Game Review: Twenty

Game: Twenty
Started Playing: July 2016
Current Level: TWENTY x 15

Synopsis:
Twenty is a colorful arcade/puzzle game that starts at 5, looks easy until 10, gets fiendish at 15 and challenges you to get to 20. Anyone can learn it, but you'll have to concentrate to make it all the way.

Review: 
Wahaha! for those who follow this blog, you must have been expecting me to write a game of Pokemon Go! right? And so... I have been addicted to this game, titled Twenty...WAHAHA... yes, it's another game...  (but yes, I am also playing pokemon Go).

So anyhow, this is a weirdly addictive game, where the aim is the match tiles of the same number, so e.g. if you match 4 & 4, the tile then becomes a 5. You then look for another 5, merge the two tiles, then it becomes 6. So this goes on till you have 19 and 19, which you merge to reach the end goal of 20.

As soon as you get to tiles where you hit 15, it gets a little more complicated in that tiles can now start being linked together. So you have to move them in the block. You can see the little black bar betwen the tiles in the photos, that's the link.

Then the next challenge is to see how many 20s you can get. It is the simplest, most brainless (and yet, not as brainless as you think) game that one can play. And yet, here I am.. playing it day in and out, whenever I have some free moments on my hand. My top score is 15!! any challengers? HAHAHA...

And the one up it has over candy crush.. there are no lives. yes!!! You can just keep playing, and if you die (as in the tiles have stacked up to the point where it reaches the top, sort of like tetris), you just start again. There are no hidden terms or conditions that requires you to fork out cash or irritate your friends.

Anyhow, after some fair amount of time spent on this, I have devised this strategy! Wahaha.. for once, I have a strategy... so this is what I do...

As you can see from this image above, tips are as follows: 

1. I have got three key columns. So what I do is to constantly stack and merge tiles based on these three columns. I have to say, I started with two columns, one on the extreme right and left, but that turned out a little far, and it just takes a bit more time to move the tile from right to left, so having the interim centre column works for me. 

2. Unless it is to free up tiles that are like totally linked together (and it requires a lot of manouvering so as to even reach and free up the tiles), always move a tile only to merge it with another tile. Don't make pointless moves as that wastes precious time and your tiles are just going to stack up more. 

3. And depending on which side you prefer, have the bigger numbers (e.g. 15 and above) stacked on the left or right side of the column. Then it's much easier to move things around to get your twenty when you are very close to it. 

4. Oh, and also, always break up the links first chance you get, or it will get into one big convulated link, where you move them as one big block! that makes it very difficult to free anything up. Which pretty much means you are reaching the end of the game. Haha..

5. And last but not least... it sounds a bit of a cheater bug, but sometimes, if you really need to blink, or just to rest your hands, cuz all that small movement can still result in a build up of lactic acid and also tears (haha, cuz if you are like me, you may tend to forget to blink frqeuently enough)... then hit the Pause button. As you can see... you are still able to see your tiles. Take some time to at least plot out the next 3-5 moves, so that when hit that continue play button, you know what to do to immediately continue the game and you don't lose the  momentum. Of course, this also works if you are stuck. You can use this time to strategise a little to see how you can move what and where. 

So there... waiting for challengers!!!