Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I’m a bit under the weather right now, which makes it hard to record videos with commentary. So I decided instead to publish my weekly roundup a bit early. This is also a short one, but there are some solid games to discuss, some already released and some upcoming.

Circulous

I previewed Chain Reaction Games’ puzzle adventure, Circulous, about a month ago, and now the game is finally out! It’s the first chapter of many that are planned, so you do need to have some patience if you’re going to get invested. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s a great start to what I hope will be an adventure game full twists and turns. I have full review here, so I’ll let you read that rather than repeat myself. And I have a walkthrough guide if you get stuck on any puzzles and need help. If you’re a fan of adventure games, don’t miss out on this one!

The Machine’s Garden

I didn’t really know what I was getting into with The Machine’s Garden from Too Much Tomato, but I liked the look of it and I’m a sucker for puzzle games, so I instantly bought it. That turned out to be a very good decision, as I had a hard time putting it down until I completed it. This is a short game, consisting of about 35 levels, but there’s very little filler. The mechanics force you to think, and some puzzles had me stumped for quite some time. Again, I have a full review already, so I’ll let you read that. But I highly recommend this one to any puzzle fans. I also have a walkthrough here if you get stuck, but it’s much more satisfying to solve the puzzles yourself.

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition

Neverwinter Nights was released nearly twenty years ago on PC and has quite a big fan base. I never played it before, but it was ported this past week to iOS by Beamdog and it seemed like a good opportunity to give it a try. I perhaps made the mistake of starting with the tutorial, as it was long and didn’t really tell me much that I couldn’t figure out on my own just by browsing through the menus and messing with the user interface. So it took a while before I actually got to start playing. I did find it odd that the main storyline is about a plague and that it was ported during a pandemic. I doubt the developers meant anything by that, but it just seemed a bit weird. Anyway, I chose a ranger as my class and I’m not sure yet if that was a good decision. I like being able to attack from a distance, but sometimes I tap on enemies to attack and I’m not sure if it recognizes that I did so. Overall, it seems like a well-made port, even if some tutorial aspects weren’t updated to match the iOS layout. That said, I’m not sure it holds up after all this time for someone who doesn’t have any nostalgia for it. I’ll have to spend some more time with it and see if it pulls me in. Until then, you can watch some of my gameplay videos below.

Shadow of Naught

Fredbear Games is releasing Shadow of Naught on iOS this week, August 18th, after being out on Android for a little while. I got a copy ahead of time and played through it. Honestly, I’m a little confused as to what I actually experienced. There’s definitely some heavy topics covered, but the dialogue is often so awkward that I’m wondering it’s poor localization or just not written well. I do like the slick art style, but I completed the game in about half an hour and pretty much forgot it instantly. I’m not sure it deals with sensitive topics as sensitively as it thinks it does. Anyway, it’ll be out on August 18th if you want to see for yourself. You can also watch some of my gameplay video below.

Bloomer

Bloomer is another upcoming game, this time a very casual puzzler that’s similar to Broken Rules’ ELOH. Little dots automatically travel in a path and they hit tiles that are in there way, bouncing off them in other directions. Some tiles can be raise or lowered to affect the path of the dots. The goal is to get the dot to hit the glowing tile, which will then cause everything to “bloom,” filling in the pixels to make an image. It’s a nice little relaxing game if you don’t want to think too much, but in the time I spent with it the puzzles didn’t get much harder than the first ones. I’m not sure I’ll stick with it long, but if you want something that won’t tax your brain too much, it might be what you’re looking for. You can watch some of my gameplay videos below and pre-order it before its release on August 25th to have it download automatically when it’s available.

Sky: Children of the Light

And last, there was another Sanctuary bell quest in Sky. I have a guide here for any that you missed. That’s all that’s new.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also started playing the new Apple Arcade game, Next Stop Nowhere, from Night School Studio. It looks like my kind of game, but unfortunately there are some technical difficulties that prevent me from recording video. I made one video, but the voiceovers didn’t play because I had my mic on. But if I shut off my mic, it doesn’t record any sound at all. So I’m waiting now and hoping they’ll fix these problems so I can make some proper gameplay videos for you. I also finished Agents of SHIELD, which I’m very sad about. I’m now I’m catching up on the second season of The Umbrella Academy while I nurse this cold. Anyway, let me know in the comments section what games you’re enjoying — or TV series — and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!