Pipe Mania
Score: 91% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Empire Interactive Developer: Razorworks Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: I remember when Pipe Mania first came out back in 1989 (probably before a lot of you were born!) on the PC. At that time, most of us were addicted to Tetris with some Solitaire mixed in there. There just wasn't the selection of games that there is now. Pipe Mania was an instant hit. The concept was new at the time. Pipe Mania cured a lot of us Tetris addicts with its ease of play and continual challenge. Graphically, Pipe Mania doesn't look that much different than it did 20 years ago. But then the basic game doesn't need to. I mean really, how much can you change pipes? The flow does look different from level to level, though. I liked the change in flow. It kept things from being monotonous and gave each different level its own unique feel. They have added some really cute cut scenes and a story to go with the puzzles. The characters for the story mode are animated cartoons and the family members resemble each other very much. The bad guys look like typical bad guys. The background music is upbeat and will keep you playing without being annoying in any way. You don't have to have it to play, however. You won't miss anything if you turn the music off and listen to whatever you want to. All the warnings are visible on-screen.
Gameplay: We all dream of owning our own island. Well, Alfonso Senior has finally made enough money to buy his own. Unfortunately, his island has a big problem! Cowboy plumbers are destroying everything on Alfonso's island. It is up to his kids, Fawcett and Junior, to fix the island's problems and stop the bad guys. There are several different game modes that you can choose from in Pipe Mania. World Mode is where you play through the story I mentioned. You choose which kid you want to play as and then get to work. You have to work your way through each area one stage at a time before you can go onto the next one. At any time, you can go back and play a previous level to get a higher score or find treasure chests. The treasure chests unlock bonus games, characters, movies, music, and more. Eventually after enough work, you'll defeat the lesser bad guys and make it to the head boss. Arcade Mode is a bit different from the other modes. You have to keep the flow on the screen or you lose. That sounded pretty easy to me until I tried it. You'll have to shift your mind a little bit to get the hang of it. Instead of planning everything in advance, you have to think fast and be flexible with your moves. I enjoyed the new challenge once I got used to it. Bonus Mode gives you even more challenges after you unlock them by finding the treasure chests. For those of you who miss the original game, you can play it here too. Classic Mode provides the original levels and original rules of Pipe Mania.
Difficulty: You will probably be able to beat Pipe Mania in a matter of hours. It's not that difficult to go straight through the game. But it is difficult to get the highest number of stars on every level. The challenge in Pipe Mania isn't beating the game. The real challenge is trying to get the highest possible score that you can. There's also the challenge of trying to find all the treasure chests. If you watch, you will see the square glisten every now and then. But that doesn't mean you'll have time to watch for them. When you're concentrating on what piece to put where, you just don't have time to look for the treasure easily. Since the treasures unlock bonus games, you're going to want to find all of them as soon as you can. Pipe Mania provides different difficulty levels too, in the Classic and Arcade Modes. This way you can have as challenging or as easy a game as you want. The World Mode doesn't have different difficulties. It starts off at the easiest level to teach you how to play. The further you get, the harder the game gets.
Game Mechanics: I'm sure you've seen Pipe Mania before, or at least something like it. The basic concept is that you have a start and an ending. You've got a certain amount of time to build pipe between the beginning and the ending before the flow starts. Once the flow starts, you don't necessarily have to have the pipeline completed. You can continue to work on the line until the flow gets there. Once it spills, you had better fix the line quickly or you'll fail the level. You're probably wondering how you're going to fix the pipe, huh? Well you get these pieces that are all different shapes of pipe. The board is divided into squares. These pipe pieces fit into the squares. You need to make sure that the end of one pipe connects to the beginning of the next, or the flow will spill out. Some pieces only go one direction. Some of them can send the flow both directions. These pieces can be used to make loops. Loops get you major points, so you want to make these as many times as you can for maximum points. These pieces are slightly different from the classic version, however. In it, if you sent flow into them from any direction, it would come out in all directions. This meant that if you didn't make a loop with it, you had to cap off the ends. The cross pieces in World mode don't have this problem. The flow will only go out the opposite side from which it entered. The further you get in the game, the more types of pieces there are to work with. You can use the touch screen or the D-pad to move the pieces and place them. I really liked having the option to use whichever method was easier for me. Pipe Mania was a wonderful blast from the past for me. It's a great puzzle game that you can play for 5 minutes on a quick break or 5 hours on a long stretch. It's the perfect game to keep with you for easy entertainment. You should go check it out today.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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