This is the fourth Pixel Puzzles game I've played, and the only one so far that I would not recommend. I love puzzles, both physical and digital, and I finished every puzzle in this game, but there were so many built-in and unnecessary annoyances that I couldn't recommend it to anyone else.

First and most importantly, someone had the idea to make the background patterned. I'm sure they meant well, but building a patterned puzzle on a patterned backdrop is extremely difficult, especially with the larger puzzles that have smaller pieces. With some, seeing the edges was nearly impossible, even with changing the color of the patterned backdrop. Without being able to make out the shape of the edges, adding pieces became a sort of "trial-and-error" of dropping every somewhat-matching piece into the spot and hoping one will fit. There is, as far as I could see, no way to get a nice solid background to work with, only color-changes of the pattern; this can help but doesn't solve the problem. To me, this is a game-ruining design flaw.

The hint system isn't awful but it adds another layer of annoyance. The crabs you have to gather to "spend" on hints spawn directly under your cursor. If you're trying to work in an area, you have to drop the piece you're working on to move the damned crab out of the way. If by some chance the crab spawns where you have a few pieces piled up, you have to move every piece before you can grab the crab. If you have a LOT of pieces piled up (i.e. if you're sorting them), it can take forever to get everything moved so you can get the crab moved. Not game breaking, but very annoying.

The other problem I had with it was purely aesthetic. Birds aren't the most interesting thing to me, but I was expecting bright birds with pretty plumage, tropical birds and peacocks, things that are pretty and make great puzzles. Instead, you get a lot of penguins, ducks, and raptors, and very few were bright and engaging. The end result for me personally was boredom. By the final, largest puzzle, I was sick of brown birds, brown ducks, and hundreds of penguins. So I opened the last puzzle to fiinish this game off, and there were more penguins (I shook my head with a sigh and sallied forth anyway). There was some variety in the pictures, but even the variety was dull. Now, this is a personal preference so others might not agree here, but it was my personal opinion on it.

So after 20+ hours playing the game and finishing every puzzle for the sake of my own achievement-seeking OCD, I just can't recommend it to anyone else unless the poor background and annoying hint system aren't likely to bother you.

**update**
**years later**
I checked, and sure enough, as was pointed out to me, the messy backgrounds do appear to have been adjusted to be easier on the eyes. Also, pretty much Pixel Puzzles Ultimate has superceded all of the previous standalone games, so there's that. Anyway! What follows is the original review as written back then,


I was liking the Pixel Puzzles series until this one, where they decided to make the game difficult to interact with in pointless ways.
As you can see from the featured screenshots, the background you have to do your puzzles against is just a mess of random lines. If you have ever wondered why people don't choose to do their jigsaw puzzles on a paisley tablecloth or their clan tartan, then here is your answer.
As you can also see from the screenshots, the UI buttons float in the water with the puzzle pieces, making it harder to pick the pieces up.
The crabs... the crabs that run out from under the pieces are simply a pain in the ass. Add in the fuzzy, low-res, and rather boring pictures of birds, and it starts to look like the features screenshots on the store page are not so much an enticement to play the game, but a dire prophecy, foretelling the horrors that await within.
It's not a bad thing to mix things up a bit, and make some changes to sequel games to keep them fresh, but every change they made to the series with this game has been for the worse, and that is what I find most puzzling of all.

I am extremely disappointed in this version of pixel puzzles. I played Pixel Puzzles: Japan and thoroughly enjoyed it (outside of not being able to easily click the piece you wanted). Seems they fixed that with "Birds", but the background is so horrible I cannot see the pictures. In the pond area where the pieces are floating, there are 6 buttons floating around getting in your way of seeing the pieces plus one ginormous fishing net where you are supposed to drop crabs - that are annoying and run all over your puzzle building space. When you fill up the net, you are supposed to get an award, but they don't seem to work and the crabs have now completely obscured the puzzle pieces floating "below" the net. It is hard enough locating the pieces you need, because they are all mostly blue and they are "under" the water, altering their color slightly, so it is hard to pick the piece you want. There is an option to put a little staging bar at the bottom where you can store pieces, but that also has a craggly, rippled background (as does the building area) which really plays havoc with your eyes. Also, when you put that little staging area there, the pieces floating above the building area are hidden from view. You have to take that away to "find" them again. I tried to take a screenshot of what I am talking about, using the F12 key, but that too seems to be broken. I am so annoyed that I purchased this. It is not fun at all; It is not relaxing at all, and I do not want to play it at all. Boo - hiss devs. Took something great and made it something I'm sorry I purchased.

if you like jigsaw puzzles you will love this game for sure.
i enjoyed all 3 Pixel Puzzles games that they released so far, this one has added the rotation feature ( you have to rotate the piece to figure how and where it should be placed) which made the game harder and it will take more time to solve the puzzles, i really recommend them all to any jigsaw puzzles fan.

i would suggest Putting your own music while playing.

