Mystical Wizard – Baby, let’s make some magic together. *Wink*

Mystical Wizard is a slots game available at FreeSlots. It isn’t nearly as complicated as Olympics, which is a HUGE relief for me. ^_^

If you couldn’t guess by the name, Mystical Wizard is a fantasy-themed game. Some of the pictures look like they’re straight from a book of fairytales.

You can play up to 9 lines, which you should absolutely do. (Remember, at FreeSlots you can never run out of tokens!)

Rainbow!!

 

Wilds

This game is a little unusual when it comes to wilds. Why? Because there are two completely different types of wilds!

Woohoo!

First, we have a goose that lays golden eggs.

Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck. GOOSE!!! *Runs*

The goose “sticks” to the board for two spins, and on the 3rd spin it turns into a golden egg! The egg/wild sticks to the board for three more spins, and then it goes away.

If geese are too tame for you, then wait for the dragons! When a dragon appears it will blow fire into the next wheel, turning icons into wilds!

FIRE!!!

The dragon can only set fire to what’s directly next to it, and sometimes (like in the above picture) it can set fire to the entire wheel. This means that a dragon on the bottom of the wheel can only set fire to one item. A dragon at the top of the wheel might set fire to 1, 2, or 3 items. It’s pretty random. ^_^

The dragonfire wilds apply as soon as they catch fire, and then they’ll stick in place for the next five spins.

 

Wizards

The wizards have two different roles. If you get a wizard on the middle row, in any one of the middle reels, the wizard will shuffle the icons that surround him.

In the pic below, the wizard is in the red box and the icons in the neon-green boxes are what he shuffles.

Um… yeah…

The shuffle rarely impacts the board in a significant way. I’ve never had it change a non-winning spin into a MEGA-winning spin. So don’t sweat it too much.

Now if the wizard gets two other wizard friends on the board, then it’s time for magic!

Ooh! Make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

The three wizards trigger a mini-game, and the entire board vanishes only to be replaced by a field of crystal balls. Click on a crystal ball to find out what’s underneath!

What does my future hold?

If you’re lucky you’ll find a gem, which means you can click on another crystal ball! But if you find a dragon, it’s game over. :( All of the remaining crystal balls will vanish, so you can see what you missed. (And see where the other dragons were hiding.)

Whoa.. Pretty good!

The numbers beside each gem are token values. In the picture above I just earned 90 tokens!

Sometimes when you hit a dragon, a wizard will appear and save your butt. It *usually* happens if you find a dragon within your first few clicks, but I’ve had the wizard save me after I’d cleared half of the board too. o_O He’s a little bit random.

But the fun doesn’t end there. ^_^ When you switch back to the regular board you’ll see a list of gems on the side, and as you spin you’ll see gems ALL over the board!

Shiny things!!

Once again, the number beside each gem tells you how many tokens it’s worth. There’s one thing that puzzles me though. Spin after spin, you’ll get oodles of gems until they run out. But how can you tell how many gems you’ll get? Is it random? (It seems to be.)

I hate not knowing. >_<

Anywho, that’s the end of the guide to Mystical Wizard!

 

Final Rating

At first I didn’t enjoy Mystical Wizard because I kept losing. Frankly, I would have given up if I was playing for myself. *^_^*

Then I got three wizards, and suddenly I was sitting on hundreds of tokens. Woohoo!!

And that’s really the only way to get lots of tokens here. The winnings from the regular paytable are pitiful, even with the wilds helping out. But once you reach the minigame you can easily get 300-500 tokens in a short amount of time.

Winning big is exciting, but I prefer my slot games to be a little more balanced. Long, uninterrupted losing streaks are hardly my idea of fun.

I rate Mystical Wizard 3.5 stars out of 5. It’s moderately enjoyable, but not something I’ll stick with. What would you rate it?

And while we’re chatty, what’s your ideal slot game like? I wanna know! ^_^

 

Similar Games

If you like slots, try some of these games!

