This is a rant, a rememberance, and a rave review
A long time ago (1984), on a Fidonet far, far away (Dallas) a computer game appeared that members embraced so enthusiastically that members donated cash so that equipment could be upgraded and we could play the latest version. It was a "space traders" game where you visited planets, avoided bad guys, and moved around cash and goods and tried to make enough money to retire. The graphics were simple, but that didn't stop us from playing it for hours on end.
Then the game market changed and the Internet arrived, and the little game we loved was long gone.
I'm not sure what I was looking for a few months ago in Android Marketplace, but I tripped across a game called "Star Traders" in my search for -- something other than a game where you blew stuff up or threw things at other things. The ad for Star Traders said that it was a "role playing game" for the Android; a phrase that intrigued me. I like games that engage the brain. I downloaded it on a whim and opened it -- and I was swept back to that wonderful time where an imaginative simulation game kept us all fascinated for hours.
It also avoided one of my biggest gripes with Android games -- developers who believe that only three types of people who play Android games: Games For Children who need to be amused with sweetly fluffy games, Games For Guys with hot wimmin and bodily functions and rampaging things that must be blasted or squashed until until the screen bleeds red, and Games For Women With An IQ Slightly Higher Than Breakfast Toast who obsess over their looks when they're not doing word puzzles or trying to manage beauty shops or restaurants or farms (why do no games for women ever have us managing a dive team or an archaeological dig or a science lab?)
As a player, I have an issue with some of the developers' philosophies. Many release two versions of a game -- a free and a paid one, which is fine because I like to try before I buy. However, some of the developers create games where the player must use in-game currency to acquire things and deliberately set the amount you can win at a very low figure. If you want to progress in the game, you keep having to run back to the developing company and buy in-game currency through PayPal or other sources (Aquapets has recently become a worst case example of them and although I loved the game, I have joined the crowd of other folks who have erased it after becoming disgusted with their greedy manipulations.)
But occasionally you get an Android game like Star Traders, which is turn based, playable by anyone who can read English, isn't trying to suck your wallet dry, and treats the players like intelligent adults. This particular review is of the free version of this Android game, but honestly, I liked it enough to fork over the $2 and buy the full version. I'll add right now that the free version is satisfyingly complete -- you don't feel as though you were somehow tricked into buying a game you can only play for five levels before you have either solved it or it starts demanding money from you. And (thank you, Cory and Andrew Trese) they don't have any way of buying currency.
The graphics are clean and readable even on a phone. It doesn't require a lot of finger dexterity or screen accuracy to play the game -- AND -- it's easy to turn off the soundtrack and game sounds. I like my games quiet, thank you.
The scenario is interesting -- in a galaxy sector full of political conflicts, you become the captain of a star ship and take on assignments on behalf of your faction (or just for yourself.) You can choose from a variety of roles (my favorite is Explorer, though military officer is interesting as well.) Your job is to run errands for your faction, explore, trade, fight, spy, and survive as your faction brawls with other ruling factions or forms sudden alliances. You may be headed for a port, only to have your clan decide to war with the planet you're approaching and end up being captured or searched for contraband or declared an "undesirable."
There's a nice variety of game levels, from "basic" to "impossible." It IS possible to survive for at least 60 turns on "Impossible" -- you just have to be very good at understanding the game mechanics.
For someone who loves roleplaying, this game is ideal. It's beautifully written, with text that deftly paints (without overpainting) the planets and star ports, from the misery of some of the overrun and conquered planets to the opulence of the clan centers. Without a wall of text, you are free to imagine the glittering lights of Javat Prime from space, with ascending and descending ships trailing thin wires of fire as they come and go.
The naming choices are particularly charming (the planet, Notlach, and the ruler "Drewacious the Wide" along with "Prince Fire Clay" are some of my favorites) and the titles of the leaders (such as High Counsel) suggest a range of governments. There's a nod to some familiar themes -- spice as a recreational drug (shades of Dune!) and to Star Wars, which makes the game even more fun.
Highly Recommended
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Glorious Time Wasters - Android Game Review of "Seven Little Words"
Glorious Time Wasters - "Seven Little Words"
Rating: Everyone who reads well
Notes: Great for the vocabulary. You might have to hunt some things up!
