I love jigsaws. OK, “love” might be a bit too strong as I rarely have the patience to stand there/sit for hours and complete it. Instead, I tend to look at the pieces, put some pieces together and leave. The process repeats until the puzzle is complete. Plus, it drives my mother crazy as she organizes them into perfect piles and I complete a large portion in a matter of minutes. The problem with this is that, like in any home, space is at a premium. It’s tough to find enough room to complete a 1,000-piece puzzle. Thankfully, an indie game known as The M on my iPod touch lets me get some of my jigsaw cravings under control.
The M is a puzzle game that takes a picture and jumbles up the placement. Your job is to properly place each piece as quickly as possible. It reminds me of those square puzzles that have patterns on them (like frogs or snakes) and you have to rotate the pieces in order to fully complete the pattern. Like those pattern puzzles, there is no real award for completing a puzzle quickly other than bragging rights.
As such, The M is intuitive to control. However, it isn’t easy. Rotating the puzzle pieces is a bear as it requires a second finger (mostly from my left hand) to properly rotate the piece while holding it. It doesn’t feel right. I kept trying to touch a corner while it was still, but it would pick the piece up instead. Furthermore, it lacks some type of “jigsaw” feel to let you know that the pieces belong together. There are some pictures that things are closely related that in and out pieces are needed (especially on the higher difficulty settings). If this is supposed to be a fast-paced puzzler, then it fails because it’s too frustrating to control. If you consider this to be a jigsaw game to relax to, then it succeeds.
It is important to note that there are two “games” in the package. The first is the jigsaw portion; the second game is the “slider” puzzler. It’s exactly what you’re probably thinking it is: You have a square with X-1 (X is the area of the square) pieces, and you slide the pieces around to make the picture. I’ve never really cared for it because I’m horrible with these types of puzzles, and I tend to get frustrated very quickly. On the plus side, it does control well.
Graphically, The M is basic. And this is a good thing. The puzzles range in topic, from a scenic cottage, inside of a kitchen, to a crime scene to a stone Minotaur. They’re cool to look at. The puzzle pieces are also easy to find as they’re on a grid. As previously mentioned, the pieces get smaller as the difficulty increases. So it can get a little tricky figuring out which piece goes where due to the size (just like any jigsaw).
Sound design wise, things are bit ... weird. Pieces do have a solid “thunk” to them. However, the music doesn’t fit the game. The title screen has these intense drums mixing in with synthesizers and “vocals” to create a moody atmosphere. Then the game has this mysterious guitar playing with ... xylophones ... augmenting it? This mysterious theme may fit with the title, but it doesn’t fit with the game itself. Puzzles can be considered the “ultimate” casual game. This makes it feel more hard core than it actually is.
Overall, The M rocks the boat for jigsaw games and ultimately falls to the sides. On the plus side, it does cost a dollar. In that case, it’s rather well done considering the price. However, I would have preferred it to cost more with more puzzles, features (maybe create jigsaws with baby chicks in it or any other of my pictures?) and stronger controls. I might have to wait for its sequel to be released on the iPad — if such a game was in the works. That’s something I’m willing to wait for the developers to piece together.
