ScottVee Gaming

We have been playing some of those old Nonogram apps before bed lately.  Way more than we should, but I guess once you do ten levels, you might as well do 50 of them, right? Anyway, I like any kind of bonus levels that have a game within the game, and Nonogram.com currently has a "Rise & Dice" game in rotation which is essentially Snakes & Ladders.  You gain dice by playing the regular puzzles and have to get up to space 200 to win the mini-game challenge for the week.  It's a good little no-brainer.  Your overall progress against other players is shown in the tiny top bar, and you roll and go up ropes and fall down throuh portals.  There are tiny gift boxes on some spaces that give you 2-3 more dice.  When you win any daily or weekly challenge, the Nonogram.com app gives an attractive trophy for your shelf in the main game. We have each beaten it a few times.  It's kinda fun mumbling the die roll needed to avoid the traps and get to the next u...

I have been looking for some app games that give any percentage of the enjoyment I get from classic Minecraft mods, with their tech trees and production line management.  Things like IndustrialCraft, GregTech, EnderIO, Thermal Dynamics, Frestry bees & trees ... surely, SOME app game does something of the sort? While it's easy to find game after game that just took Minecraft graphics and put them into new games, they are not the same. Pocket Craft is a drop merge game with blocks designs obviously taken from Minecraft.  Square blocks didn't seem like they would be much fun to drop, but the blocks flip off the edges of other blocks, the stacks tilt and topple and it gets chaotic quickly.  I had a good feel to it, responsive with accurate drops.  Once in a while, a merge will spit a smaller block all the way across the screen.  I got bored of the main game after about eight tries, but it also had a mode with a sequence of puzzles, where you have some number of ...

The Merge Watermelon game added a Level Mode that brings up puzzles where you have to drop and eliminate certain obstacles blocks.   That was totally unexpected and again, the developer did a solid job with more options than expected.  The drops may be spinning or on fire, each with its own effects.   I'm not sure why it doesn't automatically load the next level.  You go back to home and have to tap Level Mode again.  But it's yet another addition to the fruit drop realm.  And rather than being totally repetitive you get to wonder what the next puzzle will be or what new blocks might appear with what new behaviors.  # For some reason, my phone today had an icon for Fruit Merge Cafe.  I had already picked out my top two games of this sort, but this gets an honorable mention.   Clean friendly graphics, reasonable bounce.   Characters line up at the top to "order" a fruit but they don't get impatient and anno...

I tried a few more Suika games and they were so similar I uninstalled them after a few runs.  Juicy Fruit by Yermex, Fruit Drop by Alpha Creative.  Not bad, they do what they need to do, but they stop at the basics. But this one -- "Watermelon Merge Game" by Brilliant Games -- went way beyond.  The game itself has a fun feel to it.: bouncy and an extra element where the fruits almost try to burrow down and find each other.  You earn stars that you spend on filling in a city build with many other scenes listed for later on.   You can also spend points on new art sets for the fruits,  a new skin for the dropper character (including a ghost and a flying saucer and a dog that farts rainbows), and Buy more power ups. The power ups are: break one fruit, shake the box,  remove all fruits that match the one you click on,  and a sec that falls and boasts all fruits up one level. There's also a PVP "Battle Mode" option that we tested out.  I made a ro...

I stumbled upon an odd category of games while looking for new stuff in the Google Play store ... fruit drop games.  More specifically,  games where you drop merge fruits leading up to the ultimate watermelon,  and if they reach the top of the box the game is over. Apparently these are all clones of Suika Game, where suika is the Japan's word for watermelon.    See the Wikipedia page . Now, you would think they're all the same exact boring thing,  but it turns out there is a lot of variety in the game play and physics.  The dropped items might be bouncy or squishy to varying degrees.  You might have to drag the drop line and then let go, or one touch anywhere well drop the next item.   The top of the box might trigger the end immediately or let you overflow a little, or have a few seconds of countdown before ending.   And some of the games came up with ways to extend past the original number of objects,  add levels and ski...

A thread came up on one of the board gamer groups on Facebook where someone asked for a list of board games which have good implementations as game apps, and Cat Lady came up on that list.  We had to check that out. The graphics were perfect, with some cute f/x and music added, and it was easy to get up and running.  Just hit Play then Classic Game.  This defaults to a single computer opponent, but you can add up to three.  It also allows a second human player (and possibly more, we had no reason to check). Against the computer player, the game goes very quickly.  It's over before you know it, and since I tend to pick easy cats to feed (worth lower points) and forget to get toys, I lose about 75% of the time.  It all flows nicely: check your cards and see what you need, maybe feed a cat or two, then swipe some new cards into your hand.  The app organizes the cards very nicely and does all the calculations s you can see that your pick added 5 points, or...

