Hero Emblems is one of the best iOS games I've played in a long time. There are no IAPs and the game feels like a complete package with tons of content to go through, fun core mechanics and enough challenge and character customization to not feel bored of it. You play a party of four characters - mage, healer, paladin and fighter - and you match emblems to attack, defend or heal yourself. It's a classic formula turned into an amazing little game.
I'm not too sure if it's accurate to say that WoW is videogame crack, or maybe the analogy would be better made with junk food, it's cheap, filling, tastes okay, but after a while you get bored of it. I'm not saying that WoW is empty calories - and even if it were, I'm not saying that's a bad thing - and since I've spent 60 days playing it three hours+ per day I can't say that it's devoid of interest, but WoW is a treadmill that I feel broke down for me in the recent expansions. It's also a bit too dense in some ways - maybe ways that only affect me - but here, let me tell you the story of my characters.
Combo Quest is the first paragraph in a design document for another game; CQ is the core mechanic that should be embedded into something much bigger than it is, while actually being all there is. CQ could have been a pretty neat RPG for touch devices, but it's barely a tech demo with some inappropriate in-app purchases. I didn't enjoy my time with Combo Quest for various reasons.
Much like the iOS game I've reviewed a while back - and much like Cookie Clicker and Anti-Idle in a sense - Clicker Heroes is an Idle game where you mostly click a few times and then let the game run for a while before clicking a few other times and waiting. Most of these games have some kind of progression where at some point you reset your game in order to get bonuses for the next run that will allow you to go even farther. There are not real goals in such games, but they're nice time wasters - and are much more appropriate on PC than on mobile devices. Clicker Heroes is pretty neat, although since games like this live and die by how frequently they're updated, I can't say that it has my attention as much as it once did.
Shadowmatic is a neat concept - you rotate objects in order to cast specific shadows that aren't obvious at first but should become more apparent as you move stuff around. To increase the difficulty after a while, the game throws multiple pieces and now you have to move them relative to each other as well. In practice I find that fumbling around rotating pieces of weird shapes in order to arrive at an unknown goal is quite frustrating and the hint system should be more straightforward.
Fearless Fantasy is a neat concept - a turn-based RPG with some novel way to attack/defend, but poor execution, low amount of content and weird mechanics quickly turned me off from the game. It's not that the ideas are bad, but they're poorly explained, alongside the relatively low potential for character customization - something that I always look for in role playing games.
I don't have any bad thing to say about Evolve:Hunter Quest. I feel it's the right kind of free to play match three game with sufficiently deep gameplay systems, enough variety to make the player want to continue playing and most importantly, no energy system. This might sound silly, but if this game had an energy system (where attempting maps was throttled by such) the experience would have been completely different. As it is, it feels fair and balanced and losing a level isn't a terrible thing - because you would've lost energy for no gain - and I have no real opinion on it's tie-in with the Evolve shooter on PC. Besides setting, it doesn't provide much to this game.
Space Run is a tower defense game where enemies go to you as you're flying a spaceship trying to deliver thing under time constraints. It's a fun game where the tower defense gameplay loop of having a list of things you can build allows you to complete maps not perfectly, but well enough to buy better things later on in order to go back and finish stuff you couldn't do before. It's also very interesting with the way it deals in tower construction and enemy waves.
Puzzle Forge 2 is a pretty neat little puzzle game where the goal is to make gear for customers going to your forge. To do so, you place rocks on a grid and then you place molds next to two rocks to craft parts that you need to combine to create weapons, armors and more. Combining rocks makes better materials and the game adds a bit of complexity with gems (and the combining thereof) and magic that you use to power-up the gear you're making. You lose the game when you can't complete customer requests too many times or when the board fills up - the latter happens more often than the former.
Volgarr the Viking reminds me of Ghouls And Ghosts, it reminds me of old platforming games with brutal difficulty, few options for the player and very precise mechanics. I'm giving it a 3/5 mainly because it's not for me; It's too difficult and the lack of difficulty options - that might have diluted the game's core essence - made it impossible for me to get anywhere past the second 'stage' of the game. It's well made and I'm certain there is an audience that wants exactly that kind of game, but that audience isn't me.
