In 2014, a game-developing company from The Hague released a fun puzzle game called Numolition. Blast forward to 2023, and the game is re-released on the Nintendo Switch by another Dutch publisher and game development studio called Denda Games (of which we reviewed something before). Does this blast from the past hold up to the modern standard? Let’s find out.
Exploding Numbers!
From the creators of Quento comes Numolition, an explosively addicting puzzle game starring Anique and her crew of demolition experts. With its unique, clever gameplay, cast of wacky characters, and comic style, Numolition is a guaranteed blast for the whole family! And being a dad has its perks in these kinds of situations. Blowing stuff up in a comical sense with my daughter, almost four years old, was a lot of fun. Especially since she’s interested in numbers and beginning to learn how to read.
Numolition
The concept of Numolition is pretty simple; flatten as many constructions as possible by setting up, adding up, and blowing up the numbers 1 to 9 through loads of mind-bending levels, bonus challenges, endless towers, and other unlockable game modes that offer infinite replayability. It features 50 levels of demolition mayhem, with 120 bonus challenges to keep you on your toes. In addition, if you collect enough stars (three per level), you can unlock some new game modes. Each mode challenges you to new needs/modes of thinking out of the box (ha) and are perfect forms of entertainment and education. Sure, it takes much longer to complete a level with my daughter while counting fingers to find the right combination, but it helps with her interest in learning numbers (and making things go kaboom). It’s one of those old-school, easy-to-learn, hard-to-master games.
Educational Purpose
Educational, you say? Yes, and it was created with an educational mindset. As I stated, Numolition is an older game designed in early 2013 by Martin Kool as a follow-up to the math game Quento that he created for his son. Quento was aimed at providing an educational math challenge. In contrast, Numolition is more targeted towards providing an addictive and fun game experience that requires more thought than classic fruit/gem-matching games. Numolition only uses the numbers 1 to 9, which makes it more of a logic and thoughtful reasoning game than educational. However, some pedagogically proven methods form the basis of the game’s gameplay (such as the so-called “friends of 10” being used in Towers to create bombs).
As the game grew further apart from its spiritual predecessor Quento, one aspect was brought back differently: the bonus challenges for each level. You see, Quento provided the player with one board and multiple challenges simultaneously. This allowed the player to understand the game board and make it their own, providing a feeling of outsmarting it. For Numolition’s levels, multiple outcomes are possible (other than blowing up all tiles), and they were sometimes more challenging than simply finishing off the level. Allowing players to revisit each level multiple times and go after the bonus challenges (for example, leaving a specific number at the end) makes players master a certain level.
Conclusion
So, to conclude – Numolition is an excellent addition to the family-friendly library of the Nintendo Switch and still holds up in its genre. The comic-book style resonated with my almost-four-year-old and helped her learn some numbers and how to recognize them. It might even be an excellent addition to the school library if you own a Switch and teach ages four and up. This might be great to teach them numbers in a fun way.
