Games I Grew Up On: Outnumbered!

A follow-up to Midnight Rescue!, Outnumbered! was the next game in the Super Solver series that helped further my education.  This time, the Master of Mischief is trying to take over a radio and television station and it's up to you to stop him before midnight.  You don't know which room he is hiding in and the only way to know for certain is to obtain information about the rooms by solving math puzzles in each room of the station.  But watch out for his evil robot, Telly, who will try to knock you out with discs, sound waves, lightning bolts, energy stars, or just running into you!  If you can zap him before he zaps you, you'll get another chance to earn clues as to which room the Master of Mischief is hiding in. There are also live power cables (literally!) that you'll need to zap or jump over.

Just like with Midnight Rescue!, Outnumbered! will give you a point total at the end of each game that will add to a lifetime score.  This score has ranks associated with it at certain levels, which not only increase how awesome you are at life, but it also increases the difficulty of the game on further plays.  Not only is this game quite enjoyable (at least it was when I was a kid), but it's also good about how it integrates learning.  The math puzzles aren't just simple "What's A + B?" puzzles, but large word problems that require a little more critical thinking to understand (although the end results of deciphering the word puzzle could be that you're just adding the values of A and B...).  On the other hand, Telly will just show you quick math problems like 5-2 = ? and 1+3=?, which just requires basic math skills.  The background songs are 8-bit versions of some very good classical songs (or maybe I just think they're very good since I heard them so many times while playing this game?), which I always find to be a nice touch.