Once again, the interior decorating gaming craze appears. Eye For Design. is more of a puzzle game than anything else. You are basically given a room with some vague instructions about what should go in the room and a list of objects to use. It is your job to make a lovely room that your client will love. Overall, the game was pretty fun. Each object can only be placed in certain spots in the room so there's the difficulty of trying to fit all of the required objects into the room. I think I might have liked it a little better if there was more free-form to it. Instead of having set spots for the objects, let us place the stuff wherever we want. Luckily, the game is still enjoyable despite this small drawback.
Game review: Mystery Cookbook
You are a mouse. Not just any mouse but a rather smart mouse who has to help a variety of animals find their lost objects. Yes, I know the game is called Mystery Cookbook but there is no actual cooking going on. Instead of cooking, you travel to different restaurants helping the owners' animals. This is a pretty run of the mill hidden object games. None of the games are too difficult but they are just hard enough to keep it fun. Even the in-between puzzles are a nice change. If you are looking for something new and innovating, you won't find it here. But if you are looking for a decent hidden object game, this is for you.
Game review: Supermarket Mania
In the time management game Supermarket Mania, you play Nikki, a girl about to start her first day working for TORG Corp. The Corporation is a supermarket that is run by robots. It is your job to make sure the shelves are stocked and there are no messes on the floor. Even though you don't have to deal with the customers in the game directly, you still have to cater to their needs a bit. This is accomplished by making sure all of the shelves are stocked so they can purchase whatever they want. If the shelf is not stocked, they will stand in front of it, getting impatient. You will need to fill the shelf before they get angry and leave. Since the customers will also leave messes, you will need to make sure these are cleaned up before someone falls. Neither of the jobs are difficult but it can get rather difficult to accomplish everything!
I went into this game thinking that I wouldn't enjoy it very much. Well, I was wrong. I found it fairly fun to try to make sure that each of the shelves were stocked with what I thought the customers would want. Of course, I wasn't always right so I ended up rushing around to put out what the customers DID really want but that's what makes the game fun, right? It wouldn't be any fun if we could predict everything. Supermarket Mania is definitely worth a try.
Game review: Ice Cream Dee Lites
Ice Cream Dee Lites is a time management game that takes place in an ice cream store. Like every other ice cream game, you serve ice cream cones (and other ice cream type novelties) to customers. I didn't like this game nearly as much as other ice cream themed games. While there are a lot of upgrades you can buy, the game just doesn't seem 'right.' Maybe it's the graphics for the ice cream machine dropping the ice cream scoop onto the cone. There seems to be something missing but I can't put my finger on what. Give it a try yourself. Maybe you can tell me what I'm missing.
Still no PS3 for us
I'm still kinda surprised that my gamer husband has not bought a playstation 3 yet. He has pointed out that there aren't any games out for it that he wants that he can't already play on his Xbox 360. I thought he would buy it for the Blu-Ray player but even that hasn't tempted him. Will he cave one day? Perhaps. Then again, he might skip that console completely, which would be a monumentous occasion.
Game review: Airport Mania: First Flight
When I first saw Airport Mania: First Flight, I thought the graphics were too cutesy to make the game any good. I was so extremely wrong. The gameplay is easy. Planes are flying into your airport. It is your job to land them, get them to their terminals, unload the passengers, reload the passengers and get them back into the air. In the later levels, you will also need to refuel and repair some planes. The simplistic approach to the gameplay and the very cute graphics make this fun and interesting to play. You can buy upgrades but you don't have to buy all of them in order to move onto to the next level. I can't wait to play more of this!
Game review: Sherlock Holmes: Mystery of the Persian Carpet
Like many new hidden object games today, Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet tries to make the genre harder than it should be. While there are some hidden object properties to the game, it tries to add more puzzles to make the player think harder. This is something that should be expected of a game with the Sherlock Holmes name on it but it should be filed under a different genre. For the most part, the game was fun. However, some of the puzzles are extremely difficult. In fact, they may require you to read a walkthrough for the game. If you are looking for something harder, this would be the game to try. If you are looking for a traditional hidden object game, look somewhere else.
