FlyMaze is an interesting platform game that is available in both the Windows Phone and Windows 10 Stores. You guide a fly, who has volunteered for a few scientific experiments, through a series of mazes using the fly's attraction to light.
We took the Windows Phone version of the game out for a try and found it to have decent graphics, challenging mazes and overall a game with potential. There is room for improvement with FlyMaze, but since playing the game for a few days it comes across as a fun time waster.
FlyMaze greets you with a very minimal primary menu that has options to rate the game in the Store, mute the sounds and jump into game play. Game play includes fifty, progressively unlocked mazes to conquer.
When you begin playing the first puzzle, the game will walk you through an intro story where the fly signs up for the experiments. You can skip through this intro by tapping the screen a few times if you want to get to game play quicker.
The gaming area will take up the top half of your display with the bottom half reserved for gaming instructions. Should new features come into play, additional instructions will appear.
Game play isn't very difficult to pick up. You have a series of neon lights scattered about the maze. Tap on the light to turn it on and your fly will begin to fly towards the glow. Using the lights to guide your fly, you send him through each maze until he reaches an exit portal.
To help add to the game's challenge, there are doughnuts floating around each maze that must be collected. The more doughnuts you collect, the better your grade for the level.
Dangers do exist in each gaming level, most commonly with electrical fields that serve as bug zappers. There will be levels where you lose power and these fields temporarily drop and some have buttons that can turn off these fields to help you navigate to a doughnut.
While navigation sounds simple, there will be some levels where the lights are already on that will bugger up your fly's flight path or if you forget to turn off a light, that can cause flight issues as well. Don't be too worried if your fly hits one of the lights though. It won't hurt the fly but may cause you to overshoot a turn or doughnut.
Overall Impression
While some may not find FlyMaze very appealing, the more I played the game, the more it grew on me. It isn't an overly taxing game for your Windows Phone or Windows 10 device, but I think it has potential.
While I like how the game tosses up instructions on the bottom half of the screen, I do wish once they disappear the gaming area would expand to full-screen (or at least three quarters screen). Only using the top half of the Windows Phone display for some of the levels gives the game a bit of a cramped feeling. On the plus side, the compressed gaming area isn't present for all the puzzle levels.
All in all, I found FlyMaze to have decent graphics and the mazes challenging. The first few are a little on the easy side but after that you'll have to plot your course carefully to catch all the doughnuts. At last check, FlyMaze is rated at 5 Stars and while I liked the game, five stars is a bit on the high side. I would probably dial things down to the 4 Star level.
The universal game does have a trial version with the full game running $.99. If you give FlyMaze a try, let us know what you think of the game in the comments below.
