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!

InterWheel - Hop, skip, and die!

InterWheel is another great game from KadoKado. At KadoKado you play to earn gift certificates, and you get 4 free plays each day!

Well hello there!

In InterWheel your goal is to get a little black blob from one wheel to the next. I call them Darkings. (+50 P4P points to the 1st person that gets the reference! ^_^)

The controls are easy! You just click your mouse to make the Darking jump.

Weeee!!!

All of the wheels are moving, and that really affects your velocity and direction!

You earn points in two ways.

1. Climb higher - Just making it from one wheel to the next earns you a few points!
2. Grab bonus beads - You'll see green and blue beads hanging out in space. If the Darking is near enough, they'll fly right to hir! Green beads are 300 points, blue beads are 1,000, and red beads are 5,000!

IMPORTANT: A green blob on a wheel is NOT a bonus bead! It's a bomb, and touching it will end your game!!

Green booger of dooooooooooom!!

The booger-bomb is a quick way to die. But below you, out of sight, is a ton of water!! And Darkings can't swim!

Oops.

This creeping wall of water is "incentive" to hop up the tower as fast as you can. You can survive a few moments under water, so try not to panic-jump. (I totally panic-jump. It never works! AGH!!) Just hop to a wheel and slingshot your way out of there!


Kado Points

Every time you play a game on KadoKado you're given a challenge. (They call it a "contract," but I think that sounds scary.) If you can beat the challenge score then you earn Kado points!

Good luck!

The score to beat changes each time, and the reward points are always different!

Another fantastic way to get Kado points is to earn a star. You can get one star per game per Kalendar period. (Two weeks.) Think of stars like trophies. ^_^

• Green star (10 KP) - Score 16,847+ points.
• Orange star (50 KP) - Score 28,881+ points.
• Maroon star (100 KP) - Score 34,898+ points.

At the end of the Kalendar period any stars you have will be turned in for KP!

A third way to earn Kado points is to get in the top ranked players. This earns you another 100 KP! The number of top ranked players is a percentage of total players instead of a fixed number. Give it your best shot and see what you can do!

Final Rating

I'm not terribly coordinated, so InterWheel isn't my favorite game. *^_^* But I still enjoy playing it and crying out, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" when my little Darking drowns. Again.

4.5 stars out of 5!

Similar Games

Ho-boy. InterWheel is unlike any other game I've reviewed so far. But if you like it, you might enjoy one of the following games. ^_^

• Pie Oh My on iWon - Very quick game. Good reflexes are a must!
• The Duck Hunter on iWon - Nostalgic, but fun. ^_^
• Flushee on KadoKado - Not a speed game, but it's something else you can try on KadoKado.

Trident Layers Factory - Flavorful Fun!

When it comes to sponsored games I keep my expectations low. *^_^* So I was.... unsure about trying Trident Layers Factory at Candystand. But this turned out to be a pretty awesome game!

Meep!

Okay, so you have a bubble gum magnet to pull down blocks of gum. If it's the same color, you can stack up to 7 blocks on the magnet at one go.

You clear bubble gum blocks by forming layered piece of gum. There's a pink sandwich and a pineapple/apple mix. New rows are pushed down from the top, so you better be quick!

I totally thought that was lemon/lime.

The picture makes it look like the combos only work if you have one of each color block. Well, I have good news!  The game looks for the pattern of colors and not the number of blocks. See?

Oooooh... I wanna chew that!

Everything inside that blue box counts as one piece of layered gum. When I release the magnet all of the layers smoosh together into one nice piece! ^_^

Sweet!

Sometimes you'll see combos already on the board, but they won't vanish on their own. You have two options.

1. Add more end-color blocks to make it bigger. It will then smush into a small piece and vanish.
2. Pull the last block down with the magnet, then release it. Even though you didn't add anything the game now sees it as a completed piece and it'll vanish.

Since your magnet can hold only 7 blocks at a time, and the board would get crowded FAST when you make uber-pieces, Trident Layers Factory decided to squish the gum blocks for you.

I see numbers. What do they mean?

Whenever you release blocks of gum so that they form a group of four or more same-color blocks, the blocks combine. This new block will have a number on it, and it's treated as one block! (See scoring for more info.)

Combining blocks is very handy for making big combos without using a ton of space. Use it! ^_^

And have you noticed the little number under the magnet? (Check the first picture.) That's how many laser charges you have. Despite the impressive name, the laser removes only one block per charge. Save your charges for metal and ice blocks. ^_^

Jackpot

Whenever you make 7 pieces of apple/pineapple gum OR strawberry/orange gum, you get to spin the Fruit Flavor Jackpot!!

Yay! I'm lucky! (They told me so.)

Jackpots are the only way to pick up charges for your laser. The lasers are very helpful in the last few levels, so save them up!

