The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and his Square Mind Review (3DS eShop)

The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and his Square Mind is one of the weirdest - and consequently, one of the most interesting - 3DS titles we've encountered. It has just a single play mode, in which the titular baron must escape the confines of his own home.

The trick, however, is that the baron is insane and believes himself to be trapped in a grid drawing of his lavish mansion. The object of the game, then, is to connect rooms by rearranging them in such a way that doorways line up between two rooms. Once successfully connected the baron can then travel between these rooms in search of photographs and items that will help him regain his sanity.

In every stage there's a puzzle piece and a key. The puzzle piece will add a part of the baron's memory, and the key unlocks the end of the stage. Each room is a small cube floating around in an imaginary space. By pressing the 3DS' L button you can zoom out and view all the cubes at once; in this view pushing left or right on the D-Pad will let you view the rooms at an angle revealing the doorways, allowing you to strategize and plan moves. When in this view you can slide the rooms around with a flick of the analogue stick. Every grid is arranged in such a way that there's only one open space at any given time, similar to a sliding puzzle.

The game's puzzles are divided into worlds - there are eight worlds in total with five puzzles apiece, making for a total of 40. As with most puzzle games your mileage may vary. We found a full chapter to take somewhere in the neighborhood of a half hour to 45 minutes, making for a game around six hours in total; for some it'll be easier, based on their skill level.

Each level has a number of smaller photographs - the game refers to them as memories - scattered throughout. These memories are used as a form of currency to unlock various pieces of art, music and video. Each costs a varying amount of memories, ranging anywhere from three to ten. Unfortunately, there's no indication of what you're buying until you've already paid for it - the items on offer are nice, but it would be preferable if the game could provide an explanation of what you were about to purchase beyond informing you what type of media it is. While the music is servicable it's not very memorable, though you can purchase any track you here. It serves as great background music, but it's not something that you'll want to be listening to all the time.