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!

Spongebob Squarepants Collapse - Part 2!

If you missed part 1 click here!

Everyone else, let's resume with Tip #2!


Tip #2. Make BIG matches whenever you can. Here's a secret that changed the game for me.

You don't have to wait for the lines to appear.

Really! You can click on the "loading" bar and they will instantly pop up! No wait!

That bar.

Why is this useful? For one, it makes those super slow early levels easy to deal with. And two, you get to make freakin' HUGE matches.

This is going to look scary, but bear with me. First, fill up the board by repeatedly clicking the loading bar. (Note: When the levels start getting faster you'll want to leave more room at the top. But level 1 is safe.)

WE'RE GUNNA DIE!!!!!

Relax. We only need to make three clicks to clear the entire board! You see, there are 3 colors on the board. And we have bubble bombs for two of the colors. Once we click the two bubble bombs there will be only one color left. Click the big hunk of blue, and we're done. ^_^

WE'RE ALIVE!!

And see that second bonus for 4,227 points? Whenever you clear a LARGE group of blocks you'll get a bonus. This expands tremendously as you level! So far the biggest bonus I've seen was 260,000 points! For one click!!

But let's say that life isn't perfect and you have a full board and only one bubble bomb. What then? Just follow these steps.

1. Use the bubble bomb you have!
2. If there are still some blocks in the danger zone (top line) quickly find some matches in those columns. I call this the "Oh CRAP!" plan. Always keep an eye out for matches in case a column doesn't fall like you expect it to.
3. Keep the board as full as you can!
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you get another bubble bomb. If for some reason there's a lot of room at the top, fill'er up before you pop the bubble.
5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 until you're almost out of lines OR until they're going too fast to keep up.

You get 200k+ matches by clearing out all of the other colors repeatedly. Imagine that you're on level 7 and have 4 colors. 

• First you get a green bubble, and those vanish. 
• New rows appear. All 4 colors are present again, but there's very little green.
• Next is a purple bubble. No more purple blocks!
• New rows appear. All 4 colors are present, but now there's a little purple, more green, but mostly yellow and blue.
• Yellow bubble appears. Bye-bye yellow!
• New rows appear. All 4 colors are present, but now there's a little yellow, a little more purple, more green, and a TON of blue!!

It's hard to explain in text, but once you play you'll see what I mean. Hopefully. ^_^

When you start running out of lines (5 or less) that's time to clean up. Make every match you can, use any bubbles, and even the jellyfish! If you make it to the higher levels you probably want to start cleanup around 15 lines or less.

You get bonus points for every "empty" square at the end of a level. Make it work!

Woot!

That bonus is per line, by the way.

Just for fun, I played level 1 like I used to play. Small matches, no all-clear bonuses. My end score was 1,597.

When I play by making BIG matches and getting all-clears, I average 30,000-50,000 points for level 1. That's a huge difference!!


Tip #3. You *can* skip early levels. But I don't recommend it. When the game starts you can hit "4" to jump to level 4, or "8" to jump to level 8.

The reason I don't recommend it is because you lose out on a lot of points. In one game, by using the methods I described above, here's how I scored.

By level 3 I had 235,000 points. By level 7 I had 1.7 million points. When I finished level 9 I had over 3 million points. That's enough to get the Krabby Patty badge! Also, you earn roughly 10,000 coins for every  1 million in points. If I'd skipped straight to level 8 I would have lost out on 17,000 coins!

The tips I've shared really do work. If they're unclear, or you need help, please ask!

Had to brag, didn't ya?

Yeah. I had to brag. But only a little! *^_^*


Final Rating

Spongebob Squarepants Collapse is better than regular Collapse, and I already liked that. ^_^ The blocks are easier to see here, and I love the bubbles!! It's a lot of fun! I will admit though, it's more fun to me now that I *know* how to score well. I got really frustrated in the past when people said they got 6 million points, and I could barely get about 2 mil.

5 stars out of 5. This is the game I'll play whenever I need iWon coins.


Similar Games

If you like Spongebob Squarepants Collapse, you might like some of these games too!

• InterWheel at KadoKado - Help a little blob reach the top! 
• Turbo 21 at Pogo - Highly addictive!
• Collapse at iWon - An oldy but still a goody.

