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!

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.