Trine (PC)

Time Played: 15min

What Happened: 

I really only just barely started Trine, so I'll try not to pass too much judgement on it, particularly since I think I'll be getting back to it, but I thought I'd capture my initial impressions. 

Gameplay is sort of a Lost Vikings style of gameplay (or I guess people are now saying "Trine" style - was that because of this game, or is that what it's actually called?). You have 3 characters that you can switch between by hitting numbers 1-3. The Wizard can create blocks when you draw a square with the left mouse button, and lift and move things around with the right mouse button. The thief can shoot arrows with LMB, and use a grappling hook with RMB. Finally, the warrior can hit things with his sword with LMB and use his shield to protect himself with RMB. You can switch between them at any time. All 3 have individual health bars, but I haven't seen any huge fallout from someone dying - they seem to just come right back after a few minutes of using a different character. 

Basically, you are progressing your characters from the left side of the screen to the right side. You are met with several challenges and puzzles in terms of figuring out how to use your characters to open doors, or finding the right way to progress forward. 

What I Liked: 

Core Concept. I really think this style of gameplay is neat - using multiple characters that have exclusive abilities. We tried to do something like this for one of our week long game jams - but really figuring out a concept like this is hard! 

Start. The opening of the game was very engaging. Each character go this or her own 5min section of gameplay, leading up to where they were all joined together by the Trine. It's the perfect amount of time to get a good sense of what each character can do, and the narration & voice overs give you a great sense of the characters' personalities, which are very fun. 

Narration. The narration is engaging and fun, and does a lot to set a light-hearted mood. This game could have gone several directions in terms of mood - but the narration keeps it on the fun side as opposed to being a game that takes itself too seriously. (Which maybe makes you a little more forgiving of things like really high jump heights, or places where the physics don't behave completely as you'd expect.) 

Visuals. Overall, it's a very pretty game! I am interested in seeing more of the world, in addition to facing puzzles and challenges. 

What I Didn't Like: 

Small physics issues. Again, I didn't play enough to pass too much judgement. I did notice some very small physics issues - as in, places where physics didn't behave exactly as I would expect. That being said, it wasn't so bad that I felt frustrated or wanted to stop playing. 

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:

I definitely want to keep playing. It's a cool game concept and I want to see more of where they went with it! I should probably pick up Trine 2 also. :) 

Diggin' Dogs (iOS)

Time Played: 20min

What Happened: 
20 min is a pretty short amount of time to review a game, but it's an iOS game, so maybe it's ok? I picked up a ton of games for my iPod Touch yesterday when I was home sick. This one caught my eye because it was recently release (02/09/12) - and honestly, just look at that adorable icon! I was looking to buy, and I saw something about dogs being intrepid explorers, and the graphics seemed cute and it was $.99 so I picked it up!

Gameplay is as follows: you use your finger to 'dig up the dirt' (or rather, make it disappear), and guide your 3 dogs away from obstacles (hornets, killer mushrooms), and towards gold coins, bones and treasure chests. As the game progresses, you see different hazards, as well as hazards that can kill other hazards (bear traps can kill hornets, for example). You also start to pick up hats - such as a magnet hat that attracts gold, and a mushroom hat that turns killer mushrooms into coins. You can tilt the screen to move things around to an extent (example, you can sort of shake coins down an incline towards your dogs). You can also tap & slide on your dogs to make them jump - but you don't really have very much control over them.

What I Liked:
Dogs. Well they're just cute. They're basically big heads and little tiny bodies, and they make noise all the time so that you never forget that they're dogs. It doesn't take much to try and get me to feel invested in trying to keep adorable puppies alive.

Digging. It's sort of satisfying to just knock out dirt. I know the same thing is in "Where's My Water" - it's just sort of simple and fun to do.

Aesthetics. The design of everything is very appealing. The dogs are cute, the levels are cute. I only got a little confused a couple of times because I thought the ghost dog pirates were good, as opposed to bad... They just didn't look like bad guys to me.

What I Didn't Like:
Death. Oh man! It's awful when a cute little dog dies! I wish they'd like, done something to make it feel a little less brutal. The couple of times I got stuck and had dogs die a couple of times in a row, I almost wanted to quit because I felt as though my negligence was responsible for causing a terrible thing, so I should just stop.

Graphics. By this I mean that even though the art was cute, the images didn't seem to have been created in the size they were going to be displayed in. The dogs felt a bit compressed and muddied, which surprised me.