Spongebob Squarepants Collapse - Whooooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea..

This past week iWon had a Spongebob Squarepants Collapse event. With triple payouts, guess who played a lot of Spongebob Collapse? *^_^*

In addition to the mad amount of coins I earned, I also figured how to get crazy high scores! The previously elusive "Krabby Patty" badge (3mil points) is finally mine! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Wow!

If you've never played "regular" Collapse, it's really simple. Look for groups of three or more of the same color block. Click on it to make it vanish. You get more points for bigger groups, and everything is worth more points as you level up!

New lines of blocks come from the bottom of the board. They appear slowly at first, but pick up speed as you move through the game. In each level you have to survive a certain number of lines and keep the blocks from going over the top of the board.

Luckily, there are two items that (when used properly) will both improve your score AND keep you from dying. ^_^ They are the bubble bomb and the jellyfish.

What's that round thing in the left corner?

Bubble bombs look like colorful bubbles. ^_^ In the picture above there's a purple bomb in the lower left corner. If you click it, ALL of the purple blocks will vanish! The more purple blocks on the screen, the bigger the bonus!

Sweet!

IMPORTANT: A bubble bomb also acts like a regular block. In the above picture you should see a yellow bubble bomb with some yellow blocks around it. If I clicked on one of the yellow blocks connected to the yellow bubble, the group would vanish. But the rest of the yellow blocks would stay.

Essentially it wastes the bomb. ~_~ Sad day.

Then we have the jellyfish!

Don't sting me!!

When you click on a jellyfish a HUGE area vanishes! I haven't figured out the exact radius, but it's big. Unfortunately, Jellyfish have 3 downsides.

1. If there's a bubble bomb nearby (like in the above picture) it will be destroyed too.
2. The jellyfish also acts like a block of any color! It's very easy to accidentally destroy a jellyfish by clicking on a nearby group of blocks. 
3. Activating any bubble bomb will make the jellyfish vanish. I don't know why, but it does.

Generally I find a bubble bomb more useful than a jellyfish. But if you want to get the most bang for your buck, wait for the jellyfish to be in the middle of the board before you use it. 

And that's it!



Oh. You want to learn how to be a pro? Very well. ^_^


How to get that Krabby Patty Badge!

Tip #1. Aim for the all-clear bonus as often as you can. Whenever you clear the entire screen of blocks, you get a wonderful bonus of 10,000 points times the current level. In the picture below I was on level 1.

10,000 isn't very much. Why bother?

In this next picture, I was on level 11.

110,000 points? That's MUCH better!

Remember that on each level the lines pop up faster and faster. The bonus is harder to get, but if you have 2-3 bubble bombs it's worth a shot!

Honestly, I can usually get several bonuses up until level 8. Then the lines go so fast that a new one is up before I can finish clicking. The above picture was a miracle. ^_^


Much like the guide for Super Chef, there is just TOO MUCH Spongebob Collapse awesomeness for one post! Click here when you're ready for another dose!

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!

Turbo 21 - Most addicting card game ever.

Okay, I have to write this review so that I'll STOP PLAYING Turbo 21!! It's like I opened a bag of heroin laced potato chips!

Turbo 21 is a Pogo game, and as you may have guessed, it's addictive. ^_^

The goal is to make cards add up to exactly 21. Whenever you get a stack of cards to equal 21, the entire stack/lane is cleared and you have a place for more cards! If you go over 21, it's called a "bust," and you lose 5 tokens. You have 4 "lanes" to place cards anywhere you want. (They went with a racing theme, if ya couldn't tell.) The total values of the cards are written above each lane, which helps with the math. ^_^

The number cards are worth their face value. (4 = 4.) Jacks, Queens, and Kings are all worth 10. And Aces are either 1 or 11. Turbo 21 automatically scores Aces as 11 points, unless that would make the lane bust.

A lane counting an Ace as 11 might say "soft" under the total. This means that if you add another card so that the total goes over 21, the Ace will squish down and count as 1 instead of 11. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of soft Aces. They mess with my speed math. :(

Now there are a total of sixteen 10 point cards, so the best thing to do in Turbo 21 is to make the lanes equal 11, and then drop a 10 point card on it for an easy 21.

