Breakdown – Shake down, you’re busted!

I’m going to be totally honest here. I put off reviewing Breakdown at BugleGames because I thought it was just another version of Collapse. *^_^* And it pretty much is, but it’s also (unexpectedly) much, MUCH harder.

 It looks so innocent…

For brevity’s sake I’m going to assume that you’re familiar with Collapse already. If you aren’t, click the link to Collapse and go read it. ^_^

Now, here’s how Breakdown is different.

 

1. It’s a lot faster.

Right from the start, Breakdown is much faster than Collapse. There’s no time to waste!

On the upside, the speed doesn’t seem to accelerate quite as quickly as in Collapse. So you have quite a few levels before you get to the pants-wettingly-fast stage.

Well this isn’t so ba- OMG I’M GUNNA DIE!!!

 

2. It’s easier to die.

Aside from the increased speed, it’s flat out easier to die here. Why? Well, the point of death is when you hit the top of the screen. In regular Collapse you can hit the top of the screen and be just fine. It’s only when the next line pushes you above that point that kills you.

Not here! If you reach the top you’re D-E-A-D!

 

3. There are more colors.

In regular Collapse you start with red, green, and blue blocks. At level 4 white blocks get tossed into the mix. And that’s it. With Breakdown you start with red, green, and blue blocks. But then it starts getting more complicated.

• Level 3 – White blocks are added.
• Level 6 – Cue the yellow blocks!
• Level 9 – Aqua?? Wtf?

Crap!

Judging by the pattern, I’d say you get a new color every three levels. But I never got to level 12, so I can’t say for certain. *^_^*

No matter what, it’s a heck of a lot harder to find groups of three same-color blocks when you’re dealing with 5+ colors!

 

4. No area bombs.

Area bombs are “regular” bombs that occasionally crop up in new lines. When clicked, they take out a wide area of blocks. Woohoo!!

Except that Breakdown doesn’t have them. Instead you get three “killer bombs” to the side which are sometimes AWESOME and sometimes they totally suck. You can launch one at any time and it’ll bounce around the top, taking out a block here and there. If the block is part of a group, it takes the whole group out.

It’s also really tiny.

I had one bomb bounce around until the timer ran out, taking dozens of blocks with it. And I had another bomb hit one (1) block before it bounced away. >_<

So! Don’t rely on killer bombs to save your butt. And remember, those three bombs have to last your entire game!

 

5. Extra time at the end!

One of my pet peeves of this type of game is that once the last line loads, your time is up. It doesn’t matter if there’s a bomb on it or anything. You can’t click it!

Breakdown finally changes that. (SWEET!) After the last line loads, you have 5 seconds to click and clear whatever you can!

YES!!!!

This makes me extremely happy. ^_^ Those last 5 seconds are a godsend, so use them!!

 

Final Rating

The graphics on Breakdown are a little rough, but the more I played it, the more I *got* the game. ^_^ And quite to my surprise, I think I might like this more than the original!

With regular Collapse, the challenge is to keep the board clear (and make big matches) as the game gets faster and faster. With Breakdown the challenge is to keep the board clear (and make big matches) even though you’re dealing with more and more colors. It seems like a small change, but it makes a huge difference!

So, what would I rate this?

*Ponders*

I think I’ll go for 4.5 stars out of 5. The erratic nature of the killer bombs is the only strike against this one.

Try it and share your own rating! ^_^ What do you think of the additional colors? And if you get to level 12, is there another color added? (Seriously, I want to know!)

 

Similar Games

If you like Breakdown, you might also like some of these games!

• Spongebob Squarepants Collapse at IWON – This might be my favorite version of Collapse. ^_^
• Poppit! at Pogo – Untimed, unrushed, and addictive. Try it!
• Merry Poppings at Slingo – Pop balloons and play with oodles of powerups!

Sudoku – Simply Sudoku.

Sudoku at BugleGames is a very basic, uncomplicated game. I wish I could roll out better adjectives, but it is what it is. ^_^

Bare bones doesn’t mean that it’s bad!