Controls? I felt like I never totally understood exactly how much control I had tilting things, or making my dogs jump. I felt like I was always struggling when I tried to guide their movement.

Boring. I'm having a hard time really putting my finger on it, but I definitely felt that something was lacking. I played it for 15min, and I really don't have any desire to go back into it. It just wasn't ever really fun. 

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:

Meh. As I said, it just wasn't ever exactly fun. I don't think I'll really come back to it.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Time Played: 2 hours

What Happened:


I played this when it came out in November, I've just been slow about writing it up,  and also for some reason I haven't gotten back to it since the first night I played it... But! Overall I had good a positive impression of this game and I still plan on going back to it. :) I played through the whole beginning section, and I was just about to head off on my actual adventure (I had my sword and my green outfit and everything).

What I Liked:


Art. Not a lot to say on this - the art was just very appealing overall. It's that whole graphics vs. aesthetics conversation. The Wii isn't graphically powerful, so they went with a style that worked beautifully with the capability that they actually had. Smart!

Characters. I'm pretty sure I said the same thing when I wrote about Twilight Princess - overall I felt that every character had a clear sense of personality, which made them memorable. I think the way they handled 'talking' also played into this very well. Seems like an awesome exercise for an audio designer - "give us a sense of who this character is in a short sound that he or she might make" :) I also love what they did in terms of making Zelda an actual character in this game with a real personality - which I've seen mentioned in a couple of articles on the game (although I guess I feel like she had some sense of character in Ocarina as well. ;) )

Swordplay. This seems to be the main gameplay selling point for this entry to the series - they wanted to use the Wiimote to make something as close to 1 to 1 action as possible. The first time I did a diagonal swipe in the training area, I was totally satisfied! I think it takes some amount of learning, and when I had trouble I was never 100% sure if it was my fault or the controllers, but overall I thought it was very cool.

World. When I think about Ocarina, I think about experiencing a sense of place. I'm not far enough into this game yet to really have that impression as strongly, but looking back on it from a few months after playing it, I feel like I still have a good sense of where things were in the world. It was also, like Kokori Forest, the sort of place I'd like to go live. :) Very appealing design.

What I Didn't Like:

Flying. I had a LOT of difficulty learning how to fly, and I got super frustrated really fast. This is my most prominent memory of playing the game back in Nov. I just didn't understand exactly what I needed to do to keep my bird from losing energy and flapping his way down into the clouds (which felt super lame!) It took me longer to understand than I expected, and I definitely lost my patience because things weren't going the way I expected them to. I think in the end, it came down to me just not understanding the tutorial.


Possessed Cat. Man! Why did that happen! I hated beating up that cat! I don't care if it was trying to kill me - it felt really really awful to have to fight it. I would like some sort of justification as to why I had to do that. It was messed up!

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:
Like I said, I haven't actually played this since November... so I guess it didn't really grab me the way that I thought it would. I think the main issue is that I didn't use that initial boost of interest to muscle my way through the 'hard part' of actually learning what to do. I stopped right before Link is going to (presumably) leave the floating city and head to the world below, and I'm anticipating quite a bit of learning when I get there - which is what has caused me to feel like I'm 'not in the mood' on the occasions where I've had time to pick it up again.

That being said, I'm still PLANNING on picking it up again. I'm just being super slow....

Portal 2 (PS3)

Time Played: 2 hours

What Happened:

Issam and I have been sitting on our borrowed copy of Portal 2 for a couple of months now, so we finally decided to break it out for New Year's Eve. We played splitscreen co-op for about 2 hours. If you haven't played the original Portal, the idea is simple - you have a gun that can create 2 portals that function as a doorway to each other. When you walk in one portal, you walk out the other. In Portal 2 co-op, you each have your own portal gun. There are a number of obstacles in your way and simple tools to work with (levers, switches, buttons) in each level. The fun of the game is in working through a plan of action with your teammate to get both of you to the exit (both players must make it).  

What I Liked:

Puzzles. I think most people love the Portal games for the same reasons - they really show what you can do with a few simple mechanics and really solid level design. Each piece is relatively small - you have to stay standing on this switch to open the door, you need to place a ball in a socket to open a door. Very cool game. :) 

Characters. <3 The two robots are pretty endearing. Most Valve games go with the silent protagonist, which is still technically true in this case - but these robots actually have some character in cut scenes, which is fun. More than anything else, GLaDOS's narration is awesome. She constantly tries to pit you against your partner, by making comments about your respective scores and abilities (I'm assuming this is pre-scripted and not a result of your in game actions?) as well as just making other small hilarious comments as you enter and exit each new level. 

