Joe Danger SE (XBLA)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2011 -- Developer: Hello Games -- Publisher:  Hello Games

First impression:
Since this is an XBLA game, there may have been a video to watch, but I didn't watch it. I also feel like I'm supposed to already know who Joe Danger is, considering this is SE (Special Edition?).  He looks like a daredevil, so I'm thinking I may be doing minigames that mimic activities that daredevils might do?  Shooting out of cannons, jumping over buses, etc.  The art style is fun and looks like it will work well.  The title screen music is catchy as well.  I'm definitely interested in seeing what this is all about.

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Fooled around for:  ~25-30 minutes (First chapter, about 5-6 levels)
I was about half right.  You are a daredevil-type guy and you certainly jump over things.  It actually plays a lot like Trials, which is pretty awesome!  It's like Trials, except on uppers for tricks and downers for realistic physics.. if that makes sense.   Basically, you get super boosts and points for tricks like flipping and wheelies and air tricks, but you can land crazy tricks easier because it's more forgiving.  Also, there are a bunch of goals like "Collect all of the stars" "Collect all of the letters" "Do all of these tricks" etc.

The graphics, the sound, the whole presentation is pretty awesome.  There are a few more references to this being a remake, or a sequel or something.  "Joe is back" etc.

The biggest problem with the game being so crazy is that the controls are pretty tricky to grasp.  Sure, moving forward and backward are just the triggers, but when you have to stop moving forward to hit the shoulder buttons, and then get back on the trigger. Then you have to rotate forward, but hit the back trigger to land on a certain spot, and it just gets confusing.  There are so many levels, and so many goals to accomplish in each level though, that you could definitely get some practice without getting too bored with being "stuck".  I imagine the game is only going to get crazier and more complicated.



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Hit it or Quit it?  (1200 MSP)
Aside from feeling a little flustered with the controls, this is really a game I could see myself getting into.  It's a nice outlet to play a game "like" Trials, but to get away from Trials for a bit and have more fun.  Trials can be really serious sometimes, when you really just can't hit that jump right.  This game may have that issue as well, but it really looks like it's more focused on skills with your tricks and getting to know the level rather than just pushing past that one last hill.

My only problem is that I'm poor, and even $15 for a game that I probably won't have a lot of time to play is a little steep for me.  This would be a game that I would pick up if I got a large enough Points Card as a gift, or just had a bonus at work and remembered I wanted this.  Past that, the amount of time it's going to take to really get good at this game and get through all of it, I just don't know if I have.

That said, it's not like I can say quit it to every game I can't buy, because that would probably be all of them.  I need to be doing this based on the game, not the price.  Yeah, value is one thing, but this game is definitely worth it's value.  On that note, hit it.  And then hit it more.

Hypotenuse (XBLIG)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Iamrese -- Publisher: XBLIG

First impression:
Well, it's another fighting game.. but unlike yesterday, these graphics look better.  Except all it looks like is a bunch of rendered.. lines/boxes?  And they fight?   Hopefully there will at least be some sort of AI so I can actually play the game..

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Fooled around for:  7 minutes (Indie Game Demo Limit)
That was an interesting little game..  So you play a Samurai "Rectangle".. and you are fending off waves of Evil Rectangles.  You have a sword and a few shurikens, as do the enemies.  At first, I wasn't really digging it too much.  The sword-play seemed clunky and the shurikens were are hard to aim enough to actually hit the enemies.  About halfway through my time, I remembered that I had seem "lock-on" in the controls.  That really turned the game around as far as playability.

Unfortunately, the other side of this is just that there really isn't much to the game.  It says on the exit screen that the full version gives you more death animations, items, and enemy types.  Even a small taste of those might have made the demo a little more fulfilling.  I know they don't want to give it all away, but considering there's a 7 minute time limit anyways, why be so stingy?  Makes me wonder how much more it's really going to add to the game.

The music isn't really music.. It's just some pinking of an instrument hear and there.  In a different type of game, this might work better.  Adventure, puzzle, something like that.  In an action game, it's a little too calm.  Maybe it's on purpose, but it just didn't really work for me.

