Sorry I've been neglecting my reviews here lately. I'll get back on it right away. In the meantime new jobs reviewing for...
AroundHawaii.com
First time I got work with a Hawaii site, so that hopefully is a rather good thing. Working on it all weekend, and should be up first week of September. Stay tuned.
GameSyndrome.com
Still waiting on my permissions. Already wrote up articles for my first week of submissions. Hope to hear something soon.
New reviews and that name change coming up shortly.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Puzzle Quest for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS
When a good game takes two game genres and merge them together it either succeds or fails. In the case of the original Puzzle Quest (PSP and 3DS) it is succeess without a doubt.
Combining a RPG fantasy world with a character (male or female) that levels up as you go along, the ability to acquire new gear, mounts if I remember right, allies and even your own little castle with a whole bunch of rooms to maintain (with their own match 3 games with their own goals).
The match 3 gameplay is easy to catch onto, but is presented with several variants which each has it's own goal. Fighting opponents and enemies, creating gear, learning the enemy's magic, etc. That takes a simple addictive game idea, and expands it several times over to make it ultra addictive. So much so I logged in about 50-70 hours (around that much) before my PSP UMD copy finally died. Hopefully my next copy (3DS dlc) lasts way longer. A 5 out of 5.
Combining a RPG fantasy world with a character (male or female) that levels up as you go along, the ability to acquire new gear, mounts if I remember right, allies and even your own little castle with a whole bunch of rooms to maintain (with their own match 3 games with their own goals).
The match 3 gameplay is easy to catch onto, but is presented with several variants which each has it's own goal. Fighting opponents and enemies, creating gear, learning the enemy's magic, etc. That takes a simple addictive game idea, and expands it several times over to make it ultra addictive. So much so I logged in about 50-70 hours (around that much) before my PSP UMD copy finally died. Hopefully my next copy (3DS dlc) lasts way longer. A 5 out of 5.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Stand O Food (Sony PSP)
Unlike Nintendo the amount of food and cooking games are few and far between in the land of Sony. One Cake Mania game compared to four from the DS, one Diner Dash compared to two and spin off Wedding Dash on the DS, and alot of cooking games only appear on the DS. This is one of the rare stand oits on the PSP, and its pretty good.
Working your way across a giant map of diners you pick up ingredients from a chain of conveyor belts, filling out orders of customers in order to pass. Can't find enough ingredients? Place down ingredients on hold plates to shuffle stuff about, or pick up a large stack of stuff to find the ingredient you need and put it on the hold plates (which you buy as part of ipgrading your diners). Got the order of ingredients jumbled? Throw it into an order box to ship (again something you'll buy). Need more time? Buy and upgrade a jukebox and air conditioner to keep your customers patient. Need to do it faster? Buy and upgrade a coffee pot to speed up. Finally need a way to make more money and can handle remembering extra detail? Buy condiments to add money to what you make (though I beat the game several times without ever buying condiments).
An overall good game, but abit short. Also it's a simple casual game, just filling orders, and while I liked it you might not have the same experience with it.
So like it, hate it, its up to you. I'm giving it a nice 3 out of 5, pretty nice, and it's cheap so try it out for yourself sometime.
Working your way across a giant map of diners you pick up ingredients from a chain of conveyor belts, filling out orders of customers in order to pass. Can't find enough ingredients? Place down ingredients on hold plates to shuffle stuff about, or pick up a large stack of stuff to find the ingredient you need and put it on the hold plates (which you buy as part of ipgrading your diners). Got the order of ingredients jumbled? Throw it into an order box to ship (again something you'll buy). Need more time? Buy and upgrade a jukebox and air conditioner to keep your customers patient. Need to do it faster? Buy and upgrade a coffee pot to speed up. Finally need a way to make more money and can handle remembering extra detail? Buy condiments to add money to what you make (though I beat the game several times without ever buying condiments).
An overall good game, but abit short. Also it's a simple casual game, just filling orders, and while I liked it you might not have the same experience with it.
So like it, hate it, its up to you. I'm giving it a nice 3 out of 5, pretty nice, and it's cheap so try it out for yourself sometime.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
First Look at Cale Mania Main Street
One of the longest running food themed games in terms of series length, Cake Mania was originally going to end after Cake Mania 3 only for the game creators to stretch it out by two games... this game, Main Street, and Lights Cameras Action!... but what happens next remains to be seen. As for this version, on the DS, it may suffer the sa,e singular flaw as previous versions but we'll see...
