Bigtop 10 – MB – Preview

Who here likes math? Anyone? Yeah, I hear the
crickets too. The thought of adding numbers when you could be playing a video
game is about as exciting as staring at a release calendar, hoping your favorite
game won’t be delayed. If, however, a game were to incorporate math in a fun and
addictive way, that might be something we can get on board with.

On that note, Bight Games might just have the
perfect puzzler: Bigtop 10. Developed with visual inspiration from Carny folk
(or possibly a Panic at the Disco music video – you decide), Bigtop 10 is coming
to iPhone and iPod Touch.
The game uses a 5×5 playing field of numbers, both plus and minus, with the
simple challenge that players link the numbers to achieve a total of 10. You may
link them vertically, horizontally or a combination of the two; diagonal
movements, however, are not permitted.


Bigtop 10 screenshots

This probably sounds like the most cakewalk easy
game in the history of numbers games. I’m sure many of you are thinking, “Hey,
didn’t Nintendo just unveil a Wii Fit mini-game where you’re supposed to swing
your hips to add numbers, also equaling the number 10?” But this one’s
different. First of all, the game will make you a little crazy. It is impossible
to play Bigtop 10 and earn a huge score right from the start. Second, Bigtop 10
draws upon the creativity of the puzzle genre and uses multipliers and power-ups
to make the game more interesting – and more challenging.

Those power-ups include bombs (link the bomb to
your number link – which must total 10 – to blast away additional numbers),
clocks (freeze time temporarily), multipliers (double your score), and reduce
(this one lowers the face value of each number). We didn’t get a chance to see
the latter, but it sounds very intriguing. Needless to say, the ones we did
experience made the game very hectic.

Bigtop 10 will be Bight Games’ first $0.99 app.
Considering that the puzzle content is vastly superior to most of the mini-games
you see on the DS, that price is hard to beat. And with local multiplayer for
two, it shouldn’t be long before you see dozens of iPhone users banging their
heads against the wall, wondering when it became so tough to reach the number
10.