Reviewed: November 5, 2001
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Dexterity Software
Developer
Dexterity Software
Released: October, 2001
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
9
6
6
9
8.0
System Requirements
Trial Version Download
Anyone here remember an old coin-op game called Tutankaman? Anyone here old enough to remember a game called Sokoban? It was a CGA game. Anyone here old enough to remember CGA? (that's 3-color graphics) Wow - I feel old. So, if I said that Fitznik was like a combination of Tutankaman and Sokoban most of you would look at your screen with a blank expression.
All comparisons to ancient games aside, Fitznik is a crafty puzzle games that will suck you into its compulsively addicting gameplay and not let you go until you have finished it or gone insane trying. The game is simple in design and in execution. You have 63 levels (or screens). Each screen has keys, gems, an exit, and a fiendish logic puzzle that you must solve to advance to the next level.
Fitznik is one of those games you can take to the office and play at lunch or sneak in a quick level before bedtime. Each of the challenging levels can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes to figure out. The game keeps track of your progress and you can pick up where you left off the next time you are ready for a challenge.
Gameplay has been reduced to the four arrow keys and the occasional use of the spacebar. You control Fitz, a wolf-like creature that looks like an escaped high school mascot, using the arrow keys. You have no weapons other than the occasional bomb, so getting past the treacherous spiders and fire-spitting snakes requires you to carefully move and organize boulders to sneak past or kill the enemy.
Each level gets increasingly complex, giving you plenty of chances to screw-up and trap yourself. Fortunately, the game lets you quickly restart the level with a quick tap of the "R" key just in case you slide a boulder and trap yourself or push one too many rocks into the water. Blocks can obstruct fireballs from the snakes and when positioned in such a way to trap a spider, will cause that spider to explode. Boulders also make handy bridges across rivers and lakes.
The levels are designed in such a way that you slowly learn new skills and build upon those skills in the subsequent levels. Sometimes a solution will take many hair-pulling hours, and sometimes it will just "come to you" with a choir of angles singing overhead. And if a certain screen has you totally stuck, just type in SOLVEIT and watch Fitz solve the puzzle for you (full version only).
While there is generally only one solution to each puzzle there are virtually infinite ways to achieve that solution. I've watched Fitz solve a few puzzles (after I did them myself of course) and found the game's solutions to be slightly different but generally the same.
The visual style of Fitznik is pretty cool. The game makes excellent use of 32-bit color graphics, and despite the lack of variety in enemies, level themes, and textures, it does a great job of offering a visually pleasing level time after time.
If you are seeking a title to showoff your GeForce card this isn't it. Fitznik works on any system capable of running Windows 95 or greater. This means that if you have a machine from the last 6 years you almost certainly qualify.
The characters are well designed but not very animated, but then again, they don't have to be. The snakes face either left or right and Fitz moves in one of four possible directions. The spiders scramble about the level in a wall-hugging mode that you can actually predict and then avoid. There is no blood or violence - unless you count exploding snakes and spiders - making Fitznik a great game for the entire family. While some of the puzzles may stump the really little kids, everyone should have a great time with this game.
The sound effects are minimal, yet effective. Nothing really stands out except for perhaps the explosions of the spiders or the occasional bomb you leave behind. The music, on the other hand, is quite charming and never seems to get repetitive. It fits the theme of the game perfectly, and aside from the Jeopardy theme song, can't think of better music to accompany each puzzling level.
There are 63 imaginative levels in the full version of Fitznik, including the 9 bonus levels. It took me about 8 hours over the course of several evenings to get to level 32. Some levels take less than a minute or two and others take many restarts and can last upwards of an hour each.
Even if you know the solution, one careless push of a boulder in the wrong direction or an accidental step into the path of an unblocked snake can end your level prematurely and have you doing it all over again. While I found myself getting frustrated at times, it was never with the game, but rather with my own carelessness. Fitznik is best played slowly and calmly. There is no time limit or bonus for doing a level fast, but an accidental death can have you pounding on your keyboard.
You can probably expect 30+ hours of gameplay, although this will vary based on your own logic skills. Once you have completed the game there is no incentive to replay it. It would have been nice to have a timer to measure your peformance so you could try to better your time on each level or perhaps offer some kind of online competition where people could upload their best times. As it is, once you have finished the game you will likely move on, but not before getting more than your money's worth.
There seems to be an unprecedented surge of budget/shareware games coming out for the PC lately. What really amazes me is that while these games can't compare to the technological achievements of the big development studios, these small independent releases have offered some of the best gameplay and just pure FUN of anything I have played on the PC this year.
Fitznik is pure and simple fun that will actually help you develop logic and problem solving skills. Its low system requirements make it accessible to just about anyone with a PC, and the non-violent gameplay makes it perfect for the entire family.
And since it's shareware you don't even have to take my word for it. Download your copy today and try it out. You will find it is well worth the $19 for the full copy and with a 60-day money-back guarantee what have you got to lose...except your sanity.