I seem to only be able to play block or ball-like puzzle/strategy games and when I do, I do so with a zest.  Recently I have been obsessed with three of them, in three different mediums.  On my iPod touch, there’s Bubble Burst; on the computer, there’s Bubble Spinner; and in real life there’s Lonpos.  All use balls in different ways to create games that I find addicting to play.  I guess part of it is because I can be decently good at them and part of it stems from my Tetris gaming days.  Sometimes I find myself playing these things for hours, shooting for amazing results.  So much time goes into them!

Bubble Burst is a game where balls fall into a given box region and you tap ones of the same color to get rid of them.  Mystery boxes fall down and you tap them to get prizes, which can be good or bad.  Sometimes the balls will bounce right out of the container and with each one you lose, a life is lost until you die.  This is a fun game for me to play whenever I am on the road, since I can just pull out my iPod and tap away.  The unfortunate thing is that you can’t save it mid-game, so you have to either finish or quit before you can access the other functions on your device.  However, you can press the power button to turn off the game and essentially freeze it until you decide to continue playing.  My high score on this game reached 28,007,888 once!  That was on the normal level though; for the hard level I usually shoot for 400,000 and for the extreme level I go for 200,000.

Bubble Spinner is a game that Panda introduced to me.  A sextagonal shape of balls appears, spinning on a center.  You shoot balls at it and get rid of ones of the same color if there are three or more when you shoot your ball.  With each hit, the “wheel” spins accordingly and you have to work with some crazy angles on this thing.  Gray balls along the bottom indicate how many more balls you can throw without making the minimum three before you get attacked by extra balls flying in.  When you get rid of all the balls, a new set appears and with each level up, that is how many points you get per ball removed.  What I love best about this game is that there is absolutely no time pressure, so if you need to get distracted, you can leave the game without pausing and come back whenever you want.  Sometimes you lose out a little if you pause on a game that is timed, but there’s no worries like that for this one.  They’ve also got some random “soothing” music playing in the background, which is nice to listen to at times.  My high score on that one is 56,374.  Oh, and this is one you can share your score for on Facebook, if you’re into competing with your friends.

Finally, Lonpos is a game I discovered when at a friend’s relative’s place in Germany.  They are kind of like tetris pieces, but fit into a triangular shape container.  It takes a certain spatial ability to perfectly fit them all in one of the 15 possible ways.  The more complicated versions then turn them into 3D puzzles.  It’s hard to explain until you try it.  I’ve managed to solve the basic one a few times, though it always takes awhile, and back in Germany I got the 3D ones but now I forget how they work.  I really wanted one when I first found out about it nearly two years ago, but I could only find it online for over $100 (and if I remember correctly, closer to $160!).  Thank goodness I waited – I found this set in Hong Kong for only HKD 10!  🙂

And there you have it – my gaming obsessions.  Nothing nearly as complicated as video games or whatever else is out there.  I prefer simple balls, used in creative ways.

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