Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated by physics, whether it be from playing with those Domino Rally sets and the classic Blocks & Marbles to the Math/Engineering/Physics that I’ve studied in college (I took math and physics as my electives because I loved them so much, leading to degrees in both Electrical Engineering and Mathematics and a Minor in Physics). So, a sandbox style of game where physics is the main force governing gameplay was definitely something that turned my eye (though I’ve already experienced a few other games with the same basic idea).
Enter Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity, a little known game that has graced both the DS and Wii platforms with its physics based gameplay. The game is sure to use plenty of classical kinematics but is it an enjoyable enough experience that validates its price of admission and can it provide enough variation/progression to make the experience a lasting one?
Classical (Gameplay) Mechanics
Gravity has a simple format like most puzzle games. In the main gameplay mode, players play through a series of 100 different levels where they must use the basic laws of classical mechanics to cause the induced energy in the system to hit a switch. Thus, if a ball is dropped, you’ll need to cause a chain reaction using blocks, balls, and carts in order to somehow hit the switch on the other side of the level. Thus, the basic gameplay is very simplistic but some of the puzzles can be downright menacing at times.
What I really liked about the game was that it forced the player to adapt to each of the different circumstances and really think outside of the box at times to finish a puzzle. For instance, a block can be used to bridge a gap, used as a domino, or even used as a catapult to fling other objects upward. The amount of creative freedom was most certainly a plus in the game, where only a few different objects could be used in a number of different applications. This also leads to a multitude of different solutions to many of the puzzles, making creativity a large portion of the game.
However, though it was neat to be able to solve many of the puzzles in unique ways, it sometimes felt like the open-endedness led to inherent problems with the puzzles and progression of the game’s difficulty (in fact, it almost felt like the game was under-tested in the testing stages of game development, which would normally prevent these type of issues). For instance, some of the later puzzles may have a multitude of pieces but can be solved only using a few (if you see something that the developers didn’t). Thus, I found even some of the last puzzles to be far too easy compared to the other puzzles in close proximity, whereas some of the puzzles midway through the game were far more difficult than some at the end. And, since progression only occurs if you finish a puzzle, this means you can potentially get stuck pretty early on and become too frustrated to finish the game.
The developers sidestepped this issue by providing a hint system. If you finish a puzzle, you’ll receive a small amount of points to add to the substantial amount you begin with. On each puzzle, there are a number of hints available for purchase using your points, each of which costs increasingly more according to the amount of hints you buy on the current level. The hint places one or more of the puzzle pieces on the playing field in a place where the developers would have put them to solve the puzzle their way; you just have to finish the puzzle by placing the rest. There are also “get out of jail free” cards that you can use to skip a level and I can’t actually say how many of these you get in the game (I only used one and it was on one of the last levels).
Physical Control
Overall, the controls aren’t terrible as they make use of a combination of the touch screen and the buttons but as a whole, they’re a little too inaccurate for my own tastes. Blocks are placed in the puzzle by tapping the touch screen to bring up a menu showing all of the available pieces, and then touching and dragging a piece to the desired location. Once you lift of the stylus, the piece will conform to the laws of gravity so make sure it’s level and in a stable location or you could mess up the rest of your puzzle (this can be undone by pressing X to undo your last move or Y to redo the last move you undid). When holding a piece, you can rotate it in any direction by using the D-Pad or you can level it vertically or horizontally by using the L and R buttons.
This is the major difference between the Wii and DS games, where each is on a different end of the control spectrum. On one hand, the DS’s controls are marred by lack of responsiveness while the Wii’s controls are actually too responsive. This is almost entirely due to the fact that the DS’s processors are much slower than that of the Wii’s and thus the DS version lags significantly compared to its console counterpart. There is an option to increase/decrease the sensitivity of the rotation spin of the blocks but it doesn’t really help the aforementioned control issues. Other control problems include the inherent nature of the controls themselves, such as the limitations of the undo button: if you place a piece and then accidentally move it again quickly, you can only undo one of your moves so you may be forced to start over in placing your pieces.
