2801

This just goes to show the wide range of tastes people have. I absolutely loved the game and actually finished it.

It plays like Rogue Legacy. Each run is made easier by the gains of the previous run.

2802

I played 1,000,000 on the PC and finished it. I have no idea if it is harder on iOS.

2803

The difficulty would be fine if I remotely enjoyed mindlessly playing match-3. Even if it weren’t timed there is absolutely nothing else to the game. There are just no decisions while you’re playing.

2804

The decisions are similar to something you see in Puzzle Quest. You want to cause damage / build your shield / heal / get treasure quickly enough so as to not be pushed off the screen.

Having said that, I played a lot of it while sleep training my kid so I needed mindless. ;)

2805

Hitman Go is insidiously addictive. Insidiously for me, because in general I hate puzzlers, and am not very good at them. So every time I get stumped in Hitman Go I decide to stop playing, and then realize I want just one more attempt at solving it, and then I’m sucked back in.

2806

I played it on iOS and finished it. Absolutely enjoyed it as well. I find it harder on PC, actually.

2807

I agree. I thought I would grab it and spend a couple days going through it again on the PC, but had more trouble with the controls. Can’t put my finger on why.

2808

I’ve been playing it off and on since it was released. I don’t play for a month, but when I do I binge play until my eyeballs want to pop out of my eyesockets. I really like that game. Still haven’t beaten it yet, but now I’ll have to go pick it up tomorrow.

Unrelated but I’ve also been loving Motorsports Manager too. I just got through the Formula Britain Series, but I think I may have made a mistake by jumping directly to the Formula Asia Series. It’s kicking my butt right now.

2809

IIRC, i think the timer runs out slightly quicker on PC to account for the slightly sharper control.

In related news, he has a new game coming out soon called Smarter Than You which is pretty interesting and the successor to 10000000, called You Must Build a Boat, is also apparently in the pipeline.

2810

So, 868-hack is on sale, $3 down from $6. I can’t get any sense from online reviews whether I’m interested. Sure, the reviews are positive, but they aren’t too clear on the mechanics beyond “it’s a roguelike.” Sometimes with the redundant adjective “turn based,” which makes me wonder if these people have ever actually played Rogue.

2811

Unrelated but I’ve also been loving Motorsports Manager too. I just got through the Formula Britain Series, but I think I may have made a mistake by jumping directly to the Formula Asia Series. It’s kicking my butt right now.

Yes, it’s usually best to stick around in the tier you’ve just beaten for another season to upgrade your facilities and crew a bit further, though it usually works out in the end even if you don’t. I have to say, while the game was very addictive at the time, I have no desire to go back to it (kind of like a Kairosoft game). There’s zero depth to the stategic layer - it’s just a linear progression through better but more expensive things, with no real negative consequences to any of your ostensible choices. And there’s not enough going on in the race-day part to compensate for that, long term. It’s also marred by a couple of UI quirks that can destroy your cunning race tactics by throwing you out of the pits on softs in the middle of a downpour if you’re not careful. I’d still recommend it to people, especially Kairosoft fans, but don’t expect it to have legs like a Football Manager or OOTP. Frankly I think Grand Prix Story is a better game.

2812

Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse is 90% off ($0.99).

2813

So, 868-hack is on sale, $3 down from $6. I can’t get any sense from online reviews whether I’m interested. Sure, the reviews are positive, but they aren’t too clear on the mechanics beyond “it’s a roguelike.” Sometimes with the redundant adjective “turn based,” which makes me wonder if these people have ever actually played Rogue.

I bought it on the basis of the reviews and I was a bit disappointed, mainly because I still haven’t really got my head around the finer details of the mechanics and strategy. Basically it’s a series of one screen tile-based levels. You’ve got to get to the exit on each one without getting killed by the various enemy types, which all have predictable behaviours, and using a selection of “programmes” ie special abilities. But you want to maximise your score before finishing the level, if possible, and the main way of doing that increases the number of enemies on screen - it’s a very clear risk/reward dynamic.

2814

Hmm, just read that Icewind Dale is coming to iOS.

2815

I saw what you did there.

2816

I dunno if anyone has mentioned this yet, but Inflation RPG is free and has been consuming minutes and hours of the last day or two of my life. The idea behind the game is to get as far as you can, or gather as much money as possible before 30 turns have ended. Any items that you buy you get to keep on your next “life”. These items balance starting stats, and how your abilities scale as you gain levels, letting you swap items out at different points along your journey. There’s a lot more to the strategic portion of the game than I’m letting on as well, so it’s probably worth checking out since it’s free.

2817

I’d never, ever have downloaded that based on the app page. “Exciting game!” “100 lvele up!” “Over 100 levels from just 1 battle!” From the latter, I can see where “inflation” enters the title.

I grabbed it and I’ll take a look at it at some point.

Unstoppable Gorg is currently free, down from $5. It seems to have stopped me, however. I got about 4 levels in and ran into a level that was too hard for me. I’m not turned off enough to delete it, but I’m not very motivated to return, either. The main differences from the bog-standard tower defense rules are that the turrets are mounted on discs that you can spin, and a need to invest in income-producing turrets rather than gaining income from blowing stuff up. The disc rotation of course requires that you actively do that, and I don’t seem to do that very well.

2818

I loved Unstoppable Gorg (on the PC). It’s one of my favorite tower defense games. As long as it’s similar to the PC in terms of difficulty it is definitely beatable. Sometimes you really need to babysit your rings and tweak them. Sometimes it was a batter of continually nudging one around to keep the ships in your turrets line of fire.

2819

Inflation RPG was pretty much as terrible as the app page implied. It’s not clear why the game has a map, since the only thing you do is wander around waiting for a random encounter. The map controls the difficulty level of the encounters, but it might as well be a menu. When you do get a battle, you and the monster take turns automatically kicking each other in the shins until one side loses. Since this is over very fast, it’s generally not clear what’s happening or why.

If you lose, you don’t die, you just lose 5 of your allotted 30 battles for this game. When you win, you gain a few dozen levels and can divide bonuses between 1 or 2 of your stats. If you have enough money, you can buy equipment upgrades.

It’s Progress Quest with a few minor interruptions where you buy upgrades. Perhaps there’s more to the meta-game between games, but the root gameplay is so dull it’s hard to imagine why you’d care.

2820

If it’s meant to be a joke, I think the app store page is brilliant: “You can increase your levels to over 100LV from just 1 battle! An exciting game of steady progression.” Yes, steady.