How dare you
I know there are people who love them, but the minigames just aren’t the draw for me.
I can’t say for certain, but in my time with it there’s been one card game, one logic puzzle game, and one Zachlike / histogram game. (All games are not available at the start, but it looks to be only gated by time.) From reading reviews it looks like there’s one more programming / histogram-results type game to unlock, and four more mini-games.
There appears to be some meta-story coming out as I do well in some of these mini games (new PDA entries that are starting to mention people).
As a Picross expert/addict, the Dungeon Diagrams game hurts my head because I can’t apply my standard solving logic.
Agreed, but it’s a nice clever little game. It’s a fun challenge to figure out what the new patterns are, given the unique rules.
On the other hand, I can’t even figure out how to do the first level of 20th Century Food Court! My problem is spawning additional trays. I know how to spawn food items, but there’s no… whatever those wiring units are on the left… to trigger more trays. What am I missing? The instructions for this mode are miserable.
Land of Devastation had a downloadable client that provided somewhat comparable SVGA graphics
I remember you could build bases and attack other people’s bases. Sadly on my BBS it was not very popular
I was enjoying the game on Game Pass, but the second time it failed to save my progress after clicking Shutdown, I had to uninstall it.
They’re deliberately miserable to encourage trail-and-error. A new tray will spawn when you deliver the previous tray correctly. You typically only need to produce one of each kind of thing, not handle multiple iterations in a loop. The difficulty with Food Court isn’t optimizing a programming solution, it’s figuring out how it works in the first place and then fitting your construction within the space allowed.
It appears to be 8 different mini-games. (Not all of them are games.) Part of the fun is discovering what the hell, so I won’t go into huge detail. All of the games are unique and interesting, most of them Zack-like twists on existing formulas, e.g. the first one you’ll encounter is an interesting Klondike variant. The meta-game stuff is also interesting and effective and not something I’ve seen done before.
The model-building mode has taken up most of my time. I’m bad at engaging with the customization elements of most games, but for some reason when it requires a certain kind of strategy and precision it gets way more interesting for me. I put the first model together and then tried to paint it, and almost gave up on it. Then I realized you need to paint the parts before assembling them entirely… (Like real model-builders do, I assume.) And then it just clicked. Really fun, even if it has me with my face two inches from the screen, trying to tape off two specific pixels…
I like the dungeon diagram one. The block matching game is too damned fast. I can’t get past the first level.
Agree. I built the first model and really enjoyed the process.
That sounds extremely realistic.
(I want to buy this game specifically for the model building)
Seriously, I got that minigame last because it sounded the least compelling, but I’ve spent the most time with it: cutting sprues, painting, taping, etc. Way better than building models in real life. We need a whole game of this.
My favorite part is that the taping subtly ignores the 3D illusion. You’re putting masking tape on a 2D image, but then the model is lit like it’s 3D.
A pretty decent one exists:
Oh wow, I’ll have to check that out!
It’s a lot of fun, and has enough depth in the model catalog that you could just concentrate on doing ships or cars or whatever if you wanted.
@triggercut made a thread for Model Builder! Here you go:
I love the look and feel and presentation of Last Call BBS. Not sure if any of the mini-games will hook me but I’m gonna keep playing and trying.
I’m totally hooked by the solitaire game with normal cards - the one already unlocked before you even download anything in-game. I always had a soft spot for Klondike in general, but the Zachtronics spin in this one is just too good. Won 150+ games already, no idea how many I played. :D