This old Windows classic is still well-liked by those who enjoy a quick game of logical deduction, and now you can take it with you to school or work on your calculator. The implementation as of this version is flawless; it plays almost exactly like the original, except of course for the different playfield size. There's only so much you can scrunch onto a calculator screen, after all. The other reason I say "almost" is that, unlike the regular Windows version, in this version it's possible to click on a mine with your first click (in Windows it's impossible to do this; the offending mine is relocated to a random spot). Fortunately, the game compensates for this by allowing you to automatically place the cursor on a mine-free space when the game begins. Unfortunately, this option doesn't "stick", requiring you to re-set it every time you play the game.
As in the Windows version, you can play an "Easy," "Intermediate," or "Hard" game, which offers pre-set dimensions and numbers of mines, or you can create a "Custom" game and choose your own parameters. High scores, recorded as the time (in minutes and seconds) that it took you to finish the game, are stored for each category. Accessing the in-game menu will pause your game in progress and give you some choices for continuing, also showing you how much time you've accrued so far and a count of how many flags you've placed compared with how many mines are on the board. The main menu also offers an easy choice to reset your high score for a category, something that a lot of games out there don't feature.
All in all, the only possible gripe I can find with this game is that it uses Enter, rather than 2nd, to make menu decisions, yet it uses the 2nd, ALPHA, MODE group of keys while in-game. Aside from that, this is a great port of an even greater classic.
Note: The ratings assume that you like Minesweeper in the first place.
Fun Level: Extra-High
Addictiveness: Fairly Average
Replayability: What You'd Expect
Annoyances: Few and Far Between
Final Score: A must-have game if you liked the original Minesweeper.