I'm not trying to be hyperbolic here, but SimCity BuildIt is literal garbage, it takes a thing you like, crushes it under the overwhelming machine that free to play casual microtransaction money-stealing barely-games time-wasting represents in today's gaming world and then tries to make you believe that it's a video game where you can do things and that it's worth your time. Preying on nostalgia and presenting production values that at least look like a decent game but otherwise a terrible tragedy for this week.
I really wish I could give CoE 5/5, it's one of the most interesting and most inspired RPG I've played in ages. It's inspired by Earthbound, for one, but also features deep gameplay mechanics both in battles and outside of them while pushing the player to collect more party members in a colorful world with tons of stuff to do. That being said, in its current state, 4 is the best I can give it, mostly because of technical issues but also because of some design choices that I didn't enjoy.
Where's my Water! is a physics based puzzle game where you have to move water from one point to a drain connected to the shower of an alligator. It's a fun little game that progressively adds new mechanics and concepts and piles on replayability by having you collect things and fill ducks with water as well. I had a good time with it and I suppose it could be considered as a classic of sorts, resembling in spots with many other puzzle games.
Super Time Force Ultra could have been amazing instead of just great if it knew what it wanted to be and focused on one aspect of the game. As it is, it's kind of a mess to play, quite bad with the keyboard and only made a little bit better by the use of a controller - something I try to do as little as possible with PC games - and while there are a few design decisions here and there that I find just weird, I had a great time with it and I think it's a charming game most people should try.
Metal Slug Defense is not entirely hot garbage, but there is better to be found in the realm of defense games where you get resources constantly and build units to push towards an enemy base that you destroy. Two things that annoyed me right up top? Full-screen ads on the mission select screen and full-screen ads right after you've completed a mission. No matter how fun or charming a game can be, having a video ad for some other game block your device is awful.
Escape Goat 2 is a delightful puzzle platformer where you play a goat for some reason, and you complete various puzzle rooms with different themes and mechanics in a few themed worlds. To do so, you have headbutt attacks, a double jump and a little mouse companion that you can use to do tricks. I've enjoyed my time with the game although I've found the controls a bit hard to get around, especially in the later puzzles when you're required to do many things in quick succession in order to succeed.
Click Titans is almost a direct clone of Clicker Heroes, a web game where you buy heroes to kill enemies to make money to buy more heroes to kill more enemies to reset your game with more money in the next one (in order to kill more enemies). I like Clicker Heroes, but CT is just a way worse version. Mired with pop-ups for ads and opportunities to watch videos or pay in exchange for quicker game progression. Since the only point of "idle" game is the progression, it's a bit silly to expect people to pay for it.
Words for Evil is a game where you make words out of tiles to attack enemies and use abilities. My experience with it was quite poor as the controls didn't work properly and some of the core ideas don't work really well for me. Besides that, the character system and the items you can get, the skill and their upgrades and the mechanics the game tosses here and there to help you try and beat it are a good effort and I had some fun with WoE.
Hey there everyone! Here is my top ten for 2014, from all the games that came out and that I've played! It was a really cool year for games and while I continuously give 2s and 3s to the games I review, there also were plenty of fun experiences that I would recommend to people with tastes more or less aligned with mine! Here's the list!
10- Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
While D3's endgame was a mess when the game came out and I had issues with plenty of its systems - most of my gear came from the auction house, there weren't any fun legendary items, the difficulty was all over the place - they fixed most of it with Reaper of Souls and then with the stuff they added later on. Rifts and the Adventure mode add exponentially more stuff to do, legendaries and set items included in this expansion are pretty awesome, you have gems that give you special abilities that you can level-up and the difficulty is much better tuned this time around. I hope they give us another expansion!
9- Earth Defense Force 2025
Who doesn't like murdering bugs with friends? EDF is a game I hold dearly in my heart and this installment is pretty good. I'm a bit bummed that they didn't make it four player local co-op, but the framerate would've probably tanked to the low 10s if they did so. The four classes are fun and the range of guns you can unlock is still staggering. I hope they next one they bring here is on a console with enough horsepower to do away with loading screens and other issues!
