Käpt'n Blaubär: Die verrückte Schatzsuche

The Good
I usually do not play puzzle games. This one kept me motivated. The puzzles hit a sweet spot for me insofar as the levels could be tricky but never felt overwhelming. They all have a size and complexity where I always felt if I would just kept retrying a couple more times, I would eventually be able to solve them. It took several weeks, but in the end I managed to complete the whole game without any hints from guides.

The Bad
The game lacks variety. There are six levels with 15 puzzles each. After the first two or three levels, you have seen all the game's building blocks. All further levels use the same ones. This wasn't a huge deal during my playthrough, but the later levels could have felt more exciting had they introduced new game elements. Furthermore, the difficulty of the puzzles did not gradually ramp up over the course of the game. I had a pattern in which I was able to solve several puzzles in a row on the first try, then got to one which took numerous attempts to solve. This pattern repeated on all levels. The last level even felt a bit easier than the previous ones.

The Bottom Line
This is a solid puzzle game. Graphics, music and sound are adequate. The engaging puzzles are where the game really shines. It can be played without knowledge of the German language because the mechanics are easy to grasp and there is no complex story.