‘Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity’ (Nintendo Wii)

Problem solving games have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. On the surface, most people would consider them simple games hardly worth investing the time, money and effort in checking out. Simply put, puzzle games can be puzzling and downright frustrating to play if you don’t have patience. I, like most puzzle fans, buck the trend. Give me a lateral thinking book and I’m all over it. Maybe, it’s the Sherlock Holmes and Hardy Boys fan in me. Add a little science and physics to a game, and I’m a kid in a candy store. After playing Mechanic Master for the DS and Neutonica for the iPhone/Touch, I was really excited to hear about a similar game being developed for the Wii – one that used physics at the core of its gameplay.

So, why is it that “Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity” from Deep Silver leaves me with a feeling of emptiness inside? The game appears to have everything you’d want from a puzzle game mixed with an almost flawless Gravity physics engine. You drop a ball and it will fall and accelerate in what appears to be an accurate representation of the laws of physics – Gravitational constants and frictionless surfaces included. The goal is to trigger a button somewhere on the screen, by creating a system for the ball to reach the button. In a nutshell, object A must hit object B.

Sound simple? Well it shouldn’t. And, that’s one of the major problems with this game. Puzzle seekers yearn for a challenge. But, most of the puzzles in this game can be solved with cheap tricks and endless accidents. When there is no deliberate methodology to solving a puzzle, the gratification of problem solving is eliminated. Sometimes you can trigger the button with only the slightest of touches. The first time you do this, you may have the urge redo the board, if only to find the solution that was intended. Unfortunately, after three or four of these “accidental victories” the thirst to backtrack will fade.

What else do puzzle seekers search for? A different challenge. Change is important. Solving the same puzzle twice becomes monotonous. Also, seeing the same subjects all the time easily becomes a bore. Imagine if the each one of Frank and Joe Hardy’s mysteries involved the same two suspects? The story would get stale after a while, no? Well in Gravity, each board involves the same objects – over and over again. There may be 100 boards to play from, but it will always involve that same ball. And, when it’s not the ball - it’s a makeshift cart. The tools you use boil down to a bunch of long rectangular blocks that look like steel girders. You use the nunchuk or D-Pad to turn those girders around and flip them every which way. Along the way, you will get a few cubes to create nice little lever systems that manipulate the rolling cart or ball.

The 2D backgrounds are vivid enough to be aesthetically pleasing. And, most of the boards seem to be a mix of cityscapes, fantasy-type backgrounds, and skateboarding surfaces. While the music is hoaky, it isn’t downright bad. But, it definitely won’t be something that will help bolster the longevity of this title.

What would have been a nice addition to this title is the ability to create your own board and share with friends or gamers in the Wii community. This would have added a nice nuance to the gameplay.

When I picked up Gravity, I was hoping for a full console version of Mechanic Master. What I got was a DS or Wii-ware level game, with a superb physics engine, that didn’t hold a candle to Mechanic Master. Gravity uses a Sandbox feature and a few mini-games to distract users from its lack of depth. Just don’t be fooled. This game is great conceptually, but it fails to provide the challenge and entertainment value befitting of its scientific concept.