• Slot Social at Winster – Work with your teammates to create winning combos!
• Olympics at Playtopia – Love minigames? This slots game has over a dozen!
• Super Slingo Jackpot at Slingo – One of my all-time favorites. Come on, playing 50 lines in one go is awesome!

5 Card Slingo - INSEFTG

If you’ve never played poker before, well, don’t start with 5 Card Slingo. *^_^* I’m serious! Go with Quick-Draw Poker, since that’s nearly impossible to mess up.

On the other hand, if “regular” poker is too boring for you, then you’ll LOVE 5 Card Slingo! It’s a fast-paced cross between poker and slots.

You start with a very green 5x5 board. This is where you’ll place your cards.

 It ain’t easy being green.

On each deal you’ll get five cards. Now the tricky part is that each card can only be placed in the column directly above it. Also, once the cards are placed, you can’t remove them. Until the round is over you can move cards around in their own columns, but you can’t put another card on top or anything sneaky like that. ^_^

Well…. crap.

Each row, column, and diagonal line counts as a separate hand and is scored individually. It can get a little confusing, but at least you don’t need to have a full hand (5 cards) before it’s scored!

Every game consists of five deals plus a sixth bonus deal. (The bonus deal costs 500 points.) The deals are timed, and you have a maximum of 30 seconds to decide what to do!

Those of you who are math savvy may have noticed a slight discrepancy. With six deals of five cards each, you’ll have a total of 30 cards to work with. But there are only 25 spots on the board. How can that work?

Easy. ^_^ You don’t have to place every card that you get! If you have something awesome going on and the wrong card pops up, just don’t use it.

IMPORTANT: The cards are taken from a virtual 52 card deck. (That’s a normal deck.) If you pass up a card it won’t turn up again!

 

Scoring

As previously mentioned, each row, column, and diagonal line counts as a hand.

A flush! Woohoo!!!

The entire board is scored after each deal, and you’ll get points for any new combinations. In other words, if you score a pair after the first deal, you won’t get points for that same pair again.

However, if you add to it by making it 3 of a kind or better, then you’ll get additional points for whatever you scored.

Here’s what everything is worth!

Hand	What It Is	Value
1 pair	Two cards with the same number or letter.	50 points
2 pairs	Four cards in sets of two.	100 points
3 of a kind	Three cards with the same number or letter.	500 points
Straight	Five cards in sequential order. Ex: 2,3,4,5,6	1,000 points
Flush	Five cards of the same suit. (Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, or Clubs.)	2,500 points
Full House	A pair + 3 of a kind	3,500 points
4 of a kind	Four cards with the same number or letter.	20,000 points
Straight Flush	Five cards in the same suit AND in sequential order.	36,000 points
Royal Flush	10, J, Q, K, and Ace of the same suit.	50,000 points

 

 

 

Tips & Tricks

1. If you’re dealt a straight in the first deal or two, lay it out diagonally. Typically it’s pretty hard to score anything on the diagonal, and this will leave your columns and rows open for pairs, flushes, or whatever else you want. ^_^

 

2. The easiest way to score well 9 out of 10 games is to build for flushes. Put one suit on each row, and use the 5th row to create pairs in the columns.

 

If you start out with a pair, split it on the diagonal. Like this!

 

How come?

 

You’ll get credit for the pair and you’re all set to build flushes. If you’re lucky you might get a 3rd seven to turn it into 3 of a kind. However! If you already have a 4 card flush, don’t wreck it! The 3 of a kind is worth 500 points and the flush is 2,500. Not worth it!

 

Here’s another hand built for flushes.

 

My that’s… colorful. ^_^

 

You can see that the bottom four rows are divided by suit, and the very top row made a pair of 5’s and Jacks.

 

This doesn’t work perfectly for every single game, but most of the time I’ll score at least one flush. Often more!

 

Admittedly, I’m not an expert at 5 Card Slingo. If you have tips, PLEASE share! (Remember, the best tip of the week gets 100 P4P points!)

