The Perplexus Rookie is a big hit in our house and once my 8 year old daughter mastered it, I was eager to get her the next puzzle on the difficulty ladder: the ORIGINAL PERPLEXUS. The "Original" proved to be the perfect challenge for her (and me as well).
WHAT IT IS:
- This is the one that started the Perplexus series. A clear plastic sphere with a plastic "jungle gym" of 100 obstacles. The goal is to guide a ball bearing through the maze of obstacles by tilting, tapping, turning and even shoving the sphere without knocking the ball bearing off course.
WHAT SEPARATES IT FROM THE ROOKIE PERPLEXUS:
- First of all, this obstacle course is less forgiving than the Rookie ... not only are there more obstacles (some 20 more), many of them leave little room for error. Everything is stepped-up a notch: retaining walls are shallow (so controlling the speed of the ball bearing is critical) and the obstacles are really cool.
- The obstacles are definitely more challenging and require not only a more delicate handling and balancing of the sphere, but even new "moves" are needed to guide the ball ... one particular obstacle (I believe it's #30) actually required a quick shove or shirk to move the ball quickly across a short distance. Additionally, the suspended "track" obstacles that were so fun in the Rookie are back, but they are tighter, with sharper turns and narrower tracks.
- There are 3 starting points located in the same area: one that put you at obstacle #1 and two more that puts you at obstacles further into the maze. This allows you to practice some of the more difficult obstacles without having to start from the very beginning if you drop the ball (the "Rookie" only has one starting point).
- Two obstacles that actually move: a swinging arm and a bucket that flips.
MY BIGGEST FRUSTRATION WITH ALL PERPLEXUS PUZZLES:
- Like the Rookie, the maze obstacle numbers and direction arrows are simply engraved into the colored plastic and can be difficult to see at times (especially considering the glare that a light source can generate on the sphere). I really wish the company would color the engraved numbers and arrows in black or some other contrasting color.
- Another annoying issue is that a rather large Perplesus logo is impessed into the sphere ... twice. Neither my Rookie nor Epic have this issue. I find it rather annoying that the designer/manufacturer would/could do something as ridiculous as impede the critical element of clearly seeing the ball bearing with such a marketing ploy ... totally unnecessary and wrong.
The smaller, more forgiving Rookie certainly served as good prep for this Perplexus (especially for kids), but it is not really a necessary step. Figuring out what to do with the ORIGINAL PERPLEXUS isn't the problem, the real challenge is being consistent, patient and controlling the ball bearing's speed. It is much easier for the ball to fall and that kicks the frustration factor into full gear ... the good thing is that the multiple starting points keeps you from starting all over again if one of the later obstacles becomes particularly troublesome. This Perplexus is a lot of fun and after a few days, I stepped up and purchased the PERPLEXUS EPIC ... that one's a real monster.
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Fascinating design
This is what you call a toy. I'm 26 and I bought this for myself on a whim after coming across reviews here on Amazon. I must say that this is one of the most intriguing designs for a toy I have ever seen. Take the old fashioned ball-and-maze game that has two controls to tilt the board, mix in a little MC Escher, mechanics of Super Mario Bros. for Wii and you can begin to have an idea of how Perplexus works.I had several friends try it out the day I got it, and they were immediately hooked on it. The object of the game is simple to understand, though difficult to execute and master. The goal is to successfully move the ball-bearing inside the ball though all 100 stages without it dropping off the path. This is done by tilting, shaking, and maneuvering the ball. What I found to be a helpful feature was that the ball can be placed easily into different "levels" of the game by starting the ball at different loading areas. Putting the ball at the loading area "2" will put you into the game around level 26 or so. You can think of these as checkpoints.It's fun to watch people play as you usually will not be able to see the ball-bearing move inside, but instead see the person playing intricately making motions with his/her with this strange object in hands! This is definitely a classic toy in the making.
