In an age of video games and noisy high-tech toys, Brainwright’s Manifold is a very rare find. I got truly delighted by the idea of folding little papers into origami, trying to achieve some easy to understand task. The goal is simple – you start with an 8×8 paper which has 16 black, 16 white, and 32 empty squares printed on its front. You must make several folds so that the paper ends up as a 4×4 piece with all black squares on one side and all white squares on the other.
For just about $10 I was able to get a set of 100 puzzles, many of them quite challenging, which translates into several hours of gameplay. The difficulty of the puzzles gradually increases, which makes Manifold appropriate for all ages. Despite my highly positive impressions, I have to point out several (minor) flaws. First, the glossy paper, despite its high quality, may not be the best choice for making origami. Second, there is too much space left at the edges of the papers, which may get in the way when one needs to make many folds in one puzzle. Finally, since the creases cannot be removed from the paper, most likely you won’t solve the puzzles more than once.
If you want to try some sample puzzles from the set before buying it, you can print them from this PAGE.
- 1 player, 10 years and up
- 100 challenges, 4 difficulty levels
- origami-based puzzles
- many hours of gameplay
- the glossy paper makes it hard to fold
- puzzles are likely to be discarded after being solved