 

 

 

Final Rating

I enjoy poker and slots, but 5 Card Slingo is too complicated for my taste. Whenever I play I can’t help but think, “I’m not smart enough for this game.” *^_^*

 

Once I figured out the flush trick I started earning more tokens and having more fun, but my strategy is limited. Also, on more than one occasion I had a perfect Royal Flush set up, and actually got the 5th card! Unfortunately the final card was in the wrong column, so I couldn’t use it. Booooo! :(

 

I think I would enjoy 5 Card Slingo more if it was a single player, untimed game. I like having time to think!

 

Final verdict is… *drumroll*  3.5 stars out of 5.

 

How about you? What would you rate it? Do you think it’s a simple game or does it make your head hurt too? ^_^

 

 

 

Similar Games

If you like poker games then you should definitely try some of these games!

• Flush Frenzy at BugleGames – This is another poker/slots mix, but at a much slower paced. *Whew!*
• Quick-Draw Poker at Gamesville – Play 7 hands at a time! Averages 2 cash winners each day!
• Turbo 21 at Pogo – If Blackjack is more your thing then you should really try Turbo 21! It’s one of the most addictive online card games that I’ve ever found. Really!

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire – Galoshes galore!

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is a Pogo card game based on Spider Solitaire. I’m sure by the name you were expecting it to be based off of Spades, or Cribbage. ^_~

The itsy bitsy spider..

If you’ve never played Spider Solitaire, well, the rules are pretty simple. You have two decks of cards (104 cards total) and the first 54 cards are dealt into 10 piles at the top. These piles are called the foundation. The remaining 50 cards form the draw pile.

Whenever you have 13 cards of the same suit in descending order, all 13 cards go poof. (Descending order is King-Queen-Jack-10 and so on. Aces are the very last cards.) To win the game you must remove ALL of the cards.

With me so far? Good. ^_^

Unlike regular Solitaire, there aren’t any piles to put Aces and everything else. So in order to get cards in the same suit AND descending order, you have to move the cards around on the foundation.

This is where it gets tricky. You can stack cards in descending order, regardless of suit. (Example: A 5 of hearts could go on top of any 6 and nothing else.) BUT you can only move cards at the end of the stack if they’re sequential AND are the same suit.

If I have a 7 of hearts with a 6 & 5 of clubs on top of it, the only cards I can move are the 6 & 5. If I really need that 7 I’ll have to move the other cards before I can reach it.

Take a look at the picture below. The neon-green boxes highlight which cards can be moved around. Everything else is stuck for right now.

 I guess that’s not too bad.

Now remember the 50 cards in the draw pile? You have to get rid of those cards too. Not just one card at a time either, oh no. Whenever you draw cards it’s 10 at a time; one card for each stack in the foundation. So now you have a new mess on top of whatever you managed to organize.

Fudge. >_<

Empty stacks are good things because it gives you a little more freedom to move things around. But you have to have something in every stack before you can draw more cards. Boo. :(

That covers the basics of Spider Solitaire. It can be a brutal game, but luckily Rainy Day Spider Solitaire includes a few options to make things a little easier for us.

 

Why Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is Unique

First off, Rainy Day Spider Solitaire has 3 different modes.

• Easy – All of the cards are the same suit. Winning is pretty simple.
• Normal – All of the cards are divided into two suits. Winning the game is tougher, but not too bad.
• Hard – The cards are divided into four suits now. Winning is a challenge.

To be honest, I stay away from hard mode. I get really anxious when there’s a lot of chaos and disorder around me.

Ack!!

Normal mode is a lot more fun in my book. ^_^ But try each mode for yourself and see what you like best.

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire also includes six extra cards, bringing the total to 110 cards. Two of the cards are “free cells.”

Ooooh!

Free cells will temporarily hold one card for you. If you get in a tight spot a free cell can help you get things untangled. The downside is that each free cell is a 1-time use only thing. Also, they’re in the deck like regular cards, so you have to wait until you’re dealt a free cell before you can use it.