What I Didn't Like:

Loading times. We were a little surprised at the level loading times for such a recent game. I think if I had been playing single player it would have been discouraging, but since we were eating New Year's Eve snacks, the loading times didn't bother us as much. :) 

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:


I want to keep playing!

Temple Run (iPod Touch)

Play Time: 2 hrs

What Happened: 

This is another game that I'd heard about awhile back, and wanted to check out when I got my iPod. I saw some screen shots and thought the visuals were really cool. This is more of a true 'endless runner' in that the level is procedurally generated and simply continues as long as you can stay alive. You are being chased by some monkeys after 'stealing the idol' (pressing play). You encounter a series of obstacles that require you to jump (swipe up), slide (swipe down), and turn left or right (swipe left or right). Every obstacle only has one correct action - and if you time it incorrectly or do the wrong action, you die. There is also gold which you can collect by either running straight ahead, or tilting your iPod to the left or right to move to the left or right of the path. Your goal (like Canabalt) is to go as far as possible before dying. 

There are also items that you can buy (with in game money, or a boost from real-world money) to help you go even farther. You can also get achievements like "go 250 meters without collecting any gold" but I've pretty much been ignoring those.  

What I Liked: 

Art. I really like the level and character art. It's a nice looking game. I particularly like the UI - the HUD elements are integrated very nicely into the art of the level. I also like how the title screen is set up - pressing the play button is the same as stealing the idol. It's clever. 

Premise. I dig the whole Indiana Jones vibe. 

Game Over Screens. I like how when you die, there's an illustration that shows what got you.

Controls. I'll admit that it took me awhile to get the hang of the controls, but now that I'm comfortable with them, I really enjoy them. I love the way that the accelerometer is incorporated into gameplay. Overall, it's a great use of what the iPhone/iPod Touch has to offer. 

Sound. The music is simple, but it's high energy, so I like it. I also think the simple sound effects of the main character and the sound of picking up gold are satisfying.  

What I Didn't Like: 

Shop. This isn't so much something I dislike as something I don't see the point of. There's a shop in the game where you can buy items to better your score... but I don't feel a need to use items in this game. I enjoy this game because it's fun to practice timing and reflexes, so I don't really want items that get me a better score. 

How Do I Feel About Continuing?: 

I think I will continue to pick this game up and play it every once in awhile. It's a few minutes at a time of easy fun - the same way that Canabalt is. 

Plants vs. Zombies (iPad)

Time Played: 3-4 hours??

What Happened: 

I started this entry months ago and never finished it! Let's see what I remember about this game. :) Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense game - each level, you create and collect sunshine which allows you to buy different types of plants. These plants are used to protect your home from hordes of approaching zombies in different ways - for example, some plants shoot pellets which eventually kill the zombies, some plants shoot pellets that slow them down, or kill them instantly, or serve as a block while the zombies eat them. 

Every few levels you unlock a new type of plant, but you have a limited number of slots when you go into each level, so you can't use all of your plants. Eventually you also unlock more slots to bring more plants into battle. There are also different types of zombies, such as ones with more hit points, or zombies that can vault over your first line of defense. As the game goes on, things get increasingly crazy. 

What I Liked: 

Art. It's visually cool and very easy to read what's going on. 

Mechanics. I guess I haven't really played that many tower defense games, so the basic mechanics are probably pretty standard - but I really enjoyed them. I think this game is easy to learn and fun to play. Things felt polished and well balanced. 

Plants. The selection of plants is awesome! Unlocking each new type of plant was rewarding - and it always made me angry because I wanted to use all of them every time. ;) There's a great deal of personality in each plant. 

Zombies. The differences between zombie types were easy to understand and clever. 

What I Didn't Like:

Easy. Maybe I totally misread the situation, but at some point I started to realize that I never seemed to be in any real danger of actually losing. Sometimes I felt tension when a new wave of zombies was approaching, and I felt like my defenses weren't quite there, but when it came down to it, I never lost. I started to feel invincible... and then I stopped playing. Maybe it gets harder? But I got bored before that happened. 

