Hi everyone, and welcome back to another installment of My Week Unwrapped, my weekly roundup of all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. Sadly, Bertram Fiddle Episode 2, A Bleaker Predicklement, is still bugged and waiting for an update, so I haven’t been able to finish it as much as I want to. But that did give me time to catch up on a bunch of other games. Make sure to scroll to the bottom to see the sales, because there are some great ones right now that you absolutely should not miss!
Little Red Lie
It took me a couple of weeks to get through Will O’Neill’s interactive novel, Little Red Lie, as it’s a bit overwhelming at times. I played it in one-hour chunks and felt emotionally drained each time, so I couldn’t really barrel through it. But I’m very glad I stuck with it to the end. You can follow my playthrough here and read my review here.
Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze: Episode 2, Cleopatra’s Curse
The second episode released of Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze, called Cleopatra’s Curse. So far, I’m enjoying it but have the same complaints as with the first episode. As nice as it is to see these characters again, I find the text without voiceovers makes it hard to enjoy it as much as I do the show. Also, it seems a bit sanitized to make it more kid-friendly, so sex is implied but never directly shown or discussed. So the game loses some of the bite the show has. While I eagerly binged the TV show, I find myself forgetting about the game when I stop playing. I’ll still probably finish it, though, and you can see it in action in my video below. I also have a walkthrough in progress here.
Escape Machine City
Escape Machine City is a new room escape game by the developers behind Dreamcage and published by SnapBreak Games.the first eight levels are free, so check it out if you’re looking for a new room escape game to play. But so far they’ve all been short and the game as a whole is serviceable but soulless. There’s nothing wrong with it. It just feels like a million other room escape games I’ve played. At the moment, I don’t know that I have any interest in buying and playing the last seven levels, but I may change my mind. You can see my walkthrough for the first eight levels here.
Brave Hand
Brave Hand is an upcoming solitaire card game from Heart Shaped Games that relies heavily on luck and is about mitigating that luck. It also has gorgeous digitally-painted artwork. You can read my writeup about it here and see it in action in my video below.
Solitairica
Solitairica is another solitaire card game, if you haven’t guessed from the name. It’s actually been out for quite some time now, but I never picked it up because it seemed like it would involve a lot of grinding. But it was on sale last week for only $0.99, so I grabbed it out of curiosity. I actually like the core gameplay quite a bit. And the art and atmosphere are quite charming. But it’s a roguelike that feels very repetitive and very slow. Roguelikes usually work well when you can get through a game fairly quickly. Otherwise, it feels like a slog. And with Solitairica, you have to watch all the animations play out over and over. Even with them sped up, it just feels like I’m spending more time waiting than playing. It’s a fairy simplistic idea where you have to clear all the cards and can only clear cards that are either one number above or below the card in your hand. There’s a solid game here, but in its current state, I won’t be wasting my time with it. When you die, you get some gems so you can buy something to help you get stronger, but that makes it feel more like a grind fest than anything else. Still, a lot of people like it so there is an audience for it and maybe you’d enjoy it. You can watch my video below for some gameplay.
Glowish
I really liked The One Pixel’s Color Magnet, so I was excited to see they were releasing a new puzzle game called Glowish. In each level, you’re given a few shapes of different colors. You need to figure which shapes to tap and in which order, to make them all glow. For instance, tapping a green triangle will light up all triangles and all green buttons. The catch is that if you trigger a single button more than once, it gets deselected. It’s an interesting idea, but it requires a little too much forethought for my tastes. I like games that involve some trial and error, and that won’t really get you anywhere here. You basically have to plan out your moves in your head, especially as thighs get more complicated. Again, I suggest watching my video below to see if it’s something you’d like.
Verticow
Verticow is the latest game by Philipp Stollenmayer, the developer behind Zip Zap, a creative game that I liked the idea of, but it stressed me out to no end. Well, Verticow takes the thing I hated most about Zip Zap and builds and entire game around it. You need to tap a button that makes your hinged character bend. By bending and then releasing at the right time and with the right rhythm, you get some momentum going so it’s spinning around the pin it’s hanging from. Then, when you’re ready, you release the pin and watch it fly. The goal of the game is to get your piece as far as possible. There are characters to unlock and they all behave differently, so that shakes things up a bit. As much as I like the quirky look of the game and the idea of it, it’s just not fun for me. And the forced ads with no way to remove them meant I deleted the game pretty quickly.
Infinity Blade
I played Chair Games’ Infinity Blade back when it came out, but finally deleted it to make room. I kind of regret that now since they just updated it to 64-bit and full widescreen to fit newer iPhones. I managed to make some room to re-download it and check out the new update. It does look and feel great, but as room is always tight on my iPhone, I’m afraid I’ve already had to delete it again. 🙁 But it’s also on sale at the moment if you haven’t played it yet, so now is the best time to pick it up.
Sales:
All 7 of Simogo’s games are on sale. See the full list here.
Super Glyph Quest – $1.99
Little Inferno HD – $1.99
Little Inferno – $0.99
Human Resource Machine – $1.99
The Barbarian – $1.99
Infinity Blade – $0.99
BattleMage – FREE
Pixel Boat Rush – FREE
