Another year went by, and with it more puzzles solved.
For me this year has been the year I came back from a long puzzling hiatus.
The reason for that?
Lockdowns.
While 2020 was a very challenging year to all, it brought up the puzzling hobby for many people, myself included.
So with the end of a very special year, comes a special post!
I’m gonna talk about the 4 top puzzles that influenced me most this year.
Here are the rules, from me to myself:
Only puzzles SOLVED in 2020 are eligible.
No time restriction of release-date.
No budget restrictions.
All puzzles talked about in the post have had some kind of influence on me or my preferences.
Let’s go!
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Revomaze Silver by Chris Pitt
Revomaze has been one of my favorite series of all time (probably THE favorite), for two main reasons –
The first is the progressive and unique solves they offer.
The second is the very high difficulty, while still having enough feedback to solve.
Revomaze Silver is one of the hardest Revomazes there are, and remained unsolved at my home for…
7, 8 years.
With a mix of different abilities needed to fully solve it, understanding the maze was not enough.
So when I finally did it, I felt a huge adrenaline rush that made sleeping even harder.
I was awake almost all night, celebrating the occurance.
Frankly, this solve was one of the main reasons my enthusiasm to puzzles rose high enough to open a puzzle blog. Thank you Revomaze!
Turtle Trip by Gerard Hudson
Before I started the Puzzle Wanderer blog, plastic was my least favorite material for puzzles.
But for some reason, a puzzle made of 3D printed plastic was talked about a lot in the Mechanical Puzzles discord.
It was agreed by all that this puzzle is a spectacular sequential discovery puzzle.
So I decided to purchase it, but could only afford it OR Where’s My Hammer by Dee Dixon.
That’s when a good mate of mine, Tom, decided to save me from the hard choice.
So he lent me his Turtle Trip. Much appreciated <3
And wow wow wow, for 300$, this one packs hell of a party.
Aside from the original theme and story, it has SO MANY unique tricks and puzzles to solve.
It was an absolutely adorable solve. Setting it aside was a huge challenge (even my SO was envious).
I can say for sure that if it was CnC machined, it would’ve costed 600$ at the very least.
Following this experience, I opened myself much more to 3D printed puzzles.
For a much lower price you can get much more puzzling, because of the relatively cheap material.
The result?
Pair-o-dice by Tye Stahly, another very well-received 3D printed puzzle is on its way to me.
Karakuri’s Penguin Box
I’ve always known Karakuri are best for puzzle Hunters.
Their wooden craftsmanship is very likely the best in the market.
But with very good craftsmanship comes a fitting price tag.
When I was at Tom’s place, we played with some of his impressive Karakuri collection.
We both had a really good time examining and playing with them, and this year’s membership gifts, and had a good laugh at the humor and cuteness of the designs.
While having great fun with Karakuri Penguin Box, made by Yoh Kakuda and originally designed by Yoichi Chiku, I understood something important.
Most of the boxes from Karakuri I tried, highly sought-after as they were, were not hard puzzles.
No, really – they didn’t require more than 3 steps to open.
From my perspective, a budget-limited Champion solver (driven by puzzling experience per buck spent), the high-end Karakuris are more than I can afford and straight up can’t give me enough bang-for-the-buck.
So of course, when I become more stable and decide to maintain an exquisite collection, Karakuri will be a good way to go.
With that in mind, for Wanderers and Champions, Karakuri boxes may be less appealing.
So my advice for budget-restricted puzzlers like myself would be – don’t buy unless you know for sure it’s a hard puzzle.
And yeah, it’s hard to resist godlike craftsmanship. But a budget is a budget!
Oleo 10
Since the very beginning of puzzling I thought assembly is not a type for me.
I can’t really say why, that’s just what I believed.
Because I wanted to improve the recommendations I can give to you guys, I decided to give assembly puzzles another shot.
Since I want to be able to recommend the best puzzles for Wanderers too, I also decided to change my puzzle-buying habits and start buying more low-budget puzzles to review.
This decision, along with a well-timed proposal, led to me to the Oleo 10 puzzle by Yuu Asaka, which I reviewed here.
Not only I liked it very much, but also I learned that you never know when you’ll fall for a new puzzle type. What a dynamic world we live in!
I’m sorry wallet, seems like there’s more puzzles I like now.
(Wallet: “noooooooooooooooooooooooo”)
Verdict
A challenging year it was,
But in Puzzle Wanderer, challenges are part of the hobby.
I’m happy to learn and improve in the puzzling sphere, and hope you all are able to do so too.
At the same opportunity, I want to take this moment to wish you a fabulous new year 2021, full of enviromental improvement, peace of mind and well-being, for you and for your friends and families.
Peace.