We've all been there -- standing in the grocery line while the person in front of you unloads what seems to be a clown car onto the conveyor belt. The checkout machine decides to not scan five items (based on some sort of random algorithm) and as you look around, you discover you ARE in the shortest line. Ennui looms. Tabloids hint at dark secrets. Candy racks hint at high calorie satisfaction.
What to do... what to do? Your fingers start to twitch...
Rating: Everyone who reads well
Notes: Great for the vocabulary. You might have to hunt some things up!
We've all been there -- standing in the grocery line while the person in front of you unloads what seems to be a clown car onto the conveyor belt. The checkout machine decides to not scan five items (based on some sort of random algorithm) and as you look around, you discover you ARE in the shortest line. Ennui looms. Tabloids hint at dark secrets. Candy racks hint at high calorie satisfaction.
What to do... what to do? Your fingers start to twitch...
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Four Fabulous Apps For a New Android
This time on "Glorious Time Wasters" -- 4 Incredibly Useful Apps for a new Christmas Android device!
Tis the season to be giving -- and getting -- and the best thing to get right now is a new Android device. They come pretty fully featured, and a lot of them come with pre-loaded software (some of which I'd actually recommend). But whether yours is a humble device that only connects via a nearby wireless hotspot or whether you've got the latest high-end Android with lots of bandwidth and cellular transmission, there's ten types of applications that EVERYONE really should have. I'm staying out of some of the more interesting ones (like rootkits and so forth.) This list is a "really should have this" list for anyone getting (or giving) a new Android device.
...and you KNOW how much fun it is to hop off to Marketplace and show someone how to get goodies, right? So get them started right with these apps!
#1 -- Google Maps. Why do I have THAT on the list? One word -- traffic reports. In the case of Dallas, it gets its info from TXDOT, so it's not "up to the second" reliable, but it's free. And it gives you "good enough" warning about problems.
#2 -- Dropbox, the file mover of choice. Some of us can do it via Bluetooth, but for a lot of people, "Bluetooth" indicates someone with really bad dental hygene (come to think of it, there's times when I'm trying to get Bluetooth devices to talk to each other when I think it would be easier to go in for major dental surgery.) If you love Bluetooth and it works for you, stay with it. For the rest of us, there's "Dropbox." Dropbox is basically free web storage for your files. You take whatever it is you want, upload it to your Dropbox, and it's now available for every Android device that you've got. It will automatically load anything you put up there to your regular computer. It's great for backups and less of a hassle than Google can be.
In this day of "you can totally lose track of your life if you lose your phone, computer, blackberry, etc, backups are a gooooood idea! Listen to the geek, folks.
#3 -- Astro File Manager -- a better file handler than the one that comes on most devices. There's no real consistent scheme out there -- and some of the ones that come with the Androids are full of Mystery Meat Navigation (do I double tap to move? Where's that file located? Why does it pretend I've got 2 SD cards?) Astro File manager's interface makes sense, and it's fairly intuitive to move files between directories. It also accesses the top level directories, something that some apps don't let you do.
#4 -- Flashlight and Candle. Okay, that's two apps rather than one. But our phones and Androids are becoming extremely versatile devices and there's lots of times when having a small amount of light really helps. I like Candle Free if I'm just wanting to find my way through the dark house to the bedroom without tripping over the cat. Flashlight Free is for when... well... ya need that extra light. We also use Candle Free for birthday parties (yes, you can blow out the candles), and yes my family is in the Entirely Too Geeky To Live In The Real World category.
If you don't have these apps on your devices, you might like them. If you do, don't forget to suggest them to everyone around you. You'll look awesomely uber-geeky when you show them how to avoid the shopping traffic when they head out to buy your gift for Christmas.
Tis the season to be giving -- and getting -- and the best thing to get right now is a new Android device. They come pretty fully featured, and a lot of them come with pre-loaded software (some of which I'd actually recommend). But whether yours is a humble device that only connects via a nearby wireless hotspot or whether you've got the latest high-end Android with lots of bandwidth and cellular transmission, there's ten types of applications that EVERYONE really should have. I'm staying out of some of the more interesting ones (like rootkits and so forth.) This list is a "really should have this" list for anyone getting (or giving) a new Android device.
...and you KNOW how much fun it is to hop off to Marketplace and show someone how to get goodies, right? So get them started right with these apps!
