Recent reviews by Hippyshake

(This game was received for curation with no promise of a review, positive or otherwise.)

First created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, sokoban has become a classic puzzle sub-genre in its own right. For the uninitiated, players --in this case, a bunny-- must push (not pull) crates into their proper location in an enclosed warehouse. That's it. It seems simple, and it is. It's also clever and maddeningly complex at times, and worthy of the attention it still receives 40 years on.

In SokoBunny, one of the later "Bunny" games from DillyFrame, 150 puzzles (not including ten "Training" puzzles) sokoban is framed in a 3D environment that feels a bit like an early Nintendo 64 game. In it, players navigate a small area that allows them to access a few secrets, manipulate the environment and themselves (such as changing their color), and solve "mystery" achievements. It's cute and might be interesting for younger players, but ultimately the world feels unpolished, slightly confusing, and off the point.

At its heart, SokoBuny is a simple puzzle game and this it does well. Puzzles are fun and challenging, the environment is colorful, and the game does have a certain energy to it that adds a level of interest while you're playing (other bunnies or vehicles continue to move around the "warehouse" as you're engaged in a puzzle). The game allows only one "undo" move, which means restarting the puzzle if you've made a sequence of wrong moves; this is neither a positive or negative aspect but simply part of the game. Controls are smooth and intuitive.

More graphics options would be appreciated; currently there is no way to turn off post-processing effects. The game does offer a choice between "low," "mid," and "high" effects, but even the low option uses motion blur, dynamic lighting and other post-processing effects that reduced my framerate. While this sometimes resulted in choppy gameplay during my exploration of the world, puzzles ran smooth on my older PC. (Puzzles can be accessed from the starting area, so exploration isn't mandatory.)

Music is on a short, repeating loop that will quickly grate on your nerves but can be turned off, while sound effects are sparse but serviceable. I found it perfect for playing while listening to my favorite podcasts.

Overall, SokoBunny provides plenty of fun sokoban-solving challenge in a colorful, creative package for a modest price. Recommended.

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(This game was received for curation with no promise of a review, positive or otherwise.)

Monovert DX is a tough puzzle platformer that features a simple but clever mechanic: When your player character is the same color as your surroundings (either black or white) you can pass (or fall) right through them. Pressing the [Alt] key will change white to black and back again, enabling you to navigate the many increasingly creative puzzles. The graphics are sharp and clean, and the action moves fast. There is no music, and sound effects are sparse and limited. But who has time to care about that when you're too busy trying to keep from falling through the floor? Or slamming the jump and alt keys to try avoid landing on those spikes?

Monovert DX is a relatively short game (a YT walkthrough video runs at just 15 minutes although I can't get past level 9), but it offers a solid, bug-free experience that's pretty great. Recommended.

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(This game was received for curation with no promise of a review, positive or otherwise.)

Smart Gecko is essentially a simple variant of the "don't cross your own path" puzzle sub-genre. It could have been a passable way to spend a little time, but for the fact that zero effort has been made to fix some pretty glaring issues.

It should have been simple: Move your gecko one space at a time in order to eat all the fireflies and finish the board. Yet there are multiple problems, least of all the lack of a tutorial. It seems like that would be unnecessary, but at least two of your losses will be figuring out that turning into a wall makes your gecko explode violently, as does walking into a pillar (in the game's overhead view, the pillar looks like something you can walk over). There is no way to undo a bad move, which will happen more than you'd like due to the inexplicable lag after pressing a movement key. There is a timer that doesn't seem to do anything, and no option to play without it. Finishing a level means you have to actually maneuver your gecko to the edge of the screen, and then press another key to move it off the screen. The problem with this (besides the obvious redundancy) is that you cannot tell where the actual correct path is. And since, as I've mentioned, there is no undo key, you'll just have to start over.

I mentioned these issues to the dev back in June of 2019, and he promised an upcoming update. It never arrived, and so I must rate this Not Recommended. But hey, don't take my word for it; check out the global achievements. It's pretty telling that only 9% of all players even bother to finish the third screen.

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(This game was received for curation with no promise of a review, positive or otherwise.)

The premise of Gear is clear enough: Click on gears in the correct order to set them into motion, with the goal of moving all walls into place. The music is ethereal and unobtrusive, the design is solid, the graphics are minimalist and clean, the interface is simple. In short: Gear seems like everything you want in a puzzle game. It feels similar in style to Maciej Targoni's excellent "Hook," although whereas that one might have been a bit too easy, Gear most definitely is not.

It's difficult to criticize a game when it is this carefully crafted. That said, you should know going in that puzzles get complex very, very quickly. The game will not offer you hints, it will not hold your hand, and it will not tolerate a wrong move: Click the wrong gear at the wrong time and you will need to start the level over. Deal with it.

