Star Wars Pit Droids
When I first looked at the back of the box I figured that it would be an easy assignment to
give to some seven year old to review. A preliminary pass on my part was all that would be
needed - checking out graphics, playablility, and levels. Well, I'm still playing it, but I
didn't want to wait to post this review. The game reminds me of a couple of old favorites
Lemmings and the Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (a new Zoombinis is
reported to be in the works).
The game's action involves moving a shipment of droids through seven different
locations so that they finally end up at the arena where they can do what they were made
to do - fix pod racers. A deceptively simple mission. Not so simple - there are barriers,
mazes, traps and locks and the droids themselves to contend with. They happily will go in
one direction until they bump into one another and end up consigned to a scrap heap.
To accomplish the mission you have to use directional and ratio arrows, sort the droids by
various attributes, and use length to manipulate time. You have been using set theory,
spatial relationships, ratios and functions and Lucas Learning has made it fun.
While some of the puzzles are complicated - you can always restart and solve them
incrementally. The animated droids help by showing choke points that have to be
resolved. These droids are such characters that they keep the user amused and involved.
They tap their feet in impatience when you are not quick enough to resolve a blockage,
throw up their arms in exasperation and fling their tools in the air before jumping down
the transit tube. This is one wild and happy bunch of droids.
The whole game is cleverly constructed so you can learn at your own pace and develop
your own devious maneuvers. Your first solutions may be gross but as you refine them
you become quite pleased at how clever you have become. Elegance and efficiency
become necessary as you progress through the game. The scoring is somewhat confusing
- you need to have 48 droids to make a transfer unit and 144 to move into a new location
and in the more advanced games going back and forth to get the droid minimum feels
more complicated than it need be. The box claims that there are 300+ puzzles and I
believe it - and that doesn't even count the puzzles that you can design yourself. Hours
and hours and hours of fun.
Reviewed by Genevieve
Ages Everyone