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Big Top 10 (iPhone)


Review by Ben Briggs, July 02, 2009

iPhone integration (About)
  • Save state: No
  • iPod music: Yes
  • Status bar: No

Sometimes, the simplest game concepts are the best ones. If you know basic mental arithmetic, you know Big Top 10 - so pretty much anyone can get their hands on the game and be scoring highly within minutes. Or more precisely, one minute. Yes, you'll get a minute in which to play through the game, which definitely keeps you on your toes, but fortunately, the longer numerical sequences will net you more time in which to play with.

Basically, you must slide your finger across the grid to add numbers together to equal 10. Going for easy combinations like 5+5 won't help, you need to go for complexity here - don't forget there's minus tiles which can help a lot in ridding the board of the higher numbers (9 especially is an annoyance). Alongside the 0 tile which is a very useful addition to long sequences, you'll find non-score affecting power ups - time freeze, double score, bomb and a reducing special that lowers the numbers on the board.

Whilst selecting is incredibly natural, we'd like one small addition of having a selection field that traced your finger backwards as well as forwards - if you make a mistake in the game, you will have to let go of the screen and start over, so it would be a good feature. Aside from that though, the gameplay is really fun and easy to pick up and get straight into.

Furthermore, there's a list of achievements, paired with high score entry, and even a statistics page so that you can see in detail how good you are at the game. The true draw though has to be the local WiFi multiplayer so that you can challenge your friends. The circus style presentation really works in the game's favour, with quirky music and sound effects - the graphics are definitely the strong point, with the fanciful fonts adding charm and character, and the photographic elements evoke memories of Monty Python - the desaturated colour palette is great too. We would have liked a replay option on game over though - right now it will take three taps to start a new game. That means less time playing!

It's really hard not to recommend Big Top 10 for 59p - it's fun, quirky and a delight to play.

Grade: B, Great

Quirky, delightful game with excellent presentation.

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