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Pipe Mania

Score: 88%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Empire Interactive
Developer: Empire Interactive
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 - 2
Genre: Puzzle

Graphics & Sound:

Pipe Mania not only modernizes the classic game, but also gives it a gameplay overhaul.

In-game, the visuals take on a simple 2D, tile-based grid that can fit in with any of seven different themes (one for each of the game's worlds). One world will take on a stony sewer look, while another will appear to be a power plant and you will even see a railroad styled world. What's really good about this is that each world can feel just different enough to keep the redundancy down, while still keeping the same core mechanic.

Music also adds a good bit of flair to the game and really keeps you moving, while various sound effects let you know that the flooze (the liquid or whatever object that follows your pipes) is about to flow and that you have a leak somewhere.


Gameplay:

Like I said above, Pipe Mania keeps the core mechanic of the original game intact, but offers enough variety and new features to really bring it into the modern age and keep things interesting.

The basic premise has a grid with two pipes. One is the place where the flooze will come out, and the other is the destination for the flooze. On the side of the screen is a queue of pipe pieces (straights, elbos, cross-overs, etc.) that you must place to guide the flooze to the end of the map. The longer the pipe that you send the flooze through, the more points you score.

Throughout the game, you will find obstacles show up on the map (things that cannot be destroyed by putting a pipe on it), while other squares will grant you more points if you can get the flooze to go through it. And to make things more interesting, some levels will have attacks go after your construction (more on that later).

There are several gameplay modes: World, Classic: Normal, Classic: Hard, Bonus: Match, Bonus: Spin, Arcade Normal and Hard, and Versus.

World Mode is the game's story mode. Here, you will take on the role of Junior and his sister Fawcett who have to travel across seven different worlds in the hopes of becoming good enough plumbers to take down Buffalo Bonzo, an evil cowboy plumber.

The Classic Modes let you replay the original game with the original mechanics and original levels. I have to say, it was really nice to go back and play the game as I remember it from back in the day.

Meanwhile the Bonus Modes are puzzle modes with very specific solutions to the board given the pipes in the queue and the Versus Modes let you go up against another player. There are a couple of options under that mantel. Quick Clear puts completed pipes you create on the opponent's board, while Charge N Blast lets you charge up attacks by speeding up your flooze, while World Score puts your scores on an online leaderboard.

Arcade Mode has the board scrolling across the screen, and your job is to keep the pipes so that the flooze stays on the screen.


Difficulty:

Pipe Mania is deceptively difficult. The premise is very simple, and the various mechanics that the game introduces are just as basic and easy to understand, but when I actually got into it, I found myself frantically placing pipe pieces on the grid because even if the path the flooze has to travel is simple and direct, either the pieces being given to you force you to make the pipe go in strange directions, or you make it do that on your own, in hopes of maximizing your points.

The game also does a pretty good job of slowly introducing new twists that slowly increase the complexity of the game. I mentioned before that there are obstacle tiles that you have to go around, and tiles that net you more points (thus wanting to go through them), but there are some that the flooze can only travel through one way, or edges of the map that makes the flooze appear on the other side, or some that will slow down or speed up the flooze.


Game Mechanics:

Pipe Mania controls are just as deceptively simple. All you have to do is click on the tile that you want the next piece to go. You can't rotate the pipe parts, and placing a pipe on a tile that already has one replaces that pipe (though it costs you some points), unless there is already flooze in it, of course.

The aforementioned attacks are also an interesting twist on the game. Damaging the pipes require you to fix them before the flooze passes through them, because if you lose too much of the liquid (or train, or electricity, or whatever), then you lose the level. At least repairing the pipes are fairly simple. Just put your cursor over the broken pipe for a second or two in order to fix it. Of course, this takes precious time away from placing your tiles and it just helps to add to the frantic nature of the game.

Quite frankly, it doesn't matter if you played the original version of this game (or the many clones, like the hacking mini-game in Bio-Shock), if you like puzzle games, then you will enjoy Pipe Mania. It really does weave an elegant, challenging and fun tapestry.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 64 MB Graphics Card, 1GB RAM System Memory, 1 GHz Processor, 650 MB Free Hard Drive Space, DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card.
 

Test System:



Alienware Aurora m9700 Laptop, Windows XP Professional, AMD Turion 64 Mobile 2.41 GHz, 2 GB Ram, Dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS 256MB Video Cards, DirectX 9.0c

Sony PlayStation 3 Eternal Sonata Nintendo Wii Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated