Chances are even if you are a hardcore gamer, you probably haven’t heard about 10000000. And its understandable. With hundreds of apps getting put on the App Store daily, it’s easy to miss a game that isn’t an Angry Birds clone. But of any game recently released that should have mass appeal to gamers, 10000000 is it.
10000000 is the epitome of taking current trends, combining them and doing it right. First, the basic gameplay revolves around gem matching. Players drag rows and columns right and left or up and down to match either swords, magic staves, keys, chests, shields, wood and stone to accomplish various tasks. Swords and staves attack. Keys unlock doors and chests. Shields provide armor. Wood and stone provide resources for later. Chests grant gold and items.
The interesting part of 100000000 is that players must not just match tiles, but match them at the right time. When a player is in combat, combining keys and chests results in enemies getting the time to get hits on a player. The longer it takes the player to damage the enemy, the more hits they take, knocking them back off the edge of the screen. Once that happens, that game ends. The same goes for chests and doors in their path. Players must quickly unlock chests by matching up keys or they will get pushed back off the edge.
Stone and wood aren’t essential for the current dungeon run the player is making sure they should only be collected when a player has down time or needs to make a move to line up keys or attack tiles for the following move. This is where strategy comes into play as players must determine if it is worth getting more wood or stone to take back to their castle or if they want to progress towards more difficult enemies in their current run. Players also get an increasingly difficult set of three tasks to perform during their runs for added experience or gold.
There is no penalty to a player for dying. It is actually expected. This is where 10000000‘s RPG elements kick in. After each run, players will come back with experience and gold, as well as the stone and wood.
The experience can purchase new skills that increase the damage done by players, reduce damage taken or increase the amount of resources they obtain. They can also spend gold to improve their sword, staves, shields and armor as well as buy potions. These potions usually come at a price. Players can get extra experience but get no resources or have a higher probability of scoring critical hits but reduce the damage done during normal attacks.
It’s amazing to see the amount of depth coming from a $1.99 game. There is such an addicting gameplay style that works so well with the game’s simple 8-bit visuals. As classic as it looks, it certainly doesn’t play like a retro game. Everything goes fast and players don’t get a chance to breathe during their runs. Just a few wrong moves can end a game for the player.
Oh, and the name. 10000000. During the gameplay players accumulate an overall score. There is also a monitor in their home castle reading “Freedom” with the number 10000000 above it. It looks like this is the first big goal for players to complete the game. We haven’t hit it yet but have no doubt we will be playing tons of 10000000 until we do get it.