I have mixed feelings about the jackpot. In unlimited play it's great, because it's essentially a pause button. You can get up and grab food, use the bathroom, chase your cats off the counters, whatever. ^_^

But in high scores mode it's more of a nuisance. You don't have a choice about when to spin, it just POPS UP. When I get in a gaming groove it's sort of like when I get into a good book; disturb me and you will die. So yeah, I really hate having to wait for the inexplicably slow jackpot to finish spinning, and then trying to remember what combo I was in the middle of making. Ugh.

Oh, and since the two fruit flavors are on two different meters, frequently I spin the jackpot, make two more matches, and have to spin again!

I will admit that the bonus points are nice. One time I was lucky enough to get 5 of a kind. Pretty sweet reward!

Nice!

But for the most part, I could do without the jackpots. Ah well.


Special Pieces

Trident Layers Factory has two different modes. You can play unlimited, where the fun never ends. (Literally. If you die you just start over!) Or you can play high score mode and earn a shiny trophy!

High score mode has 10 levels, with each level lasting 2.5 minutes. If you manage not to die then you get to move on to the next level!

Starting on level 2 of high scores mode, you're introduced to the first special piece. A metal block.

Wha?

Despite the fact that this is the ONLY metal object in the game, it will not work with the magnet. That's just funny. ^_^

If you build a gum combo right next to the metal block, then when the combo vanishes, the metal block will vanish too.

Personally, I found that difficult if not impossible to set up when a metal block sticks waaaaaaaaaay out from the rest of the board. In that scenario it's best to fry it with a laser. OR you can use one of the following special blocks to get rid of it. ^_^

"Row Destroyer." That sounds like a band.

The row destroyer is exactly what it sounds like. ^_^ It destroys -rows-. To activate it just pull it down with your magnet and then fire it back up. Activating *other* special blocks can also activate the row destroyer!

Looks like a lava block to me.

Bombs blow up everything in a 3x3 radius. If a row destroyer is in that radius, it will fire off and destroy the row too. Very handy. ^_^ Mira + Bombs = Love

Column Destroyer says, "RAR!!!!"

But as much as I love bombs, I *might* love column destroyers even more. ^_^ Grab one and use it on the longest column. BAM! Everything gone! It tears through metal and activates all row destroyers and bombs. Oh! And it cracks ice blocks too.

Looks cold.

This is a frozen solid block of annoying. In order to remove it you have to "hit it" twice with a row/column destroyer, bomb, or laser beam.

I'm so very, very glad that this pesky thing is only in the last two levels. Ugh!

Oh my.

That's what level 10 looks like. Remember that a steady stream of new rows come down from the top, so be quick!!


Scoring

In unlimited mode you get 100 points for every gum block that you clear. This means that a finished piece made with 17 blocks (it's possible!) is worth 1700 points! Sweet!

In high scores mode it *appears* that blocks are worth 50 points instead of 100. I'm not positive on this and if anyone knows for sure, please tell me. ^_^

Either way, if you want to rack up points you have two options.

1. Make as many finished pieces as you can. The extra points from the jackpots are worth it!
2. Make as many BIG finished pieces as you can. No extra bonus, but they're fun!

Since I don't like the jackpots, I went with option 2. That seemed to work out pretty well. ^_^

 Woohoo!!!

Not bad, right? But how does it compare to oh, the rest of the world?

Hey... That's me!!!

Pretty good, actually. ^_^

Okay, enough of tooting my own horn.

Toot!

¬_¬ MOVING ON!

Numbered blocks don't provide any bonuses. A 4x block is worth the same as 4 un-squished blocks. It's just easier to move. ^_^

No matter what you score, don't forget to hit SUBMIT SCORE when you're done! That's the only way you get tickets!


Tips & Tricks

The last two levels in the highscores mode gets pretty hectic. Keep an eye open for ANY bomb or destroyer that you can grab. Try to activate bombs so they set off any destroyers buried in the gum blocks.

Unlimited mode essentially dumps you into an unending level 10. But after you die once, it takes you to an unending level 1! This may be a mistake, but I prefer an unending level 1 to an unending level 10. It's much more relaxing. ^_^

Also, in unending you cannot submit any score you earn. If you still want tickets just hit "Main Menu" when you're done and submit a score of 0.


Final Rating

Trident Layers Factory turned out to be a pleasant surprise. ^_^ On the whole it's a great game and really kept me on my toes!

The one downer is the jackpot. I wish they'd saved it for the end of the level instead of right in the middle. Honestly, the jackpot is the only reason this one isn't getting a perfect score. Still, 4 out of 5 stars ain't bad!

Try it today (Tuesday) at Candystand and get the bonus of double tickets every time you submit your score! Then come back here and let me know what you think! ^_^

Air Hockey - Weeeeeee!!!!!

