Mastermind

If you were to have someone mention Mastermind to you, you’d probably think of a rather brain-box game-show on TV which involves a black armchair and a white haired chap who holds all the cards and asks questions.

Well, fortunately there’s no bio-physics or difficult questions to answer in this game of the same name. Instead, it’s a code cracking game which will test your puzzle-solving skills quite a bit.

The aim of this game of Mastermind is to figure out the sequence of four coloured pins which are set by the ‘code maker’. You only have 10 attempts to guess the sequence correctly before you automatically lose. To help you guess the correct sequence, you are given red and white markers. The red symbolise the right colour and position, the white symbolise the right colour but wrong position in the chain. From these very basic ‘hot or cold’ indications, you must attempt to deduce which ones are correct not and try again.

To score - you’re marked not only on guessing the correct sequence, but also the number of moves it takes you and the length of time it takes you to guess – so the heat’s definitely on in this game.

To get the correct sequence is far from simple, there are eight colours to choose from and four pin positions and with only a rough guide to tell you whether you’ve picked the correct pin and got it in the right position, you are definitely going to be challenged.

As this game began in 1971 as a classic board game, it’s translated this element to the mobile version by allowing you to play against the computer and among your friends and family. You have several game formats for you to choose from. Quick game, for a quick single player game (novel enough right?!), Tournament mode and Multiplayer. Well as the first’s pretty self explanatory, the Tournament mode lets you pit your wits against six computer controlled ‘code makers’, each harder than the last! In Multiplayer mode, the ‘code maker’ has created a code, and up to five players may take turns to crack it. Each player may make one attempt before passing the controls to the next player.

You can modify the game a little to personalise the look and feel of it. You can choose to have the new look, the classic appearance or indeed unlock other appearances as a reward for successfully completing the games other modes.

So in essence, this game’s not for the one who enjoys platform games or fighting games. This is a puzzle game which will keep your grey matter ticking along nicely. It’s certainly got all the original elements which made the game so popular as a board game in the beginning. You will be well rewarded in terms of entertainment should you download this little gem of a game. It’s certainly got all the addictive qualities that will keep you going well into the small hours if you get bitten by the bug.

Rating 83%

Positives

Entertaining and mentally stimulating

Good graphics

Simple and effective controls

Challenging

Negatives

Not really any new elements brought to the game from the original version as you’d maybe expect

A bit repetitive