Publishing: Return of Warrior opens two EXCLUSIVE 2018 Events!

Start 2018 with a bang! Return of Warrior is up for another set of engaging events. Catch two EXCLUSIVE Events that will pump up and boosts your warriors! Rise up and tag along with community events entitled, Drawing Game Costume and Gem and Gift of Mecarita! Join the following event for more awesome rewards at stake!

Drawing Game Costume and Gem has set awesome surprises for the low and mid-level users. Experience the great reward offer and tons of superb features. Great gifts are waiting for below 45 levels and 56 levels and up. Additional Boss will be seen in Map 3, beware! Event period for Drawing Game Costume and Gem will end until Feb. 2, 2018!

Also, great discounts are waiting for all the warriors! Don’t miss out on this!

One more thing, grab the opportunity for the Gift of Mecarita! She will be bestowing everyone with great power as you can easily advance your level from 40 to 75 at Pirate Village starting this Jan. 15 ~ Feb. 9, 2018. Seize the day warriors!

Come along and take the great journey to Almighty Land! Wanna know what is installed for you, our warriors? Install the game and catch the in-game announcements. Like, share and spread the NEWS about Return of Warrior. For more updates, visit their Facebook Fan Page. Who knows, you might win all the prizes at stake!

For more details, please visit us to the following link below:

Official Links:

ROW Official Website: http://rowplayon.com/

ROW Official Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/rowplayon/

ROW Official Forum: http://rowplayon.com/Page/en/forum/forum.jsp?p=1&bbs=0

ROW Official YouTube Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=122eJaZmklg

About Return of Warrior

Return of Warrior is a 3D fantasy MMORPG with a unique combat system, based off of the original Risk Your Life (RYL) game. You choose between two factions; Humans or Ak’Kan and fight in duels or giant battles. Protect your faction in order to salvage an overpopulated world. Take part in quests or missions, fight other players and trade virtual goods. All elements aim to secure your faction to win against the enemy! The 14 different classes are Warriors, Defenders, Assassins, Archers, Sorcerers, Enchanters, Clerics, Priests, Attackers, Templars, Gunners, Rune Officiators, Life Officiators, Shadow, and Officiators.

Game Features:

• Action-packed PvP! Tons of Quests and Mission to Complete!
• Customizable and Innovative Character Creation
• Compelling and Intuitive Skills and Combat System.
• Upgradeable and Limitless Weapons, Armor, and Accessories System
• Great, Treacherous and Exotic Terrain New Maps!

ABOUT YOUXILAND DIGITAL

Established in 1994. With its years of experience in R & D, agency and sales of game software, it is composed of a research and development team from the world’s most professional Internet Contents software, Road games, and further develop software services such as e-commerce, entrance websites, telemedicine, distance learning, industrial product testing and health and beauty services to enhance the quality of human life and bring joy to the world.

Published on NekoJonez’s Gaming Blog. This text is a copy protection test.

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Publishing: The future of the TCG genre

Since the inception of the genre, when Richard Garfield created Magic: the Gathering in 1993, a large number of trading card games have been created, each with its own themes and mechanics. However, if we look at the TCG landscape today, few of them remain standing. So many of them have just disappeared without a trace, but why? Can a new TCG be successful today?

What is nature of TCG?

Trading card games, also known as collectible card games, by their nature require players to buy booster packs and trade cards with their friends in order to build decks and start playing. This can be quite an investment: booster packs cost money and you need a sizeable collection of cards to start trading and building decks from, which requires quite an investment. The randomness within booster packs, along with the different rarities of cards makes the collection process quite costly, long and difficult. This usually means that an average TCG player can’t realistically get into more than one or two trading card games at the same time. This, as you can expect, means that when a new TCG is released, the target audience is already well invested into other games, and is hesitant to pay that much more money on a brand-new game which still has a small following. The success of a TCG is directly related to the size of its player base. Even smaller TCGs require a stable player base in order to stay in business. If a TCG player doesn’t have any friends who play the same game, he or she is more likely to abandon it for a more popular TCG. This leads to the bigger TCGs staying healthy and gaining more players, while the smaller ones disappear.

How does TCG market look like?