In other words, don’t count on a free cell being there when you need it. Keep it strictly an emergency use thing. You’ll also get a small token bonus for any free cells left at the end!

The other four extra cards are “scratchers.”

Big money! Big money!

As you can see, each one is divided into 4 squares. Pick a square to scratch and you get whatever prize is under it. (Always tokens.)

Woohoo!

The scratchers vanish as soon as you scratch them. They’re just a nice little bonus. ^_^

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire also includes an 11th “free” column.

Bonus!

You can put whatever you want in this column, as long as it’s a legal move. (Like putting a 10 on top of a Jack. You couldn’t put an Ace on top of a 4 though.)

If you manage to win without using the free column you get a bonus. It’s 5 tokens on easy, 25 in normal, and uh… more than 25 tokens in hard mode. I didn’t win a hard game, okay? *^_^*

Also, in the bottom right corner you’ll see 5 piles that say “Draw” on them. The card on top of each pile will land on the leftmost stack. You won’t know what the other 9 cards are in each pile until you click, but it’s still nice to at least know what one card is. ^_^

Still, I think the best feature in Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is the Undo button. There is no penalty for using it!! Whenever you have multiple choices you can use the Undo button to figure out the best option. For example, let’s say you have two 6s of diamonds and one 7 of diamonds. Which six should you move? Many times moving even just one card frees you to make other moves. You can follow the trail as far as you want, then use Undo to back up ‘til you have to pick a 6 of diamonds again.

It’s wonderful, but it has limits. You can’t undo a draw or clearing a set of 13. Look carefully before you commit!

 

Tips & Tricks

Start with the highest value same-suited cards and work your way down. Not sure wha tI mean? Let’s try a normal mode game together. ^_^

 Now what?

We have a few options here, but we’ll start with the easiest things first. We’ll click on the free cell card, move the 9 of diamonds to the 10 of diamonds, and the 6 of diamonds to a 7 of diamonds.

Hmmm.

Fewer options this time. We have two 3s of clubs and only one 4 of clubs. We’ll use the Undo button to try both options and figure out which one is best.

 Wait wait! I blinked and missed it!

Sorry, I didn’t want to show every single step along the way. *^_^* If you’ll notice, right now everything is still in suited groups. If we want to get to some of the cards buried at the top (and we do), then we’ll have to make some mix-suited stacks.

 Are you sure that’s safe?

Be very careful when making mix-suit stacks! Remember that you’ll eventually have to draw more cards, and they can throw your perfectly orchestrated hand into chaos.

Looking at the top card on the draw piles, I’m going to pick the one with the 8 of diamonds on top, since we already have three 9s of diamonds.

The aftermath.

Things are a little messy, but not too bad. You can probably see several new moves. ^_^ Just keep working with the suits as best you can. Try to “clear” a stack as soon as you can. You can put anything you want in an empty stack, so long as it’s a legal move. Use empty stacks to move card groups around.

If you’d like more help with Rainy Day Spider Solitaire, check out the Badge Hunters forum or these articles on BadgeHungry!

 

Final Rating

I’m not a huge fan of Spider Solitaire games in general. But I have to admit, Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is the cutest one that I’ve played. For every complete suit (13 cards) you remove, a ray of light appears. If you win the game the sun comes out and the spider is all happy.

Awww!

Come on! That stuff is CUTE! ^_^

I like that there are 3 difficulty levels and the bonus features (free cells and the free column) are quite nice, but… I still don’t love this game. I rate it 3.5 stars out of 5.

What would you rate it? Do you have any Spider Solitaire tips to share?

 

Similar Games

If you’re looking for fun card games, give some of these a try.

• Pyramid Solitaire at iWon – Remove cards by finding pairs that add up to 13. Can you beat the pyramid?
• Treasure Hunter at Spigo – An amazing cross between Tri-Peaks solitaire and Bejeweled!
• Kenoka at Slingo – Combining Keno + Poker = Brilliant

Flush Frenzy - Fun, but not really frenzied.

