Android Games you should try #5: Requests.

I love getting requests by people who actually develop games. I feel honored and I actually like doing them. It’s the reason why I put a contact page on my blog. Anyway, it has been quite some time since I actually wrote about Android games. That has a reason, I didn’t play a lot of Android games I wanted to talk about in the past few months. Yet, there are a few that slipped under my radar, so I will correct that mistake. It’s time to talk about some Android games. I write a short review or talk about why you should play that game and give a score of 5! And as usual, feel free to leave a comment on this article with your thoughts on the games, content and or the games I should take a look at in the future!

Special guest: “Bubbliminate“

The developer of this game told me that this game is released rather recently, and he was looking for some feedback and some exposure. So, when I booted it up, I didn’t know what to expect. The screenshots on the store page didn’t explain what this game is about.

That’s one of the issues I had with the game. I didn’t really understand the game. After a bit of trail and error, I think I got the hang of it. You play against another player or CPU. Each one starts out with one bubble. You can do one of three moves. Split, grow or move your bubble. It’s your goal to get rid of the other guy (or girl)’s bubble.

The suggestion I would give to the developer of this game is that he adds a sort of introduction area. A sort of optional tutorial that teaches the basics to beat a CPU on easy mode with ease. On the store page he says that it’s interesting to young children. I’m sorry, but I put this to the test and the children, who were aged in the rage of 5 – 12, didn’t enjoy the game.

Before I talk about the other games, apart from what I mentioned above, the game is quite nice for a first game. Decent and responsive controls, amazing menu work, great music and pleasant visuals.

In conclusion, this game has potential, it just needs a bit more polish to make the entry level and the learning curve a bit less harsh.

Score: 3/5.

Bitcoin Billionaire

I tried various games that tried to emulate cookie clicker. Since that game was released, I wanted to try it out as well. But I quickly lost interested. But when I saw this game in the Google Play Store, I was interested. A Cookie Clicker clone that’s IT-themed? Yes please!

It didn’t take long before I got myself hooked on the game and I spend various hours on it. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen this coming since I actually tweeted a few interesting news items of this game. The humor in this game is just amazing!

This game also needs to get an award. This is an incredible example of how microtransactions should work. You can buy special red gems, but you can get 25 of them free each day. The catch here is that you get them rather easily. Also, when you connect to Wi-Fi, you get the option to enable ads for a few seconds for in game rewards. That’s just impressive!

The only negative of this game is that sometimes the prices are a bit unbalanced, but hey, how else they make getting the next level rewarding?

Score: 5/5.

Buttons And Scissors

I didn’t see this one coming. This puzzle game is one of the most simple games I played in a while. I don’t mean this in a bad way! When you press any button, the game shows you the possible moves. And thanks to that, I was able to figure out how the game works in no time.

Your goal is to cut all the buttons from the piece of fabric. You can only cut the buttons from the same color away, as long as there are no other buttons in between them. Since you can also cut diagonally, this game offers quite a big challenge. This game is nice to play in short bursts.

The only flaw in this game is that they don’t offer a mode for people who are colorblind. Since the contrast mode isn’t really that helpful if you are colorblind.

Score: 4,5/5.

1010!

I discovered this one only rather recently. At the start of this week, actually. So, I can’t say that I had much fun with it since, yeah. I barely started getting into it. But it’s that good that it deserves a spot in this list.

It’s a puzzle game where you get various shapes that you need to fit in a grid. As soon as you put a whole line full of blocks, they disappear. Your goal is that you can keep placing the blocks that the game gives you.

The only negative I have with this game is that you only get new blocks if you placed all blocks from the bottom. A nitpick I have is that the ads when you lose are too much in your face. It’s something I don’t like at all.

Score: 4/5

Final words

Alright, I think I’m going to wrap up this article here. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully you found out about some new Android games that you could play in the waiting room or on the bus.

If you ever find new interesting Android games, feel free to send them to me. I might cover them on my blog if I like them or if I dislike them. I love user feedback.

In the meantime, I will be on the lookout for new Android games myself. I actually want to write this kind of articles more often. Since this way I can give more than one game some time to shine. Anyway, take care and I hope to see you in another article!

