At The Carnival

The master of all puzzle games, Cliff Johnson, made a mind teasing game about his experiences of working in different amusement parks. At The Carnival has those nostalgic “early-pc” graphics and puzzles that will keep you glued to your computer for hours, sometimes laughing and other times frustrated, but still always entertained. 

At The Carnival has series of puzzles based on amusement park –theme. The game will take the player to different thrilling rides located in Hazard Park, bathroom’s waiting lines, haunted house and all those little stores that sell souvenirs and snacks. Some of the puzzles are quite easy, including actual jigsaw-like puzzles and word search. Other puzzles are harder, including mazes and “word masking” where you have to turn on and off different shapes to form a word. 

At The Carnival have some major differences to the other brilliant Cliff Johnson game The Fool’s Errand. In Carnival, all the levels are visible and accessible right from the beginning, so you don’t need to solve other puzzles before proceeding to the following levels. That adds to playability, because if you get stuck somewhere, you can still proceed to somewhere else. The game lacks of a real plot which can be found in Fool’s Errand; Here the player just wanders around the game solving puzzles, which actually reminds a nice stroll around a real amusement park. 

The game has some more or less twisted humour in it, as the maker has seen amusement parks from behind the scenes and not just the pretty outside. The game makes fun of long waiting lines, visitor safety and high prices, amongst other things. The game has some thoughts which younger players might find offensive in that “Santa Claus is not real” –style. Older players will laugh with the game, remembering all those times they have visited amusement parks and gone through most of the stuff portrayed in the game. 

Reviewed by Minti