Prime Mover

Awesome little puzzler that’ll do well to keep you busy when you want it to, challenging enough that it will give even the most die-hard puzzler’s brains a workout, but clever enough to not have you needing to complete the level at a time, so you can put it down and come back to it when the thermal throttling on your brain has returned to normal.

84%Game Brain Score

graphics, music

grinding

87% User Score Based on 277 reviews

Critic Score 75%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

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About

Prime Mover is a single player simulation game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by 4Bit Games and was released on May 21, 2018. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

"Prime Mover" is a challenging puzzle-platformer game where you manipulate time \ to solve complex levels. As the Prime Mover, you can rewind, pause, and fast-forward time, using these abilities to navigate obstacles and enemies. With over 60 levels and a level editor, players can enjoy hours of innovative time-manipulation gameplay.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

87%

Audience ScoreBased on 277 reviews

graphics20 positive mentions

grinding6 negative mentions

Prime Mover is a beautifully designed puzzle game that offers a unique and challenging experience reminiscent of Zachtronics games.
The game features an innovative nesting system for circuits, allowing for complex solutions and creative problem-solving.
Players find the puzzles rewarding and satisfying to solve, with a steep but manageable difficulty curve that encourages experimentation.

The user interface can be unintuitive and clunky, making it difficult to manipulate components and manage circuits effectively.
There are significant difficulty spikes after the tutorial, which may frustrate players who are not prepared for the abrupt increase in challenge.
Quality of life features, such as a blueprint storage system for circuits and better copy/paste functionality, are lacking, leading to tedious repetition in solving puzzles.