This means you want to look for the following combinations:

• 2 + 9 = 11
• 3 + 8 = 11
• 4 + 7 = 11
• 5 + 6 = 11

With practice you'll see these combinations easily and quickly. Heck, last night as I was trying to sleep I kept seeing 9's and 2's. *^_^*

The more 21's you make, the more points you'll earn! So far the most 21's I've hit in one round was 16! The max is 18. That takes some serious skill. 


Timer Bonus

Turbo 21 has three difficulty levels, cleverly named 1, 2, and 3. The only difference between these three levels is the timer.

1. 70 seconds on the timer. If all 52 cards are used before the timer ends, you earn 15 bonus tokens!
2. 65 seconds on the timer. If all cards are used you earn 20 bonus tokens!
3. 60 seconds on the timer. If all cards are used you earn 25 bonus tokens!

The timer bonus is exactly what it sounds like: a bonus! If the timer runs out just keep playing!


Special Combos

Making any of these combinations is worth an extra token.

• 777 = Lucky 7's!
• Ace + 10, Jack, Queen, or King = Blackjack!
• 5-Card Gimme = Any 5 cards that are equal to or less than 21 will do.

Jackpot Spins

In order to get a spin at ye olde jackpot wheel, you need at least thirteen 21's. Turbo 21 features a progressive jackpot with a max pot of $4,999. I've spun this wheel many, many times, and I'll ever won were tokens. That will probably be your fate as well. ^_^


Power-Ups

When you get ten 21's in one round, you get a power-up for the next round! Once you have a power-up active, you have to wait for the next round to earn a new one.

Power-ups last only one round, and there are three different kinds.

• Easy spin - With this power up you only need ten 21's instead of thirteen to win a jackpot spin.
• Extra time - 10 seconds added to the bonus timer!
• Free Peek - You can see the next card for the entire game.

 Woot! Free Peek!

My favorite power up is the free peek, hands down. It helps a TON with planning!




Bonus Round

Once you win 4 jackpot spins, it's time for the bonus round!!

On your marks! Get set! GO!!!

In the bonus round you have 30 seconds to find as many 21's as you can! You'll see a group of 4 cards (like in the above pic) and only one group equals 21. As soon as you pick, the 4 groups are replaced with 4 new groups of cards. Again, only one group will equal 21!

For each correct pick you earn 20 tokens! (No penalty for boo-boos.) Every group has 2 number cards and a 10 point card, so just look to see what number cards add up to 11. That's all you need to do!

On average I find about thirteen 21's in the bonus round, which is an extra 260 tokens! Sweet!!



Tips & Tricks

First off, don't try to play Turbo 21 after you've been playing something like Pyramid Solitaire for a while. It's really hard to go from looking for 13's to looking for 11's. *Shudders*

When I play I put a 10 point card in one lane, and attempt to keep it free for an ace. The other lanes I add up to 11. But when I tried to get a screen shot of this scenario, it never worked. (The cards!! They conspired against me!!) Just imagine the last lane is a 10 point card. ^_^

By leaving one lane open with a 10 (or two 10 point cards for a 20 total) I can quickly play an Ace, should it appear. The Ace gives you an easy 21. Try not to waste it. ^_^

Don't get hung up on scoring special combinations. If you flip an Ace over and you have a lane at 10 and a lane at 20, use it on the 20. Getting a Blackjack bonus gives you +1 token. Busting a lane is -5 tokens. And if you don't use the Ace on the 20, you will bust that lane.

If you have to bust a lane, I suggest one of two options:

• Go for the lane with the highest total. Fewer cards can turn it into a 21.
• Go for the lane that has the same total as another lane. If you have a 20, 19, 18, and an 18, take out the extra 18. It's doubtful that you'd get two 3's in a row to turn them into 21's.

Now, let's say you're trying to make lanes equal 11, but dangit, you keep getting 10s! When you start a new round, spread the cards out so you aren't crammed into 1 or 2 lanes.

Yay! A King!

Now I'm looking for an 8 and a 2 to turn the first two lanes into 11's. But after several turns, I still didn't have those numbers. But I had a lot of 10 point cards!

Hit me! *Smack* OW!

To turn those first two lanes into 21's I still need an 8 or a 2, so I'm still looking for the same things. I just saved a step by using the extra 10 point cards before the lane reached 11. ^_^

Lastly, DO NOT play Turbo 21 when you're tired! You'll make a ton of silly mistakes and it won't be a bit of fun. Trust me on this one.


