A tiny robot travelling through space suddenly crash lands onto a strange plot of land. It recovers from its dazed state only to be surrounded by strange structures and moveable brick bridges. Seeking a way out, it explores the terrain and realizes it’s stuck in a bunch of puzzles! A red dot hidden amongst the structures is the robot’s only way of escape. Will you help lead a tiny robot home?

Mekorama has more than 127 diorama puzzles that unlock in the form of level cards. Each time you solve a puzzle, two more will unlock. I assume the developers did this in case you were stuck on a specific puzzle, giving you a chance to progress further if you solve the other puzzle unlocked. This feature is extremely helpful if you want to continue riding the free to play wave. However, if you’re a perfectionist and require closure by completing every single puzzle, you can donate as much as a dollar in order to take a peek at the hints.

The first puzzle you discover is the in-game tutorial, teaching you how to move your robot. The next lesson covers how to rotate the three-dimensional puzzle and move around blocks to access unreachable areas. Exploring each side of the puzzle is essential in reaching the deceitfully trivial but almighty red button that grants you access to the next level. The next few puzzles follow the same concept and you’ll need to play around with the skills you learnt in the tutorial in order to solve them.

I have to admit that I didn’t expect much when opening the game but these puzzles are designed very intelligently and can get extremely challenging to solve. Some puzzles like the one featured above, fool you into thinking you’re in for a simple ‘tap, move and win’, but actually require quite a few minutes of thought, trial and error before you solve it.

Later stages will require you to time your movements properly with the introduction of roaming electrocuting battery-looking robots. Upon contact, your poor little robot will be electrocuted as you watch it fall off the puzzle onto its face, or drown in sad misery if the puzzle involves a body of water. The game doesn’t automatically restart the level so you can take all the time you need grieving for the loss of your tiny robot before manually restarting via the menu. Quite a sadistic move from the developers I might say.

Mekorama’s user interface is presented like a digital book, swiping left or right flips to other features in the game. You can make your own masochistic levels and share them with your friends and other players, or you can find tons of other levels to solve on the official Facebook and Twitter page for Mekorama. Simply scan the QR code in-game on the images and the game will pull them right into your library.

Mekorama is best for people with some gaming experience

• You play a charming robot, what’s not to love?
• Features over 127 adorable diorama puzzles to keep you entertained.
• Complex puzzles can be quite challenging especially for beginners
• Low cost of entry when you need a hint to complete the puzzle.

Difficulty: Moderate

Mekorama is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Source for Images: In-game screenshots