CHUCHEL By: Amanita Design Amanita Design's Samorost 3 was one of my favorite games of 2016, and it's still one of my favorite point-and-click adventures ever. One thing that stood out to me was the number of little details in each scene and objects to interact with that weren't necessarily related to the puzzles. For instance, in a forest scene, there were three cicadas that you can tap on to get them…
Kingdom Rush Vengeance By: Ironhide S.A. Sometimes it's fun to play the villain. That's the idea behind Kingdom Rush Vengeance, the latest tower defense (TD) game from Ironhide. This time, you're controlling an army of monsters instead of goody-two-shoes heroes. It's not the first time a series has done this. In fact, one of my favorite TD games, Legendary Wars, got a sequel that did the exact same thing. Monster Wars flipped…
Humbug By: Dunderbit Earlier today, I read a sort of post mortem from Radiangames' Luke Schneider about his recent release of Slydris 2, which I've been pretty obsessed with over the last week. In it, he talks about how stressful it is to release a free-to-play game on the App Store, especially as a solo dev. Instead of creating a game, feeling good about it and selling it to people, the developer…
Slydris 2 By: Radiangames While I adore my iPad and all the adventure games I've played on that nice big screen, my first love is still my iPhone. It's basically glued to my hand, so by default any games that easily play with one hand in portrait mode are going to get more of my attention. And that means that I'm always on the lookout for relaxed, endless puzzle games that can…
Golf Peaks By: Lukasz Spierewka / Afterburn Games I have a strange relationship with golf. I enjoyed playing miniature golf as a kid on family outings. And I've even tried some regular golf and didn't find it completely terrible. I still wouldn't make it a hobby, though. And you wouldn't be able to pay me to watch someone else play the sport. That said, I acknowledge that it translates well to video…
Into The Dark : Narakan By: ORC PUNK, LLC I'd been looking forward to Into The Dark : Narakan ever since it appeared in the pre-order section of the App Store, as its stylish minimalistic artwork helped it stand out. I also liked the idea of a portrait mode, turn-based adventure game with roguelike elements. Knowing there was an endless mode also got me excited, as often I get absorbed in a…
Persephone By: Plug In Digital / Momo-pi I was cautiously optimistic about trying the new mobile puzzler simply titled Persephone, named after the Greek queen of the Underworld. I loved the idea of killing yourself as part of the puzzle, and the artwork looked bright and polished. But not knowing anything about the developer, I was worried it might be too gimmicky and skimp on the actual mechanics. However, after just a…
Euclidean Skies By: kunabi brother GmbH / Miro Straka I'll be honest here. As much as I like puzzle games, I've never been very good at Rubik's Cube. So when Miro Straka's Euclidean Lands released last year, I was excited about it, as it was a very unique game, but I had a bit of a rough time with some of the harder levels, especially the bosses. I eventually managed to complete…
