In celebration of its two-year anniversary of launching the seminal Where's My Water? app, Disney has just released its sequel: Where's My Water? 2. Unfortunately, this new app is a poster child for how NOT to do a free-to-play puzzle app. Here's a closer look.
'Where's My Water? 2'
Disney, best for ages 13-up, free (with in-app purchases), iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Windows Phone
Rating: 2 stars (out of 4)
In 2011, when Disney introduced Where's My Water?, it rocketed to the top of the mobile app charts and launched Swampy the Alligator into stardom. It created a new brand for Disney, the first to originate from an app. In this sequel, Swampy and his friends Allie and Cranky are back with more than 100 new water-physics puzzlers found in three locations, including the Sewer, the Soap Factory and the Beach.
The puzzles offered in this sequel don't stray far from those introduced in the original app. Players use their fingers to draw paths through subterranean environments to direct water to Swampy's shower, steam to Allie's steam-powered musical contraption or poison to Cranky's plate. When directing the water through these puzzles, players will encounter switches to activate, faucets to turn and other fun and tricky challenges. Players also need to collect embedded rubber duckies by running the appropriate form of water over them before directing the water into the puzzle-ending pipe. Collecting the duckies earns the points needed to open new locations in the game. What makes these puzzles so much fun is that they invite you to learn by trial-and-error. They are challenging, diverse and amusing to play.
This sequel introduces several new puzzle types. One, called "Duck Rush," is particularly robust because it spans multiple screens instead of the typical one. In a "Duck Rush" puzzle, you must work quickly to decide the water's path as it descends through several screens filled with six duckies. Since you can't see the screen below you, it's hard to plan your strategy, and it requires replaying several times before winning. Also new are challenge modes, which take a previously played level and mix it up. You may need to solve the puzzle upside down, drill through rock while not using the switches or collect musical notes in an order that creates a melody.
Also new to this set of puzzles are boosts, which help you more easily earn the duckies. One starts the puzzle with the duckies almost full of liquid, another draws the liquid to them and the third allows the duckies to absorb all liquids. You can earn a few boosts by clearing a set of puzzles and opening one of many gates found in the three locations. But the easiest way to get them is through in-app purchases. You can also use in-app purchases to get hints for each puzzle.

While the underlying puzzles of this app are varied and great fun, Disney made a fundamental design mistake. To make money from this free-to-play app, Disney added a fatal flaw — an energy timer. Each puzzle attempt uses energy, regardless of the outcome. When you run out of energy (it shows up on an energy bar), you must either wait several minutes for it to refill or pay 99 cents for an immediate refill. Since puzzles like the new "Duck Rush" take many attempts, they quickly deplete your energy bar. What's even worse is that you can't spend a few bucks to get rid of the timer. Rather, Disney gives you the exorbitant option of spending $16.99 to make the energy bar larger. Since this is a kind of app where the fun comes from experimenting, inhibiting your ability to try new things makes no sense.
Where's My Water? 2 also falls short in being kid-friendly. After Swampy's popularity rose, Disney built a new kid franchise around the adorable alligator, including stuffed animals, board games and even animated shorts. The original Where's My Water? app was appropriate for ages 6 and up. I am recommending this sequel for ages 13 and up, because Disney decided to deeply integrate Facebook into its gameplay. In every puzzle, players are asked to connect to Facebook, a social media site that is only for kids 13 and older, and there is no way for parents to disable this integration. That's bad for young kids, but not unheard of in apps. However, Disney goes further than simply badgering you with Facebook requests; at level 30 of the 50 levels, players hit a gate that they can no longer unlock by earning duckies from puzzles. Rather, the only way to unlock this game-stopping gate is to ask three Facebook friends for keys or pay 99 cents for each key (totaling $2.97) to proceed. By creating an app with this Facebook format, the app is no longer kid-friendly. It's a soggy shame, since the puzzles are so good.