The graphics are good though, despite being simple.  It's "fancy" simple, with all of the animations on what amounts to be very basic shapes.

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Hit it or Quit it? (80 MSP)
Since it's only a buck, I could almost see myself picking this up.  It might be fun to pick up every now and then.  But the game also doesn't give any indication that it will be keeping track of high scores, or progress or how much the game will actually grow.  For that, I really don't see myself getting too much into this game in the long run.  Despite being a cute little game that is well put together for what it is, I would have to quit it.

Eat my Shuriken and die! (XBLIG)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: FlatRedBall -- Publisher: XBLIG

First impression:
Pretty brutal name.. I have to eat your shuriken.. AND die?  Man..

The screenshots show this actually looks like a Smash Bros clone.  Haven't really seen anything like that before.  Granted, it's pretty basic graphics, and I really don't expect the controls to handle very well at all, but that's what they seem to be shooting for.  I should note as well, that I never really like Smash Bros (yeah, yeah.. get over it) in the first place, so I'm especially not looking forward this.

When the game loads, but before it starts, there is some pretty hyper chiptuney techno crazy music.  If that's the music during the game, it might actually be a little distracting.

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Fooled around for: 0 minutes (!?)

..This wasn't even worth the bandwidth to post, let alone the time it took to actually put this post together.

The game is MULTIPLAYER ONLY WTF?!?!??!  I get that it takes quite a bit of extra time and programming to program AI, especially into a larger scale fighting game, but really?  It should be called Eat my MULTIPLAYER ONLY in the title.  This is dumb.  The game was ugly anyways.  Quit it.

Jeopardy! (XBOX360 Demo)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Pipeworks -- Publisher: THQ

First impression:
On the back of yesterday's Wheel Of Fortune, I'm going to check out the demo for Jeopardy.  Knowing that it's by the same company, Pipeworks, and published by THQ, I expect this really to just be the same as WoF, except a different word game.

That's actually kind of exciting.  Yeah, the voices are kind of lame, but I expect decent camera work, a solid presentation of the game, and lots of features I would be excited for, but won't be able to see in the demo.  Let's make sure they didn't screw this one up!

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Fooled around for:  10 minutes (1 full game)
Notice the time there.. only 10 minutes for the full game!?  The demo didn't even let you run a full board.  It only gives you the first two columns.   This made for a very short game.

Otherwise, as expected, the game looks like the show.  And it looks like WoF.  Somehow, I wasn't expecting them to have re-used the character models and sound clips and everything.  It looks like the same three people happened to get on WoF AND Jeopardy.  WTF?!   At least on WoF, I could play a real, full game.

Alex' sound bits were good though.  He voices all of the questions and all of the answers.  He must not have had much else going on or something, or there really isn't much variety in the questions after a few games.  There is a little weirdness when certain bits are spliced together, otherwise without looking, it usually sounds just like him.

Except overall, this really wasn't as fun of an experience as WoF.  Had I thought about it, I probably could have expected it.  One of the biggest things about "real" Jeopardy is that you either know the answer or you don't.  In turning that into a video game, they decided to go multiple choice with it.  This means that every now and then you might allllmost know it, and you can just look at the answers and figure it out.  That doesn't count!

Also, Jeopardy is harder anyways, of course.  This is why I never wanted to be on Jeopardy, but I would totally try WoF.  That is, unless I could get on Teen Jeopardy.  That might turn out okay...

Multiple choice!?

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Hit it or Quit it?
Considering they dumbed down one of the most important aspects of this game, and it's usually too hard for me to have fun being in control, I definitely would be quitting this.  Especially since if I bought this AND WoF, it would mostly feel like playing the same game with all of the similar assets.  They should have just bundled the two games together, and more people would probably end up playing this.  As it is though, quit it.

Wheel of Fortune (XBOX360 Demo)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Pipeworks -- Publisher: THQ

First impression:
What is there to say about a first impression about Wheel of Fortune?  I expect to spin a very large wheel, guess letters, buy vowels, solve puzzles.  I do also expect the game to come off as pretty cheesy, as most of these video game versions of TV shows like this tend to turn out.  Maybe some lame voiceovers.  Maybe some "awesome" e-"prizes".   The Sony and THQ intro logos made the game seem pretty fancy, but the cover art has Pat and Vanna look like bobble heads, so we'll see how this actually turns out.