By now, the paper TCG market is dominated by only three games: Magic: the Gathering, Pokèmon, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Smaller TCGs still exist, but they are usually based on pre-existing franchises and piggy-back off their success. However, TCGs aren’t just limited to paper. With the advent of the internet, many online TCGs have started appearing and getting more popular despite the problems their paper cousins faced. Why is that? For starters, it’s much easier to find people online to play the game with. In fact, the game itself will find an opponent for you to play against. This means that as long as there is even a small, but stable, amount of people playing an online TCG, the game will still be able to stay alive and organize tournaments. Another advantage online TCGs have over paper TCGs is that they can be free to play, meaning that anybody can try out the game, without hesitation and fear of having to spend a lot of money. Not only that, but online TCGs have many more ways of distributing their cards to their players than just by selling booster packs, decks, or single cards. They can implement systems that allow players to unlock cards just by playing the game, or by accomplishing certain goals in the game. Games like Hearthstone and Hex have had great success with these strategies, and upcoming games like Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest will do so as well.

What about paper TCG’s?

But what about physical cards? Is there no hope for new paper TCGs? What about the players who enjoy TCGs not only for the gameplay but also the interaction with people, the fun times they have with their friends at home or in the game store? Well, while the TCG model is unlikely to work for new titles, this doesn’t mean that new games played with customizable decks are doomed to fail. Fantasy Flight Games coined the term LCG, which stands for Living Card Game. An LCG is a game in which, much like in a TCG, players build their own deck out of the vast collection available. The difference comes in the way the game is sold. LCGs are sold like board games, in that the entire game (or expansion) is sold in a single box, like a board game. There is no element of chance when buying an LCG, you know exactly what will be in the box before you buy it. This approach, while it defeats Richard Garfield’s idea of a game that’s “bigger than the box”, gives certainty to new players. It tells them exactly how much money they will need to invest in a game to be able to enjoy it to the fullest. Games like Lord of the Rings LCG, Android: Netrunner, the Star Wars card game and much more are sold in this manner. The LCG model makes these games much friendlier towards board game players, which also broadens the traditional TCG player base. Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest promises to be released as an LCG if its Kickstarter campaign reaches a certain stretch-goal. So, while you may not enjoy the feeling of cracking a booster pack of a future TCG, you can still do so online, or play it like a board game with your friends.

About the author

Leandro Tokarevski was born on September 26th, 1993. At the age of 6, he started learning the violin. He was always interested in games and drawing, and in 2004, at the age of 11, he moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he started to attend an evening art school, as well as continued his music studies in an evening music school. In 2009 he graduated the music school and since then he’s continued to play in various bands and ensembles both on the violin and on the keyboard. In 2010 he graduated art school as well as high school, and entered the St. Petersburg Academy of arts, where he studied architecture. This is where he started to get involved in game design and development. In 2014 he started working on the card game Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest and in April of 2016 he self-published his first full game: Rebels Unite, for which he was both the game designer and artist. In July of 2016 he graduated the Academy of arts, moved back to Rome and started working full-time on game development. Currently he’s working as a pixel artist for the 2D RPG Towards the Pantheon, while continuing to develop Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest. For more information about Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest, please visit a website: https://tokartsmedia.com/

Publishing: Tikitap Announces Global Launch of Oh My Mayor: Touch in the City2!

A First Idle Game From Tikitap: Oh My Mayor Global Blazes Today!

Tikitap, an independent and innovative game publisher is conquering mobile gaming world as they launch their newest title Oh My Mayor: Touch in the City2 on mobile device! Their very ‘first’ idle mobile game that launches today! Get the game now!

November 24, 2017 – Oh My Mayor: Touch in the City2 is a new and first idle game that will open globally today! Get your mobile device now and download the game via Google Play Store!

Download NOW: Google PlayStore:  https://goo.gl/Zrz4dy

Oh My Mayor: Touch in the City2 takes you to the business world while starting to be the great businessman in the game. Fund your city to yield great and stable revenue. Be the Mayor of your own city! Strategize how you will build your bustling city instantly! Complete challenging tasks, missions and more to collect great rewards! Unlock NEW buildings by collecting experience and leveling up!

Grow your city with less tap and relax as you gain funds! The first idle game you will love instantly!

About Oh My Mayor: Touch in the City2

Want to be the Mayor of your own city? Live the dream as you play and strategize to this first idle game offering.

An idle game that focuses on increasing citywide revenues, develop own and neighboring cities and secretaries that helps your city grow faster. Enjoy its first idle game style! Start your training as businessman as you create a city being YOU as the Mayor! Sharpen your excellent leadership as you build the city and turn it to empire!! Collect various transit and secretaries to declare as the best entrusted Mayor with great influence to nearby city.