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Review: CSI – Hard Evidence (PC ~ Steam) ~ Strange Case

Steam store link

So, today I want to take another look at this very old case. Wait, scrap that. If I try to be too original in my introduction, I might ruin the beauty of my previous CSI article. Yeah, remember that first impression article I wrote about that CSI PS2 game? I tried to set the mood in the introduction and if I repeat that in this one, it might get boring. Yup, I’m rambling on instead of writing a decent introduction for this game. I just finished it and I want to review it. Before I actually start to review it, I’ll come clean. I enjoyed the other CSI games I played. In total, I know there are 3-4 games like this about CSI. I think that this game is the latest in terms of trying to go for realism instead of a more cartoon-y approach they did in the DS games. In any case, I enjoy the show a lot myself. Too bad that my local channel broadcasts the series out of order. As usual, feel free to leave a comment on this article with your opinion on the game and or the content of this article. 

Mediocre game? 

I know that this game was also released on the XBOX360 and the Wii. But for this review, we take a look at the PC version of the game. It’s developed by Telltale Games, who you might know from the Walking Dead series. One might think that this game must be good. I mean, they make all sorts of amazing adventure point-and-click games.

If I look around the internet to what other people think about this game, I read mostly negative reviews. But is this game a cheap cash-in of a very popular series? Let me play devil’s advocate and say no. Sure, there are some problems, and you might rest assured I’ll address them in this review but overall, this game is a nice one.

The evidence for that is in the story. Each and every case feels like a CSI episode. The characters are quite memorable, and the voice acting is decent. I have to disagree that the voice acting is the best the game has to offer since I sometimes don’t feel the emotion in the voice. I also had moments where I felt that the emotion was acted or forced. But that might be because I act on stage myself.

Addressing the criticism

The negative you see popping up in each and every review is that the graphics look outdated. This is quite vague in my opinion. The areas you visit and objects look quite clean and decent. They aren’t the best the genre or the system can offer, but that’s not the issue here.

The issue here is in the animation of the models. That’s quite flawed. If this game had a rushed development schedule you can see it in the animations. I didn’t have many visual flaws on my gaming laptop but on my desktop with a much stronger graphics card/CPU/RAM… the mistakes are coming quite clear. Mostly around the mouth area, that’s the worst. In the 4th case, I even saw gaps in the mouth where the model wasn’t finished.

 It’s a shame since the visuals of the cutscene video’s give another impression of this game. This game might have looked so much better if they polished up the animations. They could have looked a lot better, since you know that Telltale is able to create amazing stuff.

Why did I play this game?

I can be rather short about the music. In this game, the music isn’t meant to be memorable or catchy. It needs to set a certain mood. The music does this job perfectly. It gets me in the right mood to try and solve a murder case and to catch bugs. If you watch the series, you might know that one of the characters is very interested in bugs. In each case, there are several bugs hidden and if you find them all, you get a bonus.

Talking about the bonus content, while it’s a nice addition, it’s quite lackluster. When the title of the bonus material says: “storyboards of case 3” for example, you just get three storyboards of a fragment that took 5-6 seconds in game. They are quite underwhelming, and they wouldn’t add to the experience if you want to 100% the game.

You might start to wonder why I even beat this game. I point out mistakes in almost every category. Well, this game is a good game, but it mainly lacks polish. The sound effects create a great feeling of actually being a CSI but not all the time thankfully. It also gives you the feeling that it is fake, created for a TV-show.

All elements of this game blend together quite well and if you put the time into this game instead of focusing on the negatives of this game, you get a nice experience. Before I forget, I have a few things to mention before I go to my conclusion.

Foremost, the saving system is just wonderful. Thanks to the automatic save system, I didn’t need to worry that my progress would be lost.

The difficulty of this game is right in the middle. While this is one of the easiest games I played in the series, it can be challenging and puts everything you learned in the tutorial case to the test.

Anyway, I think I talked about most of the things I wanted to talk about, about this game. So, let’s get on with the conclusion.

Conclusion

The bad:

– Animations can be quite bad.

– The interface isn’t always good to work with.

– No cloud saves.

The good;

+ Acceptable visuals.

+ Nice experience for a CSI fan.

+ Easy but sometimes challenging game.

+ Decent length.

+ Nice and responsive controls.

+ Great voice acting.

Final thoughts:

I said it in my last paragraph, this game lacks polish. If Telltale put a bit more time into the animations, the interface and the game as a whole… I think this game wouldn’t get such a bad rating.

This game can be quite a fun game in the right hands, but if I need to look at it objectively: this game is a mediocre one. But as a fan of CSI and point-and-click games… it isn’t half that bad.

If you start to play this game, don’t set your expectations too high. It isn’t a masterpiece and its flaws show quite clearly. If you look past them, you get 5 interesting cases to play through that each CSI and crime story fan will enjoy.