How Do I Feel About Continuing?:

Well, I started this post back in Oct or so, and I haven't picked the game up since. Once I started to feel like I could never lose, I stopped playing. Now that I have my own iPod Touch I might try and pick it up again though. 

Wind-Up Knight (iPod Touch)

Time Played: ~1 hr

What Happened:

I saw some trailers for this game awhile back, so as soon as I got my iPod Touch I wanted to check it out. It's similar to a Canabalt or Bit.Trip Runner style gameplay - your character automatically runs from the left to the right and you react to things in the level - jumping over them, attacking them, rolling under them and shielding yourself from them. Like Bit.Trip Runner, there is only one correct action for each obstacle (so for example, you have to kill a Cockatrice as opposed to jumping over it). Also like Bit.Trip Runner, the levels are pre-created (so it's not an 'endless runner'). If you make a mistake in timing, or use the wrong action, you instantly die and start the level over. 

What I Liked: 

Introduction of Elements. I think it was helpful to not start out with all 4 buttons at once. Building up to 4 made the game a lot easier to learn. That being said, they probably could have introduced them a little quicker (a concept like "jump" doesn't need a whole lot of time). I also didn't immediately understand that shield and roll worked as long as you held the buttons down. I never actually figured out shielding on my own - I complained to Issam about how it was hard and he told me you could hold it. I also felt roll was difficult to time properly, and I discovered that it was the same as shield by accident. :) 

Animation. Simple, cute animation. The squash and stretch helped the actions feel satisfying. There are also small camera animations (I think there's a camera shake when you shield) which really helps the overall feel of the game. 

Background Art. Beautiful levels. Very cool art! :) 

Control Scheme. I think it was a pretty good solution to use 4 buttons to control your character. It's not 100% perfect, in that it's easy to hit the wrong button (buttons could benefit from being a little bit bigger), but it allows this game to have slightly different gameplay than other endless runners.

What I Didn't Like: 

Music. Now that I'm in the second grouping of levels, the music is a lot better, but for the whole first 'book' the music is a total snooze fest. Considering the actions that you are taking while playing, I think more upbeat music would have fit the mood a lot better, and made the overall experience feel a lot more fun. 

Enemies. For all of the polish of the environments and main character, the enemies are a little lackluster. :) There's only one enemy for the whole first book, and he's pretty much completely static. The knight has a lot of personality in his movements, so it would be cool to see that in the enemies. Now that I'm in book two I've finally come across a new enemy - and I actually feel a little bad when I kill him. 

Level Readability. This game occasionally suffers from the same issue we had when we made Sushi Runner where you have difficulty distinguishing background objects from things that are going to kill you. The issue is mostly that the lighting is pretty uniform, so things don't always pop out immediately. I found that the more I played, the less of an issue this was.   

Pretty Princess Primer. I know they were just trying to be funny... but I didn't care for these at all. The Pretty Princess Primer is a series of tips that appear during the loading screen. They are generally tongue-in-cheek one liners like "Many men can be acquired by simply pretending to admire to their pontifications" or "A princess with a high tolerance for liquor has many opportunities for mischief." I guess I sort of found them borderline offensive. Also, what's up with the level named "Wet Dream"? I know I'm being picky... but this is my blog. 

Item System? I see where they were going with the item system, but I didn't find it very engaging (although I generally don't care for item systems in general). As you progress and earn money, you can buy specialty items, like a helm that makes you resistant to fire, or a magnet shield that causes money to come towards you. I think that in the start of the game, too much time was passing before I could afford new items, so more than anything I was just forgetting about them (although you do get notifications when new items are unlocked). I didn't feel like I needed these things to get through the levels, so I wasn't really interested. 

Wind-Up. It's really cute that he's a wind up toy, but I can see absolutely no reason why he should be a wind-up toy as opposed to a real knight. There's a mechanic where you can 'run out' of juice, but it happens so rarely that you don't even think about it - it also could have been handled differently (like, you're hungry or something). I guess I was a little disappointed because when I first heard the title of the game, I thought he might live in a toy world, or the real world as a toy, or that there would be some sort of fantasy magic around this point.... but really it just appears to be completely random. 

How Do I Feel About Continuing?: 

I think I'm nearing the end of my time with Wind-Up Knight. It's a cute, polished game, but I feel as though I've seen all that it has to offer me.