So now Jack and Jill are now married... oh, just noticed the horrible pun in his name.... bad game, bad... anyway they return to Jill's hometown only to realize that it's in even worst shape in before as another mega corporation (no doubt owned by the cake making madman from Kamen Rider OOOs) is running the community into the ground driving the small businesses out of business. So the entire game has Jill (running the Evans Bakery), Jack (running a burger shop), Risha (flower shop) and Tiny (sushi shop) helping save the town... how? Well as you play all the money you make is split in half. Half the money you use to update each store in different ways, amd their two game styles. For the traditional Cake Mania style (Jill and Risha) you buy new equipment for your shops, but for the rather Burger Island style of gameplay (Jack and Tiny) you purchase new recipes, recommended you unlock one at a time so you have a chance to master each in turn, as well as a TV and cookie maker since your playing zone is dar different than what your used to to date from Cake Mania... however if you played Burger Island these two won't phase you one bit. As for the second half of the money it goes into the town where you use it to improve the four shops (though that doesn't seem to do anything for them at all except increase the amounts earned each day when your not playing the four businesses). The rest of the money you spend buying tourist sites to improve the visibility of your town attracting more tourists, though again it doesn't seem to impact gameplay any.
The only possible problem is once again the size of the game on the DS. Remember this is a port of a PC game series so this game, like all the others on the series, are far more comfortable on larger screens, which is made even more awkward as the series creators only went so far converting the games for the DS over time (one major consession not taken yet is a change of the mini games to make them more DS friendly, also cake orders should be displayed on the top screen with the customers so they're larger and easier to see.
All in all while the problem with screen size might be a concern, I still have good feelings about this, the fourth game of the series. Hope to review it in the Fall. Stay tuned.
So now Jack and Jill are now married... oh, just noticed the horrible pun in his name.... bad game, bad... anyway they return to Jill's hometown only to realize that it's in even worst shape in before as another mega corporation (no doubt owned by the cake making madman from Kamen Rider OOOs) is running the community into the ground driving the small businesses out of business. So the entire game has Jill (running the Evans Bakery), Jack (running a burger shop), Risha (flower shop) and Tiny (sushi shop) helping save the town... how? Well as you play all the money you make is split in half. Half the money you use to update each store in different ways, amd their two game styles. For the traditional Cake Mania style (Jill and Risha) you buy new equipment for your shops, but for the rather Burger Island style of gameplay (Jack and Tiny) you purchase new recipes, recommended you unlock one at a time so you have a chance to master each in turn, as well as a TV and cookie maker since your playing zone is dar different than what your used to to date from Cake Mania... however if you played Burger Island these two won't phase you one bit. As for the second half of the money it goes into the town where you use it to improve the four shops (though that doesn't seem to do anything for them at all except increase the amounts earned each day when your not playing the four businesses). The rest of the money you spend buying tourist sites to improve the visibility of your town attracting more tourists, though again it doesn't seem to impact gameplay any.
The only possible problem is once again the size of the game on the DS. Remember this is a port of a PC game series so this game, like all the others on the series, are far more comfortable on larger screens, which is made even more awkward as the series creators only went so far converting the games for the DS over time (one major consession not taken yet is a change of the mini games to make them more DS friendly, also cake orders should be displayed on the top screen with the customers so they're larger and easier to see.
All in all while the problem with screen size might be a concern, I still have good feelings about this, the fourth game of the series. Hope to review it in the Fall. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Bejeweled Blitz (Nintendo 3DS)
Recently I started work on a year long preview podcast called Wii U Life, covering 2012's release of the Wii U... and one of the things I learned was that the Wii U is at last the next gen entry by Nintendo, looking to win by core gaming fans who left Nintendo for HD pastures.
At first I was worried this would mean Nintendo would be throwing casual gaming fans under the bus, but that shouldn't be a fear I think... though at least casual gamers will always have the 3DS. And games like Bejeweled Blitz.
Blitz is a simple addictive match three game. You can raack up matches, make challenge matches to speed up the match meter which turns a board piece into a mega fruit which clears the entire board of that color as well as add time to all on screen bombs. Match four for a fire piece that explodes when matched. Match five for a lightning piece that clears a giant cross section of pieces. Finally the ultra rare supernova piece, matching 7 and up pieces.
Game ends whwn you fail to disarm bomb pieces... and that's it. Otherwise the game can last 1 to 2 hours a play, and can become super addictive before you know it. A 5 out of 5 for a game you'll have a hard time putting down... yes, bells and whistles are non exsistant but who cares when the game is this addictive.
Next time - Speaking of addictive come back Thursday for the rare food game on the PlayStation Store... Stand O Food. See you Thursday!
