Puzzle Game for Nokia 5800: Memo Deduction

Remember that classic paper based game- Bulls and Cows? If that doesn’t ring any bells, how does the classic puzzle- Mastermind sound like? If you are still wondering what we are talking about, you should probably check this wiki entry on Mastermind on which our review game today-Memo Deduction is based on.

Our good ol’ friends at MMMOOO in Shanghai are back in news again. This time around they have taken a break from their themes and UI customizations for symbian fifth edition phones to bring this classic board game to our dear 5800s. Is their latest effort as good as their previous offerings? Lets find out after the break.

Screenshots-

Yeah, the wooden background does take us back to the good ol’ days of wooden board games, which unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to toy around with (did you?). Coming back to the game, the game objective is pretty simple: find the hidden code in the memo. We know thats pretty vague but then if you have ever played Mastermind, you would know what we are talking about.

For the benefit of first timers to this puzzle, lets list out the game play method in detail here (ironically, the help menu within the game is not of much assistance for first timers): Gamers are required to decode the exact sequence of colors the memos represent by trial and error method. A correct entry is indicated by the red pushpin and black pushpin indicates the right choice of colour but wrong position. Sounds simple right? Try the game in Normal and Difficult level if you find the easy mode way to easy to beat.

What we like?

1. Wooden background is cool
   
2. Engaging gameplay

What we don’t like?

1. The memo buttons are way too small for our fingers
2. No sound effects and other game centric features

Verdict

Memo Deduction is one of the most engaging games we have seen and no we are not very much impressed by its adaptation to symbian fifth edition platform by MMMOOO, but the puzzle itself is so engrossing that we are ready to overlook the minor complaints we have against this version by MMMOOO. We should say that though the game is worth the download, MMMOOO should address the couple of issues we have highlighted in the review. The bottom line is the game is worth its penny and is capable of making it to our “must have” list with a few tweaks.

The game/puzzle is about to make an appearance in the ovi store soon, but our restless readers can also get this app from the MMMOOO store for a paltry amount of $2.99.