Game review: Ice Cream Craze

In the restaurant-themed time management game Ice Cream Craze, you play Jan. Her parents own an ice cream shop but they have decided to close the shop and retire. However, Jan had dreamed of taking over the shop. As her parents head off for a two-month vacation, Jan takes over the shop in order to prove that she can handle the business. The gameplay follows a lot of the counter-based restaurant games. Customers come up to the counter, order an item, you make the item, give it to them and take their money. There is a bit of a change here though. Instead of just clicking on a machine that will make your food for you, you need to stack your items in the appropriate order. For example, if a customer wants an ice cream cone with a chocolate scoop on top of a vanilla scoop, you need to pick up a cone, then pick up a vanilla scoop then pick up a chocolate scoop. While this is easy in the beginning, it gets a lot more difficult in the higher levels when they add new flavors and toppings and pies.

I found the game to be extremely entertaining. Besides just having the "satisfy your customers" goal, the challenge of having to juggle the ice cream flavors and everything made it a bit more exciting. Of course, I felt really stupid when I screwed up since all it requires is paying close attention. Luckily, you can just restart a level and fix your mistake. This was probably one of the most fun time management games I've played in awhile.

Game review: Monster Mash

While Monster Mash is listed as a time management game, it doesn't really fall under that genre. If anything, it's a strategy game. You are presented with a small village that is about to be attacked by various monsters. It is your job to set up different towers to destroy the monsters before they reach the village. Generally, I'm not very good at strategy games. For some reason, I have a difficult time figuring out where to place troops in order to defeat my enemy. However, I had a wonderful time playing this one. Each tower type shows you a range circle so you know exactly how far their guns will shoot to kill the monsters. The game challenges you by giving you more than one type of monster, which may require more shots before it falls dead. Some of the monsters even give power-ups. Sadly, I can't get past the level where there is a constant stream of monsters. Perhaps one day I will figure out the magic combination to pass the level but, until then, I will keep fighting the good fight!

I think this game would be good for people that enjoy puzzles. Since the focus of the game is based on not leaving any gaps between your towers' ranges so you get the maximum shots at the monsters, it definitely fits within a puzzle genre. I also think that people that enjoy strategy games like Starcraft might like it as well

Music review: L'arc~en~Ciel - Kasou

ray.jpg Artist: L'arc~en~Ciel Members: Hyde (vocals, guitar), Tetsu (background vocals, bass), Ken (guitar), Yukihiro (drums) Album: Ray Release date: 7/1/99 Video link: Via YouTube

English translation: Separately scattered about flower petals, drops of pink around the waning moon reflecting an eternal love.

Eyes...left open a body that's going to rot splendidly lost, only this consciousness left without waiting for the spring.

my beloved one, you just gently turn cold, in these arms as you are broken listen. The abyss of dreams is calling like always.

on the night that blooms out of season the melody of a restless soul the flower floating in the darkness my only parting gift.

(English: Gravity is on the increase as time goes by my body returns to earth there is sky up in the air my body is in your sky and my life is in your cosmos we never come close to each other be here we exist as it is.....) it comes to an end at last the pain of being reborn in the earthen ground I swallow the promise I'm bound to a dead world

separately scattered about flower petals drops of pink around the waning moon reflecting an eternal love

This evening...oh the ecstasy of a dream... At last my eyes closed

On the night that blooms out of season the melody of a restless soul the flower floating in the darkness my only parting gift About the song: This is, by far, my favorite L'arc song. While the lyrics are fairly morbid, the song as a whole is still absolutely beautiful. In my opinion, the best way to listen to it is to watch the music video. The etherealness of the song mixes with the symbolism of the graphics in such an amazing way. I have a difficult time listening to the song without seeing Hyde in his "vampire" costume in my mind.

Game review: Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters: TV Guide Edition

I almost feel dirty writing this review. Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters game is basically a crossword puzzle. This particular version is all about television shows. The levels are broken into decades so, if you happen to know more about television shows from the 90s, you can choose that decade. Then you won't be bombarded with questions from shows in the 70s. If you know a bit about television, the game is extremely easy. Most of the questions are from extremely popular shows and even if you come upon a show you don't know, you can skip that one and you'll eventually solve it after answering the rest of the puzzle. The game was fun but it was all fluff. I haven't even finished the 60 minute demo and I'm already bored with it after finishing three decades. Skip this game and try for something a bit more difficult.

Branson, MO

I've always wondered about land for sale Branson, Missouri. It's always been like a mini-Vegas or something. Yakov Smirnoff has a show there. There's a bunch of dinner theaters there. There's a Chinese circus show. It seems like anything you can think of....there's a show in Branson. So that makes me wonder - is it a cheesy type of knock-off town or is it really nice? And why would people live in such a tourist town? I guess I'll just have to visit to find out.