My Week Unwrapped: June 11, 2019 – Bubbles the Cat, Trick Art Dungeon, BlipBlop, Sky, Apollo, Booger for iPad and More

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. This has been a pretty busy week, so I’m going to cut this intro short and get straight to the games.

Bubbles the Cat

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I like cats and have a cuddly white cat of my own. So the one-touch platformer, Bubbles the Cat, is kind of made for me. It’s a fully premium game with multiple skins to choose from and unlockable hats. You can even shoot rainbows out of your bum if you so desire. The controls are simple, as it’s an auto-runner. You simply tap to jump, and double-tap to use the power-up you acquired. It can be pretty difficult, though, especially if you try to collect all the cat treats and do so within the time limit. So far, I’ve only beaten the first world, and the second world is already proving difficult for me. The levels are longer and you only have one life, so any mistake sets you back to the start. It might be too stressful for me, but I do appreciate that the developers added accessibility options like invincibility that allows you to explore a level without worrying about death. You can’t collect stars in that mode, but it can be useful for practicing if you’re having trouble. Or it’s great for kids or anyone who just wants to play the game their own way without worrying about how it should be played. So if you’re worried about the game being too difficult, know that there’s always that option before quitting altogether. If you like these kinds of games and also appreciate a good challenge, Bubbles the Cat seems like a no-brainer. It’s a premium game done right and it puts the user experience first, above all else. You can also check out some of my gameplay videos below to see if it’s something you might like.

Adventure Escape Mysteries: Trapmaker 3

I mentioned it last week, but now my walkthrough guide for Trapmaker 3 is complete, including all videos. This concludes the Trapmaker trilogy, although the ending does imply he might return. In any case, it was a pretty entertaining game, and luckily none of the puzzles required fast reflexes. You do need to play the first two games before you can play this one, but now’s as good a time as any to catch up. And make sure to check back here when the next Adventure Escape game is released.

Apollo: A Dream Odyssey

I had high hopes for Apollo: A Dream Odyssey, and it started off promising. The low-poly art style is easy on the eyes and the hand-painted artwork of the cutscenes is downright beautiful. The puzzles even start off interesting, asking you to walk a path of the rainbow. Unfortunately, it’s a very short game that feels more like a demo, and the puzzles are a mix of cute and clever and and others that are just annoying and tedious. There’s some backtracking that seems entirely unnecessary, and a weird hidden object section that felt out of place. The weaker puzzles might have been easier to overlook if the game was longer. But at its short length, it’s weak points stand out more. I wish I could recommend it, but it needed more time in the oven before being released. You can read more of my thoughts in my review, and I’ve also included a walkthrough video there.

Trick Art Dungeon

Trick Art Dungeon is another game I started last week but hadn’t finished in time for my roundup. I managed to do so now, but only after the game wiped some of my progress and forced me to catch up again. It’s also a pretty clunky game. I really wanted to like it, but it really needs some polish. The controls are sometimes off, and there are fast-paced sections where every split second counts. If you mess up due to the controls not behaving, it can be quite frustrating. It also doesn’t save mid-chapter, so unless you’re ok repeating sections you already completed, you can only take breaks in between chapters. That seems shortsighted, especially for a mobile game. You also can’t skip cutscenes you’ve seen already. All these little things add up to make a clever and moving game more frustrating than it should be. There’s just a lot of little oversights. For instance, torn pieces of photographs are found throughout the game, but there’s no way of knowing where to find the ones you’ve missed. The game doesn’t tell you if you’ve found all of them in a chapter. This means I definitely won’t be going back to look for them. I hope this game can get some updates to improve the overall user experience, as there is something special here. It just takes some patience to put up with its shortcomings.

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories is yet another game I mentioned last week. I had played close to an hour and then took a break, only to find out that it hadn’t saved my progress, so I had wasted my time. The developer updated it this week to add a more robust save system, so I gave it another go. I even switched to my iPad for more details, since it had iCloud sync. I was enjoying it, despite accidentally blowing myself up with my own dynamite, and had a couple of attempts at the first boss. Unfortunately, the save system still needs work, as it seems to be buggy. If I take a break or die, I can continue, and it places me outside the boss’s door. But all the other doors are closed again and the map doesn’t realize that I’ve already opened all the chests. Also, some of the events I’ve seen already are still interactive, as though I haven’t gotten them yet. If I do anything after loading the save, it’s lost if I die or quit again. So I’m stuck in this perpetual loop unless I can complete the level without dying or taking a break. It’s making it hard to enjoy it, as much as I want to. So for now, I’m going to put it on hold until the developer sorts out the save system. If you’re not bothered by that sort of stuff, though, give the game a try. The atmosphere, exploration and writing are all top-notch.

