I strongly suspect that someone is playing Minesweeper, somewhere on the planet, every second of every day. How to improve upon a game like that, many of us have a free copy on our computers? “BombLocker” does so by forgoing the boxy squares, and replacing them with hexes.
For those who haven’t played Minesweeper (is there anyone like that?), your goal is to work out where the bombs through a combination of logic an trial and, when all else fails, trial and error. as you explore close to new hexes, newly uncovered hexes display a number that indicates how many neighbouring hexes contain bombs. Switching from boxes to hexes is an evolutionary change, not a revolutionary one, but it’s for the better for someone looking for a new Minesweeper-esque challenge. Having each tile border on five other squares is a neat twist that forces you to count and look at the board a little differently. Sometimes I feel like a game like Uno or Minesweeper on the Xbox and, rather than a Minesweeper clone, I’d rather play something a little different when that urge strikes. The game is 80 Microsoft Points, and also has an innovative system where you can spend points to get hints if you’re stuck, which is a neat way of doling out hints (making you feel like you earned the hint, rather than being a cheater for getting one). I found it easy to get my money’s worth out of.
Here’s what the developer (XamLance Studios) has to say about the game:
“BombLocker is a puzzle game inspired by Minesweeper, but with several improvements. Use reason, clues and hints to locate and lock bombs hidden within a field of hexagons. Each level is random, but difficulty increases as you progress. If you like sweeping mines, you will love locking bombs.”
Writings of Mass Deduction 