In this tongue-in-cheek cinematic spy tale told with puzzle activities and point-and-click adventure, Nelson Tethers, star agent of the FBI's Department of Puzzle Research, investigates a holdup in the White House's eraser supply by visiting a small town in Minnesota.
Puzzle Agent was actually developed as a mere pilot for its successor, Puzzle Agent 2, but it still racks up 37 separate puzzles and a quantity of cutscenes that's nothing to scoff at. Most of the puzzles are very simple - the game overall is certainly kid-friendly, if you excuse the potential terror induced by certain Scandinavian gnomes (I kid you not, I'll probably have nightmares myself). Hints and retries are available for each puzzle, and they can all be revisited once the game has been played through. Each puzzle is unique, which makes the game feel more like the storybook it was based off of, but also gives the game limited replayability. If you do replay it, it'll probably be to revisit the priceless interactions between the story's crazed characters.
Sam's Protip: Be sure to stop by on acquaintances after every new plot development in order to access each puzzle in its natural habitat.
Pros
- Good practice for discrete situation-based math and attention to detail
- Hilarious characterization
- Hints and retries available for the impatient or younger player
Cons
- At least one puzzle had an unrecognized isomorphic solution (i.e. false negative; wrong when it should have been right)
- Various issues with puzzle-solving interface (snap threshold on jigsaws is too low; submit button too easy to press accidentally)
- Definitely feels incomplete on its own