Like clockwork, it’s another friday, so that means another game to review! This week I take a look at A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, a game I bought when it was on sale due to a snow day here in the UK. So without further ado, here’s my thoughts on the game. First up, AGSIHTB grabs your attention from the offset due to it’s absolutely charming design, and sweet animation. No matter how long you play the game, you’ll consistently be surprised at how cute the game is, especially given how few assets are on display here. Each snowman/woman you successfully create has its own unique look, leading you to believe they have their own personalities, despite them being technically inanimate objects. It’s charming, and down right amazing in your entire time with the game. So, I should probably at this point talk about the game’s core loop.…

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I’ve been wanting to play The Witness ever since Ryan Davis talked about it years ago. He, and Brad Shoemaker, managed to get a secret tour of Jonathan Blow’s studio years before the game even had a proper name. Everything the guys said about the game sounded right up my street – an entire island made up of little puzzles where they all interconnect with each other and expand on each others rules sounded amazing. Suffice to say, after 30+ hours in the game with my other half, The witness delivered on most, if not all promises that were made in the run up to the game’s release, and in interviews afterwards. So what is The Witness? Simply put, it’s a walking simulator whereby you walk around an island and solve line puzzles. If anything, that simplification may actually be doing something of a disservice to The Witness, because it’s…

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FUCK THE NEATNESS

I’ve been going around my friends house a lot lately and watching Fairy Tail with him and his sister. On one of these days, his sister happened to be playing a game that looked like Tetris on her iPad at the corner of my eye. Seeing her pic this intriguing game up now and then to give it another go piqued my interest, so I asked her what game it was and set about downloading it.   That game in question is 1010!, a puzzle/strategy game where the only obstacle is yourself. The game starts off simple enough: you have a blank grid taking up theist majority of the screen, with three tetriminos at the bottom. It’s your task to put these tertiminos anywhere you would like on the screen, trying to make lines (either horizontally or vertically) to destroy them. Should you not be able to put a tetrimino on the grid…

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SCREW THIS SHIT

The Room started off as a interest at first for me. After hearing Brad Shoemaker talk about it on the Giant Bombcast, I thought I’d give the iPhone game a go. I’m a firm believer that iPhone/portable games should be centred around challenges, and not be a cinematic experience that you can get on consoles. (Something I even researched and presented at my final year of uni.) The Room doesn’t break any ground in my thinking, but does offer a very entertaining experience for people of all backgrounds. The Room is a puzzle game for iOS devices. For iPhone you get the first chapter for free (then have to pay £1.49 to continue) and for the iPad you have to pay £1.49 up front. For a game of it’s length (about 2 hours) this is a fair price, but from the sounds of things, there’ll be more content in coming…

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4/4