Second Chance is a Windows Phone game that is a collection of mini-games that you play in five second spurts. The games will test your reaction speed, concentration and powers of deduction. The primary goal of Second Chance is to survive for as long as possible by solving the five second puzzles. Should you fail to solve a puzzle, it will cost you one of your five gaming lives.
The Windows Phone game, available for low-memory devices, has been available in the Store for some time now. We stumbled across Second Chance over the weekend while searching for another gaming title. Second Chance looked fun and we took the free version out for a test drive to see if the game was deserving of the 4.5 Star rating it was pulling down in the Store.
The opening menu for Second Chance is laid out in simple fashion with options to jump into game play, view the online leaderboards, mute the sound and view the About screen. You also have links to the developer's website and Facebook pages.
The free version of Second Chance offers you access to the Infinity Mode of game play. If you are inclined, you can pick up the Premium Version of the game for $2.99 and have access to the second gaming mode, the Arcade Mode.
The Infinity Mode has you playing the thirty two individual games in five second spurts. You have five lives and failing one of these mini-games will cost you one life. Again, the goal is to play as many games as possible before you run out of lives. The Arcade Mode gives you access to the games with the goal of surviving each for as long as possible.
The Infinity Mode starts things off with a Stickman flying up the screen on a jet pack. A hint will appear to give you a clue as to the nature of the upcoming game (tap the screen, use the motion sensors, etc.) and then you dive into game play.
The thirty-two games cover a wide variety of challenges and each last only five seconds. A timer bar runs across the bottom of the screen to keep you up on how many seconds are left. Some of Second Chance's thirty-two games include:
- Driving a car through traffic and avoiding other cars
- Shooting down meteors
- Memory games where you have to recall where a certain card is located
- Catching falling cookies by moving a cat around the screen
- Popping bubbles in order of their size
- Pouring a glass of milk to a certain level
- Solving a basic math problem
- Jumping a stick figure over pegs
- Counting ants as they race across the screen
- Moving a Dinosaur around the screen to avoid falling meteors
The games are not overly complicated but surprisingly difficult. You may find yourself spending the first few seconds trying to register what the task at hand actually is and have to race to complete the task in the last fleeting seconds of the round. One game has a balloon in the center of the screen and you are directed to repeatedly tap on a button that moves around the screen. Don't be shocked if you start tapping on the balloon before you realize it is the button you should be focusing on.
For each failed game, you lose one of your lives but you will have a chance at regaining a life back with boss games that periodically appear. Lose all your lives and you will be given the choice to submit your score to the online leaderboard, buy the premium version (if you are playing the free version) or test your luck again.
Overall Impression
Second Chance is a Windows Phone game perfect for those times you only have a few minutes to spend on gaming. The game has a nice variety of mini-games that will test your reflexes, memory and powers of observation.
The randomness and variety of games helps Second Chance from growing stale too quickly and overall it is a fun time waster of a game. I'm not sure if I'd make the jump to the Premium version but the free version gives you enough of a taste of the game to make that call yourself. In playing the game over the past few days, personally I would score it in the 4 Star range but won't argue too loudly against the current 4.5 Star mark Second Chance is currently enjoying.
Download Second Chance for Windows Phone (Free)
Download Second Chance Premium for Windows Phone ($2.99)
