August 2016 Archives

I'll open this time with a confession: I really like puzzle games, mainly those that have simple idea and simple rules, and creates complex puzzles out of them. So when I found Klocki, by Maciej Targoni (aka Rainbow Train), I felt like I found a fortune.

You have only a few in-game days to create your life and a foundation for your future family. Your career choice now will affect your descendant's aptitude for athletics, academics, and creativity later. After your character dies, the "value" of their life will be analysed and you will start the game over, with improved stats and wealth. This concept, which sets A Goody Life apart from other simulation games, is similar to the game Viktor the Nth. Interestingly, A Goody Life incorporates investing in antiques, and Intelligence and Creativity can be raised by using The Internet.

I woke up today with a strange feeling. I looked in the phone and saw it is Wednesday. I made my coffee, looked at the calendar and saw it is Tuesday, opened the radio and listened to Friday's evening news. But I started suspecting when I got the Sunday's newspaper. Nobody gives Sunday's newspaper at Thursday, or was it Monday?

So what are you escaping from this week? It's summer time, nobody wants to be at work (or cleaning out the fridge.) Lots of people are getting kids ready to go back to school, there are plenty of good excus umm I mean reasons to take a brief escape. Whatever yours is, here are a few tasty escape games served up for you. Check out the menu, we have Strawberry Café, Primera, and Ichima Game. Why choose? Indulge.

If Kairosoft ever made a version of Gilligan's Island it would look a lot like Tinker Island, the free survival crafting role-playing game from Tricky Totem with in-app purchases. When you and your intrepid crew are stranded on a tropical island you'll have to use all your skills to survive, try to get back home, and solve the mystery of just what's going on here in the process. Gather resources, build and upgrade buildings, stave off hunger, craft tools and buffing items, fend off the local wildlife, improve your party's skills and solve puzzles and logic problems, all while advancing the plot with choose-your-own-adventure format multiple-guess choices that meaningfully affect how the each game will take shape.

When was the last you had a dream? Not the Deep Sleep kind of one, but a real dream, a life goal, something that you wanted to achieve. The hero of this short platform game has dreams, and rather big ones. And so begins his quest to try and achieve his dreams. Will he manage to do so?

After ten years and seven instalments the artist formerly known as Jonbro wraps up the point-and-click 'Riddle' saga with the immensely enjoyable Riddle Transfer 2. Be warned that there are plot spoilers ahead but come on, seriously the series is ten years old. That's like me telling you Brad Pitt and Ed Norton were the same person. You should already know this stuff.

"Hey Hey they're the MONKEYS!!" OK maybe it's just me but I love these little guys. There's something inherently playful and mischievous about them that makes me smile. Seeing that PencilKids had made yet another installment had me immediately...um postponing some work I need to be doing and diving into the hijinks.

So often a journey begins with a story. A few simple words can carry you on an adventure as great as any begun with a single step. This fact is the starting point of Esklavos' new game The Soul Stone Escape. In his characteristic style, the artwork flows with the somewhat dreamlike quality of the story. There may be ogres and snakes and pits but there is never a sense of danger, only of wonder. This game, and the story it contains embraces the idea of magic as we knew it in childhood.

None of that should imply that there are not puzzles to solve or clues to be found. There are several scenes and to advance from one to another requires completing certain puzzles and collecting particular items. In the past, many Esklavos games have featured a sort of map which opened various areas to the player. There is no map in Soul Stone. In fact there are fewer scenes (four) than you may be accustomed to seeing but each one is rich in content. Also by taking away the ability to jump from one location to another the space has a more linear quality, everything feels more connected.

This game falls squarely in the point and click genre. Simple to navigate and control with everything right there on the screen. There's really nothing to get in the way of just enjoying playing.

Play The Soul Stone Escape