Flush Frenzy is played only at BugleGames! If you like card games you should definitely try it!

Bingo! Whoops... Wrong game.

First off, Flush Frenzy is based on poker. If you don't remember what a Full House or a Straight is, click here. Come back when you're done! ^_^

Finished? Okay, let's go!

I'll have two Royal Flushes, please!

To score anything at all, you need at least a pair of Jacks or better. (Queens, Kings, and Aces are better.) When you place a bet you can wager anything from 1 to 5 coins. (Go for 5.)

Flush Frenzy is different from "regular" poker because it has Lucky Numbers and a semi-minigame when you hit a Flush!


Lucky Number

In every hand there is a Lucky Number. It's in the green box below. ^_^

King me!

If you have a winning hand AND the Lucky Number in that hand, your winnings multiply!

• 1 Lucky Number = Double winnings
• 2 Lucky Numbers = Quadruple winnings
• 3 Lucky Numbers = Octuple (8x) winnings 
• 4 Lucky Numbers = Sixteenuple (16x) winnings (Yes, I made that word up. Shhh!)

Here's how the hand turned out.

Woohoo!

I got two pair! Ordinarily that's worth 10 points, but since I had two Lucky Numbers my winnings quadrupled! Not too shabby!


Flush Frenzy

Whenever you get a Flush, ANY Flush, you trigger the Flush Frenzy.

Let the frenzy begin!

Here's how the Flush Frenzy works. For the next 5 hands, whenever you have a card in the same suit as your Flush, your get an additional bonus of 20x your bet. This is for each card!

In the picture below, I didn't have a pair or anything. But since I had three club cards during a club frenzy, I earned 300 tokens! 20(bonus) x 5(bet) x 3(cards) = 300.

Sweet!

It gets even better if you have a Lucky Number. The multiplier works on the Flush bonus too. ^_^

610?! Awesome!!

That time I ended up with a pair of Aces (5 points), three club cards (300 points), and a Lucky Number! With the double score, I earned 610 tokens from one hand!

IMPORTANT: You still need a winning hand for the Lucky Number to apply. If I only had 3 clubs and nothing else, the Lucky Number would not double my winnings.

If you get another Flush during the frenzy, then a new frenzy starts for 5 rounds. It doesn't stack! If you're on round 1 of a frenzy and pull another Flush, you'll go straight into frenzy #2.

Also, the suit you're frenzying on is highlighted in green under the Flush Frenzy logo.

Well that's handy.

I've uh, gotten mixed up a few times. *^_^* It really stinks to hold on to three diamonds when the suit you want is hearts. Don't be like me! Pay attention!


Tips & Tricks

The Flush Frenzy is where you'll earn the most points. This means that you want to get as many Flushes as you can! In Quick-Draw Poker I only aim for a Flush if I have 4 cards the same suit. On Flush Frenzy I'll try for a Flush with just two or three cards of the same suit. But sometimes you'll get two suits with two cards each. What then?

First, look to see if one suit has a Jack or better. That way if I don't get a Flush, I still have a decent chance of getting a pair. In the example below I have a Queen and King of diamonds, and a six and Ace of hearts.

Hmm.....

With the Queen and King of diamonds I double my chance of getting a Jacks or better pair, so that's what I'll pick.

If neither suit has a Jack or better, I'll look to see if one of the suits has a Lucky Number.

Ooh! I see an eight of diamonds!

This time we have a nine and three of spades, and an eight and three of diamonds. Since eight is a Lucky number, I'll grab the diamonds. It's unlikely that I'll get a Jacks or better pair on the redeal, but if I do, I want to maximize my score.

