Review by: Jim Brumbaugh

Published: April 6, 1997

The concept is oh-so simple: change all the playing pieces on the board to be of the same color. But, if you are playing Lights Out 3D, making that happen is not such an easy task.

The “Classic” game is played on a square matrix with dimensions of either 5×5, 6×6 or 7×7 squares. A playing piece appears in every square, and is one of two different colors/shapes. By clicking the mouse over one of the playing pieces, it changes from “lit” (one shape/color) to “unlit” (the other shape/color). However, the four playing pieces adjacent to the one that is clicked will also change shape/color, which is what makes the game difficult and challenging. A menu selection determines whether the four pieces in an adjacent cross pattern (+) or the four pieces in an adjacent diagonal pattern (X) are the ones which change shape and color with the piece that is clicked.

The player judges the success of his solution by comparing the number of steps he has made to the “Optimal Number Of Steps” displayed on the game screen. If the player has taken more steps than the optimal number indicated, then there is a better solution to be found.

In addition to the Classic game, there are five other solo variations which can also be played. “Lit Only” has the requirement that only lit pieces can be clicked upon. In “Toggle,” the player must alternately click on a lit piece, and then on an unlit piece. The “Looping” variation alters the game by allowing for the pieces on the opposite edge of the matrix to change, when changing the color of a piece near one edge of the matrix. This sort of change would normally be blocked by the matrix edge. For “Lights In,” the player is required to reproduce the lit pattern of a smaller matrix on the larger matrix. In the “3 Color” variation, the lights change from blue to green to red, adding a further complication to the mix.

All the variations mentioned above are one-player games. A couple of them have only certain matrix sizes upon which they can be played. Most of them also allow the player to choose the order in which puzzles are displayed: “Pre-Programmed” mode displays the puzzles in a pre-determined, increasing level of difficulty order, while “Randomized” will randomly display all available puzzles with the same Optimal Number Of Steps as the last one that the player solved. Certain games also keep track of a score for the player, with a certain number of points per step credited when a puzzle is solved in no more than the Optimal Number Of Steps, and penalty points for every step taken beyond the optimal number.

In this product, there are two-player games provided as well. In “Fliput,” the object is to have the greatest number of pieces of your color on the board at the end of the game. Each player is allowed 32 “puts,” which is simply putting one of his color of game pieces on the board. Each is also allowed 22 “flips,” which is a move that is made when a player’s game piece is surrounded crosswise (+) by four game pieces belonging to his opponent. By clicking on the piece that is surrounded, all five pieces change to the opposite color. Each piece can be flipped only once, but a piece can change colors multiple times if adjacent pieces are flipped. This variation can be played against another human opponent or against the computer. The “2 Players” option allows for two people to work together to change all the pieces on the board to unlit. A player selecting the next move in the software’s pre-programmed optimal path will score points; a player making an incorrect move will score no points for that move. Once the puzzle is solved, the player with the highest score wins.

A player can also design a puzzle of his own, and input it to the game. In addition, a “Statistics” screen keeps track of the scores the player achieves in each variation of the game, and hints are available for most variations. An interactive tutorial is also provided, which will help the new player to become familiar with the concepts of the game.