Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. It was another busy one, though I’ve been dealing with my cat’s health issues and didn’t have as much time to play as I wanted to. Still, there were some notable releases this week and I also caught up on some games I’d already started. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it.
Happy Game 🙂
After being spoiled with Creaks coming to Apple Arcade a bit earlier than other platforms, I was disappointed that Amanita’s next game, Happy Game, was not scheduled to release on iOS until much later than other platforms. But it was worth the wait and it’s finally here on both iOS and Android! It’s not a long game, and it’s not very happy either, but I highly recommend playing it if you’re a fan of their other games. I would liken it more to CHUCHEL than the others, since it’s split into vignettes instead of a full-blown point-and-click adventure. It’s also very playful and about poking and pulling, though it is a bit more puzzle-y than CHUCHEL was. I should add that it is very weird and very creepy, so an appreciation for that is pretty much required. I’m glad to see that Amanita is constantly trying new things and this was winner for me. I even played through it in one sitting because I had a hard time putting it down. If you need more convincing, you can try watching a bit of my gameplay video below.
Forward: Escape the Fold
I’m a big fan of card-based roguelikes, though there are quite a few available these days so I tend to stick to the ones that are more accessible and easier to get into. Forward: Escape the Fold is exactly that. Each run, you make your way through a dungeon made up of cards. It’s made of of three lanes and depending on which one you’re in before you move, you can go either straight or diagonal. So if you’re in the middle lane, you can move to any of the three cards in front of you. But if you’re to the right or left, you can only choose between two cards. If you land in front of a monster, it will automatically attack and its health will be deducted from your armor and/or health. There are item cards to pick up that give you perks, though some are cursed. There are potions, gold and shield cards to aid you on your journey, but also poison that will slowly drain your health for a few moves. There’s a ton of depth to the game thanks to all the different items and perks you can get. I somehow won my first playthrough, but then I tried the second character and haven’t won yet. I got very close thanks to a card that turned all potion cards into swords, but I got cocky and the final boss killed me. I’m not done trying, though, and there are a lot of other characters to unlock that I want to test out. So I can see this game will consume many hours for me. And it’s only $1.99, which is crazy cheap. My only complaint is that it doesn’t have iCloud sync. I’ve been playing on my iPad but would love to switch to my iPhone when I’m not home. I hope it can be added in the future, but I haven’t heard anything implying it might. So I suggest playing on the device you think you’d want to play more on.
Princess Farmer
Princess Farmer is another game that got ported to iOS this week. I was worried about all the IAPs since the game is premium on other platforms. But it turns out that there’s just an ad removal IAP and some currency that buys cosmetics. Otherwise, the game appears to be the same. I haven’t played that much yet because I’m waiting for them to fix a bug with restoring purchases. But I like what I’ve seen so far. It’s a visual novel combined with match-3 puzzles and both the writing and the puzzles have promise. I like the quirky story and dialogue and the puzzles feel different from anything I’ve played before. The way it works is you have columns of plants and you can pull out up to five at a time and place them in other columns. As expected, the goal is to make matches of three in a row, column or diagonal. I only played through the first chapter, so I can’t say how these mechanics will evolve. But I’m looking forward to playing more once the bugs are ironed out and I’ll hopefully have more impressions for you next week.
The Enchanted Worlds 2
Syntaxity’s Enchanted Worlds 2 has been out for a while already, but since I hadn’t played it yet, it took advantage of it being free this week to finally do so. It’s not a long game, as I finished it in about 1.5 hours, and it recycles locations from the original. It was also on the easy side. So I’m not sure I would have wanted to pay for it, but if you’re a adventure games fan, it’s worth grabbing and trying for free.
Squiggle Drop
I started playing Squiggle Drop last week but only got through through the first 30 levels then. I’ve since pushed through to the end and completed all 100 levels, but it was not without frustration. When the game allows for some creativity, it shines. But there are a number of puzzles that require such rigid solutions, they’re hard to even replicate once you know what you need to do. I started working on a walkthrough, but so far I’ve only done the first 40 levels, as it takes a lot of retries to get the right solution on some levels. I’ll probably make videos for all 100 levels, but I’m taking my time for my own sanity.
Cyber Manhunt
Last week, I thought I encountered a bug that was preventing me from finishing the fourth chapter of Cyber Manhunt. But it turned out I just missed one piece of information I was supposed to highlight. I went through the chapter again and completed it. I did resort to a walkthrough at some points, though, as the timed sections where you have to hack a phone felt too rushed. I didn’t want to have to restart it so I just looked up the answer. I like the game as a whole, but I really do think those timers could ease up a bit. There isn’t even any real consequence for running out of time other than having to restart that whole sequence. I would much rather have time to look through the phone contents properly and think about the puzzles instead of feeling pressured to cheat. Still, I enjoyed my time with the game and hope the rest of it comes to iOS. Since this isn’t the complete game, as it’s missing the fifth chapter and the DLCs, it’s hard for me to recommend it whole-heartedly. I would recommend it with the caveat that you have to wait and hope that the rest of it does come to iOS and you’re not stuck going to another platform to see the ending.
Genshin Impact
And last, I’m still slowly making my way through the new area and world quest in Genshin Impact. There’s also a fun little battle battle event going on this week that ends with the reward of a costume for Lisa. I still have a lot of exploration left to do, but since there’s no time limit on it, I’ve been going at a bit of a snail’s pace. I might be burnt out a bit or it might just be that I have other games I want to play. But I do like knowing that area is there for me to explore when I have the interest. Until then, I’ll just keep doing my dailies and save for future characters I want.
And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also binged Extraordinary on Hulu. It grabbed me on the first 10 seconds and never let go. I hope it gets another season. If you have access to it, I highly recommend watching it. I know superpower series and movies are kind of overdone these days, but trust me. This one is really good. It’s about a young woman who lives in a world where everyone has a superpower except for her. It’s British and brilliant and you should watch it. Anyway, let me know in the comments which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!
Hi, just wondered if you completed the walkthrough for Leonardo da vinci 2?
Apologies if this is a dupe request; thought I’d raised it before, but couldn’t find it.
I’d be keen to see your take on Magicus. For me, it edged out Hero Emblems as a match-3, due to new mechanics keeping the game fresh, and the fact that the game requires you to repeatedly leverage its deep build customization systen to mechanically “break” the game in order to progress.
Older game, but didn’t get any attention until toucharcade’s inscrutable “hot game” algorithm picked it up recently.
I didn’t buy it because the graphics turned me off. Is it really that good?
I thought so, but maybe I was just in a rare mood when I picked it up. 😅