Game review: Pets Fun House
Yet another pet-themed time management game! Sadly, Pets Fun House isn't nearly as much fun as Pet Shop Hop was. In this game, you own a pet shop of sorts. You not only sell pets but you also sell pet food and other items. However, it is the pet part that is annoying. Instead of selling already-grown pets to customers, you must raise each pet from a puppy/kitten. You also must decide which breeds will be popular (based on "market information" they give you) so you will have the correct breeds at the correct age when a customer wants them. This is impossible. If the game tells you that dalmations are popular and you stock with mostly dalmations, customers will demand cats. And you can't change the breed on the fly since you have to raise them to an appropriate age.
I'm sure the developers were looking to mix a Sims game with a time management game. It just doesn't work here. Unless you have enough slots to have at least one of each breed on hand at all times (and you don't), it's impossible to keep your customers happy. They should choose which type of game they wish to make and stick with it. Mixing genres doesn't always work and this game is proof.
Game review: Pet Shop Hop
Lately, a lot of pet-themed time management games have relied on grooming pets. You wash a dog, cut its hair then give it back to the owner. Pet Shop Hop is a pet-themed time management game but it is completely different from the others. Instead of grooming a pet, you are trying to sell them. However, you still need to feed each type of animal and clean their cages/tanks/pens. At the same time, you need to make sure you find the right pet for each customer. It sounds like there is a lot of work involved in playing this game. There isn't really. Your character doesn't move for the feeding and cleaning actions so there isn't time being wasted with her just wandering around the store. She only moves when she is preparing an animal for a customer. While this may seem like it's not a big deal, it is. Most games force the player's character to wander around the "game board" for every single action. This usually ends up making the player aggravated because the character doesn't move fast enough to fit everything in within the alloted time. Customers get angry because your character is busy in the corner feeding the fish or something. By allowing the feeding and cleaning to be done by the player without the character moving, the player can accomplish those tasks while the character is moving to a tank or cage to prepare an animal for the customer. We don't have to wait for the character to do something.
I did enjoy playing this game a lot. It's a slightly different take on the time management type of game but it makes all the right changes to keep it interesting and fun instead of aggravating.
Game review: Solitaire Hop!
I am really not good at games that require a lot of thought. Well, no. That's an incorrect assessment. When I play a video game, I'm usually doing it to relax so I don't want to play something that requires a lot of thought. However, I received an email asking me to try Solitaire Hop. I love receiving game suggestions so I gave it my best. My best sucked a lot.
Here is the game's description: Your favorite elements of Solitaire and Sudoku come crashing together in Solitaire Hop! You'll need lateral thinking and strategy to master "Solitaire Hop!"'s simple mechanic. Take 30 seconds to learn the rules and you'll be hooked!
I love Solitaire. I tend to break it out whenever I'm really bored. Sudoku though? Not so much. It's an OK game but I have other things I'd rather waste my time playing. But I'm not a terrible Sudoku player so I figured this wouldn't be too bad. As it turns out, I am so not the target audience here.
Let's see if I can describe the game. You are given a spread of cards. In order to clear the spread, you need to "hop" the cards next to each other but whether a card is "hoppable" depends on the card's value. You can only hop a card of equal or lower value than your selected card. This is where my problem lies. I can easily find cards of equal or lower value but then you get stuck if you have a card with nothing next to it. So instead of clearing the spread, I end up with an array of cards that aren't next to each other so they can't be cleared. It's just too much thought for my little brain. Perhaps I'd enjoy it if I was a bigger fan of Sudoku. (Sudoku fans? Give the game a try and let me know what you think!) I'll probably poke at the game some more over the next few days but I can't imagine that this will be something I'd add to my list of favored games.