#1 -- Google Maps. Why do I have THAT on the list? One word -- traffic reports. In the case of Dallas, it gets its info from TXDOT, so it's not "up to the second" reliable, but it's free. And it gives you "good enough" warning about problems.
#2 -- Dropbox, the file mover of choice. Some of us can do it via Bluetooth, but for a lot of people, "Bluetooth" indicates someone with really bad dental hygene (come to think of it, there's times when I'm trying to get Bluetooth devices to talk to each other when I think it would be easier to go in for major dental surgery.) If you love Bluetooth and it works for you, stay with it. For the rest of us, there's "Dropbox." Dropbox is basically free web storage for your files. You take whatever it is you want, upload it to your Dropbox, and it's now available for every Android device that you've got. It will automatically load anything you put up there to your regular computer. It's great for backups and less of a hassle than Google can be.
In this day of "you can totally lose track of your life if you lose your phone, computer, blackberry, etc, backups are a gooooood idea! Listen to the geek, folks.
#3 -- Astro File Manager -- a better file handler than the one that comes on most devices. There's no real consistent scheme out there -- and some of the ones that come with the Androids are full of Mystery Meat Navigation (do I double tap to move? Where's that file located? Why does it pretend I've got 2 SD cards?) Astro File manager's interface makes sense, and it's fairly intuitive to move files between directories. It also accesses the top level directories, something that some apps don't let you do.
#4 -- Flashlight and Candle. Okay, that's two apps rather than one. But our phones and Androids are becoming extremely versatile devices and there's lots of times when having a small amount of light really helps. I like Candle Free if I'm just wanting to find my way through the dark house to the bedroom without tripping over the cat. Flashlight Free is for when... well... ya need that extra light. We also use Candle Free for birthday parties (yes, you can blow out the candles), and yes my family is in the Entirely Too Geeky To Live In The Real World category.
If you don't have these apps on your devices, you might like them. If you do, don't forget to suggest them to everyone around you. You'll look awesomely uber-geeky when you show them how to avoid the shopping traffic when they head out to buy your gift for Christmas.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Android Game Review: Magma Mobile -- Pinball! -- another glorious waste of time!
Android Game Review: Magma Mobile -- Pinball! -- another glorious waste of time!
Initial review: Five stars -- trip down Nostalgia Lane
Game category: Physics games
Game type: Arcade
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? For everyone, really.
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-nix-game-pinball-free-zptm.aspx
I confess that I like Magma Mobile's games -- they're clean, visually appealing, and there's even help screens that explain how to play, something that's rather unusual in many Android games. But there's a zillion pinball games out there -- so why THIS pinball over others?
It's all about the graphics.
I played Pinball back in the late 1960's and early 1970's, when it was on the cusp of a revolution. Advances in electronics were just about to hit the pinball world and add digital scoring and digital displays would be added in a few years. Eight years later, Pac Man and Pong would be regular offerings in the arcades and it was You Versus The Machine. But in 1970, it was still all about the physics -- just you, a large table, and flipper buttons that you hit madly. And if you got just the right tap at the right angle, the gods of physics smiled at you and you could get free games. Particularly if you just happened to "bump" the table at JUST the right time.
Pinball was art. Pinball was physics. Pinball was hours of fun for a few quarters.
This version of Pinball for the Android has the "feel" of some of the older pinball machines that I've played -- they're simple, they're clean, and it relys on the right hit at the right angle and the right velocity. Some of the others take advantage of the fact that computers are very very fast compared to humans, and the balls seem to move at speeds not entirely consistent with the way the balls felt back in the days when it was just you and gravity.
I also tried Pinball Deluxe, but the screens (tables) weren't quite as charming as Magma Mobile's table. Maybe it's just me and my Old School ways, but the Magma Mobile game sure brings back fond memories of quiet bars and the music of my friend, Freddy Argir's band. http://www.fredyargir.com/music.html
Initial review: Five stars -- trip down Nostalgia Lane
Game category: Physics games
Game type: Arcade
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? For everyone, really.
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-nix-game-pinball-free-zptm.aspx
I confess that I like Magma Mobile's games -- they're clean, visually appealing, and there's even help screens that explain how to play, something that's rather unusual in many Android games. But there's a zillion pinball games out there -- so why THIS pinball over others?
It's all about the graphics.
