Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. Again, this roundup will actually cover two weeks, as I spent the previous week working on a single walkthrough so there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about. But this week had a lot of notable releases, so that makes up for it. There’s quite a bit to discuss now, so let’s get started.

The Darkside Detective

I had heard good things about The Darkside Detective since its release in 2017 on PC. I had hoped it might one day come to iOS and, although it took its time, that day is finally here thanks to Akupara Games. I’ve so far played through the base game that consists of six cases and still have the three bonus cases left that I’m looking forward to. The game is a relatively easy point-and-click adventure that’s very tongue-in-cheek and has tons of pop culture references. I absolutely love the soundtrack and all the humor. It’s one of those games where you’re going to want to tap on everything to see the descriptions because all the dialogue is entertaining. They also ported the sequel at the same time, so I’m excited to have even more to play when I finish the first game. If you’re a point-and-click fan, I highly recommend grabbing The Darkside Detective. But you can also watch some of my gameplay videos below to see what it’s like.

Adventure Escape Mysteries – Canine Cases

Haiku Games surprised us last week with a new Adventure Escape game not long after Puzzle Lovers released. This one is called Canine Cases and has you taking on the role of a dog detective. You’re able to talk to animals, who are often the only witnesses, giving you a leg up on the investigations. This game was short at only four chapters, but there were some satisfying puzzles to solve and the story was fun, too. I wouldn’t mind more adventures with Nitro and Alex, and it sounds like we might get some eventually. Definitely play this one if you’re an Adventure Escape fan. And I have a complete walkthrough guide here if you need help with any of the puzzles.

Spooky Pixel Hero

Spooky Pixel Hero is the latest precision platformer from Appsir aka Darius Immanuel Guerrero, the developer behind games like DERE Vengeance. It seems easier than his other games, at least from the 50 levels I played so far. And I like that they’re all bite-sized so you never get sent back too far if you die. At least, from what I’ve played. And I love the whole meta story about this being a retro game that the developer of the DERE games is getting inspiration from. My only real complaint — which is unfortunately a big one — is about the controls. I played on my iPad and the directional buttons are so big that I kept pressing the left arrow when I meant to press the right. It’s just far for my thumb to reach. I still managed to get through the first 50 levels that way, but it was frustrating. And looking at the controls on my iPhone, I think I would have the opposite problem there because I have an iPhone Mini. On-screen buttons in portrait mode feel very cramped on such a small screen. And since there’s no iCloud sync, I can’t just pick up where I left off and see how it goes. I would have to catch up on my iPhone and see which device is more doable. I might still try at some point, but for now I’m stopping where I am because I have so many other games to play. I still recommend trying it for yourself since it’s free to play and supported by ads. If you like it, you can remove the ads for just $1.99.

Zoeti

Zoeti is another game that was first released on other platforms and came to mobile this week thanks to Akupara Games. It’s a turn-based roguelike in which you have a deck of regular playing cards play poker hands to use different skills. It’s an interesting concept and I like the battles themselves. I just wish the story and dialogue were better. I find myself zoning out and wanting to skip the dialogue because it’s just really not that good. I might still play more, but for now if you want to see what it’s like, I recommend watching some of my gameplay video below.

Ouros

Ouros is another PC game that got ported to mobile this week and it’s a great fit for touchscreens. It’s a little hard to explain, but the idea is that you have a loop or a line and a ball that runs along it. You need to tug on the nodes around it to move and shape the loop or line so that the ball goes through the numbers in ascending order. It starts off simple, but by the third chapter I was starting to see it open up and become far more challenging. The fourth chapter actually stumped me a few times but I managed to complete it. There’s still a lot more chapters I haven’t played yet and I do plan to go back to it. I’m not sure how I feel about it at the moment, as I’m still getting used to using the nodes to make the shape I want. It’s an interesting idea, though, and certainly different than anything else I’ve played. I recommend watching some of my gameplay video, especially towards the end, to get a better idea of how it works.

Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery

I wasn’t a big fan of Hidden Through Time 2: Magic because I felt the scenes were too busy and the clues didn’t give enough information for me to feel like I wasn’t just tapping on every pixel to find the hidden objects. Still, I wanted to give Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery a chance. And so far, it does feel more accessible and less like it’s trying to trick me. But I’m losing my patience with it because twice now while I was recording I got a pop-up ad for their other games that I couldn’t close. I had to kill the app in order to continue. Hopefully this will be fixed in an update, but it makes it difficult to record videos, so I probably won’t play any more for now. If you like these kinds of games, though, it might be worth checking out.

Vampire Survivors

If, like me, you saw there was a Vampire Survivors update yesterday but ignored it because it seemed to be just bug fixes, you might be surprised to learn that it was actually a surprise content update. The Darkasso update adds a new area called Room 1665. You need to make your way to the bottom in order to unlock the relic called Darkanas. I used Sigma to beat it and it was getting hard at times. You need to kill 100 enemies in each room in order to unlock the next, and they get quite beefy the deeper you get. There’s more to unlock, including skins for certain characters that give them bonuses. But they’re tied to Adventures that I haven’t played through yet. So there’s still a lot for me to do. As always, I appreciate how much free content these developers give us. We are truly blessed.

Genshin Impact

And last, I decided to wish for the new character in Genshin Impact, Emilie. Thankfully, I won the 50/50 so the cost wasn’t too bad. I’m having fun with her, especially when paired with Arlecchino. Basically, she works off-field and does damage as long as there’s a burning reaction taking place. It’s an interesting twist and I’m a fan of off-field characters so I decided to go for her even though there’s a whole new area with lots of new characters coming soon. Other than that, there have been a few events but nothing too exciting. I’ll be playing a lot more when the 5.0 Natlan update arrives.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also watched the fourth season of The Boys, which was quite the ride. After that, I watched The Boys: Diabolical, which was a lot better than I expected. I saw the movie Kneecap, about a hip hop band trying to keep the Irish language alive. I also caught up on the latest season of The Dragon Prince and am now watching the final season of The Umbrella Academy. 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!