Retro Racing feels like a cross between Rally-X and R.C. Pro-Am -- 2 old school classics. Not directly mind you, more in inspiration or "feel" than anything else. But still, those are two top-notch racers in my book, so if that's where my mind wandered while playing I take that as a pretty good sign. But, did that positive feeling stick around the longer I played?
In a far away fairytale kingdom, the land's prosperity and happiness is provided by a magical gem. When a would-be suitor to the kingdom's princess destroys the gem as a way to force the King to offer him his daughter's hand in marriage, the princess calls out for Munchausen's help. As the clumsy yet resourceful Munchausen, you'll travel far and wide through the kingdom, collecting pieces of the broken gemstone in an effort to stop the evil suitor from actually marrying the princess.
When crafting a memorable game you need three elements; a unique experience, solid gameplay mechanics, and genuine soul. Think back to the games you still care about years after you play them, and you'll see they had all those traits in abundance. Amp, Watts & Circuit doesn't bring any of that to the table, and the result is an utterly forgettable experience.
Zombies! Hats! Guns! Bats! Guitars! Red! Blue! Cartoons! Brawl Busters pulls a lot from a deep bag of tricks that has been filled by many of the games that have preceded it. You might think that a lot of the things it tries to do have been played-out at this point. Class-based multiplayer games are widely available. Zombies have far surpassed World War II Nazis as the go-to enemy. Can this new entry in the free-to-play market make a dent by cherry-picking elements from all over the place? Read on, dear reader. Read on.
In the hidden object genre, a sure-fire recipe for success goes something like this: start with a 19th century setting, mix in a train, an abandoned village or a dusty manor, toss in a madman bent on revenge and voila! OK, maybe I'm exaggerating (a little). The truth is, it takes deft handling of these oft-used ingredients to make a good game, and Alawar Friday's Games, the makers of Dark Strokes: Sins of the Fathers, know just how to do it.
What if I told you there was a company that could manipulate your memories to make you believe things happened in your life that never really did. Things that you regret or wish were different. You get the girl. You step on your brakes a second earlier and don't cause that accident. You never said that thing that made her walk out the door and you lived together forever. Instead of staying at your dead end job you followed your dream of living in Italy. You get the idea.
It's difficult to tell whether developer Bad Mouse Digital Art purposely used the improper plural of 'sheep" in the title of its airborne game just to be a bit edgy, or whether English being a second language for the company was the cause. As a journalist, it infuriated me far more than it should have, especially given that the word 'sheep' is then used correctly as the plural throughout the entire game!
Realm of the Mad God is a prime example of the slow rise to power certain indie game releases can experience. Originally released as a public open beta way back at the start of 2010, the game's world, visuals and features have slowly been built up brick by brick based on player feedback, before the game was eventually fully released last year.