For players who are good at spatial puzzles and who have the ability to plan several moves ahead, Gear will absolutely offer you a solid challenge. For those casual gamers who think "eh, I'm pretty good"...well, it's about the price of a Caffe Latte Tall and if Gear lasts at least as long as the drink does, then you'll have gotten an equivalent value for your money. The game currently has only 60 levels, but promises between five and ten hours of gameplay. The one player I know of who has beaten it did so in 3.7 hrs so, as always with these types of games, your mileage can and will vary.

As for the developer, SpriteStudio, I'm really excited to see what comes next. Difficulty aside, for a first game Gear is a polished and solid effort, and I can easily see them becoming an important developer in Indie puzzle gaming. I can get behind that...even if I still can't get past level 15. Recommended.

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(This game was received for curation with no promise of a review, positive or otherwise.)

Simple Dot is yet another cheap, minimalist physics puzzle game...and if you've just read that in a negative light because you're tired of being inundated with low-effort games from developers who are only out for a quick cash grab, then you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that this terrific little game is anything but bundle fodder.

Simple Dot is aptly named: The goal of each level (there are currently 62, but difficulty is progressive) is to simply roll three "dots" (balls) into a bucket by drawing lines to create a safe path. As always in these types of games, things are more complicated than that simple premise sounds.

The puzzle design is elegant and carefully crafted. Obstacles that prevent you from reaching the bucket include spikes, platforms that travel and flip, revolving doors, and others. Of course, you'll also have many different line types at your disposal as you progress through the game: straight lines, lines that repel, magnetic lines, bouncy lines that act like trampolines, and more.

The graphics are smooth, and the "3 star system" variant it uses is inspired. Instead of using a timer as most recent games of the genre do, Simple Dot gives you a specific number of different line types to use in solving the puzzle. If you are able to complete it with those lines given, you are rewarded with all three stars. If not, stars are subtracted. Brilliant. You may replay a board at any time to try to improve your score. Leaderboards are included, but optional.

I stated that the levels are elegant, and they are; by design, the game allows you to come up with solutions that use less than the suggested number of lines. But, more than that, you are also free to use any type of line you'd like, once you have unlocked them. While playing around with different lines won't contribute to your score, it does allow for some interesting and creative solutions.

All that said, is it fun? I'll say that it can be maddening in the best possible way. At times, I found myself holding line positions on the monitor with my fingers to try to find that perfect angle, or wondering what would happen if I used a bouncy line instead of a ramp. I was always engaged, and watching balls drop, unprotected, onto spikes made me want to save them all as fast as I could; the fact that this kind of engagement happens without a timer is a testament to the designer's thoughtfulness. At the same time, the game is actually low stress because you are under no pressure at all. You can take as long as you like, and kill millions of balls...as long as you eventually drop three in the bucket, you're good. In other words: Yes, it's fun!

You'll find the usual settings here: windowed / full screen, optional music and sound (both of which are unobtrusive). I'd love to see an even 100 puzzles, but the developer is very active with his customers, and the game is absolutely worth the current price of $1.99.

Simple Dot is highly recommended.

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$4.99 seems a tad bit high for what amounts to a white noise generator app, but Nature Relax does exactly what it claims to do and it works well, easily, and without bugs. The sound quality is decent, the effects are soothing, and individual faders for each sound effect are a nice touch. (There is no main volume control, but as most keyboards have volume access, this shouldn't be a problem for most users.) There are 24 sounds total (12 for "Day" and 12 for "Night"). It has been on sale as low as $1.24, and is currently bundled at Groupees. For the right kind of user, it's a decent value.

Recommended.

"Oscillatron: Alien Frequency" is billed as a side-scrolling shooter in which "music is your weapon." That sounds fun, but what I played was a game that, although it looks nice, is just too repetitive to enjoy. The music didn't seem to do much of anything; after my selected song finished, my ship kept on shooting at pretty much the same rate of fire as it had during the song (after a couple of seconds of single shots, it returned to the previous rate). On an unexpected positive note, the jagged walls of the cavern you must guide your ship through actually smoothed out once the song ended, making it a much easier game. I only played for 0.2 hours and barely moved my ship from the left-side center and got 5/11 achievements (and three of the remaining achievements are only about song selection, not points). That should tell you much about the skill needed to play.

There didn't seem to be a way to select a different song once the first one ends, nor could I repeat it (meaning, you'll be playing much of the game without music). There also doesn't seem to be a way to actually end the game; after I lost my single ship, enemies kept flying across the screen and exploding at the left edge until I pressed escape to return to the menu. No help, no on-screen context, nothing. Also, once the song ended, I flew my ship over health pack after health pack after health pack, but couldn't pick up a single one.

There are no real options available, merely on/off options for music and "visual effects" (whatever that means).

I'm a huge shmup fan, but this one is just too dull and bug-ridden to recommend.

I got this in a $2.00 bundle with nine other games, and I still feel like I overpaid; the fact that it's normally $5.99 (!!) is jaw-dropping. Make the scantily-clad Second Life reject dance to 6 dull trance and club tunes in order to earn achievements and new clothes. Progress takes way too long and feels more like an exercise in patience than a game. I even turned down the sound whilst watching the news, and it was still mind-numbingly dull and, ultimately, pointless.

