My Week Unwrapped: November 6, 2017 – Million Onion Hotel, Peregrin, Starman, Abi, Ruya, SIMULACRA and More

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Hi everyone and welcome to another jam-packed installment of My Week Unwrapped! I’ve been very busy over the last seven days watching both Stranger Things and 3%. How does one find time for all these great games and TV shows? If you figure out the secret to immortality and/or time travel and/or cloning, please share it with me. Still, I somehow managed to play a lot of games this week even without those coveted powers. So, without further ado, I give you My Week Unwrapped.

Peregrin

After my first few minutes with the puzzle adventure game, Peregrin, I was so sure it would be one of my favorite games and an easy recommendation. Unfortunately, game-breaking bugs hampered my experience and left me unwilling to try and finish. I already wrote a full review, so I’ll let you read that instead of rehashing my thoughts. I also have a partial walkthrough here that I might continue if the bugs get ironed out.

Million Onion Hotel

Million Onion Hotel is by far one of the weirdest games I’ve played. I still need to collect my thoughts on it before I write a review. It’s frantic and fun and I’ll say it again…weird. It’s a high score chaser in which you tap onions as they sprout, turning that square of the grid red. When an entire row turns red, you clear the board and a level. But as levels progress, the game gets harder and harder. So you need to try and get doubles and triples early on if you want to be prepared for the later levels. Your main enemy is the timer, and you get Timer Onions after clearing a level. That’s the only way to get more time on your clock. Clearing a single row only gives you one Timer Onion, while a double row will give you more of them, and well as a fever mode that adds fruits, hearts, Onion Knights, and all sorts of weird things you can grab for bonus points. You’re going to need to try and get as many doubles as possible if you want to survive and get a high score. But that’s easier said than done! There are also boss battles that occur every twenty levels. I’m still unable to defeat what I think is the final boss, as he seems impossible. But my high score is over a million. I’ll try to write a proper review when I get a chance, but if I don’t, consider this a recommendation. It’s a crazy, sometimes nonsensical game, but it’s tons of fun if you like frantic games. It consists primarily of tapping, so there’s no fancy swiping involved, making it more about speed and strategy than skill. It can get repetitive after a while, especially having to re-watch the start of each story scene before you can skip it. But if you have the money to spare and want something unique, this is it.

Starman: Tale of Light

I’m going to try and write a review for Starman tomorrow, so I won’t say too much here. But it’s a terrific puzzle adventure for fans of the genre. There’s no filler, and the puzzles constantly surprised me — and often stumped me. My only real complaint is that the character moves a bit slow for my liking. But areas are fairly small, so it’s not unbearably slow. And it’s worth putting up with to experience this gem. There are some puzzles that require quick reflexes, though, and they can be tricky to pull off. You’ll need some patience for those, but they are satisfying to solve. Overall, this was one of the better puzzle experiences I’ve had recently and highly recommend it.

Abi: A Robot’s Tale

I had high hopes for Abi: A Robot’s Tale with its post-apocalyptic Tale of two robots on a journey to find out what happened to all the humans. The artwork has character and it does some impressive things. Unfortunately, the game as whole was not so enjoyable for me. You can read my full review here and see my walkthrough here.

Ruya

If you’re looking for a relaxing game that doesn’t ask too much of you, Ruya might be it. But if you’re looking for a challenge, you won’t find it here. The artwork and music are the full package, but the gameplay feels a bit lacking. This is how it works. Each level has a board of circles filled with little colored heads. A shape appears to the left and you need to match same-colored heads in that shape in order to clear them. Then you’re given another shape. At the bottom of the screen you have three people, one of each color, with numbers above their heads. As you match heads, that color will count down. When all three colored people have counted down to zero, you’ve completed the level. The thing is, there’s no score really. And the move counter is confusing. On top of that, you often end up waiting for a color you need or just end up with a shape you couldn’t have predicted. It’s still a good time-waster when you’re bored and looking for something soothing. But it hasn’t gotten its hooks in me. I find it easy to put down instead of wanting to play “one more game.” You can watch some of my gameplay video below to see if it’s something you’d like.

SIMULACRA

Ahhh SIMULACRA. I finally finished the game! I thought the ending was a bit weak and I didn’t enjoy having to play through it multiple times to try and get the alternate endings. It desperately needs a way to fast-forward it, as it could take 15-30 minutes of mostly content you’ve already seen. After watching that three times, it soured my experience just a bit. I still thoroughly enjoyed the game as a whole and would recommend it to anyone who likes these lost phone games. It’s creepy and polished and impressive the whole way through. It’s also played on your schedule, so you don’t have to wait for texts to come in like in some other text message games. I just wish they made the last part easier to play through multiple times to try for the alternate endings. I also want to go back and find the Easter eggs I missed or didn’t finish. So you’ll likely hear more from me about the game. But aside from a somewhat disappointing ending, it’s a solid experience.

Yesterday Origins

I’m still stuck in a cell with a murderous hog in Yesterday Origins, but I have made some progress and plan to chip away at the game. I like the setting, the animations and voice acting are great, and I’ve been enjoying what little time I’ve spent with it so far. I just hope I don’t resort to cheating if I can’t find the way out on my own. I don’t want to say too much about it since I’m still early in the game, but keep an eye out for more about it in the future.

Strayed

Strayed is an interactive novel in which you’re driving and hit a cat-like creature and have to decide what to do with it. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but it’s written well and is holding my attention. I also thought it was pretty perfect how my cat was crying the whole time I was recording gameplay video of it. The game itself has no music or sound effects, so my cat provided the soundtrack. Anyway, you can check out that video below and see what it’s like.

And that’s everything! I’ll see you back here for more next week! Let me know in the comments section what games you’re playing!

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