There are no difficulty levels to choose from, and to me it looks like the default is set to easy. (I play a lot of Sudoku.) The red numbers are your guides, and you can’t change them.

To fill in the gaps, click on a blank square and keep clicking until you see the right number. If it’s a 9, you’ll have to click nine times. Your numbers show up in black!

 Vivid contrast!

If you need some help, there are two tools available to you.

1. Hint

Click HINT and then click on an empty square. The correct number for that square will appear in red. You can use hint as many times as you want, but each time it will add 60 seconds to your score. (That’s not a good thing.)

2. Mini-grid

Look in the lower right corner in the above pics. See that small grid? It mirrors what you’ve done so far. Whenever you have 1-9 in a row/column, the corresponding boxes in the mini-grid will turn light green. Now when you have 1-9 in one of the small sections, those boxes in the mini-grid turn blue. When the blue and light green combine it becomes a dusky green.

When I was playing around I found a slight problem with the mini-grid. As long as you have the numbers 1-9 in the section, the grid will light up. This doesn’t mean the numbers are in the right order. So you’ll need to pay attention!

 

That’s pretty much everything. *^_^* Score is based on how long it takes you to finish the puzzle, so try to be quick!

 

Final Rating

As far as Sudoku games go, this one is right in the middle. There’s nothing fancy about it, but it works.

I generally prefer harder Sudoku puzzles, but much to my surprise I found that I was making several errors! (Does that sound arrogant? It does, doesn’t it. >_< Blast.)

It took me a while but I finally figured what was tripping me up. The red and black numbers are great contrasts, but they’re so good that my brain focuses on the colors individually. I’d see all of the black numbers, or all of the red numbers. I had to really concentrate if I wanted to see both at the same time!

Many Sudoku games do this, and it always bugs me. Feh.

Anyway, I rate BugleGames’ Sudoku a 2.5 out of 5 stars. What would you rate it? Do you even like Sudoku? ^_^

 

Similar Games

If you like Sudoku or puzzle games, you should try some of these games too!

• Sudoku Puzzle Blast at Pogo – Fantastic mashup of jigsaw puzzles and Sudoku!
• Drip Drop Sudoku at IWON – Wait.. this is a terrible game! How did it get in here??
• Jigsaw Puzzle at Spigo – Flat out the best online Jigsaw Puzzle game that I’ve ever seen.

Word Noodle – Now with 50% more spelling sauce!

Word Noodle is a word game at Bugle Games. It’s a cross between Tumble Bees and Boggle Bash, and it’s pretty fun!

 Whoa! Lots of letters! o_O

Yeah, it’s a big board. ^_^ You have 300 seconds (5 minutes) to make as many words as you can! Whenever you make a word the tiles vanish and new ones take their place!

Poof!

Words can be anywhere from 2-11 letters long. Each letter tile has a number on it, like in Scrabble. But in Word Noodle, the score is multiplied by the number of letters in the word! A four letter word has a 4x multiplier. A seven letter word has a 7x multiplier, and so on.

For an extra bonus, when you make a 5+ letter word you’ll get a blue bonus tile. Use it in a word for an extra 250 points!

I’ll spell I-C-O-N.

Sadly, the multiplier doesn’t affect the bonus. ~_~ (I checked.) On the upside, you can have up to five blue bonus tiles on the board at any time.

Ooooh!

Now, here comes the tricky part. To make a word you click on each letter one at a time. The letters have to touch in some way. (Diagonals count.) Sounds like Boggle Bash, right? Well here’s how it’s different: New letters can connect to any letter in the word. Take a look.

 “Sniper.” Are you trying to tell me something?

The letters jump around a little, but they’re all connected to each other. In picture on the bottom right I replaced the letters with numbers. Hopefully you can see how they’re connected. ^_^

Oh! I see what you mean. ^_^

If you’re trying to make a huge word, and you run out of useful letters, just hit one of the stars above the word list.

