A Green Mushroom

It's interesting to see the approach VR puzzle games have taken so far.  Besides a few puzzles in exploration games the true  puzzle games I've played so far are Waterbears VR and Fantastic Contraption. Waterbears VR isn't groundbreaking, but it adds a level of immersion that you don't get from most puzzle games.  This is a typical "use the pipes to direct the liquid flow to the correct place" type of game, but it is pretty cool to be able to walk around the puzzle while viewing and interacting with it using your hands.  It's very intuitive and makes it much more worthwhile than this game would be on a flat screen. Fantastic Contraption on the other hand feels like it could only be done in VR.  You're given tools and some workspace and you have to create fantastic contraptions (get it?) to get a special orb into the goal.  You have connection points and different types of materials to work with but the sense of space and perspective is truly ne...

We did an escape room the other day and it was really fun! If you're unfamiliar with the concept, you basically get an hour in a room to solve different puzzles and "escape" the room (even though the doors are never truly locked).  It sounded like a cool idea so we finally lined up schedules with enough people and eight of us tackled a Starship scenario. We entered the room which was basically the bridge of a starship and learned that the scenario was an alien trapped on the ship which we had to locate and defeat before the hour was up.  I don't want to give away any of the puzzles in case any of you end up running this one, but it was super fun. There were a series of puzzles, some hidden, some obvious and we organically divided up into teams of two or three to start working on all of them.  We succeeded and finish the room with over 10 minutes left! When we finished the guy running the room told us that only 25% of groups finish and the majority have less th...

I have an un-popular opinion on The Witness.  I really didn't like it that much. I keep seeing it be lauded with praise but I found the core of the game frustrating and boring at the same time. You see, The Witness looks like it's going to be a gorgeous game of exploring a beautiful island.  And in a way it is.  And I love that part of the game... I wanted that to be  the game.  Exploration is a huge motivator for me in the games I play. But The Witness, at it's core, is a series of line puzzles.  They come in different shapes and varieties but the whole game is line puzzle after line puzzle after line puzzle.  I was bored of it so fast. I honestly would have had more fun with the game if every puzzle were able to be solved by a simple left click.  That way I could have wandered the island to my heart's content. I even held out hope to the very end that maybe the ending of the game would tie the story of the island together and give ...

Laura Croft Go is a continuation of the Go series that Square Enix has started on mobile devices.  The previous Go game was based on Hitman. I didn't know what to expect going into Laura Croft Go, but I'm always willing to check out new games on my iPhone.  I do enough mobile gaming that I'm always trying to find the next game I can sink a bunch of time into. What I found was a puzzle game with a Laura Croft wrapping.  You move Laura around the level on a series of nodes and try to figure out the correct order of actions that will get you to the end of the level. If the level indicators on the main screen are accurate I played through about two thirds of the game.  In the end I stopped because of the difficultly curve.  It was honestly way too easy for too long, then there were a bunch of levels that had a good difficulty set, and then they started getting really hard.  I got stuck on a puzzle and the only way to progress was to pay $5 to unlock t...

I've been looking for a mobile game that kills small bits of time and is entertaining.  I've had many over the years but nothing has been hooking me lately. That's when a friend recommended You Must Build a Boat.  It's the followup to a match-3 game that I played and finished a few years ago called 10000000.  It's almost the exact same gameplay, with a few added tweaks but it's apparently exactly what I needed. I've been playing You Must Build a Boat in little five to ten minute bursts and it's perfect for that purpose.  I would highly recommend it to you mobile gamers out there, especially if you like match-3 type games.

Although I hadn't played the Puzzle & Dragons Z version of the game on my trip, I have done so since then.  While I ended up liking the Mario Edition side of this game I didn't find Puzzle & Dragons Z quite as interesting. It's the same core gameplay but wrapped up with tons of unskippable story content set in a world similar to Pokemon... but less interesting. After getting familiar with the core puzzle gameplay I was really disappointed to see how much extra fluff there was in between actual gameplay in this version. If you really felt like Puzzle & Dragons was missing a story or if you're super obsessed with the Pokemon formula you might find something here.  For the rest of us it's probably better to stay on the Mario Edition side of this game.

I discussed the possibility of picking up this game the other week... and I did!  I probably wouldn't have grabbed it if I wasn't looking for something new to check out while I was traveling.  In the end I'm happy I got the game. The Mario Edition did such a better job of easing me into Puzzle and Dragons.  The demo and the iOS version that I tried last week did a horrible job of teaching me what to do when playing the game.  Everything from team composition to special abilities and powering up characters are taught in a friendly and easy-to-learn manner in the Mario Edition. At this point I actually feel like I would probably like the mobile version now that I understand the game better.  I would download it again on my phone if it weren't for those F2P mechanics.  Just having that stamina bar and being able to buy my way to victory bugs me. But the Mario Edition did away with the things I didn't like and did a great job of explaining the intere...

