accessI’m surprised I never posted anything about Quadradius, an addicting Flash game similar to checkers, if checkers were awesome. Each player gets a number of pieces (usually twenty, but this can be adjusted prior to the beginning of a game) which can move in any of the cardinal directions, with the object of jumping on and destroying all of your opponents pieces. Fun, right?
The really interesting thing about Quadradius are Power Orbs, which appear in random locations on the board every couple of turns. Any piece can pick up a Power Orb by jumping on it, and you can use any number of previously-aquired powers during your turn prior to moving. Orb powers range from mundane powers like Raise Tile—which raises a single tile of the board above the current level (there are five possible heights)—to Jump Proof, which makes a piece completely impervious to all jump abilities.
Though rare, such pieces would be completely invincible if not for other power ups such as Destroy Row, Acidic Column, Recruit Radius, Smart Bombs, and a host of other crazy abilities. Grow Quadradius, which effectively doubles or triples the radius of all row/column/radius powers a piece uses, can be particularly devastating. And if you’re willing to fork over some cash for a subscription, you get even more crazy powers like Invisibility, Switcheroo (swap places with any otherp piece on the board), Scavanger (gain all of the powers of any piece you jump on), and more.
It takes some getting used to. With a large number of powers even if you don’t pay for a subscription, there are all kinds of ways to mess with your opponent, and figuring when to use a power and when to hold off can be tricky. There’s also more than a little luck required, as the Power Orbs do appear randomly and will often show up on one side of the board more than the other, seeming to favor one player over another.