I have enjoyed all the Mystery Trackers games, which seem to get better every time. I recently played this one and found some nice improvements. By selecting the HARD option when playing most games, it doesn't usually impact the puzzles themselves; it only removes most hints, shortcuts and cheats. In this game, they finally made it apply to the Mini-Games! You can choose Easy or Hard, on a puzzle-by-puzzle basis. This was a huge win from my perspective.

The game was good, and I definitely will be replaying it at a later date. My only quibble with it was that, in a couple of the mini-games, there was more than one way to achieve the solution ~ but if yours was not exactly the same as the one in the Game Guide, the puzzle did not reward you with Completion. To explain: In one of the sliders puzzles, you have to move the game pieces around until the correct overall image is shown. It was the usual bit, with one square that is "blank," to let you move around all the other game pieces (typical of those old, hand-held numbers slider puzzles where you had to get the numbers in order), until the game pieces are all in their correct locations. No biggee. These puzzles are often challenging as it is, and time-consuming, but that is what is fun about them.

Well, there actually were four locations where that blank space could end up, while still achieving the correct locations for all the other game pieces (according to the Game Guide, which I checked to see why the puzzle didn't "solve." for me). So, even if you assembled the Image for this puzzle correctly, the "blank" space had to be located in only one of the four spaces available. Otherwise, the puzzle was not "solved." The game programming should have allowed for that blank space to be located in any one of the four spaces. I didn't fancy having to re-solve the whole thing again, just to match the Game Guide, so I skipped it the second time. This happened in another puzzle in the game, as well. So, when you encounter such a puzzle, you would be advised to look up its solution first, to see where that blank space has to be located.

Other than that, it was a terrific game and with a rewarding Bonus Game in the CE version. Two thumbs up.

That's really good info about the game, Reenie. Between this and Dark Parables: Queen of Sands, you made some good purchases with CEs.

That would aggravate me no end with the slider puzzles - I have enough trouble with them already, without the need to have the blank square in one particular spot. Thank you for the heads up about this.

Yeah, I never buy games unless and until they are on sale, and usually it is a Two-Fer, so I get two games.