graphics
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
52%
6%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their polished 8-bit aesthetic and pleasing visuals, which complement the sci-fi setting and enhance the overall atmosphere. However, some players find the pixelated art style and chunky icons hinder usability, making the UI difficult to read and occasionally confusing. Despite these criticisms, the combination of art, music, and challenging puzzles creates an enjoyable experience for fans of the genre.
- “The visuals, style, music, and sci-fi setting are superb, which make this game quite pleasant to play, often unlike other games of this same programming genre.”
- “I didn't expect this game to be as good as it was, but the graphics are very well polished, the puzzles are really challenging, the components force you to use some ingenuity, and you can do some really neat things with the tools provided.”
- “Aesthetic is crisp, gameplay is crisp, audio is beautiful.”
- “I understand what the designer was going for with the stylized graphics, but usability suffers considerably as a result.”
- “The pixelated graphics are an active detriment to play.”
- “Text is hard to read, especially if you don't put on the 'legible text' graphics option.”
music
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
34%
8%
The music in the game has received largely positive feedback, with many praising its beautiful composition and how well it complements the game's atmosphere and visuals. Some users noted that the soundtrack enhances the problem-solving experience, while a few expressed a desire for a more extensive tracklist. Overall, the music is considered a significant asset, contributing to the game's charm and enjoyment.
- “The beautiful soundtrack fits well with the mysterious setting and the art is very appealing.”
- “The music, aesthetic and overall atmosphere are a great bonus.”
- “Prime Mover is a beautiful game, with an amazing soundtrack and super fun problems to solve.”
- “However, I like the visual design and overall puzzle design; if you manage to overcome the UI, the music is quite mediocre though.”
- “Some of the songs are absolute jams; I wish it had a more robust tracklist.”
- “The music is by the same composer that made the music for beautiful Owlboy, and being able to listen to such a well-packed collection of composed music while doing problem-solving is just perfect.”
gameplay
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
57%
10%
The gameplay is characterized by a standard grid-based mechanic where players manipulate inputs to achieve outputs, enhanced by unique features like an infinitely recursive board. While the aesthetic and audio are praised, the game presents a steep difficulty curve with complex puzzles that require careful planning and problem-solving. Some players find the mechanics engaging despite minor issues with presentation and repetitiveness, making it a rewarding experience for those who enjoy logical challenges.
- “The appealing pixel art and the unique infinitely recursive board mechanic are just extra plus points.”
- “The mechanics have enough quirks that it doesn't just feel like taking a coding tutorial.”
- “As a programmer, I just can't get enough of this kind of gameplay where you get a logical problem/issue and it needs to be resolved.”
- “Later you have to sort inputs with mechanics that present no apparent way to store or retrieve information, and then for the final puzzle you get to interpret commands and compute data.”
- “There's no logic you implement, no mechanical integration to make things do more than just what's in the description.”
- “For chips to be an intended and encouraged game mechanic, this is really repetitive work (especially since it wasn't obvious to me at first that the selection tool remembers the selection in between 'equips').”
optimization
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
57%
12%
"Prime Mover" is praised for its deep optimization and programming puzzles, reminiscent of Zachtronics games, offering players hours of engaging tinkering. While the game provides a satisfying challenge, some early levels are considered too easy and could benefit from additional optimization options. Overall, it strikes a balance between being an open-ended puzzler and a problem optimization game, appealing to fans of the genre.
- “Prime Mover is very much in the style of Zachtronics games such as SpaceChem and Exapunks, and delivers optimization/programming puzzles that are about as deep as those in the best Zachtronics games, with a similar (somewhat imperfect) level of quality of life features and surrounding background visuals and audio (enough to feel like a game).”
- “So, the short version is, if you enjoyed or loved Zach's optimization games, you'll very likely find many hours of enjoyable tinkering time in Prime Mover, as well.”
- “You can resolve it in the easiest way that you find, but the real thrill is in making optimized circuits with the least amount of components.”
- “Because of this, though, Prime Mover becomes much more of an 'open-ended puzzler' than a 'problem optimization game,' if that makes any sense.”
- “Unfortunately, my solutions are about as optimized as my former professor's lesson plan and execution.”
- “Some of those histograms will leave you scratching your head wondering what you are missing until you have some critical insight - and I say this as a veteran Zachtronics player and high-performance computer programmer by trade.”
story
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
70%
13%
The game's story is presented through cryptic cutscenes and text-based narration, which many players find difficult to interpret, leading to a perception of a simplistic plot that serves more as a backdrop than a central focus. While some appreciate the depth and mystery that unfolds as they solve puzzles, others criticize the lack of a coherent narrative and the overwhelming difficulty spikes that detract from the overall experience. Overall, the story is seen as minimal and often overshadowed by the challenging gameplay.
- “I love just about everything else the game has to offer: the aesthetic is flawless and consistent across the full experience, the obscured story was compelling enough to keep me pushing forward, the interactivity around the puzzle was a nice distraction when I needed it, and man oh man, the puzzles themselves are simultaneously extremely satisfying to solve, and extremely challenging; they had me experiencing the full spectrum of emotion.”
- “The game has a story that unfolds as you solve problems that adds a bit of depth and mystery that is a nice touch for this kind of game.”
- “Has a pretty interesting story mechanic as well.”
- “In reality, the plotline is extremely simple and seems to be more of a backstory for a different game that isn't even out yet.”
- “There is no real story here, only some cryptic cutscenes here and there to break things up.”
- “The story is difficult to interpret and the puzzle design isn't very good because each level attempts to be more punishing than the last rather than provide an interesting alteration on the previous puzzle or give the player a different perspective.”
atmosphere
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its visceral design, rich lore, and stylish aesthetic, creating an immersive experience. The music and overall ambiance enhance the enjoyment of gameplay, making problem-solving feel rewarding and engaging.
- “Designed in a very visceral, tactile way, and the game just oozes style and atmosphere.”
- “Really did not expect the level of lore and atmosphere the game delivered on.”
- “The music, aesthetic, and overall atmosphere are a great bonus.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while it offers some challenging puzzles that encourage higher-level thinking, many feel that the repetitive nature and limitations in creating solutions can lead to tedium and frustration. Although not overwhelmingly negative, the need for extensive rebuilding and the difficulty of later puzzles can detract from the overall enjoyment.
- “Then the puzzles rapidly become tedious and very difficult to solve with any elegant solutions.”
- “I managed to get decently far, and I have some idea how to solve some of the later puzzles from completing similar ones in TIS-100, Shenzhen I/O, etc. but the limitations the game imposes on creating the required circuitry layouts and conditional logic flow, to me at least, starts to cross the boundaries of being more than just a fun challenge that requires some higher level thinking into very daunting and tedious tasks.”
- “These issues don't rise to the level of major frustration, but could have avoided some tedious rebuilding.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by its clever use of absurd components that create amusing parallels to real-world hardware design. Players often find themselves laughing at the intimidatingly complex instructions, particularly in the final level, which adds a lighthearted touch to the challenging gameplay. Overall, the humor enhances the experience, making it both entertaining and engaging.
- “As of writing, I've only finished just enough puzzles to be able to see every cutscene, and when I took a peek at the instructions for the final level, I started laughing hysterically because it looked so intimidating.”