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Fooled around for:  ~35 minutes (One full game)
On one hand, it was about what I was expected.

On the other, it was actually better than I expected.  A lot of it has to do with presentation.  Yeah, the contestant voiceovers were a little cheesy and repetitive   Pat and Vanna weren't -as- repetitive, but they probably would be after a few games.  Their scripts in general actually weren't so bad as far as delivery.  Also, the timing triggers working pretty well, causing Pat to say "slow down" or "go go go" when appropriate to where you were about to land.

The best parts about the presentation were how much it actually looked like the show.  The music, camera angles, the cuts around the set, the wheel, everything looked like you were just playing the show.  That's about as good as you can expect to get with a game based on a word game.

One thing I didn't even think about going into it was online play!  Being the demo, I couldn't try it, but that would be a huge selling point for me.  I've always thought I would do pretty good on the show, and playing against other real people is about as close as will probably ever get.   It would probably one of the few games I would actually pull my headset out for, just to get into the game a little more.

The game keeps track of various stats, and also prizes that you win, so you have some tracking of what you've done, considering it's going to feel like a lot of the same.  It also has leaderboards, to compare yourself to people you aren't even playing!



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Hit it or Quit it?
Originally, as I was typing this, I thought this version was an XBLA game, so I expected it to be probably 10 bucks (though I hoped for 5).  As I went to check the price, I realized this is actually just a "demo", so it's probably actually a full game that you have to buy on disc.  For probably 30-40 bucks.  For that amount of money, I'm out.  If it ever came through the e-downloads for something closer to 15 bucks, I might jump on it.  5 bucks, I'm there, instantly, playing it every day.

The game itself, I would hit it pretty hard, because I love Wheel of Fortune, I love easy achievements, and the presentation of this game was actually very well put together for being a cheesy TV show "port".  For the price they probably want me to pay to play it though, I'm going to have to quit it.  Just checked, yeah, it's looking like 30-35.  With great remorse, I will have to quit it.  Maybe I will catch it in the bargain bin in a couple years....

Bad Piggies (Android)

...with benefits

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Rovio Entertainment -- Publisher: Rovio Entertainment

I feel a little weird reviewing such a "Pop" game considering even I've never heard of most of the stuff I have been talking about, but here it is.  Bad Piggies isn't quite as "Pop" yet as developer Rovio's first game Angry Birds has become, and maybe it actually won't be.

Don't get me wrong though, I love this game.  I have barely ever been able to suffer through a whole section in Angry Birds, and definitely not to 3-star it all.  This game, on the other hand, hits me so much better in so many ways.

In Bad Piggies, you play the role of the green pigs that you are trying to destroy in Angry Birds.  I think I read that this is supposed to be a sort of prequel.  Something like this is what happened to cause the backlash of the birds or something.  Even then, it's not like you are controlling the pigs themselves, like you control the Birds in the original.  What you actually do is build the vehicle/contraption that the pigs ride to the finish line.

It starts simple, add a couple boxes, add some wheels, and let him roll down the hill.  As the level progress, you start to use various other pieces, building bigger and more complicated vehicles.  You might have balloons to make you float, or fans to blow you left or right (or hover upwards, for that matter).  Here and there, you will find engines that will kick some of these pieces into overdrive.

In each level, there are 3 stars to get, like the original.  Unlike the original though, you don't need to get all three on one run, and often you can't.  What you can do though, is build a machine specific to reaching that star box to collect, or making a speed run, or getting through without breaking any pieces off.  Sometimes, the same machine works for all three, sometimes you need something completely different.  Sometimes it needs to be a machine that you can just "set and forget", and sometimes you actually need to "drive" the machine, turning the fans on or off, or releasing balloons to stop your ascent, etc.

Pretty standard vehicle from pretty early in the game

I love when I get to make 4-sided rolly things like this!

What keeps me coming back to this game is the creativity and sometimes genius it takes to accomplish all of the goals in each level.  I've tried playing games like Incredible Machine in the past, and it just never keeps me playing.  I've tried Angry Birds, but there's nothing but angles and seemingly unguessable physics.