Game Features:

• Build bridges to expand your city towards new horizons!
• Various types of transit to increase revenue
• Hire secretaries with unique skills to make your cities grow faster
• Use BOOST and continuous funding to upgrade your cities to gain more revenue
• Invest in amenities to expand your cities
• Complete challenging tasks and collect dozens of rewards
• No need to tap! Just watch
• A city growth simulation game that requires a little less attention so you can relax

About Tikitap

Tikitap is an independent mobile game publisher which was recently established and aims to bring forth new and quality idle game around the world.

 

Game Quicky: TuboCity (Android) ~ Rolling Through Tubes

Official website

Today we are going to look at a recently released game for Android & iOS called TuboCity. No, that’s not a typo. The name of the game is TuboCity. It will all make sense when you see the screenshots. It’s not uncommon that the name is mistaken since the developer recently was at a convention where they had to put a post-it note on their sign telling people that’s it’s TuboCity. Ah well, funny anecdotes aside, we are here for a game review. In this game quicky, I’ll talk about what I like and didn’t like in this game. After that, I will wrap up my thoughts in a conclusion. So, ready… set.. HERE WE GO! As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of the article.

The game

In this game, you fly with your ship through space. Your goal is to reach the end if there is an end. So, you are flying through a tube in space. See, I told you it would make sense why the game is called TuboCity.

The bad

I think that there could be some improvements made with the tutorial. Usually, when I play these style of games, I love to test out the tutorial. Is it going to make me repeat the tutorial when I don’t finish the objective? That’s the question I ask myself.

And the tutorial does continue. I died at the last ring in the second tutorial, and it let me continue to the jumping bit. I died at the second ring, and the tutorial lets me continue.

Maybe it’s just me, but I always had a hard time doing the jumps. I never knew when to time it right. Maybe I should replay the tutorial a bit, to train for the jumps. Sometimes I got lucky and made a few, but I died more at the jumps then I passed them.

But, then I found something out. You can also double tap or tap with two fingers to make your ship jump.

Also, there is an option to change the way how you want the jumping to work. You have swipe, double tap, and two finger tap. I prefer double tap the most, to be honest.

You could just make a screen where you put the controls on for players to refresh their memory if they haven’t played your game for a while. I missed that.

I also think that the difficulty curve is a bit too steep. It’s great fun that the game puts you through a randomized tunnel, but I think that the first 10-15 hoops should be easy to do ones. In various runs, I encountered very difficult obstacles that I had a hard time avoiding. Also, I think that the rings are too close to each other. This is a big problem when you timed your jump just a bit too late, you land right when you need to make that vital turn to avoid the next ring.

The good

This game looks visually amazing. The effects and the presentation are all amazing. The visual tube effect is pleasing to the eye. The colors also complement each other and the different ships look great.

Also, I love how they used another color for the rings that you need to jump over. They make them easier to see and give the player a fighting chance.

While this game has ads, they are placed at good spots. They are placed right at the top of your screen. I don’t mind those ads in the games I play. Since they don’t force you to watch them or they aren’t in cheap places that your finger touches them easily.

While this game has just released, I see a lot of potential for future game modes. Like a bonus stage where you must jump through 5 rings in a row for some bonus points.

The music in this game is good. It’s very enjoyable in my opinion. I loved listing to it while I was playing the game.

The controls were responsive. If I went to the right, my ship went to the right. If I went to the left, my ship went to the left. If you don’t enjoy that style of gameplay, there is also an option to invert your playstyle.

I think it’s a great touch to add the contact info of the developers in the app. This way people can easily find your social media to follow the development of your game and contact the developer when needed.

There are microtransactions in the game for new ships, but they are crazy cheap. Thumbs up for that. Seriously, no ridiculous overpriced microtransactions here. And here is the best part of it all, they are optional! You don’t have to pay for them to win the game or to get a high score, it’s just a way to support the developers for their free game.

Yes, did I mention that this game was free? This blows my mind since if they would ask 2,5€ for this game, I would say that you get your money’s worth.

Conclusion

This game is a lot of fun to play. But, due to the tricky jumping, I didn’t enjoy my time with the game. If they made the game a bit beginner friendly and polished the jumping mechanic, I think I would have more fun with the game.

