Fugdale’s Funhouse

Review: This game has a very simple premise, but playing it well involves a lot of observation. You start with a grid of 16 dice. Each die has one of four colors. Each time you click on a die, the number showing increases by one (in the case of a six, it flips to a one). However, all the other dice of that color also flip up to the next number. You need to find three or four dice in a row (vertical or horizontal) that form a straight in either direction. The straight has to be in order, but can be any direction and you cannot continue past the number six to form a straight with the number one.

The game seems very simple at first, but trying to determine where to click can get quite boggling. The first few times I played I ended up making accidental straights all over the place, but rarely where I intended them. You start with only ten clicks, but you can earn more clicks by forming straights. A lot of the game depends on luck of the draw. You will find that clusters of same colored dice create little clusters which you can’t do much with, so concentrate on rows where the dice all have different colors. Sometimes setting up one straight will cause a chain reaction. Each time you create a straight the dice will disappear and get replaced with new dice.

The game won’t appeal to everyone, but it has a very short play time so you can try it out a few times and see if you like it.

Review: You may have heard of this game as it seems to have ads all over gaming sites on the web, but I just played it for the first time today and I really enjoyed it.

You start the game with a grid of 25 numbers laid out like a bingo card. Underneath each column of numbers is a blank slot. You get 20 spins. Each time you spin the game generates 5 numbers underneath each column and you can place them on your card if they match. Sometimes you roll special items, like a jester, which counts as any number in the row, or coins, which give you bonus points. You get awarded points for each number you collect and for making rows of 5 numbers (like Bingo). A nasty Devil sometimes pops up and steals half your points.

You need to try to fill your card as much as possible in 20 spins. If you manage to black out the entire card you get a big bonus at the end. You have to pay (using points) for the last four spins. The amount increases with each spin, but you might collect free spins during the game to help out with this cost.

The game doesn’t require much thought or skill and a lot of it depends on the luck of the draw. But, the combination of Bingo with a slot machine definitely makes for a very addictive game. Play time is short and you will probably want to just play again. The game is free to play, but you can also sign up for a membership with Slingo the site and get a few extra goodies. PS: The game takes a little while to load, but don’t give up on it.

Review: This point-and-click adventure by Tim Betrand seems a little daunting at first, but with a little bit of deductive reasoning, you can make it out alive. The game itself doesn’t involve a long drawn out series of clicking and finding objects like some adventures. Instead you have one major task…to get inside the box and find a way to deactivate the bomb. You only have 15 minutes of real time to accomplish this task.

You will mostly have to put your number logic to work to make it through. The notes and etchings inside the box provide you with most of the information you need to deduce the next step, but it still takes a little thinking and a bit of trial and error to make it through in time. Starting with the combination lock, you immediately will thank yourself for all those games of Mastermind, but the game will test other areas of knowledge including multiplication and binary numbering systems.

If you don’t make it through in time, you will blow up, but you can always try again. Another unique feature of this game is that each time you play, the combinations and some of the puzzle solutions change. So you can’t rely on memorizing the sequences, but have to start fresh each time. In that sense, the game has some replay value, although once you’ve done it, you probably won’t need to go right back and do it again. The game won’t drag on forever. You really can solve it in just a few minutes if you put your mind to it, so give it a shot and see if you can work under pressure to disarm the package.