In this game, I feel like I'm in control.  I love the way the pieces work together.  Unlike Angry Birds, I will not move to the next level until I have all 3 stars, and I'm actually not upset about it.  I think that's what it boils down to.  In Angry Birds, yeah, you are in control of the angle, and the force, etc, but to me, it ends up ultimately feeling random.  You can aim exactly the same, and something bounces different and causes a completely different result from one shot to the next.  In Bad Piggies, I feel like if I can't hit that goal, it's because I haven't figured something out with my machine yet.  I feel like everything is achieve-able, I just need to find that one little piece to put in just the right place, and it all works.

I haven't been playing quite as much as I was at first, but it's partly because I don't really want to burn through it all and be stuck waiting for new levels.  On the other hand, I also don't want to wait too long and get behind on my levels.  I think it may be just about time to pull it back out and get through a few more levels though!

Voltron (XBLA)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2011 -- Developer: Behaviour Entertainment -- Publisher: THQ

First impression:
To be honest, I really barely know anything about Voltron.  That's part of the reason I downloaded this demo.  I have no idea what this could be like.  The only thing I've seen so far is what may have been the actual opening to the show.  It was definitely animation from the show, I'm just not sure if that speech that the narrator gave was original or not.  I know Voltron as "not quite transformers, but quite the following regardless".  As for the game, I'm guessssssing.. something like a 3d beat-em-up?  Lots of "movie games" do that.  Maybe this will be some sort of crazy new design.

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Fooled around for:  9 minutes (1 level, length of demo)
I pretty much called it, except it wasn't even as good as most bad "movie games".  I don't know if it's so bad because I'm missing the nostalgia or what, but that was just boring and clunky.  The clips from the show were kind of entertaining, even though I don't feel any connection with them.  The game itself was kind of like a twin stick shooter, except with slow weapon, slow movement and the camera is too far out to actually enjoy seeing anything blow up.

The game felt generic, despite having such heavy ties to a franchise.  You can pick from any of the 5 "cats", which have different statistics, but what determines each, I have no idea.  It's hard to even tell what all of the stats are about anyways.

Then you run around, shoot your weapon, awkwardly jump at air-borne enemies, and eventually blow up. Then you have to survive outside your cat for 10 seconds, while it auto-repairs.  Then you can get back into it, ready to get blown up again.

I don't know if the music is from the show.  It sounds like this theme might be "the theme", but it's pretty obnoxious.


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Hit it or Quit it? (800 MSP)
I don't know if this game is supposed to be huge or what.  Or if that price is because it's some overhyped franchise, but based on that 1 level, there is no way I would be paying 10 bucks for this.  Even the "buy me" videos and screen shots don't give you any indication that things get better, or more interesting.  I don't think there's leveling on your character, the levels look the same, except you are flying in one.  That looks more annoying than walking, which is pretty bad anyways.  The ONLY appeal might be if you have 4 other XBOX Live friends (or one other "RL" friend) who just has to experience everything about Voltron.  Then, maybe because of the multi-player aspect, you could have fun, but even then, I'm not sure how.

Quit it 5 times. One for each lion.

Heart of the Planet (Flash)

I was wondering how I was going to decide on my next game on Kongregate without being biased by Recommendations or ones that I know already looked good or bad.  I searched for "Random Game" and it looks like someone made something to pick a random game from the site.  And this is what I got....

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2010 -- Developer: ??? -- Site: Flonga (via Kongegrate)

First Impression:  

The description is "Help her reach the heart of the planet to save the world from evil".  A little generic..  Controls:  "Arrows to move, x to shoot".  Okay, I'm thinking something like a top-down shooter?  Except the tag is "Action" so who knows.

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Fooled around for: 5 minutes

Ugh.. Been a while since I really couldn't last longer than 5 minutes.  This is what happens with random flash games.  It's basically a Mario rip-off.  But there's no story explaining anything.  Literally just "Level 1" right when the game loads.  The controls are super loose, sliding all over the place.  The left arrow overrides the right arrow, no matter which was pressed first, so you find yourself turning when you didn't want to.  This also makes the whole platforming aspect super hard, but not because it's hard, just because it's not made well.  I guess eating a mushroom to get big in Mario doesn't make much sense either, but in this it's a carrot.  And then some random shape for "fireballs".  Big You breaks blocks, there are stars for coins, and you jump on pigs instead of carrots.  You could literally just remake Mario in this engine and everything would be there. Except the fun.

