10m play

Genre:  Match 3 with RPG elements
Platform:  PC

I just discovered 10,000,000 yesterday on Steam.  I haven’t gotten much accomplished around the house as a result.  I need to do my taxes, balance the checkbook, do a load of laundry, vacuum, start planting my garden, mow the lawns, etc etc.  But no, instead 10,000,000 has sucked me in all day yesterday and today.  In fact, it took me over an hour to write up this post because while getting screenshots, I ended up playing it more.

That should be reason enough for those of you that like match 3 games or casual games to go out and get it.  You are an adventurer stuck in a dungeon and you can earn your freedom by scoring 10,000,000 points.  This isn’t a quick task.  I played through the entire game in about 7 hours, but I started over immediately after completing it.  You start in your home dungeon area, which consists of some rooms and a bed.  You unlock the rooms and upgrade them as you go.  In these rooms, you can upgrade your weapons and armor.

Before entering the dungeon, you are given three tasks, which award you with either gold or experience, both necessary for upgrades.  The game play itself has you at the top of the screen, meeting monsters or loot chests along the way.  You only have so much time to play, and you can eventually get upgrades or food items which allow you to extend that time.  The longer you’re in the dungeon, the higher your score.  The monsters get tougher, but you rank up, which increases your score multiplier.

There’s not much more to this game than that, but it is super fun.  Check it out on Steam or on your mobile device!

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March 2017 gwg

March came up on me pretty quickly, so I thought I’d post Microsoft’s games with gold for the months.  There are two titles that intrigue me, and two that I’ll likely play at some point.

Layers of Fear looks like a horror game, which isn’t typically my favorite genre.  (Silent Hill is an exception!)  Evolve is a pretty popular game on Twitch, so I’ll likely try it.  I already have Borderlands 2 and have been playing it quite recently, but if you haven’t, definitely pick it up!  It’s a really fun RPG with some FPS elements, but don’t let that scare you.  I’m terrible at the genre, but I can survive well enough.  I’m not sure what Heavy Weapon is, but it looks like something my husband will like.

I missed last month’s here’s what we missed.  I don’t really know much about this one, but Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime looks somewhat unique and I’ll definitely be trying it out.  It looks like a fun little indie title.  Monkey Island 2 looks funny, and I’m always up for a laugh while playing a video game.

You still have time to download:

Project Cars, which looks like a fairly standard race game, and Star Wars, the Force Unleashed.

If you have an XBox One, be sure to download them all!  If you have a 360, you get Monkey Island 2 and The Force Unleashed.

Feb 2017 gwg

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We are fast approaching the launch date of the Nintendo Switch (March 3).  I have had my mind made up for some time now.  I think I will be skipping this console.  Nintendo was once THE powerhouse in the video game world.  The NES and SNES were incredible systems.  I had to do grown-up stuff during the N64, and bought an XBox original in lieu of the Gamecube. I did try the Wii, but found it too gimmicky for my taste.  I missed the awesome (relative) graphics of the XBox and XBox 360.  I completely skipped the Wii U, as did most of the world.  Handhelds aside, I am done with Nintendo.

From what I’ve seen of the Switch, it looks like another gimmicky console.  While I’m glad to see the motion controls go, as you can see on the picture on the right, the controllers, when used separately, are tiny and will only be usable in short bursts of time.  My hands are cramping up just watching it.  And when paired into the larger controller, it doesn’t look any more comfortable.  I like the idea of the removable tablet, but that’s not near enough to get me to buy this.

It’s probably a neat party item, but as a more serious gamer, the games just aren’t there.  As with the Wii, it appears geared toward Mario, Zelda and kids.  Check out the game launch chart below.  There are the usual players (Zelda, Mario Kart, Pokemon), but otherwise, there’s not enough there to make me want to spend money on this system.  There are many games that you can find on other systems such as Shovel Knight, Tetris, Cave Story, Stardew Valley, Rayman, Minecraft, etc.  I think I’ll stick with them on those systems for now.

switch-games

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Oldies but Goodies -Bart vs the Space Mutants

Genre:  Platformer
Platform:  NES

The Simpsons have been around for a long, long time.  Along their long history have come some pretty good video games.  One that I played as a kid was Bart vs. the Space Mutants on the NES.  This was actually the first licensed Simpsons video game.