If neither suit has a Lucky Number of a Jack or better, flip a coin. ^_^


Final Rating

I enjoyed Flush Frenzy, but I kept waiting for the "frenzy" to kick in. I imagined something like a shark feeding frenzy, but with cards, I guess. *^_^* Instead I got a poker game where I set the pace. That's fine and all, but I'm not exactly a frenzied player on my own.

Anywho, it's a good game, and the addition of Lucky Numbers adds a unique twist. I'll rate this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars. What would you rate it? Better still, what would you name Flush Frenzy? Bonus points for creativity!


Similar Games

If you like Flush Frenzy then you should try some of these games too!

• Quick-Draw Poker at Gamesville - Play 7 hands of poker at one time!
• Kenoka at Slingo - One of my favoritest games ever. ^_^ Keno + Poker!
• Turbo 21 at Pogo - An incredibly addictive fast-paced blackjack game.

Double Trouble - No, not the Olsen twins!

Double Trouble is a game of chance at GSN Oodles. You can play for Oodles three times a day, or practice (no Oodles) as many times as you want!

First you pick whether you want to do 10, 15, or 20 rolls. At any time you can cash out and keep your winnings. I'm not very lucky with this game, so I always pick 10 rolls. *^_^*

Now throw the dice!

Big money! Big money!

Each round you score the face value of the dice. The Joker counts as a one, and the GSN logo counts as a six. You want a few Jokers, but no more than 3!

• 1 Joker = no bonus
• 2 Jokers = double points each roll
• 3 Jokers = triple points each roll
• 4 Jokers = GAME OVER!

Having two Jokers is pretty nice. ^_^

Huzzah for double scores!

The downside is that you have a chance of rolling double Jokers, which makes for an instant fail

Dangit!

For some reason this seems to happen a lot. =( I hate it.

On the opposite end, if you roll double sixes (the GSN logo) you get 100 Oodles!!!

WOOHOOO!!

Whenever you roll doubles you MUST roll again! You can't cash out! And as I woefully discovered, if you roll 3 doubles in a row then it's game over. I guess you really can have too much of a good thing. :(

The only thing that can save you is if you roll doubles on your last turn. There's no forced roll when you're out of turns. ^_^

My luck is pretty sparse, so I always cash out once I get a third Joker. Every time I try to push it just "one more roll," I bust.


Final Rating

Double Trouble at GSN Oodles is an easy, quick game. I like both of those qualities. ^_^ The downside is that you can only play for Oodles 3 times a day. I'd be much happier if it was, oh, 10 times a day. But it's still fun!

3.5 stars for a fun, but no frills game. What would you rate it?


Similar Games

If you like Double Trouble, well... Okay, I haven't reviewed any other games like it yet. *^_^* Instead, here are a few games I like!

• Lottso Express! at Pogo - Bingo and scratchcards mixed together. Try to get a Mega Lottso!
• Kenoka at Slingo - What do you get when you combine Keno and Poker? Kenoka!
• Krazy Keno at BugleGames - Blink and you'll miss these Krazy-fast Keno games!

Turnstile - You spin me right round baby, right round

Turnstile is another great game brought to you by iWon! It's a click-3-make'em-vanish type game, but with a few interesting twists.

The story is that you work at a subway station sorting tokens. Whenever you see a group of 3 (or more) of the same color tokens together, click them! New tokens come in from the top and tumble down. The tokens are round, so sometimes they tumble in odd ways.

Oh! Did I mention that the board turns 60 degrees every few seconds?

Say what?

Yup! The board is constantly in motion. ^_^ And whenever you remove a group of tokens, the rest fall in to fill the void.

Fall! Fall into the void!!

On each new level the board turns faster and the tokens fall quicker. Until eventually....

Game over?? Blast!

My high score is 55,420! But uh, to get the trophy for this game, you need a score of 100,000. I'll be working on that one for a while. *^_^*


Scoring

Unlike most click-3-make'em-vanish games, Turnstile doesn't award bonus points for larger matches. It's 10 points per token, no matter if you match three (30 points) or eight tokens (80 points). However! There is a multiplier that affects each level.

