Bonus Link Dump Friday:
Spot the Difference Edition
September 25, 2009
You're one of those people, aren't you? A nitpicker. No, no, don't try to deny it. We can just tell these things. There's something about you, a certain je ne sais quoi that says, "I like to scrutinize two similar images and pick out tiny little differences between the two until my eyes give out from strain!" It's been a burden to you, hasn't it? Well, be burdened no longer, gentle reader, for there is a place in the wide world of casual gameplay for you, too! So sit back, relax, and prepare to scrute some images! The fate of the world is in your hands!... well, not really. But if you want to pretend it is, we won't tell anyone.
Headspin Space Race - Starting things off on a gentle note, Space Race features high production values in return for a rather non-existent difficulty curve. Your task here is to set the pop-up book images to mirror each other as they tell a tale of... well... I don't want to spoil it for you, but there may be some sort of race going on, that may or may not be related to space!
Isis (Challenge Edition) - This rather moody little gem features wispy artwork straight out of something by the Brother's Grimm. Created to promote a new book, it claims to tell the tale of a young woman who'll do anything to bring a certain someone dear to her back from the dead. We all know how well that always works out. Lovely to look at, Isis unfortunately doesn't manage to spin much of that cryptic narrative within the game itself.
Butterfly Fantasy - Man, look at that guy. He is so depressed. Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that his mouth is sewn shut and he's being held prisoner by some sort of race of goop monsters? Butterfly Fantasy doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but darned if it isn't pretty. Weird. Um. Pretty weird. But also just pretty!
Clouds 2 - There's something vaguely unsettling about the presentation here, from the shadowy photographic people to the ever-so-slightly off-key music. Unfortunately for those of you expecting a dark tale of fantasy gone wrong in the sky, Clouds 2 is as airy and harmless as you can get without dispensing kittens from the monitor every time you get a difference right.
Ghost's Revenge - What do you do when you find yourself newly dead and Whoopi Goldberg is unavailable? Why, you tag along with your murderer and exact some crazy forest revenge, that's what! Possibly the most difficult of the lot, Ghost's Revenge also has the most coherent story and some simple, lovely artwork. Now I am completely prepared for the afterlife! Just as soon as I figure out which one of these pixels is a slightly different shade than the other... hmmm.
Yay, 2 for 1 Friday! It's like like Christmas with a weekend attached to it! The selections look promising....
Does anyone else "cheat" on spot-the-difference games using
crossed eyes
or is that just "missing the point" of the game?
as an over-40 whose eyesight isn't what it used to be, hidden-object puzzles are lovely, but just a half a pixel short of impossible.
Yes, I have computer glasses...but I just can't play them.
Well, I can't go cross-eyed anyway. So I don't "cheat" like that :P
Yay for spot-the-difference games. What a nice way to end the week / start the weekend!
I liked all but the clouds one. (It was under-saturated, the words (links, etc) that were on top distracted from the real differences, and the real differences were often bizarrely minute — such as just 4 pixels.)
Ghost was hard, but fun. I enjoyed the spin variation yet again, although the last few levels are really hard, and often depend on luck!
(And occasionally I do the magic-eye / crossed eyes trick when I get tired of a level. Although, it seems like the isn't as effective on the more recent games.)
Well, Butterfly Fantasy was a classic tale of boy-meets-girl, girl-pulls-stitches-out-of-boy's-lips, both-ride-away-on-giant-butterflies.
But it just wound up being frustrating.
I kinda dislike spot the difference games, mainly because the actual differences can vary so much. You get "plainly obvious", and you get "a couple of pixels have changed their shade of grey", with little middle ground. Add to that the fact that the hint system was kinda glitchy (showing me sparkly "hints" for areas that were completely different to where the actual difference was) and I just had to end up machine-gun clicking to be able to see the rest of the images.
Loved space race: Brilliant concept backed up by excellent graphics and animation
Just finished Headspin Space Race. Enchanting! The artwork was wonderful. I really wanted to find out how it ended!
Putting up the best score so far today was gravy :)
ReverendTed
I sometimes do! Couldn't have done the last puzzle of the hotel suburbia game from the other day without it.
I like the way it makes the differences 'pop out'
ISIS had beautiful artwork but it was hard. I had the change the difficulty level to see all the pictures in a reasonable timeframe. Good job.
Are those the teenage mutant ninja turtles in Butterfly Fantasy?
Did anyone notice there was a "play chapter 2" link on the Butterfly one but it took you to the game hosting site?
@ReverendTed: Absolutely. I like how "3D" that technique makes the differences look.
Isis and Butterfly Fantasy were both gorgeous and fun to play. I agree the narrative for Isis was loose. Also, I loved the creepy aliens in Butterfly Fantasy.
Although it was equally pretty, I did not like ghost's revenge. There were too many long chapters with small hot spots for the differences. Many times I would lose points because I had to click at a spot 3 times to hit it right. The game felt too long and too difficult. The story however was very nice.
xadrian- I also noticed the link to butterfly 2 was pointless, I don't know if it has been released yet?
Made it most of the way through Ghost's Revenge, but couldn't do any more of them - my eyes were hurting... sometimes photographs are easier, but either way it's a strain on my eyes. Nice concepts, though.
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