A few years ago, while Dan Marshall was developing this originally, I was following him live-tweeting the process. So hooked on the idea was I, that the second the game came out on Steam I bought it – even though I rarely played games on a computer and, in fact, it was pretty broken on the Mac at the time. I played it a fair bit and really enjoyed it, but found the bugs and wonky controller support (plus it …
It isn’t clear why this game is called The Room, because there aren’t really any rooms in it. It plays like an escape room – which many puzzles, and puzzles within puzzles – but no actual rooms. Sure, there are a couple of doors but they’re free-standing portals really. Aside from that, it was a nice little thing to play. You’re given a puzzle box with various holes and buttons and handles to try and use or open hatches and …
I’d never have bought this but it was reduced from $sillymoney to about 80p and I’ll buy pretty much anything at that price. What I didn’t expect, however, was that I’d enjoy it. To the untrained eye, Kotodama is yet another one of the million Japanese school visual novels that fill digital game stores. Unlike many of those, it has both an interesting story telling mechanic and puzzle game punctuates some of the encounters as you play. The plot starts …
Wulverblade is a great looking side-on beat ’em up, in the mould of Golden Axe or Final Fight, set in 120AD in what is now Scotland. You play one of three blue-painted Braveheart-ish Caledonians who are forcefully evicting the Romans from their lands, mostly by smacking them with swords. Levels are dark and blood is frequent, and it’s far more violent than either of the games I likened it to, but it’s a great example of the genre. There are …
I go into this game a lot more on episode 36 of the ugvm podcast, but briefly, Flowlines VS is a game where you join paired hexagonal tiles in a grid up with one another without letting the lines cross. I’ve probably not explained that very well but one look at a screenshot should clear it up: There are over 400 levels, and for the most part they’re very easy. A couple caused me to try a few times, but …
Can I just say, that it’s simply unacceptable for games to not have save points – even if only a suspend-and-resume type – in this day and age? There are four chapters in Stories Untold and you’re not able to save during them, meaning 45 minutes to an hour might pass. Sure, on the Switch you can put the console to sleep, but that means you (or anyone else) can’t play another game in the meantime, and with Animal Crossing …
Cynically, Island Saver is an advert for NatWest Bank, superficially dressed up as a save-the-planet first person eco shooter. You clear up and recycle rubbish, you clean the plants and animals, and you endure banking related puns as you go. Shoehorned in is a primer on what a bank is, and you’re taught about interest, currency exchange, loans and tax collecting. And of course because this is an advert, the game is free. So why did I enjoy playing it …
It was a little while back I played the first two games back to back, so I was expecting the story to make little sense. But then I remembered – the story makes little sense anyway. This final game in the series unfortunately ditches the (mostly) one continuous game style of the second game and returns to disjointed sections like the first game. To start with, the game is a bizarre full motion video title, before moving into the more …
I’ve done enough of these picross games now to know there’s very little to say about them. For the most part, for the Jupiter developed ones (like this) at least, they’re pretty much the same. The different thing in this is “clip picross” mode, where parts of a larger puzzle are unlocked as you play through the other puzzles, and then you complete these parts to make up a larger picture. It’s a bit like in previous games but instead …
Flashback is a great game. It always was a great game and I was slightly worried playing it might reveal it to be all rose-tinting. Luckily, once I’d turned off all the graphic-ruining “modern” filters (which are on by default), it turned out it was still excellent. I remembered the plot, and most of the first half of the game (the bit in the jungle and the bit in the city), but I thought that completing the Death Tower gameshow …
Another of the SEGA Ages releases, and so it’s pretty much perfect. Except, of course, Tails is in it. But I suppose they couldn’t take him out so I had to manage with him there, getting in the way. Nicking rings on the Special Stages only to lose them because he’s stupid. Getting a hit in on a boss just before Sonic does so Sonic falls through him and dies. Tails is a bloody liability. Thankfully, the game is great …
Now this is an unusual game. Unusual in graphical style, setting, and gameplay. Sure, it might look a bit like Minecraft but it’s much more granular, cleaner and with much better environmental effects. Yes, there are gameplay elements similar to the old Tomb Raider games and Titan Souls. But it feels very different to any of these things. You’re a tourist, who travels between small islands taking photos of the strange towers present on most of them. You solve puzzles …
If you’re wondering why this looks like a new Wonder Boy game to follow in the series after Wonder Boy/Wonder Boy in Monster Land/Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap/Wonder Boy in Monster World/Monster World IV, then you’ll not be surprised that it is in everything but name. Even the heroes of those games make appearances, sort of, in Monster Boy. The plot is similar to that of Wonder Boy III, in that your hero, Jin, has been turned into an …
Family tree is a gentle, not very taxing, combination of something like Puzzle Bobble and a pinball game. You “fire” your fruitguy up a tree, collecting more fruit, and head for the goal. If you’re not quick enough, a skull comes after you. The difficultly is in getting high scores. Grabbing every last fruit, and all of the coins on the levels, without bumping into baddies or taking too long, is tricky. Often, the goal is really easy to reach …
One of my favourite types of game is picross. There’s something relaxing about switching to autopilot and completing a load of puzzles. One of the best, quirky game series of all time is Phoenix Wright, with it’s gentle humour, amazing characters, and murders. Murder By Numbers is both these things. I talk about it a lot on episode 33 of the ugvm Podcast, but briefly, Murder By Numbers is very much like Phoenix Wright only each time you find a …
