My goal for this Link Dump Friday was to feature five games with one word titles. Did I succeed? Nope. Does that mean my mutant powers are waning? NEVER! It's just due to the position of Jupiter in relation to Capricorn, you see... And besides, one word or two, all the games are still fun, right?
- Sinta - A new entry from Ninja Kiwi, creator of Bloons, that has nothing to do with monkeys or balloons! Instead, Sinta is a platformer involving a kitty and bows and arrows, so the concept is equally as cute/strange.
- Topple - Inspired by Avalanche, Topple uses simple controls and bouncey physics to create a fun little arcade experience. Rings fall from the sky and gradually fill the screen. Control your ring and try to stay on top of the pile, avoiding the rising water at all costs!
- Shirk - A colorful mouse avoider game where the landscape scrolls down onto your unsuspecting cursor. And is it just me, or is that background music one of the happiest tunes ever created?
- Digit Puzzle - An advergame touting a web hosting service, this little puzzle title is nonetheless intriguing. Rearrange the tetromino-like pieces so the treasure tile is completely uncovered. Click the mouse to grab blocks, then click on the board to rotate them or off the board to flip them.
- Brain Bones - A dice throwing game where you try to fill score slots with random rolls. Occupy a space once and the number is negative, occupy it a few more times and you start earning. The game ends when your discard pile gets too high.
FIRST COMMENT!
Yay 4 link dump friday on thursday.
Sinta is repetitive,
Topple is really hard,
You can cheat at Shirk,
and the rest I haven't played yet.
When playing "Digit Puzzle", take a look at various puzzles in the "notebook" thingy. It's a neat little addition.
I don't find the game to be difficult, still, I'm only on level 7, out of... dunno?
Topple is like Avalanche, if Avalanche hated you and everything about you. My god is it punishing.
Sinta's kinda fun at first, and I like the kitty, but it's pretty basic overall and I didn't see anything that really struck me as unique or surprising at all.
Haven't played the others yet. Darn it Bardinelli, your link to Avalanche has me distracted!
I wish Topple would support arrow keys as well as WASD. Other than that minor annoyance, it seems pretty fun. Do the balls that drop actually float on the water? It seems like they do.
I'm completely addicted to Digit (Dig It?). I keep getting stuck on some levels, then I feel silly when it turns out the solution was simple all along. Right now I'm stuck on 21, so if anyone has any hints, let me know!
For those who said topple was hard/punishing. After painstakingly hopping my way up to 50, and seeing no change in gameplay, I just held down D and mashed W repeatedly till 200 when I suicided out of boredom. The only challenge is trying to control your circle with any sort of accuracy or consistency, which it turns out you don't need to do anyways.
Digit Puzzle is good, except that IMHO the poor choice of colours for the menu and the instructions makes the text almost unreadable.
Either topple has downright atrocious control scheme, or I seriously suck at it.
Probably both.
Haha, I spent like 20 minutes on level 15 of the Digit Puzzle unable to solve it. Then had to leave it, now, hours later came back and solved it in 3 minutes :DDD
I like this game. The idea, the difficulty curve, the simpleness, the user-friendliness (no time limit, loadable levels), everything shouts "casual".
Advice to all the game designers : Stop using the W-A-D keys for the controls !
Think to all the non qwerty keyboard users. They need to find the real keys. For me, WAD keys (for the "TOPPLE" game) are ZQD. I don't know how arabic or asiatic keyboard users do, but I'm sure it's complicated too.
And it's controls for left-handed persons.
Please use the Arrows keys, they are logical, and internationaly understood.
Sinta copies its game mechanic and some design from Dark Castle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Castle
Unfortunately, it has the same annoying final level guard that knocks you into a dungeon if you don't kill him in time. So, instead of being able to use your lives on the boss, if you get distracted, you end up trudging your way back out of the dungeon over and over, and through the two levels preceding the boss. Not fun.
On the other hand, playing Dark Castle on our Mac Plus as a kid is one of my fondest memories.
Okay, I am truly stuck on level 17 of Digit. Any help would be appreciated.
