Molecule - a chemical challenge

Review

Chemistry was one of those subjects that I personally found boring when I was at school. To this day, I still don’t understand why a student who was studying commerce needed to have an idea about chemistry!  The only explanation that I can think of, is that the school was trying to turn its students into some sort of alchemists, turning rocks into gold and making money for the school! If only they were able to teach chemistry in a fun way, just like in Molecule – a chemical challenge!

Molecule – a chemical challenge is a puzzle game where you have to assemble a group of atoms to create a molecule in the minimum number of moves within a confined space.

The first couple of puzzles are pretty much a small tutorial to show you how to play the game. There are 40 levels to clear in Molecule – a chemical challenge. Each molecule that you have to assemble varies in complexity from between 2 and 19 atoms, depending of the level.

Each level will have a specific enclosed space. Some will have corridors or occupied square blocks within them. As mentioned, your goal is to reconstruct the molecule within the minimum number of moves. The first time you manage to rebuild on each of the stages, you’ll be rewarded with a golden star. Now comes the part that I really like! Let’s say that you have reassembled the molecule in 22 moves on your first try. To receive three golden stars, you must do it again in the same number or fewer moves than on your first attempt. To be honest, it is amazing to realise that what you managed to achieve only few minutes prior is now somehow lost somewhere within the compartments of your brain (don’t despair ladies and gents, you’ll get used to it when you hit a certain age!) Jokes aside, you really have to concentrate on every move you make and visualise them so that you can reproduce them on your second try - great stuff! The other thing I like about the game is that at the end of each level, it will tell you what the molecule is used for, which is a great learning add-on in my opinion.

The gameplay is pretty easy as you have to select each of the atoms with your mouse and flick it either left, right, up or down. The trick is to find the right location within the confined space to replicate the molecule. There a couple of variations in the latest levels, where you have to get through a specific rotating square in order to change the shape of their forms. The other is to move a molecule to a square which has a trigger that makes a block disappear as long as your molecule stays on it.

Graphically, it is average, but the game runs well. I really like the music in the intro but it would have been great to have more than track one on a loop. I do think the game needs more content (levels), but it’s really fun to play!