Mosaic: BlipBlop

BlipBlop is basically a playable ad for the upcoming PC and console game, Mosaic, from publisher Raw Fury. It’s a super basic clicker, where you can upgrade the amount of blops you get per blip (click), or upgrade the speed of the AutoBlip, which collects blops while you’re away or just too tired to blip for yourself. The third and final upgrade is the vault cap, which allows you to store more blops in the AutoBlip vault. Again, it’s very basic, but there’s also something satisfying about the sound effects and animations. And it’s all a big joke, as the game knows it’s wasting your time and that’s the whole point. There’s even fake ads related to Mosaic and the dread of dead-end jobs. The game is free without and IAPs or real ads, so give it a try if you’re curious. But be careful about getting sucked in and watching all your time drain away.

Sky: Children of the Light

I’d been waiting for a beta invite for thatgamecompany’s Sky for quite some time, and this week it finally came. I’ve only spent a couple of hours with it so far, but I’m really enjoying it. I only wish it was full screen on my iPad, as it makes it hard to get fully immersed when it’s only taking advantage of part of the screen. Anyway, I wrote up my impressions here, so I’ll let you read that instead of repeating myself.

The Lost Ship

Not much to say here. Syntaxity recently updated their oldest game, The Lost Ship, to double its content. I have a walkthrough for the original game here, but since so much changed, I started a new walkthrough here for the expansion. It’s a work in progress, so bear with me. But if you completed the game in the past, now seems like a good time to revisit it.

GravityMan

I mentioned GravityMan last week, a puzzle game in which you use gravity to guide an astronaut to the three stars in each level and then to the exit. I’ve played more this week and added to my walkthrough. It’s still a very user-friendly game that’s free with only opt-in ads for suits that don’t seem to affect gameplay. It hasn’t been too difficult yet, but there are several different modes, so it may get harder. Anyway, it’s an easy recommendation. If you don’t find it to your liking, just delete — nothing gained, nothing lost!

Booger for iPad

I feel bad saying anything negative about Booger for iPad, a multi-touch game that only works on bigger screens. It’s sort of like Twister for your fingers, as you need to stretch slimy boogers around the screen without touching obstacles in your way. I actually like a lot about it and competed the first world. But the second world was frustrating me too much. I probably would enjoy it more without the harsh scoring that docks points if you take too long or spend too much time touching obstacles before clearing the level. It seems like a game that would be more fun if it was relaxed and didn’t have a scoring system. Still, check out my video to see if it’s something you might like. It might also be fun to play with friends or a significant other.

Fuse ‘N Drop

I liked the look of Fuse ‘N Drop, so I gave it a try, since it’s free. I do think it has an interesting concept. It’s a block-pushing puzzler where you sometimes have to fuse with other blocks and sometimes have to destroy part of your blocks so they can fit into the holes. I didn’t stick with it for long for a number of reasons, though. First, it crashed when I opened the second level. Then, it froze up when I tried to open the fourth level. So it seems very unstable. But besides that, there’s a gameplay aspect that ruins the whole game for me. You see, there’s a move counter for each level. That’s usually fine. The problem here is that each level consists of several stages, and they all share the same number of moves. The game rewards you a number of stars based on how many moves you used, whether you wasted any or not. But since it doesn’t tell you where you wasted them, it can be difficult to track down your mistakes. I would much prefer each individual stage have its own move counter. In its current state, it just feels like it’s wasting my time. And I have too many games to play to spend my time playing several puzzles over just to find the one where I could have done better. If that doesn’t bother you — along with the stability issues — by all means, give it a try.

Breaking Bad Criminal Elements

As a fan of Breaking Bad, I decided to give the new mobile game, Breaking Bad Criminal Elements, a try, despite knowing it would likely be a boring free-to-play mess full of timers and IAPs. I wasn’t wrong. It’s basically a re-skin of Narcos, another drug empire game by the same developer. There are some interesting ideas, but at the end of the day it’s just a lot of timers. Sure, you can bypass the timers if you pay, but I prefer to just delete the game. It’s too bad something more interesting couldn’t have been done with the IP, but this is what I’ve come to expect from mobile games made off of popular shows or movies. Anyway, give it a try if you want, but keep your expectations in check.

LEGO Tower

I’m really not sure what to make of LEGO Tower. It’s still in beta, but there was no tutorial, and all I was doing was sending people up the elevator to the floors they requested. I could also change pieces around and assign people jobs, but I got bored after a few minutes and didn’t wait around to see if it gets more interesting. Hopefully there will be more to the full release when it’s out in July.

The Path to Luma

And last but not least, I decided to download The Path to Luma and play some of it, since Apollo reminded me of it. I’m actually far more impressed with it than I was with Apollo, and it seems to be longer. It’s also completely free without any ads or IAPs. It’s fairly old, so you may have played it already. But if not, give it a try. You can also watch some of my gameplay video below to see why it’s like. Unfortunately, the cutscenes wouldn’t record properly, so you’ll have to play the game yourself to see them.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! They weren’t all worth playing, but you should still be able to find some good games in this list. I also saw The Secret Life of Pets 2, which I actually liked even more than the original. In fact, if you want to know why I’m always sleep-deprived, watch the trailer for Chloe the cat. Although, playing way too many games might also be a contributor. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying at the moment, and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!

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