If you thought doing simple arithmetic in your head was difficult before, imagine trying to remember the order of operations and your multiplication tables with the fate of humanity resting in your hands!
We were fortunate enough to get an early look at the final build for a soon to be released action puzzler “Genius Defense Force” from developer Apocalypse Train and publisher Clickgamer. G.D.F. will definitely put your simple math skills to the test. The game has bit of a Japanese feel to it, between levels there are off-the-wall anime cutscenes starring (17 PhD. holding) Professor M., Lt. Sabrine, and (K-9 look-alike F.I.D.O) that will make you chuckle at their sheer cheesiness and outlandishness.
There is a meteor storm headed toward Earth and you must destroy the meteors before the hit the Earth by solving basic math problems. To play, you just select the object (or meteor) that you want to destroy and you are presented with a value and a series of numbers and operands and you must form an equation that properly computes to the given value. You can keep attempting to come up with the proper equation until you get it correct, or if you get stuck, you can request a new set of numbers/operands to solve. To win the level, destroy all of the meteors (or other attacking objects) before they break through the Earth’s shield. f you dont destroy an object before it hits Earth, then you will lose some of your shield. Get hit too many times and the shield will be breached and the level will be over. Upon completion of a level, you are awarded with a letter-grade depending on how well you did. Completion-ists and/or Adrian Monk will be happy to know that you have the ability to replay levels at any time to try to improve your grade. In later levels you have the ability to chain explosions together, causing a chain-reaction that will take out several of the approaching meteors with just a single solved equation. Although, this may require players to line up “shots” before solving an equation if they want to successfully destroy all the objects on the screen.
The first 10 of the game’s 30 levels were quite easy, but do a good job of introducing you to the game mechanics and building up the various types of objects that you’ll see in the game. After level 10, the game definitely picks up in both difficulty and speed. Never mind going for that “A”, you may find yourself just hoping to be fast enough to survive. There is definitely some strategy involved in deciding the order in which to take out the approaching meteors. Some experimentation and multiple attempts, along with a little luck, will be necessary if you want to successfully complete the game. If you are a whiz at basic math (cough cough NERD cough cough) then the game also offers a reverse Polish notation setting that will offer even more of a challenge.
I appears that Clickgamer is trying to reach a wide audience with this title. We could see this as a fun vehicle for improving one’s basic math skills, but we could also see individuals with poor math skills getting frustrated and thinking the game is too difficult. We found the aforementioned Anime cut scenes to be very entertaining and humorous, but the content would easily go over a younger player’s head. G.D.F. has nice graphics and sound, nothing groundbreaking here, but they work well for the game. Genius Defense Force is currently slated for a November release at a $0.99 price point. We definitely recommend Genius Defense Force to any/all Math geeks; a math game with “Boss Battles”, we are in nerd heaven! Anyone who is less than enthused by doing math w/o a calculator, this could be a fun way to improve your in-head math skills.
