Domino Pressure

March 1, 2006 5:43 AM

If the high scores are to be believed, there are at least 400 (random) levels in Domino Pressure. The object: Figure out which domino is the one which, when tipped, will knock over all the other dominoes before squishing the tomato. For every domino you leave standing, you lose precious seconds to complete the next level. The secret seems to be to work your way backwards from the tomato; you can skip up to three levels.
posted by Gator (36 comments total)

Cool, I made it to level 9! I'm great.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:54 AM on March 1, 2006

I love it! But sometimes when I try to trace backwards, I end up hitting the piece that smushes the tomato directly. D'oh!
posted by piratebowling at 5:55 AM on March 1, 2006

Are my low scores because I don't understand?
posted by OmieWise at 6:07 AM on March 1, 2006

It's infuriating because you don't know which way the domino is going to fall when you click it.

It's so infuriating, in fact, that I give this game TWO thumbs down.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:14 AM on March 1, 2006

I hate this game.. theres no way to figure whether the domino will tip one way or the other.. or is there? Its frustrating when it tips the opposite way you thought it was..
posted by pez_LPhiE at 6:14 AM on March 1, 2006

I didn't find this game all that fun at all. You're pretty much just guessing which way a given piece is going to fall.
posted by antifuse at 6:16 AM on March 1, 2006

seriously. fuck this game.
posted by beerbajay at 6:17 AM on March 1, 2006

tried it again and DAMN THIS GAME TO HELL!! Its so bad, I wonder if the poster was the guy who created it..

No way you played it and thought it was good
posted by pez_LPhiE at 6:19 AM on March 1, 2006

Yeah, the inability to tell which way they'll fall is enormously frustrating. It wouldn't surprise me if the high scores are actually cheats.

I think I've seen the same layout more than once (in separate games), so I suspect there may be a large, but finite pool of boards, which would make cheating quite possible.
posted by Malor at 6:23 AM on March 1, 2006

Well, I think it's fun. The key is: don't have a baby hissy fit when you lose.
posted by fungible at 6:33 AM on March 1, 2006

Hurray! Pile on! This irritated the shit out of me too!
posted by biffa at 6:34 AM on March 1, 2006

The combination of not knowing which way the tiles were going to fall and being timed makes this a failed attempt.
Meh.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:47 AM on March 1, 2006

Damned if you do, damned if you don't--if you don't know which way the first domino falls, it's unplayable; if there were indicators of which way the dominos would fall, then the game would be too easy.
posted by Prospero at 6:57 AM on March 1, 2006

Yup. It's confirmed: dominoes suck.
posted by blacklite at 7:04 AM on March 1, 2006

if there were indicators of which way the dominos would fall, then the game would be too easy.

Yeah, heh. Still, after playing it for a while, it seems to me that you're looking for patterns; if you look at the SquishDomino and trace backwards, you can eventually see the line of succession, as it were -- the most likely path. Of course, sometimes you think you see it and you're wrong. Splat.
posted by Gator at 7:05 AM on March 1, 2006

Whew. I thought I was just really terrible at this.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:07 AM on March 1, 2006

When I was in Amsterdam I got to watch the World Championship of Dominos on Dutch TV. Very surreal to see hundreds of people cheering as millions of dominos fell.

Oh yeah -- this game is shit.
posted by bpm140 at 7:23 AM on March 1, 2006

Highly frustrating.
posted by boo_radley at 7:44 AM on March 1, 2006

Gave it a go. I would rather rub sand and bleach into my eyes.
posted by DrDoberman at 7:54 AM on March 1, 2006

Wow, I actually thought it was rather neat. Expecially the part where the tomato went squash. I just thought I was bad at it.
posted by OmieWise at 8:04 AM on March 1, 2006

Is it just me or do flash games without a mute button irritate the heck out of other people too (okay not everyone is listening to the WFMU marathon but pretty please)?

Oh, and I found it frustrating without sufficient reward to persevere...
posted by itsjustanalias at 8:09 AM on March 1, 2006

First time I played, I got to level 9. It went progressively downhill from there. I gave up after 4 more tries. Not gonna bookmark this one!
posted by webjunkie at 8:13 AM on March 1, 2006

I liked it.
posted by devbrain at 8:23 AM on March 1, 2006

Not a bad idea, horrible exectution. Why have different kinds of dominos if they don't do different things? Why no indication which way the dominoes will fall?

1.5 out out of 5 stars.
posted by empath at 8:46 AM on March 1, 2006

I kept trying to figure out how the shadow affected the direction it will fall. In the end I closed the window and cried a little in a passive aggressive sort of way.
posted by cavalier at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2006

I like it well enough.
I think allowing the player to build up more than 20 seconds would improve it. That way, you could get on a good streak and build up like a minute or two before you get to the "WTF!!" stages. Also I second empath, if they're not going to do different things then why have different colors and shapes?
posted by srw12 at 9:02 AM on March 1, 2006

The good parts about this game are seriously overshadowed by being unable to know which way the domino you click will fall. That's a fatal flaw that turns the game from something fun into something horribly frustrating. I had to give up on it rather quickly.

I liked the concept though.
posted by evilangela at 9:19 AM on March 1, 2006

I gave it five very frustrating minutes and two thumbs down.
posted by MasonDixon at 9:25 AM on March 1, 2006

I got to level 16. It looks like there is one domino that is kind of skewed at a weird angle and for the most part, that's your starter domino. At least until stage 11 or so.
posted by mckenney at 9:59 AM on March 1, 2006

The key, I think, is to look for a domino that can't be knocked down by any others. That's the domino you click. I got up to level 24 after a couple of tries; it's no level 400, I'm sure, but whatever. It's not nearly as bad as everyone's making it out to be.
posted by chrominance at 10:06 AM on March 1, 2006

chrominance is right. I used to play this awhile ago and got pretty good at it. The not knowing which way a domino is falling is a red herring. The best I ever did was level 41, and that was with some ridiculous luck.
posted by Falconetti at 10:22 AM on March 1, 2006

Tried it again. Still hate it.
posted by bpm140 at 12:45 PM on March 1, 2006

This game could easily be made fun by simply letting the player choose which way the initial domino fell. It would make beginning levels easy, but that sure beats making them frustrating.

Also, replacing the tomato with a kitten would help.
posted by Durhey at 12:50 PM on March 1, 2006

I got to level 17, you just have to get into the mindset of the game. You can't tell the way it will fall (I originally thought it had something to do with the shadows, but no) but if it is necessary ear to connect earlier ones don't use it.
posted by Suparnova at 3:14 PM on March 1, 2006

You can't tell which way an individual domino is going to fall, but if you look at an outer corner you can tell there's only one way for it to go. I start at a corner far away from the tomato, and mentally trace it forward - this usually isolates the start of the chain. Through level 25, anyway.
posted by teki at 3:33 PM on March 1, 2006

Nope, just annoying. If there's anything even vaguely loopy looking, there's no way to tell where the start of the loop is. It winds up being a guessing game.
posted by fnerg at 3:40 PM on March 1, 2006