Score: 70/100

Birthday Special – Gaming Nostalgia: My loot crate

7th February is my 22nd birthday. So, I saved a special article for today. A week or two ago, a company called ManCrates mailed me with the question to write an article about what I would put in a crate when the theme is “gaming nostalgia”. They asked to talk about my personal memories. They found the right guy, since the fact is that the series of gaming nostalgia is exactly these kind of articles. So, here we go, let’s talk about what I would put in a crate about nostalgic video games to me and why. Before I continue, I invite you to take a look on their “gifts for men” page. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment on the content of this article.

Other articles

I wasn’t the only person they asked to write an article. They asked a few other bloggers to write about it. If you want to read more about them, I’m so free to link their articles.

http://mmofallout.com/column-retro-gamer-stories/

http://frostwolves.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-i-would-put-in-world-of-warcraft.html

http://gamerssphere.com/2015/01/23/gaming-nostalgia-become-gamers

Also, this isn’t a sponsored article. Somebody of the company mailed me to suggest this article and I liked the idea. But if you are interested in the company, feel free to browse their site.

Before I put the crate together.

So, I took a look at what crate they offered for us gamers, and I looked at the biggest package of them all. Honestly, I think the create has great content but I wouldn’t put sweets in it, since if you would start shipping them overseas… You might run into people not liking candy from other countries and/or cultures. But hey, it might be a surprising nice experience.

Anyways, I’m not reviewing the create, I’m making one myself. Please forgive me if I also think a bit business-wise. The reason for that is that I did a business education. It’s a sort of reflex to me.

So, in short, my gaming life from child till now. I played mostly gameboy games. I rarely played on other devices. I also played on the computer but I didn’t had many DOS-games or things like that. I grew up on Gameboy games and the underdog PC-games.

My first console was the Nintendo Wii. Now-a-days, I own a SNES, PS1 and 2. I own a PSP. I kept up with the Nintendo handhelds and I also got them all. So, that would make my crate that more unique and special.

Here we go…

#1: A pack of AA and AAA batteries + charger

If you played on the Gameboy, we all have been there. The moment that the LED starts to fade and you realize, that the batteries are dying. Then a pack of AA and AAA rechargeable batteries would come in so handy!

At first I would put the adapters on this list, but that would be too much actually. Since all gameboy’s use a different cable. I think that would be kinda tricky actually. So, this is a great alternative actually. Man, and it has to be a big charger. Not one for two batteries since that’s not for MEN.

#2: A gameboy cushion

A gamer wants to sit comfy. What could be better then a cushion. Also, most fans of retro gamers like myself turn into collectors and an item like this would be a nice decoration to their gaming room.

I have several bed sheets of Mario and Pokémon so go I to sleep and wake up with games. Maybe it would be amazing to have a pillow then that goes with it too. You could argue that you get things to pull over your pillow with the sheets, but as a gamer it doesn’t feel the same. It feels cheap and easy. Like they just put a name on something to sell it.

Now that I think about it, I would take great care of this cushion. I don’t want it to get damaged. It would ruin the look.

#3: The gameboy watch

So, what if you could tell the time and remember the amazing memories of playing on the gameboy at the same time? Wouldn’t that be cool? Sign me up for it. Most “gameboy watches” I found on the internet were just prints with the gameboy printed on a cheap plastic watch.

The actual clockworld should be in the shape of a gameboy. While writing this segment I actually start to have memories about a watch I used to have that could store messages and it was a calculator. But I don’t think that this watch should be able to do that, since I remember it was a pain to push those extremely tiny buttons to get something done.

Greatest memories

Well, putting my own box together isn’t as easy as I thought. Honestly, I stopped myself since in the end I went a generic route. I mean that this are just everyday items in the theme of my love for gaming.

But what are my greatest memories about my childhood if it comes to games? Well, that’s something you can’t put in a box in the first place. I was so happy that I finally got something which I could use to interact with other kids. I was a very shy kid and I didn’t connect with a lot of people. But if I did, man, the feeling was glorious.

That’s partly why writing blogs is so addicting to me. The community I feel that I’m part of. People who read my articles and people who give me feedback. Anyways, sometimes I feel rather jealous of other people when they talk about their memories with video games. They can talk about playing with parents or family. That’s where my family differs. Apart from my uncle, I’m the only one who plays games.

I think I’m going to wrap-up this article here. I could ramble on about this subject and maybe I will on another day. But I want to thank ManCrates for this interesting idea. It actually gave me a few new ideas to write about in the future. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article. Take great care and until the next article!

Review: Club House Games (DS) review ~ Fun For Days.