• Levels 1-2 = Each token is 10 points.
• Levels 3-4 = 2x. Each token is 20 points.
• Levels 5-6 = 3x. Each token is 30 points.
• Levels 7-8 = 4x. Each token is 40 points.
• Levels 9-10 = 5x. Each token is 50 points!

I didn't get beyond level 9, so I can only assume that the score keeps multiplying the same way. If anyone gets beyond 10, please tell me! ^_^

You also gain points for each empty space left in the turnstile at the end of a level. 

Sparkles!

I don't *think* the free space has a point multiplier, but it's really hard to tell.

You'll get 1/10th of your score in iWon coins. This means a score of 20,000 is worth 2,000 coins. Not bad! Turnstile also has a progressive jackpot, with a max pot of $2,000! I usually get 2-3 jackpot spins per game.

The odds that you will win the jackpot in Turnstile are "no worse" than 1 in 1,000,000.
The odds that you will meet a vampire in real life are zero.

Had to get a little Twilight in there. ^_~


Tips & Tricks

1. Work from the top down. When you pull something out of the middle all of the tokens shift and you will lose some matches.

2. If you see a big match anywhere on the board, click it fast! You don't get bonus points for bigger matches, but they DO save time. It's a lot quicker to click one match of 9 than to find three matches of 3.

3. There are five nubs around the board. They light up one at a time to give you an idea of when the board is about to turn. The nub at the 10 o'clock position is the last one to light before the turn. Watch for it. ^_^ Also, when all of the nubs start flashing it means that the level is about to end. Make your matches fast!

4. Some of the token colors blur together, like the tan and gold tokens. (I also have trouble with the pink and red ones.) Instead of squinting at the board to see if you have a match of 3 gold, focus on the other colors. Eventually you'll have large groups of golds and tans that are easier to see. Or click randomly. That works too. ^_^

An example of tan and gold tokens on the same board.

Final Rating

Turnstile is a challenging game. I actually like that the trophy is hard to get. It gives me a reason to keep coming back. ^_^

There is one thing that really annoyed me though. The little "bubbles" that tell you how much you scored get in the way. A LOT. It's not a big deal in the early levels, since the board is rarely more than half-full. But starting around level 4 the bubbless become a severe distraction. They cover up the tokens and overall are just annoying.

3.5 stars out of 5. I want to give it a 4, but man.. I really hate those bubbles!


Similar Games

If you like Turnstile, you might enjoy these games too:

• Collapse at iWon - No rotating board and new pieces come from the bottom, not the top!
• Rotato at Candystand - Rotate the board to solve the puzzle! Can you make it through all 50 levels?
• Poppit! at Pogo - An untimed click-3 game full of balloons and presents. Very popular!

Rotato - As the potato turns..

Rotato is the newest game on Candystand! It's a cute game where you work through 50 levels of increasingly tough puzzles. Finish all 50 and you'll unlock the Endless mode! All in all it's a very fun game. ^_^

No rotating potatoes? Guess I'll survive..

Puzzle Mode

Yes, there are FIFTY puzzles!

Sweet!

Puzzles are unlocked one level at a time. So if you want to reach level 50, you have to play all 49 levels before it!

The beginning puzzles are pretty easy.

Um.. What do I do?

It looks strange, but it's simple! Your goal is to remove all of the yellow, blue, and red blocks. They vanish when they're in a same-color group of 3+, or if they're hit by a bomb or a rainbow.

You move pieces by rotating the board with the arrow buttons. The gray blocks won't move, but everything else will follow gravity. ^_^ Rotate the board to get blocks into a group (so they vanish) or to get bombs into place!

Each board has a par, or the average number of moves it takes to solve the puzzle. If you finish a puzzle below par then you get extra points! And if you realize you messed up, just hit RETRY at the bottom. Easy restart for the level!

