Ever have one of those days where you just can't talk straight? You know what you want to say, but everything comes out as a mushmouthed mess, or you can't even find the words to begin with. It happens to everyone, even some of the greatest thinkers of our time. Now, you have the chance to help recreate some of their legendary sayings with Sentences, a word game by Pictogame that combines familiar game elements into one fast-paced language-fest.
Each of the ten rounds of play contains a cluster of quotations from famous personalities. Depending on the round, you'll use one of three familiar game mechanics to reveal the quotes. The first is speed-typing, in which you type letters in order to spell out the words above. However, you can only see three upcoming letters, so use caution when guessing ahead. The second is a word rearranging game, in which you use the mouse to drag words into their proper order. The third is akin to Hangman played against the clock. Type or click on letters to fill in the blanks.
Each round consists of a few puzzles (the number increases on later rounds), followed by a bonus question. And it's a simple bonus question; all you have to do is identify the author of one of the quotes from the round you just played… you were paying attention, right?
There are 200 quotes to unlock, which gradually pick up in length and difficulty as you progress through the game. Each round has a bronze, silver, and gold medal target score that require tremendous accuracy and speed. You might need to use a bit of memorization to get high scores, but then again, what's wrong with being able to rattle off your new pearls of wisdom to your friends?
Analysis: Sentences might not be original (given that it's a combination of three other games), but this gives it the advantage of being a game you can quickly pick up and play—because you already know the rules—and replay because of how much there is to accomplish and learn. There's a good variety of quotes to work with, from the simple, familar lines ("I have a dream," "Carpe diem") to the more complex and thoughtful, to the comical quips and one-liners, and even a few Bushisms thrown in for good measure.
Visually, Sentences isn't mind-blowing, but then again, there's beauty in the simplicity. Almost all of the game takes place with white letters on a black background, and any use of color is made to grab your attention (such as "Oops, You Missed A Letter!" Red and "Good Job, Here's Your Bonus!" Green). It won't be long before you're good friends with that jovial font (is it Cooper?) and the slideshow-esque transitions.
While learning something might not be your first priority when playing a game like this, Pictogame has made sure that the opportunity is still there. Clicking on an author's name brings up the Wikipedia entry on that person. On the flip side, Sentences still qualifies as an advergame, since you can purchase a t-shirt, hat, mug, apron, or other consumable with any quote from the game on it. Luckily, the advertising is as low-key as the game itself, so you likely won't notice it, because you'll be busy memorizing quotation authors (hint hint).
Sentences is simple to play, tricky to master, and has a little bit of an educational edge. Give it a try, and you may find, like Denis Diderot, that "Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory." Or that your typing skills are rusty. Or, you know, both.
A very cool game; very typographical and very smoothly executed.
Yikes I love it!
Nice game, althought the letters scroll a bit to slow from time to time (imo).
BTW: There seems to be a problem with non-english keyboards if it comes to quotation-marks... At least I wasn't able to type them :)
To type quotation marks with a british keyboard, it's shift and '
I think.
This was fun, I spent maybe an hour getting gold medals at all of it. (I type a little faster than it reads, so I kept "missing")
It didn't hold my attention long enough to unlock all of the sentences, though...
Very enjoyable, though.
I like the idea of this, but it doesn't really work with non-American key boards as the " key is in a different place. I mean, I know it's where the @ key is on a British key board, but it slows me down because I'm so used to pressing shift + 2. Aside from that, good game.
Game-breaking glitch!
When you get to the bonus round, you can give yourself a ton of points by getting the right answer, and then clicking the ok button. The ok button slowly vanishes, and in that time you can click the button over and over to trick the game into giving you more bonus points. Caveat: You will almost always have to deal with the sound of the points being added up for the rest of the game, and if you add too many points in a round, the game will get so confused that it won't get past adding up your score. (You can still exit the game with the x button top right, but it doesn't save your score or get you to the next round if you haven't gotten there yet.) Since the game doesn't save your scores, you may not want to actually do this.
Just great. I spend forever at home trying to unlock everything, and now I'm here at work doing it all over again!
NEMESIS, ART! YOU ARE MY NEMESIS!
Does it count as an advergame just because it happens to sell a product? It seems like the product was developed as an offshoot of the game, not the game developed to sell quotes. I would prefer a classification (it doesn't have to be the word "advergame" but I think it should exist) that preserves the distinction between a game which is developed for fun which happens to advertise, and a game that is developed with advertisement as a main goal of the developers. Know what I mean?
Anyone know how to solve this?
I have a Spanish keyboard and when I get to level 7, I can't make the punctuation signs correctly, even though I press the key it's supposed to be on the English keyboard. So I coudn't get further on the game.
This game is good fun for those who love to read up famous quotes, or those who just to read. Even for those who are not a big fan of books, they still can find the game interesting enough to give a few tries since the design concept is simplistic and intrigue enough for anyone to be addicted to the game play.
p.s. Does anyone have that timing sound bugs as I do?
I love the idea of this game, but for me, at least, it is so poorly executed! I start typing the correct letters, it says I'm wrong. I type too quickly (huh? Speed typing...), it says I'm wrong... Poor. :(
the game is fun, but as soon as you get apostrophes or quotation marks it gets impossible with a non-englisch keyboard...
Fun, but "The things you own end up owning you" is most definitely Thoreau, not Chuck Palahniuk.
Did anybody else have trouble with the game "freezing" at the bonus round? I played this with no problem a day or two ago, but now when the "Bonus Round" text pops up, it stays there, apparently regardless of what level I try to do. I can X out into the main menu, but I can't progress because I can't up my score or unlock new levels.
I'm asking mainly to see if anyone found a fix.
(I'm using Firefox 3 on Windows XP).
Same issue, played the first 5 levels no problem. As soon as I hit level six, it freezes on "bonus round". But only on level 6. Just went back and played through one and two again with no issues.
Argh, where's the edit button, meant to say
played through one and two again, then played level six with no issues.
Military Justice is to justice what military music is to music is not from Groucho Marx: it is a quote of former French President Clémenceau, back in 1915 or something
For some reason when I see the quote "The only truth is music", I always type it as "The only truth is mustard". I must be hungry.
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