Genre – Puzzle
Platform – XBone

Tumblestone is a puzzle game, through and through. And it’s hard. I think that’s what I love about this game most. It really requires me to think in different ways as I progress. It’s not for the faint of heart, so if you’re looking for a casual puzzle game to waste a minute or two, this might not be for you.

The goal in Tumblestone is fairly simple – clear the board of tumblestones. However, accomplishing this can be difficult. There are several modes of play and they each have their own challenges:

Story mode is the main game. In each level, you have a board with stones in it and you just need to clear them all to advance to the next level. Each world has 30 levels and there are 11 total. I am currently in world 6, after playing for about 40 hours. Each world presents you with a new twist in the game that really makes you have to learn the strategy before you can move on. There is a story that is cute and engaging as well.
Multiplayer is a lot of fun. I don’t usually play games against other people, but I happen to be pretty good at this and haven’t lost an online match yet. There are three different types of multiplayer modes. Battle is the hardest. Every time an opponent clears a line, your board drops a line. These are pretty quick matches and can be hectic.
Puzzle Race is just that – a straight-up race to clear your board first. The host can set rules such as modifiers and game length for all modes.
Tug of War is my favorite of the three. You have sections that you need to clear and as you do, other players have sections added. This one allows for the most time to think and that’s why I like it. I can plan ahead and then make my moves.
Arcade is DLC, but I would recommend it if you find you’re liking the game. There are three modes in Arcade. Marathon is my favorite here, again because it gives you all the time you need to plan and play. I’m currently top of the leaderboard on this one 🙂 I’m sure that won’t last for too long.
Heartbeat is a never-ending scrolling board that makes you play as fast as you can.
Infinipuzzle is also a scrolling board, but you have more time in this one.

The graphics are cute and colorful. I honestly don’t notice the soundtrack much, so it’s just fine. I do like the sound effects as you clear stones. If you are looking for a moderately difficult puzzle game, then you will really like this one.

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Oldies but Goodies – Frog Bog

Genre: Arcade
Platform: Intellivision

I know this game is called Frog Bog, but for some reason, it’s called Frogs and Flies in my mind. We had this game for the Intellivision when I was a kid and I thought it was one of the funniest games I had ever seen. I remember playing it with my parents and laughing a lot. The premise is simple – you play against another person and try to catch flies with your frog. It’s a very easy game – easy enough for my 7 year-old self to master.

There is a mode, however, which allows your frogs a bit more freedom. This means that they can jump off the screen, change direction mid-air and fall into the water. This was the mode that entertained me for so many hours. As you can see in the picture above, the frogs look pretty silly when they jump. I remember my aunts and I playing the as well when they would babysit and we had so much fun as well.

I do have this one in my collection now, but I haven’t plugged in the Intellivision yet to play it. I’m sure it won’t be near as much fun, but it will always make me smile to think of it.

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Chey’s Top 25 – #10 – Phantasie

Genre: RPG
Platform: PC

This is the oldest game on my list by far. It’s a DOS-based RPG. It was like no other game I had played at the time, but I spent a lot of time on it and still play it, thanks to a little program called DOSBox, which allows you to play old DOS games on modern computers.

In Phantasie, you create characters and assemble them into a group. There is a surprising amount of customization in the character creation. It’s old-school DND rules, so you “roll” your character and get random stats. Don’t like them? Roll again. And again. And again until you have stats you can live with. For example, you’re not going to want a fighter with only 4 starting hit points and you’re not going to want a wizard with 2 intelligence points. Once you have your team assembled, you leave your starting city.

Phantasie Play 3

Once you are out of the city, you enter the scary world. You just kind of wander around, kill monsters and bad guys, gain experience and money, go back to town to train and do it all over again until you are high enough level to handle some of the more challenging areas of the map. The map consists of multiple screens and is all blackened out until you explore it. Exploration is always one of the more fun elements of a game for me, and this was my first intro to that.

Phantasie Play 2

There are also dungeons to be explored. These are large concentrations of mobs and have good gear just lying around. There are copyright checks built into the game, however, and can ruin a game if you don’t have the online manual readily available. Sneaky early developers. There are often specific tasks to complete in a dungeon, but since there’s no explanation of this in-game (I’m sure there was in the manual), you are left to your own devices to figure out what to do.

Phantasie Play 4

I’m sure we all have these really old and nostalgic games that we still play from time to time. The simplicity of it is refreshing and the lack of awesome graphics and sound leaves you to focus only on the good game play. This is an RPG at its most basic and is a lot of fun as a result. There were a couple of follow-ups to this one and I did play the second for a bit, but I only play the original now.

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Hidden Gems – Kinect Sports Gems

Genre: Sports
Platform: XBox 360

The Kinect is a highly under-appreciated device on the XBox 360 and XBone. It’s a very innovative device and allows for voice commands and movement tracking. It works really well, too, even on the first-gen 360s.

Kinect Sports Gems is a suite of games available from the XBox 360 arcade. They are purchased separately, so you don’t have to get the games you don’t want. I believe they are $2 each and are very much worth the money. These games got me off the couch and made me work up a sweat!

