Games Talk

What is Press Your Luck? Press Your Luck is a version of the famous retro game show game that will have you spinning slots and playing mini games, all in the pursuit of more prize money. But watch out for Whammys!   What are Whammys? Whammys are the red aliens/monsters who steal all your winnings. If you have a lot of money in the bank, be extra careful, or you might lose it all!   When does the game end? Press Your Luck ends when you decide to end the game. While you could play the slots forever, building up your prize pool and losing it to a Whammy, you could also click “Cash Out” at any point in the regular game to end it. The money you have at that point will be your final score!   How do I play? Gameplay in Press Your Luck is very simple. Just click the big red button to spin the slots. The spin will end on its own and your winnings will be added to your total. Click the red button again to spin again!   Is there anything besides spinning the slot machine? Yes

In Press Your Luck, all you have to do to play is hit the big red button to activate the slot machine. You can make some in-game money by getting good spins, but there is one method to grow your money way beyond simple slots: the mini-game!   If you spin three Press Your Luck icons anywhere on the board, you’ll enter the mini-game. The gameplay is similar – just press the red button to start the spin, and press it again to end the spin. In the mini-game, though, each spin lands on one value, and you get that value added to your total. Look out for squares like “vacation,” which have big payouts – but, as always, watch out for Whammys!   In the mini-game, each Whammy will reset your money total within the mini-game to $0. If you get four Whammys you’ll be removed from the mini-game entirely. At any point, you can click Pass to end the mini-game, bank your money, and continue playing the regular game.

In Card Sharks, there is a finite number of survey questions that will be asked before Sudden Death mode begins. Ideally, you will be able to complete your row of cards before it’s time for Sudden Death, but if both you and your opponent are unable to do it, you’ll need to prepare for a no-holds barred final round!   After the final survey question, the winner of that question can choose to “play” or “pass.” One player will end up with a single goal: to clear their row without making a mistake. If they do, they win. But if they don’t, their opponent wins the whole game.   If you win the survey question and can choose to “play” or “pass,” it’s important to think strategically. How many cards do you have left to clear? How many does your opponent have? What card is face-up for you and your opponent, and would that make their first choice easier or harder?   Either way, it’s an intense finish to a very fun and competitive game. Good luck!

In Card Sharks, after answering the survey question, you’ll head to the card table. If your opponent won the survey round, they control the cards, but you control them if you won the survey round. You’ll have seven face-down cards in front of you. One will flip over. Then, you get to choose if the next one is higher or lower.   What do you choose?   There are some straightforward strategies. If the card is very obviously on the low or high end, you can feel safe going in the other direction. For instance, it’s safe to guess higher if you’re looking at a 2, 3, or 4. However, things get more complicated in the middle. If you have a card between 6 and 9 – but especially 7 and 8 – it’s important to take stock of the overall situation. Keep in mind that if you guess wrong, you’ll lose all the cards you’ve guessed correctly in this run. So if you’ve guessed several cards correctly, it’s probably better to freeze a 7 or 8, end the turn, and come back next round when you have less to

From your living room in the ‘70s and ‘80s to your computer, phone, and tablet today… Card Sharks is here! Match up against a random appointment and answer survey questions. Then, head to the table to take control of the cards, guessing if your next card will be higher or lower than the last one. Make it through all your cards before your opponent does to take home the grand prize!   Interested in more retro game show games? Check out Deal or No Deal and Press Your Luck, both brand new to AARP Games!

In Element Blocks, the goal is simple: place blocks on your grid and in such a way that you can remove lines and not overcrowd the board. As you successfully remove lines, you’ll score points. You can find your score at the top of the screen. Every time you place a block or clear a line, you’ll get points. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when playing:   The more lines you clear simultaneously, the more points you get. This can be dangerous, as if you run out of moves you’ll get a game over, but if you have a way to clear two, three, or more lines at once, try to do it! The more points you get, the higher your score multiplier goes. Your score multiplier can be found to the left of your score. It goes up whenever you place a block or clear a line. But if you clear multiple lines at once, it’ll jump up much farther. If you want to increase your multiplier, go for big plays! Your high score can be found underneath your game score, next to a crown icon.   Good l

In Element Blocks, you have access to two power ups, and both are perfect for getting you out of a tight spot when your grid starts become overcrowded. They are:   Dynamite – Removes any blocks in a 3x3 area of your choice Lightning – Clears all blocks of one chosen color   However, these power ups don’t come easy. You’ll need to buy them from the bottom-right corner of your screen – but in order to do that, you’ll need to collect stars. The main way to get stars is simply to keep playing the game. Every once in a while, a block on your grid will be covered with a star. If you clear the row that the block is in, you’ll get the star!   Dynamite costs 15 stars to purchase, and lighting costs 25 stars, but they become more expensive with each use. You can only hold one of each power up at once.

