E3 2008: Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity Hands-On

Professor Heinz Wolff is at it again. After hosting the Great Egg Race, a British television series in which contestants built machines to safely transport eggs, he is bringing his brand of head-scratching puzzles to the Wii, PC, and Nintendo DS.

In Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity, you play through 100 increasingly difficult puzzles in which you must use a variety of items and, predictably, the laws of gravity to press a button. We got our hands on the DS version of Gravity at E3 2008 in Los Angeles and were caught scratching our heads on the very first level.

Here's how it works. You have a button. This button needs to get pressed. We had at our disposal three marbles that could be placed anywhere on the screen with the stylus. When you hit the start button, a giant ball drops down a ramp but then is stopped by a platform. You can hit the start button over and over again to see how the puzzle will react to your item placement. In this instance, we finally solved the puzzle by placing one marble next to the spot where the giant ball drops. When the ball drops, it hits the marble under the platform, then knocks your second marble, which in turn knocks the final marble into the button. Sound confusing? That was just the first level. It will be interesting to see what items will be included besides marbles in the later levels.

If you need a hand, the Professor himself will offer onscreen help and tips, something we're pretty sure we're going to need on the more advanced levels. In addition to the 100 puzzles, Gravity will feature 20 wide-open sandbox levels that play like a puzzle version of a skirmish mode. We didn't see them in action, but each version of Gravity will include four multiplayer minigames, and the PC version will feature a level editor so you can create your own levels, although we are not yet sure if those can be shared online with your friends.

As far as the DS version goes, we're pretty sure this head scratcher will spice up any plane ride. Gravity drops this November.