I have completed 10-Frame Bowling and Field Goal Challenge. In each game, there are 10 ranks. You rank up by completing specific tasks in each game. For example, in 10-Frame Bowling, there was a task to alternate hands every throw in the game. You gain stars for each task, and get more stars for the more difficult tasks. I also have Prize-Driver Golf, Three Point Challenge, Ping Pong, Reaction Ralley, Penalty Saver and Darts vs Zombies.

I have enjoyed each game so far. They are quick games and are a lot of fun. Field Goal Challenge has been my favorite and it made me feel like I was the star of the stadium. It’s amazing how into these games you’ll get. Before you know it, you’ll be waving to the crowd and posing for the camera.

Game play is fun and the Kinect is very responsive to your movements. It had a little bit of trouble with my ceiling fan when trying to navigate through the menus, but it didn’t affect game play at all. My dog’s constantly-wagging tail did, however, and that made for some interesting game play. Also make sure that your play area is clear. I kicked a cat more than once during Field Goal Challenge and gave my poor dog an uppercut while bowling.

If you’ve played the Kinect sports full games, these are very similar to some of the mini games there. For $2 each, though, I would still strongly recommend picking them up in the arcade, too.

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Oldies but Goodies – Bust-a-Move

Genre: Puzzle
Platform: SNES

Bust-a-Move has been released, in some form or another, on pretty much every console since SNES. I had actually played this one first on an arcade machine and immediately had to have it. To my surprise, I found that it was available for the SNES, which I had. I still have this game on my SNES and do actually play it. There have been many clones of this game since, one of my favorites being Phlinx on pogo.com.

This version of the game stars Bub and Bob, of Bubble Bobble fame on the NES. You are helping them clear a board of balls by matching three or more. If you’re good, you’ll become skilled at bouncing them off of the walls to make tough shots and have large groups fall at once.

My favorite mode is the multiplayer battle mode. I played through the story, but this is where the fun is. You go through rivals until you reach the boss. You can set how many wins you need per match before you move on to the next foe. I have played through this many, many times and it’s still fun.

The graphics are just ok, but the soundtrack is great. I was humming it just thinking about it. The sound effects are also cute and add to the game. If you like simple puzzlers without a lot of story in your way, check this out!

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July 16, 2016

Cheyenne

NES Mini

The gaming world is all abuzz about this new product from Nintendo. It’s a cute mini-NES system that comes pre-loaded with 30 of Nintendo’s better games from the classic system. It uses the original controllers (or newer third-party versions) and connects to your TV via wifi. The price is a bit steep at $60. I’m a little concerned at how these games will look on a 50″ TV, but I’m sure Nintendo has worked that out. You can read the original article from Giant Bomb here.

Rumors say that we won’t be able to get our grubby hands on this until November.

Here is the list of games:

Balloon Fight
Bubble Bobble
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Dr. Mario
Excitebike
Final Fantasy
Galaga
Ghosts ‘n Goblins
Gradius
Ice Climber
Kid Icarus
Kirby’s Adventure
Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2
Metroid
Ninja Gaiden
Pac-Man
Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
StarTropics
Super C
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Tecmo Bowl
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

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Fun Mobile Game – 94%

Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Mobile (iOS and Android)

I don’t like to play games on my phone. I don’t like to do anything on my phone. That’s probably because it’s a work phone and is forever associated with being woken up in the middle of the night because I’m on call every so often. 94% is a rare exception to that rule, even though it’s only a “bathroom” game, if you know what I mean.

It is a neat idea, though. It’s very similar to Family Feud without the audience or lame jokes (which I thoroughly enjoy!). This is straight-up category and answers. However, it is very challenging. You are given three categories in each level. Your job is to guess 94% of the answers to that category. Some of them may only have 5 answers, while others may have as many as 10. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I refuse to cheat and look up the answers, which is probably I’ll never complete the category “luxury brands” which contains Louis Vitton and Prada, but I cannot think of any others. I’ve entered just about every luxury car brand I can think of and know nothing about fashion.

But I digress. The first two categories are written, but the last is a picture. I find these most fun. You’ve heard the “every picture is worth 1000 words” adage, but it usually doesn’t take guessing a dozen or more to finish these. If you get stuck, you do get coins for completing each category and level, which can be used for hints. For 10 coins, it will show you the first letter and the rest of the letters mixed with others. Still stuck? For 80 coins, you can unlock a hint.

This is a really fun game for a quick time waster. I’m on level 128 right now and there 245 total right now. It’s free with ads, which aren’t too oppressive. If you like this type of game, definitely get it!

94 percent play 2

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Oldies but Goodies – Jezzball/Qix

Genre: Puzzle
Platform: PC (Windows 3.1)/Arcade

Jezzball was a wonderful time waster which came bundled with Windows 3.1. As a kid, I spent a lot of time playing this one late into the night. Your goal was to section off as much of the screen as you could by avoiding the balls on the screen. You drew a line that went out in opposite directions from the place you clicked on. If one of the balls hit your line, you lost a life. It sounds simple, and it was, but it required precise timing.

Jezzball was actually inspired by the game Qix for the arcades and later NES and Gameboy color. It was the same premise. There weren’t a lot of frills about either game, but they were both very entertaining to my math-inclined mind. I don’t really have a lot else to say about these, but if you never had the pleasure, I’m sure you can find Jezzball for free online somewhere.