As a whole, the hidden object genre tends to rely largely on motifs of mystery. It should come as no surprise, then, that developer ERS Game Studios has a series of HOGs based off of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. These adventures see you, the detective, aiding Poe's recurring sleuth staple Dupin, the protagonist of some of the books in which these games are based, but who never actually appears in The Gold Bug.
Full, shameful disclosure: The Book of Legends is my first Aldorlea game. Not for lack of interest, but mostly time: the creators of the Millennium and Laxius Force series, Moonchild, and 3 Stars of Destiny are known for their engrossing and lengthy RPGs filled with side quests, secrets, and multi-path stories. The Book of Legends lives up to all of these promises and more, solidifying Aldorlea a spot on the list of developers I must make time for.
Since the launch of The Tribloos back in 2011, dozens of time management games have been released that tend to focus on a different layout, giving The Tribloos 2 a feeling of freshness, even if it is a sequel. We're back once more to help our furry friends repair their home after a series of storms, and the gameplay here is just as fun as it was the first time around.
Meet Joe Danger. He's that big-nosed daredevil in the red unitard, and the star of his own popular physics-based racing game. Joe Danger rose to fame on the Playstation Network in 2010, and now he's bringing his death-defying stunts to the tiny screen in his first mobile outing: the very fun and impressive Joe Danger. And I'm not just saying that because we have the same name.
Before starting this review, I spent a good ten minutes trying to decide how best to categorize Act 1 of Kentucky Route Zero. That was a complete and total waste of time. This is not the kind of game that can be neatly placed in a box, which will make it something of a pain to own if you ever move to a different house. But you need to get over that, because we may well have an early contender for 2013's game of the year on our hands.
According to everything we think we know, space is a really, really big place. So big that one hero isn't going to cut it. Bubble Gum Interactive has the solution though, and that's to enlist young people everywhere to play Space Heroes Universe. This kid-friendly online game has players teaming up to stop Lord Shadowbot, socializing and playing all kinds of games in as brightly colored a version of space as you'll ever see.
The story of the Headless Horseman goes back to the Middle Ages, but most of us are familiar with the 19th century version penned by American author Washington Irving. Fenomen Games' new hidden object adventure Cursed Fates: Headless Horseman embraces this 1820 rendition, as well as certain aspects of director Tim Burton's 1999 film, Sleepy Hollow. The result is an imperfect, narratively-muddled game that, despite its various issues, offers up some reasonably spooky fun.
I didn't really "get" Dungelot at first. It's a grid-based roguelike that feels very inspired by IGF winner Desktop Dungeons, in which you delve deeper and deeper into the dark demonic realms, slaying enemies and grabbing loot - all by simply clicking on squares.