I love air hockey. ^_^ But as with most games I love, I'm terrible at it! Whenever I play in an arcade the game lasts only a few minutes, and then they want $2 again. (No thank you! I will pay for failure once, but no more than that!)

So what do I think of a free game of air hockey? I think it's perfect!

Let's play!

This lovely game is created by iWon, and they did a darn good job of it. You can pick one of several boards (blue skies in the above pic!), and you also have your choice of mallet colors.

You play in a tournament with the computer. There are three rounds in each tournament.

Is that a dinosaur wearing a purple wig???

Each round starts with 2 minutes on the clock. Whoever scores 7 points before the timer ends is the winner of that round. If neither party scores 7 points, then whoever has the highest score wins. Tie? Then it goes into Sudden Death mode. Whoever scores a point first wins the game, and there are two pucks in play!

You score a point by getting the yellow puck into your opponent's goal on the far right of the screen. Of course, the computer hits the puck right back at you, so you have to defend your goal too!

In my case, scoring is often hilarious. ^_^ At least 90% of my goals were accidental. (The other 10% were me knocking the puck backwards and into my own goal. Whoops!)

After each point there is a tiny break and you'll see a celebration screen, followed by a tally of the current points. The celebration screen might praise you for getting a point early in the game or announce that you just scored several points in a row!

Woohoo!!

The animations are short, but they made me giggle. Especially the one that says, "You scored! (On yourself.)"

I even learned a new phrase.

Thank you! *Takes a bow*

I got this image so many times and I had *no* idea what a Hat Trick was, so I looked it up. Turns out that in actual hockey, it's so hard to score a point that if a team scores a second point, it's called a Hat Trick. So every time you score a 2nd point in iWon Air Hockey, they call it a Hat Trick.

But uh... considering it's MUCH easier to score points in air hockey, it just seems odd to claim it's a hard thing to score two points.

Moving on!

You earn bonus points for finishing a round early. (The points are shown at the end. It relates to your token reward.) You can earn bonus points in many other ways, but unfortunately it isn't clear what you need to do. Just play and have fun with it. ^_^

I thought the computer opponent was quite good. It moved realistically, and provided a decent challenge for me.

Still, I won the majority of games, so the challenge wasn't *that* hard. But to be honest, I prefer when I win games. ^_^

Yay!! I win!! ^_^

For the most part this game is flawless. But there are two issues that may hinder your gameplay.

1. Heavy graphics. Air hockey is a fast game, and the speedy pace is mirrored here. However, sometimes my computer lagged for a few seconds during a game. Having an option for lower detail graphics would probably help, but alas, that feature is not offered. If you have troubles, try closing any extra programs on your computer.

2. Click to continue.

Yay!!! I win again!!

As previously mentioned, after every scored point you get a celebration screen and then a tally screen. To get back to the game you have to click "Continue." This puts your cursor on the right half of the screen. But you *play* on the left side of the screen, so you immediately have to move your mouse to the left after you hit continue.

I really dislike the way this is set up. Many, many times I hit the puck before I was ready because I was having to reposition my cursor/mallet.

These two problems aren't deal breakers for me, but they are definitely annoying.

Air Hockey is a progressive jackpot game with a max pot of $2,000. At the end of each game I had 10 spins (the max) to play with. Even when I lost on the first round I had 10 spins. ^_^

On average I ended up with about 7,000+ tokens at the end of a game. Not bad!


Reality Check
The odds of winning the progressive jackpot on Air Hockey are "no worse" than 1 in 20,000,000.
The odds a child (age 2-11) in the US has cavities in hir baby teeth are 1 in 2.37.

Wow. O_O


Final Rating

I've noticed that iWon is very good at making short games that are fun to play. Air Hockey is no exception. ^_^ The customizeable features are a nice touch, and the graphics are well done. The few flaws keep it from getting a perfect score. So! This gets 4.5 stars out of 5.

A New Leaf - A new reason to keep plants outside.

Today's game is pretty simple. No elaborate story needed to explain it.

Hey... stop cheering! That's rude. :P

Anywho, today's game is A New Leaf, from iWon games. You're shown a bunch of leaves and when you mouse over them, they flip over. There are all sorts of bugs under the leaves, but you're looking for just one - the black fuzzy caterpillar!

Awww!!! Can I pet it?

When you find the leaf with the black fuzzy caterpillar, just click the leaf and you'll be taken to the next round.

If you are arachnophobic you may not enjoy this game, as there are spiders under some of the leaves. I'm an arachnophobe and the picture squicks me out a little, but it's not terrible for me.

*Shudder*

Yes, I shrunk the pic to reduce the odds of freaking someone out. The game board itself will not change sizes while you play. ^_^

The first 15 rounds are easy. You have 10-15 seconds to find which leaf the has the caterpillar, and there aren't a ton of leaves to search in the first place. Then suddenly it goes to this:

HUH?!?!