I ran through a few more games of Warzone.  It's amazing how different the maps can feel -- this is most apparent in the Community maps.  There, I looked for non-standard levels, not based on real-world maps.  I found one where the regions were organized into two big asterisk shapes.  This one just kept going around and around, because there were 5 or 6 computer players and almost every space can be hit from 2 or 3 other spaces.  So , I completed three pentagons at most, reaching my max armies per round, but within a round or two, some other color would grab one of my spaces.  Check out the total chaos in the population map at the end. # Back on that map of Italy where the start-up message says, "You need to catch the enemy commaner before they reach their reinforcements in the north": it turns out that's exactly what you have to do.  Don't waste moves trying to capture all of Sardinia for extra armies.  Go directly to where you can attack acros...

This was such a wacky, random find.  I don't know what made me install it and run it, since I don't like slot machines or old-style pixellated graphics at all.  The basic idea is: you rented a new apartment and it's pretty much empty except for a mysterious slot machine.  You get a notice from your landlord that you need some amount of coins in just 5 spins.  So you start spinning the reels to try and get enough money.  When you do come up with the money, the landlord raises your rent, and sometimes a mysterious group ("the local aid network") emails you trying to help you out.  These messages include obscure notes about the game itself, and also red herrings like "you can pet the dog."  Which does nothing, as far as I could tell.  Another message said "these three things refer to previous games the developer has created," but I could not recognize any of those tiny icons. In between spins, you get a chance to add new symbols to the reels, and ...

About the Merge X3 game I mentioned a few posts ago.  One thing that bugs me with the 2048 games is that they can go on forever.  In this case, if you do get stuck (no open spaces left) it only costs 30 gems to clear the middle of the board and keep going.  I have 4500 coins, so that is essentially endless.  I only used that hack one time. Drag drag drag.  It's not the best use of a human mind ;-) but sometimes we're just in that mood for doing nothing. When I saw that the overall player rankings are based on the highest tile discovered, I only had about 8 tiles to go to move up to the top.   ... and there I am.  #1 player in the world. I do enjoy playing less-popular games, since you have a greater chance of actually ranking in the top zillion players.  For me, for now, getting to #1 counts as beating the game.  Been there, topped off.  On to the next challenge. I won't uninstall it right away.  I will keep an eye for future update...

This game-in-a-game just appeared in Backpack Merge.  You have to clear Stage 3 to get the button.  It's a simple roll-and-move game, and your goal is to get stars and bonuses.  The stars count on the bonus bar at the top, so it takes 40 stars to get that first bonus.  Come here when you see the red dot on the game icon on the main page, and click the green Go button to claim dice for completing quests.  You can get a purple "magic die" by watching an ad. Then, on the main board, click to roll dice and move.  Some of the odd bits: - the crystal ball at top left highlights one of the stars on the board -- I could not see a reason - the train zooms you over to the right to the 300 magic dust - the jail at top right gives you three chances to roll doubles (feels like Monopoly) but you always get out anyway - the checkerboard on the right edge appears to swap the entire board from a right-half to a left-half. - the lucky die lets you pick a number from 1 to 6 t...

This is another dungeon runner.  You make some PCs and start in the City where you have the usual choices.  Go into the Dungeon any time, where you are a small blue box moving through hallways and getting into fights.  I don't mind minimal graphics.  Sometimes, that's a charm. The class system in this one is interesting: everyone starts as a Nomad with all stats set to 1, and each time you level up you get a "+" button to update one stat.  You change to a real class by leveling up to the required stats and going to the Guilds area to switch.   The City My team made it to level 5, and now exploring level 1 is too easy, most of the foes can be taken out with two clicks.  You just have to keep an eye on your hp bars running low.  Bring lots of the red life potions to heal.  I've been to parts of level 2 and 3 and it's more of the same layout with some different foes.  Still no rhyme or reason. I got one of my PCs up to Dexterity 7 so he cou...

The last new app of the week was Lords of Discord.  Again, this was turn-based, but this time the style was orthogonal and the combatants stand in specific spots and do their thing.  The initiative is show by sorting the icons at the top of the screen and as each guy's turn comes up, you can attack, defend, or wait.  Some guys have special abilities.  The usual stuff. There was a castle screen, of course, but after the first visit, it was almost always covered up by a big frame trying to get me to go to the arena or whatever.  I was able to train two new troops, but I only had one slot open in my party.  There is a reasonable range of character types and art to choose from, but it just feels like something is missing.  I should be able to take more PCs out to explore, but I guess everything is perfectly balanced to the expected party strength.  I don't know. It would add a lot if you could move a PC to a different space during battle.  The fi...