I play a lot of games on the iPad – I have to you know!  Sometimes I play them once, and get the sense of them, and never again.  Other times I get hooked.

This one was a case of getting hooked! I downloaded and Installed ROXIE’S A-MAZE-ING VACATION ADVENTURE without really knowing anything about it other than that it’s new.

At $3.99 (current special price) it’s on the cheap side of gaming, and let me tell you – this one will make you think.  I’m 34 – and it was a challenge for me – my 4 year old seemed to do better in some places which was mildly embarassing.

Click Continue reading for a good look at the game!

So, what is it? Think where’s wally – but interactive.  That’s the simplest thing I can say.  You start the game in a car, dragging your finger along the roads to drive the car around.  The roads are not as simple as you’d think though with plenty of no-through roads and one way streets to cause you havoc.

The goal is to collect all 85 items across the game, each screen of the game has 5 shiny points you need to drive/walk/ski/paddle past to collect to complete the 5 pointed star on each page.  Then, added to that are some hidden gems in each and every page.  These are anything from the penguin on each page, to a random animal, truck or ‘anything’ shaped like a letter or number.

It took me some time to get the gist, but once I did, I was hooked.

I got totally stuck after 3 ‘screens’ not realising I could drive across a drawbridge which opened up the entire map.

You see there are 16 screens in total, which interlock and cannot be completed one by one, in many cases you have to drop back into another map to complete the exercise.

Here’s the FULL Adventure Map:

A combination of all screens to show the full Hand Drawn adventure

Throughout the game you drive, jump in a plane and fly to an island, ski down a mountain, walk long and complex paths, fly in a hot air balloon and a white water raft – it’s loads of fun.

I really enjoyed it – another great ‘mind numbing’ experience where all the stress of work and home was put aside while I concentrated on this one challenge!

And, as it turns out you can play it over and over again with different random characters across the maps as you go so no two ‘adventures’ are the same.

I highly recommend this if you enjoy the where’s wally style experience, and if you’ve got kids, encourage them to play this, it certainly gets them thinking and there’s some real lateral logic required!

In Fact ; “Educational note” Mazes help children learn decision-making and critical thinking skills. They make them think ahead and plan steps in advance. Mazes teach alternative ways to solve problems and judge spatial relationships. For younger children, mazes help develop fine motor skills; for older children, maneuvering through mazes helps improve handwriting. Researchers have proven that mazes are particularly suited for boys and reluctant readers. And they’re fun!

Here’s proof I did it all (if collecting shots of the entire map wasn’t enough)!

85/85 Challenges complete! Done!