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The Ailurophiles (that's cat lovers for those who have not swallowed a dictionary) at 8 Floor Games have produced their version 4 of the company's Cute Cats series of jigsaws.  As usual this title presents its collection of 500 images spread over five books, each holding 100 images displayed on 26 pages.  Whether of portrait or the more common landscape orientation, each image is accompanied by a number indicating how many pieces make up the jigsaw and a rotation symbol if the puzzle contains pieces that may need to be rotated in 90 degree increments in order to fit within the image.

Running across the bottom of the screen is a row of icons representing features such as Trophies gained, Top Ten, Play, Modify and Options.  While selecting the Play icon will allow you to start putting the jigsaw pieces together, the Modify icon allows you to adjust the number of pieces making up the puzzle and the cut angle used in their construction.  These two tasks are carried out using a slider bar option for each one.  You will also be able to reverse the application of a rotation feature if present within the puzzle.

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When opting to start the puzzle. you will be presented with a view consisting of a work area, using a choice of four pastel shades, around which the jigsaw pieces will be scattered randomly.  The original icons will have been dispensed with and a different set will run across the bottom of the work area.  You will also have access to a pocket feature which will sit in the top left corner of the screen and allow you to temporally store pieces you do not need immediately when working on the specific areas of the puzzle. 

This second set of icons will allow you to change the background colour of the work area, display a large thumbnail of what is to be the finished image or a ghost image of the current image onto which you can lay pieces in their correct position.  Another icon will allows you to examine areas of the scene with a magnifying glass.  A border icon will automatically remove central puzzle pieces so you can concentrate on creating the border.  Once the border is constructed then the central pieces will be returned.  A Hint icon will suggest the possible placement of one piece.  There is also a Sort icon but I was never happy with the results its achieved whenever I used this feature.

While being a committed feline fan, as the regular visitors to my back door in search of their daily treats will confirm, I do have a couple of criticism regarding this title.  The use of white text on a yellow background, as seen in the Option section, could hardly be considered user-friendly as you struggled to work out what was required.  The product also lacks a facility to append an appropriate title to an individual image. 

I downloaded my copy of this game from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $9.99.  The game requires a 1.0 GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and 118MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.

1001 Jigsaw Cute Cats 4 | GameHouse