Video Games Knowledge Quiz - Season 9 - Pirez

[dr_st]

Not quite. A hint: it's a strategy game.

[Greengoop]

Command and conquer!

[dr_st]

OK, it's way overdue, but last hint before I move on: One on one, a Daemon will defeat a Water Elemental.

[Greengoop]

Dragon Quest!!!

[Pirez]

Heroes of Might and Magic?

[dr_st]

Neither of these! The game is Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.

However, since Heroes of Might and Magic was brought up, let's try this:

Q9b. In the first two games in the Heroes Might and Magic there is a creature that breaks the game balance so badly, that in HoMM1 it cannot be recruited by the player at all, and when an option to recruit it (for a substantial amount of gold) was added in the expansion of HoMM2, it was subject to a lot of criticism. What creature is this and how does it break the balance?

[Greengoop]

The creature was Super Mario and he broke the balance by eating too much spaghetti and standing on a scale

[dr_st]

Ha! Good one.

Anyone wants to try to be serious?

[Greengoop]

My answer wasn’t right?

[dr_st]

Last chance for 24 hours! Really no one here played the first two Heroes of M&M games?

[Greengoop]

Not even jonster knew what silly answer to make the question was so hard

[The Jonster]

No, I just haven’t played the games mentioned in the question.

[Greengoop]

Awwwww, I don’t get to see a satirical jonster answer

[dr_st]

OK, wow. Well. The answer is Ghosts because they have this property that every creature they kill becomes a Ghost and is added to their stack. So a player who has them in his army could simply attack groups of weak creatures and "farm" Ghosts, allowing them to reach insane numbers, virtually indestructible.

Now I feel I should try something easier, that everyone will know. But not too easy!

Q9c. Describe the basic gameplay mechanic of Bejeweled and explain how the mechanic of Bejewel Twist differs from previous games in the series.

[Master]

OMG I loved those games. Bejeweled is a match-3 game, you swap items in a grid format (in this case jewels), you swap items so that you get three in a row either horizontally or vertically. Due to the way matches can occur, you can also end up matching 4 or 5. Later games gave you bonus items, such as star/fire gems, which explode in a 9x9 format, or hypercubes, which when swapped by a gem, would destroy all gems on the board in that colour. Later games introduced the star and hypernova gems, which you get for matching gems in a T or cross pattern.

The game continues until no more matches can be made (if playing classic), or you run out of time (lightning or timed mode).

Bejeweled Twist has the same matching requirements, but rather than swap gems, you rotate them in a 4x4 format. This means you can't have a game over from no possible matches as you can roatate endlessly, but bhe game encourages you to get continuous matches and not just rotate idly by filling a bonus bar for each subsequent match. The bonus meter fills up and increases your multipllier and if you can get it to max it'll spawn a fruit gem. Matching the fruit gem will give you a chance for a fruit bonus by then matching the correct set of gems.

Since you can't have no more matches in Twist, you instead get dangerous items such as bomb gems, these will explode if not matched in enough turns, as they count down for every move made. Should they hit 0, you will get a disarm chance, but the disarm chance gets smaller for each subsequent disarm. If the gem does detonate, the game ends.

[Greengoop]

Bejewelled is literally just candy crush but old

[The Jonster]

There was a phase in college where I would consistently play Candy Crush cuz I loved the game so much, but not into the game these days. My favorite mode was definitely the timed ones, but I think they removed them.

Bejeweled games, though? I don't like them....I LOVE THEM!!! I actually acquired them all recently through....interesting means, so now I can play all of them without having to worry about a trial or time limit, which is great, since I need to play them again at some point.

So yeah, needless to say, would definitely choose Bejeweled over Candy Crush

[Greengoop]

I’ve only ever played bejewelled because it was the only decent game they had on the computers on the lanzarote flight

[Master]

I think the key difference for me between the two was that Bejeweled (at least the desktop games anyways) felt like they respected your time, Candy Crush always felt like it was trying to eke as much out of you as possible. Bejeweled knew to give a good time and was content to let you go when you had your fill.

Also the various Bejeweled Soundtracks are stellar and outclass anything I've ever heard from a Candy Crush game:

[dr_st]

Master's answer is perfect! I expected a much shorter explanation.

Bejeweled Twist has the same matching requirements, but rather than swap gems, you rotate them in a 4x4 format. This means you can't have a game over from no possible matches as you can roatate endlessly, but bhe game encourages you to get continuous matches and not just rotate idly by filling a bonus bar for each subsequent match.

2x2 format, but yes, I got your point.

I really love the Bejeweled Games myself, although I haven't actually played Twist! Only 1, 2 and 3. The original Bejeweled is very simplistic, limited, only 2 modes, no special gems, a single music track per mode (but, hey, the Timed track is awesome!). Overall, it doesn't really have much replay value. 2 is much better, and for many this is where the series really started. 3 is just WOW. Improved graphics, sound, awesome music tracks, and very fun and variable gaming modes.

Actually, the only thing I played that is remotely similar to "Twist" is the Beghouled Twist mini-game of PvZ. That one has a key difference - it does not allow matchless moves, which makes it harder than the game it is based on!

I haven't played Candy Crush, because I think it became popular after my initial Bejeweled fascination wore off. However it definitely feels like a simpler clone, a shadow if you will of the original. In fact, according to Wikipedia, it seems to be two steps removed (borrowing elements not directly but from a game, which, in turn, borrowed elements from Bejeweled).

Scoreboard
Greengoop - 5 points
LoveMetal - 1 point
The Jonster - 1 point
Pirez - 1 point
Master - 1 point

Anyhow, let's try a picture question!

Q10. Which game and on which console is the following screenshot from?