Authors Michael and Paula Maida determined that investing a short period of time in playing the game yielded improvements in students' geometric and spatial reasoning, as well as problem-solving skills. An article published in the journal in April 2011 studied the use of Blokus in math classrooms as a learning tool. Įven scholarly journals like Mathematics Teaching in Middle School have highlighted the game's brain-boosting potential. As we said, it's gained a huge following in general and has been heralded by smarty-pants organizations like Mensa (a society for those special folks with the highest of high IQs) as a "Select" game, which "indicates that a game is original, challenging and well-designed". Theorems or not, you're still playing a brain game. But only a computer program has been able to prove it, and mathematicians are still searching for the ultimate human proof. The theorem states that on any given map, you only need four colors to distinguish separate territories - that is, without any borders of the same color touching each other, side by side. Īnother influence? The four-color theorem, first introduced in 1852 by Francis Guthrie. With the thought that each similarly colored piece should never touch, the game of Blokus was born. One day, he was attempting to frame a painting he had finished of an orchestra represented by geometric figures, and he decided that he wanted colored shapes to frame the picture. That said, it's still ridiculously fun, and well worth the $4.99 price of admission-especially considering that the board game sells for upwards of $30.Īnd speaking of board games that have received the app treatment, be sure to check out Battleship for iPhone, Catan, Triazzle, and Words With Friends.Not satisfied with book smarts, Tavitian was also a painter. The game all but begs to be played on an iPad's comparatively spacious screen. On my iPhone, the Blokus board feels a little claustrophobic.
That's a bug that needs fixing immediately. What's more, I was dismayed to discover that the app didn't resume my game-in-progress after I exited and restarted it.
#FREE BLOKUS ONLINE HOW TO#
But that's understandable: the game's been in the App Store for only two days.Īlthough there's a helpful tutorial that explains the basic rules of Blokus and shows you how to place your pieces, the built-in instructions don't sufficiently explain the different gameplay modes. And when I created one of my own, no other players showed up. Alas, I wasn't able to test that option, as there were no games for me to join.
#FREE BLOKUS ONLINE FREE#
On the multiplayer side, you can invite up to three other local players, or connect to Gameloft Live (you'll need a free account) for online competition. "Duo," its name notwithstanding, is another single-player exercise, but played on a smaller board with just two colors instead of four. Same goes for "Classic 2," in which you take on the role of a second human player. For example, "Classic 4" is the standard game, though you're the only human player. Interestingly, the app offers similar variants-some of which are a little confusing. The actual board game does offer two- and even three-player variants, but they're just not the same as squaring off with a foursome. It's a snap to learn, and endlessly fun to play because the outcome is always different. The object is to place as many of your own blocks as you can while blocking the other players from laying theirs. In case you're not familiar with the game, Blokus could best be described as four-player Tetris-except that instead of trying to nestle various block shapes together, you link your like-colored blocks by their corners.
#FREE BLOKUS ONLINE BLUETOOTH#
But virtual opponents are just the tip of the gameplay iceberg: you can also play against other iPhone/iPod/iPad users, either locally (via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) or online. Consequently, either everyone plays, or no one does.īlokus for iPhone adds AI to the mix, meaning you can finally go it alone if you choose. The board game Blokus has long been a family favorite in the Broida household, but there's just one problem with it: to really enjoy the game as it's meant to be played, you need four players.
0 kommentar(er)
