=== Mobile Game Review -- Connection - Puzzle - 10/10 ===

Welcome to Connection, a minimalist-style puzzle game all about connecting the dots.

With each level the player is presented with a series of spaces which must all be connected from a starting position through all the other spaces on the level. Each level presents varying numbers of colours and each space can be connected with any available colour as long as the chain remains unbroken and all spaces are covered.

Some spaces will have a dot within a circle which means it must be connected twice. This can be completed either by running the same colour through the space twice, or running two different colours through the space; this is the only way to have two different coloured lined cross each other.

Another mechanic in Connection are what I would call portals. These spaces come in pairs which allow the player to connect a line into one side of the portal and continue out from the other side; this would be the only way to have an unconnected line of the same colour in two different places.

The last mechanic of Connection (that I have come across so far) are empty coloured spaces. These spaces MUST be filled with only that specific colour and no other colour. With all of these available mechanics, there are many different forms of available levels... I have yet to break the surface of the game as the advertisements seem to indicate that there are more than 200 available levels to play.

Many level have more than one way to complete them...

And not all levels have the same type of layout, which may end up throwing your for a loop every once in a while.

Summary

Gameplay: I'm not usually the biggest puzzle-type person because they aren't as action-packed or strategic as I prefer, but this one is very fun and even though the same few mechanics are being used throughout each level, it's still a fun activity when killing time to exercise your brain.

Possibly my favourite part about this over other games, is that there's no energy-limit to stop the player from continuing to play more. There's nothing saying it costs 1 energy to play a level and you can only save up 1 energy per hour up to a maximum of 10. NOTHING LIKE THAT AT ALL. Which means as long as you're up to the task of arranging colourful lines, you can continue as long as you like.

Sound: There are some nice and satisfying clicks and some very chill music to listen to while completing each level. Though it's nothing special to talk about, it's very enjoyable and definitely doesn't take away from the game at all.

Replayability: As already mentioned, I keep wanting to play more and more levels even though they're the same mechanics over and over and over. I definitely wouldn't want to replay the same levels that I've already passed over again, but as long as I'm continuing to progress into newer levels, I would happily keep going forward through this game.

Sidenote: I wouldn't call this game difficult, though there are certainly times where you must give a little thought about how to arrange things... Reading the advertisement on the Connection page claims that if you can pass 200 levels in less than 30 minutes, you're a genius. I just did the math and figure that would be about 9 seconds per level. I'm sure if you practiced a lot at the mechanics and patterns that you'd be able to pass level quite quickly, but 200 levels at 9 seconds each seems like a pretty far stretch to actually be able to do without any prior knowledge of the game.

SCORE: I really enjoy Connection not as a measure of how smart I am, but rather as a simple and relaxing puzzle game. My score for Connection will be 10/10 because as far as puzzle games go, this one is the first which has really caught my eye and had me continue to play further and further even without any new mechanics being involved.

=== Mobile Game Review -- Crossy Road - Arcade Clicker - 4/10 ===

Today we take a look at the mobile game, Crossy Road. I've been a little busy recently with starting my new full-time job and still working on school at the same time... along with being a little bit sick. It can be quite difficult to have enough energy to keep going when there's so much going on, so sometimes I pick simpler and easier games to play in my spare time.

If you're looking for an simple game to pick up and play where you can learn to be better every time you play while being reminded of the good old days of playing Frogger back in 1981, this game is for you! The controls are really easy to learn, just tap on the screen and you hop forwards; moving to each side and backwards can be done by swiping in the proper direction; if you are faced with a solid object or any situation where hopping forward would block the character... you'd better figure out which way to swipe to fix that before hopping forward, otherwise you're not going to move anywhere at all.

Something I'm not really a fan of when trying to be awesome at a game is RANDOMNESS. Now of course randomness is important in the replayability of a game, but there's a level of randomness in some games which is just silly; I'm talking about the type where due to uncontrollable factors, you've run into an impossible to beat situation. Does that come up in this game? Yes... sometimes you end up stuck with no holes in traffic to pass through while the ever-moving camera swallows you up or forces you to jump to your death into oncoming traffic. HOWEVER, for the most part, this isn't too much of an issue. Because it's so easy to get into a new game and because many situations are avoidable if the player is able to think and react fast enough, I don't mind the amount of randomness in this Crossy Road.

Reasons to come back to this game and keep playing after having played for... a while? Challenges I suppose. I believe a new one starts every day or every few days where a preset character and level is put forth into the world for many players to attempt to see if they can be the best at getting the furthest into the level. Based on the player's rank at the end of the challenge, they are given some sort of reward such as a special character.

I really enjoy the fact that different characters in the game don't really have an effect on how the game is played. Different characters change the setting of the game and the aesthetics, but nothing changes other than that.

I suppose the real downside to this game... is that nothing really changes. Once you've figured out how to play it reasonably well... there isn't really much left to do. I mean hey, if you can consistently get to 200 hops, then you get to keep seeing pretty much the same 200 hop idea every single game you play. What happens when you get further than 200 hops? You see more... of the same... thing.

While I believe Crossy Road is probably a one-week game at best, there is one bonus thing that really truly made me want to play in the first place; they have a version of Crossy Road at Ruckers which is basically the same game without the ability to move side-to-side or backwards. Surely this results in more randomness than I am comfortable with seeing as the game makes its decisions to move to either side on its own, but there's still a chance to play really well and get really far into a level which results in quite a few tickets.

Verdict

Gameplay: Fun and easy to pick up, but the gameplay gets quite repetitive incredibly quickly.

Sound: The sounds a basically what you'd expect; sounds of traffic driving past and honking their horns, water rushing as you jump across logs, trains running across tracks right before your very eyes.... but no music.

Replayability: No game is EXACTLY the same twice... but after a few plays, there isn't much change to the game with each new play.

Bonus: There's a version of this game made for earning tickets at Ruckers. If it wasn't for the cost of buying all those tokens just to play the game this way, I would be playing it ALL THE TIME.

SCORE: After some consideration, I have decided to give Crossy road 2/5 because I was super excited about playing it after experiencing the arcade game at Ruckers... but then I quickly lost interest after only about a week of having it on my phone.


~ Kyle Welykholowa


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Aeon Command - Game Review - 8/10

     This post is going to be pretty short compared to the usual. Nice and short, just like Aeon Command.

     If you've ever played one of those flash games where you make units and they move across the map and attack your enemy, then you've played Aeon Command. I wouldn't call this a bad game. It's definitely not my favourite, nor does it have the strategic complexity that I prefer, but for only $3.29 on Steam, it did provide me more than 3 hours of entertainment. Granted, once I figured out how to beat the game... most of the rest of the time was spent farming wins until I could get the last research only because I wanted the last achievement.

     This game is simple, and that's not a bad thing. It's meant to be a simple "tug 'o war"-type game and it's done really well. If you're looking for something more hardcore and intense, then this game won't be for you. However, if you're looking for a cheap casual way to spend a little bit of time, then I would give this game a recommendation, especially if you can get it on sale.



     I'll give this game 8/10 for this type of game.

~ Kyle