"Neither of us had any idea where that night's experiment would lead…"

TubeTwist starts when your mentor, Professor Jaymour, asks you to take a look at a new experiment in the lab one night. While demonstrating the properties of macrotons, something goes awry and the Professor vanishes! Where is she? More importantly, when is she? The failed experiment opened a portal in time and the Professor went through, but not before she left you a note asking you to find a way to follow her. To do this, you must work on some of the Professor's unfinished experiments, in the hopes of building up enough quantum energy to open a portal to another era.

The goal of every experiment is to create a machine that will transport macrotons from their holding tanks to the reactors, where they release energy. These machines are built from building blocks that move the macrotons in different ways. You start out with simple tubes, curves, and switches, but you eventually move on to anti-gravity tubes, cannons, and other advanced pieces.

This might sound easy, but it's not. The experiments all have a basic framework in place so you don't have to start from scratch, but sometimes figuring out how to work around the existing pieces is harder than starting from nothing. Plus, you only get a certain number of building blocks to use, and it never seems like enough.

Fortunately, you have the Professor's journal to use as a reference. The tabs of the journal hold a variety of helpful information, such as the dictionary with definitions of the building blocks, and the help tab with an overview of different parts of the game. You can exit to the journal at any time, saving your experiment progress.

I think it's hard to judge difficulty levels in a game like TubeTwist, but I found it to be challenging without being impossible. The opening sequence features a short tutorial, but beyond that you are on your own to learn the ropes. Once you know how to move things around and get a feel for the physics, it gets easier, until they start throwing even harder puzzles at you. I think the difficulty level is an area where 21-6 did a great job. I know it took a lot of experimentation on their part to get the balance correct, and it paid off.

If you play arcade type games or other level-based games, you may be surprised to see that the there is no scorekeeping in TubeTwist. The entire point of the game is to solve all the puzzles. Technically speaking, no solution is better than another so long as the goal is met. However, don't let the lack of a leader board discourage you. With about 50 puzzles, TubeTwist should keep most players busy for a long time. Most puzzles have more than one solution, so there is some "replay factor" in trying to solve the puzzles with the fewest pieces, or finding all possible solutions. In case that's not enough for you, the developers at 21-6 plan to release experiment packs that can be added to the game as expansions.

TubeTwist's graphics are good, but this is one of the few areas that I think need some improvement. The pieces all start to look the same after awhile and the color palettes are a bit monotonous, but the backgrounds look pretty good. I think this is all easy to overlook when you get drawn into the puzzles. Personally, I would rather have an excellent concept and story than excellent graphics, but this could be a sticking point for players who are used to stunning visuals. On the other hand, the cinematics are impressive, panning around the experiments and following the macrotons.

The other area that might warrant some more attention is the inability to maintain saved games or profiles. While this makes it easy to start the game because it picks up right where you left off, if several people want to play in the same household you can't really maintain separate games. Then again, maybe this is a good excuse to collaborate on those puzzles you can't get past.

The soundtrack and effects were improved for the final version of the game, and it shows. The sound quality is very good and the effects work well with the story. Voice acting for Professor Jaymour is an excellent touch.

If it sounds like I'm a big fan of TubeTwist, that's because I am. I wasted a lot of study time on The Incredible Machine way back when, and TubeTwist is a worthy successor. It's a game that adults and kids can both enjoy, and the kind of game that fosters cooperation rather than competition. I also think it's great to such an intelligent game today. By supporting independent game developers like 21-6 Productions you help make these games possible, in a time when so many puzzle games are mass produced flash with no brains.

You can read our interview with 21-6 Productions here!