I played Pinball back in the late 1960's and early 1970's, when it was on the cusp of a revolution. Advances in electronics were just about to hit the pinball world and add digital scoring and digital displays would be added in a few years. Eight years later, Pac Man and Pong would be regular offerings in the arcades and it was You Versus The Machine. But in 1970, it was still all about the physics -- just you, a large table, and flipper buttons that you hit madly. And if you got just the right tap at the right angle, the gods of physics smiled at you and you could get free games. Particularly if you just happened to "bump" the table at JUST the right time.
Pinball was art. Pinball was physics. Pinball was hours of fun for a few quarters.
This version of Pinball for the Android has the "feel" of some of the older pinball machines that I've played -- they're simple, they're clean, and it relys on the right hit at the right angle and the right velocity. Some of the others take advantage of the fact that computers are very very fast compared to humans, and the balls seem to move at speeds not entirely consistent with the way the balls felt back in the days when it was just you and gravity.
I also tried Pinball Deluxe, but the screens (tables) weren't quite as charming as Magma Mobile's table. Maybe it's just me and my Old School ways, but the Magma Mobile game sure brings back fond memories of quiet bars and the music of my friend, Freddy Argir's band. http://www.fredyargir.com/music.html
Friday, November 11, 2011
Android games: "Alchemy" -- a glorious waste of time
Android Game Review: Alchemy
Android Market link: https://market.android.com/details?id=me.zed_0xff.android.alchemy&hl=en
Android games: "Alchemy" -- a glorious waste of time
Game category: Puzzle game
Game type: Similar to ...alchemy, actually
Initial review: Five stars
Recommended device size: Any
Who'd enjoy it?: Most ages
Andrey 'Zed' Zaikin's lovely time-wasting Alchemy game is one of the classics of the free game market -- and if you haven't tried it yet, you really should. It's sort of a twist on the Greek view of the Universe -- that there were four elements that made up everything in the universe. You start with fire, earth, air, and water and drag them on top of things to make new items. So, fire plus water equals steam. That was easy! You can take elements you've already made (steam) and add it to something else (air) and make something new: a cloud!
But it gets weird after that. "Ash tray" = ash + glass. "Grape" = earth + wood. "wolf" = werewolf + moon. "Star" = sun + scientist (I like that!)
The final list of elements? Well, the app maker updates it occasionally, and there's always new combos. I had this on another device and downloaded it to my new Samsung Galaxy and was very surprised to find out that some combinations were for countries. The "Kama Sutra" combination also surprised me.
Items with a tiny red dot on the picture are "final products" and can't be combined in other ways.
The first fifty or so are easy... for the rest, there's hints and cheat sheets.
It's a real classic time-waster!
Android Market link: https://market.android.com/details?id=me.zed_0xff.android.alchemy&hl=en
Android games: "Alchemy" -- a glorious waste of time
Game category: Puzzle game
Game type: Similar to ...alchemy, actually
Initial review: Five stars
Recommended device size: Any
Who'd enjoy it?: Most ages
Andrey 'Zed' Zaikin's lovely time-wasting Alchemy game is one of the classics of the free game market -- and if you haven't tried it yet, you really should. It's sort of a twist on the Greek view of the Universe -- that there were four elements that made up everything in the universe. You start with fire, earth, air, and water and drag them on top of things to make new items. So, fire plus water equals steam. That was easy! You can take elements you've already made (steam) and add it to something else (air) and make something new: a cloud!
But it gets weird after that. "Ash tray" = ash + glass. "Grape" = earth + wood. "wolf" = werewolf + moon. "Star" = sun + scientist (I like that!)
The final list of elements? Well, the app maker updates it occasionally, and there's always new combos. I had this on another device and downloaded it to my new Samsung Galaxy and was very surprised to find out that some combinations were for countries. The "Kama Sutra" combination also surprised me.
Items with a tiny red dot on the picture are "final products" and can't be combined in other ways.
The first fifty or so are easy... for the rest, there's hints and cheat sheets.
It's a real classic time-waster!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Android games: "Crystal Portal" -- a glorious waste of time
Android Game Review: The Mystery of the Crystal Portal
Initial review: Four stars
Game category: Puzzle game
Game type: Similar to Paradise
Recommended device size: Tablets
Who'd enjoy it?: Teens/adults who like puzzle story games.