CAUTION
Turbo 21 is literally addicting. The rounds are quick, usually lasting no more than 50 seconds once you get the hang of it. Additionally, when you get to the bonus game there is no "replay" option. It automatically takes you right back to the beginning.

When you put speed and thrills on an automatic loop, it's very hard to stop the cycle on your own. It's just so easy to keep going!

If you have trouble pulling yourself from games and remembering to eat, playing Turbo 21 might be a bad idea. If you can't resist, then at the very least set a timer and stick to it! Take a break every hour to stretch your legs, use the bathroom, call a friend, whatever. ^_^


Final Rating

Pogo gets major points for hooking me onto Turbo 21. ^_^ I definitely will play again. The hard part is stopping!

I have to confess that when I first started playing Turbo 21, I didn't like it. I earned about 7 tokens each round and it was just terrible.

Then an amazing thing happened. I got better! ^_^ Once I figured out how to play, wow... time flew. I had one of those moments where you think 20 minutes passed, but really it's been an hour and 20 minutes. Whoops!

Alas, I cannot give this a perfect score. The soft Aces mess with me. I would prefer having both numbers listed, like 8/18 instead of 18(Soft.) Yes I know it's picky! :P

Anywho, because it's such a minor thing, I'm going to make a new rating: 4.9 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.

Gem Drop - Why reading the rules is helpful.

I played Gem Drop on iWon several weeks ago while looking for games to review. I played a few rounds and got bored. (All you do is match 3+ gems and they vanish. Gems fall from the top. Yippee.) The game was SO simple that it couldn't hold my interest at all, and I wanted to fail just so the game would be over. 

My top score was 282,000, which I figured was pretty good.

Yesterday, I came across Gem Drop again. I figured that I'd comment about how I didn't like it just so I could cross it off my list and be done with it. But first I had to play it again so I could get screen shots. Last time I didn't read the rules, because I figured it was just a match 3 sort of thing. This time I read what I was supposed to do.

And that's when I discovered I'd been playing it wrong. The goal isn't to keep a clear board or make as many matches as possible. The goal is to make chains, so that when a group of gems vanish they will trigger a cascading reaction of vanishing gems. The amount of points you get with each chain increases exponentially.

Check out my new high score. ^_^

Boo-yah!!

Yeah. I added nearly 6 million points to my best score. O_O I also got over 68,000 coins for that game!!

Trying to make chains can be quite challenging. Several times I thought I had things set up nicely, only to discover that really I'd just made a mess. It seems that I'm not nearly as clever as I think I am.

Not an example of a chain.

You get more points with bigger groups of gems. *Try* to set up groups of 4+ as often as you can. Diamonds are worth more than the other gems. *Try* to set them at the end of a chain, so they will get the biggest bonus.

There is a dark grey round stone that will drop every now and then. When it lands on top of a gem, it will remove ALL of that gem from the board. Very very useful in higher levels! No bonus points for letting it hit the bottom.

As the levels progress things start getting really chaotic. Starting around the end of level 8, I had troubles visually keeping up with the gems. By the time I realized what gem was about to drop, it had fallen and so had two more.

In addition to the insane speed, Gem Drop has another hair-pulling feature that I've yet to see in any similar game. And that is:

The dropping gem(s) aren't put on hold when a chain reaction is set off.

This means that you have to drop gems while your board is shifting. In the first few levels it's a little disorienting, but still No Big Deal. Once the speed picks up it becomes more of a nightmare. I can't decide if I like the added challenge or if I prefer my sanity instead.

It's a toss up.

Gem Drop is a Progressive Jackpot game with a max pot of $2,000. You will most likely get 10 spins. ^_^

Reality Check
The odds of winning the JP for Gem Drop are "no worse" than 1 in 3,000,000.
The odds that an adult will dress up as a cat for Halloween are 1 in 40.

Keep that in mind for next October!


Final Rating
Once I understood the rules, Gem Drop became a LOT more interesting. ^_^ But the controls aren't as smooth as I would like and that can cause frustration.

I will probably tackle this game once in a blue moon, just to see if I can beat my high score.

3.5 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!!