Cascade: Globe Minesweeper

Minesweeper has been played on a rectangle since 1989. Cascade plays it on a sphere. That reads like a gimmick until you open the first tile. There are no edges to work from and no corner to start in. Every tile has neighbours the whole way round, so the flat-board habits — hug a wall, open a corner, count along a row — are simply gone. You read a curved surface instead, turning the planet with your thumb to check what you left behind you. It also means the board is bigger than the screen. Half of it is always round the back. When a cascade opens it runs over the horizon, and if it travels far enough it comes back the other way and meets itself. One tile in five is a mine. Five planet sizes, from 96 tiles to 384. CLASSIC One planet, no clock. Take as long as it takes. TIME ATTACK Planets that keep growing, and one three-minute clock for all of them. Walking into a mine costs ten…