Features
Have You Ever Been Too Dumb for a Puzzle Game?
Puzzle games are some of the most enduring and memorable experiences in the medium but they can also be incredibly frustrating.
One of the strongest and most notable marks of the hardcore gamer is their pride. Having taken down once insurmountable bosses and cleared nearly impossible levels in countless games, the hardcore gamer holds their skills in the highest regard. But what happens when those skills are of little value, when a puzzle game comes along and makes you feel like the stupidest bastard who ever lived?
This was my recent experience with the wonderful Manifold Garden. While the game immediately fills the player with a sense of joy and wonder at the intricate, endlessly evolving mechanics of its reality bending puzzles, it can also become incredibly daunting very quickly.

Like The Witness before it, Manifold Garden begins with very simple puzzles that can be solved through intuition and experimentation before opening the world up to more complex and difficult challenges. It’s the sort of puzzle game that can put you off of it if you don’t have the drive to keep pounding away. So what should you do?
One of the great debates among the gaming community is whether or not it’s okay to use a walkthrough on your first playthrough of a game. Some stalwarts stubbornly refuse to look at a walkthrough no matter how much time a particular challenge eats up, while others follow a trophy or achievement guide from the moment they boot up a new game.
As a player, I’m somewhere in the middle. While I will always attempt a puzzle or challenge honestly at first, after about 20 minutes I’m gonna be looking up the solution. When I was younger I was more prideful about not resorting to this sort of thing but, as I’ve gotten older and busier, it’s become harder to justify beating my head against a wall for hours while I have 15-20 games sitting in my backlog.
Still, it’s hard to shake the mournful feeling of thinking you might just be too dumb for a game. No doubt this is why generally only the most simplistic of puzzle games gain popularity among the masses. If you look at the most popular puzzle games of all time you’ll find far more games of the Tetris and Dr. Mario variety than of the Portal persuasion.

This can likely be traced to the same prideful human behavior that leads people to pretend they know what someone is talking about in a conversation rather than asking a simple question. Unfortunately, not asking that question keeps you from growing as a person and learning new things. It’s the same with puzzle games, and, as such, players shouldn’t be ashamed to look at a walkthrough every now and again.
After all, if the price of enjoyment on a game, on top of the often steep financial cost, is asking for help once in a while, it’s ultimately a small price to pay for the types of rewarding experiences that can come from a true brain buster of a puzzle game.
So while we may chastise and insult ourselves over being “too dumb” for a game, we ought not to. Asking questions and seeking solutions, even ones we can’t find in our own minds, is the mark of someone who is endlessly learning, always striving to be better. If we don’t challenge ourselves beyond our current skill level, we will never improve, and if the price of improvement is sometimes looking to someone who has already accomplished what we seek to accomplish, than it’s a price well worth paying.

-
Features4 weeks ago
Get Ready: A Top Isekai Anime from the 2020s Is Headed to Hulu!
-
Features3 weeks ago
Social Gaming Venues and the Gamification of Leisure – A New Era of Play
-
Features3 weeks ago
Solo Leveling Snubbed?! You Won’t Believe Who Won First at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards!
-
Culture3 weeks ago
The Global Language of Football: Building Community Beyond Borders
-
Technology4 weeks ago
Is Google Binning Its Google Play Games App?
-
Technology4 weeks ago
How to Download Documents from Scribd
-
Guides4 weeks ago
Boosting and WoW Gold: Why Prestige and Efficiency Drive the Modern MMO Player
-
Technology2 weeks ago
Gamification and Productivity: What Games Can Teach SaaS Tools
-
Features2 weeks ago
Farewell to a Beloved 13-Year-Old Isekai Anime That Brought Us Endless Laughter
-
Features1 week ago
This Upcoming Romance Anime Might Just Break the Internet; Trailer Just Dropped!
-
Features3 weeks ago
Wait, What?! Tom & Jerry Just Turned Into an Anime and It’s Glorious!
-
Culture2 weeks ago
Is the Gaming Industry Killing Gaming Parties?