Sit back, relax, and keep clearing the grid! Element Blocks is a nature-inspired puzzler that can go on forever – as long as you have the skills to keep the board clear. Place geometric blocks around the grid with the goal of clearing lines. Collect stars to buy power ups that help you keep the grid clear. And most importantly, have fun!

2 Minute Mini Crossword is designed to be easier than the regular Mini Crossword, so it’s perfect to play if you want a quick crossword fix. Because of this, there are some clues that the game avoids. Most answers will be single, uncapitalized words – but keep an eye out for the “2 wds” and “Hyph” messages that end some clues and denote that the answers are two words or hyphenated, respectively.   Keep in mind that there’s no penalty for taking longer than 2 minutes to solve the crossword!

  Love this game!   I have had several high scores in the past few days.  They record correctly to my account, but not to the leader board.  How do I fix that?  I saw the "submit" option in the upper left hamburger menu, but that causes an exit from the game in process.  I use Chrome on my computers.  Thank you in advance.  

How does scoring work in 2 Minute Mini Crossword? When you complete a game of 2 Minute Mini Crossword, you’ll receive a score based on the time it took you to finish the puzzle – the faster you finish, the higher your score! (Don’t forget to play the daily game, which gives a point bonus.) However, your score isn’t refreshed each day. In fact, scores are only reset every month, so the more games you play, the higher your overall score will be – and you’ll need to come back each day to get onto the leaderboard!

Why are my scores not recording?

You can make your game easier by using the Check button at the top of the screen to see if your highlighted letter, word, or entire puzzle is correct. You can also toggle Autocheck on this menu to get instant feedback if you filled in a box incorrectly. Additionally, you can click:   Reveal, to reveal an individual letter, a word, or the entire puzzle – whatever you currently have highlighted. Pencil, to draw in your letters. Print, to print the puzzle and fill it out with pen!   On the top left of the screen, you’ll see the settings menu, which looks like three stacked horizontal lines. Click this to access:   Show timer, which you can toggle on and off Arrow keys change direction, which you can toggle on and off Skip over filled squares, which you can toggle on and off Skip to next word, which you can toggle on and off Increase clue size, which you can toggle on and off Display clues as a list, which you can toggle on and off Sound, which you can toggle on and off C

Need a quick crossword fix? Play 2 Minute Mini Crossword at AARP, a daily crossword game that is designed for fast play. Solve an easy crossword that has just 10 clues. Turn off the timer, skip over filled squares, turn off the sounds… how you play is up to you. It’s the perfect game while you’re on the go or taking a quick break!

Calling all wordsmiths: Categories, the new AARP word-matching game, is now available to play! Put your brain to work with a 3x3, 4x4, or 5x5 grid of words – match all the words that fit neatly together to remove them from the grid, and you win once all the categories have been found! Can you make the connections? Play three new games every single day or head into the archive for hundreds more puzzles.  Play here - https://games.aarp.org/games/categories

While exploring – or after solving a puzzle – you might be presented with an item like a knife, screwdriver, or piece of paper with a clue for another puzzle. Click on the item and it will move to your inventory on the right side of the screen. Click an item in your inventory to select it. From there, you can do two things:   Click “Inspect Item” at the bottom of your inventory to get a closer look. This is helpful for some items that have small text. Click on an item in the room, and if the item in your inventory can interact with it, it will. (For instance, if you’ve selected a screwdriver that you have in your inventory and then click on a light switch, the light switch plate may be removed. Perhaps there’s another clue or item inside!)   In some cases, you can even combine items together! To see if it works, select an item in your inventory and inspect it. Select the other item and then click the inspected item.   Don’t forget to select items in your inventory and

