"Chain Reaction" by Monster Studios should come with some sort of warning label. The label would read something like "Caution, time warps while playing this game." I downloaded the demo version around 3 pm on a lazy Saturday afternoon. An hour later, I had made it through those levels and HAD to have more.
The game is deceptively simplistic in design. Your goal is always to get the little monster on his cart from where he starts to the glowing launchpad. You have a variety of tools such as fans, trampolines and bouncing basketballs to make him move. Sounds simple, right? Well it isn't. Even with the hints, it isn't always as easy as "connect A to B to make C" happen.
A study in cause and effect physics, Chain Reaction has proven to be fun for my whole family to enjoy. My son and I hypothesize what might happen if we combine this gear with that band, or if we can build a better way of getting the monster to the launchpad than my husband and daughter are doing on the computer next to us. And this is just with the tools on the demo game. In the tutorial, you discover pipes, boxing gloves, flashlights and many other tools that you'll use to solve various levels. And lest you think that this is all there is to the game, the full version also allows you to build challenge levels for one another. Our family has now spent most of the afternoon playing together on this game, alternating between solving puzzles and creating challenges for one another. And we've literally only just begun, having only solved the first 5 levels together of the normal game. I'm seeing many hours of fun, friendly cooperation to solve the game's levels, and competition to challenge one another, in our near future.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