As you play you'll come across some special pieces. Here is what they do:

• Pink blocks - They move like colored blocks, but they never vanish! Quite annoying.
• Bomb - Destroys ALL blocks directly touching it.
• Rainbow - Destroys ALL blocks in both the row and column that the rainbow is in. Imagine that it's the center in a cross of destruction.

 I see!

Still stumped on how to play? Let's tackle a puzzle. ^_^

Thanks!

The blue and yellow blocks are completely boxed in by the gray blocks. Right now nothing will move if we turn the puzzle. We HAVE to click on the bombs in order to change anything.

Wait, why did you turn it?

We turned the puzzle anyway because as soon as we click the bombs, gravity will kick in. So the blocks above the bombs will fall down!

Oh! I see!

Without the gray blocks in the way the blue (and yellow) blocks can happily meet up! Remember, whenever 3 or more of the same colored blocks touch, they vanish!

 That was an easy one, but some are much, much harder.

Puzzle #43 sucks.

That one kicked my butt. Eventually I gave up and just kept rotating it until it worked. 46 rotations for the win! ^_^

BIG HONKIN' TIP: To finish a puzzle, you have to get rid of the red/yellow/blue blocks. It doesn't matter how the blocks are removed, they just have to go. Sometimes it's impossible to group them so that they vanish. In these situations, use bombs and rainbows to take them out!

Yikes!

With that board you *have* to activate the rainbow. And then you only have 2 yellow blocks left! Destroy them with bombs and move on to the next puzzle! ^_^


Endless Mode

Once you finsh all 50 puzzles, you unlock the Endless mode! The Endless mode in Rotato is a click-3-make'em-vanish game. The added bonus is that if you get stuck, you can rotate the board to rearrange the pieces. HOWEVER, a new line of pieces is added every time you remove a group of blocks, click a special piece, or rotate the board.

 Can I play?

When there isn't ANY room for new blocks, that's when you lose. And it's nearly impossible to lose! In fact, I had to TRY to lose in order to get this screen.

They make losing look so pretty!

Rotating the board also adds random gray blocks, so I don't recommend rotating. I played for a very, very long time without turning the board once.

I was quite surprised to find a shop in Endless mode. It's a neat idea and I'd be interested in seeing a shop in the regular puzzle mode too. But they didn't ask me. *^_^*

Ooohh! Candy!

You "buy" items with your score. Half of the items you buy once and it's activated forever. The other half are 1-time use items. The 1-time use can be repurchased over and over, as long as you have points to spare! Here's how they work. ^_^

• Rainbow - Cross of destruction again. Remove 25 blue blocks to get a rainbow. (Endless use.)
• Pink globby - Changes all pink blocks into yellow blocks. (1 time use.)
• Potato lookin' thing - Changes all red blocks into yellow blocks. (1 time use.)
• Starfish - Removes 10 metal blocks. (1 time use.)
• Super Explosive - Clears a quarter of the screen! Remove 25 red blocks to get this shiny silver bomb. (Endless use.)
• Rainbow block - Removes a random number of blocks across the board. (Endless use.)

While I like the concept of the shop, I like playing "plain" most of the time. The rainbow blocks in particular can start to take over the board.

I see what you mean.

If you want to get stuff from the shop, I recommend the Super Explosive, the Starfish, and the Pink globby thing.


Tickets

You get 100 tickets for ANY score on Rotato. If you tie it in with your facebook account you can get more! There's a new batch of prizes on Candystand with only a month entry now, which makes me a lot happier. ^_^ Use those tickets to buy entries!


Final Rating

I really enjoyed playing Rotato. ^_^ But as always, I have to ask myself whether this is a one night stand or the start of a beautiful relationship. And for me at least, I think Rotato is a one night stand. If the score was recorded for endless mode, I'd probably come back and play some more, just to challenge myself. But once I waded through all 50 puzzles, I didn't feel pressed to go do it again.

But it was still fun! ^_^ The graphics are playful and game play is smooth. Try it and let me know what you think!

3.5 stars out of 5!