WBG Score: 8
Published by: Big Potato
This is a new one for WBG. Our first jigsaw puzzle review. This site is dedicated to board games but I felt inclined to write a review for this puzzle for three main reasons.
It feels like more of a game than a puzzle. Once the pieces are all assembled, there are still things to do.
It comes from Big Potato games who generally make board games. This is a little side adventure for them too.
It's really, really, fun!
Mayhem in the Library is a combination of a traditional puzzle, a Where Wally/Waldo book, and a picture riddle quiz. 1000 pieces will initially stretch your puzzle building skills, before 101 hidden classic Novels need to be found to fully "complete" this puzzle.
The Jigsaw Puzzle
The Puzzle itself is quite tricky. I don't do a lot of puzzles, but my wife and Mum do, and they helped a lot with this and said it was a little harder than usual. The shapes of the edges for example were not obviously edges. The hard lines that you can usually spot are not there as you can see, but this added to the challenge to me. As someone who is an occasional puzzler, I do not have a system. But for my wife and Mum who wanted to find the edges first, they said they found this frustrating. I liked it.
Another reason it is quite tricky is there are a lot of things that look the same all over the picture. Making it hard to determine where certain things need to go. Books for example. Oh my! There are books everywhere!
The Hidden Puzzles
Then, when you have finished the jigsaw, you need to find 101 hidden books within the picture. Some are instantly obvious, or at least become easy once you get the way this puzzle works. But others will take a while for you to figure out, depending on your knowledge of classic and popular fiction!
I enjoyed having this to do. Generally when you finish a jigsaw, you just pack it away. Something you have had out on your table for a while, reaches it's magnificent ending, and then, boom. That's it. Pack it up, Put it on the shelf to gather dust. You'll never look at it again. What a shame. Whereas with this puzzle, its been out on my table now for close to a month. A few weeks to do the puzzle, and then a good few more weeks to find all the hidden books. I am still not quite there.
I like the fact that I am coming back to it, time after time day after day, to stare at the puzzle I finished. Not just to bask in my glory, although that is a large part of it of course, but to find the books. Its a nice excuse to enjoy the picture you create.
And they make this part easy for you. On the back of the picture you can use to help complete the puzzle, it shows where all the hidden books are, numbered, and with a space to write your answer. Also, on the Big Potato website there is a place you can check your answers, or if you are stuck, simply get them!
Overall, I have to say I absolute loved doing this puzzle. Both the jigsaw part and then hidden book part. It brought my family together in a way games have not for a while. The simple peace and quiet of sitting together, and every now and then screaming, "yes!" It feels good.
I am very pleased I went through this process, and would very much like to try some other jigsaw outs and see what other tricks puzzles have now-a-days. It's nice to see how industries advance and develop. Especially when you haven't looked at them for a while such as myself and jigsaws. I wonder what will come next?
