Pettson's Inventions Review

By , on June 8, 2012


Pettson's Inventions
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Ridiculous scenarios for your inventions.
  • Less a game of challenge, and more of seeing what comes next.

CONS

  • Those looking for a puzzle game will probably be disappointed.

VERDICT

Pettson's Inventions takes the concept of The Incredible Machine and creates amusing and bizarre scenarios, all in the name of trying to make a cat fly. Based on a series of popular Swedish children's books, this is more for about fun than challenge.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

Pettson and Findus are the stars of a series of successful children's books written and illustrated by Swedish author Sven Nordqvist. Pettson is a strange old farmer and Findus is his cat who walks on two legs and wears green-striped pants. In Pettson's Inventions, Findus wants to be able to fly, but they don't have the necessary parts to launch the frisky feline into the wild blue yonder, so Pettson asks the player if they will help find the parts by crafting other inventions to solve very odd problems indeed.

Ever wanted to help an old woman wash a pig, or make an old man laugh in the most roundabout way possible? Then this is the puzzle game for you. Well actually, calling it a puzzle game is a little unfair. It definitely takes its cues from games like The Incredible Machine, but despite the lunacy of the setup or the pieces involved in solving the puzzle, there's little to no challenge required. Gears pop onto the pegs strewn about on screen. The rope and gear belts will always be in a per-determined configuration when dragged onto the playing field, leaving little question to where it goes. Every piece only has one place on the board and will click in when set down, so even with no idea what to do, you could keep dragging an item around till it goes where it's supposed to.

So why is the game so alluring? Part of it has to do with the odd scenarios, and the even stranger ways to solve them (which gives you a gear that until the final level will just litter the bottom of your iPhone on the menu screen, rolling which ever way you turn it). The art style is cartoony and pleasant, and the vocal work of Pettson and Findus, plus the crazy sound effects from their inventions, and the people and animals that take part in it all are quite amusing.

It won't take you very long to solve all the inventions thrown at you in order to send Findus flying, but I guarantee that the experience will be an enjoyable one. More than a game, this is a piece of entertainment that should amuse both players young and old. The game can leave you wishing for more odd inventions to take part in, so any future updates to the app certainly would not go amiss.

Screenshots

Screenshot 1 of 10 Screenshot 2 of 10 Screenshot 3 of 10 Screenshot 4 of 10 Screenshot 5 of 10 Screenshot 6 of 10 Screenshot 7 of 10 Screenshot 8 of 10 Screenshot 9 of 10 Screenshot 10 of 10