8- Dragon Age Inquisition
I'm not really into open world games and I feel like they're always overwhelming with plenty of dumb content to do, but I made an exception for DA:I since I enjoyed past Dragon Age games in some capacity. With a good cast of characters and decent gameplay systems, I've took the time it needed to beat this game at a steady pace. Some things aren't perfect - the interface, the crafting system, among others - but it would be crazy for me to not say that I've enjoyed this after spending 60 hours+ trying to finish all the quests and talk to everyone while singlehandedly solving all of the world's problems with the backing of my inquisition.
7- Super Smash Brothers for WiiU
The 3DS version of smash felt like it was a thing I played while waiting for the WiiU game and boy is the console version better. There is so much to do in smash brothers, so many things to unlock, so many challenges to complete, and the core gameplay is pretty solid. I'm not really good at smash and I don't have friends to play locally with often so I probably didn't put as much time in this title as I could have, but the fun I had with it the first few days I played was unmistakable. Also not a perfect game - just the fact that you can't restart events and the button combination to quit most things is something ungodly - but it's pretty much the smash game I was waiting for.
6- Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright
This game is what happens when you combine two of my favorite handheld franchises. Both the puzzles from Layton and the awesome courtoom drama from Phoenix Wright are combined in this charming little title where the plot twists hit hard and fast at the end. I found it a bit easier than the other PW games - since you can use Hint Coins during court segments to help - but I just burned through that game non-stop since it was so good. The Layton puzzles are also enjoyable. It's fanservice at its best when both characters interact, amazing fanservice.
5- Tales of Xilia 2
Another game that I've burned through, playing all the times I could in local co-op. I love Tales games, I love playing them because the core battle gameplay is so good. The story of this one is original, I think - the concept that you have this huge debt to pay off by doing side-quests and things like that was interesting to me - and the cast of characters, combined with the amount of secrets and things to discover and make made this an RPG I really enjoyed.
4- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
I'm a huge Borderlands guy, there's not another game quite like it that combines shooting and RPG mechanics. The Pre-Sequel might take many things from Borderlands 2, it still manages to create new interesting characters, tell an okay story and bring plenty of special abilities and mechanics to the table. If not for a game-stopping bug - a quest that won't progress - I still would be playing it right now, trying to get through the third difficulty, probably.
3- Persona Q
Combining the fun parts of Etrian Odyssey and the amazing cast, humor and mechanics of Persona comes this game that I'm still playing right now. I can think of very little flaws in Persona Q but plenty to love. The cast of characters you have to pick from to make your party, the sheer volume of skills, enemies and items to go through, the fun to navigate a dungeon while mapping it yourself, fighting tough bosses, figuring out puzzles and reading hilarious dialogues about steak and bear puns, Persona Q is an RPG delight that is simply amazing.
2- Mario Kart 8
This might be my favorite Mario Kart ever. It's so well done, the courses are all pretty great and there is so much personality in it. I've played countless hours of it in local co-op and we've never got bored. The DLC is also pretty amazing - adding characters such as Link and whole new courses to the game - and while I never enjoyed messing around with the car parts and the battle mode - everything else is so polished that I'm actually looking forward the next DLC to play more hours of this gem with my friends
1- Hyrule Warriors
Just by time played, this takes the cake. I haven't played a Warriors game since the time of the original XBOX and I bought it mostly to support the WiiU. It was an amazing experience that I've spent countless hours unlocking every single bit I could out of. With a wide range of characters that play differently, tons of challenges in the form of retro 8-bit maps, weapons to collect and upgrades to your characters to buy, I just couldn't stop playing until I had all the weapons and unlocked all the secret outfits and cleared the adventure maps. There's still DLC coming for it, and if you're into Zelda stuff, you'll be pleased by the wide array of characters and familiar items this game offers you. Dropping the Majora's Mask moon on my enemies was a high point, as it always is when you complete difficult challenges while finding the hidden golden skultullas.
It's a wipe! is a really bad game based on a cool concept - being a guild leader and running 'raids' against huge enemies with a bunch of people at your disposal. The interface is clunky and broken in spots, the battles take forever even if nothing is happening, you have close to no control over your characters and it's quite difficult to plan strategies properly so the end result is a depressing little RPG.