There was a free demo for the 3DS Mario version of Puzzle and Dragon on the eShop so I grabbed it to see what the game was about. I've never played Puzzle and Dragons before, but what I found was a game somewhere between a Bejeweled, Puzzle Quest, and Terra Battle.  If you're not familiar with those games, it's basically a game where you're trying to match 3 or more gems of the same color in a row or column.  Every time you start moving a gem it shifts all the others it travels through in order to get to it's final destination.  The game quickly becomes more about bumping other gems around rather than concentrating on the gem you're dragging.  Moving the gem around is timed, but you can freely move it as much as you want and as far as you want within the time limit. You end up trying to bump as many gems into combos as you can within the time limit to set up massive damage.  You have a team of characters sitting above the gems, and those team members...

Yesterday I mentioned how I latch onto good mobile games whenever I find them.  Since my phone is always within arm's reach I can sneak in quick mobile game sessions... and I do. I've been playing a bunch of Hero Emblems.  It's really fun, despite being a match-3 game.  And it doesn't have any predatory pricing model!  You pay for it once and get the game.  No in-app purchases.  That's always a plus in my book. The reason it's better than most match-3 games is because there are always obvious available matches but the game is about choosing the right one at the right time.  Compared to most match-3 games It has a bigger board, with less variety of matching items.  In this case they're called emblems, but they function just like gems in Bejeweled. The cool part is that the game is actually an RPG and each emblem on the board corresponds to one of the members in your party.  When you match that set of emblems that character will take ...

Mistwalker studios was founded by the creator of Final Fantasy , so I always keep an eye on what they do.  I don't always end up enjoying their games, but I like to give them a shot. That brings us to Terra Battle.  It's a new game by Mistwalker studios and I've been playing it for the last couple days.  Terra Battle is a puzzle RPG game on iOS and Android .  For reference, I've been playing it on my iPhone. It has some basic free-to-play mechanics.  There's a stamina system that slowly refills over time.  It costs a couple stamina to start a battle.  That hasn't actually limited my playtime at all.  I've never run out of stamina to the point where I couldn't do another battle.  It recharges really fast.  They also have a shop where you can buy heroes and items for real world money.  I haven't spent anything and I don't plan to. The basic mechanics of the game are really interesting.  Use two or more units to flank an en...

This time you get three games in one post.  How exciting for you.  This is what happens when real life gets busy and I try to play catch up with my posts.  Let's get to it. Mortal Kombat Platform: Xbox 360 Total Play Time: 2.5 hours Mortal Kombat hasn't changed much over the years.  It's still full of over the top gore.  Overall, it's a fighting game on a 2D plane with decent controls.  I still prefer the Street Fighter series, but it's nice to see MK go back to it's roots with this game.  After a few hours of playing around with Fatalities I had seen all I cared to.  This is not a game that I could sink days into.  I have to admit that the fatalities appealed to my inner 13 year old, but besides that I wasn't overly impressed. Ms. Splosion Man Platform: Xbox 360 (XBLA) Total Play Time: 3.5 hours Ms. Splosion man is a satisfactory follow up to XBLA hit Splosion Man.  If you're a platforming fan and haven't played the original Splo...

I just finished the Clash of Heroes single player campaign and thought I'd reiterate how much fun it was.  A tactical RPG puzzle game isn't something you come across every day and this one held me captive most nights for the past few weeks. On top of what I mentioned in my initial impressions  there were also a ton of battles with interesting win conditions.  If I ever felt like I was close to getting bored, one of these odd battles would pop up and re-engage me.  Switching between 5 main characters helped keep things fresh too. In the end, Clash of Heroes took me 30 hours to beat and provided me with weeks of entertainment for only 15 dollars.  And there's still a whole multiplayer aspect that I haven't touch yet. I liked this game a lot and now it's put me in the mood for something else tactical.  I want something slow-paced.  Maybe a turn based battle system of some kind.  I'm in the mood for more thoughtful decisions and less twitch ac...

Might & Magic Clash of Heroes is an Ubisoft creation with something in it for both puzzle and strategy game fans.  I stumbled across the demo in the Xbox Live Arcade, but the game is also available on PSN and Nintendo DS. The basic premise is a match three puzzle game where army units are the things being matched.  Match 3 vertically and they become an offensive attack.  Match 3 horizontally and they form a defensive wall to block incoming enemy attacks.  The player is limited by the number of moves in a turn before the opponent gets to respond in kind.  Completely drain the opponent's HP with attacks and you win the battle. It's a simple enough premise, but it quickly gets complex in a fun way.  Experience points, leveling up, gear, new units, and new skills all show up in the course of the game.  I've had a great time tweaking my army as I progress.  Personally, deciding between using giant treants or acid dragons was especial...