At first I was worried this would mean Nintendo would be throwing casual gaming fans under the bus, but that shouldn't be a fear I think... though at least casual gamers will always have the 3DS. And games like Bejeweled Blitz.
Blitz is a simple addictive match three game. You can raack up matches, make challenge matches to speed up the match meter which turns a board piece into a mega fruit which clears the entire board of that color as well as add time to all on screen bombs. Match four for a fire piece that explodes when matched. Match five for a lightning piece that clears a giant cross section of pieces. Finally the ultra rare supernova piece, matching 7 and up pieces.
Game ends whwn you fail to disarm bomb pieces... and that's it. Otherwise the game can last 1 to 2 hours a play, and can become super addictive before you know it. A 5 out of 5 for a game you'll have a hard time putting down... yes, bells and whistles are non exsistant but who cares when the game is this addictive.
Next time - Speaking of addictive come back Thursday for the rare food game on the PlayStation Store... Stand O Food. See you Thursday!
Monday, July 11, 2011
This week's reviews
Ok since we had no comments, no spam, no nothing let's start reviewing... casually.
Tuesday - Bejeweled Blitz (3DS)
Thursday - Stand O Food (PSP)
Tuesday - Bejeweled Blitz (3DS)
Thursday - Stand O Food (PSP)
Friday, July 8, 2011
Waiting On Godot... or just you.
Well since nobody ever updates this thing it's going to be changed into a page for casual gaming. However, silly me, I'd still like input. Anyone care to input? I won't make the change for a week so input most welcome please. Leave comments here.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Casual Gaming?
My first thought for the revisioning of this group is the coverage of casual gaming, but what is everyone's thoughts on it? Casual gaming is popular and quite abit genre wise is covered by casual gaming. Thoughts?
New home for RPG and Strategy reviews http://rpgunite.blogspot.com
New home for RPG and Strategy reviews http://rpgunite.blogspot.com
...umm... I'm going to change this now... after I sleep...
Well I haven't played Facebook games in forever, nobody ever comments, and.... I need the blog for work. So... not sure what to do that'd be relevant with online mmo strategy gaming since I turned my other blog into a RPG/Strategy reviewing blog... I'll meditate on it... now it's 2AM so good night...
Monday, February 7, 2011
New podcasts now available!
http://multimediamax.blogspot.com
DVD Parade Max Week 16 (Green Hornet and Green Lantern 2011 movies) and ImagiNation Max Week 3 (MARVEL dramas part 1 of 2)
http://henshinupmax.blogspot.com
Power Rangers Cafe Week 2 and the second week of our memory walkthrough of Power Rangers past.
http://RKYVrevue.blogspot.com
(Need followers! Join!)
Newest cast, Digital Scribbles Month 1, is previewed!
This week we're working on completing Digital Scribbles Month 1 as well as work on DVD Parade Max Week 17 (MARVEL in 2011), ImagiNation Max Week 4 (MARVEL dramas week 2), Power Rangers Henshin Max Week 5 (premieres of Supah Ninja and Power Rangers Samurai) and Power Rangers Cafe Week 3-4 (the completion of our memory tour of Power Rangers to date).
DVD Parade Max Week 16 (Green Hornet and Green Lantern 2011 movies) and ImagiNation Max Week 3 (MARVEL dramas part 1 of 2)
http://henshinupmax.blogspot.com
Power Rangers Cafe Week 2 and the second week of our memory walkthrough of Power Rangers past.
http://RKYVrevue.blogspot.com
(Need followers! Join!)
Newest cast, Digital Scribbles Month 1, is previewed!
This week we're working on completing Digital Scribbles Month 1 as well as work on DVD Parade Max Week 17 (MARVEL in 2011), ImagiNation Max Week 4 (MARVEL dramas week 2), Power Rangers Henshin Max Week 5 (premieres of Supah Ninja and Power Rangers Samurai) and Power Rangers Cafe Week 3-4 (the completion of our memory tour of Power Rangers to date).
Friday, February 4, 2011
What's Going on in KoC anyway?
I've been gone for awhile with this thing being as down as it is, so can anyone post info on what's going on in the game these days so I stay up to date on what is going on in the Domain? Thanks.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Not Dead Yet Everyone
Nope, not dead yet. Computer is still broken as all heck and I squeeze out as much of it's power as I can to keep working. Just added a new blog covering my monthly review process (http://RKYVrevue.blogspot.com) and of course the usual blogs covering my podcasts. Once the computer is finally fixed I'll be back full time, but until then you can find me here for the time being... sorry.
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