Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. Most of my week was spent on Kingdom Eighties, which you might notice isn’t out until next week. But I had an early copy and I just can’t resist these games. I also tried some other new games and revisited old ones. And, of course, played a lot of Genshin. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it.

Kingdom Eighties: Summer of Greed

You may remember that I loved the original Kingdom: New Lands but was so bad at it and got frustrated and ragequit. I didn’t like having to restart from scratch when I lost the crown. I did manage to get to the second island, but not past that. So I was thrilled when Kingdom: Two Crowns released, because it was much more forgiving. I put so many hours into that came, it’s maybe even a little alarming. There were multiple different settings and I had to play through all of them. So when Kingdom Eighties was announced, you can imagine how excited I was — only to see Mobile left out of the launch day platforms. But now the game is coming to iOS and Android on October 16th and I got an early copy. I’ve since played through it on Normal and Hard and I do have to say this is the easiest Kingdom yet. I don’t know if I’ll try it on Cursed mode, but even Hard mode didn’t give me, someone very bad at these games, much of a challenge. I’m not complaining, as I prefer a more relaxed experience. But those who are looking for a challenge might not be so satisfied. Basically, this version takes place in the 1980’s and you play as the Leader, who recruits different teens to help him fight the Greed and stop them from taking over the town. So it has a bit of a story and is broken up into four episodes instead of islands. You also ride bikes instead of horses (mostly) and have some high tech equipment to help you. Once you do beat it, you can also try the endless mode, and that did give me a lot more trouble. So it’s possible that’s where the challenge is for those looking for one. Overall, I enjoyed the game (I wouldn’t have played through it twice otherwise) and would recommend it to anyone looking for more Kingdom, as long as you don’t mind the easier difficulty.

subpar pool

• As a big fan of Holdown, I was happy to hear that the developer was working on a new game, called subpar pool. It’s now out and is described as a combination of pool and golf. The way it works is that each run you play through a series of five procedurally generated pool tables. Instead of hitting your ball with the cue stick, you directly choose the trajectory of the ball itself. You can see how it will affect the other balls you need pocket, and it feels like you’re in more control than with a cue stick. Before starting, you select different cards to take with you. These can include challenges — like pocketing two balls with one move — or simply change aspects of the tables, like which types of balls you’ll see or whether you can adjust the starting position of your ball. Completing challenges is how you unlock more challenges, more pool tables, and just open up the game to a lot more variety. Overall, I’ve been enjoying my time with it, but I do wish there was a glossary to explain some pool terms. For example, I’m still not sure what a “long shot” is exactly, so I get them by accident but haven’t figured out how to set them up. There was also one challenge that was driving me crazy and it was either bugged or I didn’t understand it at all. I needed four flawless tables in a single run, but the number kept going up and down within a run and it didn’t make any sense ti me. I finally got it, but that slowed down my momentum for a bit. In any case, the game is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of pool or golf.

Extinction Eclipse Mobile

I don’t have a lot of experience with real time strategy (RTS) games, but I still wanted to give Extinction Mobile a try. You basically need to build different kinds of ships, then send them off either to mine materials from asteroids or help defend your space station. One thing I’m a little concerned about is that it seems that you start the next level with the ships that survived the previous one. So I’m not sure if that could lead to a situation where it’s too difficult to survive and you might have to start the whole thing over. The second stage did have me struggling a bit, so I’m a little worried about the third. I find it a bit tricky to manage all my ships in real time. If you like these kinds of games, though, I recommend watching some of my gameplay video to see if it’s something you might be interested in.

Pizza Hero

I had some good fun with Pizza Hero back when it first released, but lamented that it was so short. I also didn’t see any reason to replay levels to unlock new pets if I already beat the game. But the developer has been hard at work and released a new spooky map for Halloween that includes new pets, monsters, and even snacks. It took a few tries, but I managed to get through it and also unlock some of the new pets. It was a bit hectic and I didn’t always get the toppings I wanted, which made it more difficult. But it’s very much worth playing, especially since it’s free with ads and an IAP to remove them. I still don’t really understand the difference between all the pets, and I’m once again in a position where it doesn’t really make sense to keep playing. So I’ll likely just wait for the next content update, assuming there is one.

Genshin Impact

And last, I continued exploring the new area that was added in Genshin Impact’s 4.1 update. I also started the archon quest, which took me into an underwater prison. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that, but I was interrupted today by a new event focusing on poetry in Monstadt and Liyue. It’s always nice to see older characters come together for an event, and Paimon had some of the best moments in today’s story. I do still feel burnt out on building characters and farming for materials, so for now I’m holding off on pulling for new characters and waiting until one comes along that I absolutely have to have.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also finished watching Only Murders in the Building and was a little disappointed that the main characters took so long to figure something out that I had guessed several episodes back. Still, it was good fun and I can’t wait for more. I also started the second season of Yellowjackets and boy, is it a trip. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time for more of My Week Unwrapped!