Flip Puzzle

Here is a nice little toy game I picked up from a Dollarama in my town for all you intellectuals out there. It’s a puzzle game with 2 sides where you are supposed to match the colored balls with the same color slots. Kind of like a Rubik’s Cube, only 2D, these balls remind me of the gumballs you could get at the corner store or out of the gumball machines. There is one ball left out on purpose to allow the balls to be repositioned.

Flip to side 2 and press play

The package taunts me “Are you ready for the challenge”? I was born ready for this challenge.

Ok here we go, out of the package, in my hands and I am ready for the challenge of the flip puzzle. The instructions are as follows:

“Try to match all balls into the same color zone on both sides”

So I have to unsolve it before I solve it? Why?

Well that’s it, mission accomplished. I have to say, that was way too easy. If this were a video game, it would probably have statistics like how long it took to finish and how many times it was turned to finish. No one will ever beat my best score of 0 seconds and 0 turns. They probably should have mixed it up before putting it in the package so I would not have to actually mess with it before trying to solve it. The ideal finished product is already done. It’s like getting one of those puzzles with like 1000 pieces but it is already made with the instructions “separate all pieces and then put back together”. I am going to have to mix the colors so I can actually attempt to get the colors where they are supposed to be.

I wonder if those Rubiks Cube experts could do this one?

Now that it is out of order, there is little chance it will ever look as nice as it did before it was used. I was never really good at the Rubik’s Cube. The only way I could ever win those was when they were made with the colored stickers and you could take them apart. I would just take out all the pieces and put them back in until all the sides were the same color and say I won.

Trying to fiddle with this puzzle game is really irritating. You need to see the side that has the missing ball but at the same time you need to see the other side to find out which ball you want to slide. You have to keep looking on both sides to make sure the ball you want to switch is in the right place while keeping the ones you don’t want moved from shifting as you are trying to rotate the side. You end up having a ball fall to the lower level if the missing ball is on the other side or you have to blindly push a ball up into the open slot.

It is a neat idea but this is a 3D world and since Rubiks Cubes have been out for a long time, why go back to a 2D world?

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2 Responses to “Flip Puzzle”

1. Nelson says:

   October 31, 2007 at 5:00 pm

   Nice hehe. I love the pictures you’re using and these are some wacky toys.

   Reply
2. C Byrd says:

   July 13, 2010 at 8:54 am

   I found one of these at a garage sale. Any idea what the name is, who made it, etc? Still working on solution – only 1 ball out of position.

   Reply