"To think, I only got this game for $1.99"

Gearheads is a fun little puzzle game that I am sure not many people have heard of. I first found out about Gearheads at school, where they had a shareware version on one of the computers. I was hooked. After a year or two, I noticed the full version of Gearheads was for sale at a local department store for, get this, $1.99 (or somewhere around two bucks). I immediately picked it up & bought it. When I got home, I put it in my computer and I finally got to experience what the complete version of the game was like. What did I think of it? Keep reading..

Alright, let's talk about the graphics first. The graphics are very clean looking and the characters in the game are detailed enough to make them look good. The environments look great - my favorite is the black & white tiles floor. It actually surprised me how good this puzzle game's graphics were.

The whole point of Gearheads is to get 21 toys across the screen to the other side before your opponent does the same. There are somewhere around 12 (?) toys to select, and each one of them is unique in their own special way. For example, one of the toys is a white glove called Handy. Handy is very fast and moves straight instead of diagonal or erratic like some other toys. What makes Handy different from the others is the fact that he can restart yours (or your opponents) toys that had died down on the short journey to the other side of the stage. Some of the other toys involve a Santa Claus look a like called Krush Kringle that pounds on the stage turning any toys nearby in the other direction, and a magical penguin that can disappear from one part of the stage to another. Like I have said, each toy is unique in their own way.

There are four different regular playfields to battle on in Gearheads - the kitchen, a frozen pond, a garden, and a factory. Plus, there are special championship arenas every once in a while that are pretty fun, too. My favorite of all of the playfields and arenas is the frozen pond because the toys slide on the ice. Overall, the gameplay is slightly above average.

Now, Gearheads has some pretty good sound. The music is good, and so are the sound effects at first, but they soon become annoying. Each toy has their own little soundbite that will get played over and over again during the game. There may be a couple soundbites for each toy, but I'm not sure. Whatever the case is, the sound isn't too bad nor is it too good.

Should you buy Gearheads? If you are a fan of puzzle games, then yes, buy Gearheads but only if you can find it for less than $5. I highly doubt we will ever get a Gearheads 2, so this will have to do.

Shady's Final Analysis:

Like I said in the opening sentence of this review, Gearheads is a fun little puzzle game. If you can find the game, and if you are a fan of any kind of puzzle games, give Gearheads a try. It is a good way to waste a rainy Saturday afternoon. Overall, Gearheads gets a 7 out of 10 from me, Shady. Booyah.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/00, Updated 12/02/00