Lost in a Jigsaw: The Diagonal Maze Puzzle [Review]

Tell me Sarah, what do you think of my labyrinth?  

Location:  at home

Date Played:  May 2021

Team size: we recommend 1-4

Duration: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Price: about $25

Publisher:  Buffalo

REA Reaction

Lost in a Jigsaw: The Diagonal Maze Puzzle was a challenging twist on a traditional jigsaw puzzle. It had “I Spy” elements that reminded me of The Magic Puzzle Company, though it seemed to have been produced much earlier (1997!). Given that every piece fit with any other, this puzzle was challenging, and demands your absolute focus.

Once you’ve completed the challenge of assembling the puzzle, it is up to you to escape from the maze you find yourself trapped in the center of.

If you’re a skilled jigsaw puzzler looking for a difficult jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t take up too much space, I recommend Lost in a Jigsaw: The Diagonal Maze Puzzle. Solving it made me want to solve this puzzle’s sequel.

Who is this for?

• Jigsaw puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Players with at least some experience

Why play?

• Incredible attention to detail
• It’s more than just a jigsaw

Setup

You’ve found yourself in the middle of a garden labyrinth and need to escape. Before you can begin trying to exit the labyrinth, you need to assemble the puzzle you’ll escape from.

Gameplay

Buffalo’s Lost in a Jigsaw: The Diagonal Maze puzzle was a non-standard jigsaw puzzle with a high level of difficulty. Every piece fits with every other. The fine details on the pieces were important thus this jigsaw puzzle would be best assembled in a well-lit room.

At only 515 pieces, it took me longer to solve than most 1000-piece puzzles. Despite my best efforts, and checking the maze route bit by bit before final assembly, I still assembled the puzzle wrong on the first go. Tracing the route out of the maze to validate my assembly allowed me to quickly find my errors.

Analysis

➕ The art was vibrant and visually interesting. Each garden chamber had a scene within it. It was a good thing that there was a lot of detail since I spent a lot of time staring at the nuances on these pieces.

➕ The instructions document inside the box provided hints and rules to help you assemble the puzzle correctly.

➕ The puzzle pieces fit together well and allowed me to move the sections that I had assembled to the side into their proper place in the broader puzzle.

❓ The difficulty level was high. For jigsaw puzzlers who frequently reference the image on the box, this will be a very difficult puzzle. The box art is not an image of the finished puzzle. Personally, I thought the high difficulty was great.

➖ The instructions say “You will not, in most cases, be able to use the artwork to assemble the scenes.” I’m confused by this because this is exactly how I assembled the scenes… by looking at the art on the pieces. Since every piece fit with every other, I’m not sure how you’re supposed to assemble the puzzle if you don’t use the artwork on the pieces. If this instruction was meant to tell you not to refer to the box art, it was not clear.

Tips For Players

• The finished jigsaw puzzle measures 20” by 18.”
• The jigsaw has 515 pieces.
• Learning from competitive puzzle solvers, this puzzle is best solved by assembling groups of like pieces rather than starting from the edge.

Buy your copy of Lost in a Jigsaw: The Diagonal Maze Puzzle, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

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