2018 is almost coming to the end. Before we step into the holiday season, here are some quick thoughts on the mobile games we played in November 2018.
Solitaire: Cooking Tower – Sticky Hands Inc.
Digital solitaire is a game that most people who owned a computer from decades ago would be familiar with more or less. Of course, before it was a thing for PC, it was played with actual cards and a game designed for solo. Solitaire: Cooking Tower takes the solitaire formula and adds in some effects, which accumulate coins that unlock different menus in the in-game restaurant. There are little almanacs and decks to unlock, as well. The game itself is fairly easy with the one card dealing solitaire and different decks have some added benefits. The game itself is colorful and has some joyful music. While the cooking tower portion feels more like an afterthought to give this game an illusion of more than a popular card game, it still ticks the boxes for a quick and relaxing match on the go.
Piffle – Hipster Whale
Piffle is an arcade game that revolves around shooting piffle balls into different blocks to clear the dropping board. Set as a cute game with our main character dressed in a cat costume and the piffle balls are little round cats that makes meowing sounds when it diminishes blocks with customizable elements, this game also focuses on increasing the difficulty by not only having a numeric value increase in the blocks but also introduces different types of blocks, different elements on the board to pick up as a boost and also power ups for the piffle balls or character to help throughout. Well thought out and a nice twist on a familiar games style and design makes this one stand out. It’s addictive, challenging and cute. What more could you ask for?
Scriptum – Adver2Play
With the more frequent appearance of games using augmentative reality in mobile games and the increasing hit of real escape rooms, Scriptum attempts to transform your own room into an escape room via the screen of your mobile device. The idea is absolutely a great one. However, in its execution, at times it still leaves a bit to be desired and that lies simply in polishing out the buggy bits particularly in the room transformation and the fall back to reality to rescan and the timed session not stopping. There are still some issues, such as interacting with some clues, however, the puzzles themselves aren’t too far-fetched and have a satisfying level of challenge. In time, when these bugs are polished with a few more bugs (maybe they have as I played an earlier version in October), this could be a fun 15 minute session to enjoy. Just remember to clear out a “3×3 diaphanous area” as specified in their game description and the setup is fairly simple and hassle-free (when it all works). There is only one room escape puzzle so its a 15 minute sessions which feels like a nice way to test the waters and polish up this AR room escape concept.
Bunnymare: Circus Escape – Hybrid Humans
At first look, Bunnymare is a cute puzzle game. It uses a bunny trapped at the circus that needs to navigate through the ever changing stage to get each of the candies scattered in the order specified and then get to the ending hat. There are various bunnies to use. There are dangers to avoid. You can put up walls to avoid obstacles and there are also moving platforms. While the setting itself and in turn, the puzzles designed are the heart of the game, it is this cute style that makes this one so charming to play. The puzzles itself aren’t especially complicated but the difficulty does get more complex as the stage gets further. The first few levels are set to reveal new elements one by one. It requires both reflexes and fast thinking to put certain plans into action and a decent level of pre-planning or simply trial and error to find the solution.
Tomb of the Mask – Playgendary
Tomb of the Mask is an infinite procedurally generated vertical labyrinth arcade game. Packed simple levels full of traps and enemies as well as power-ups, it gives this game some interesting twists. The procedurally generated elements gives this game a freshness as the level of difficulties has not specific flow. However, the labyrinth outlines and the collecting coins and power-ups in a certain trajectory to navigate cleverly through is all part of moving from one stage to the next in this game. It is simple concept but with enough twists to keep it interesting. Plus, the levels also generate chests that can offer in-game currency of coins collected which can in turn be used to unlock power-ups as well. In-game currency is always a good option especially for those getting free games and not wanting to spend more on in-game purchases to move forward.
This wraps up November’s Mobile Game Round-up. What have you been playing on the go? Share it in the comments below.