One of the very first games I remember downloading for my iPhone was a Labyrinth game. I liked it well enough, and it showcased what sort of things could be made on the iPhone. Wooden Labyrinth 3D ups the ante considerably with just a few minor tweaks, and one outside feature that could keep the genre fresh for the foreseeable future.
The tweaks I mentioned — adding 3D depth to the board and allowing players to jump their ball — are so simple it’s strange they hadn’t been implemented sooner. Simple though they may be, they’re just terrific additions to this game.
Giving the labyrinth boards depth means that certain walls have greater height than others. This, in turn, means that it actually makes sense to jump. Lucky jumps can have you skipping through huge portions of a puzzle because you noticed a short wall.
But even more than that, jumping means the holes on the board can be organized in a much more antagonistic way. Sure, the effect is a wash if you can just jump over the hole, but at the very least, the jumping adds a whole new element to the level design that helps keep a very simple style of game fresh.
However, its the outside feature that may keep people playing Wooden Labyrinth 3D for as long as its supported. Developer Elias Pietila, was beyond wise to add a level editor and download codes so players could create their own labyrinth puzzles. The game itself comes packed with randomly generated puzzles and several set designs as it is, but when you factor in the downloadable, user-created puzzles, that’s a lot of bang for your buck.
The labyrinth genre may seem like old hat by now given how many graphically impressive iPhone games there are available, but if you’re looking for a classic puzzle experience, Wooden Labyrinth 3D is easily the best of the bunch.
