Review: PuXXles – A Unique Social Puzzle Game With a Twist

Is there anyone who hasn’t used a social app? Facebook, Twitter, BuzzE, and what seems like thousands of others all let you communicate with your friends and relatives in an easy and enjoyable way. Well, what if you could send your peeps a message with a twist? Enter PuXXles from developer Nikita Spitsyn.

Overview

With PuXXles, you can take a photo with your iPhone’s built-in camera, or select an image from one saved on your device, and then create a jigsaw puzzle or riddle from the image and any text you enter. You then enter a second image and/or text as the secret message your recipient gets to view once they’ve solved your puXXle.

You can send the puXXle in a few different ways, through the game, via email, or sms. Once the recipient receives the puXXle, he or she can read the clue and then work to assemble the pieces. Once they do, they will be able to view the photo, and read the secret message you sent them.

One cool feature is the ability to attach sound files to the puXXle. After solving a few of the puXXles in the game, I was treated to musical interludes. You can attach pictures, jokes, music, stories, and app money.

You can break the puXXle up into 9, 16, 25 or 36 pieces, so you can send puXXles of varying difficulty.

You can also download puXXles created by other users from the online gallery. Messages you create can also be uploaded to the same gallery. After a PuXXle message is in the gallery, it can be ranked by the other PuXXle users.

With this app you can be as open or as closed off from the rest of the community as you’d like. You can create a custom contact list, put as much info as you desire into your personal profile, and only expose the information you want to the rest of the world.

The options for your puXXles are great, you can stay anonymous, get notified when your puXXle is solved, and more.

Verdict

I enjoyed this game. At first I wasn’t quite sure what was going on with it, but after playing a few rounds online and with friends I was able to get into it and roll with it. The use of mostly icons for all of the menus was a little confusing, so it took me a little longer to learn my way around the game than I’d have liked. But, I’m old school, it might just be me.

If you like puzzles and social apps, then this will be the best of both worlds for you. Give it a try, it’s free, so there’s nothing to lose. (You can buy in-app “currency” once inside the game.)

Rating:3.5/5[rating:3.5]

Price: FREE – Available in the App Store. (DIRECT LINK) Once inside the game, you can buy in app currency.

Pros:

• A fun way to send messages to online friends and family.
• The “puzzle” twist adds interest to what would usually just be another online message.
• The ability to add text and photo riddles and answers is very cool.
• The addition of music as an attachment to a puXXle is a great idea.

Cons:

• Could have been easier to understand the menus. But once I got into it, everything was logical.
• The game doesn’t use the full screen of the iPhone 5. It’s been around long enough that developers should be using the longer screen to their best advantage.