From level 16 on, you have 21 leaves and four seconds to check all of them! Basically you run your mouse across the rows as quick as you can and look for a glimpse of the caterpillar. This is not an easy task! Do not blink or you'll miss it. Best of all, since there's no pause option and you move directly from one level to the next, you can expect to see GAME OVER very soon.

Dangit!

So far my best score is 2,400. This is a surprisingly tough game! I want to like it because the concept is interesting, game play is fast, and the graphics are pretty.*^_^*

Unfortunately it has some major flaws. Considering how difficult this game is, the payouts are absolutely terrible. I rarely earn over 100 coins from A New Leaf. They also are pretty stingy with the jackpot spins. So far the most spins I've gotten in A New Leaf is two.

Also, whenever I play I find that I'm completely alone in the chat room. This isn't a popular game, probably for the two reasons listed above.

If they increased the payouts and/or added a "click to continue" feature between rounds, this would definitely be a better game.

Reality Check
A New Leaf has a progressive jackpot with a max pot of $2,000.
The odds of winning the JP are "no worse" than 1 in 1,000,000.
The odds of a man in the US being named John are 1 in 30.57.

Final Rating
I'll give this one a solid 2 stars out of 5.

Collapse - AHHHHH!!!!!

The research for this post (game playing) and the writing of this post were done with a sleepy kitten in my lap, who insisted on shoving her nose in the crook of my arm whilst purring most vigorously.

There. I saved you a trip to cuteoverload today. ^_^

iWon's Collapse is a click-3-make'em-vanish game. You start with three different colors of bricks and get a forth color as you progress.

Collapse on iWon games

I always die on lvl 9, so I have NO idea how many total colors there are.

When you see 3 (or more) bricks of the same color together, just click on them and they will vanish. But you have to be quick, because more lines are added at the bottom of the screen while you play. If the blocks reach the top it's game over.


To help you clear blocks quicker, there are also bombs. The black bombs will take out a HUGE chunk of blocks near it. The colored bombs will take out ALL of that color brick on the screen. But you have to click *exactly* on the bomb for it to work. If you have a blue bomb that's touching 2 blue bricks, then touching either of the bricks will "use" the bomb as a 3rd brick, and they'll all just vanish. No extra blue blocks will be removed. :(

If you manage to clear the entire screen at any point, you get a bonus of 10,000 points x the current level.


No bonus points for leaving one block on the screen. :(

This game is quite addictive and can really get your heart pounding. The first levels often feel a little slow, but it speeds up fast! Starting around lvl 7 I constantly hear my inner-voice excitedly shrieking that I'm going to die. ^_^

The all-time high score is over 20,000,000. My highest score is 370,148. (Scroll up! Screenshot!) I have NO idea how that people score in the millions. I want to think that they're cheating, but alas, I must admit that they are just better than I am at Collapse.

iWon Collapse is a Progressive Jackpot game with a max pot of $2,000. I usually get 5+ spins per game.

Reality Check:
The odds of winning the Progressive Jackpot are "no worse" than 1 in 20,000,000.
The odds of having an ER-worthy accident involving a bed, pillow, or mattress are 1 in 537.9.

*Eyes bed cautiously*

Final rating: 5 out of 5 stars. ^_^ I just keep coming back to this game!!

Pie Oh My - Yes, please!

After yesterday's disastrous encounter with Drip Drop Sudoku, I was thrilled to find a new (for me) game on iWon that I really like. ^_^ Let me introduce you to Pie Oh My. (Which for some reason I keep calling "Pie in the Sky.")


It's not very complicated. You catch the fruit and avoid the veggies. As you catch more fruit your pie shell gets bigger, the fruit/veggies get bigger, and everything starts going a LOT faster. And pretty soon you see something like this:

I was aiming for the purple root. I'm not sure what it is, but I know the game says it's a fruit. Darn carrot got me....

Anywho, this is a perfect example of a simple concept that is well executed. I find myself giggling whenever I die, but then I hit "play again" and give it another shot. ^_^ It's a wonderful game for when you're feeling brain dead. Probably not so great a game to play if you're feeling sluggish or are experiencing a lot of lag.

iWon's Pie Oh My is a Progressive Jackpot game with a max pot of $2,000. I usually get 5+ spins each time I play so you can expect to get a lot of spins with this one.

Reality Check:
The odds of winning the Progressive Jackpot are "no worse" than 1 in 4,000,000.
The odds that a household will call the Butterball Talk-line the day before Thanksgiving are 1 in 12,990.

Mmmm.... Thanksgiving turkey and pies.....

*Ahem*

Final rating for this one is 5 out of 5 stars. Woohooo!