Not recommended.

(tl;dr final paragraph) Once again, I find myself wishing that Steam had a "meh" rating option. My "recommended" rating has some serious caveats attached, detailed below.

"The Deep Paths: Labyrinth Of Andokost" (hereafter referred to as "TDP:LoA") has a lofty title, and it feels as if the developer had some grand ideas in mind but, unfortunately, those ideas could have been better implemented. Grand title aside, this feels like a slower-paced, "lite" version of "Legend of Grimrock" (hereafter referred to as "LoG"). The graphics are beautiful, and being able to see what you're doing is certainly not a problem; this might be the brightest gridder / blobber game I've played since gamma became an option in games.

If you are familiar with LoG, then you'll already know how TDP:LoA plays. You move on a grid, battle beasties in real time, find secret bricks that open hidden walls, collect better weapons and armor, and level up as you go. That sounds fine, but it's the execution that's lacking: movement is slow, walls with secret bricks look like every other wall, meaning that every time you move you'll be clicking on everything you can find in the hopes that you'll click on the correct area (a puff of smoke or mist emits from beneath hidden walls to tell you that a trigger is nearby, but there is at least one I've come across for which I can find no trigger. I know it's somewhere, but I haven't had the patience to check every floor tile as well as all the walls).

If movement is slow, battles are even moreso. Many times you'll be faced with a battle in a narrow corridor, which reduces LoG's "dance of death" (a tactic that, admittedly, some players did not enjoy) into a boring slugfest. And in order to compensate for the fact that monsters only come one at a time, they are tougher (in the early game, ridiculously so; there are reports in the forums that the introductory rat has killed more than one party. I was expecting an epic and difficult first battle, but had to laugh when I led said uber-rat onto a trap door just as it opened, killing him instantly and gaining important xp). (And speaking of trap doors: if they are already open in the floor, you cannot jump into them or accidentally fall into one. You just...stop. As if you have hit an invisible wall. It's odd.)

Yet battles, as tough as the developer thinks they are, can be completely rendered harmless by a glitch I found by accident on my third fight: I pressed [Esc] to answer the phone and realized that although it stops the monster from attacking, your attack cooldowns continue, meaning you can hit with your entire party, press [Esc], then hit again, and so on.

The biggest problem however is that game saves are not reliable; on frequent occasions I've had games not save at all, despite the GUI claiming otherwise. This seems to affect the save state immediately prior to exiting the game, so I've taken to saving multiple times in a row, an already poor workaround made worse by the fact that there are only a handful of save slots available.

And yet, with all of the negatives I've discussed above, I still can't help but appreciate the obvious love the developer has for the genre. The color palette is pleasant (if a bit clean for a dungeon), the story is about as interesting as I've seen in this type of game, and there are some nice touches (such as arrow tips pointing up from below some floor traps).

I'll be finishing the game, but I can only play a half hour or so at a time because it's a bit of a bummer to see what might have been. Because Steam does not have a "recommended with reservations" options and because I really want to support a developer who I believe tried to make a good game but fell a bit short, I will give this a "recommended" - but only when it's on sale, and only for experienced fans of the genre who understand the game's flaws. For those who have never played a gridder / blobber game, TDP:LoA is not the place to start.

(edited to fix misspelling0

Q-YO Blaster is everything I want in a retro shooter: It's fast, has a bright palette, and is tough as nails. It also features a variety of weapons, and hotseat multiplayer. It's a Gradius clone (which is my go-to benchmark for horizontal shoot-em-ups), but it's a darned good one.

I have a couple of nitpacks: the controls are either keyboard or gamepad; there is no mouse option (I would have liked to steer with the keyboard and shoot with the mouse), and it's not always easy to know what key the GUI wants (for example, pause is activated using the enter key, instead of the expected escape key). Most controls are customizable though, and this is a nice surprise in a genre that usually has keys hard-coded into the game.

There are a few graphics options (screen size and full), and the midi music and sound effects are appropriate without being irritating (there are some really satisfying, booming explosions). The game has a "classic" mode and an unlockable "arcade extreme" mode, and continues can be earned. True to form, completing a level allows you to upgrade your ship.

Finally, and what really hits me in the nostalgia feels, is the incredibly horrible "translation" (I think it might be intentional, it's so bad). I'm talking Sega bad. I'm talking "All your base are belong to us bad." My favorites so far are "Help us because the was has begun" and "Mr Cheeks: To kill bugs!" There is an attempt at a story, but I have no idea what it is and I don't even care; I'm too busy laughing.

In short: Q-YO Blaster is a very fun shmup that scratches every itch (it even has achievements!). It's well worth the usual $3.99 (U.S.) asking price and, if retro shmups are your thing, you'll definitely want to grab it at the current sale price ($0.79).

Highly recommended.