Lightwood Games have returned with another one of their clinical-looking puzzle games, this time it’s less logic-based than their previous sudoku and picross series’. Mixups by POWGI is a game in which the gameplay is perfectly described within the title itself, it’s a bunch of words relating to a subject which has been ‘mixed up’ and it’s up to you to find the hidden words.
As with all of the developer’s games, the game is Cross-buy which means you get both the PS4 and PS Vita versions in the same purchase, this means you can get up to three platinums should you also buy the digital PS4 version from another region as well. However, trophy hunting aside, is the game fun enough for the casual gamer to want to pick up? Let’s take a look.
Boggle meets Countdown…
Mixups by POWGI takes a really simple concept and presents it in an entertaining way so that anyone can just jump in and work their way through literally hundreds of puzzles at their own pace. This is one of the things I absolutely love about Lightwood Games, they don’t give us a few puzzles that are completed within an hour or so, they go all out and cram as many puzzles as they can in one package!
So, what do you actually do in Mixups by POWGI? Each of the 119 categories comes with a subject, such as Body Parts, Birds, or Sharp Things. Each of these are made up of six puzzles, each with three words to find. On one side of the screen, you’ll see the length of each of the words and on the other, you’ll see letters, as if someone threw a load of Scrabble pieces on the floor. Using your knowledge of what the subject is, you need to spell out the three words which have been scrambled on the right-hand side – think the Countdown Conundrum, only it’s three words instead of one.
Just because you have the letters, it Ithaqua not be the right word!
That’s about as much information as you need if I’m being honest! Mixups by POWGI is a game in which you must unscramble a bunch of words from numerous subjects. Some of the subjects are rather strange though, just like the ‘Sharp Things’ one, we also have ‘Is Everyone Happy?’, ‘Rhymes with Bed’, ‘Fast words’ and more. Each time you complete a section you’ll get a pun or joke from POWGI as well, so there’s always that to look forward to.
However, after talking to a few of my friends who play these games in other countries, they had a few difficulties due to you having to know the exact spelling of the words which are missing – which makes sense. So, if your English isn’t the greatest, you may struggle a little on some of the bigger words. Although, that can be spun into a positive and if you’re actually trying to learn English, or even if you’re a teacher and you want something you can let your students play which will both entertain and educate at the same time, Mixups by POWGI is perfect! It would not only teach word association but also spelling skills at the same time.
If you do get stuck though, as I did many times, you can tap both shoulder buttons and the first letter of each word will appear. That’s all the help you get, so you still have to work it out for yourself, but having the first letter does sometimes push you in the right direction. Although, as you can see by my image above, just because you can spell out a word it doesn’t mean that’s the word the game is looking for – this makes it a little more tricky.
POWGI’s back with jokes and puns in between rounds.
If you’ve played any of the previous Lightwood Games games then you’ll instantly recognise the visual style the developers like to use. It’s all very clinical and clean with little colour yet easy to see and read text and letters. Not only does it look great on a big TV, but it also looks perfect on the smaller screen of the PS Vita. Mixups by POWGI is however only a single player game this time around, so no co-op or quicker trophy unlocks, but that’s not an issue as it’s fun to work your way through on your own.
In regards to the music, I heard a lot of tracks I’ve heard many times with the developer’s previous games. They are all very calm and relaxing, but some of them can get a little monotonous after a while if you’ve been stuck on a puzzle for a long time. If this does start to get to you, the trick from previous games still works – hit ‘options’ and then turn the music off and on and it’ll give you a new music track to listen to.
Official Trailer (gameplay with no music):
Final Conclusion:
Mixups by POWGI is a stress-free relaxing puzzle game which will take countless hours to get through all the puzzles on offer. I would personally say this game is more suited for the casual puzzle gamer, just like the developer’s Word Search game, but some of the puzzles do still offer a challenge even if you’ve used the hint for the first letter.
If your English isn’t the best, but you are looking to improve, then the game could be used as a tool to help you as see how much you know. Similarly, I can see the education sector possibly using this to help younger students with spelling and reading.
If you like puzzle games and want something a little different with no time limits, no penalties, and no intense difficulty spikes, then check out Mixups by POWGI as well as all the other games from Lightwood Games. you get many hours of enjoyment from each of their products, double if you also own a PS Vita.
A copy of the game was kindly provided for review purposes
Mixups by POWGI
£6.49
The Good:
- - Tonnes of puzzles to work through
- - Great for casual puzzle gamers
- - Would work great for young kids and non-English people who are learning English at the moment
- - Anagram and Countdown fans will love this game
The Bad:
- - Some words can be pretty tricky, even with the first letter revealed. Non-English gamers may struggle