Stars!

Clicking a star will shuffle all of the letters around the word that you’re making! You only get 3 shuffles each game. Use them wisely!

 

Final Rating

I like the concept and the execution of Word Noodle. My one problem is that the rounds are far too long. Part of the appeal (to me) in word games is that I’m racing the clock. With this one I feel no rush at all. Instead I think, “Is it over yet?” ~_~

So for me, this one is 3 stars out of 5. What do you think of Word Noodle? What do you like (or dislike) about it? Or do you totally hate word games? ^_^

 

Similar Games

If you like word games, you should definitely try some of these games too!

• Seekado! at Club Bing – A fun word search where you have to figure out what the words are before you can even look for them!
• Text Twist at iWon or Gamesville – Find as many words as you can from 6 random letters. Simple but challenging!
• Boggle Bash at Pogo – Work to find words in a grid of letters. Be fast! 

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.

Krazy Keno - Krazy fast!

I like the concept of Keno, but I'm usually not patient enough for a normal game. Luckily for me, Krazy Keno at BugleGames is super fast!

KEEEEENOOOOOO!!

Krazy Keno works like regular Keno, only a LOT faster. You pick 10 numbers on the board and then the computer picks 20 random numbers. The more numbers that match up, the higher your score!

Each bet costs 5 credits. You can bet 1 round at a time, 5 rounds, or 10! I like betting 10 rounds at a time, because I can chat with people in the room as I win. ^_^

How lovely!

Now lemme explain the colors. ^_^

• Purple = Numbers you picked
• White = Numbers the computer picked
• Green = Numbers that you AND the computer picked! These are your wins!
• Blue = Bonus balls

Every round the computer picks 3 Bonus balls. If they match up with a number that you picked, they turn yellow!

I see one! I see one!!

Bonus balls are AWESOME! They multiply your entire score for that round!

• 1 Bonus ball = 2x score
• 2 Bonus balls = 4x score
• 3 Bonus balls = 16x score!!!

Remember, the bonus only applies if the Bonus ball matches with a number you picked. So far the most I've had match were 2 Bonus balls, but it's fun!! ^_^

The payout *appears* to be a 1 to 1 ratio. (1 credit equals 1 BugleGames token.) After less than 20 minutes of playing I had 50,000 credits. Not bad!



Final Rating

I had a lot of fun with Krazy Keno! ^_^ It was quick, I won often, and I the room was lively. Woohoo!

4 out of 5 stars!

BugleGames' Sweeps

Tomorrow (the 15th) BugleGames will draw for their monthly sweeps! If you haven't entered yet, you can still enter on the BugleGames Contest Page.

Remember, BugleGames is a small site, so there are fewer entries in the sweeps! You aren't guaranteed a win, but the odds are more favorable. (1 in 50,000 instead of 1 in 1,000,000. It makes a difference!)

Good luck! ^_^

Last Chance!

This giveaway is now closed! Thank you to those who entered! You'll get your tokens soon. ^_^

Today is the last day you can enter the BugleGames 100k token giveaway! Remember, EVERYONE who enters will get 100k tokens to spend at BugleGames!

Wanna enter? Here's what you do.

1. Follow @BugleGames on Twitter.
2. Follow @MiraHopes2Win on Twitter.
3. Leave a comment over ---> here <--- with your BugleGames account name and Twitter name. 

That's it! You have until midnight EST to leave a comment and take advantage of this awesome deal! Entries will be verified on June 11th and your tokens will be awarded shortly after that. So uh, don't unfollow until after the 11th. I'd prefer if you didn't unfollow at all, but I'm not naive. ^_^

Okay, maybe I'm a little naive. You don't have to rub it in! :P

If you dislike Twitter, don't get discouraged! This is the first of many contests, and they definitely won't all be Twitter oriented. ^_^ Consider this just extra incentive to give BugleGames a try!

Bugle Games - Where Bingo is #1!

