By Drew Wilson
In this review, we check out a simple puzzle game called Lights Off! We find out if something so simple is worth trying.
This particular game was released in 1996. The concept is far older than this game, but this is a nice example of how the game plays.
The goal of this game is extremely simple: turn off all of the lights. If you click on one light, then the lights that are above, below, and left and right will switch from on to off or off to on. You are dealing with a 5×5 grid as well.
As I played, I found myself trying different strategies. Sometimes, I would move all of the on lights to one part of the grid. Sometimes, I would try and draw a plus sign in the middle and turn off all of the other lights. Sometimes, I would try a combination of different strategies. I don’t know if any of these strategies are particularly good strategies because I never really beat this particular game.
Still, even if I never won, I found myself quickly getting moves up into the thousands trying to figure out this thing. Sometimes, I would reset the game in the event that I thought that I got an unsolvable puzzle. In any event, you know the game is good when you can’t seem to win, yet you keep playing it anyway because you always think you got close to a solution.
Graphically, this game is seriously bare minimum. There’s no real graphics whatsoever. I’m sure there could be a implementation of some sleeker looking lights, but I’m not sure how much more you could ask for in graphics since this is really a simple little game.
There is no audio that I’m aware of.
Overall, this is one of the more addicting games I’ve played that I’ve failed at completely. Eventually, i had to tell myself to put the game down and walk away because it was sucking up way too much of my time. An interesting mind teaser to say the least.
Overall
Furthest point in game: All but one, not that this is really saying much. Never managed to solve it.
General gameplay: 17/25
Replay value: 10/10
Graphics: 5/10
Audio: N/A
Overall rating: 71%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85
