Svetnashki - New Versions

A couple of months ago, I made a review about a new type of puzzle, the Svetnashki. Refer to this review for a detailed explanation of the puzzle.

Now, I'll review two of its new versions along with the 10cm Classic version (the first one had 7cm).

Svetnashki 6x6

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This new version extends the playing field to a 6x6 grid, so now you can make much more elaborate patterns.

The goal is the same. Get all the tiles polarized (dark), all transparent or just let your imagination run free to create all sorts of patterns. Like the 4x4 Svetnashki, you can also make any possible pattern you can think of in a 6x6 grid, because you can polarize any tile that you want. 

The design is similar to the 4x4 Svetnashki that I first reviewed, with the slimmer body. Only the outer boarder is purple, giving it a more classy finish.

Regarding its difficulty, it's a little bit more tricky to handle than the 4x4, mainly because this time you have more tiles to maneuver, which can make you slide a tile that you didn't want to move or you may find yourself frustrated, trying to get a tile to a particular place without moving the others behind it. Now, If you don't want to turn this into a dexterity puzzle, you have to apply a technique to help you move a tile and, at the same time, keep the others in place. The best I've come up with is this: when you want to move a specific tile, hold and push the first tile of the perpendicular row just behind that one. This is going to stop the other tiles of the same row to slide together with the one that you want. Now just tilt the puzzle on the direction you wanted, to allow the desired tile to slide into place.

To conclude, when you have total control on which specific tiles you want to move, the puzzle will be very fun to play with and much more entertaining than the 4x4, giving that you can make more complex patterns.

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VIDEO - The video isn't top-notch, but you get the general idea. It's a little hard to manipulate the puzzle in front of a camera, when you have much more control over it, playing face down. Also, because the puzzle is made out of clear glass, you can see some light reflexions on it... 

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Svetnashki Double

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This is a tricky one... As the name suggests, it has two playing fields, one on each side.

The size and design is equal to the smaller 4x4, but larger in width and it's orange. Again, nice finishing touch to distinguish the different versions.

The main goal is similar to the previous ones except with this one, things get a little more complicated. Now, you not only have to think about creating patterns on one playing field, but you have to worry about the other side as well. 

Difficulty wise, this is the harder one of them all, even if you're now the master of the 6x6. When you move a tile from one side, the others from the back side move too and it's much more difficult to block these from slide, with just two hands. In order to get a particular pattern, you have to move both fields synchronous with each other, so that each correspondent tile from each side moves together in the same direction. Like the 6x6 Svetnashki, you have to come up with a practical technique to manipulate the puzzle (a suggestion would be to insert a piece of paper in the empty tile space and just solve one field at a time, but I think that would be a sort of cheating...).

Besides the main goal, in other words, to create an exact pattern in both sides, you can take advantage of the double fields to create other shades of polarized tiles and make different patterns. So you'd get clear tiles, back side polarized tiles, front side polarized tiles and both sides polarized tiles.

In conclusion, it's a joy to play with and a very challenging puzzle, but isn't that what a puzzle lover is after?

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VIDEO

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Svetnashki Classic

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This is my favorite, design wise. It's visually the most pleasing one, with the same 4x4 field, but larger in both length and width and with more beautiful finishing touches. Definitely a must have for a collector. 

The classic design has a few advantages over the slimmer 4x4. For example, you can manipulate the tiles much more easily, because the apertures in the field let's you slide all four tiles of the outer boarder, instead of just two in the slimmer design. Also, because of the larger and heavier size, it's easier to hold it without the fear of letting it slip out of your hands.

It would be great to have the other versions made in this design as well. Looking at them from a collector's point of view, it would be much more appealing to have each version with all these amazing finishing touches (maybe a suggestion for the building company, when they release new versions). Until then, I urge everyone that still don't have a Svetnashki puzzle, to buy at least the version that pleases you the most.

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VIDEO

Availability: PuzzleMaster has several different versions available.