Return of the Incredible Machine

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Sierra

$99.95

Review: Peter Eley

Most computer games are neatly pigeonholed into genres: real-time strategy, shoot-em-ups, roleplayers and adventure games.

One that defied attempts to neatly categorise it was The Incredible Machine of some six years ago. It was simply the silliest, most frustrating and most addictive game I'd played to date.

It took the best part of a week to figure out how to use a pistol, a rope, some scissors and a bowling ball to let a cat out of an upturned glass jar. And that was only one of dozens of similar puzzles.

There wasn't anything to shoot at, nothing to drive at breakneck speed, or a body part in sight, and it ran on a 486 with a piddly 1mb video card. At heart it was a devilish IQ test, a measure of your ability to think laterally.

A few updates and add-ons followed, but all looked and played the same.

Now we have The Return of The Incredible Machine. While still more of the same, it has graphics that take advantage of better processors and increased memory. The good news is that it will still run on modest systems — a Pentium 90 and 32mb is all that's required.

As with the other titles, it's inspired by Rube Goldberg, and uses his style of drawing and humour throughout.

You still have to use bizarre items to accomplish pointless tasks, but the items seem more bizarre and the puzzles even more pointless. Try making a working machine out of a gerbil cage, a firework and a conveyor belt!

The physics of the various objects are quite realistic, and they behave as you would expect them to, which wasn't always the case in the original.

The puzzles get harder as the game progresses, and only an Einstein would be able to work through all of them. In the early stages, there's a Hint button for us mere mortals.

But much of the fun is in trying, and there are lots of laughs in store when you finally activate your contraption only to find it doesn't do quite what's intended.

If you're the sort of tinkerer who always has a bit left over when you've reassembled the lawnmower engine, The Return of The Incredible Machine is for you.

Contact Peter Eley