It’s a shame since there are three things I didn’t like about the game. The tutorial needs some work; the difficulty curve makes the game uninviting and the jumping is a bit too tricky. All the other things like the presentation, music, controls, UI… It’s all so well put together.

Maybe the developer will fix this with an update, and then my complaints in this article will be invalid. I wrote this review for version 1.08.

Thank you WhitePot Studios for asking me to look at your game. It was great fun to do. I also must stress that this isn’t a sponsored article. The developer asked me to give my honest opinion on the game, so here it is.

So, that’s everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day.

Game Quicky: Space Max (Android) ~ Go To Space

Google Play link – Developer’s press release – Official website

So, today I want to take a look at an Android game called Space Max. The developer asked me to give my honest opinion on this game, so here we go. This game is developed by CrySoft Development and published by TinyGames. This game is available on Android and iOS devices. Because I don’t own an iPhone, I have played this game on my phone and my tablet. In this article, you will find my thoughts about this game. For those who don’t know how a game quicky works, I list what I like and dislike about the game and give my final opinion in the end. Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

The good

The tutorial for this game explains how this game works perfectly. It teaches the mechanics in a heartbeat.

While there are microtransactions, the first upgrades aren’t too crazy to buy. I have played various Android games where you get directly into a paywall, and this game doesn’t have that.

While this game has ads, they aren’t placed in annoying places. Also, they are used in a way how I think ads should be used. When you die, you sometimes get the chance of watching an ad to continue for free. This is a great idea!

The art for this game looks pretty cute. This game is adorable in my opinion. In that extend, the interface is designed in a great way. I have nothing to comment on that, besides that, it’s good of course.

This game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it shows. The fact that you have to fart your way up and the crazy costumes you can unlock. It makes this game humorous to a certain extent.

Something I really like in this endless jumper is the fact that when you can go down for a little while. This is great to pick up bananas or bolts you just missed. In most other endless jumpers, this means instant death.

The bad

While I realize that it’s this game’s gimmick, but I got pretty annoyed by the farting sound effect rather quickly. After a few minutes of playing, I stopped playing for a while since I found the farting sound effect immature. It would be a great idea to have some option to mute the fart sound effect for people who get annoyed by this but want to play the game.

The controls can be annoying sometimes. While I understand how they work, you have to tap in the middle to go up, left to go right and right to go left. But, I think these two things would improve the game:

1. Give players an option to invert the controls. That when you tap left, the ape goes left. And when you tap right, the ape goes to the right. That would be great since my brain is hardwired to do that.
2. Place transparent buttons on the screen that make it clear where the straight up, go to the left and go to the right sections begin and end. That would make the controls of this game less frustrating and fairer.

The game seems to hang sometimes in the menus and during gameplay. Often when I press a button to go back to the game after I bought an upgrade, the game hangs for 4-5 seconds before it goes back to the game. A little waiting animation would be great.

I think that the blocks directly at the start of the game are overkill. It feels like this is an obstacle meant for in later parts of the game. I would honestly remove them or place them higher up.

I also found 2 bugs:

1. In some cases, when I died, I saw powerups and bananas underneath the starting area.
2. When you press left or right at the start instead of in the middle, you die in mid-air.

Something I wish the game had was a pause button. I played this game at breaks and when my break was over or when I had to pick up a call, I had to either quit the game or let myself die so that I don’t loose any progress.

Conclusion

The idea of this game is pretty interesting. At the surface, this game looks like an interesting game. But, as soon as you start playing it for while, the flaws start to show. The fart sound effect, the lack of proper controls, the game that sometimes hangs and the lack of a pause button can be a deal breaker for some people.

I honestly think that with a bit of polish, this game would be so much better. But how the game stands now, at the time of writing this article, this game is mediocre and lacks any punch to make a difference in the sea of endless jumpers that exist on the Android Play market.

Like I said, the game has a lot of potentials, but the flaws drag the game down. I’m sure that a few patches to this game can fix the issues I mentioned. Since this game does some interesting things to change up the usual endless jumper gameplay.

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing this article. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Score: 3/5

Gaming Nostalgia: Thank you WiFi!

Luma website

A while ago, I learned about Luma and how this system can help boost your wifi. Oh, to avoid confusion, this isn’t a sponsered post! Not one bit! So today, I’m going to talk about some games that got enhanced thanks to WiFi. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on this article in the comment section down below.

