Action Puzzle Metal Review: A Surprising Hit Despite the Lack of Big Name Songs

Action Puzzle Metal Review-1

Action Puzzle Metal Review-1

[rating: 4/5]

Action Puzzle Metal Review: If we took a group of Heavy Metal music fans, then a cross section of jigsaw puzzle fans it’s unlikely that you would find many people that fit both groups as in general that are two hobbies that are at different ends of the spectrum. However, with Action Puzzle Metal for iPhone and iPad, it’s exactly that puzzle with a metal theme.

The action part of the title comes in due to the fact that the puzzles aren’t simple static images of spandex clad metalheads heads banging, instead the puzzles are made up of music videos from “legendary” heavy metal bands, and it’s this feature that makes this puzzle game interesting.

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The main part of the game is Classic Mode which initially has only 1 track available to you and further tracks become available as you complete each puzzle. As the video starts the playing area is split into numerous pieces that you can drag and drop around the screen to the correct place. Not only do the pieces need re-positioning though, they also need rotating and a combination of dragging and tapping achieve both of these things.

The fact that all of the pieces are moving with the video adds an extra challenge to the puzzles but I found it a lot of fun even not being a huge fan of Heavy Metal music. There are 3 different styles of puzle pieces too from the traditional style jigsaw piece, simple squares and abstract shapes. As you correctly position two or more matching pieces they snap together with clink, signalling that you got a match.

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The length of the song is the time limit that you have to complete the puzzle in and some of them can be quite challenging due to the lack of variety in the video and the limited amount of time you have to complete each level.

Once, you’ve completed all the video puzzles they become available in Squares and Challenge modes where you can play all the videos again with a range of shapes and squares, if you fancy a real challenge you can select to play with 40 squares, the ultimate puzzle challenges.

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The song list includes the following and although I didn’t recognise any of the artists some of the songs were pretty good especilly the two tracks by Sonic Syndicate.

  • ACCEPT – Teutonic Terror
  • AMORPHIS – You I Need
  • AMORPHIS – Silver Bride
  • BLIND GUARDIAN – A Voice In The Dark
  • ELUVEITIE – Thousandfold
  • EPICA – Unleashed
  • HAMMERFALL – Send Me A Sign
  • INDICA – Islands Of Light
  • KORPIKLAANI – Vodka
  • SIRENIA – The Path To Decay
  • SONIC SYNDICATE – My Own Life
  • SONIC SYNDICATE – Revolution Baby
  • DIMMU BORGIR – Dimmu Borgir (as a bonus video for our biggest fans)!

Once you’ve completed the puzzles the game still has more to offer in the form of watching and listening to the videos and collecting bonus codes online to unlock a selection of Heavy Metal wallpapers. While the individual parts of the game don’t seem the great the sum of those parts certainly exceed the individual parts leaving me with a game that I was eager to complete.

Pros

  • Great use of music videos
  • Great rocking tracks
  • Challenging puzzles with multiple ways to play

Cons

  • Only 13 tracks
  • No big artists

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