Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My first Review, But since no one has said anything about the 4th issuing in the Perplexus line, I thought I would jump in... I have some positives and some negatives to discuss. Its a lot of fun and easily the best one they have made yet... The ball has been divided into two halves. One rotates while the other is locked, and the player has to align both gravity and the tracks to continue. All of the transitions are very fun and original, they properly utilized the full potential of the twisting mechanic. (including one memorable transition where the player pins the ball between 2 arms and flips the sphere 180' while the marble is being held). The player spends most of the time going directly back and forth between the "red" and "blue" halves of the sphere via a series of connecting ramps or "Spokes", most of the spokes contain at least one obstacle but there are several segments where you travel along more traditional tracks and have a prolonged stay on one side or the other. (Usually the blue half as it is locked to the sphere and the player has greater control). The dead ends are quite entertaining because They lead to many cool "Aha!" moments as you discover how and where the track continues, adding yet another fun mindbending layer to this puzzle. However the official advertising and packaging for the product is somewhat incorrect, they claim there are 30 transitions between the 2 halves, but in reality there are only about 12 (5 spokes each with 2 tracks on a side, do the math... plus the ball runs up and down the central rotating core itself twice). They also claim there are 100 barriers but I cant see how there are more than 70. Also their trademark "numbering" every turn is different in this model... using some new system that seems to count every third step and only goes up to 30. There was more than enough room to add more tracks, but the twisting mechanic takes up a lot of space and seems to have severely limited the complexity of the overall design, so its a bit of a trade off... but it is certainly longer and and more complex than last years "rookie" model So in short, its length is between the rookie and the original, its size is the same as the original, and its difficulty is slightly harder than the original. (Most of which only comes from having your hands at 2 fixed points for 80% of the time). however it is as unforgiving as the "epic" model. Aimed at someone already familiar with these types of puzzles, an inexperienced player will not likely make it beyond step 4. I would have given the product a perfect review if not for the incorrect advertising and packaging overstating the models complexity... But i would still highly recommend this toy, and have already incorporated it as a full time part of my therapy group