If there is someone who has stuck
at the digit puzzle,
we can sell him a hint ($1 for hint) :)
(Alex from puzzle-4u.com)
I can't even access the Digit Puzzle.... keeps telling me I have to access it from puzzle-4u.com, except I *AM* on puzzle-4u.com when I access it... lol
Actually, nevermind, I had overlooked an obvious move.
@Neddo:
level 21 looks like this when you're done.
If you need more than that, let me know.
For a pretty simple platformer, Sinta has some annoying controls.
Finally got 21; thanks, ThemePark. I'm currently up to 25. Anyone know how many levels total there are?
i think the biggest problem about topple is that it doesnt jump unless the very bottom of the circle is on a "platform" and that is a rare occurrence.
I am totally confused. I can't even figure out how to get passed the first board on Dig It. What is the point of the game? Help please.
Am I the only ony who solved some of the Digit levels accidentally. It happend on like 2-3 levels. I was rotatong, placing the pieces thinking hard on the next move and all of a sudden the win message appears - wow, I solved it accidentally :DDD
"Stupid",
it's simple once you got the hang of it. You see the coloured "tetris" style pieces. You can pick them up with the mouse cursor (left click) and replace them on the board - but only where they don't the cover other pieces at all. To do so you must rotate the pieces. Yopu can rotate them using the arrow keys or clicking with the mouse while a piece is picked up. Look for the sign top left. When it's a rotation symbol you can rotate the pieces with the mouse.
On every board there's the drawing of a treasure chest. What you have to do is arrange the tiles so the treasure chest becomes fully visible with all the pieces on the board.
Hope it helps.
Good luck!
Now it's my turn to feel stupid, but I don't understand a word of how that brain bones game should be played. I mean i know how to play it, but why and how the dices score, why does it count if it reverse the order of the two dices in a "pair" and why they get to the exact slots they get to - all just a black mess to me... :(
Stuck on level 32 of Dig It.
OK, I thin I undesrstand now.
And I don't really like it, sorry :(
bioLarzen: I've done that same thing several times. I'll think I have it figured out where pieces need to be, and while I'm working hard to move them there, I'll accidentally uncover the treasure. It makes me feel like a fraud, but I don't mind.
Jumping in Topple:
Every time you touch the ground/top of a ring in Topple you gain an extra jump which you can then use regarless of whether you're on the ground or not. Try using it when you've got upward momentum (ie. after you've just bounced upward off the ground or the side of a ring) + you can get some decent height. If you're struggling to get the hang of it though just keep bashing W, that works too.
I managed a score of 431 on Brain Bones after finishing with a sub-zero score twice. It took a bit to figure out the best strategy.
That Sinta game is cute. And I mean CUTE.
Digit reminds me of Phit (search JIG for that one) and I played that confounded game for 500 levels.
Dear Lord please make Digit end before level 500.
Stuck on 27 for now...
I'm hoping someone could post the passwords for digit puzzle. I got up to level 20 and then exited accidentally without taking down the password, and google has turned up nothing. I'd be very appreciative.
Finished Digit Puzzle, great game. There are 35 levels in all. Sorry, Forgetful, I didn't keep track of all the passwords on the way up, but here are the last two:
Level 34:
Level 35:
Complete list of passwords for Dig It
If the code doesn't work, try replacing 1s and Is, 2s and Zs, 5s and Ss, as my writing is a little ambiguous :p
I don't have the password for 20, but I do have 21 through 27 (where I became hopelessly stuck) if you're interested.
And of course, nine hours after the question was asked, someone else posts a much better list while I was typing my post. What timing!
Does anyone using a Mac know how to reduce the quality of Dig It? The contextual menu brings up nothing.
See, when my sweety is on the iMac, I'm stuck on an old powerbook. Dig It adds new meaning to "sluggish" on this thing, and I think quality reduction would help.
Anyone?
I need help on Level 32. I see what the final configuration should be, but I don't know whether I'm progressing. Here are the level code, the final arrangement, and where I am now.
Actually, I got it now. Just as well, since no one's reading this right now.
I need help on level 20 for Digit Puzzle. Please!
Does anyone here know if the ebook site of www.darkcastle.com is legit? It looks like they're still in development, but the premise looks interesting.
Thanks,
Viper
Anyone know what happened to 'Digit'? It's gone!
Update