I have a soft spot in my heart for so called “edutainment” games, those little games that attempt to juxtapose the fun of a video game with the wholesomeness of a standardized test. And they don’t get bonus points for subtlety because if it doesn’t at some point have a word problem in it there was no way I’d be playing it at school as a kid. The teachers just would not allow it.

Maybe that’s why Numbers resonates with me. Every time you attack or are attacked by a monster you are asked a math question. The level of hte moster determines the difficulty of the problem you’re being asked. They range from basic arithamatic to advanced algebra. I actually had to remind myself what a “factorial” was. Then there’s the display. Not only does numbers remember the ackward joining of action gameplay with homework quizes, but it also remembers the blocky graphics that these disjoint games were presented to me in. There are several graphical options even including a more traditional “rogue-like” presentation, but I prefer the solid colors.

Numbers uses a clever map generator that makes a labyrinthine maze in whatever shape confines it’s given, utalized in this case with the shapes of numbers. It’s a neat touch that my teachers would have been happy to see from across the room on the screen of an Apple ][e.

Number was created for the 2008 7DRL competition. If you haven’t yet, give nubmers a try. It’s worth a laugh.