Wikipedia entry

This game has another name in my country. Literally translated it’s “42 Classic Games”. Usually, this kind of games are mostly regarded as bad, since only inexperienced developers create these multipacks to make a quick buck. But when you look at the box-art, you see that the developer is Nintendo. This is interesting, Nintendo made this game. I actually love this game, but is it superb or is it a game that I’m able to overlook the negatives of? Let’s take a look at this game in this review! As usual, feel free to write a comment on the game and or the content of the article. 

Modes

As you might have already gathered, this game doesn’t have any story. So, I can’t start with that. So, let’s talk about the actual games inside the pack first.

The main menu gives you an option between single player, multiplayer and settings. Here I have a minor complaint. When you unlocked the 2nd music tune, you can only change it there. It’s a bit bad menu design, but oh well. It’s a nitpick.

If you pick single player, you get three options. Free play, stamp and mission mode. Let’s talk about stamp mode first. In this mode, you get 5 levels to clear with each 8 sublevels. In this mode you need to play different games and when you loose, you get one stamp. If you draw, you get two stamps and if you win, you get three stamps. When you get three stamps on a certain game, you may advance to the next game.

When you finished this mode, you get something visual in the chat to play around with. But not only that, you will unlock some locked games. There aren’t many games locked, which is actually rather nice and disappointing. It takes away the challenge, but it makes it so that most of the games can be played whenever you want.

 More modes

In mission mode you have different missions. If I remember correctly, 25 missions. When you clear a mission, you get a new icon you can choose for your profile. The fact that you can do these out of order, are actually really amazing.

Some missions are rather hard, so I recommend that you first practice the game in free play, since otherwise you might get a hard time in the mission mode.

In free play mode, you can play any game you want from the pack. The games are actually all board and card games. You can also look at the records. While that view is limited, it’s a neat touch.

Most of the games in the pack are perfect for single player and multiplayer. A few games are only suited for single player and a few games are more fun in multiplayer than in single player.

Some games have some minor nitpicks where they could improve. To avoid that this article becomes to long, I’ll list 2 things I would have changed in the games.

• In the bowling game, I would have added an option that some players could have had the side railing. Since my younger relatives get frustrated when the ball rolls in the gutter.
• In most solitaire games when you double-click/double tap the card goes actually to a location that it can go. For example, double tapping on a red three makes it go fly to the nearest black 4.

Is it good?

So, each game plays really well. It’s obvious that this game is build for the Nintendo DS. Apart from the darting game, I have no complaints about the controls.

The darting game’s controls feel so loose. It feels that your arrow goes where it wants to go, and not where you aimed it to go. It feels floaty and loose.

Visually, this game looks amazing. It’s just perfect enough to draw you in for hours and hours. Talking about that, the game actually rewards you for completing a certain game a couple of times. You get another visual design for a game. That’s just incredible.

What is a huge bonus in this game is how you have a very clear explanation of the rules for each and every game. You can quickly access it by clicking on the rules tab and read about it. There is even a table of content in each rules’ section, so you can quickly jump to the part you want more information about.

 This game has an excellent multiplayer mode. But how good that is, I’ll leave up to you guys for a surprise. The only complaint I have about it is that it lacks stats and things like that. As in, how many times your friends won or lost a certain game. But the positive thing is that you don’t have to have a copy to play this game in multiplayer. It takes a bit longer to load a game but hey, that’s forgivable.

While there isn’t a lot of music in this game, the music that is actually in the game is rather catchy. While it doesn’t stick for too long in your head, it doesn’t become annoying after a while of playing. When I start to concentrate and getting into a game, I actually totally forget about the music.

I used to play this game a lot with my sister in the past. Nowadays, I often play it with my niece. She enjoys it quite a lot. I can’t actually count anymore how many hours I lost with this game, single player and or multiplayer. It’s strangely addictive. Anyway, I think I’ll leave some things up to you guys to explore and find out. It’s time for the conclusion.

Conclusion

The bad:

– The music options are a bit hidden.

– The controls of the darts game aren’t all that good.

– The stats.

The good:

+ Amazing package of games.

+ Great multiplayer. Only 1 copy needed to play with friends.

+ You can unlock things by playing the games that don’t hinder your experience of the overall game.

+ …

Final thoughts:

This game was a tricky one to review in the length I usually write my review in. While I tried to take a look at most things, I ended up explaining most of the game.

If you didn’t notice it yet, I wasn’t able to come up with any major flaws in this game. It’s almost perfect. I actually take this game as a sort of benchmark when I play games like this. Not that many games can come close to this game. It’s so polished the minor flaws that Nintendo and Agenda made aren’t all that bad.

That’s why this game deserves its score. It might not be perfect, but it’s very close to be perfect.

Score: 100/100