BingoBingoBingo!!!

BugleGames is small gaming company run by BingoBugle. (Say that five times fast!) I'm new to the Bingo world, but it seems that BingoBugle publishes a completely Bingo centered newsletter and even hosts a Bingo cruise!

Of course, BugleGames features more than just Bingo! They have several games, both single and multiplayer. There are no paid membership options, so everyone is on the same level!
 

Layout

I love simple layouts. Give me something organized where I don't spend 5 minutes trying to find the sweepstakes, and I'm pretty happy. ^_^

Here, everything is clear and easy to find! At the moment the forum link isn't working, but hopefully that will be fixed soon. (It will take you to the BugleGames facebook page when it's fixed.)

The one thing that bugs me is the banner. It's constantly flickering and that really bothers my eyes. =( I usually scroll down so I can't see it.


Community

Another benefit of a smaller site is that the community is very close. Whenever I pop in to Bingo everyone is friendly and welcoming. ^_^ It's a lot of fun!

BugleGames is also incredibly active on Twitter, which I love! I strongly suggest following them so you don't miss out on the Special Pots announcements!


Tokens & Prizes

As you play games you'll (hopefully) earn oodles of tokens. ^_^ You use tokens to buy tickets for sweepstakes!

Each month they have 4 sweeps for $25 Amazon.com certificates. One ticket costs 1,000 tokens, and the sweeps are up for a full month. One thing I like is that when you go to enter, you can see how many total entries are in the sweeps. ^_^ This feature highlights one of the MAJOR benefits of playing on a small site.

There aren't many entries.

On large sites you can expect millions (literally) of entries for any sweeps. In comparison, the average number of entries for a BugleGames sweeps is 50,000!

As always, remember that even though the odds are more in your favor here, you're not guaranteed a win! But it's still fun to try. ^_^
 

Final Opinion

I like BugleGames! It's not a top-of-the-line site, but it feels... cozy. *^_^*

I'm sitting here with a big grin on my face, and whenever I think of BugleGames I just feel happy. *Sheepish grin* That sounds extraordinarily corny, but it's true! The players are wonderful, and that makes a HUGE difference.

A good site is more than tons of games and oodles of money. The people in it can really make or break a site. And on BugleGames, they make it. They really do. ^_^

Bingo - Was his name-o.

IMPORTANT: In the screen shots you'll see dollar signs ($) and mentions of cash. This is not real cash! Bingo at BugleGames is completely free to play!

Besides, I can assure you that I don't have over $300,000 to my name. (And if I did I wouldn't put it all on Bingo!)

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let's get down to Bingo! Once you decide to play Bingo at BugleGames, you may enter the glorious lobby!

Hey! Where's my bowl of yellow M&M's?!

You can access several different Bingo games from the lobby, but today we'll just be focusing on the first two rooms: BingoFever and EasyMoney. (Conveniently highlighted in the red box.)

These two rooms play "regular" bingo, where all you need are 5 in a row to win. In BingoFever you wager $50 per card and EasyMoney is $75 per card.

Remember, it's FAKE MONEY. ^_^ If you just started playing BugleGames and need more "cash" for Bingo, then you can play solo games like MegaSpheres for a bit to replenish your supply.

As soon as you pick your room, this appears!

Oooohhh! I like blue!

I've circled (squared?) the important items. First off, you need to select "Auto Daub." The bingo numbers are called incredibly fast, and there is no list of the last 5 numbers called. For the sake of your own sanity, PLEASE select Auto Daub!

Next you pick how many cards you want to play. If playing multiple cards usually makes you pull your hair in frustration, just remember that you wisely picked Auto Daub earlier. Now you can play as many cards as you want! (Limit 6.) ^_^

Woot! Now you're ready for Bingo!

Bingo cards start out with a purple header. When a card is one away from bingo, the header turns pink.

So close!

But the color you REALLY want to see is green. That's bingo!!

Oh! Oh! BINGO!!!

