Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. There was a big surprise release this week which I absolutely did not see coming. Night in the Woods was announced for iOS years ago but we never got any sort of release date. But now it’s out and I can finally play it on my platform of choice! I also spent a lot of time with Genshin Impact this week, catching up on fishing and exploring the new islands. I didn’t play too many new games this week, but did continue some that I started over the last few weeks. There isn’t a ton to discuss, but I still have plenty to say, so let’s get started!

Night in the Woods

It had been so long since Night in the Woods was announced for mobile that I was seriously doubting whether it would ever happen. I certainly didn’t expect to just release without any warning, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise. Part of the reason it took so long was that they were trying to perfect the touch controls and do them justice. It shows, especially out in the world. You simply drag left or right anywhere on the screen to move your character, Mae. You tap anywhere to jump, and if there’s something to interact with, you tap the little icon that pops up above it. It all works really nicely. Everything is snappy and feels pretty natural. That said, I did find the rhythm parts a little awkward on my iPad because of the location of the buttons. I’m also not very good at rhythm games. Thankfully, you don’t get penalized for messing up. All that happens is the song you played doesn’t sound as good as it should. Aside from that, I was struggling a bit with the controls of the retro computer game, Demon Tower. There’s a short cooldown period after you swing your sword twice, which I assume is the same on all platforms. But the problem is that the buttons are a little awkward to use on my iPad. Both the dash button and attack button are big, but they’re close enough that I would often end up dashing when I meant to attack. I also couldn’t find the key on the second floor and eventually gave up. I really like the rest of the game, but I’m not sure I have the patience to deal with the intentional clunkiness of the computer game. So I hope I don’t have to actually get anywhere with it to complete the game. Anyway, I’ll definitely continue with this one next week, but if you want to see what it’s like now, you can watch some of my gameplay videos below. I’m also giving away a free copy of the game over here on my Twitter page.

Relumine

Relumine is a puzzle adventure game reminiscent in some ways of Monuement Valley. You play as a little girl who is looking for her father. It’s not clear how they got separated, but there is something managing going on here, as evident from the creepy shadows and drawings you encounter. While you’re not playing with perspective in the same way as Monument Valley, you do use perspective to solve the puzzles. Aside from just walking between platforms, you can actually move some of them — by rotating the camera. For instance, you might stand on a yellow platform and then rotate the camera, making that platform rotate, too. It’s an interesting concept but also a bit disorienting. Since the camera and pieces both rotate at at the same time, instead of just the pieces, it’s a bit hard to keep track of what exactly is happening each time you rotate. I do like it, though, and plan to continue playing. I also started a walkthrough here if you get stuck and need help.

Dungeons & Miners

I was waiting to play more of Dungeons & Miners because the developer had some updates planned which included lots of bug fixes. I continued my game after two updates and have mixed feelings about it. I love the look and feel, as well as the eerie soundtrack. The core ideas are interesting, where you mine for ores and then explore dungeons, using the ores and coins you find to buy upgrades. The problem is, I’ve been playing for 1.5 hours so far and all the dungeons look the same. The paths are randomly generated, but I’ve only seen two types of enemies — slimes and skeletons. I don’r even know why each dungeon has a different name, since they all look the same. I just want to see some variety. I also have no idea how to find crystals, the material I need for all upgrades available to me. I did finally find a traveling merchant and got a special jar from him to collect souls in. But all this feels like it’s taking way too long to progress and I’m not sure when I’ll see something noticeably different. I’ll probably stick with it for a bit to see, but if it just continues like this I probably won’t last much longer. I also encountered a weird bug where the game let me have a flying pig companion before the story gave him to me. So now I have two flying pigs overlapping each other. So it appears it still needs so bug squashing. You can watch more of my gameplay video below and I’ll hopefully have more impressions for you next week.

Tesla Force

I’m having a similar situation with Tesla Force. I enjoy the core ideas, but it’s getting very repetitive. If I choose they’re doable missions, I get out alive and have something to show for it. But doing the same kind of mission over and over gets stale. If I try the harder ones, I get overwhelmed too easily. I want to go for the harder ones, but it seems like maybe I’m meant to grind the easier missions for materials to buy permanent upgrades and perk slots so the next run will be easier. It’s very slow going, though, and I’m not sure how much longer it can hold my interest like that. I am glad it got iCloud sync, though, because it means I can grind a bit on my iPhone here and there and maybe speed up the process.

Genshin Impact

Once again, Genshin Impact ate up most of my gaming time this week. I continued exploring the new islands while building up my new character, Raiden. I also fished like crazy to be able to earn the Catch, a free weapon that’s basically made for her. But I’m going a bit out of my mind from the fishing and hearing Paimon’s voice constantly. I may need to cut back on it so I don’t end up hating the game. I still have a lot to explore, too, but there’s a new fishing event so fishing is never far from my mind. I also tried to mix up my Spiral Abyss teams a bit and it didn’t go so well. But I’ll work on that over the weekend. And last, I made a guide for the 9-cube puzzles in Watatsumi. They were hard to figure out, but once I did I just felt the need to make a guide and explain how they work. So if you’re stuck on those, try my guide and let me know if it helped you!

Sky: Children of the Light

Again, not much going on in Sky this week. The Season of Flight is still going on in the beta version and I did make a video showing off all the cosmetics. I’m collecting my seasonal candles every day and planning to make videos of the spirits and quests once I have enough to unlock everything at once. So bear with me! The cosmetics this season do look might nice, though. I will say that.

Zookeeper World

And last, I tried the latest Apple Arcade addition, Zookeeper World. There’s nothing wrong with it if you’re a fan of Candy Crush and don’t mind that it basically feels like a free-to-play game without the IAPs. You basically play match-3 puzzles where you match three or more of an animal to clear them. You earn coins from that, which you then use to buy animals and other upgrades for your zoo. You can also buy power-ups, but with in-game currency instead of money. I’m sure some people like this, but I have way too many enjoyable games to play to waste my time with yet another cookie cutter match-3 game that doesn’t do anything different.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also finished watching Clickbait and, as predicted, the ending was maddening. The show deliberately tricked the audience in order to make their big reveal work and it was so insulting. It was still fun to watch, but so infuriating in the end. I also watched The Mitchells vs the Machines, which was far better. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’ve been enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!