you’re still tempted to try this one out, I can only recommend renting the Wii version as the controls make it the only one worth playing. I hope that if other developers are interested in trying out this concept, they learn from the mistakes of Deep Silver and give players more incentive to play through each puzzle.