Summer Session Game Review by Tabitha Akery
Game Rating = 1/5
Summer Session is a social interaction game. Spend the summer attending classes, interacting with others, and looking forward to the weekend. Make the right choices to increase the chance of getting a date.
Wildhollow Game Review by Josh Komon
Game Rating = 3/5 Balls
WildHollow, by Karjasoft is a new take on empire building. The story is a mix of bizarre and contrived, but the dialogue indicates that the game’s creators are fully aware of this. The game is littered with tongue in cheek humor. The idea is that the hero returns to his or her home town to find that the family farm has been destroyed, and that mom and dad are no where to be found. This hero needs to simultaneously rebuild the farm to its former glory, and find and possibly rescue the parents.
GAMEPLAY
For the most part, Wild Hollow is a point and click game. There is a world map, with plenty of locations, and plenty more which can be unlocked. Within each of these locations, there is a still frame of the town, farm, orchard, or whatever the location is. At these locations, there are people and buildings to click on, each of which starts up a conversation. The player is given plenty of options for what to say or ask the people of the towns. Through these conversations, the hero is given quests to undertake, each of which is rewarded with money or items. There are a few other things that can be done at each of these locations. Items are sometimes hidden in the scenery. Some of these are quest items. Others are statues which the hero keeps as part of the collection. Lastly, there are a few mini-games which can be played at some of these locations. These are incredibly simple, and a bit stupid, but at least they are a change of pace from the monotony of point and click.
All of these actions ultimately lead to the acquisition of money. This money can be used to buy things, but most importantly, to help rebuild the family farm. Once the first repairs have been made, the hero can start to keep animals, feed them, raise them, and sell them.
GRAPHICS
While most graphics in Wild Hollow are still images, they do have a polished look. The design for the characters are very creative, albeit a tad on the intentionally cheesy side.
AUDIO
The music changes by location, and while the sound designers tried to put a bit of a modern twist on it, the game still sounds like every other medieval game.
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Wild Hollow tried a few new things, and to some degree they worked. But all in all, this was a pretty unoriginal game.
THREE REASONS TO BUY
-The game is loaded with humor.
-The character designs are quite colorful.
-There are plenty of things to do.
THREE REASONS NOT TO BUY
-$19.99 is a bit much for a point and click game.
-The game is mostly devoid of action.
-The game play can be monotonous.
OVERALL
Wild Hollow is an average gaming experience, but just is not worth the time and money. It receives a 3/5.
World of Goo Game Review by Tim Peters
Game Rating = 5/5 Balls
World of Goo by 2D Boy must be seen to be believed. It started in 2005 as Tower of Goo; just another rushed-together game in the Experimental Gameplay Project. But thanks to its runaway success, this prototype mutated into a complete game that defies expectations and demands attention. World of Goo is a construction/puzzle game like nothing you’ve played before, and nothing you’ll ever play again.
In each of World of Goo’s stages, all you have to do is get the little balls of goo from their starting base to a pipe somewhere else in the level. Building towers and bridges and whatever else the demented designers have in mind for each level is as simple as dragging one ball of goo to another ball of goo. But these aren’t your usual building blocks. They sway, they collapse, they shudder. They’re alive and they’re always watching you. Even when you sleep. (more…)
Quantz Game Review by Josh Komon
Game Rating = 4/5 Balls
Puzzle games tend to be the most popular amongst downloadable games, making competition between them extraordinarily high. With so many titles to choose from, only the most creative and polished games can thrive. Quantz, by Gamerizon is one of these games. It has the look, feel, and challenge of a top notch puzzler.
GAMEPLAY
There are three different modes of play in Quantz: Strategy, Puzzle, and Action. The reality of the situation, is that there is only one mode of play, with very tiny variations. That one mode of play is pretty interesting though. Each stage is a floating cube, with little colored balls, known as Quantz, on the six different sides. Players can move the cube around, and fire other Quantz at the surfaces. The idea is to get four of similar color to be connected. When that happens, they explode. In addition, if they are surrounding another colored Quantz, it will fire off an explosion that can be used to clear others. The last thing players can do, is rotate the cube quickly, and try to rearrange singular Quantz, as they can roll along the surfaces, and even be flung into the air, and moved to a different surface.
It is a very challenging game after the first couple of stages. It requires strategy and a little bit of dexterity and timing. Some of the challenges are fun, but some are just plain frustrating. While each stage is different, after enough play time, they all start to look the same, and ultimately, play the same.
GRAPHICS
There are no people, places, or realistic objects in the game. Everything is futuristic, cubic and/or spherical. Everything is also expertly designed. Between the menus, backgrounds, objects, and fluidity of the motion, Gamerizon has developed the best graphics on a downloadable game. They are every bit as good as one would expect from a puzzle game on a console, or from a store bought DVD ROM game.
AUDIO
Not to be outdone by the look, the sounds of the game set the bar. It is mostly futuristic sounds and ambience, but it is of the highest quality, and greatly contributes to the gaming experience.
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Lining up colored balls has been done before. The inclusion of the floating cube makes Quantz a very creative and original game. Three dimensions only adds to the originality of the game.
THREE REASONS TO BUY
-$12.99 is a great price for a game with so much high quality content.
-The puzzles are challenging, and interesting.
-The presentation is flawless
THREE REASONS NOT TO BUY
-The puzzles can be frustrating.
-Game Play is a bit repetitive.
-While there are three game modes, they are all basically the same.
OVERALL
Quantz is a good game, created with incredible care and detail. If it were more fun, it would get a perfect score. Still, Quant receives a 4/5.
