Mysterium

We actually played this game a little over a week ago, but while I was checking the rules for something, I was reminded that the plot of the game takes place on Halloween, so I needed to save it for today to be the game of the day!

Mysterium is a really beautiful game that is best played with more than two players, but we worked with what we've got. Which is two players.

One player is the ghost. They were murdered, and can't QUITE remember by whom, in what room of the mansion, or with what murder weapon. The other players are psychics trying to solve the murder so the ghost can rest peacefully.

The ghost assigns a set of three answers (one culprit, one room, and one weapon) to each psychic, secretly, then uses vision cards to give the psychics hints as to what they're trying to convey to the psychic. The vision cards are really gorgeous, like weird, surreal little artworks with lots of different possible interpretations. For example, the ghost might give me a card with a red background with some swords and clouds and some animals floating in the sky... am I supposed to guess the hunter (who kills animals), the magician (with a red background), the chef (with knives), or the aviator (who flies in the clouds)? Maybe there's something round on that card and the ghost wanted me to see a round object on one of the culprit's cards? The ghost can give out multiple cards to the same psychic to try to establish a pattern of similarities to point out which thing the psychic is supposed to see.

In this manner, the psychics try to guess the culprit first, then if they succeed at that, the room, then the weapon, before the number of rounds is up. Each psychic is trying to guess a different set, remember. At the end, if all the psychics managed to guess their set of clues, the ghost gives the whole group a set of clues to help them pick the right set, which tells them who actually did murder the ghost (and where, and how).

It sounds complicated but it's really not (and there are actually some elements I didn't outline here but it still isn't that bad) and I enjoy it a lot, when I play with the right people. (I played once with people who I love, but really didn't like the game, which makes it... not so great.)

Virus Buster

This is a game hidden inside of Brain Age 2 for the Nintendo DS that would be a total knockoff of Dr. Mario if it wasn't made by the same company.

You can only play Virus Buster once you've done your Daily Training for the day (but you only have to do one exercise to unlock it for the day). You're told before it starts that it isn't training, but it's for relaxation.

The music is the same as one of the modes in Dr. Mario for NES, but like a soothing, lullaby-style remix of it. It's nice. And a little weird.

You can only rotate the pills in one direction, by tapping on them, but - at least in Easy mode - they fall really slowly so it's not really an issue.

Also, if you have "remainder" pill pieces after you get four in a row that disappear, they also fall slowly and you can actually grab those and move them around if you want to, which I think is pretty cool.

I am pleased to announce that I'm just as good at this game as I am at regular Dr. Mario.

2048

A modern classic! I remember Beth telling me about this game ages ago when it was new, but I never downloaded it until recently.

You swipe the numbers left, right, up, or down (all at once, not as individual blocks) in an effort to bring like numbers together (2+2=4, 4+4=8, but for example, 2+4 makes nothing) and try to get to 2048. I think the highest I've gotten so far is 256 in two different blocks.

Interlocked

This was a fun little find in the Google Play Store. Each stage is like one of those interlocking wooden puzzles where you have to figure out how to configure the pieces to each other in such a way that you can pull them apart. They were a lot of fun!

Ring Toss

Something a little different today! We went to Busch Gardens for Howl-O-Scream, and stopped by the carnival games in Oktoberfest so I could play the Ring Toss!

Out of that whole bucket in front of me, Birk and I didn't get a single ring on a single bottle, so no prizes for us to lug around the park... but it was fun anyway!

Between the Lines

Between the Lines is really similar to yesterday's Symbology, but the clues are more like Rebus puzzles instead of just symbols, and there are no category hints. In this example, the answer was "pie in the sky."

Symbology

Symbology is a phone app game where you are given three clues (a category, some symbols, and a number of letters for the word/phrase you're supposed to guess) and then you use the letters you're given to spell out what you're supposed to guess.

For example, on the top, the left answer is "right" and the right one is "Canada."

And of course, I was very happy to get this one!

Futoshiki

Futoshiki is one of the many games that's "kind of like Sudoku" in that you have to put numbers into a grid in a particular order to get it right.

In this one, you have > and < symbols to tell you that some of the numbers immediately next to each other are greater than or less than the other.

If you're curious, here's the solution for this one:

Piano Tiles 2

(Not great photos, but it's impossible to take a screenshot while playing this game.)

It's kind of like Guitar Hero, but it's piano. It's not nearly sensitive enough (or maybe my phone isn't, but I don't have that problem with other apps), it has no relevance between notes and key location, and the rhythm is off by a bit. It's also pretty annoying that one missed note ends the round.

Scribblenauts (DS)

I always thought this was a clever idea for a game, but I never play it for long. I don't know why... it just doesn't grab me.

For the unfamiliar: you work your way through stages, solving problems by writing the names of objects that will help in the scene. For example, in the top right photo, I was told to help the birthday boy break the pinata, so I wrote "bat" and handed him the baseball bat and he swung at the pinata... problem solved! Some aren't so easy.

Side note: I was amazed to turn on the DS and see that its battery was fully charged... I haven't used it in ages. Props to Nintendo for that one!