Puzzle – Page 3 – Stately Play

New word game, Wordwich, now live on the App Store

September 6, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS • Shakespeare once said, “…brevity is the soul of wit,” but he did so in the middle of 30,000 words in what would be his longest play. In other words, Shakespeare has been trolling the shit out of high school sophomores who have been reading Hamlet since 1609. That said, he was definitely on to something, which is why I try to keep all my posts as short as possible. LOOK AT ALL THIS WIT! When it comes to games, however, it’s commonly thought that brevity sucks. Wordwich would beg to differ as it’s the shortest damn game I’ve ever played. It’s not the wittiest, but it does manage to be somewhat addictive.

Everyone’s favorite flapper returns in Miss Fisher’s newest adventure

August 28, 2017 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal, Android • Tin Man Games left their usual gamebook fare in the dust when they released Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze earlier this year. Instead of reading pages of text and then picking where the story goes, Miss Fisher was a full-fledged adventure game with a rather awesome protagonist and a slew of other interesting characters wrapped around a compelling mystery. It’s good enough that I started bingeing the Australian series on Netflix and have been loving every minute of it. Over the weekend, Tin Man added Episode 2 to the mix and, in the process, made the first episode free-to-download.

Miracle Merchant making its way to mobile on August 3rd

July 25, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS, Android • When December finally rolls around, I think it’s safe to say that Tinytouchtales will have two contenders for Game of the Year. Back in March they released Card Thief, a complex stealth-based card game about looting castles and avoiding the guards tasked with protecting said loot. Next week they’re releasing GOTY contender #2, Miracle Merchant, a card game whose complexity is more akin to their previous GOTY winner, Card Crawl.

FRAMED 2 has been out for a week and I’ve been ignoring it

June 21, 2017 David Neumann 4

iOS Universal • Last week saw the release of FRAMED 2 on the App Store and, yes, I’ve been aware of its existence. I’ve been actively ignoring it because, in my rapidly declining memory, I remembered Kelsey hating the first one when we covered it back at Pocket Tactics and didn’t see the need to cover the sequel to a game we actively disliked back in 2014. Went back and looked today and he didn’t hate it. In fact, he kind of loved it. So, I’m an idiot and now we should talk about FRAMED 2.

Review: Monument Valley 2

June 8, 2017 Kelsey Rinella 2

iOS • Format plays much the same role in modern writing that fate played for the ancient Greeks. Monument Valley 2 is exactly what that title suggests, and the original was so popular that there’s little need for reviews. But I’m a game reviewer, and to resist describing it would invite the intervention of displeased gods. So: Monument Valley took the inspiration for its puzzles from M.C. Escher, its visual style from Helvetica and sunsets, and its lightly-presented narrative from maturing, regret, and making amends (and how distinct are those, really?). It was the sort of gem which made people feel like there was still something they could use to show off the potential of touchscreen devices to jaded onlookers. MV2 refines that success very gently.

Keith Burgun’s latest is heading to PC

May 1, 2017 David Neumann 0

PC, Mac, Linux • I remember talking with Owen back in the day and listening to him gush over Empire: A Deck Building Strategy Game as if it were the second coming of XCOM. Was his love for Empire a tad overzealous? Perhaps, but just a tad. Designed by Keith Burgun, Empire and his other titles, 100 Rogues and Auro, have all been the cream of the App Store crop since their release. Thus, you’ll be happy to hear that Mr. Burgun is working on another title and he’s currently funding it via Kickstarter. You’ll be less happy to hear that there’s no plan to bring it to mobile.

Review: Thimbleweed Park

March 30, 2017 David Neumann 3

PC/Mac/Linux • Nostalgia is a tricky beast. Some creators will use it like bad wallpaper, covering the cracks of their leaky foundation while trying to remind us of the wallpaper in our childhood bedroom as if that would make us ignore what’s underneath. Other creators will use it to enhance the story or characters by dropping us deeper into whatever it is they’ve crafted. Last year’s X-Files reboot was the former, Stranger Things was the latter. Nostalgia can only take you so far, and if the product isn’t good to begin with then nostalgia won’t suddenly make it worth your time. Thimbleweed Park drips with nostalgia. In fact, they could have called it “Nostalgia: The Game” and I would have nodded and thought it was a good choice. Thimbleweed Park exists solely to remind you of classic point-and-click adventures from the 80’s and 90’s, especially those from LucasArts, but it does it with a deft hand and excellent new mechanisms, making it far more Stranger Things than X-Files. This is nostalgia done right.

BrainGoodGames’ Militia makes its way to mobile

March 24, 2017 David Neumann 9

iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac • While it arrived on Steam way back in 2015, Militia escaped our attention mainly due to the fact that no mobile version was on the horizon. Turns out developer BrainGoodGames always had a mobile version planned, they just didn’t let us know about it until yesterday which is a good thing, because that’s when it landed on the App Store.

Fireproof Games set to drop us into The Room once more

March 6, 2017 David Neumann 1

iOS, Android • There are a lot of great puzzle games for mobile, but even amongst the best we can separate them into The Room titles with everything else a step behind. Fireproof Games blazed onto the mobile scene back in 2012 with The Room and showed everyone how to utilize a touchscreen. Not only were there beautiful graphics and a creepy tone, but puzzles were solved by flipping switches and turning knobs, all done by manipulating items with your fingers. It was incredibly tactile, and made The Room the best puzzle game on the platform. It was followed by the shrewdly titled Room 2 and Room 3, both of which raised the bar by expanding the size of the titular room(s) and bumping up the number of puzzles. Earlier today they announced that The Room series isn’t finished, and the next version The Room: Old Sins will be on our devices by the end of 2017.

Review: Link Twin

March 1, 2017 Kelsey Rinella 0

iOS, Android • Link Twin is a simple, pleasantly-presented puzzler. Though modest in scope and number, its puzzles pass my idiosyncratic test: they sometimes stumped me until I stopped playing, and were immediately solvable when I returned. That tells me that there are various ways to approach them which are valuable enough to attract one’s thinking but easily accessible enough that breaking one’s chain of thought makes it possible to take a new tack. This would leave me perfectly satisfied, but for the fact that the minimal narrative hints at something more.