Android Market link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.g5e.crystalportal&hl=en
I'd tried and got frustrated with other puzzle stories before, so I was a little wary of this one. There's no real action in these (the art is stunning, however) -- if you're not familiar with this type of game, it's "sort of" like the old "choose your own adventure" book. The protagonist is a journalist named Nicole Rankwist, who arrives home to find her archaeologist father missing. Anyone who knows us anthropologist/archaeologist types knows we're a LOT of trouble. Like all other missing archaeologists, he's just made a discovery that "could change the course of humanity." But he departed (voluntarily?) for parts unknown, leaving a journal that directs her to go to Japan.
The graphics are delightful -- intricate, colorful, and eye-catching. Game play is smooth, with a very useful help and hint function (this is a pet peeve of mine -- bad help screens.
The screens unlock after you find the right pieces to group together (a key, a fan, a statue, a frog -- which may not be related to each other or to the container you put them in.) The game is more or less a "prequel", where you get the first chapter for free. It's a nice little game, and if you've got a boring jury duty call, this is a perfect little time-passer to take with you while you wait.
The only reason for four stars is that the play isn't random. Once you've solved the riddle, that's it. You can go back and re-solve it, but you know how to do it now.
Initial review: Four stars
Game category: Puzzle game
Game type: Similar to Paradise
Recommended device size: Tablets
Who'd enjoy it?: Teens/adults who like puzzle story games.
Android Market link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.g5e.crystalportal&hl=en
I'd tried and got frustrated with other puzzle stories before, so I was a little wary of this one. There's no real action in these (the art is stunning, however) -- if you're not familiar with this type of game, it's "sort of" like the old "choose your own adventure" book. The protagonist is a journalist named Nicole Rankwist, who arrives home to find her archaeologist father missing. Anyone who knows us anthropologist/archaeologist types knows we're a LOT of trouble. Like all other missing archaeologists, he's just made a discovery that "could change the course of humanity." But he departed (voluntarily?) for parts unknown, leaving a journal that directs her to go to Japan.
The graphics are delightful -- intricate, colorful, and eye-catching. Game play is smooth, with a very useful help and hint function (this is a pet peeve of mine -- bad help screens.
The screens unlock after you find the right pieces to group together (a key, a fan, a statue, a frog -- which may not be related to each other or to the container you put them in.) The game is more or less a "prequel", where you get the first chapter for free. It's a nice little game, and if you've got a boring jury duty call, this is a perfect little time-passer to take with you while you wait.
The only reason for four stars is that the play isn't random. Once you've solved the riddle, that's it. You can go back and re-solve it, but you know how to do it now.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Android Game Review: "Zenonia 3" -- another glorious waste of time!
Android Game Review: "Zenonia 3" -- another glorious waste of time!
Initial review: Two stars -- good, but just not my cuppa tea
Game category: Manga-type
Game type: RPG
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it?: Teens/adults who like story chain quest games.
Zenonia-3 is GameEvil's latest release of the RPG Zenonia. For this episode, you play the role of Chael, the adopted son of the first Zenonia game's protagonist Regret. This won't make much sense to you unless you've played the first game. The overall theme is that Chael has to find his way home from a place called Midgard (which looks nothing like the Norse Midgard.) Chael can be one of four different classes (Sword Knight, Shadow Hunter, Mechanic Launcher and Nature Shaman) for the quest.
Initial review: Two stars -- good, but just not my cuppa tea
Game category: Manga-type
Game type: RPG
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it?: Teens/adults who like story chain quest games.
Zenonia-3 is GameEvil's latest release of the RPG Zenonia. For this episode, you play the role of Chael, the adopted son of the first Zenonia game's protagonist Regret. This won't make much sense to you unless you've played the first game. The overall theme is that Chael has to find his way home from a place called Midgard (which looks nothing like the Norse Midgard.) Chael can be one of four different classes (Sword Knight, Shadow Hunter, Mechanic Launcher and Nature Shaman) for the quest.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Glorious time Wasters -- Match Up: People Edition
Match Up -- People Edition
From the Magma Mobile folks who created the nice little "Memory Match" game for the Android operating system comes a new twist on the classic "Match" game -- the "People edition." This version of the game uses pictures of people whose biographies you can find on Wikipedia (if that statement sounds a bit dodgy, it's because I don't watch movies or tv much, can't identify most actors or singers (other than the Beatles) or athletes, and have no idea what various entrepreneurs look like). If you're bad at recognizing faces, this is a good game for you. Make that a GREAT game.
