Puzzles Puzzles Puzzles

When I think of puzzle games for the PC, a lot come to mind. Games like Luxor and Zuma and have dominated the puzzle genre for what seems like ages, but what happens when actual jigsaw puzzles come into the picture? Seeing as how they're literally puzzle games, should they have a genre all their own? Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here. Jigsaw Medley 2 is a puzzle game in the most literal sense, letting you go hog-wild with virtual jigsaw puzzles.

But is it fun? That depends: do you enjoy puzzles? If you're a fan of puzzles, you'll find no better representation than right here. This game offers everything that you would find in a simple tabletop puzzle, along with so much more.

Size Matters

One of the best aspects of this product is the ability to customize the size of the puzzle pieces, thus increasing and decreasing the difficulty at your discretion. When you choose a puzzle, you're given an array of buttons and sliders, all capable of customizing the puzzle in way, shape, or form. The difficulty slider will change the size of the pieces. You can make a puzzle consist of a mere four pieces, or skyrocket it into the hundreds. Then you have the skew, which you can set to none, medium, or high, and it will distort the pieces accordingly. You can change the piece shape, using either a standard square or a traditional jigsaw shape. Finally, you can turn piece rotation on or off. When on, you use the spacebar to rotate the pieces until they are turned the proper way. This last option ramps the difficulty up tenfold, giving the game a good dose of replayability for the master of puzzles.

The customization doesn't stop at the puzzles, though. You can also change the background texture and color of the playing area, which help to spice things up, because who doesn't love colors? While this is nothing more than a minute addition, it's still an addition.

In The Act

The gameplay couldn't be simpler, which is good, because putting together a puzzle shouldn't be complicated. Simply click and drag to move the pieces (if you can't figure this out, a helpful tip will pop up from the bottom of the screen), and if you align two pieces that fit, they will automatically become fastened together.

In an effort to give you a helping hand, you can choose to display only the "edge" pieces, giving you a head start on your puzzle. Professionals will likely scoff at this feature, but it's there if you need it, and no one will make fun of you. There are also little tips like holding control and clicking to scatter the pieces, which helps to clear out areas and sort through pieces.

When All Is Said And Done

In the end, Jigsaw Medley 2 is nothing more than a game where you assemble jigsaw puzzles. It does what it does, and it does it well. If you enjoy puzzles, then you will enjoy this game. It's that simple.