Also the music is annoying and a very short loop.

The ONLY thing this game has going for it was the art assets are actually not that bad.  Some of the textures are pretty good, but they don't match the hand-drawn sprites, and it's all probably just ripped off from somewhere else around the internet.

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Hit it or Quit it?

In case it wasn't apparent, quit it.  Reading the reviews on Kongregate, it seems everyone else agrees.  Shoddy controls on an otherwise ripped-off, but still incredibly vague platformer.  Mayyybe this was a first game/demo kind of deal for them to get used to making games, but I don't have much hope for anything else that pops up by this developer.

It looks like Flonga is just a website for Flash games, so I don't even know who to blame for this....

Infectonator (Flash)

To swipe an idea from my "Partner Site" Fluffy Fox Gamerating (see sidebar), I am going to hit a Flash game today (and possibly for a few days).  Specifically, these will be from www.kongregate.com .  It's a wealth of options to choose from, and it's easy to load them up and play them because it's all right in the browser I'm using anyways!  I could probably just turn this whole blog into Hit it or Quit it on Kongregate and never run out of stuff to play, but I don't see that happening.  Sounds like fun for now though!

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2009 -- Developer: Toge Productions -- Site: Kongregate

First Impression:
Most Flash games likely won't have much of a demo screen or anything, so I may be a little light on First Impressions.  This game already makes it apparent we will be looking at 8-bit graphics and listening to 8-bit music though.  Not a bad sign, just pretty much the only thing I know about it.  I chose this because I saw the sequel in my "Recommended" list, and since I hit Plague Inc a few days ago, I figured I would check out the first in this series.  The only other thing I know so far is "zombies" and "kill off the world in 60 seconds"

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Fooled around for: ~15-20 minutes (two play-throughs)
I almost stopped after the first playthrough, because things just didn't feel right, and it left a weird impression on me.  The game just seemed to end and give me a score out of nowhere.  This, plus one level giving me an insane amount of money led me to think maybe the game was glitchy.  I decided to give it another try, thinking that maybe I just missed something.  Turns out I did, and now it's hard for me to stop playing.  I have a feeling this will be something that happens to me often while I try Flash games for this blog.  The style of many Flash games fits my style perfectly.  Play for a few minutes here and here, feel accomplished, and move on with your life.  This would work well for this blog, except then I have to stop myself from playing, or I will end up playing for hours just to level up in a game that gives very little reward.  At least many games on Kongregate have Badges/Achievements.  That always helps.

Anyways, back to the task at hand.  Like Plague Inc, the biggest draw in this game is the power you feel by just starting the chain and watching the reaction take everything over.  You click to start the infection, and the nearby people turn to zombies and start chasing the others.  What this game has over Plague is that you can actually see it happening.  After each level, you can spend your money on upgrading various aspects, such as your zombies' speed, infectiousness  lifespan, etc.  In each level, you need to infect a certain number of people who are already on the screen.  Some of them are stronger than others, and can even fight back.

The two things I was missing on my first playthrough was that you get per-game achievements that give you a bunch of money.  Apparently I hit those well in the first game.  The other thing was that you have 60 seconds spread throughout all of the levels you are playing, so you have to balance your cash into effects that will allow you to take over each level most quickly because if you have too many stragglers, you are just wasting time.  In this setting, it's weird to switch locations and still be running off the same "minute", but whatever works, I guess.  Perhaps the sequels took a different approach to this.

This got super long for not really saying anything important (when do I anyways, right?), so I'm going to finish up....


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Hit it or Quit it?
I would probably actually just Quit this version to move on to one of its siblings.  If there are more games in this series that presumably play like this, I'd rather just enjoy the enhancements they probably added to the game.  If this had Badges, I would at least Hit it until I got all of those.  It doesn't, so I'm moving on.

