First there was The Apprentice, a charming and catchy platform game; now Philips has introduced Merlin'sApprentice, a charming and catchy puzzle game. Maybe it's time to rename everything in the CD-i catalog to include the word ''apprentice'': Compton's Interactive Apprentice, Surf Apprentice, The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe's Apprentice, Keth-apprentice-er, etc.
Merlin's Apprentice is a collection of puzzles distinguished by delightful design, catchy and simple game-play, and extraordinarily high production values.
Merlin's Apprentice is a collection of puzzles distinguished by delightful design, catchy and simple game-play, and extraordinarily high production values.
If genius is in the details, Merlin's Apprentice has brilliance in spades. When the game starts up, the familiar ''Philips Interactive Media'' logo is enchanted by three colorful demons who set the screen aflame, which gradually recedes into the title screen. Animated sequences also distinguish the game intro, the credits, even that stupid screen that threatens you with a $50,000 fine if you copy the disc. In fact, nearly every transition in the game is done with some sort of animation -- so far, I've only found one fade to black (the crutch of lazy multimedia, c.f. NFL Hall of Fame Football).
The story behind the game is that you seek to become apprentice to the great wizard Merlin. But to do so, you'll need to convince him of your cleverness. You begin at a tree stump with six runes, each of which represents a puzzle. Completing a puzzle gives you a magic item -- when you have all six of them, you have to learn how to combine them into a magic spell that will reveal Merlin's workshop... which in turn will confound you with more puzzles.
The varieties of puzzles in this game will probably seem familiar to those who play other kinds of logic and word games, especially thosse who don't let an issue of ''Games'' magazine leave the house without lots of pencil- marks.
The varieties of puzzles in this game will probably seem familiar to those who play other kinds of logic and word games, especially thosse who don't let an issue of ''Games'' magazine leave the house without lots of pencil- marks.
The puzzles:
*Secret Code Challenge -- a substiution-cypher game. Figure out which runes stand for which letters, reveal a phrase. The only hint you get is that vowels will ''lock in'' when correctly placed.
*Fragment Challenge -- Fit the triangle-, parallelogram-, and diamond-shaped pieces into the frame. Not only are the pieces of significantly different sizes, one of them doesn't belong in the puzzle at all!
*Arcade Challenge -- Objects (leaves, snowflakes, etc.) fall from the top to the bottom of the screen or vice versa. You have to place your cursor on top of them and fire before they get away.
*Secret Code Challenge -- a substiution-cypher game. Figure out which runes stand for which letters, reveal a phrase. The only hint you get is that vowels will ''lock in'' when correctly placed.
*Fragment Challenge -- Fit the triangle-, parallelogram-, and diamond-shaped pieces into the frame. Not only are the pieces of significantly different sizes, one of them doesn't belong in the puzzle at all!
*Arcade Challenge -- Objects (leaves, snowflakes, etc.) fall from the top to the bottom of the screen or vice versa. You have to place your cursor on top of them and fire before they get away.
*Sound Memory Challenge -- The old classic ''Simon''. You see a screenful of objects, such as marsh creatures or the glassware in Merlin's lab. Three of them sound off in sequence. Repeat the sequence. The sequence extends to six items, then nine, twelve, etc. Since human short- term memory is only seven plus-or-minus two items, you'll have to find ways to meaningfully ''chunk'' groups of objects together in your mind.
*Picture Jumble Challenge -- Similar to the 15-tile puzzle you got as a kid (or that's under the Apple menu on the Mac), but rather than simply sliding one tile into the blank space, you have four runes that can swap two pieces, rotate a column, or rotate the outer ring of tiles. Find the sequence of moves that completes the picture.
*Picture Jumble Challenge -- Similar to the 15-tile puzzle you got as a kid (or that's under the Apple menu on the Mac), but rather than simply sliding one tile into the blank space, you have four runes that can swap two pieces, rotate a column, or rotate the outer ring of tiles. Find the sequence of moves that completes the picture.
*Alignment Challenge -- Re-arrange objects into a correct alignment by simply clicking on them. Of course, moving any object moves one or more other objects at the same time. Much like a Rubik's Cube, you have to set up your finishing move in advance, or learn useful sequences of moves.
*Metamorphosis Challenge -- Similar to the alignment challenge, you click one quadrant of a shape to change its color... and that of two other quadrants. Once again, you have to think out a series of solution moves in advance: getting 3 out of 4 right is always wrong, since clicking that quadrant will change the others.
*Metamorphosis Challenge -- Similar to the alignment challenge, you click one quadrant of a shape to change its color... and that of two other quadrants. Once again, you have to think out a series of solution moves in advance: getting 3 out of 4 right is always wrong, since clicking that quadrant will change the others.
While the logic puzzles (alignment, metamorphosis, picture jumble) seem to dominate, the challenges are actually evenly distributed. The metamorphosis challenge doesn't even appear until the final level
The only challenge that seems out of place is the ''arcade challenge''. It's hardly a mind-bender, but can provide a relief from brain-twisters like the alignment games.
Puzzle games are usually meant for one-person play, but the memory and secret code challenges work quite well for social play. In fact, the memory game is so hard it almost requires a group situation to solve! The logic games are more appropriate for a single player, although you may find that passing the control around a group is a satisfactory way to make this a team game. If not, Merlin's Apprentice allows 12 players to save their games, each identified by a ''game piece'' in the introductory screens.
The only challenge that seems out of place is the ''arcade challenge''. It's hardly a mind-bender, but can provide a relief from brain-twisters like the alignment games.
Puzzle games are usually meant for one-person play, but the memory and secret code challenges work quite well for social play. In fact, the memory game is so hard it almost requires a group situation to solve! The logic games are more appropriate for a single player, although you may find that passing the control around a group is a satisfactory way to make this a team game. If not, Merlin's Apprentice allows 12 players to save their games, each identified by a ''game piece'' in the introductory screens.
The main menu also allows you to set the difficulty of each kind of challenge. Since there are only 30 puzzles, and the first level is fairly easy to breeze through, you should set all the difficulty levels to ''expert'', and only reduce them to ''advanced'' or ''beginner'' if you get stuck.
Ample on-line help is available throughout the game. Clicking button two brings up a menu strip, which includes an ''how to play'' item that will explain the game to you. Other options here include a one-move ''undo'', an option to reset the puzzle, a return to other puzzles, and the difficulty- settings screen.
Ample on-line help is available throughout the game. Clicking button two brings up a menu strip, which includes an ''how to play'' item that will explain the game to you. Other options here include a one-move ''undo'', an option to reset the puzzle, a return to other puzzles, and the difficulty- settings screen.
If you're a puzzle-solver, Merlin's Apprentice is for you. (that said, if you're a hard-core action gamer, you can pass on this one). You just know these puzzles can't be that hard... and I imagine you'll stay up pretty late proving yourself wrong in that regard.
Looks great, plays great. If only half the titles out there sweated the details like this.
[Thanks, Chris Adamson]