What is Luma WiFi?

So, why should you bother to buy Luma WiFi? And what is it in the first place? Well, it’s a router that provides WiFi. And it’s a device that creates a mesh WiFi network for your home.But thanks to the mobile app, you get a lot more control. I love these features:

• You can prioritize devices. So, you can give more bandwidth to certain devices than others.
• There is a mobile app that has an easy to understand interface.
• You can customize internet access for devices. For example, you can block R-rated sites for devices that children use.
• It has built-in malware and adware filtering!

So, why should you bother to buy Luma WiFi? And what is it in the first place? Well, it’s a it is a device that creates a mesh WiFi network for your home.

Thank you, WiFi

Dear WiFi,

I want to thank you for my times on Minecraft!

I have reviewed this game in the past. So, I won’t go too in-depth on this game. But dear WiFi, do you remember all the times I opened a port on the router so my friends were able to connect with my server? All the adventure maps I played and all the vanilla maps I played on.

I have a lot of great memories of building cities with my friends, pranking each other and having great adventures. I wish I still had the screenshots of all those builds, but now they are memories. Some are in video form, buried in my YouTube archive.

but WiFi, buddy…

I want to thank you for my times on Age Of Mythology!

What do you say? Why do I want to thank you for a single player game? Oh, silly WiFi! For the multiplayer features of course! The times I went online and played different gamemodes than your standard RTS-match were amazing.

I was surprised when I saw other people their creativity with the engine. But hey, I remember my intense matches I had online. I rarely won since I’m not that good in micro-manging my army. And that’s a big weakness to have while playing RTS games.

but WiFi, good old friend…

I want to thank you for my times on Super Mario Maker!

As a child, I always wanted to make my own games and/or levels for games. I made some attempts to make my own casual games, but I never got far.

But then, Super Mario Maker got announced. I was really hyped. Since I know that when you give a toolbox to us gamers, we always find ways to use the toybox in creative ways that the developers didn’t expect to create to create something unique.

I played a lot of levels on Super Mario Maker! I also uploaded my own levels. Sadly enough, they aren’t online anymore. Otherwise, I would have linked them in this article for sure!

Throughout 2016, I have played so many different levels. From automatic scrolls to even small puzzle games made in Super Mario Maker. I’m quite curious what people are going to create when it comes to the 3DS in the near future.

but WiFi, let’s not forget about…

I want to thank you for all the Android games I discovered

I could make a whole list of Android games I discovered since my phone and tablet are able to connect with WiFi. But, I’m just going to say this.

Lately, my opinion on tablets has changed. In the past, I was convinced that tablets were useless. Since you are able to do so much more with a laptop. But, now I know that it’s a handy tool to do some research for my blog while playing games or to watch some videos while I’m on the train. It’s also a handy planner. Yeah, I’m totally convinced about the usefulness of tablets now.

but WiFi, I almost forgot to…

I want to thank you for giving me access to Nintendo eShop

So, WiFi, remember? I have written an article about why I thought that digital downloads can be harmful for our gaming market. Reading through my old article, I feel like I need to give it a follow-up where I go more indepth about my opinion and stance on digital downloads.

But, that’s for another time. So, WiFi, thanks for giving me access to the Nintendo eShop. Since it’s such a big hassle to connect my Wii (U) to my router with a cable, so I connect everything with WiFi.

I have downloaded so many great titles on my 3DS and Wii (U), I can’t count them all anymore. Games like Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, SteamWorld Dig, Mighty Switch Force, Ace Attorney 5 & 6 amongst many others.

And let’s not forget about the Virtual Console. I didn’t have any console while I was growing up. I only had my Nintendo Gameboy and a PC to play games on. So, I missed out on a lot of classics. Thankfully, with a lot of those classics being released on the Virtual Console, I can play them all. Some games I even own physically and on the Nintendo eShop. Games like Zelda – Oracle games, Lufia, Metroid, BallonFight, Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario and many other games.

So, thank you WiFi. For all the memories you helped me create. Let’s toast on our friendship and let’s continue our great friendship.

Final thoughts

So, I have to admit something here. While I know that working with a wired connection is in some cases the best route for online gaming, I have always played my games with a WiFi connection. I honestly find it very stable and I don’t want it any other way.

There are already too many cables to manage from my (retro) gaming consoles and my desktop so, I don’t want the additional wires for connecting my device to the world wide web.

