amphibious_ReViews

I thought I learned my lesson the last time I played a Google Play Points promotional game, but then I won one of my now-favorite shirts from Diamond Valley and all my apprehension went straight out the window. While feeling similarly janky, The Playground was not stuffed with any advertisements, save for its tie-in, Zedd in the Park. While I have almost no idea what Zedd in the Park is even after playing the game, I do know what Google Play points are. After earning a collective 400 of them between both times I was allowed to play, I'm not even mad that the game wasn't good. I guess that's not fair, as I did have a few moments where I enjoyed myself, but the poor controls and unbalanced stages didn't do much to impress me. The Playground has three different levels, and each is some form of auto-runner. The first is the most fleshed out, acting like a pared-down Subway Surfers. Zedd is placed on a three-lane track and you have to swipe him from lane to lane to avoid ob...

I generally enjoyed Warrior's Way, but I wish I could have spent more time actually playing it. Warrior's Way is a strategy game about balancing risk and reward, but as a risk-averse person, I tended to play it very safe. That came down to playing very slowly so I could just about guarantee victory in every matchup. Oh, and it worked, too. I never once lost a battle during my entire time with the game, and I fought in hundreds of them. It wasn't until I started getting a little antsy in the last third of the game that I started to enjoy it though. That's because I actually started to take a risk here and there. There are two major phases to any play session in Warrior's Way. First, you recruit new soldiers for your army from your StreetPass tags. People who don't own the game appear as generals and bring a small group of soldiers who join you right away. Other Warrior's Way players appear as monarchs and visit with their entire army in tow. They may voluntee...

Ninja Launcher truly baffled me. It had a pretty good gameplay foundation, and there are plenty of game modes to try out, it just feels unfinished. I think what it came down to was a general lack of exposition. Where pretty much every other StreetPass game had at least some kind of dialogue before or after a play session, Ninja Launcher didn't have anything. It's a real shame too, because the concept could have been fleshed out into a pretty neat story. Now I'm just left to wonder what it could have been like. Ninja Launcher puts you in the role of a ninja, but all of your enemies are perched on top of unscalable cliffs. To fight back, your apprentice suggests that you hop into a cannon and strike at their level. Unfortunately, you can't take any weapons or armor for the launch. That's where your StreetPass tags come in. Everyone you tagged becomes an ally that will fly a kite along your flight path with weapons or armor attached that you can then pick up along the ...

I did a good job of coming into Edith Finch as un-spoiled as I could, but I still thought I had a pretty good idea of what the game was about. As it turns out, I was far more un-spoiled than I realized. I was initially drawn to it by the fascinatingly unique collage of gameplay styles and hadn't paid much attention to any mention of the story. However, that is absolutely the most important part of this game, and all the little gameplay shakeups in between just serve to amplify that narrative even further. As heartbreaking as it was, I was so engrossed in understanding the story of the Finch family that I could hardly put this game down. What Remains of Edith Finch puts you in control of the titular Edith Finch as she returns to her abandoned family home in search of answers. As the last remaining Finch, she wants to understand and document the stories of her eclectic kin by exploring a home that was largely blocked off to her while she was growing up. Throughout the house, she'...