Make Num (Sum It Up) Review

Make Num – Review

When Glenn handed me a “Math Game” to review my first thought was, “really?”. I mean I’m the type of guy who (while good at math) did everything I could to avoid math classes, and I use even more determination to keep Sudoku and other number puzzles away from me. I’m a “words” guy and that’s how I’ll die…

So I fired up the game “Make Num” and wanted to just get my way through it, knock out the review for you folks and then move on to something else. Then something happened after about the 30th game, I realized that I really liked this game. I mean, REALLY liked it.

The game play for Make Num is very simple. You’re given a field of numbers between 1-9 and then a target number. All you have to do touch the numbers on the field until they add up to the target number. At that point a new number is given and you start over. You keep going until 90 seconds are up, trying to get as many levels cleared as possible.

My first game I quickly went through the levels hitting as few buttons as possible. I made it through 15 levels and was proud of myself. Then I looked at the online scoreboard (I LOVE online scoreboards) and saw that my score was nowhere near the bottom, much less the top. WHAT?!

That’s when I went back and realized that you got more points with the more numbers you hit. I thought, okay, let me try this again. Now the game really got hard. Time goes by much quicker while you’re doing math in your head trying to keep track of where you’re total stands. Oh, I forgot to mention that you don’t have the total on the screen, it’s only in your head.

My first few games with this new strategy only saw me get to level 7 or so and my scores were worse than before. That’s when I found myself playing, “just one more game”, and then I found that an hour had past.

Graphically the game is fairly minimal, but that’s okay with good puzzle games. You’ve got the numbers and that’s about it. The same goes for the sound. A few beeps when you press the numbers and a few little music hits here and there. There’s not much there, but there’s enough.

The game has two modes of play, the basic one that I mentioned above which cost me an hour of my day, and “Hell” mode. In the normal mode your target numbers go up to 39… Hell Mode takes the target numbers up to 69. Sure it doesn’t seem like a big difference (certainly not enough to elicit the demons of Hell), but it does take a lot more to keep the larger numbers in your head.

It seems like a game this simple could come up with some other modes. Why not have one where you’re trying to get as few buttons pushed as possible? Or maybe a mode where only even or odd numbers appear on the screen? Those are just the first two that came to mind and I’m sure there’s more. Maybe with some updates we’ll see more.

I also had a few times where I hit a button and didn’t realize that I had actually pressed two buttons. This will really mess you up because you don’t know that you’ve added another number to the total and you’ll have to stop and look at the whole board to see what’s up. I had to really take my time when pressing numbers to make sure this didn’t happen.

There is a Lite version of the game available so feel free to give it a try.

I’m still a “word” guy at heart and will always stay that way, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve spent a few hours with a mistress and cheated on my beloved words. And I have the feeling that I’ll be cheating on them again.

Make Num is a perfect game for fans of math and number games. You’ll find that you’re brain will be racing trying to keep track of where your total is, and the whole thing will make your head numb (in a good way)… And now I understand the strange title of the game!

The Good

Made Math Fun & Exciting – Really!
Online Scoreboard

The Bad

Slight Touch Controls
Could Use More Modes

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Tags: Math Game, numbers

Category: Games