amphibious_ReViews

While browsing the Google Play Pass library, I noticed SPACEPLAN and was intrigued by how much it reminded me of Universal Paperclips . That game surprised me from start to finish with absolutely everything it did and remains one of my favorites to this day. SPACEPLAN, while reminiscent of Universal Paperclips in its structure and premise, doesn't quite live up to the game I wanted it to be. However, it had some surprising moments of its own and was still definitely fun enough to finish. SPACEPLAN is an idle game, but it separates itself from the pack with its higher degree of interactivity and its story. You're stuck on a ship in space with only the ship's AI to keep you company. While you obviously want to get home, you're not sure how, and you wouldn't have the resources to get there, anyway. What follows are your attempts to solve those problems with the help of the AI, resulting in a weird time-traveling, dimension-hopping, planet-exploring journey. All the whi

I've recently tried to stay away from incremental/idle games. I've consistently had the problem of getting sucked in, even though I wasn't actually having any fun. I feel accomplished when I can see the numbers climb, but when the gameplay boils down to tapping an upgrade button and waiting, there's not much of a reason to keep playing. Every time I played one, I would eventually figure that out and move on, but only after having already wasted hours of my time. Purely for the sake of the adorable aesthetic, I gave into  Cats & Soup , but I'm still deciding if it was worth it. While it does some things that other incremental games are too lazy to commit to, like hosting passable minigames or offering a degree of customization, Cats & Soup ultimately ends up being the same as any other game in the genre. The cats are adorable, and they're what drew me to the game; it's obvious that a lot of care went into designing the little critters and their anima

The Pokémon Company has never shied away from unique game premises, such as taking pictures, battling toys, or even conquering feudal Japan. However, I don't think anyone was expecting jumping competitions starring the Kanto region's weakest little fish. Acting almost like a virtual pet game, Magikarp Jump focuses more on raising your Pokémon than training them, as battling isn't the ultimate goal this time around. Throughout your "adventure" in Hoppy Town, you'll likely catch dozens, if not hundreds, of Magikarp as you slowly work your way through the competition leagues. In order for your Magikarp to stand a chance in a jumping contest, you'll need to raise their "jump power" with food and training. Both of these methods can be upgraded in the shop to grow your fish faster, and both require you to wait real-life time for them to refill before they can be used again, creating a barely disguised copy of the dreaded energy bar found in other fr

Inspired by the ever popular Candy Box and Candy Box 2 , Space Lich Omega is an browser-based RPG adventure with an almost entirely ASCII display. However, it chose to step away from the established fantasy style of it's inspiration for a more science-fantasy theme. I ended up having a fun time with this game, despite its need for a little polish, thanks to the unique story and hilarious pop-culture Easter eggs that can be discovered throughout the different explorable locations. Despite the crude-ish interface, I never had any trouble navigating throughout the game. I actually ended up beating it in a relatively short time, especially when I had my gunk production going all out, allowing me to jump my health up enormously. Although I did need to do a little grinding every now and then for an item that I missed, that didn't interfere with my enjoyment too much. Ultimately, this is no Candy Box , but it still has its merits and is worth playing if you ever find yourself in

My first experience with this game was truly phenomenal. I was searching for games similar to Universal Paperclips (I was on a minimalism high) and this game blew me away. My girlfriend teases me all the time because I'm pretty crappy at visualization when I read, while she creates entire worlds in her head. However, A Dark Room somehow managed to temporarily fix my literary handicap, and it was amazing! The text that scrolls down the side of the game essentially explains what's going on from the perspective of the player, and when the first straggler stumbled into my cottage, I immediately decided that this was a movie that I wanted to see. As the game progressed, new gameplay elements continued to be introduced, requiring me to learn how they work and take advantage of them as best I could to grow and protect my village. Although I won't go into further details about the story for the sake of spoilers, I do recommend reading everything, especially when exploring

In an effort to find browser games that I could play in my free time, and the Candy Box franchise was one of the Internet's top recommendations. Unfortunately, aniwey had to shut down his servers for financial reasons. But lucky for me, both games were backed up on the glorious Internet Archive ! However, the first game has some saving issues in its backed up form, so I decided to jump right into the sequel instead. At first, the game is very basic, and it seems as though there isn't much to it. But with just a little bit of interaction, the true magic is revealed. Combining a small portion of the incremental aspects of idle games into an intriguing ASCII adventure definitely do this title justice, especially with the added collectible-based growth mechanic that rewards completions like myself with increased strength for discovering different secrets throughout the world.  Candy Box 2 managed to stay enticing the whole time that I played, and each little step of pr

Based on Nick Bostrom's "Paperclip Maximizer" thought experiment, Universal Paperclips  poses the player as an A.I. told to continually make paperclips. The premise is deceptively innocent, seeming as though it may be just another idle game droplet in the sea that genre has become. However, the game's depth continues to increase, both by further complicating the play screen and everything that the player has to balance, as well as weaving a subtle narrative with a satisfyingly sadistic culmination to top it off. Universal Paperclips  is not a game to be played while working (and it is definitely meant to be played on a computer, trust me). The climbing numbers and the strategic management are both engrossing and intoxicating, making it one of the only things that I could think about or focus on, anytime I had it running, even if I meant it to just be racking up numbers in the background. That's where it really shines though, I wasn't just playing the A.I.,