=== Mobile Game Review - Tiny Tower - Idle Management - 7/10 =20=

Tiny Tower was one of the first idle management games I ever played on my phone. It seems like most of the mobile games tend to be somewhat idle games which makes sense as I imagine most people would play a game only temporarily while waiting for something on the go or between activities.

Tiny Tower is a game about building a tower of residences for people to live in and constructing shops for them to work in which earn money by selling merchandise which you can then use to construct more rooms.

There is a nice little tutorial sort of thing to start the game which directs you to construct certain rooms and stock shops and really gives you the idea of how to play the game. Completing his instructions gives you Bux which are used to buy upgrades and to stock shops faster.

As your tower builds up you'll see more and more different shops and people as you construct residences and your choice of room types. People move into the tower in one of a few different ways: They can appear in the elevator and want to be dropped off on a floor with a residence, you can pay for a new person to move in using Bux, or a special VIP can appear in the elevator who would cause a residence to completely fill up when dropped off on a floor with one.

The idle part of the game comes from stocking the shops and turning the game off for some time. While you are away, the game keeps selling the merchandise and gives you the profits once the game is turned back on. There is another idle income mechanic which is that once per day you'll earn rent from your residences.

In most games, earning the second type of resource income can be rather difficult or slow, but in Tiny Tower, you're able to earn it pretty easily just by logging in each day which causes fireworks to go off dropping Bux. The more days you log in, the more fireworks you get which means you get more Bux all the time. 

The Bitizens of the tower are the lifeblood of your operation; without them, you wouldn't have any rent, or anybody to work the constructed shops. They have different skills which affects the amount of discount you get for ordering merchandise to the shop they're working in. They also have a dream job which doubles the amount of stock for the shop while they're working there.

As a fun little side-thing to help keep people entertained, there's a Bitbook which is absolutely making fun of Facebook by having the Bitizens post updates and statuses and things which can be entertaining to read, but have no effect on the game at all.

Finally, as with all idle games, this game has a way to reset the game; this allows you to restart for the fun of having a new tower from square one, but keeping some of your progress and giving some sort of bonus for doing so which in this case is to give a golden ticket allowing you to super-charge one of your floors.

Is this a game worth playing? It's definitely well thought-out and if you put in the time to play the game, you can get quite into it. There are some times when the game can get a little slow which is something which does tend to happen when getting further into some of these idle games, but I do think this game is very worth it to play. The gameplay is engaging while it is running and gives you a reason to come back for rewards with each session. There are many mechanics and things going on which keep you having different things to do whether that's stocking shops or moving characters to their requested floors via the elevator.

I'm giving this game 7/10 for idle games because it is better than average, but the gameplay can get somewhat stale after a while, especially if you don't have enough time to actually spend a little bit checking up on the tower once in a while. Other than that, I do recommend this game to play.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Diehard Dungeon - Game Review - Rogue-like 6/10

     You enter a small hallway with a chest in the center of the room. You open the chest to find you have zero to three slot machine rolls which dictates what extra skills you may have when going in to the dungeon just beyond the door at the end of the hall. You approach the door and notice you seem to have a pet chest following you; picking up anything of value for you nearby. Determined to escape with your life, you enter the Diehard Dungeon.

     I've been meaning to review this game for some time now; I've been putting it off because I've wanted to complete all the achievements. Unfortunately, some of the achievements require a lot of grinding and good luck to get certain combinations of things in a level to even allow you to progress on these grinding achievements. Now, achievements don't make or break a game. They just provide goals to give reasons to play a game again and again even if the game isn't actually very good.

     Diehard Dungeon isn't a TERRIBLE game; it's good. Just... good. I don't find it to be a great game. I think part of that is because I'm a mouse-and-keyboard type of gamer and the controls seem to be a little better suited for a controller. So the controls seem to be a little bit clunky to me, but they're still workable. You're bound to have difficulties early on until you get the hang of things and then for the most part, you should be able to avoid everything and win nearly every time... depending on the items you get. At no point are you guaranteed to get an item. Every time to find a chest, you may get up to three rolls, or you may get zero. Once you find out how many rolls you get, it becomes like a jackpot machine. You have to match three of the same picture to get an item, but there's no skill to it at all; you get whatever the roll decides to give you. Then there are tokens that you randomly get throughout the game either by winning or picking up hearts when at full health, or by randomly being dropped during battle with the enemies.

     You have two options for combat; you may swing your sword which can be charged up for a circular attack, or you may shoot your gun which knocks enemies back, then explodes with another knock-back. The combat works, though in my opinion it can be a little dry. There are times when using your sword is obviously better, but using your gun is so much safer in nearly every situation so long as you're able to dodge properly. There are some traps on each floor which you have to avoid which are either pressure plates that shoot arrows or javelins at you, or spinning blades that randomly roam around the room (which sometimes also shoot arrows at you).

     This game isn't bad. I just don't think it's great. The achievements kept me playing longer than I had wanted to because I was determined to complete them all, but now I've lost interest and think it's time to move on. If you like rogue-like games, this one may interest you, but for me this game will be getting 6/10 for rogue-like games.

Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

My Awesome Girlfriend.

     As you may be able to guess by the title, I have a girlfriend. We've been through a lot together in a little over a year now, and for all the things we've been through and done together, I love her so incredibly much. She tends to have troubles thinking she's beautiful enough, or smart enough, or even good enough. I can definitely say she's all of those things and more.

     She is without a doubt the most beautiful girl I have ever had the luxury of seeing. She worried about being over- or under-weight, but I don't even care. as long as I have a place beside her in my life I couldn't care if she were 90 or 300 pounds (though I know she wouldn't let herself get like that).

     She's certainly the smartest girl I've ever met. Her brain obviously works in a different way due to a mixture of ADHD and childhood traumas. Not to mention her mother's terrible choices while pregnant with her. But even with these hurdles, she managed to graduate high school ahead of time and then get a degree right after that way faster than most other people. Yeah, I would agree that she sometimes has troubles knowing what to do in certain situations. Sometimes she doesn't know how to handle certain situations. But that doesn't mean I don't love her. We all have problems of some kind. I haven't had the difficult childhood she had, and still, I'm not sure I would argue that I have better social or relationship skills than she has. We're all smart in our own way, and I value her brains in the creative and determined ways that she is smart.

     Now, due to my past relationships, I'm a pretty picky person. If someone wasn't treating me right, or if I didn't think they were worth it, I wouldn't stay with them. So when she wonders whether or not she's good enough... She is completely absolutely without a doubt good enough. I would jump in front of a train for her. Yeah, we've had our issues, but that has only made us stronger. I know that once she gets her job(s) and we're able to move in together, everything will turn out wonderful. I know you can do whatever you put your mind to my love. And I know that everything we've been through will have been worth it in the end. You my love, are more than good enough. You're my Carley.

~ Kyle