In this game, you are playing as Bart and you’re wandering around Springfield.  You’re just trying to go about your daily business of vandalizing the city when you notice that something is off – aliens have invaded the city!  You are armed with your spray can and x-ray glasses.  Using these, you can identify and deal with those pesky aliens.

Many of the show’s gags make this game, such as Bart’s catch phrases (“eat my shorts!”) and his phone gags to Moe:

bart-1

I don’t remember much else about the game, but I think it was fairly difficult as I never finished it.  I do own this one and will likely pop it in my NES some time.

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hr-machine

Genre:  Puzzle, Educational
Platform:  PC

Have you ever wanted to learn how to program computers?  Human Resource Machine (available on Steam) will teach you in a fun and simple way!  You will be having so much fun, however, that you might not realize you’re learning!

In this game, you start as a fresh employee of a large corporation.  You start out where everyone seems to start in fake companies, in the mail room.  You start with a very basic set of tasks – move items from one conveyor belt to another.  You do so by issuing your character a set of commands.  The levels grow increasingly complicated and it can get hard to keep your commands and jumps straight.

This game really does a good job of teaching those without any programming skills, and even those with a low-level of knowledge, the logical thinking which is necessary in programming.  I have a mid-level of programming knowledge and I was just itching for some of the tools that I’m more familiar with (if…then statements, please!), but it is still a really fun game.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn programming but found it too daunting, try this game first.

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Where is the NES Mini?

nes-mini

The NES Mini hit retail stores in the US in November.  It retails for $60, but I have yet to see one at that price.  I have yet to see one, period.  There are some on Ebay and Amazon, but I’m not paying $150-$300 for one.

So it seems that if you want to land your hands on one, you’ve got some options (none of which I have the energy for):

  • Make friends with the local stock folks in the big-name stores such as Gamestop, Target or Walmart.
  • Use a web site like http://www.stockinformer.com/checker-nintendo-classic-edition-nes to track stock in local stores.  Get on the phone as soon as you see one in stock and see if they will hold it for you.
  • Pay way too much for one.

I don’t really understand Nintendo’s strategy on this product.  You can get most of these games through Virtual Console.  The demand is obviously really high for them and you’d think a larger-scale release would do quite well.  I often have a hard time understanding what Nintendo is doing, however.

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I Know It’s Been a While…

sorry

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted.  I am alive and well and have been keeping quite busy.  I’ve essentially got two jobs now, and I can be pretty worn out by the end of the day.  I took a bit of a break from gaming, but I seem to be back in the swing of it now.  I have many exciting things to share with you folks, and can’t wait.  I’ve got my top 25 list to finish, a new animated series/video game, some other game updates, board games, updates to my collection and many, many more things to discuss.  Hold tight, because we start again tomorrow!

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angry-birds

Once upon a time, I discovered a cute little game on my cell phone called Angry Birds.  I came to really like it.  I liked it a lot.  I played it over and over until I had three stars on all of the levels.  I was tickled when Angry Bird Seasons came out with a lot more levels.  I was overjoyed when Angry Birds Rio came out (and still think it’s the best of the flock) and played it until I had three stars on all levels.  I tried my hands at Angry Birds space and didn’t like it so much.  Then I took an Angry Birds break.

Cut to a few years later and I recently tried to play Angry Birds and Angry Birds Rio again.  But I couldn’t get much past three levels.  It’s not that I couldn’t pass them – that was no problem.  It was that I didn’t want to go any farther than that.  As you can probably tell on this blog,  I really enjoy older games that I once loved.  I have no problem going back and playing all of my old favorites.  So why don’t I like Angry Birds anymore?

It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  The game hasn’t changed at all.  It’s still cute and simple.  Maybe I over played it back then.  I’m not sure, but the desire to keep playing is simply gone.  Do you have any games like this?

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