It's the standard type of game play -- touch the cards to flip them. Cards that you haven't looked at have a question mark on the back. This particular version allows you to pick how many cards you want in your grid -- 4 cards (yes, 4), 16, 30, 36, 64, 72, 90, and 100 card versions. The images are a mix of black and white and color pictures. This is a good deal for those of us who are very bad at recognizing faces, because you can cue off hairstyles and colors.
Memory match games are mind-numbing amusement (not a thrill a minute) and at the 64+ card level, a good quick brain workout. Now if there was only an option for you to insert photos of your relatives or folks you meet in social situations. That'd be a great review for those Awkward Social Situations we all seem to fall into.
From the Magma Mobile folks who created the nice little "Memory Match" game for the Android operating system comes a new twist on the classic "Match" game -- the "People edition." This version of the game uses pictures of people whose biographies you can find on Wikipedia (if that statement sounds a bit dodgy, it's because I don't watch movies or tv much, can't identify most actors or singers (other than the Beatles) or athletes, and have no idea what various entrepreneurs look like). If you're bad at recognizing faces, this is a good game for you. Make that a GREAT game.
It's the standard type of game play -- touch the cards to flip them. Cards that you haven't looked at have a question mark on the back. This particular version allows you to pick how many cards you want in your grid -- 4 cards (yes, 4), 16, 30, 36, 64, 72, 90, and 100 card versions. The images are a mix of black and white and color pictures. This is a good deal for those of us who are very bad at recognizing faces, because you can cue off hairstyles and colors.
Memory match games are mind-numbing amusement (not a thrill a minute) and at the 64+ card level, a good quick brain workout. Now if there was only an option for you to insert photos of your relatives or folks you meet in social situations. That'd be a great review for those Awkward Social Situations we all seem to fall into.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Glorious time wasters -- "Clouds & Sheep" for Android
Android Game Review: "Clouds and Sheep" -- another glorious waste of time!
Initial review: Four stars -- amusing but slightly sadistic
Game category: Vikings type game
Game type: Arcade
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? Anyone not troubled by some mildly sadistic acts like sheep tossing.
This is another game from Handy Games and as usual features rather charming graphics and an easy to use interface. The object is to keep your sheep happy and finish a series of very amusing quests -- like do the sheep toss. PETA would not approve of the sheep treatment, but they seem to like it.
The designers also allow you to save games so that you could either start at the level you left, restart an earlier version, or begin a new game and take the "best" scores. One of the biggest tips for this would be "don't have too many sheep." They breed like... well... sheep, I guess. It's hard to keep them all occupied.
So there you are, planting flowers to make sheep amorous and planting grass to feed them and handing them refreshing cool drinks or coffee -- and you also get to control the weather. Piled up clouds make a nice rainstorm -- and combined rainstorms make a nice thundercloud. "Sheep coffee" costs stars, but a lovely thunderbolt is free and wakes the sheep up just as effectively (so does bouncing them, but the thunderbolt's a lot of fun, frankly.)
A good time-waster, quick to learn, quick to play, easy to set down and pick back up again.
Initial review: Four stars -- amusing but slightly sadistic
Game category: Vikings type game
Game type: Arcade
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? Anyone not troubled by some mildly sadistic acts like sheep tossing.
This is another game from Handy Games and as usual features rather charming graphics and an easy to use interface. The object is to keep your sheep happy and finish a series of very amusing quests -- like do the sheep toss. PETA would not approve of the sheep treatment, but they seem to like it.
The designers also allow you to save games so that you could either start at the level you left, restart an earlier version, or begin a new game and take the "best" scores. One of the biggest tips for this would be "don't have too many sheep." They breed like... well... sheep, I guess. It's hard to keep them all occupied.
So there you are, planting flowers to make sheep amorous and planting grass to feed them and handing them refreshing cool drinks or coffee -- and you also get to control the weather. Piled up clouds make a nice rainstorm -- and combined rainstorms make a nice thundercloud. "Sheep coffee" costs stars, but a lovely thunderbolt is free and wakes the sheep up just as effectively (so does bouncing them, but the thunderbolt's a lot of fun, frankly.)
