Games and More

Did you enjoy bouncy balls as a kid?  Well the folks at Free Arcade.com have a new twist on an old toy.

You are presented with a screen of bouncy balls.  Your object is to collect a set number of balls.  (The number goes up with each level.)  You collect the balls by getting three of the same color in row.  Balls can be swapped with any neighboring ball to make a match.

Each level is timed and you have a panic button that you can hit once each level for a free match.  The sound effects are amusing although they might get annoying if you play more than a few rounds.  Toward the end of your time a warning sound and just before the level ends the balls begin to shake.  If the level ends without all the balls being collected the remaining balls will bounce out of the window.

It’s a cute and rather addictive game to while away a break.

If you enjoyed the tutorial in yesterday’s post you will really enjoy the new link I have for you today.  The New York Times puts out six new Kenken puzzles daily.  Three of the puzzles are on a 4×4 grid and three are on a 6×6 grid.  The difficulties range from easy to hard.

There is a “reveal” button to help you when you get stuck.  It will reveal the solution for one square.  You can use the reveal button multiple times if necessary.  After you have filled in all the squares the “check” button appears which will check your work for you.  If you have any errors they will be lit up in red and the phrase “try again” will bounce on the screen.  If you have no errors “congratulations” will bounce on the screen.

Give these puzzles a try.  If you like them you’ll soon find yourself looking for more.

Enjoyed Sudoku but looking for a new challenge?  Or maybe you are looking for some learning games for your children?  Miyamoto came up with a new puzzle game that will fill both needs.  As a teacher he was looking for a learning tool for his students so he designed Kenken.

Kenken is a puzzle that will help you review simple math.  The boards tend to be either 4×4 or 6×6.  As with Sudoku each row and column must have each number present.  Unlike Sudoku the board is divided up into cages.  Each cage has a clue–a number and a math function.  The numbers in that cage must equal the number in the clue when the math function in the clue is used.  So if you had a 2 square cage with a clue of 11+ then you would know that the numbers in that cage must be 5 and 6.  You would then use the surrounding clues to determine in what order the numbers should go.

If this new puzzle game sounds interesting to you give it a try at miyamoto-puzzle.com.  It is a nice tutorial that will slowly progress you from small addition only puzzles to the standard puzzle difficulty.

If you are getting a little board with the standard Sudoku puzzles and have already tried the Kakuro puzzles might I recommend Futoshiki puzzles.  The www.sudoku-puzzles.net site has a good selection on boards ranging in size from 4×4 to 9×9.  The difficulty can be set from easy to very hard or you can use the random feature.

Futoshiki is another numbers game.  And the goal is to place the numbers such that each row and column has a representative of each number with no repeats.  However, in Futoshiki less than (<) and greater than (>) symbols are used as clues.  So an example of a clue would be 2>.  This would tell you that the next space had to be occupied by a 1 because it is the only number less than two.  (Zeros are not used.)

It is an enjoyable little math puzzle and this site offers three hints to help you if this new puzzle takes a little time to master.  Hope you enjoy.

The www.sudoku-puzzles.net site includes two other number puzzles besides the standard Sudoku puzzle:  Futoshiki and Kakuro. 

Kakuro is a little more common, so you might have heard of it.  You are given a board ranging in size (on this site) from 5×5 to 10×10.  At the beginning of each column and row is a number.  All the numbers in that column or row must add up to the number at the beginning.  No number can be used twice in one column or row.  And the numbers must be single digits.  So, for example, if you had a three space row with a 24 at the beginning you would know that the numbers in those spaces had to be 7, 8 and 9.  Now you would use the clues from the columns to determine in which order they fit into the spaces. 

Tomorrow I will discuss the less well known puzzle game:  Futoshiki.

Sudoku puzzles are a crave that swept the nation.  You can find puzzle books in every book store and book section.  Well, they are on the internet too.

The www.sudoku-puzzles.net website has a wide variety of Sudoku puzzles on boards ranging in size from a 4×4 to a 16×16 as well as the Samurai board.  I prefer this site because the difficulty ranges from very easy to very hard and also includes a random for those of you in a whimsical mood.  However, the site does not allow notes like some of the other puzzle sites though it does have a hints feature.

The sight also includes two other puzzles:  Futoshiki and Kakuro.  Tomorrow I will go into more detail about these two number puzzles.