As soon as you see that green header, smack the CALL BINGO button (handily cropped out of the pic) and feel free to dance around your computer in joy. I won't tell. ^_^

The size of the pot depends on how many people are playing. More people = more cards = bigger pot. BUT if you follow BugleGames on twitter you'll get an inside scoop on Special Pots, also known as SPs. When a room has a Special Pot the rewards are MUCH higher! (As in, instead of a 5k pot it might be 35k.)

Special Pots are held nearly every day, but at different times. If you want the extra bonus you need to keep an eye on twitter!


Final Rating

This is the fastest Bingo game that I've found, and I LOVE that! ^_^ Best of all, with the Auto Daub feature I'm free to chat with others and I'm not glued to the screen hunting for numbers. (And gaining a headache in the process.)

However, this is a very basic Bingo. No fancy bells or whistles. The game itself is a solid 3 stars, but I'm going to add in another half star for the social bonus and the creative twitter tie-in. ^_^

3.5 stars out of 5

MegaSpheres - Ooh! I found my marbles!

NOTICE: I usually link directly to the reviewed game, but I can't do that with this one. All links will take you to the correct page where you can scroll down to find the game. I apologize for the inconvenience! 

MegaSpheres is an unusual puzzle created by BugleGames. This is a new site for me, and a full review will follow later. ^_^

At first glance, MegaSpheres appears to be a typical click-3-make'em-vanish game, similar to Collapse. But there are several crucial differences.

1. You only need to click 2 matching marbles. (That's your first hint that this is a tougher game.)
2. Marbles don't fall straight down. They fall down and to the left.
3. New rows appear on the right and fall to the left.
4. There is no timer, which makes this a puzzle instead of a speed game.

You start out with three colors. After every 75 moves you'll get another color added to the mix.

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!

So far the most colors I've had in a game is 6, and that is TOUGH to play. It's hard because unlike Collapse, you don't have new rows appearing every few seconds. The only way to get new marbles in MegaSpheres is by clearing the marbles on the very bottom row.

Here we have a nearly empty board. I have only 3 possible moves left.

I decided to click on the group of 3 red marbles, and then the 4 blue marbles. The result is below.

I know it looks confusing. Just remember that new lines of marbles will ALWAYS fall to the left. When you're stuck with no matching marbles on the bottom row, you need to play carefully. Death follows quickly.

I had 6 colors. Gimme a break!

In MegaSpheres you get more points for matching larger groups of marbles. Because of this you will score the most points on the first level. You have the fewest colors to work with there, and you start with a full board. This means you can make a gigantic match!

Whoa. That's a lot of yellow.

If you can't tell from the above pic, I was about to make a huge match with yellow marbles. It was beautiful. ^_^

Use the first level to make the biggest matches possible and your score will shoot up. I actually made it onto the high scores!

Sweet!!

True, they reset the scores every week, and a new week had just started... But still! I'm on the high scores!!Woohoo!! ^_^


Nitpicky Things

There are 5 boxes above the playing field. They keep track of the colors, score, how many chips/tokens you've earned, how many marbles you cleared on your last move, and the total marbles you've cleared. To be honest, I don't pay attention to anything other than score and chips. But the ONE thing I really want to keep track of is how many moves I have left until I get another color. I don't need a box to tell me I have 4 different color marbles in play, as I can *see* that I have 4 different color marbles on the screen. But there's nothing to tell me how many moves I have left. :(

Also, the animations are abrupt. This is a problem because although I *know* that the marbles fall down and to the left, I just can't see it in my mind. With most games I can watch the pieces move and figure it out from there, but I can't do that here. As a result, I frequently get an unpleasant surprise when marbles resettle.


Final Rating

For a puzzle game, MegaSpheres is pretty cool. A *long* game doesn't take me more than 10 minutes, and I find it both relaxing and stimulating. (Don't ask me how that works, cuz I have no idea.)

I'd say this is a solid 4 out of 5 stars. ^_^ Give it a shot and let me know what you think!