Welcome to a new Indie Corner! Today I’ll be reviewing four games on Wii U as well as one game on 3DS. Are you ready? Let’s get started!
First up we have Solitaire Dungeon Explore from Jose Varela Games. I’ve already reviewed Midtown Crazy Race and Heptrix from this indie developer. Is Solitaire Dungeon Explore better? Definitely! The game is basically several solitaire puzzles that take place inside of a dungeon where players are tasked with solving 16 puzzles per stage in order to obtain all then pieces of the key that is needed to unlock the door to be able to move into the next room.
The rules of the game are simple. To remove a card from the screen, you have two options. You can either click on a card with a value of one higher or one lower level than the current card in play on your deck in the lower middle part of the screen, or you can use the single joker card you have to take the place of any card you want. You need to be careful because you only get one joker card per puzzle, and using it at the wrong time could break your flow.
Other than that, some of the puzzles will require that you fulfill a secondary objective before clearing the screen. These could, for example, ask that you complete a combo of clearing X cards in a row, or that you obtain a score that at least matches a specific score, or that you remove a golden card from the screen as part of a combo of Y cards, to name a few.
Some of you will definitely hate this game, but it’s been a fun time waster for me for several weeks now. I started playing it for review, and I have to admit that during the first few minutes it didn’t instantly grab my attention. But after playing up to puzzle sixteen of the first set, something clicked, and it kept me playing for two hours straight until I realized it was very late, and that I should probably go to sleep. And ever since I’ve been going back to the game to play 5-10 puzzles at a time between playing other games for review. Right now I have the last two rooms left before I can finish the game, so I can definitely recommend this one.
Next up is Swords and Darkness from Arc System Works. This is a side-scrolling brawler-style game with RPG elements and an inventory system. The setting is of the fantasy variety, with monsters and magic and treasure and magical treasure. After the King of Athelstern has gone mad from the power secured by ancient magical rituals, a knight must find the Queen who has hidden in the castle before it is too late. If the kingdom of Athelstern is to be saved, then keeping the Queen safe is its last hope.
The game has a very slow start, and the first hour will be spent learning the ropes for the game, slowly leveling up while being careful to not try to chew more than you can bite since enemies at first pack a mighty punch that can defeat our hero in a few seconds. Every enemy you defeat will provide you with experience points that will allow you level up the hero. On top of an increase on stats upon leveling up, players will also receive skill points that can be distributed among the hero’s attributes for strength, dexterity, agility, stamina, mentality, vitality, and luck. Finding the proper balance for improving the hero is a must, or else you’ll be finding yourself back at the church. If you’re defeated, you’ll lose half your gold, so be careful!
As you level up and manage to defeat the miniboss and bosses the game throws at you, you’ll get a chance to secure special scrolls that will teach you new skills that are a must, as well as some special equipment pieces that are unique. Sometimes they will greatly help to improve your current gear while other times the equipment sold by one of the merchants will be better. And speaking of merchants, don’t forget to always stock on healing items as well as on single-use attack items. Oh, and you should always have with you a very special item that instantly teleports you back to the church because, again, losing half your money from being defeated is not a smart move.
I had a lot of fun with Swords and Darkness, and I’ll definitely keep playing it until I can finish the game. The RPG elements and all the items and equipment pieces you can mix and match add a lot to the game and will allow you to customize the experience to your particular gaming style.
Cube Life: Island Survivor from Cypronia is a block building open-world survival game on Wii U. I’ve been playing Cube Life for a while now, and while it’s basically still a work-in-progress endeavor, it is shaping up to be a very fun block building game!
Right from that trailer you can see that the game looks great on Nintendo’s console. You’re stranded on a deserted island… or at least you think it is a deserted island. You’ll need to find food, water and shelter to keep you alive, especially during the night when the wild animals come out to hunt. Oh, and there’s also cannibals that want to take a bite out of you!
You therefore need to use all the resources available on the island and its surrounding areas to find the materials needed for creating the weapons, tools and food items that will give you an edge over your new-found enemies. At least that is the case in Survival Mode where if you’re not careful one false move can end your run. Cube Life also includes a Creative Mode where you’re free to explore at your own pace as you build stuff in 3D.
So, what is included in the game right now? There are over 200 items and tools, a day and night cycle, wild animals, cannibals, a crafting mode, internet rankings and more. And speaking of more, Cube Life is getting an update soon that will greatly increase the scope of game with Wii U Pro controller support, local multiplayer (GamePad vs. Wii U Pro controller + TV), pets, fishing, more items, new camera modes, more animals and enemies, 56 new maps for Survival Mode, a weather system, faster loading times and a faster game overall, bumping the framerate (currently locked at 30 fps) up by 10+ fps.
So far, the game has been fun, and the extra content will give everyone more to do in the game… and this is only the first of many updates to come! Oh, and those that get Cube Life will be getting a free Wii U game from Cypronia at a later date. What is this mystery game? Nobody knows!
And now we move on to Astral Breakers from Intropy Games. At its core, this is a puzzle game where you must destroy spheres of the same color to drown your opponents with the colored spheres you send their way after your mighty combos take place. The twist for this game is that you can select one of the twelve constellations to determine the attack pattern of your drops. Some constellations are more aggressive than others but have a hard time defending against the attacks from other constellation, so you need to get to know how to approach each match.
There are options for competitive and cooperative gaming sessions, so grabbing a friend to turn him/her into your worst enemy is always an option. And speaking of friends, both you and your soon to be ex-friends can create a custom Zodiac Sign by using the Wii U GamePad’s touchscreen, and the way you design said Zodiac Sign will dictate how your drops on your opponent’s playing field will be executed, as well as its intensity.
Learning how to properly combo is a must, but you must also learn when to work on a combo and when to ruthlessly attack your opponent in order to buy you some extra time. Every so often one of the spheres you can drop will start to glow, and this means you can switch it into a special piece that will destroy all the spheres of the same color that are touching each other. You could therefore, for example, do a nice layer of green spheres, to then set a couple of blue spheres in a corner to then place a green special piece on top of said blue spheres as you try to manipulate the available spheres into another blue cluster so that when you can activate a special blue piece and destroy all the blue spheres the green special piece will drop on top of all the green spheres, thus clearing a large part of the board and bringing the hurt to your opponent.
Overall Astral Breakers is a fun and interesting puzzle game that is easy to learn and hard to master, so the more you play, the more you’ll learn about the best tactics to employ against particular constellations to avoid being drowned in colored spheres.
Want free copies of Solitaire Dungeon Escape and Astral Breakers? Then follow @4colorrebellion, @JoseVarelaGames and @intropygames and leave a comment below with your Twitter handle for a chance to win! (US-only codes this time).
Source:
http://ift.tt/1Eq2Jdz