Tag Archives: Puzzle

Dogpile – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – Charm from the first click to the last.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

A sleeping dog.

Dogpile Review Introduction –

Every now and again, you don’t need a hundred-hour RPG or twitch shooter or even a dudes diving into an asteroid to mine dig-fest, what you need is something quaint and full of charm. The sort of charm that knocks your socks off or makes you say audible ‘awwww’. Well, today we look at just such a game, one that has charmed me all week. It is also interesting that two of the games that I have gotten the most out of this year, this and Peak, have been indie-studio collaborations. I am not sure what that means, but it is a fun anecdote for me.

So, to set the scene, you run a kennel where many dogs with many different behaviours come to be found. You’ll need to keep everything from spiralling out of control, while making sure you get to the dog wash, buy items in the shops to help you, and also, don’t forget to give your dogs all the pats in the world.

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PEAK – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – An enjoyable single-player experience that comes alive with a group.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

Looking down to the shore from the PEAK.

Peak Review –

One of the events I find fascinating is Game Jams. These are where developers set themselves a short period, usually a day or two, to see what they can build in that time. Here, time forces you to be creative and many weird and wonderful games, from Goat Simulator to Thomas Was Alone and everything in between, have been spawned. Usually, game jams spawn ideas that later become something grand. Still, I have never seen a game conceptualised in February and then released in June before, which is what we will examine today.

So, to set the scene, you are just a happy little guy going on a flight to a new tropical destination on Bingbong Airlines. But disaster strikes, and your plane crashes into an unknown tropical island. What do you do? Well, Scoutmaster Myers’ Wilderness Handbook Vol. 1 advises in How Not to Die, to run, not walk, and “You’ve gotta get to High Ground”. Looking around, you see a high peak in the distance, so it is time to collect supplies, gird your lions, and start climbing.

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Chained Together – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – A game that is as frustrating as it is fun. Just be sure it doesn’t end a relationship in the process.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

Skull of hell and a bone bridge.

Chained Together Review –

Today, we are looking at a bit of an odd game in that it is very purposely designed to cause grief. It’s like an old arcade game trying to take all your quarters, but instead of money, it is streamers yelling on Twitch. It should not have worked, but I was captured for the entire time.

So, to set the scene, Chained Together is the next in a long line of rage games that stretch back to Only Up! and Getting Over It! These use finicky controls and an odd visual environment to cause grief when you miss a jump and lose all the progress you have made. One step forward, and then a crushing fall back to Earth. The main difference this time around is that you are not climbing alone because you are chained together [said the name of the game]. Which can be a bonus or a great burden. You need to climb up all the puzzles and traps and escape hell, lest you fall back to the suffering below.

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Gubbins – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – A genuinely delightful word game that charms while presenting you with a fascinating challenge that I am driven to master.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

opening titles.

Gubbins Review –

We live in the post-Wordle era, where we ditched the crossword goodbye and devilled into six letters that gave us grief for months. Once it and its many different variations concurred on the internet, I wondered who would be the first video game company to capture that vibe of loving words and bring it into an interactive experience. Today, we look at a small Australian company who have not only done this but also charmed me entirely in the process.

So to set the scene, Gubbins in a puzzle game where you are given a bunch of discordant letters at the bottom of the screen and a grid above, and you get points for how many words you can create before the black FIN appears. You get bonuses for chains of words, and some power-ups and traps can make placing the words difficult.

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Planet of Lana – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – A stunningly beautiful game that pulls at the heartstrings as it reveals the world one puzzle at a time.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Game Pass service that viewed this game.

Alien mothership in the distance

Planet of Lana Review –

One of the things that you are always looking for when you boot up a new game is to experience something that pulls on your emotions. Does it build upon strong mechanics and art design to bring a world alive? Today we are looking at a game that does just that as it charms and uplifts you.

So to set the scene, on a planet off somewhere in the galaxy, we meet Lana (Bianca Zoe Mantelli), who lives in a small but friendly fishing village on the coast of a giant sea. Running through the town with her big sister Elo (Rossmary Petruzzelli), they climb up the nearby hillside to visit a place of sadness and to reflect on their bond. But when they get there, they see objects falling from the sky, and soon grand machines capture Elo and take her up into the sky. The village is in ruins by the time Lana can get back, everyone has been taken, but nothing will stop Lana from trying to save her family, where she meets a little animal friend who may be the hope of her salvation.

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Tron: Identity – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – A very old-school kind of game with not much complexity mechanically, but with a story that gets its hooks into you wanting to explore this world

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game

Tron: Identity Review –

If anyone has met me before, you probably know of my love for the Tron universe. Everything from the visual aesthetic to the story and worldbuilding brings me in and excites me. Things have been light on the ground for the world since the third film went in and out of production. So when I heard there was a new game set in the universe, I was interested. When I discovered that it would be a narrative novel type of game leaning into the old Point & Click genre, well, now you have me intrigued.

So to set the scene, it has been many years since the failed Clu revolution in Tron: Legacy, and even longer since the origin grid in Tron. Long enough, the ‘Users’ have been almost relegated to myth or, for some, a religion to venerate. There have been wars for control. Some programs have even broken off to form their own societies, while Core has taken control of many things in the city. You play a Disciple of Tron, an investigator, an outsider within and without the system. You have been summoned to The Repository, where dangerous items and knowledge are stored. There has been an explosion, and something has been looted from their secure vaults.

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