Numba Lite
by Eric March on October 13, 2008 at 7:00 pm
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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App Name: Numba Lite
Developer: I-play
Category: Games: Logic & Puzzle
At first glance this game doesn’t really look like much — in fact, it looks like some kind of Sudoku variant. I hate Sudoku. Fortunately I don’t have to hate Numba, because it’s nothing to do with Sudoku. It’s a puzzle style game that has just a hint of Bookworm or Boggle, but manages to be quite a different game altogether.
The object is simple: Use your finger to connect adjacent numbers to form strings of 3 or more numbers within a specific rule set to eliminate them from the board. The rules for matching are fairly broad: You can match strings of like numbers (all 3s, for example), straight runs (1-2-3, 4-3-2, etc.), odd or even number runs (2-4-6, 7-5-3, etc.), doubles or halves of the prior runs (1-2-4-8, 8-4-2, etc.), or sequence runs (2-5-8 (each number is 3 more than the prior), 9-5-1 (each number is 4 less than the prior), etc.). Any sequence can be matched in either direction.
There are three game modes one can play: Classic, Endless, and Puzzle. Classic mode is your standard matching game where new numbers fall in from the top when you eliminate sequences. Endless, which is only available in the full version, is the same, but eliminates the clock. In both of these modes, tiles will sometimes randomly appear with bonuses of either score multipliers, extra time, or a jumble bonus that scrambles numbers. The last mode, Puzzle, takes the standard matching game and turns it into a logic puzzle, where you are given specific configurations of number sequences, and you must eliminate the right sequences in the right order to progress to the next level. This Lite version limites the number of puzzles to 6, while the full version gives you a 78 puzzles to churn through.
Visually, Numba absolutely oozes style points. The graphics are gorgeous, and there tons of little notions and animations throughout that give you the feeling that I-play left no stone unturned when they were looking for things they could add to fill your eyes with candy-coated visuals. There’s even a nice soundtrack to back it all up. This all adds to the size of the game though — 13.6 megs, which at first I thought was absurd for a simple number puzzle. It earns its keep though, so it’s worth it.
The full version is also a pleasantly cheap $1.99, so logic & puzzle game lovers shouldn’t be able to find anything to complain about when they upgrade to the full version — and if you do, and you give this demo a try, you’ll want to. Trust me. Five stars and a Christmas ham.
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