I am not a huge fan of puzzles. If I have time to myself, I prefer to play video games or a solo board game. Sarah (my wife) LOVES puzzles and would rather work on a puzzle during her downtime. When not watching movies or Netflix, we play about one board game a week together, and rarely do puzzles.

While at Gen Con, Tony suggested that I take a review copy of MicroMacro: The Home Game Jigsaw puzzle home so that I could give Sarah a break from the tens and tens of board games she plays with me annually (Editor’s Note: It was actually Brian’s idea. Tony didn’t even know she liked puzzles). The intense negotiations went something like this:

Tony: You want it?

Me: Yes.

That is the true story of how I received my copy of MicroMacro: The Home Game!

Gameplay Overview:

MicroMacro: The Home Game Jigsaw Puzzle is a 500-piece puzzle that utilizes the same art style as all other MicroMacro titles. The puzzle depicts a socc….errrrr, a football game, as well as the neighborhood surrounding the stadium. It is “just” a puzzle; however, there is more to it after you complete it. There are forty-two hidden objects to find (think Where’s Waldo?), as well as two cases to solve, like other MicroMacro games.

The border is complete. Now for the hard part! Inside the border is the picture of the scene included in the puzzle.

Game Experience:

What made me wish I had more MicroMacro puzzles to complete:

This was a unique puzzle to try to complete. We loved the scene itself. A crazy football game, a graveyard, a marina, a crime syndicate. You name it, it is probably included in the puzzle. We built the border first. That was not overly difficult. Then we thought we should group pieces with similar items together, but quickly scrapped that idea when we had 10+ piles. We fell back to our old puzzle-solving habits and put pieces that belonged together near where they fit into the puzzle. This took… a long time; however, with grit and determination (as well as having recruited holiday helpers), progress became steady. While we did find the puzzle more difficult than our normal tastes (more on that later), there was satisfaction in finally solving the puzzle.

Once the puzzle is complete, there are two downloadable cases to be solved. They consist of following clues and trying to find the answers in the puzzle you just completed. We LOVED this part of the game. It was awesome going back to the puzzle and realizing that characters that were doing something that previously looked odd actually made sense now that the case laid out what was going on.

So…black and white. So…difficult.

What made me wish I were playing a board game:

Unless you (a) find difficult puzzles relaxing or (b) do not believe that working on a puzzle should be cozy and relaxing, you may want to look at the box to determine if it looks fun to you. As previously stated, it is black and white. This makes the puzzle more difficult because the pieces are more homogeneous. I never realized how much I relied on color to find pieces that interlock until I tried this one. There are alternating blank and striped boxes on the edge pieces to assist, but once you get past that, it gets much more difficult. And while we both love the art style, it lends itself to characters and objects (I am looking at you, trees) looking similar. In fact, when it comes to the cases and solving them, the same character(s) are repeated as you follow them around the scene. This just added to the difficulty.

I tried sorting puzzle pieces by common themes. This did not work.

What we really needed to improve our puzzle solving skills was the inclusion of more than one poster with a full picture of the scene. Only one was included in the box. The picture on the box, both on the back and the front, does not include the entire scene and/or was blocked by other images. I tried taking pictures of it on my phone, but zooming in and out proved difficult. It is bigger than a standard sheet of paper, so photocopying it would not have been easy. Instead, we simultaneously played “It’s MY turn with the picture!!!” and “Have you seen the guy with the hat by the tree?”

Finally, while we really enjoyed solving the two downloadable cases, we wish there had been more. As previously stated, it was our favorite part of the puzzle. Finding the forty-two hidden objects was fun, but because we took so long to complete the puzzle and looked at the same pieces so many times, it was rather easy for us to find the objects because we remembered most of them. The cases were more challenging and involved. We just wanted … more. After completing the cases, I told Sarah about the number of cases that are included in the non-puzzle MicroMacro games. Guess what is on her birthday list!

Final Thoughts:

Sarah and I had a decent time completing the puzzle and two associated cases. It was difficult for us, but we prefer our puzzles to be less complex. We also may have left it out over Thanksgiving weekend, allowing other family members to assist participate. We are not sure we will buy another MicroMacro puzzle unless it includes more cases or we get bored with “normie” puzzles. That being said, it was nice to take a break from playing board games to do a puzzle together. If you are looking for something different, and the difficulty does not bother you, we both recommend trying this out.

Final Score: 3 Stars – A fun experience for those looking to have a more gamey puzzle experience.

Hits:
• Intricate puzzle
• Fun cases

Misses:
• Difficult puzzle
• Only one picture of the full puzzle
• Needs more cases