Peter Frankl: Puzzle no Tou

Also known as: N/A

Developer: TBS

Peter Frankl is actually a pretty fascinating fellow, though I doubt many people from the west have ever heard of him. Born in Hungary in 1953, Mr. Frankl is a mathematician, street performer, and educator with a PhD, that has lived in Japan since 1988, where he's a very well-known personality. He also speaks 12 languages and has traveled to over 100 different countries, lecturing mathematics in many of them. I could go on about the guy, but I suppose I should review this game, eh? Puzzle no Tou is, like you might expect from a game named after a mathematician, a puzzle game heavy in math and logic problems. Between each puzzle, you'll see street performances. You'll see a performance before attempting the puzzle, then you'll see another one with a reward after a successful solve. I will be the first to admit - I did not see a lot of successful solution rewards when the puzzles were math-based. I've never been great at math. However, when the puzzles were more logic-based, I didn't have too much of an issue completing them. An example of a logic puzzle - you have four coins and a scale. One coin is counterfeit and weighs differently that the other three. You don't know whether it weighs more or less, and you're allowed to use the scale to weigh the coins twice to find the solution. I got that one on my first try…it didn't seem too difficult to me. But when 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are all put on the screen, and you're supposed to put a + or - between each number for the total to equal 1…that one made my head hurt. Anyway, despite this being a Japanese-exclusive game, it's English-friendly and worth playing if you like puzzles that make you think a bit. And if you like watching street performances in between, then that's a nice bonus for you.

Review added: 05/07/2025