Puzzle Dimension is a brand new PSN puzzle game that’s made its way onto PlayStation 3 after its initial release on PC/Mac. The concept is simple enough: collect all the sunflowers and make your way to the exit. However, all manner of traps and puzzles lie in front of you as you attempt to finish each level, some of which will test your spatial awareness to the limit.

You control a single ball, which you move along a series of slabs of various materials and contexts. You can roll in any direction but not diagonally, and you can jump. You can even roll upside down, as if the slabs have their own independent gravity or magnetism – however, roll or jump over an edge and you’ve had it. Different types of slab have different effects, for example some ‘ice’ slabs will generate infinite inertia so you won’t stop sliding on them until you reach a non-ice slab. There are also weak slabs that break underneath you after one roll, and a variety of switches, fire plates, gizmos and other interactive hazards to watch out for.

Sometimes it’s a matter of hitting the right switches to get to where you want, and sometimes its a matter of ensuring that you collect the sunflowers in the right order. Sometimes it’s a matter of both. Then you’ve got the obstacles themselves to navigate, as well as the twisting terrain that arches up and below you, making you think about where you’ll end up before you go there. The gameplay essentially boils down to trial and error, with you then repeating all the tricks you’ve learned in each level until you can do them all in one go without falling off the side or being otherwise destroyed.

If this all sounds quite tricky, it is. But it’s not impossible, and that’s what makes Puzzle Dimension work. No matter how hard any of the puzzles seem (and they do seem very hard towards the end), with a little spatial awareness, and a lot of patience, you should be able to overcome pretty much anything. Unlike some puzzle games, Puzzle Dimension feels varied within each level and throughout the game itself, constantly keeping you on your toes with new ideas.

Graphically, Puzzle Dimension looks very slick indeed. There isn’t much detail in the textures, but the 1080p 60FPS visuals immediately grab your attention and look very polished. Conversely, the presentation is actually quite basic – even the name is a no-frills affair! The menus are a fairly standard affair, and the game’s tutorial section is just tacked on as a different menu item. This doesn’t impair the gameplay at all, but it would have been nice to have the tutorial built into the early levels like in the Portal games.

The sound effects are decent enough and the music is fine – it’s very retro sounding, and pleasant to listen to in the background. The only problem is that it becomes monotonous after a while and there’s no ‘in-game music’ option to let you play any mp3s stored on your PlayStation 3. It’s no deal breaker however, as the gameplay is addictive enough to make up for this.

If you’ve ever played Kula World, you’ll have an idea of what to expect from this. It’s on the difficult side at times, but not ridiculously hard, and you don’t have to complete each zone’s set of levels to advance to the next zone – once you’ve won enough levels, the next zone automatically unlocks. This is a useful feature that lets you progress when you might be struggling elsewhere, allowing you to come back at a later date to complete any unfinished levels.

Puzzle Dimension isn’t for everyone, and there is a lot of competition in the PSN puzzle-game sector, but it works well and is worth several hours of your time if you’re into the genre. There is Trophy support too, and even though there are only a handful to collect, some will take you quite a while to obtain.

Puzzle Dimension is released on 29th June 2011 in the UK/Europe.

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