Lucky Coins, the latest release from Donut Games, is a quick and chaotic game reminiscent of pinball or pachinko. The goal is simple: rack up as many points as possible by collecting stars, horseshoes, clovers and sevens, as well as hitting bumpers and moving platforms.
There are three levels, each with its own arrangement of items. To play, simply click the mouse to drop your lucky coin; from there, you must watch helplessly as the coin caroms around the level, propelled by bumpers of various sizes. However, there are magnets strategically placed around the level which will grab the coin as it passes, allowing you to redirect it in the direction of your choice—just click again when the line is pointing in your desired direction.
An alternate challenge is to collect as few points as possible, something that is deceptively difficult. For example, my first attempt at this netted 6732 points, but none of my future tries obtained under 9000.
Analysis: On your first play through Lucky Coins, you might be tempted to write it off for being too dependent on luck. However, once you play a few more games (they go by in a snap) and start to become familiar with the layouts of each level, you'll come to realize that the magnets are placed in positions that make it possible to climb back up and collect a lot of points that you may have missed. Although I won't go so far as to say that the game relies heavily on skill, you will certainly not achieve a high score through pure chance. Still, it's frustrating when your coin drops neatly past a bunch of magnets and drops into a finish slot with no chance to go back and clean up what you missed, something that happens occasionally on the 1st and 3rd levels.
Lucky Coins is solid in its presentation, from the bouncy physics to the clangy pinball sound effects. One feature I feel is sorely lacking is storage of a player's personal high score. With your personal best displayed, you would have something to shoot for even if you can't crack the high score list. There's a reason why this feature is present in other chaotic games with minimal user input (like Nanaca†Crash). A "low score list" would also be nice.
Still, props to the Donut Games team for putting out yet another fabulous game.
11759 points!
20332... huzzah!
my lowest for the first coin is 4601
20582
22109 :o)
24563!!
Second try, 18077.
2150 on coin 1.
27148! just shy of the high score table :(
I love these pachinka type games! Peggle was great, but, you know...$$. This one is free. More, I say! More!
this one is so much fun. I just spent far too much time playing! lol
I can't seem to get over 25000 though. :(
First go (high attempt): 21633
Second go (high attempt): 19027
Third go (low attempt): 9573
The low on the first coin was 2057.
I created a group called "JIG". There's no password to join, just hit the group tab at the top, type JIG in the box, and join. At least then we can get a jay-is-games only high score list.
love it... there needs to be more pinball type games on this site. ever think of going a competition, Jay?
18447 is my latest score... i find i keep jumping up to higher magnets
If you want to have your own highscore list you can simply create a group for yourself! But it's more fun to create a group and invite your friends too. On the highscore lists your group scores are presented in a separate tab.
2019 on 1st coin
Low score total: 8196
2087 = coin 1
2792 = coin 2
2802 = coin 3
7681 = total
23,921. First try. Yay! Gotta agree with Christian, JIG needs more games like this.
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