So, I have to thank a lot to WiFi. But for this article, I tried to talk about things that you can most easily do or only do if you connect to a WiFi network. WiFi is so important nowadays, you can’t think it out of our daily lives. So, thank you, Luma for giving me this opportunity to write this article and when I need a new router, I’ll sure keep you guys in mind.

Thank you for reading and I hope you had as much fun reading this article as I had fun writing this one. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until then… Take care and have a great rest of your day!

NekoJonez’s November Update – Plans for 2016 – 2017

Deary me, is it already mid-November? October flew by and I almost didn’t notice that we were almost midway in this month. Seriously, the older you get the more time flies. I’m currently 23 years old and I work full time. Besides that, I go to evening classes to get a bachelor’s degree in computer science. Besides writing this blog as a hobby, I’m also a part of an acting group. Also, I fix people their computers for fun too. So, yeah. My schedule is easily filled with all sorts of activities. But hey, I’m writing this article to update you guys on what is going on with me and what is important to know for my blog. 

Update on my computer troubles

So, in the last article, I posted that my PC had issues with some heavy-demanding games. I thought I fixed the problem when BioShock Infinite and Alan Wake stopped crashing and rebooting the system. But, since two days ago, the problems restarted.

I got tired of trying to fix the issues. I have been trying since late September. So, I dropped my computer off at my uncle’s place. My uncle and I had built my PC together and I’m hoping that he will be able to fix my problems or at least tell me what’s wrong since I think I’m looking in the wrong places.

When my computer is fixed, I’m planning to write a few articles about some PC games I wanted to write about. But because my PC is giving me issues, I can’t play the games enough to write about them. In any case, I have learned a lot from my uncle. He knows a lot more about computers than me.

Currently, I’m using my laptop that I use for my evening classes. So, I can still write articles!

Blog updates

So, various times I started to work on updating my blog. What I mean by that is going back to an older article to fix typos and grammatical issues, expanding the overview pages, updating some old information, fixing dead links, resizing pictures when they are too big amongst other things.

But my schedule doesn’t allow me to spend a lot of time on it. Also, I enjoy writing new content a lot more than I enjoy fixing up my blog. But I’m trying to fix up an article here and there.

When I do some upgrades, I usually write an article on Tumblr about it. Or when it’s possible, I simply tweet about it.

If you want my latest updates, you should follow me on Twitter or look on the Twitter page. When I have small updates, I post them on my Twitter. When I want to post something that’s longer than 140 characters but isn’t enough to put in an article, I post something on Tumblr. And Tumblr makes a tweet about it for me.

I mostly tweet about things that happen to me, things I want to do, computer science-sy stuff, things I want to share with you guys & girls and so on.

Updating my blog will still happen, but it will take a backseat. I will update my blog when I find the time for it, but I don’t make any promises. But if you find some dead link or a big typo, feel free to let me know. I’ll fix it as soon as I can.

Oh, speaking of blog updates, yesterday was my WordPress-anniversary! So, yay me!

Plans for 2016

So, my plans for 2016 have changed since the last update I posted. At first, I wanted to write about games I haven’t written about yet but I have talked about other games in that given series or talked about it in my other series.

But that’s going to change. I have gotten a few emails from developers to take a look at their games or promote a service with an article.

A note about promoting a service. I won’t promote a service I don’t believe in or when it isn’t relevant to my blog.

A note about taking a look at games from a developer; I always ask the developers if there are things I should point out like for example that the game is in alpha or that the game is multi-platform. Something I won’t do is lying in my articles. I want to give constructive criticism to the developer. I will always talk about the positive and negative aspects of the game.

In December 2016, I have a few things planned. Of course, there will be an article about my favorite games of 2016. Back in January, I made a text document listing all the games I have played this year and I have almost reduced it to ten games for this year!

So, for the rest of December, I have a list of the games I want to talk about. I won’t tell them here yet since they are subject to change.

Plans for 2017

I think that this might be the last update article I write in 2016. Since I have planned for the rest of 2016. But what will I do with 2017? Well, I have a few things in mind.

If I have the budget for it, I might buy myself a Nintendo Switch. But that all depends on the price of the system and if there are games in the release line-up that interest me.