Trials Evolution (XBLA)

...with benefits

Like I mentioned yesterday, you should be expecting a post about the sequel to Trials HD.  That is this. This is Evolution.

The premise has remained the same.  You are running from one end to the other, conquering obstacles, trying to get your time and your faults down to nothing.

This game is everything from the first, and more.  And that's awesome.  The graphics are even better.  The water and fire look great, and better yet, most of the courses are outside!  The scope of the game looks so large now.  The whole first game, you are indoors, which is fine.  It's crazy how much just changing the backdrop really affects how the game feels though.  You can also curve "towards" and "away" from the camera, adding to the depth.

One of the other big things they added was multiplayer over XBOX Live!  There are either 4-lane maps, or you can just race the ghost of 3 other players on the normal single player levels.  As you rank, you earn Online Points, and can level up, increasing your stature online.

Also, the level editor has gotten way crazier... AND.. You can download tracks through the in-game marketplace (all free, of course), and man, people are getting insane with the builder.  Apparently it's so robust that, with patience and skill, you can do almost anything.  I have seen everything from insane "normal" maps, to Tetris, to FP"S" games.  All within the Trials Engine! WTF?!  It makes me want to get into it, but I'm not sure I have that time or patience.

Outside!

4-players?  At one time!?

There isn't much else to say about the sequel though.  It's almost literally just "the same thing except better", and that's not bad!  I'm definitely going to be reaping the benefits of this relationship for a while!

Plus, there is already DLC for it!  I totally forgot to mention the Trials HD DLC in that post, but DLC is awesome!  Even more of more of the same awesomeness!  I just can't get enough!

Trials HD (XBLA)

...with benefits

Year: 2009 -- Developer: RedLynx -- Publisher:  XBLA

Me and Trials HD go back a ways.  Probably at least a couple years at this point.  I think it was one of the first demos I downloaded when I got my XBOX360 but couldn't afford any games yet.  Even the 3 levels in the demo kept me playing longer than some "real" games have.  I just wanted to get better times, or find better ways to show off fancy maneuvers or whatever.  After I really just couldn't take the demo anymore and had some extra money, I bought my points, downloaded the full version, and couldn't stop playing it for days.

The premise is fairly simple.  You are riding a dirtbike, and you are trying to get from the beginning to the end in the fastest time, with the fewest number of faults.  The reality is that this really isn't as easy as it sounds.  The levels go up, down, including ramps, jumps, obstacles, etc.  As the game gets to the Hard and Extreme courses, you really need to get into bunny hopping, riding up what are basically walls, and all sorts of crazy things.  The better you do, the better medal you get.

The game is gorgeous!  I can't even imagine needing the graphics to look any better!  And when you fall of your bike, you are thrown around with ragdoll physics, and you can almost feel the pain he must be in.  Then you can still wiggle him around on the ground, and that's always fun!

The controls are easy.  Right trigger "go", Left trigger "stop", and tilt the stick to lean back or forward.  It's the combination of this and the crazy physics that really make the game.  While there is no "jump" button, with practice you learn that if you hit the gas just right and lean just right, you can make little hops.  Or you find that if you hit this ramp just right, you will go up to another path in the level.  Also, there are explosions, and boxes you might hit that just knock you out!

The game comes with a level editor (the same one the developers actually use), so you have every possibility of creating the same quality of levels that they did, it's just a matter of skill, design and patience.  I have never messed with the editor much, but it's cool that it's in there.  You can share tracks to your XBOX friends, but not to anyone, so you can't just go download them either (See: Trials Evolution coming up).

In case you get tired of the Point A to Point B runs, there are also Skill Games.  These might have you jumping off of pinball flippers to reach the highest altitude you can, or they may have you riding on top of a metal ball for as long as you can.  The cleverness of some of the Skill Games is actually pretty interesting, and definitely a nice break from the rest of the main game.

Also!  When you look at the leaderboards, you can watch the replay of the Top 100 (I think it's 100) so you can try to pick up ideas on how to decrease your time, or get past certain obstacles.  The catch is, these people are crazy, and often, you need to run the course exactly like they did, otherwise you whole timing is off and their techniques don't work.  It's always fun to watch though, and just try to imagine how long they spent getting to that skill level.



