twofold inc. by: webbfarbror AB Everyone has been calling Martin Jonasson's Twofold, Inc. "the next Threes!" At first glance, it appears to be something I should love and be spending hours on trying to beat my high score. But every time I try to get into it, I get frustrated due to the high reliance on luck and confusing scoring system. I play a little, then quit in a fit of rage…
Crashlands By: Butterscotch Shenanigans, LLC As I get older, I'm less inclined to let myself get pulled into long, time-consuming games. I prefer shorter, unique experiences. But somehow I ended up playing Butterscotch Shenanigans' Crashlands through to the end, spending over sixty hours on the planet Woanope. That number is due to a mix of addictive qualities of the game, as well as some not-so-great time-wasting aspects of it. There's a lot…
The Westport Independent By: 0010 (Double Zero One Zero) & Coffee Stain Studios Before getting into my review of Double Zero One Zero's The Westport Independent, let me first say that I appreciate that the developers of a game about censorship and corruption set no embargo on reviews. I don't know if that was specifically to tie in with the message of the game, but it feels right. It's also nice when…
Flewn By: Gabriel Smetzer It's hard not to be instantly captivated by the screenshots advertising Gabriel Smetzer's new interactive story called Flewn about an old whale on stilts searching for the ocean. The artwork is definitely the game's strongest point. It looks almost like something out of a Tim Burton movie. While it is advertised as a game, there isn't much game here. It's primarily an interactive storybook in which you swipe…
Star Billions By: James Cockerham (Catch & Release) I seem to be playing a lot of interactive fiction games lately. Star Billions by Catch & Release is the latest one and it's a notifications-based game that takes place in real time. It's about four robots with artificial intelligence that were sent on the spaceship called the Little Brother to find a hospitable planet for four million humans who left the dying Earth…
One Button Travel By: TheCodingMonkeys Let me say this right up front: I haven't played any of these "chat" games before, such as Lifeline or The Martian. I don't have an Apple Watch, and I didn't think the experience would be quite the same on an iPhone. But One Button Travel looked intriguing enough and the art style grabbed my attention. So I wanted to give it a try. It immediately made…
Lumino City By: State of Play Games State of Play's Lumino City checks off so many boxes that would make for the perfect iOS point-and-click adventure game. Obviously, the part that stands out the most is its artwork. The scenery and puzzles were built by hand and then recorded using stop motion animation. So just about everything you see in the game is real, not CGI. That's a lot of effort to…
Dark Fear By: A Majothi (Arif Games) I'm not the biggest fan of pixel art, and I almost ignored Arif Games' Dark Fear because of its art. That would have been a huge mistake, as there's a really solid, enjoyable game here. I think in this case the pixel art works really well to capture that old school, retro feeling, as well as some uneasiness invoked by the dreadful atmosphere of the…