At this moment, there aren’t a lot of games I’m hyped for in 2017. The games I’m looking forward too that are going to be released in 2017 are The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Dragon Quest 7 on the 3DS (I own the game already on PS2), Ever Oasis (3DS), remakes of the Zero Espace games (PC) and that’s it.

My current plans for 2017 are that I’m going to try and talk about a lot of games that I have played in the last years I have been blogging but never got to an article.

But 2017 is a long period of time and is 1,5 months away from us… So, yeah. Who knows, I might change my mind later down the road. So, keep an eye out for my Twitter where I’ll post the latest updates.

Closing off

That was another lengthy update. I’m not planning to write an update every month. Yet, I’m thinking that I post an update about my blog every so often. Very 2-3 months maybe?

That way I can update you guys on what’s going on behind the scenes and such. Yet, I feel like that might pull away from the focus of my blog. I write this blog because I wanted to write about the games and my opinion on them. Another option is that I post an update on my Tumblr and keep this blog only for the gaming articles.

So, what do you guys and girls think? Feel free to let me know in the comment section of this article. Should I continue to write these update articles in the future and if so, on this blog or on my Tumblr blog? Should I write them monthly or every so often? I’m curious to know.

I think I said everything I wanted to say in this update. Thank you for reading! I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day!

Game Quicky: Sphetory (Android) ~ Ball Thrown

Download link from Google Play Store

This week, I had a cold during a heatwave. So, I didn’t play a lot of games this week. Yet, one Android game caught my eye. I played it several times. I found it strange since I rarely play Android games. The only time I play Android games is when I have to wait for the train or something along those lines. I haven’t gotten too far into the game but I still think it’s worth talking about it. If you are interested in this game, I personally recommend a tablet or a smartphone with a big screen. Since you will need it. In any case, enough rambling! As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

The bad

So, these are the reasons why you shouldn’t play this game:

The soundtrack is a bit lacking. I have only heard one song after three levels. While the song really helps to set the mood and atmosphere, I wish it had one more song to change it up here and there.

When I was in the options menu, I wasn’t able to adjust the sensitivity. It stayed at 4. Speaking of the option menu, you are unable to adjust the options when you aren’t in-game. You can change the language in the main menu, but not in the option menu.

Looking at the “Select Level” option, you will find out that this game is rather short. Honestly, I wish it had a bit more content. Since the potential is there.

The good

This game is a puzzle platformer. In the first level, you get a ball you can throw. It bounces around when it hits a wall. In the first level, this is used to hit switches so you can progress.

In the second level, a mechanic is introduced. When you throw the ball, you can press “B” at any time. Then you will move on the traveled path of the ball. As soon as you press B, the ball will stop traveling. So, you will have to time your throws so, you don’t press B when the ball left the platform. Since then, you fall to your doom.

Something that’s even more interesting is that the path stays. So, for example, you throw the ball in a straight line. When you press the B button after you landed, you don’t have to throw the ball again, since when you press the B button again, you travel on exactly the same path.

The punishment of failure is somewhere in between. When you fail a jump, you are sent back to the start of the puzzle. While I wish I wasn’t set back that far in certain sections, I wasn’t set back to the start of a level.

Also, in this game, you can slow down time. This is very handy to move over certain moving platforms.

I was able to quickly get used to the controls. When you press on the left-hand side of the screen, you move your character. When you press on the right-hand side of the screen, you move the camera. The A button throws the ball, the B button travels on the ball’s path, the clock button slows down time and the pause button… well take a wild guess.

Visually, this game looks amazing. I love the atmosphere in this game. It feels empty yet safe. It feels cold yet colorful and warm. And for those who are interested, I rarely experienced any lag or major slowdown in this game.

Also, surprisingly enough, this 3D game isn’t a big battery drain. It didn’t drain my battery too much. I only saw a decrease of 10% on my ASUS tablet.

One big amazing plus in this game is that this game is free of charge. And I didn’t find any annoying ads between gameplay!

The conclusion

This game contains a lot of trail and error. Yet, it feels very satisfying after you have beaten a level. I highly recommend this game for people who are looking for an interesting experience on Android.

While this game is playable on small screens, I don’t recommend it. Since it’s a big advantage when you see the whole room.

This game took me by surprise. Since this game is something that works very well on mobile devices.

While this game has some flaws, I think this game is really worth your time.

Anyways, I think I said everything I wanted to say about this game. Feel free to drop by in another article, I’m looking forward to it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have a great rest of your day and take care!

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!