Musaic Box Android app, by developer HeroCraft, is a unique blend of music box puzzling, detective style click-and-touch, and mystery title, all available on the Android platform. It’s a very good entry into the puzzling genre, and if you’re a fan of music, or any of those old Nancy Drew mystery games for the desktop computer, you owe it to yourself to give Musaic Box Android app a go. The Android app is even on sale for a limited time, clocking in at $0.99 in the Android Market.
Concept and Gameplay
Musaic Box
As stated, Musaic Box is somewhere between a traditional point-and-click adventure game and a unique music puzzler. Both aspects are here in spades, and if you’re a fan of either, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to dip your toes into the plot while scratching that need to puzzle.
The game has players searching various rooms for musical scores. The bits and scraps of the staves the user finds are collected in the player’s chapbook. In this sense, Musaic Box is no different than any more traditional puzzle hunting game, especially those like Myst. However, once all the pieces of a score have been collected, the game shifts gears, dragging the player into a music-based jigsaw puzzle wrapped around a tune box.
The player is presented with a musical box spring, as well as a plethora of game pieces. Each can be clicked to be heard, and using the melody provided below, the player must arrange the pieces to both fit the game board and accurately recreate the melody. Some are easier than others, but all in all, it’s an incredibly engaging experience, especially if you have even a basic knowledge of classical music.
As fun as Musaic Box is, it’s worth noting that not everyone will be pleased with it. The game’s puzzles are not based in logic, so much as they are in musicality: If you happen to be lacking in the latter, it might be quite a difficult title.
Art and Graphics
We quite liked the art style of Musaic Box, even though we wish puzzle games would really move beyond the Late Victorian aesthetic they all seem to crave so much. Either way, a great amount of detail has been give to the art, and the end result is a wonderful, eye-candy filled world of antique furniture, musical staves, and whirling, rune-based music boxes.
Overall Value
Considering Musaic Box clocks in at the always-pleasant $0.99 range (for a limited time only) you’ve really got nothing to lose by giving it a go. The title offers a lot of fun gameplay, with multiple rooms and more music puzzles than one can shake a stick at. The graphics are a delight, and the music itself is soothing. If you’re looking for a relaxing way to game on your Android device—especially with a music twist—you could hardly do better than Musaic Box.
Android Apps Review Details: Musaic Box app is free. This app requires Android 1.5 and up. You may download Musaic Box from the Android Market. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
