Posts tagged big top ten

Big Top Ten is, without a doubt, an excellent game. If I ever write my “Sixteen iPhone Game You Must Own” article that I’ve been planning, Big Top Ten has a good chance of being in the list. It’s not a sure thing, but it’s got a good chance.

There is however, something you need to know about it.

If you don’t play it for a while, you lose all your skills. Big Top Ten skills are just that. You can’t keep up your skills by playing other games. Playing Big Top Ten doesn’t make you better at other games. It sits on its own, doing its own thing.

This is not a bad thing at all. It’s just something you have to remember, to stop yourself from bursting into tears when you start the game up after a few weeks and find yourself hunched over your iPhone, your face red, straining to squeeze out even tiny amounts of points. My best score this lunchtime was a pitiful 2,007. Must try harder.

This got an update last night. The bad news is that you have delete the game from your iPod before installing it or it won’t work properly. This means you lose your high score and unlocked Achievements.

The good news is that this update adds support for Feint, so Achievements and high scores are now kept online. After downloading the update I made it my mission to beat my old high score as soon as possible. After a few games I managed it – and pretty much doubled it into the bargain.

Submitting my score online, I was very happy to see that I was ninth in the global leaderboard.

Okay, that’s not because I’m good, but because I was one of the first to install the update and go online with the game, but still. I’ll take what I can get. Also, I’ve already unlocked all the Achievements I had before the update – and more. So I’m happy.

I’m starting to develop a bit of an addiction here. This does seem to be my default game at the moment, above things like Baseball Superstars and Zombies Vs. Sheep. It’s very compelling and games are quick enough to create a very dangerous “one more go” loop.

That’s me getting a new high score. It would have been higher, but I finished a huge, board-snaking sequence just as the time ran out. My finger was just lifting from the touch screen when the game over screen appeared. So very, very annoying.

And, yes, I do have lots of room for improvement. That score isn’t especially good, I know.

My vote for maths-based puzzling doesn’t go to Down To Zero, though, but to Big Top Ten. I’ll take the Edwardian music hall look over the utilitarian computer stylings of Down To Zero any day of the week. And any game that says “Jolly Good” in big letters when I make a good move gets extra bonus points from me. And makes me fall in love with it just a little bit.

The aim in Big Top Ten is to drag the cursor around the screen so that all the numbers you touch add up to ten. So you could just put your finger on a 3 and drag it down to a 7. Easy. Of course, though, more points – and more time – come from longer strings of numbers. You get some negative numbers to help make long strings and you’re going to want to use them.

Not that there any in that screenshot. There is, however, a bomb. Yes, you get power ups that are activated by including them in part of your string. If I wanted to make a half-decent move on that board, I could start with the 1 in the lower left, drag my finger up to the 1, right to the 2, to the bomb, down to the 3 and then right to the other 3 down there. That would make ten, I think. Of course, it’s easy to see when looking at the board now. If I was actually playing, with the clock ticking down and the panic rising, I’d probably just start at the bomb, then go right to the 6 and up to the 4.

I’m not especially good at the game yet, I don’t think. (Hard to know without online score boards. Hint, hint.) You have to really, you know, think, which is not something I’m very good at even when I’m not under pressure. It is, however, a game I’m getting better and better at. It’s also improving my ability to see numbers that add up to ten, which must be useful in real life, right? Right?

So, yes, it’s yet another number puzzler, but it’s great fun and polished in a way that very much appeals to me. Tally ho!