Drop7 Charms The Pants Off All Kinds Of Gamers
3:07 pm, February 19th, 2009, Giles Turnbull
Here’s my latest addicton, taking over where Trism left off. It’s Drop7, and it’s just wonderful.
The rules are very simple: drop the numbered discs into the grid. If the number on the disc matches the number of discs in that column or row, that disc will vanish and you’ll earn points. Hidden discs are revealed by making their neighbours vanish. It sounds simplistic but it soon gets fiendishly challengng, especially as extra rows of hidden discs appear whenever you move up a level.
But the main thing I’ve noticed about Drop7 is the way other people react to it.
A week or so ago, I went to donate blood in our town hall. Donors are asked to sit and relax for 20 minutes or so after their blood’s been taken, so they are served tea and biscuits by a team of volunteers, most of them retired ladies.
As I sat and drank my tea and munched my biscuits, I played Drop7. I was vaguely aware that one of the tea ladies was hovering over my shoulder, but too engrossed in the game to look up. Game over and tea drunk, I stood and she immediately appeared to clear my mug away.
“That game you were playing,” she said. “What was it?”
“It’s called Drop7,” I replied.
“It looks fantastic,” she said. “A bit like Tetris.”
“Well, it is. A bit. It’s a good logic game.”
“I shall have to look out for that,” she said with a smile.
“You’ll need one of these to play it on,” I said, waving my iPhone in the air.
“I know,” she said. “I’ve got one. Well, an iPod Touch. It’ll work on that won’t it?”
Only slightly taken aback that a woman in her 70s should be addicted to games on the iPod Touch, I nodded and left.
Another example: this evening, my wife casually asked what was new on my phone. I showed her Ancient Frog.
“Not my kind of thing,” she said dismissively. “Anything else?”
“I think you’ll like this,” I answered, and started Drop7.
“I won’t,” she said. “I know what I like, and I like Wurdle.”
“Yes but this is all about logic. You’re good at that,” I said. I showed her the basics, then passed the phone to her.
That was about two hours ago. She’s been playing Drop7 non-stop ever since, has already taken a decent bite out of the high scores table, and if it weren’t for a failing battery would probably keep going for hours more.
So there you go. Drop7. It rocks.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Gaming, Reviews, iPhone | Comment on this article
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Wow, spelling and grammar errors everywhere.
Very poor standard for Cult of Mac.
Alex Hardy, on February 19th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
>>Only slightly taken aback that a woman in her 70s should be addicted to games on the iPod Touch, I nodded and left.
What is this supposed to mean? That older women (“ladies”??!!) are out of touch (no pun intended)? Why should you be taken aback, slightly or otherwise? Maybe you are way out of touch, buddy. I am slightly–no, make that completely–taken aback that a guy your age can’t spell or write a clear sentence, and has to resort to sexist, ageist innuendo to make himself sound superior. Most women in their 70s could write a better review than you did.
Old Lady, on February 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Christsakes, try English next time. Or a spell-checker.
Proof Reader, on February 19th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Yikes!
OK, two apologies to make.
1. The spellings: I wrote the first few pars of that on my iPhone, using an app called EasyWriter. It does make writing easier, but the spelling mistakes are part of the deal and I expected to fix them later in MarsEdit. However, when editing time came round it was late and my brain just forgot all about it, my eyes must have missed the red squiggly lines, and I goofed. Sorry.
2. The old lady who plays games: there is certainly no innuendo intended there. The main reason I mentioned that lady was this: for a few years now, the Nintendo DS has been aggressively marketed as a gaming device for all ages, not just for kids. And that’s worked; lots of adults use a DS. But now the iPhone / iPod Touch has come along and invaded exactly the same space, attracting exactly the same people. I just thought it was interesting. I didn’t spell it out that way, though (I hardly spelled anything out at all), so, again: sorry.
gilest, on February 20th, 2009 at 12:30 am
I will see if I can get you a free spell checker promo code for for the iPhone, only kidding
any way I do have 5 Shopping Pink promo codes to giveaway see:
http://whichwebsite.com/2009/Mar/shopping_pink_iPhone_promo_code_giveaway.html
Mike James, on March 29th, 2009 at 11:07 am