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4 Elements #2 and Puzzler's Wrath

    Hey, global neighbors. I am listening to some oldies as I type this. Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu by the great Johnny Rivers is playing at the momento. Today I need to give some love to the puzzle lovers. One of the great puzzle games that I have played is 4 Elements. But, like many sequels, 4 Elements 2 is making some people mad.
      I have actually done a review of the original game so I guess I won't go through the whole gameplay mechanic. Suffice it to say that you are trying to assist a faerie in her desire to get stuff that appears to be lava from point A to point B. This is done primarily by running your finger over like-colored stones and causing them to melt out of your way. Sometimes you must shift some pipes so that flow can go through them. That is different from the original,  by the way. It is a fun game and cool as a moose. There are mini-puzzles as well, in which you must find hidden objects or play I-Spy, or whatever. I usually get Carley to do that stuff for me. She loves those things and I loathe them. Ha, ha. But hey, if she needs a zombie executed, she knows who to call.
     The sequel, just released, is more colorful and has 64 levels like the original. It is a 131 MB file. Playrix, the maker of the game, has seriously P.O.'d a bunch of folks. I went over to the app store and read the reviews for the game. The story is one of love/hate. The game is very good, but the price has been raised to $6.99 on this sequel.
     Puzzle games are normally a little cheaper than games like Nova 3 and Modern Combat. They went up on the game like 28% and told everybody that the game was free. Well, the first 5 levels are free. Then you must pay to play. This doesn't bother me because I never get upset about puzzle games. But puzzledom is surely ready to storm the Playrix castle and dethrone the king. I understand their frustration. Just say, up front, what the game costs. Sounds simple.
     I also noticed some confusion over the fact that the titles were very alike and one guy seemed to think he had paid $4.99 for the game and then they wanted another $6.99. I think the original 4 Elements was $4.99, so I figure that he bought one, then tried to play the other. I know that Carley played Cover Orange all the way through. Then she bought Cover Orange HD when it came out, thinking it was a whole new game. Wow! The hot place has no fury like a puzzler shortchanged.
     What shall we see in the future? Can we make a soap opera out of this situation? What shall we call it? As the Lava Flows or perhaps, As the Puzzle Turns.
     From the spokesman for unhappy puzzlers everywhere, CE Wills.

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