Fantastic Creations: House of Brass starts strongly, with an intriguing tale of immortality and the promise of lost love renewed in a magical, steam-driven house, and it even tries to mix things up with its own unique twist on the hidden object genre. And it's pretty good - but it stumbles a bit, and never quite manages to raise itself above the crowded ranks of decent, conventional, but unremarkable hidden object adventures.
Natural Threat: Ominous Shores is an unusual title, thanks mostly to its unusual "mad scientist" theme. I know what you're thinking; we've seen mad scientists in hidden object games before. Well sure we have—but not generally intending to do humanity good, and not in a botanical setting. The unique approach employed by Ominous Shores not only works the way good sci-fi and horror fiction does, (by tapping into some of our basest fears), it also makes for some good entertainment.
In Depths of Betrayal, the quest for perfect artificial intelligence goes horribly wrong as your friend's creation, a mechanical Golem, turns on its master and begins kidnapping everyone associated with its creation. You'll need to travel through this now-frightened land to set things right while collecting random items without many of the usual hidden object game mechanics.
The biggest problem I run in to when I'm trying to write a game review is when I don't want to stop playing the game long enough to actually write the review. You would think the biggest problem is when I'm enjoying a game so much that I lose track of time and forget to eat or sleep, but no. It's the writing. You see what I go through for you people?
From The Little Engine that Could to The Mighty Toaster, machines and appliances sometime face just as many challenges as we sentient humans. Challenges like, y'know, turning on lights in a room. In 1000 Amps, a cute little electrical plug is not only tasked with brightening up his dark environs, but he also joins the ranks of other mechanical doo-dads and household gadgets that have been recruited to save the day. Luckily for you, Plug's journey through a black-and-white not-world of light-up squares and musical sound effects is an engaging trek full of far-flinging leaps and ever-changing puzzles.
If I wanted to be lazy about reviewing Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge, it'd be easy enough to do it. All I'd do is copy and paste the text from our review of its predecessor, Behind the Reflection, and ta-dah! I'd be done. The fact is, last year developer Veles Studio cranked out a bland, lackluster hidden object game and this year, rather than learn anything from the experience, they've cranked out another one.
After MumboJumbo was able to create magic with Pickers, hopes were incredibly high for American Pickers: The Road Less Traveled. After all, Pickers was inspired by the television show American Pickers, so shouldn't a game using that actual license be just as good, or even better? Unfortunately, what we're left with in The Road Less Traveled is a boring, linear experience that offers very little in the way of fun or strategy.
It's been a while since we've seen the Scruffs. Back in 2008, this tight-knit, googly-eyed family hit the casual game scene in an entertaining and unusually creative hidden object title called unsurprisingly, The Scruffs. This year, the Scruffs are back in a fun and hilarious sequel called The Scruffs: Return of the Duke. And this time, the family's goal is twofold: to oust the usurper of Scrufford Castle, and to restore Grandpa Scruff to his rightful place as the Duke of Scrufford.