I liked Pixel Puzzle Japan the best. The koi were a little annoying but you could stuff one in the spout and end the annoyance. I played the Zombies butI didn't much care for the timetrials of that one. This one, the crabs. They are so annoying, as are the floating button buoys. The crab collecting is part of the game (crabs = hint currency), but still annoying. The rotation of the pieces isn't intuitive (the instructions aren't clear you hold both mouse buttons) at first, but the mechanic is a nice twist on the series.

I got it for 66% off in the Steam Summer sale and I think US$3.39. If you can find it for less, then even better, but 50% off or better it is a thumbs up (US$5 or less).

PixelPuzzles2: Birds is another game from the PixelPuzzles series. It's still a nice and entertaining jigsaw puzzle game. But typical for PixelPuzzles 2 it has become a little bit harder. Puzzle pieces can be rotated into four directions. So more possibilities to do it wrong. Thankfully there's a built-in help function. Collect crabs into a fishnet bar on the right side.They appear randomly between the puzzles pieces on the playfield. Unfortunately for puzzling the playfield is not very decent. Tough you can change the color but the stone bumb map still remains. The bird pictures are also pretty much one sided like many penguins and shore birds.

A significant step down from their previous puzzles.

The "Minigame" that takes place during the puzzle is now much more of an annoyance, asking the player to pause the puzzle 8-10 times per minute to get the annoying crabs off the screen.

In addition, the pictures selected for the jigsaws are noticably mediocre. Some have well definded sections, large, but easy enough, but a LARGE portion of the puzzles are unnecessarily difficult.

Many puzzles have a bird in focus in the foreground, but with the entire background out of focus. Others (like the 1st large penguin puzzle) has an inordinate amount of extremely similar small figures on a nondescript background.

Have you ever done a jigsaw of a Jackson Pollack painting? That's what a lot of this f**king game is...

ehm ye puzzle game

This is the third Pixel Puzzles game that I own and it's one of the best of the series, along with Undeadz. The rotation mechanic is great and I hope to find it in future Pixel Puzzles games.

Pros
+ Rotation of puzzle pieces! = higher difficulty
+ 25 puzzles (significantly more than Japan/ Undeadz), longer gameplay ~16h total
+ Fun tile edges e.g. bird beaks (as in Undeadz)
+ Ingame bonuses: sorting tray, shuffling pieces +/- collect crabs for your hints
+ Menu small bonus: minigame, art gallery, instructions
+ You can access easily puzzles with a lot of pieces and return later to smaller ones (unlike in Japan/Undeadz)

Cons
- birds birds birds photography, no sketches, paintings etc (unlike Undeadz)
- annoying detailed texture background for the puzzle (cliffs with water) - somtimes too similar to the puzzle pieces
- ads in main menu for other games

Pixel Puzzle franchise. Recommended for those who literally like to put puzzles together, and I do mean piece by piece.

Pixel Puzzles 2: Birds

Features birds, of course, all kinds, everywhere - fenceposts to snow covered areas, big, small, entire colonies. There is even an introduction puzzle found on the main screen. 25 puzzles in all ranging from 60 pieces to 350 pieces, with some odd shaped and bird themed puzzle pieces. All the puzzles can be seen in the picture gallery once the puzzle is solved. The game grid is more or less choose your path around the grid.

Puzzles: 60 piece - 6, 112 piece - 6, 153 piece- 4, 220 piece - 6, and 350 piece - 1.

The game board is surrounded by water where the puzzle pieces float and MOVE. The pieces also must be rotated to gain the correct orientation (like in a physical puzzle.) Fortunately there is an option for the player to choose the correct orientation permenantly (or until such time as the player chooses to turn it off). I recommend having this feature on for the 220 piece and 350 piece puzzles due to the size of the pieces.

Best feature of this game: Crabs. Now, now no laughing. These helpful crustaceans can be picked off the puzzle board and put in a net. When the player has collected enough a hint can be used. "G" stands for "ghost" (cost 5 crabs). This power-up shows the puzzle picture for approximately 10 seconds. "Ctrl" (10 crabs) will cause that puzzle to have the correct orientation (unless the player rotates the piece). "space bar" This helpful power up (20 crabs) shows exactly where that piece belongs in the puzzle, edge or middle. Other functions: "T" make a tray to hold the pieces, "S" shuffle the pieces. "Z" zoom in on the puzzle board. "C" change the puzzle board's background color.

There 33 achievements including ones like 'No More Crabs' and 'Ghost Power'. Trading cards are available.