edit: flipped to a non-recommendation because the game can't be paused and there's no mid-level saving. very far from ultimate.

minesweeper ultimate is yet another attempt to make people pay for what they can already play for free pretty much anywhere. nothing inherently wrong with that, nobody's forcing anyone to buy it, and if it's done well or has a unique selling point, even better.

in this case, besides the typical square-based layouts, there are triangles and hexagons as well, and the latter was reason enough for me to check it out. there are 3 difficulty settings (bigger board sizes with more bombs) for each game mode, and sadly only random levels. they're fine as a bonus and many actually prefer them, endless fun and all that, but I'd rather have 50 hand-made puzzles (or at least selected from a bunch of algorithm-made ones) than a billion less interesting ones.

chording wasn't available initially, but got patched in. if the number of flags matches the number on the cell, clicking the number will basically automatically click on every surrounding cell, so it makes things more streamlined, provided your flags are placed correctly.

triangular levels threw me at first. I expected only the 3 sides to count, so a 3 would mean all 3 sides are bombs, but nope. can't highlight affected tiles, like in some similar games, but even a simple help screen would suffice to clear things up. failing that, I clicked randomly on an expert level with higher numbers to find out that all the cells surrounding a triangle count, which might be too much for my tiny brain. hexagons are fine.

the presentation is what you'd expect and there are a few alternate themes to switch things up. the music while playing levels is good enough, but the one in the menu is awful, I had to mute it almost immediately. sound effects too, as moving the mouse over the board constantly makes a noise. a bunch of languages are also provided, though there's not much text, and settings are only available from the main menu or after a level is done.

after a patch the timer can be turned off by clicking it, and f11 works as the windowed mode toggle, but the game always starts in a non-resizable window instead of remembering last time, and without resolution options it's completely useless. no pausing either, probably because leaderboards are available for you competitive types, presented within the game. except if somebody wants to cheat, they'll find a way, so I'd rather if the game had more quality of life than trying to stop the inevitable. separate boards for every game mode and difficulty, divided even further into casual and pro based on whether you have hints enabled or not (you get a few per level to reveal what's under a specific tile).

with only random levels it didn't hold my attention for long, as usual, and there are better minesweepers around, possibly cheaper too, but with the alternate shapes it might be worth checking out on sale. except there's no mid-level saving, which is another big problem.

[b]edit:[/b] flipped to a non-recommendation because the game can't be paused and there's no mid-level saving. very far from ultimate. [b]minesweeper ultimate[/b] is yet another attempt to make people pay for what they can already play for free pretty much anywhere. nothing inherently wrong with that, nobody's forcing anyone to buy it, and if it's done well or has a unique selling point, even better. in this case, [b]besides the typical square-based layouts, there are triangles and hexagons as well[/b], and the latter was reason enough for me to check it out. there are [b]3 difficulty settings[/b] (bigger board sizes with more bombs) for each game mode, and sadly [b]only random levels[/b]. they're fine as a bonus and many actually prefer them, endless fun and all that, but I'd rather have 50 hand-made puzzles (or at least selected from a bunch of algorithm-made ones) than a billion less interesting ones. [b]chording wasn't available initially, but got patched in.[/b] if the number of flags matches the number on the cell, clicking the number will basically automatically click on every surrounding cell, so it makes things more streamlined, provided your flags are placed correctly. [b]triangular levels threw me at first.[/b] I expected only the 3 sides to count, so a 3 would mean all 3 sides are bombs, but nope. can't highlight affected tiles, like in some similar games, but even a simple help screen would suffice to clear things up. failing that, I clicked randomly on an expert level with higher numbers to find out that [b]all the cells surrounding a triangle count[/b], which might be too much for my tiny brain. hexagons are fine. the presentation is what you'd expect and there are [b]a few alternate themes[/b] to switch things up. the music while playing levels is good enough, but the one in the menu is awful, I had to mute it almost immediately. sound effects too, as [b]moving the mouse over the board constantly makes a noise[/b]. a bunch of languages are also provided, though there's not much text, and settings are only available from the main menu or after a level is done. after a patch [b]the timer can be turned off[/b] by clicking it, and f11 works as the windowed mode toggle, but [b]the game always starts in a non-resizable window[/b] instead of remembering last time, and without resolution options it's completely useless. [b]no pausing either[/b], probably because [b]leaderboards[/b] are available for you competitive types, presented within the game. except if somebody wants to cheat, they'll find a way, so [b]I'd rather if the game had more quality of life than trying to stop the inevitable[/b]. separate boards for every game mode and difficulty, divided even further into casual and pro based on whether you have [b]hints[/b] enabled or not (you get a few per level to reveal what's under a specific tile). with only random levels it didn't hold my attention for long, as usual, and [b]there are better minesweepers around, possibly cheaper too[/b], but with the alternate shapes it might be worth checking out on sale. except there's [b]no mid-level saving[/b], which is another big problem.