A Gaming Diary
Archive for July, 2010
Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night (iPhone)
Jul 19th
Still thoroughly enjoying this. I’ve got thirty-three percent of the map uncovered now, but I suspect the two-thirds I’ve got left is going to take a lot longer to uncover. Had some trouble with a boss fight over the weekend, but it didn’t hold me up for long – I just had to make sure I played better. The normal enemies are mostly very easy, as long as you keep an eye on your health between fights. (The bats seem to have a “paralyse” move that’s intensely annoying, though. I thought the game was broken the first time it happened.)
Not a boss - this fight should be over quickly.
I’ve noticed that some people seem to be having trouble with the “swipe down” move… probably because there are two different ones. A long swipe down with your finger speeds up the speed the blocks drop, but you can still move left and right while doing it. A short swipe down drops the blocks in place straight away and is a much more useful move, I reckon. If you’re having trouble with the controls, I hope that helps.
Also, you can skip a lot of animations by tapping the screen – including the pointless pre-battle screen.
Angry Birds (iPhone)
Jul 19th
The only new level I've yet to get three stars on.
New levels! Hooray!
Much easier than the last set. I’ve only got one left to get three stars on, but I’ve got three stars on about half of the last lot.
It’s pretty amazing that they’ve kept giving us all these extras for free, when there’s enough here to make a couple of sequels.
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jul 19th
Had some very, very enjoyable games at the weekend, especially when we were focused on land grabs.
It can be hard keeping track of games with multiple opponents.
It’s all very well going for castle and road points, but if you let your opponent(s) grab points at the end of the game then you’re stuffed. Obvious stuff, yes, but I’m starting to feel like I’m getting into the game properly now.
Most matches seem to end up about this close.
Yes, I’m even winning some of my matches, but by no means all.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Jul 19th
On my next turn I had four As.
Increasingly, this isn’t so much Words With Friends as Words With Strangers Who Appear To Be Cheating. I’ve even been asked if I’m a cheater after playing some good words. Well, I’m not. I don’t see the point of winning if you didn’t actually play the game yourself. Yes, I sometimes put something I’m not sure about to see if it works, but I don’t use anagram solvers or dictionaries or other apps to try and find big words.
Miner Disturbance (iPhone)
Jul 16th
Lovely little mining game, hampered by some control issues. Oh, the controls are getting better, but after an hour or so I’m still dumping rocks on to my head instead of digging ledges.
Still, it’s happening less and less frequently, so I think I’m getting there. If I can really get comfortable, this will be those games where I need to beat you round the head until you buy it.
As it stands, you could do a lot worse with your 59p. You could do better, but it’s a good game with a lot of content for your money.
That’s about it.
A randomly-generated volcano level.
What? You want details? Really? It’s going to be dull.
Okay, okay.
You’ve got a map. To the right of the starting area (which houses a shop, high score table, etc.) you’ve got some puzzle-style levels where you need to perform certain tasks, such as getting ten iron or getting down 75 feet, so that you earn money and medals. That’s the main bit of the game and a quick scroll round the map shows about a million levels, each with bronze, silver and gold medals to earn. To the left (to the left) of the starting area, you’ve got a randomly generated volcano, where the aim is to get a high score.
You run and jump around levels, digging holes and platforms, trying to collect ores and artefacts and trying to avoid enemies and environmental hazards. If you lose three lives you die. The aim is to complete tasks (or get points) and then escape again, meaning you’ve got to plan ahead for an escape route.
I think that about covers it.
Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night (iPhone)
Jul 16th
What do you get if you cross Castlevania, Puzzle Quest and Puzzle Fighter? Yep, you get this game.
(Okay, it’s not actually based on Puzzle Fighter. It’s based on a very similar Konami game nobody (i.e. me) has ever heard of.)
It sounds like one of those terrible, terrible cash-ins that pop up on handheld consoles and mobiles, but it’s been executed with such love and care that it actually damn well works.
You play as Alucard, obviously, and have to play through Symphony of the Night, but without any whipping or jumping. You move around a map and in each room you might find an item, an enemy or nothing at all. (Yes, you can choose where to go at certain points. Yes, there are areas blocked off until you get the correct relic to let you get to them.)
If you find an enemy you battle them by destroying falling blocks. Combat is divided into rounds and when the hourglass flips to end a round, you and the enemy damage each other, with the damage dealt being based on your strength stats and the amount of blocks on your respective boards. First one to lose all their hit points loses.
It's hard to keep track of your opponent's board in the heat of battle.
By killing enemies you gain items, money and experience. There are tons of stats to put your experience points into when you level up – I’m concentrating on strength, because I keep forgetting to use spells – and all sorts of items to find and use. There’s an awful lot going on in the game, but you’re eased into it just slowly enough for it to make some sort of sense. There’s still an element of trial and error with the menus and upgrades, but I don’t think you can ever ruin things for yourself too badly if you mess up.
It’s surprisingly compulsive and oddly faithful to the source material – so much so that I found a health-restoring room by remembering where it was in the “real” castle. I’m only an hour and a half in, so I can’t speak for length or late-game difficulty, but I think it’s already been worth the three quid it cost me.
9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 (iPhone)
Jul 15th
So, I got sent a promo code for this game on my birthday. (I would have bought it had it been available in the UK store.) I’d been resisting setting up a US iTunes account, but this pushed me over the edge. Had to look up instructions on the web to avoid having to give a payment method, but used my in-laws’ address in Idaho and everything was fine.
Was it worth the hassle? Why, yes. Indeed it was. It’s a brilliant baseball game where you make up a team using baseball cards you earn in games or buy with points.
Yay! I earned some points and got a card!
It’s not perfect. The interface is pretty shocking, but I’m learning it. The “tutorial” is just a link to some videos on the web and instructions are very skimpy. It’s odd that the game features real players, but not real teams. (I guess they could only afford one of the licences and, in my opinion, went with the right one.)
Still, though, the baseball is great and getting new cards is a thrill. I’m very much enjoying it.
Helsing’s Fire (iPhone)
Jul 15th
Light up the monsters, use the correct potion to kill them. Repeat.
Gorgeously-presented, inventive little puzzle game. Use the power of light to kill monsters while keeping humans safe. Lacks any real challenge so far, but I’ve had to try a few levels more than once and it’s certainly given me puzzle-frowns and solution-grins, so I’m quite prepared to recommend it.
Ultraviolet Dawn (iPhone)
Jul 15th
Oh dear, I haven’t played this for a few days. What do I remember? Well, it’s a bit like Warpgate, only it’s a proper shooter and the missions are rubbish. Luckily, they’re also pointless, as you can make all the money you need by killing pirates.
Be careful in firefights - your stray bullets can cause all sorts of problems.
Which is a bit of a problem, as it means there’s little point in exploring, trading or taking on quests. You just need to fly around and kill pirates and you’ll get everything you need.
There’s a great little game here – though it takes a few minutes to realise that fact – but the developers really, really need to work on some balancing and interface improvements before it’ll emerge.
StarDunk (iPhone)
Jul 15th
It's all about the online competition - and it even works on my rubbish net connection.
It’s that basketball web game, only it’s got power-ups and it’s on the iPhone. I do hope the developer of the basketball game is involved, or at least getting paid, as it’s a pretty shameless steal if not. Still, if it is stolen, at least they’ve stolen an excellent game.