Room Escape can be a tough game. Luckily, if you get stuck, you have options! Once you feel like you’ve clicked everything and aren’t getting anywhere, you can try either of these:   Click “HINT” in the top-right corner of the screen. After you watch an ad, you’ll get a hint that can point you in the right direction. When you zoom in on certain puzzles, such as combination locks or keypads, you may get a prompt in the bottom-left of the screen that says “OPEN IT!” Watch an ad and the obstacle will be gone.   Remember to click on everything you can and be sure to inspect items in your inventory – if you select one and click on other items in the room, your item and the other item may interact!

The escape room boom has come to AARP!   In Room Escape, you’re stuck in a room, but with some detective work and attention to detail you can get out. Explore the room for clues, figure out puzzles and combination locks, and escape as fast as you can.   Once you’re safely out, the fun isn’t over – head into the archive for hundreds more rooms and come back tomorrow for another edition of this daily game!

  Outside of learning the types of categories that words often fit into, there are a few ways you can improve your chances of winning each game of Categories. For starters, don’t neglect the “shuffle” button. When you click it, all the remaining words in the grid move around. You can use this as many times as you want, and it can be very helpful; there’s something to be said for looking at the words in a new configuration! If you’re still stumped, you can hit the “reveal” button for a leg up. When you do, you’ll be shown a video; once it’s done, one of your categories will be filled in for you. This is a great way to get to the finish line if you’re stumped.

I’m having trouble figuring out how words fit together in Categories. What are some tips? In Categories, there are lots of ways that words can fit together into a category. While there are some obvious things to always look for, like groups of animals, words that relate to a specific sport, and so on, there are some other things to look out for:   Palindromes Homophones Words where the same letter appears multiple times (like three B’s) Words that fill in a blank (like Food ___, where the blank can be filled by all the words in the category)   As you can see, categories can be anything! When you’re playing, try to complete the more obvious categories first. That means you have fewer words to choose from when you get down to the tougher combinations.    

We’re glad you asked! Now AARP Rewards participants can score big in AARP Rewards Mahjongg Dimensions and Mahjongg Dark Dimensions – the games’ two new PowerUps can double your score in any one round or give you extra time on the game clock to beat a level or even revive your game if the clock expires.   To access, be sure you are logged into your account when playing either game. If you’re new to AARP Rewards, you must first create or activate your account, but this is fast, easy and free. Then click the “Redeem Rewards PowerUps” tab on the gameboard and the PowerUps panel will open - see below. (The clock pauses while the panel is open so you won’t lose any game time while you select a PowerUp.)  You can open or close the panel and select PowerUps at any time during your game, as long as you only use each only once. Give it a try!

How do you score higher? How do you address pop up letters?

When I redeem points I get time on the clock but my screen locks up, I can't move any letters or use my power ups.  It's a waste of my rewards. 

In Zoo Boom, there are four power-ups that you can use to get yourself ahead – or get yourself out of a tight spot. They are:   The Net: Use this power-up to remove one animal from the board. The Drill: Use this power-up to remove an entire column from the board. The Rocket: Use this power-up to remove an entire row from the board. The Dice: Use this power-up to shuffle all the critters around the board.   You can get power-ups in several ways: by opening chests at the main menu after completing enough levels; by watching videos in between rounds; and by spending coins by clicking on the coin icon at the top-right of the main menu screen. You can have multiple power-ups at once, even of the same type, so stock up if you have lots of coins!

How do the special, powerful animals work in Zoo Boom? While playing Zoo Boom, you may notice that sometimes you get a fly, badger, or even a colorful circle around one of the normal animals. These are very powerful tools! When you click on:   The fly, it will collect the entire row in the direction the fly is facing The badger, it will collect every animal it’s touching in all directions The circle, it will collect every animal of the same type, no matter where they are   In order to access these special animals, collect five or more animals of the same type in one click. You’ll see which special animal you’ll get in the bottom right of each tile you’re about to click, so you can plan ahead.   One last tip: if you manage to get two special animals next to each other and click on one, you’ll receive an extra-powerful bonus! (Badgers all around the board? More than 10 flies clearing lines at once? You can get it!)