Hi everyone, and welcome to the first installment of My Week Unwrapped of 2023! This is where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I spent most of the week working on my GOTY list, so I didn’t get to play as much as I would have liked. Still there’s a few games to cover, so let’s get started.

Rocco’s Island: Pocket Edition

I’d never heard of Rocco’s Island before, but it has been out on other platforms since early 2022. Now it’s been ported to iOS and it’s absolutely a perfect fit for touchscreens. Not only is it a point-and-click adventure, making it easy to navigate through touch. But most of the puzzles are either match-3 or 2048 (the easier version of Threes!), which are both ideal on mobile. You play as Evelyn, who finds herself on Rocco’s Island. She accidentally rings a bell that will destroy the island in 35 days… unless she stops it. She soon meets a little girl named Eva and they travel together, solving puzzles and answering riddles in order to get enough information about finding Rocco. I enjoyed the game so much that I had a hard time putting it down. I ended up finishing it after three sessions of about two hours each. The story is a bit convoluted, but I appreciate all the thought that went into it. I also love all the hand-drawn artwork and all the quirky characters. It also made me realize that I need more match-3 in my life. The game is also free to try — a pretty generous chunk of it — with a single IAP to unlock the rest of the game. So at least download it and try it for yourself. And I have a full walkthrough guide if you need any help.

Six Match

I reviewed Six Match back in 2018 when it first released and it’s still one of my favorite match-3 games. I even had a game going all this time that I only just ended this week. I had made one too many mistakes in a short amount of time and ran out bombs that could save me. But the developer just updated it to add a new puzzle mode, as well as some gameplay and UI tweaks for the main game — now called survival mode. So far I played through the first 20 levels of the puzzle mode and realized that I still don’t know every trick in the book even after all these years playing it. It’s a nice addition to the game and I look forward to playing through the rest of the 45 puzzles. I’ve also gotten back into playing the survival mode whenever I have a few minutes of down time. It really is the perfect mobile game in that sense. You can just keep chipping away at it for years if you’re careful enough not to make too many mistakes. If you haven’t picked up Six Match yet, now is the best time.

Genshin Impact

And last, there’s a new event in Genshin Impact where we need to collect a certain number of balloons before the timer runs out. It’s not my favorite, but it’s free primogems. What is exciting is that the 3.4 banners were announced and the Staff of Homa/Aqua Simulacra weapons banner is now confirmed. So im just focusing on saving for that and for Dehya’s banner in 3.5. In the meantime, I’ll just make room for other games.

And that’s everything I played this week. I also finished watching For All Mankind and am waiting for the next season to air. After that, I started watching Yellowjackets and I can see why everyone was raving about it. It’s very easy to get sucked in. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!