County Fair

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was having a right awful time with my mum.  Here's the Daily Deal for May 10.




Enjoy.

~Dexie

Taking a Bit of a Break

Hey there peoples.

I'm really sorry, but I think I need to take a tiny break from blogging for a bit.  Schedules are changing and wedding planning is getting done, so I'm trying to make sure I don't overwork myself.  I'll still post links every day, but I may not review them.  Hope things are okay with you <3

~Dexie

Game of the Week Day!

Helloo!

Today's the day for me to give you guys my game of the week, so let's get started :D




Toda'ys Daily Deal is Shaolin Mystery: Tale of the Jade Dragon Staff.  You play as a young rebel girl, who watches her best childhood friend get taken prisoner by some guards.  You need to find and help your friend, as well as figure out why he's claiming to be the true emperor of the realm.

Gameplay is really good, very similar to the Treasure Seekers Series:




Find hidden objects in the areas and put different things together to work with the environment.  There are also puzzles and specific hidden object scenes that grant you inventory items as well. :)  Graphics are lovely, very smooth and well-done.  Soundtrack is also just as lovely, very appropriate (if a bit stereotypical) for the setting and story.  All in all, definitely a good buy.

Difficulty: ♥♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

Now, for my favourite game of the whole week :)




Vesuvia is the match-3 game where you're stranded on a desert island, and have to make your way to safety while finding hidden clues, overcome by your desire to solve them as you go.  Gather your resources and use your wits to solve puzzles and stay safe :)

Gameplay is really neat, you've got a big interactive matching map, that isn't just match-3, there's also things you need to find and puzzles to solve to go forward.  Graphics and Soundtrack are lovely, definitely helpful when getting engaged and keeping up with the story.

Difficulty: ♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

Enjoy!

~Dexie

May 5th - Mahjongg Genre and City of Fog

Hello hello!

Gonna try my best to get two reviews in (kind of), I'm re-sharing a post from a mahjongg game I tried a while ago due to craziness of my life.  Please be patient with me >.<




Dark Dimensions: City of Fog is a hidden-object style game, whose story revolves around you as a detective, investigating the strange disappearance of a city from the early 1900s.  There's strange things goin' on in there, and it's up to you to figure out what those mysteries are.

The gameplay in this is really nice, it's very smooth and the tutorial is super helpful.  Graphics are amazing, and definitely one of the more captivating things about the game itself.  Soundtrack is good, not too obvious but not without notice either.  All in all, well worth the $3 I'd spend on it if I had $3. :)

Difficulty: ♥♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥♥




Venice Mystery is a Mahjong (sp?) style game, where you clear the board of tiles to advance to the next level.  The more tiles you clear in a short time, the better bonuses you get.

The general story idea behind it is that you've discovered a letter from someone letting you know that Venice is slowly sinking.  It's up to you to find the Doomsday Machine that will put a stop to the flooding, but the ancient plans have been ignored for a long time.  Can YOU stop Venice from becoming an underwater city?

Gameplay is simple point-and-click, basically what you do is you activate a certain kind of tile from the selection at the bottom, and then clear those activated tiles from the play board itself until you find the keys that let you advance to the next one.  You can also pick up one of many power-ups that let you have a slight edge over the play field for a while.

All in all I really did like this game, the graphics are really nice and the soundtrack is well-fit and soothing to listen to.  The puzzle-y nature of the game definitely keeps me going but relaxed, so I'd put it up there with moderate casual in terms of the kind of involvement the game begets.  Definitely something I'm buying later, so I can play it when I'm done studying for my godawful exams!

Difficulty: ♥♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

Now for some other Mahjongg-style games:




Happy Saturday.

~Dexie

May the 4th Be With You: Turtix

Hello hello.

Still working out getting things sorted financially and academically, so for now only one game shall be blogged, and it's adorable.




Turtix is an adorable side-scrolling adventure game, where you play the magical apprentice turtle Turtix, who is in charge of finding the gem shards after you cast a spell that went horribly wrong.  Save the turtles, collect the gem pieces, and beat enemies to save the day!

Gameplay is really straightforward in this, I prefer to use the keyboard since I'm on a laptop, but you can also use mouse and joystick if you have those readily available.  The graphics are ADORABLE, and kind of remind me of Sonic the Hedgehog and Jazz Jackrabbit.  Soundtrack is just as awesome, so all in all this game is a gem (lol) to play.  It's suitable for light casual players, but definitely has the ability to suck you in and keep you playing.

Difficulty: ♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

Have a good one peeps.

~Dexie

May 3rd - The Secret of Hildegards

Helloo~

Still not feeling quite myself, so only one game review today.  It's the Daily Deal, so get the spare change out :D




The Secret of Hildegards is a hidden object puzzle game that centres around Abigail, the newly appointed heiress of the House of Hildegard.  Her father has disappeared, and entrusted the entire estate to you (Abigail), and the secrets in the house need to be protected at all costs.

Gameplay is fairly standard, one neat feature I noticed was the puzzle that you have to do to get out of a hidden object scene.  There's a sliding tile puzzle that you have to solve in order to get the handy item that the scene gives you for later playing.  The graphics are nice, but the resolution leaves something to be desired; fullscreen is really blurry in some parts.  Soundtrack is nice, definitely appropriate for the game environment.  I did find it a bit difficult to get into, but I'm going to chalk that up to not feeling much like myself and say that it is indeed worth it as a sale, and probably even at full price too.

Difficulty: ♥♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥

Cheers, lovelies.

~Dexie

No Entry Today: Feeling Right Knackered

Hello peeps.

Sadly I do not have the energy for a blog entry today, it's been a bit of a rough day on me, so I'll post a link to the Daily Deal for those of you who want it, I'm so sorry it's late.




Have a good one.

~Dexie

Mayday! Be Richer and Vesuvia

Hello there!

Today's gonna be a short day, I'm not feeling so hot so I'm going to briefly cover the Daily Deal and a game I randomly tried (and used a punch card freebie on).




Be Richer (the sequel to Be Rich) is a building/strategy game very similar to the Build-a-lot series of games



So anyway: There's no definitive plot, really, it's just a lot of building to expand your business and get rich, which is kinda cool.  Light casual gamers would like it, I found the biggest thing keeping me interested was the graphics in Be Richer, they were nice but not extraordinary.  Same with the soundtrack, so all in all it's an okay game, but probably only worth it at the sale price.  Completing levels in a certain time frame also gets you Expert bonuses, which is a neat incentive to see how strategic you are.

Difficulty: ♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥
Overall: ♥♥

Now on to my random but quite lovely find:




Vesuvia is a swap-tile match-3 game that centres around you, the adventurer, who winds up stranded on a mysterious tropical island because of a mysterious storm that blows you away in your boat and eventually sinks it.  You start up a journal to mark your journey progress, and find these cryptic clues all over the island.  It's up to you to discover the secret!

I actually found this game based on the little recommendations section in the homepage of Big Fish Games.  I decided 'hey, it looks cool, let's check it out'.  Sure enough, I downloaded the trial version, started playing and found that I couldn't stop, so I used my punch card freebie on it.  The gameplay's really neat, you navigate through a map of tiles to match up, and you uncover pieces to finish the level.  The tutorials are super helpful for this.  Graphics are really nice, but I can't exactly pinpoint what it is about them that makes me happy, so just take my word for it xD.  Soundtrack is also lovely, very appropriate and unobtrusive.  All in all, well worth the price.

Difficulty: ♥♥
Engaging: ♥♥♥♥
Graphics: ♥♥♥♥
Soundtrack: ♥♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

Have a good night!

~Dexie