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The Impossible Quiz
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Graphics & Sound:
Calling The Impossible Quiz "spare" is an understatment. The game looks like it could have been constructed on 3X5 cards with some construction paper for special effects. The sound with which you'll become most familiar is the car-wreck crash that comes from choosing wrong answers. On random questions that come down mostly to trial-and-error, the crash/bang is going to come sooner or later. Hand-drawn graphics are fun, and we've seen this done nicely in other games that used doodles or simulated papercraft, claymation, or other crazy techniques. Eschewing high-budget computer effects takes some guts, but The Impossible Quiz plays raw production values for all their worth. Really, if you want a high-end quiz game, you've got options. If you want a rowdy, in-your-face quiz game that feels like a cross between the App Store and your local bar's Trivia Night, The Impossible Quiz may be for you. What it lacks in slick appearance, it more than makes up for in fast and easy gameplay.
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Gameplay:
Taking quizzes isn't the funnest thing you can remember from school, right? Especially pop quizzes, where you were expected to stand and deliver with little or no preparation. You can't reasonably prepare for most of The Impossible Quiz, but some will have an easier time than others. There's a right-brain quality to the entire game that I can appreciate as a left-hander, but more importantly, there's a good fun factor at work here. Once you get past the first few questions, you know what you're in for. The Impossible Quiz is nothing but a series of one-page puzzles, many built around common knowledge. So it isn't a matter of I.Q. as much as it is letting your mind wander into twisty corners. You also have to start thinking at the game's level, seeing past obvious answers and getting into visual tricks being played on you. If you can get far enough along, you'll reach a checkpoint of sorts, but the series of questions is all you get. Replay value for the entire game is nil, once you complete the thing. There aren't branching paths or interesting things that happen when you fail to answer a question, so the only reason you'll keep this around is to unleash it on some other poor soul.
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Difficulty:
The recently released Gnome 3 desktop software promoted itself as "Made of Easy." The Impossible Quiz is made of hard. Depending on how your brain works, it may in fact be impossible. Playing solo and also with my 8 year-old taught me that the unfettered perception kids have actually helps get through some of the more abstract puzzles. Adults may look for more depth or meaning than actually exists in this game. It's occasionally clever, but more often it just seems snarky and rueful. It's a fist shaken at games with elaborate puzzles and world-sized riddles such as in Myst. Here you don't even have to do math or have an advanced reading level, just a good memory and plenty of lateral thinking. Remember that story about Alexander and the Gordian Knot? If not, you should check it out, but the spoiler is that Alexander just cuts the knot rather than bother to untie it. The Impossible Quiz definitely takes the typical trivia format and throws it out the window in favor of questions that often make no sense on the surface but have a subtle logic and intelligence. To win, you'll need to overlook the first and second obvious answer for most questions, but rest assured it isn't "impossible."
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Game Mechanics:
The format of the game is in constant landscape view, with simple tap controls and some gesture-based puzzles that are more rare. When the goal is to just get past the page you're on by answering one or more questions, there aren't many mechanics to speak of. The Impossible Quiz forces you, at times, to tap around the screen or slide your finger in search of correct answers. There is even one puzzle that can only be solved by using a back-and-forth motion to create an animation that shows the answer. Checkpoints or not, if you try to start from a saved point, the game gives you a ton of grief and berates you for taking the easy way out. It's a strange formula, but one that we could see being fun for friends or at a party, as a pass-around game. It requires at least a basic reading level, but the 8 year-old mentioned earlier was right at home with the content and the mechanics. It may be an aquired taste, but The Impossible Quiz delivers on raw indie gaming that shows how good game design and visual pizzazz are mutually exclusive.
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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