2048

Have you heard of this game?  I didn't until last week. I was on my way home from work Thursday on a packed subway and was sitting next to a lady playing this game on her phone. I was intrigued because of the numbers and finally decided to interrupt her and ask her what the game was. She took out her headphones and answered that it was 2048, a free download and terribly addictive. 

I had no idea!  It's my new favorite game but be forewarned its hard to put down ala flappy bird (which luckily I've only ever played on others phones). 

It's like sudoku in that its a logic game involving numbers but no math. Except for 2048 there is minimal addition. You combine like tiles (ie combine two 4s and it creates an 8). And you just build up the tiles until you get to 2048 before running out of space. Or so I thought!

At first I was really proud of my score of 9,000 after playing a few rounds. And then I developed a technique that switched from random combining to something more systematic that catapulted me to a whole new level. And before I knew it I combined two 1024 tiles and made the infamous 2048 tile. I won! With a score of almost 20,000. 

Except, instead of the game telling me I won it just congratulated me on getting the 2048 tile and asked if I wanted to keep playing. Keep playing?! It wasn't the end, it was only the beginning. It was deceptive advertising. You can't call a game "level 10" and then have it have 15 levels. 

Well, last night, after a late night working, I was on my way home and started playing a game. I wanted to blog about the game but my screenshots of getting to 2048 were on my iPad at home. I figured I'd play a "quick" game on my phone that I could use to take a picture and show my mad skills. As I was sitting, waiting for my bus, which was over a half hour wait - ugh - thank goodness I had the game to distract me from the frustration of being delayed and getting home even later then I wanted to - it happened.

I got to 2048 and kept playing and I was on a mad role. I made it to 4096! I was giddy with delight, sitting there on the bench waiting. I kept playing, and the bus came and we all packed on and I ended up having to stand and I kept playing, but my zen playing had been broken and I soon found the board full and the game over with my new all time high score of 51,152!

Isn't that wicked good?  I'm really impressed but then I checked the leader board to see if my games were being recorded and found a community board and that all the top players have a score of 150,000,000. It's like I'm back at my initial 9,000 level. Still, I'm tickled pink I got to the 4096 tile. Not too shabby.