Another issue that affects the DS version more than the Wii one is that the results are not repeatable for any one design. What I mean by this is that you can start a reaction, and then restart it again and get completely different results each time it is performed. This can be one of the most annoying parts of the DS game because you may obtain the results you want on one trial through, and then not get those results again for the next 5-10 tests, even if you change nothing in the puzzle layout. Thus, if you have many different reactions happening in your puzzle, each of which requires a small window of tolerance for success, it may take you anywhere from 30-50 trials to get the results you want (this happened on a few puzzles and it quickly became redundant, especially on the slower DS version of the game). I understand that this is a more realistic approach to the testing behind engineering and physics but if I’m playing a game, I don’t want this level of imperfection to be introduced into the model (perfection should be the standard in this type of videogame).
Theory of Relative Redundancy
Aside from the controls, the game’s other main flaw is its lack of variation in types of gameplay. Sure, the main portion of the game is done well enough to not need much more progression but the other modes couldn’t hold my attention more than a few times through. Again, this is an issue that is more emphasized in the DS version of the game because of its processing limitations (even the most simplistic physics models in game can be taxing on weaker processors).
First of all, there is a sandbox mode where there is no goal, and rather players can “play around with physics” for fun. The only problem is that the level design on these levels is too limited and players can quickly lose interest (especially in the DS version). I will admit that the Wii version is somewhat enjoyable because you can change the environments of the level such as taking away gravity completely and adding water to increase resistance, but the mode still isn’t spectacular. If this mode was a level editor instead, it would hold a ton more water as players could at least create their own nasty concoctions of level design but instead the mode only features placing (or tossing) a few different blocks and watching what they do.
The other mode is the “Party Mode” portion of the game, leading one to believe that it’s a lot of fun. The only problem is that all three of the games in this mode (four in the Wii version) feel forced, as if the developers were simply trying to add content to the game and the quality of gameplay drops off completely here. The first game, called “Tallest Tower” has players building the tallest tower they can in a certain amount of time. After the time limit runs out, an earthquake will happen and any non-reinforced tower will collapse. Players are graded on the height of the tower after the earthquake. The second mode is called “Up and Down” which features a fast paced mini-game where players must press a cannon, determining both the angle and speed of the bullet, in order to try and land a bullet in a series of randomly placed buckets. Finally, the third game, “Clear the decks” has players shooting a cannon with different colored balls and trying to hit the same colored blocks as the balls. (The fourth game is called “Tower Topple” where players must knock all of the pieces of a tower down, using the amount of balls as the scoring system).
There are three major problems with these games. The first (which is more evident in the DS version), involves the amount of precision coupled with the lack of control in each game, making it very difficult to desire playing the games to try and achieve a high score. Secondly, the games themselves are just a little too bland to pull gamers into the experience (unlike many unique mini-games that feature more interesting, polished gameplay). Finally, the last and probably most harmful aspect of these mini-games (and for that matter, the entire game) is the lack of multiplayer and/or online play. Multiplayer is one of the main aspects that drives gamers to continue playing puzzle games and online play coupled with a level editor would be the ideal recipe for success (similar to the community that Little Big Planet has).
The visuals in the game are nothing flashy at all, featuring simplistic graphics and odd looking backgrounds to get the job done in terms of puzzle game aesthetics (however the caricature for Professor Henz Wolff reminds me too much of the corny looking professor from the Brain Age games, and this guy is sillier looking and even less enticing to listen to). The Wii’s visuals are crisper and more polished but the most noticeable improvement from handheld to console is the smoothness and speed of the game itself as well as the lack of slowdown and ability to have much more on-screen movement without causing the frame rate to hiccup. As for the game’s music, the songs aren’t bad at times but they are very forgettable and even more repetitious (there is one song in particular that sounds like the Halleluiah chorus and cracks me up every time). The Wii’s music is particularly more polished and enjoyable than the DS version but it still suffers from repetition and forgetful tunes. As for sound effects, these are pretty much non-existent (there are actually only three in the entire game).
Summary
Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity was clearly made for the Wii initially and then a version was ported over to the DS. The game is slicker, more polished, and even more fun on the Wii and though there are different nuances associated with each game, the Wii version reigns supreme. Think about the contrast between Dead Rising on the XBOX 360 and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop on the Wii where the game was made for a certain system but lacks severely when ported over to a less powerful platform. With that being said, the DS version is the cheaper of the two, which is something to consider if you’re strapped for cash. Either way, though, if you own both a DS and Wii, I would almost consider the Wii version solely if you’re ok to spend ten extra dollars.