Delicious Emily’s Holiday Season Game Review by Rachelle de Bretagne
Game rating = 4/5 Balls
Story line.
It’s the seasonal time, and Emily has to do all she can to cater for the discerning customers of the lodge in the snowbound village of Snuggford. From cooking and serving food, clearing tables and keeping the restaurant in tip top condition, Emily has her work cut out for her. It’s time to decorate and to make the hotel as cheerful and welcoming as possible. Follow Emily through seasonal events which include elements of fun such as snowballing, skating and winter activities.
Timetrap, a Swedish based game development company released a new downloadable platform game for the PC and Mac today. We have posted the trailer below and will add a review later this month.
You can get the PC and Mac demo’s on their site at
http://www.timetrap.se/emberwind/
The game costs $12.
System Requirements:
Windows PC – System requirements
Windows XP or newer,
50MB of HD, 256 MB of RAM,
1 GHz processor
Mac OS X – System requirements
OS X Tiger or newer,
50MB of HD, 256 MB of RAM,
G4, G5 or Intel processor
Nightshift Legacy game review by Ashley Raybourn
Game Rating = 3/5 Balls
Tired of every seek-and-find puzzle game being the same? NightShift Legacy: The Jaguar’s Eye might provide a short spurt of relief! It is hard to come up with a lot of variations on such a tired genre but with the inclusion of different and outside the box puzzles between seek-and-find rounds, your eyes will get a break while your brain picks up the slack.
Parking Dash Game Review by Michael Pitre
Game Rating = 4/5 Balls
Playfirst’s Parking Dash is a fresh, fun and innovative take on puzzle/strategy games. The premise of the game – managing a parking lot business – may sound strange at first, but the concept is executed with such charm that its peculiarity quickly becomes one of its best features. Both easy to learn and yet increasingly challenging and complex, Parking Dash is a game that merits the attention of any
casual gamer.
While many games of this genre are typically released without much of a background story, Parking Dash features a “Story Mode” where Karma’s story is presented in faithful comic book style. Along the way, a whimsical map illustrates the various (and surprisingly eclectic) locations of Karma’s fifty-level journey. Alternatively, Parking Dash also includes an “Endless Shift” mode that provides additional challenge and replay value.
Your goal is to transform Karma’s initially dingy parking lot into a hopping, high profile fountain of wealth. To do this, you’ll need to win the hearts of your customers, and in turn, their tips. You’ll also customize your parking lot, as well as Karma’s abilities, by earning upgrades.
The first level begins with an optional tutorial that briefly walks you through some of the game’s mechanics. Karma’s varied interactions include serving as a valet, washing dirty cars, and even appeasing impatient customers with vending machine snacks. All of this is done through a painless point and click interface, allowing you to stay focused on the action.
Because the waning mood of your customers affects their generosity, your most basic task is to park and return their cars as fast as possible. Each customer is accompanied by a floating clock, indicating the duration of their stay. You’ll need to use this information wisely to match the more accessible parking spaces (i.e. not blocked by other cars) with the vehicles that need to be retrieved sooner, and vice versa. To make things more interesting, the parking spaces begin to light up in various colors; matching car color with parking space color results in bonus points. Consecutive color matches create combos that boost your earnings even further. The game enjoys throwing new elements into the mix as you play, and you’ll soon find yourself involved in a mind-boggling decision making process.
While the world of Parking Dash isn’t exceptional in terms of appearance, the graphics have a colorful and distinctive cartoon-like quality. This, mixed with the vibrant, hand-painted scenery, make the game pleasant to look at. Parking Dash features an excellent, upbeat soundtrack, crisp with the sound of real instruments. In fact, the game’s partnership of sound and animation produce a surprisingly engaging experience. Cars “vroom-vroom” and billow smoke while being driven. Happy customers jump for joy, and being tipped results in a shower of gold coins. If you’ve managed to spark a customer’s fury, they’ll race from the parking lot with tires squealing.
My 60-minute trial of the game went by in a flash and left me wanting more. Unfortunately, I found that the price of the full game wasn’t competitive enough compared to other downloadable games on the market. However, those who aren’t deterred by the price are in for a treat. Pricing aside, Parking Dash is an addictive and memorable game. My rating: 4/5.
Peggle Nights Game Review by Sarah Guy
Game Rating = 5/5 Balls
Peggle Nights, an arcade-style computer game developed by Popcap Games, is a welcome sequel to the original Peggle. Peggle Nights offers pinball style game-play, following a formula that is nearly identical to that of its predecessor.
My Tribe Game Review by Andrew Hockenbroch
Game Rating = 5/5 Balls
Real time strategy meets The Sims in My Tribe, and the result could hardly be better.
GAME PLAY – 5/5
Have you ever found yourself playing a real time strategy game and wondering what type of city you could build if you did not have a pesky opponent always trying to foil your resource gathering and destroy your buildings? My Tribe fits this bill exactly. My Tribe is about turning a small, primitive tribe into a culture of art and science using the individual abilities of each member of your tribe. The people are indeed created as individuals. One might be naturally strong and a good woodsman while another might be smart and a good researcher. In fact producing new people requires the mating of two existing people and produces some combination of the parents’ attributes. Almost the entire game consists of dragging your people to the tasks you want them to complete, but with mysteries to solve and technology and potions to experiment with this rarely gets dull. If you do get a little jaded watching your little people gather resources just close the game. Yes, that is right. They will still be gathering resources and otherwise living while you are gone!
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