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Genre: Arcade/Side Scroller

Developer: Grubby Games

Publisher: Big Fish Games

Minimum System Requirements: 400MHz G3, Mac OS X, 128MB VRAM

Price: $19.99

Demo: www.bigfishgames.com (25.1MB .zip format)

Professor Fizzwizzle was busy working on another brilliant scientific experiment when his robotic assistants went haywire and threw him out of his own lab. In this side-scroller platform game, you have to make your way past a series of obstacles to get back into the lab and return the robots to normal.

In every level, you have to make your way from the starting point to the exit past a variety of obstacles. Professor Fizzwizzle can't jump, so you have to move crates, barrels, magnets and pulleys to fill up the gaps in the floating platforms to make a path. The type of terrain effects how they work, so if you move a barrel on sand, it won't roll as it will on grass. If you're on ice, even crates will slide until they run into something. In addition to objects found on each level, there are power-ups that can give you inflatable items which you can use anywhere you choose. You will also run into the haywire robots, so you'll have to avoid them, but if you get a Frost Gun you can stop them in their tracks.

One of the best features of Professor Fizzwizzle are the three skill levels: regular to get you started, advanced if you need more of a challenge, and kid-friendly for those younger gamers. I've played other games in this genre, and usually I'd get stuck on level 10 or so because the difficulty would suddenly change from easy to impossible. I never had this problem in Professor Fizzwizzle where the difficulty was always a steady increase. However, if you get really stuck, you can ask for the solution and see the level played out from start to finish.

The most important criteria for any game is the fun-factor. Is Professor Fizzwizzle fun to play? Yes! I thought at first it would be a bit of a bore, but after playing level after level I can definitely say I was wrong. Every level is colorful, the music is bouncy, and the puzzles are more challenging than I expected (so the tips on the regular levels were appreciated). Professor Fizzwizzle is more fun than solitaire if you only have a few minutes to play a game, and it's also a heck of a lot more interesting. If you don't have time to finish a level, that's okay because your progress will be saved.

Best of all, there's a level editor so you can make your own challenging or easy levels to share with other players at Grubby Games site with difficulty, ratings by other players, and written reviews. The level editor is very easy to use, and you can record your own solutions so your own levels can have the same quality as the built-in ones, especially if you read the tutorial.

I encourage you to download the demo and try Professor Fizzwizzle for yourself. It's a fun game for kids of all ages.

Download Professor Fizzwizzle.