A good time-waster, quick to learn, quick to play, easy to set down and pick back up again.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Android Games -- Pretty Pet Tycoon
Sim type games have been around for awhile and seem to be very popular for phones and other small devices. So, when I checked in the Android market to see which games were popular, and "Pretty Pet Tycoon" came up as a high rated, highly downloaded one. So I decided to take the Halloween Edition out for a test drive.
The idea for this episode of Pretty Pet Tycoon is that you're helping a cartoon pig (Piglina, who has moved to a farm in the countryside) set up a business that grows and sells fruit -- as well as (if you choose to go there) running a juice bar. Later levels unlock the candy factory section as well along with a mysterious competitor who seems bent on driving her out of business.
The instructions are... well... hard to find. I figured it out after a bit, but it took some doing.
The scene begins with Piglina on her farm and boxes of vegetable seeds coming down a conveyor belt. You use the touch-and-drag method to pull these plants to a certain box (red or blue... the plant will have a red or a blue box around it.) Then you tap the planting box and Piglina comes over to tend the crop. A few seconds later it's ready to be harvested, so you you drag it to the scale and tap the scale icon. Piglina trots over and boxes it. You drag it onto the truck and tap the truck. Piglina starts the truck and it heads off to Pretty Pet Tycoon Town and sells her merchandise.
As the days go on, the seeds come down the conveyor belt faster, and if you don't get them planted quickly enough they will go bad. If you don't harvest the crops quickly enough, they'll go bad. If you leave the packages sitting on the scale too long, they'll go bad and she'll lose money. My early mistake was buying plots of land rather than hiring workers -- as it turns out, workers are only hire-able with "Pet Points"... an in-game currency. You start out with zero pet points, by the way.
I played this one to level 8, but found that I could only hire one worker for Piglina with the money she had. There is the option to buy enough Pet Points for workers and automatic machines with Paypal, but I really don't care for games that rope you into paying for extras. The quick pace of the gameplay wasn't enough to hold my interest -- frankly, it was a bit too much like some jobs I've had.
For people who've played this style of game (Soda Shop, Waitress, Hair Salon), this one will have a lot of charm. The graphics are clean, and visuals are decent on an Android phone.
As for me, I deleted it and went back to "Dragon, Fly!" I've almost mastered swooping now.
The idea for this episode of Pretty Pet Tycoon is that you're helping a cartoon pig (Piglina, who has moved to a farm in the countryside) set up a business that grows and sells fruit -- as well as (if you choose to go there) running a juice bar. Later levels unlock the candy factory section as well along with a mysterious competitor who seems bent on driving her out of business.
The instructions are... well... hard to find. I figured it out after a bit, but it took some doing.
The scene begins with Piglina on her farm and boxes of vegetable seeds coming down a conveyor belt. You use the touch-and-drag method to pull these plants to a certain box (red or blue... the plant will have a red or a blue box around it.) Then you tap the planting box and Piglina comes over to tend the crop. A few seconds later it's ready to be harvested, so you you drag it to the scale and tap the scale icon. Piglina trots over and boxes it. You drag it onto the truck and tap the truck. Piglina starts the truck and it heads off to Pretty Pet Tycoon Town and sells her merchandise.
As the days go on, the seeds come down the conveyor belt faster, and if you don't get them planted quickly enough they will go bad. If you don't harvest the crops quickly enough, they'll go bad. If you leave the packages sitting on the scale too long, they'll go bad and she'll lose money. My early mistake was buying plots of land rather than hiring workers -- as it turns out, workers are only hire-able with "Pet Points"... an in-game currency. You start out with zero pet points, by the way.
I played this one to level 8, but found that I could only hire one worker for Piglina with the money she had. There is the option to buy enough Pet Points for workers and automatic machines with Paypal, but I really don't care for games that rope you into paying for extras. The quick pace of the gameplay wasn't enough to hold my interest -- frankly, it was a bit too much like some jobs I've had.
For people who've played this style of game (Soda Shop, Waitress, Hair Salon), this one will have a lot of charm. The graphics are clean, and visuals are decent on an Android phone.
As for me, I deleted it and went back to "Dragon, Fly!" I've almost mastered swooping now.
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