Publisher/Developer: Aboveground Systems LLC
Genre: Puzzle
Price: $1.99
Acquired: Review Copy Provided
Verdict: A competent take on the Rube Goldberg genre.
Pros: Clean graphics, clever levels, variety
Cons: Odd physics model, unresponsive controls

This game gave me a case of deja vu, I’ve definitely covered something like this before. 

Nicholas Cage can use this to find money for his back taxes!

This time around, the concept is that Leonardo Davinci left designs for incomplete devices that you can finish using various devices to stitch together a finished contraption.  In reality, you are simply creating a Rube Goldberg device of unnecessary complication to solve various problems, in most cases trying to get an object to a goal of some kind.  For those that are into these kinds of games (like Incredible Machines or Crazy Machines) this is a nicely done version of the ‘crazy mouse trap’ game.  (Here’s hoping that someone gets Pee-Wee Herman’s permission and turns this into an app.)  You are scored on how fast you can combine an assortment of items to accomplish a set task per level, like getting a medicine ball into a basket by setting off a chain of events and letting gravity do its job.  Unlike other variations of the app, Davinci changes up the goal so sometimes you will be required to push down a plunger to ignite an explosion and destroy a wall or knock over some dominoes. The game also sports a variety of ‘machines’ such as conveyor belts, fans, and boards to use as ramps that work in different combinations.  What developer Aboveground has done is to try and take a simpler game and expand upon it with more variety and depth with better graphics and overall look and feel.  For the most part they have almost succeeded.

Well good for me.

Using a horizontal orientation, the game makes efficient use of the screen real estate.  The level is setup on the left side and the available machines are on the right.  You are timed in how long it takes you to not only invent a solution for the level, but how long it takes the ‘machine’ you make to actually do it’s job.  You press play to start the chain reaction, and you can pause and reset the playing field when your attempts fail. The idea is to keep you coming back to each level and honing you skills to lower the time and resets used.  For gamers who only have a cursory interest, you can take as much time as you need and pause and restart the devices to come up with a solution, but there is no way to prevent these embarrassing scores to be counted.

The game’s interface leaves a bit to be desired in the area of interaction.  The machine types that are available to you are slid into the game area via a tap and drag mechanic,  but the game is finicky about registering the touch.  This can be especially frustrating when rotating the devices themselves; I often found myself fussing to get the element in the right position with the over elaborate compass graphic that is used to flip and rotate machines.   The game is also vague about where machines can and cannot be placed, as they only turn to a slightly unremarkable color of dark burgundy to indicate that the machine is in an illegal position or place.  Often, you will find yourself wondering why you can’t drag the next machine into place, only to realize the previous machine is not where it should be.  The game needs some tweaking to make this concept more clear to the user.

This image has been censored for your own benefit.

The game sports 30 levels with a unique back story that ties into the life of Leonardo D.  As new elements and goals are established, the game gives you a somewhat hard to read piece of virtual parchment paper with an explanation of the upcoming level.  A nice touch, but it’s not going to win an award for legibility.  The one thing that ties these types of games together is the use of a physics model that facilitates the movement of the items through the contraption.  Getting to understand and predict how the model will act is part and parcel of the experience, and once you familiarize yourself with the realism, or lack thereof, you get a sense of what the machine will do.  I found the physics implemented here to be somewhat harsh, as if gravity was dialed up a notch and where the metal ball seems disproportionally more dense than the heavy medicine ball.  The medicine ball itself acts odd, and I found it bouncing around the level like ‘flubber’ from the Nutty Professor movie (the original one, children).  Graphically, the game looks great in stills, and the developer has gone to great lengths to maintain the Renaissance look and feel, but the animation is very simple and the visual outcome of certain goals are almost embarrassing in how bad they are represented.

Leo D was ahead of his time; using a fan, ramp, and conveyor belt to blow a ball into a bucket.

Davinci’s Secret Machines makes use of OpenFeint to connect your score to an online leader board, and you can also unlock a bevy of achievements in the game itself.  While I never had any issues on 2 different phones, it is highly recommended you reboot before playing the first time.  If you are already into one of the competing versions of these games, this one won’t make you cheat on it and then ask it to change its voicemail, but if you are looking for a pretty solid version, this one is worth a try.  With an update upcoming promising a level editor, this could be steal at 2 bucks, especially if you can exchange levels with others making machines in secret.  Here’s hoping some of the interface quirks are addressed with that update.