Post by Altl on Mar 1, 2007 22:53:34 GMT -5
After a long afternoon of doing "calculus homework," (until calculus it was always considered math homework, but calling it Calculus makes me sound smarter thus contributing to my "E-cred") I decided that I wanted to boost my ego so I downloaded Number Munch. The next 5 minutes was a roller coaster of fun and excitement which was followed by a sine wave of rage where rage is represented by the variable X approaching infinity (Math Figurative Language).
For those of you that are unfamiliar with Number Muncher the game
[/URL][td][/td]Is that, my brother?[/tr][/table]consists of six modes: Multiples, Factors, Primes, Equality, Inequality, and Challenge. In each of these modes you play the number muncher creature which I liken to what Pacman and Ms. Pacman's baby would look like if she smoked during the pregnancy, and did heroine; maybe some lsd. Also, you are presented with a six by five grid filled with number. Based on whatever mode you are playing you'll be instructed to eat a number that is a multiple of n, factor of n, prime number, less than n, or greater than n. Simple enough.
With such a simple premise you'd think hours of fun? And you'd be wrong. Along with the math they throw these monsters into the mix that probably move at a rate of 1 box per/minute. Now on the side of the screen it has a warning that says "Prime your Nines" (This is a math pun, nine isn't actually a prime number). When the game started I was all "No way Jose, I'm not gonna hide" but my attitude soon changed to "OH SUGAR" as I fled to the center of the grid, no ways I'm gettin' eaten.
Of the modes available to me I only Played three, starting with the multiples mode. Now it was simple enough since they kept the number low and the biggest obstacle I came to terms with was the fact that 14 isn't a multiple of 4 (Yeah, I know I felt the same way). Other than that it was just a matter of not getting taken out by the monsters. My main issue with this mode is the fact that there weren't enough multiples, they tended to stick to multiples of 2-5 which I felt was kind of the game makers being lazy, most kids are suppose to know the first 12 so what is the deal? I don't think it would have been that hard to implement. The only thing they did to increase difficulty was to speed up those monsters so they were running at a box per 59 seconds and increasing the number of monsters.
The next mode I tried was. Inequalities which was possibly the hardest game I've ever played, we're talking Ikaruga hard. Rather than just being like eat the numbers that are >n or n< they set them up so that each box had a math problem. For instance 2+5, or 0+7, or 2*3, which is ridiculous because its called number munch not number and arithmetic operand muncher (M I RITE?). Further how am I supposed to do these complex equations with a monster barreling down the screen at me? I played this game for one round before abandoning it.
The final mode I played was Challenge mode because I figured it would give me a good sample of all the other modes. It started me off with a round from Prime Numbers mode in which you eat the prime numbers, this would have been dandy except according to Number Muncher One is not a prime number. When it told me that I said "look brah one's only multiples are one and itself its prime" after looking it up according to 2% of the science community I'm right, interestingly enough 2% of the science community also thinks the world is flat. After this argument I quit playing in a rage.
After playing the game, I feel that it lacked in some key areas. The fact that the difficulty never really raised outside of the speed of those infernal monsters was a little upsetting. The game offered cinemas between groups of levels, but these cinemas seemed unrealistic and backed by horrible frame rates. The game play was intuitive however it got rather repetitive and lacked any true dynamics.
Upon a final inspection I noticed that the game did offer a change in difficulty level based on a person's grade level it was initially set to third grade: advanced. I however don't retract any complaining about how the difficulty never raised, I do amend that Third Graders are dumb and need to strive harder, further the game should have had a progressive difficulty level as it could have pushed the youth.
Edit: I had picture where it showed the number muncher and one of the monsters and it was to be captioned "My brother?" it didn't want to post.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with Number Muncher the game
With such a simple premise you'd think hours of fun? And you'd be wrong. Along with the math they throw these monsters into the mix that probably move at a rate of 1 box per/minute. Now on the side of the screen it has a warning that says "Prime your Nines" (This is a math pun, nine isn't actually a prime number). When the game started I was all "No way Jose, I'm not gonna hide" but my attitude soon changed to "OH SUGAR" as I fled to the center of the grid, no ways I'm gettin' eaten.
Of the modes available to me I only Played three, starting with the multiples mode. Now it was simple enough since they kept the number low and the biggest obstacle I came to terms with was the fact that 14 isn't a multiple of 4 (Yeah, I know I felt the same way). Other than that it was just a matter of not getting taken out by the monsters. My main issue with this mode is the fact that there weren't enough multiples, they tended to stick to multiples of 2-5 which I felt was kind of the game makers being lazy, most kids are suppose to know the first 12 so what is the deal? I don't think it would have been that hard to implement. The only thing they did to increase difficulty was to speed up those monsters so they were running at a box per 59 seconds and increasing the number of monsters.
The next mode I tried was. Inequalities which was possibly the hardest game I've ever played, we're talking Ikaruga hard. Rather than just being like eat the numbers that are >n or n< they set them up so that each box had a math problem. For instance 2+5, or 0+7, or 2*3, which is ridiculous because its called number munch not number and arithmetic operand muncher (M I RITE?). Further how am I supposed to do these complex equations with a monster barreling down the screen at me? I played this game for one round before abandoning it.
The final mode I played was Challenge mode because I figured it would give me a good sample of all the other modes. It started me off with a round from Prime Numbers mode in which you eat the prime numbers, this would have been dandy except according to Number Muncher One is not a prime number. When it told me that I said "look brah one's only multiples are one and itself its prime" after looking it up according to 2% of the science community I'm right, interestingly enough 2% of the science community also thinks the world is flat. After this argument I quit playing in a rage.
After playing the game, I feel that it lacked in some key areas. The fact that the difficulty never really raised outside of the speed of those infernal monsters was a little upsetting. The game offered cinemas between groups of levels, but these cinemas seemed unrealistic and backed by horrible frame rates. The game play was intuitive however it got rather repetitive and lacked any true dynamics.
Upon a final inspection I noticed that the game did offer a change in difficulty level based on a person's grade level it was initially set to third grade: advanced. I however don't retract any complaining about how the difficulty never raised, I do amend that Third Graders are dumb and need to strive harder, further the game should have had a progressive difficulty level as it could have pushed the youth.
Edit: I had picture where it showed the number muncher and one of the monsters and it was to be captioned "My brother?" it didn't want to post.