I find myself hooking up with this game every now and then just because I want to keep my skills up.  I have gone too long sometimes, and I can tell I've gotten rusty.  I used to think "Man, I could never get through those Extreme courses" but over the years, I have just stuck with it every now and then, and I have slowly pieced together most of them.  I'm nowhere near getting golds on them, but at least I'm getting through them! Also, with no story to pay attention to, it's super easy to just pick up for a few minutes here and there.  If I pass, I pass, if not, at least I was able to get a little more used to some of the Extreme level skills required to pass them someday.

The worst part is trying and trying to pass a course, and running out the 30 minute time limit, or the 500 fault limit.  All the time feels wasted, but at least you know the next time, the level up until that point will run a little easier, and you can focus more on that area that snuffed you.

Even with the sequel out, I still pick this up, and still will.  There's always room for improvement, and I just love the way the physics to the bike feel.  As long as I stick with it and feel that I'm improving, this game will stay in my benefits rotation.

Plague Inc (Android)

...with benefits

Year: 2012 -- Developer: ndemic -- Publisher: Android Marketplace

Plague Inc is a game where you play the role of a disease (or someone who controls the disease, depending on how you look at it).  The majority of the game is played just by watching a map of the world, and evolving your disease to infect and kill as many people as possible.  You win if you infect, and subsequently kill everyone in the world.  You lose if you kill all of your hosts before everyone is infected, or if the world develops a cure to you.

The beginning of each game starts you with deciding what type of disease you want to be.  At first, you can only be bacteria, then virus, then fungus, etc.  In the end, you can even control a nano-virus or a bio-weapon agent.  Each class has has its strengths and weaknesses which affect how you play each game.

After you have decided what you want to be, you pick a country to start in. Each country in the world has different stats regarding whether it's arid, humid, hot, cold, temperate, urban, rural, etc.  Also, they may have airports or seaports.  All of these are factors that you will use to determine how you can spread from country to country, and how you will infect the world.

After you have picked your country, you start by waiting.  You allow a few people to be infected, and as you do, you gain DNA points.  These points are spent to evolve your disease.  You may decide to boost your strength in hot countries, if you start near the equator. You may boost your water transmission if you need to get into a country that has a seaport, or is humid in general.  You can also spend points into abilities that slow down the progress made towards the curing of you.

As you infect more and more people, it spreads around the world.  If you find you aren't hitting certain areas, you can look at the information about hose countries and decide if you need to evolve to move that direction.  As you infect more, you can start to increase the amount and severity of your symptoms, ranging from coughing to sneezing to insanity to organ failure.  Some of these symptoms increase transmission, some cause death and some can delay the cure.

While you are developing, the game is pumping news at you, some of it regarding events that may cause you to rethink your strategy, or sometimes it's just humorous or interesting tidbits.

It's so awesome watching the world as it becomes infected with your disease!

Just one of the leveling screens, and even then, you can't see half of the stuff you can evolve from here!

What keeps me coming back to this game is that it plays well in short bursts, but also as a whole game, when played well, it only takes about 30 minutes to dominate the world.  It's that feeling of power that you are in control of this disease, and when you hit that awesome combo of transmission and symptoms and you just watch the Infected People skyrocket.  Then, as soon as you infect everyone in the world (6.8 billion people), you bump up the lethality, and you watch the number drop right back down.

All the while, you are trying to balance staying "weak" enough that you don't scare the world into finding a cure super quick.  Also trying to work around the fact that richer countries have access to better medicine in the first place.  As the world starts to work on a cure, do you try to kill those countries so they can't work on it?  Or do you spend your points in becoming more complex, causing them to work longer on curing you.

With all of the classes, the transmissions, the countries, the symptoms and the special abilities, there are several way to play each level, and it's fun just seeing what combos pop up as you progress.  The "oops" combo is triggered when you evolve to include sneezing and diarrhea!  Also, you can bump insanity and cause countries to nuke each other!  There is just such variety that it's hard to play the same game twice.  And even when you lose, you're left thinking "Man, I could have just tried this or tried that and I totally would have won".

