10000000 Review – More Fun than you Can Shake a Sword At

Some games can be finished in one sitting while others require you to complete hundreds of quests or amass millions of points. 10000000 from EightyEight Games falls into the latter category as you’ll have to complete mini-quests and rack up a whopping 10,000,000 points if you want to get out of the dungeon alive. It’s just as difficult as it sounds…

10000000 is part auto-runner, part dungeon crawler, and part match-3 game. There’s also some strong RPG elements thrown in for good measure, and there are pixelated enemies by the thousands. There are two main areas in 10000000; the castle and the dungeon. The castle is where you’ll upgrade your character, and starting out you’ll see that every door is boarded up except for the dungeon door. You’ll want to clear up some free time before you step through the dungeon door though as the game is extremely hard to put down. You’ve been warned.

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Once you hit the dungeon, the fun starts as your hero takes off across running across the top of the screen. As you speed along you’ll run into chests, doors, and monsters; anything that slows you down will push your character back, and if you’re pushed to the end of the screen it’s game over. You basically want to stay alive and keep running for as long as possible. The only way to accomplish this is through matching tiles which is where things really get interesting.

Most of the screen is dominated by a big board full of tiles. There are 8 in all including stone, wood, keys, swords, staffs, chests, wild cards, and shields. If you hit a monster you’ll want to match three or more swords or staffs, and if you hit a chest or door you’ll want to do the same with the key tiles. Stone & Wood are used to unlock and upgrade the rooms in the castle while the wildcard tile can be used with any two tile line. Sliding the tiles is as simple as dragging your finger across the screen, but that’s about the only thing simple about 10000000.

Now for the castle. There are unlockable rooms in the castle, and this is where you’ll spend your hard earned XP, Gold, Stone, and Wood. You can upgrade your sword, staff, shield, and armor with gold. XP is used to unlock different perks, and there are some good ones to be had if you upgrade the room to the max. The last door is full of handy potions that will hinder you in one area while helping you in another. Needless to say, you’ll want to be careful when spending your loot as some of the upgrades make things much easier depending on how you play.

Verdict

10000000 is one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever played, but it’s also one of the coolest. I’ll admit I suck at match-3 games and rarely play them, but I loved this game even though it took me around 8 hours to finally beat it. I have to admit it was also immensely satisfying to finally beat the damned game and get free of the dungeon. In a nutshell, the game’s awesome and a sure-fire lock for our “Best of 2013″ list at the end of the year.

If you love match-3 games, dungeon runners, RPG’s or just like to have fun you’ll definitely want to check out 10000000. You can pick up EightyEight Games 10000000 for $1.99 on Google Play.