Review – Naughty or Nice: A Puzzle Postcard Game by The Enigma Emporium
Website Link – https://www.theenigmaemporium.com
Price – $15.00
Disclaimer: we purchased the game with our own money, this review is not sponsored. All thoughts are our own.
Product:
The Enigma Emporium’s Naughty or Nice: A Puzzle Postcard Game is a Christmas themed puzzling experience. In this game, players will take on the roles of elves assigned the task of pulling important information from letters to Santa.
The game is made up of five postcards full of puzzles. Players are responsible for figuring out the children’s names, their desired toys, their country of origin, what snack they are leaving for Santa, and whether the child has been naughty or nice. Each postcard is self contained and will have puzzles hiding each piece of information for a single child. In total, there are about twenty five puzzles to solve in Naughty or Nice.
While there are technically no digital elements to this game, players may still require the internet. The hint system can be found online. Also, players will probably also need to look up holiday themed facts they may not have memorized.
As a duo, the game took us about two hours to complete.
Our Thoughts:
While we may still be just a little early, it felt right to do a holiday-themed puzzle as we near the end of the year. The Enigma Emporium’s Naughty or Nice did a swell job scratching that itch. The theming is well done and each of the five postcards are very well designed.
We liked the cute premise of being helper elves. It was also fun getting to know the children who sent the postcards. Through their notes and revealed information, they felt a bit more real. We also had fun guessing what kids would be naughty or nice based on the information at hand before finally finding out for sure through puzzle solving. Think of the narrative as a fresh and light snowfall. It may not be too deep, but it’s still enjoyable and a great excuse to have some fun.
The puzzles themselves are what we’ve come to expect from The Enigma Emporium: well-designed and pretty challenging. The puzzles are all doable, but we find they definitely take some thought. There were quite a few times when we could see a bunch of puzzle elements, but still found ourselves a bit stuck on what to do with them. Eventually, we figured everything out, but the challenge level was high.
Naughty or Nice does an excellent job of packing a lot of information and puzzle elements into limited space without ever making their postcards feel overcrowded or overwhelming. Though there are a few repeating elements across the postcards and they each have players looking for the same kinds of information, there is enough variety to make each card feel unique.
Naughty or Nice is a great holiday-themed challenge for experienced puzzlers or those who don’t mind strapping on their thinking cap tightly. The premise is cute and the puzzles are well-designed.
Official C&C Rating:
Narrative: 2.5/5
Puzzles: 3.5/5
Overall Fun: 3.5/5
Total Averaged Rating: 3/5 Stars
Chaos & Confetti 