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If you're like me and you love multi-level logic games, I bet that sometimes you feel overwhelmed with so many choices the market has to offer. It's a great time to be a fan of these games right now, with their increasing popularity. The reason for this, in my opinion, lies in several factors, like the user-friendly rules, the decent number of challenges available, and of course, the most important one, they're very addictive and fun to play, wherever you are, since they're great travel companions.
MetroVille by SmartGames is my latest addiction, from the mind of - who else? - Raf Peeters. With so many designs currently available, I'm yet to find a multi-level game I dislike. This type of games is so fascinating by the fact that there's endless designs possibilities, and whenever I try a different game, I always experience something different. MetroVille is unlike anything I've ever tried. With a dynamic board that's always changing from challenge to challenge, it'll be a while before you find yourself tired of it.
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The concept, I must confess, was a little harder to understand than other more traditional multi-level games. The challenge cards, for example, is one of the main differences. MetroVille has only eight challenge cards, but actually contains 64 different challenges and four different levels of difficulty. How come? It's simple, since each card features a different city and on each side of the card there's four distinct challenges (two for each difficlty). So, in total, each card has actually eight challenges. Multiply by eight cards, and there you go, 64 challenges.
The game board is where the concept really shines. Each of the nine track counters is easily removable and you can rearrange them according to each challenge card. When you pick a card and all nine counters are placed on the board, you can then twist them in 360ยบ into four different positions. By twisting the counters you'll allow the metro to go from station to station, not necessarily all five in one challenge.
(Click to Enlarge) - One of the Starter and one of the Junior challenges solved
Each challenge has a specific order for each station the metro should pass. The metro can only go in one direction at a time and can't make sharp turns, like turning left at a crossroads. You can pass through the same path more than once, but once you start you cannot change the disposition of the tracks anymore until you reach the final station.
The challenges, like usually, start out quite easy, but as you progress to harder levels it becomes increasingly more challenging. At harder levels it's very hard to find a continuous path that passes through all the stations indicated in the challenge. You'll find yourself twisting the tracks quite a lot in an effort to find the only possible solution for each challenge. I did several of the harder levels and never found the game overly frustrating. Some challenges did took over 10 minutes to solve, but it's never boring and you'll get a great rewarding feeling once you solve one of the "master" levels.
(Click to Enlarge) - One of the Expert and one of the Master challenges solved
Closing Comments:
MetroVille by SmartGames is yet another great logic game. It promotes logical thinking and strategic planning skills as well as visual and spatial perception. It's great for kids, but also quite useful to keep your adult brain healthy. This kind of games is awesome and I can't stress enough how great they are. Highly recommended, whichever logic game you end up choosing.
Availability: MetroVille came from PuzzleMaster, but unfortunately it's out of stock at the moment. Check back soon, because they're always updating their stock. In the meantime, check out other great designs by SmartGames.
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