Considering I don't have a lot of time to play, I have somehow found quite a bit of time to play this.  It's usually staying up too late, playing it bed to just try "one more time" to beat that level.   One thing I have found about this game is that even though there isn't a story build into it, you are left feeling like you just went on a huge journey and you can't wait to tell everyone about the story you created.  Often, my girlfriend and I will be playing at the same time, and when we are done, we just can't stop talking about what happened, and retelling the history of our disease.

I am definitely going to keep calling this one up for a while.. I just hope I don't catch something myself ;)

Monster Warlord (Android)

Time for another new format!  It has -nothing- to do with the fact that I haven't had time to play anything for review, nope, not at all...  Okay, it does.  But this sounded like a good idea anyways, so it's something I can throw in every now and then.  "...with benefits" are games that I have been picking up on the side here and there, getting a little action when I need it.  They are likely to be either casual games, or games that just don't have much story, so I can just pick them up for a few minutes when I get time.

...with benefits

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Gamevil -- Publisher: Android Marketplace

Monster Warlord is a Facebook-style casual game (for lack of better description).  You have "action" points to do a couple different things, but then you need to wait for them to recharge (or pay to recharge sooner).  It's driving mostly by still-shots and buttons to navigate and occupy your time for a few minutes at a time.  As you get "further" in the game, you increase your maximum points, which lets you play for a little longer as time goes on.

Considering there are a bunch of this type of game out there, this is really the only one that has really caught me so far.  The premise in this one is that you are a Monster Handler, a la Pokemon or Monster Rancher.  You start with 1 monster, and a handful of Action and Battle points.  You use Action points to do quests, at the press of a button.  They cost varying amounts of points, and reward accordingly.   Battle points can be used to attack other players.  It compares your attack value to their defense value and determines a win or lose. If you win, you gain a few extra points of experience, and a percent of their non-banked gold.  If you lose, you get 1XP and no gold.

As you level up and gain gold, you can buy more monsters (required to do higher level quests).  As you get higher level monsters, you can combine them and have a chance at an even higher-ranked monster.  The more strength you have in monsters, the more effectively you can battle.  You can also invest your gold into buildings that pay you an amount of money every hour.  Since many of the later monsters have upkeep (cost per hour), investing in these buildings is pretty important.

I think what keeps me coming back to this game is just that it's so simple, but there is a little strategy and complexity to it.  I can pick it up for literally 5 minutes, burn my points, but still feel accomplished.  I am able to know I just gained so many experience points, and completes so much of a quest.  Often, there are Boss Battles, which are monsters either summoned by the game or by other players.  They don't fight back, so you don't get experience, but they are great for farming gold.

Knowing that you are earning gold per hour, but others might be attacking you taking your "hard-earned" gold keeps you coming back as often as you can think about it just to dump your gold into the bank, keeping it out of the hands of other players.  If you keep your money low enough often enough, they start to realize you just aren't worth attacking.

Often, one of the catches to these games is that you feel limited if you don't dump real money into it.  While you definitely could make more progress if you "pay" for it, I generally haven't felt the -need- to drop money into it.  I will admit I have put a few bucks into it just to get a little bit further here and there, but I quickly realized how much that could add up, so I haven't done it in a while.  A dollar at a time doesn't seem like that much, but it's easy to just keep spending "just a buck".

There are also advanced tactics that I could try to get into.  Really trying to combine well, and focus on buying the right amount of monsters to win more battles, but that's not what I get out of this game.  If I spent much more time on it, it wouldn't be one of those on-the-side kind of things.

Considering I'm still actively leveling consistently, completing quests, and collecting monsters, I don't feel like I will be breaking this off any time soon.  It's just too easy to feel productive, but not feel like I need to invest a lot of time keeping the relationship afloat.  I will be reaping these benefits for a while to come.

        

So that's the first ...with benefits!  I'm not sure if they will all turn out to be this long, but they might.  Since they are games I have spent more time with, I feel the need to explain more about what I know about it.  Usually, I only know 10-20 minutes worth of the game, so I can only say so much.  Even with this game, I could probably just keep going, but I also never really plan on spending -too- much time with this blog.  That just isn't the point right now.