My Week Unwrapped: July 12, 2020 – Bird Alone, Wave Redux, Petri, Soda Dungeon 2, Felix the Reaper 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. Once again, Apple Arcade games are hogging all my attention. Apple is on a roll with the last few releases. I finished my review for Beyond a Steel Sky and have been spending the last couple of days playing Amanita’s Creaks. It’s a pretty big game, so I’m not finished with it yet, but I’m working on a walkthrough here and should hopefully have a review once I complete it. There weren’t too many notable games this week, but the standout for me was Bird Alone. Continue on to find out why.

Bird Alone

Coronavirus has been especially hard on me since I live alone and have been distancing from family and friends. My cat and my games are basically the only things keeping me sane. So I’ve been enjoying opening up Bird Alone every morning to talk to my parrot friend, Sammy, for a few minutes. He usually gets philosophical and tries to make me feel better if I tell him I’m having a bad day. We also write poetry together and plant musical flowers. Since it’s played over a lo period of time, I don’t have a review yet, but you can read what I wrote about it earlier in the week here. I also have some more YouTube videos up on my channel if you want to see more than a couple of days’ worth. I think if you know what you’re getting into, that it’s not really a game, you should be happy with your purchase.

Petri: Blobs from Space!

I played some of Petri a little while back, and I found it a bit stressful with the timers. The developer has since made a new mode called Puzzle, in which there’s no timer, but instead you try to complete each level in a certain number of moves. I do like it more, but the movement of the blobs makes it still feel a little too random for a puzzle game. It’s still an interesting concept, and I like the idea of competing with others on the daily puzzle, but I just don’t think the mechanics will hold my attention. I do appreciate that the developer is actively improving it and the controls feel a lot better than before. It’s also free, supported by ads with an ad-removal IAP, so give it a try and see for yourself if it grabs you.

Felix the Reaper

Felix the Reaper doesn’t release on iOS until later this week, but I got a copy ahead of time and played through the first chapter. I was looking forward to this game for a long time, as I’m a big puzzle fan and it’s hard to resist a chubby dancing reaper. The concept is an interesting one, as each level has you pause time and rearrange things in the environment so that when time starts up again, one part of a long chain of events is triggered, eventually leading to someone’s death. The catch is that Felix can’t be in direct sunlight and has to move around in the shadows. You can control the shadows somewhat by changing the direction of the sun and also moving objects around so they cast new shadows. What I don’t like about the game is that it scores you on how many actions you took, how many times you got hit by sunlight, and even how long it took you to solve. You can ignore those to a point, but you won’t be able to access all the content if you don’t improve your scores. I don’t think puzzle games are a good fit for speed-running and it distracts me knowing that every mistake I make is being logged. It takes away a lot of the fun of working out a puzzle. It also doesn’t help that the controls for moving the items around is very finicky. I still haven’t completed any of the second chapter yet, but I’ll try to before it releases so I can give further impressions. If you want to see it in action, though, you can watch some of my gameplay video below and decide for yourself if you want to buy it come July 15th.

Wave Redux

Wave Redux is a high score chaser in which you need to change directions and create “waves” to pick up collectibles and earn points. The controls are simple but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy game. If you do nothing, your piece will automatically move to the right. If you hold your finger on the screen, your piece will move up. The idea is to use this to avoid walls and collect as many points as possible before running out of lives. You have three lives and each time you hit a wall, you lose one. It’s a unique mechanic and I like that the controls are designed around touch. But even with the four different speeds, I find it too difficult. I get especially frustrated by the power-up I sometimes can’t avoid collecting, which makes the whole screen spin. I then lose my sense of direction and almost always die before things right themselves. The game’s not really for me, but try it out and see if you fare better. It’s free to play with a couple of IAPs to make it fully premium.

Soda Dungeon 2

I never played the original Soda Dungeon, but I wanted to see what all the hype was about when the sequel released this week. I don’t really see the appeal, though, as it seems to be just one massive grind. In the time I spent with it, I just kept replaying the same battles to earn a bit more gold and experience so the next time I could last a little longer. There’s no real skill involved, at least early on, besides choosing when to attack and when to heal. You can even have the game play itself, which I really don’t see the appeal of. Anyway, it just feels like a massive waste of time to me and I won’t be playing anymore. But feel free to try it out for yourself since it’s free, supported by ads and IAPs.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Since there weren’t too many new releases I was interested in this week, I took the opportunity to continue playing Danganronpa. Unfortunately, I got bored of it pretty quickly. The insanity of the prologue got replaced by a ton of boring dialogue that had me close to falling asleep. I’ve been told I should stick with it anyway, but the game seems to stress the importance of building relationships with the other students and I just find them so annoying. I’ll consider giving it another chance on a quieter week, but right now I’m having too much fun with Creaks to even consider playing this.

Kosmonavtes: Academy Escape

I’m slowly making progress with the Kosmonavtes sequel, and finished my walkthrough for Chapter 3. I’m still enjoying it, and the puzzles are well-designed for the most part. Occasionally something seems a little too obtuse, but it makes sense in hindsight. This chapter also had a patient diagnosed with something an awful lot like coronavirus even though the developer said the game was made before the whole pandemic. Pretty crazy! Anyway, I still think it’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of puzzle adventure games. If you don’t want to spend the money right away, you can also try the free version that’s supported with ads.

Sky: Children of the Light

Not much Sky news today, but there is a new traveling spirit to find. I didn’t make a new video for it, but I have one here. Just look for the Confetti Cousin. She’s the one with the bow in her hair. As far as the beta version of the game goes, I should have the new season completed tomorrow and be able to show off the manta cape. There’s also a mysterious new spirit that showed up on a boat at home, but he’s sleeping for six days. No one knows yet what will happen when he wakes! Tomorrow is also the first day do the Season of Sanctuary, so now’s your last chance to pre-order the pass and get the bonus candles. There will also be an anniversary party this week in the office with a party hat you can buy for three hearts. Be sure to check my guides for the new season if you need any help!

And that’s everything I’ve been playing this week! I also wanted to play CD Projekt Red’s Thronebreaker, but I’m waiting for a sound bug to be fixed so I can’t record gameplay. Hopefully I’ll be able to give you some impressions next week. Anyway, I’m dying to get back to Creaks and see if the solution I thought of for the level I’m on will work. If you’re not already playing it, what are you waiting for?!

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Malo

    Hello, thanks a lot for your recommandations, my life confined in Paris was such pleasant with the games I found in your blog. Special mention to the Glitch games, her story and Telling lies. I also loved your walkthroughs and the « hi guys » pronounced at the beginning of each video !
    Pardon my English !
    Malo

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