A Circuit Board Conundrum or a Puzzling Letdown
Ever since I got my Nintendo Game Boy with its transparent casing, the art of circuitry has always fascinated me. So much so, that my real-world job as a component engineer became an extension of that. The metallic components against the backdrop of a green printed circuit board deliver a retro-futuristic look that I can stare at for ages.
But I’ve also always wondered how these devices are made. Well, wonder no more as Pocket Puzzle has shown me how those early day handheld consoles were created, and it is a lot easier than I expected.

Production Lines
Pocket Puzzle is a block-like puzzle game where you have to add conveyor lines to a grid to get three pieces of a Game Boy-esque handheld device together. Crucially here though, the pieces need to arrive at the end square in the correct order: back shell first, circuit board second and finally the top cover. Complete this correctly and the device will turn on, with a little blip not a million miles away from the noise that accompanied the Game Boy turning all on those years ago.
That is really all there is to it. Later levels will have you trying to produce two devices at a time, or include levers that must be activated by having a part of the device move past them. And then the final levels may include a cardboard box for packaging. But ultimately, across the 30 plus 20 bonus levels, the formula doesn’t deviate a whole lot. Once you’ve got the hang of knowing which order the pieces must arrive in, the puzzles become very repetitive.
Conveyor Chaos
You only have a set number of blocks to place in each level, along with a very limited area to work with. That’s where the challenge lies; obviously it would be far easier if you could just delay the top piece from arriving early by sending it around the houses for a while.
But these conveyor blocks also have a mind of their own. Place one down and it will default to the direction it thinks you want it to be placed, which to be fair, is more right than wrong. Click on it again to change its direction. Then, place another block as normal, but also check that the direction of other blocks next to the new one haven’t changed direction too. They have a nasty habit of doing so, and sometimes it can get confusing, when you have arrows pointing every which way, just which one has changed.

Pretty but lifeless
Pocket Puzzle has a cute cartoonish look to it, but there is precious little going on in terms of animation. By that I mean that parts of the devices just move along the conveyors lifelessly. If they pass a lever you see the part move underneath the handle without interacting with it, and then the handle just switches positions. Even if a part falls off a conveyor, it just drops to the floor, but the level can still continue. It is up to you to restart the level.
Every ten levels, the background colour changes to try and inject some substance into it, but I genuinely only noticed that when looking back at some screenshots. Otherwise, it would have completely passed me by.
The bonus levels appear as offshoots to a main level, implying that there is some correlation between those levels e.g.: Level 16, 16-1 and 16-2. However, all the stages feel identical anyways with very little variation or features as you progress, so having certain ones grouped together feels redundant.
Also, when playing the levels one straight after another, Pocket Puzzle just mainlines it, meaning you have to go back into the menus to play these offshoot levels. On the upside though, you only need to complete Level 16 and all associated offshoots beforehand to earn all the achievements; there is no need to carry on through to Level 30. Not for achievements or enjoyment.

A Short-Circuited Puzzle Experience with Limited Appeal
Pocket Puzzle on Xbox is lacking any substance at all, both in gameplay and presentation. And that means it is unfortunately another release that falls into the bucket of achievement fodder. With a guide, you can easily have this wrapped up in 10 minutes, as all you are doing is placing blocks in the right place and pressing go. Yes, there is some thought needed into completing all the puzzles should you run without a guide, but this is far outweighed by the repetition and boredom that will set in very quickly after just a few levels.
By then, you will have seen everything that Pocket Puzzle has to offer, which is never really enough to begin with.
Pocket Puzzle: A Conveyor Belt Conundrum That Will Bend Your Brain – https://www.thexboxhub.com/pocket-puzzle-a-conveyor-belt-conundrum-that-will-bend-your-brain/
Buy Pocket Puzzle on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/Pocket-Puzzle/9PNV46VWNJLF