First introduced as a download in 2008, Musaic Box is now available free in your browser. This lovely musical game by Alexander Porechnov mingles elements of tetris, sudoku and hidden object scenes into a point-and-click puzzle that's both unique and very entertaining.
At his behest, you go to your grandfather's house only to discover he's nowhere to be found. Explore the room, gathering fragments of sheet music and notes about famous composers. Completing a musical outline opens the "musaic box" for the next aspect of gameplay: click the music player's cylinder to hear the song then use audio, geometric and symbolic clues to put the puzzle pieces together and reconstruct the song. Enjoy mellifluous music when you succeed and also reap the rewards—a useful item, an unlocked chest, or a new room to discover.
Although it's only a scaled-down sample of the download—which you can read more about and order here in JohnB's review—there is still much to behold in this Flash version of the game. It's gorgeously designed, full of melodious instrumentals and challenging puzzles to be as pleasing to the eyes and ears as it is fun to play!
I can tell that this is a very well-put together game, but sadly it also seems to be one suited for people with a keen ear for music. I am not one of these people.
Oh, how absolutely lovely!!
I am really enjoying this game. What a neat concept!
All middle school teachers need to discover this game for their music curriculum!
I am so happy with this game. Though my classical purist heart does break a little at some of the percussion choices...
@Rygar,
A good ear does put you at an advantage, but it can be solved just based on the sudoku and tetris aspects (it's tricky, but doable... I know because I'm not musically inclined myself).
Musaic Box's designer Alexander Porechnov did an interview here that, besides being an interesting read about how developers come up with game ideas, gives some insight on how to solve the puzzles.
Did anyone else notice that there are two rooms you do not get to vist? Are those rooms available in the Android version of the game?
I'm stuck with Salinthrous. I've been loving the game, but I've found everything in the three rooms I can access. Anyone found how to progress from there?
Are there only three rooms? I've found all the outlines, solved all the music, and unlocked the creation mode, but there are still two rooms I haven't visited.
Enjoyed it immensely, but I must add my voice to the confusion. I finished all the puzzles and three out of the five rooms. I unlocked the creative mode. But the third room still tells me that I have one more clue to find.
It could be a glitch, though, as the scrapbook sometimes would tell me I was on the last available page even though I knew there was an (unfinished) score on the other side.
im stuck on the second room with the song czrds. help plz!
oh never mind! i got it i did'nt know i had to
change the position of the blocks.
is anyone else familiar with the song 'peanut butter' that goes to the tune of alouette?
peanut butter/we like peanut butter/peanut butter/that's what we like best!/do you like it on your shoes?/yes we like it on our shoes/on our shoes/on our shoes/on our shirt/on our shirt/oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! i volunteer at a preschool and they sing that song multiple times a week!
Hi folks,
The flash version is scaled down in size; the downloadable version, which we reviewed here on JIG in 2008, is longer. It's on my wishlist for the next time I buy a game...but in the meantime, this free version is very nice. :)
I don't have a droid but the same difference between the lite and paid apps is likely.
What a delightful game! I really enjoyed trying to solve the puzzles musically instead of just getting all the pieces into the box, especially the Bach puzzle. I actually found the object search parts of the game to be quite tedious compared to trying to put the bits of music together.
I wish that finishing the game would have unlocked full versions of all the songs; I like 'In the Hall of the Mountain King', and the little clip of it isn't nearly enough.
If you're only going to release a demo or otherwise incomplete version of a game, kindly label it as such--otherwise, it looks like it's broken. In this case, it looks like you removed the piece from the third room, but couldn't be bothered to change the counter for the room to reflect this.
For that matter--if you're *only* going to release the full version for *phones*, kindly don't bother doing a PC version in the first place--some of us use phones for making calls and their computers to play games on, after all.
[Sorry that I didn't make my review more clear, Vulpis. You can also download the full version from Big Fish Games. ~elle]
I loved this game as far as I was able to play it. I think I've found all the outline pieces available since all three rooms on the map have a zero. Now I have 7 completed songs and 11 where I only have half the outline. I really really want to do those songs too.
I haven't unlocked the creation mode either.
For the hidden object part of this, it would have been nice to have a hint mechanism. And it would be nice if it stopped suggesting that there was something hidden once it had been found.
Rats... I was about half way into the game when Shockwave crashed - as usual... The guys at Adobe seem to be begging for an iron bar right up their... oh well...
Positive thoughts: I liked the game a lot! Five mushrooms is a no-brainer for this one.
bio
A question, is the android version same as the pc version?
Barbara
I am not sure this really is a spoiler, but if you think you have found everything but can't move on
make sure that you really have solved all of the completed songs in the book. I thought I was stuck and realized there was one I had missed.
I don't know what to do. I've found everything in the three rooms, but I can't move on to the other two. Help?
Nice game, but OMG that creepy instrument that plays when you find all the outlines for a piece. It really adds a lot of spookyness to the game.
Love,love,love. I utterly love this game!
For those that can't move on, there are 16 puzzles in 3 rooms. I have finished all of them and found all the paper pieces. You still can't get into the final 2 rooms. I agree with vulpis if this is a demo it should be disclosed.
Beautiful!
Neat! I am a musician and I know most of the music used, so I went by ear most of the time (mostly sort out the main melody, then fill the gaps.) Like liebs above, I also cringed at the beats behind some of the arrangements of classical pieces, ah, well. Visuals are great, too.
I see how people without musical training can get a bit frustrated at the puzzles. Well, I guess that you can go by shape and colours. The symbols inside the blocks follow the melodic contour of the music they contain, so that can give structural clues too (similar shapes tend to repeat every 2 or 4 columns.)
I agree with sue this game does have educational value for elementary music class, there are a lot of musical concepts very well described.
What a terrific game. The graphics on this were wonderful. Like other commenters, I cringed at the drum beats on some of the music samples but liked that other samples were nicely complex.
My only quibble was with Yankee Doodle Dandy. Maybe it's just me, but it didn't sound even remotely like the Yankee Doodle Dandy I know.
Thank you for leaving the advice about going back to the book when it looks like there's nothing left to do, Frank. Earlier comments in the thread would have left me believing I'd come to the end of the demo if I hadn't seen it.
There should be an easy way to clear the game data if one wants to play it again.
He should make a mac-version. I would buy it then.
Considering that a lot of musicians actually use a mac, it's an obvious choice.
@ejm -
The Musaic Box's rendition of Yankee Doodle had me thrown off, too. Was stuck on that one a long time and had to rely on the shapes and symbols -- and trial and error -- to solve it.
@ebg -
It's on my list to purchase, but I haven't tried the download version yet so I can't know for certain what is different between the two. But because I loved this one so much, I asked to review it. :)
Thanks frank. You were right, I had some with all the pieces that didn't say Solved. Yay!
Looks like I get to solve 11 songs in a row! ... solving ... solving ... it's starting to feel like work. I wish I had a few more hidden objects to find. Looking back at the first day I played this, it was more fun at the beginning when the two types of play were intermixed.
i know this won't help, but i got to the third room, and then i finished everything. but the thing is, the same exact thing happened, but the counter said i had 0 left. maybe because my version is the latest, it was fixed so it said there was nothing else or something. i don't know, but i want the 2 other levels!!!
I pretty much second everything about how cool this piece is, and I also mention that I like how the squiggles reflect the tune that piece plays.
flash version is only a demo so there are only 3 levels. it is suppose to get you to like the game so you will buy it on your phone to get to the final ending of the game.
This is my favorite game of the year so far. Too bad that it ends after three rooms.
Very cool game. :3
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