Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. January has been pretty quiet as far as new releases go, but that changed this week. If you’re a puzzle fan, there’s a number of games worth checking out. I’ve also been spending time with Glitch Games’ upcoming Another Tomorrow and it’s got plenty of head-scratchers! Anyway, if you’re looking for a new game to play, continue reading to see what I thought about this week’s new releases.

Milo and the Magpies

I’m a big fan of Rusty Lake’s and Second Maze’s adventure games and was bummed when their latest, Milo and the Magpies, released on PC but not on mobile. But thankfully, it made its way over to iOS and Android devices this week. It’s a short game that can be finished in under an hour, but I really enjoyed my time with it. The idea is to help Milo the cat get home despite some magpies interfering. Each chapter takes place on one screen and it encourages experimentation. You basically poke around and see what happens before using what you’ve learned to solve the puzzles. It’s a very playful game with some wholesome humor and even a few secrets to find. For $1.99, I really don’t think you can go wrong with this. I’m also working on a walkthrough if you need help.

Please, Touch the Artwork

I had no idea what to expect going into Please, Touch the Artwork, but was pleasantly surprised. It’s a puzzle game in which you’re shown an abstract painting and need to match a second painting to it. It’s a bit hard to explain, but each canvas is split up into sections by lines and when you tap on a segment, it turns the segments surrounding it the selected color. The goal is to make them match in the minimal number of moves. New colors and new mechanics are added as you progress, so it remains challenging. Overall, I really like the game, but I have a few complaints. First off, there’s an undo button but it doesn’t rewind the move counter. So if you really want to get a perfect score, you have to reset the puzzle instead of using the undo button. It seems silly to me, as it defeats the point of even having an undo button. Also, the puzzles are procedurally generated and that could result in some unfair layouts. For instance, I’m stuck on a level that wants me to fill in both lines and colors, but the sample painting has black over black and I can’t tell where the lines are. The developer is working on fixing that, though, and there’s are a ton of other levels I can work on in the meantime, so it’s not a dealbreaker. But hopefully that will be fixed in an update. If you’re a puzzle fan, I think you’ll enjoy this one. You can watch some of my gameplay videos below to see what it’s like.

El Hijo

I had been hoping El Hijo would come to mobile ever since it was announced for other platforms. I’m a fan of non-violent games (though sometimes I do like killing things) and it seemed like a game that could work well on a touchscreen. Unfortunately, now that it is available on mobile and I’ve spent a little time with it, I’ve learned it’s not really for me. First off, the buttons are tiny and poorly placed on my iPad. The only customization available is between three three presets and they all have tiny buttons close to the bottom of the screen. It means it’s very easy to miss them if I’m not looking. I also encountered a bug where the crouch button wouldn’t work even though I was in an area where it should have. I kept getting caught bc it wouldn’t let me crouch. On top of that, it’s very hard for me to read the environment and tell where I can move and where I can’t. It makes sneaking around difficult because I’m not sure if I can go a certain way until I’m already there and blocked off. It’s also too easy to get stuck on things in the environment. I was willing to give it a chance when the checkpoints were forgiving and didn’t set me back too far. But once I got the slingshot — which is used to distract enemies — it became more punishing. I made it past one section and then ran to a spot I thought was safe, but I couldn’t actually get through. I then got caught trying to backtrack a bit. And the game set me back to the start of the level. It just feels too clunky for me to enjoy it and I’m not feeling very motivated to put up with its quirks in order to get through it. You can watch some of my video below if you want to see it in action.

Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Dry Twice

Wet Dreams Don’t Dry was my first experience with Leisure Suit Larry and, even though I didn’t finish it, I enjoyed the time I spent with it. Now the sequel, Wet Dreams Dry Twice, is available on iOS and it thankfully gives a pretty thorough recap of the first game if you need it. That helped me fill in the gaps from where I stopped playing. That also means, though, that the first 45 minutes I spent with the game were mostly recaps and tutorials. I still enjoyed my time so far with it, but the controls seem less intuitive than with the original. It’s also frustrating that I use the magnifying glass on everything but rarely does anything. In the first game, everything I examined got some response from Larry but here nothing happens at all. It makes it hard to figure out what to do next because I’m not getting any hints from the environment or the items in my bag. So I’m currently stuck trying to figure out how to arrange catering for Larry’s wedding. I feel like I’ve tried everything, and without feedback it seems like a waste of time. I’m not sure if these are bugs or that’s just how it is, but it’s definitely making the game more frustrating and less enjoyable than the first one. You can see what I mean if you watch some of my gameplay video below.

DGI: Soldier

DGI: Soldier is part of a bundle of three room escape games, each with a different theme. I started with this one and it takes place in a bedroom with bunk beds that appear to belong to four different soldiers. They each wrote letters to their families that you can read to help jog your memory. The whole game is a simulation intended for that purpose. You need to look for clues and solve puzzles to piece together your past. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with it yet. It seems fine for a room escape game, but it didn’t grab my attention enough. It also didn’t help that the letters were hand-written intentionally hard to read with no way to see them in print, as far as I could tell. I’ll see about going back to it, but until then you can watch some of my gameplay video below.

Genshin Impact

And last, Zhongli’s banner finally arrived again in Genshin Impact. And once again, Mona came at around 80 wishes. I kept going and he finally graced me with his presence at 158 total wishes. So it was a bittersweet moment. I’m thrilled to have him because he’s both incredibly useful thanks to his durable shield, and insanely fun to play because of his attack animations. But it’s also depressing to have spent so many of the wishes I saved up just to get one copy of him. It also means I’m going to have a harder time getting Yae Miko on the next banner, and Kokomi is just a pipe dream at this point. But at least I have him and I don’t regret getting him. He also allowed me to bring out my Ganyu to use as a sniper again since his shield protects her from being interrupted. So in a way it feels like I got two characters instead of just one. On top of the new banners, there’s also the Lantern Rite festival going on, which features lots of mini games, including one that’s basically Shadowmatic. So right now I’m just doing all the events and trying to squeeze out as many primogems as I can from the game so I can still get Yae Miko. You can watch all my videos of Zhongli and the Lantern Rite below.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also finished watching the first two seasons of Snowpiercer and pretty much yelled at it the whole time. It was so bad but I couldn’t stop watching and will likely watch the third season when it’s available to stream. I also caught up on And Just Like That…, which is also really bad but I can’t look away. I’m looking for a new show to watch now on HBO so I’m open to recommendations. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!