Puzzles in Motion: The Backstreet Boys is not a game that sets out with lofty goals. It takes a classic type of puzzle and attempts to innovate it a bit, but ends up leaving you with a sporadic mess that just isn't any fun. The puzzle that is desecrated is the old "take an image, divide it into tiles, mix the tiles up and allow the user to put it back together." Puzzles in Motion tries to take this concept a step further by adding motion to the tiles. When looking at the title, I expected at least a few different kinds of puzzles, but in fact, the plural in the title is simply signifying that there's 13 (12 initially, and a 13th once those first ones are finished) different video clips for you to put back together. The Backstreet Boys themselves come into play with the soundtrack, and obviously, the video clips. Each clip seems to be about two to three seconds in length, on a constant loop.
The entire experience is unrewarding. Replay comes in the various difficulty options (how many tiles the clip is divided into, if the tiles are just mixed, or mixed and rotated, etc.) and the fact that the tiles are randomly placed each time you start the puzzle. Other than that, Ravensburger Interactive is hoping that beating their previous score will be enough motivation for players to give the game another go. The fact that the clips are so short just helps make the game that much more unappealing. Once you've seen and solved a clip, you'll be so tired of seeing the same movements looped so often (which looks very eerie when tiled, rotated and mirrored) that you'll have to be a die-hard Backstreet Boys fan if you intend on attempting to challenge yourself further with the same puzzle.
What Ravensburger Interactive has done is marketed a product that relies solely on the Backstreet Boys license as a means of pushing their game. With absolutely no extras - no biographies, music videos, or any other obvious things to include in a product based around a musical group - this is a game that even Backstreet Boys fans should steer clear of.
Graphics: Simple, two-to-three second clips of the Backstreet Boys moving around. Better can be seen on television and you won't have to put up with the annoying looping.
Sound: The soundtrack is all Backstreet Boys. Take from that what you will.
Enjoyment: I'm not a fan of the Backstreet Boys, which made the product one giant annoyance. However, I think even fans will play the game only a few times before becoming bored.
Replay Value: You can change the difficulty settings and the puzzle pieces are rotated, mirrored and mixed randomly each time.
Did you ever puzzle a video? Just imagine a Backstreet Boys music video that has been cut into little square pieces. The individual squares have been scrambled, rotated or even mirrored. How quickly can you put the video back together? How well do you recognize the music clips with A.J., Brian, Howie D., Kevin and Nick? Test your puzzle and musical skills at the same time! If you succeed in solving the 12 clips on one level you're ready to tackle the 13th tricky video puzzle. The CD-Rom contains clips from some of the most popular Backstreet Boys music videos and the original songs: We've Got It Goin' On, Anywhere For You, I'll Never Break Your Heart, Everybody (Backstreet's Back), All I Have To Give, I Wanna Be With You. There's 3 puzzle variations with 3 levels of difficulty offer a total of 117 playing options.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded Backstreet Boys: Puzzles in Motion have also downloaded:
Adam's Venture: Episode 1 - The Search for the Lost Garden, Grandia 2, Out of This World, Adam's Venture: Episode 2 - Solomon's Secret, Adam's Venture: Episode 3 - Revelations, Pandora's Box, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent
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