amphibious_ReViews

As it was the first game available to redeem with My Nintendo points, Twilight Princess Picross gave me a lot of hope. I had already gotten hundreds of dollars of free games (and merch) from the previous rewards service, Club Nintendo , and I wasn't sure what to expect from its replacement. An exclusive game like this was definitely a good way to boost my confidence, and the expiration date it originally mentioned on the redemption page hinted that this was only the first in a line of My Nintendo branded titles. Fast forward five years and the redemption page still hasn't expired, we haven't seen even a hint of another original title, and My Nintendo  lives in the shadow of its predecessor. Luckily, this was still a fantastic game for Picross fans like me, so at least we have that. Twilight Princess Picross is a pretty standard affair for a Jupiter -developed  Picross game. It's shorter, with just two sets of 45 puzzles and one enormous "Micross" puzzle,

If you're looking for a bite-sized game that puts your skills to the test but doesn't punish you for failure, then you're in luck. VVVVVV is a hard-as-nails platformer with no lives system and generous checkpoints. In fact, it almost completely ignores how many times you screw up. Because of this, its platforming challenges feel like obstacles to overcome rather than frustrations to be dealt with, making VVVVVV a rewarding experience from start to finish. You play as Captain Viridian, the leader of a small space-faring crew, who must find and rescue five members of his team (whose names also start with "V") after their teleporter malfunctioned during a multi-dimensional emergency. The alternate dimension you find yourself in is full of ledges, walls, and platforms, but Viridian is completely incapable of jumping. Instead, he must completely invert gravity in order to maneuver, but even that has a catch. Gravity can only be flipped if Viridian is planted on the g

Tricking new players into thinking it's just a port of the classic arcade game , Donkey Kong turns out to be an impressive puzzle platformer, perfectly suited for the Gameboy . Pitting Mario against his original rival in the hopes of saving his first girlfriend, Donkey Kong offers a challenge so satisfying that it actually spawned an entire spin-off series of Mario games. However, the formula is already so refined here that I have little doubt you'll be fully satisfied after this game alone. Throughout your experience, you'll encounter three types of levels. The most common has you finding a key and carrying it back to a locked door in order to pursue Donkey Kong and Pauline. Beating a few of those will lead up to an encounter with the ape, where just reaching the same platform as Pauline is enough to scare him away and end the stage. However, at the end of each world, he's gutsy enough to try and fight, requiring you to throw his projectiles back at him until he&#

Originally released in the West with a massive redesign as  Tetris Attack , Panel de Pon was destined to be ignored by me for quite a while. Drop-block puzzle games that weren't actually Tetris didn't really interest me for a long time. It wasn't until I played the Puyo Puyo Tetris demo with my wife that I realized playing Puyo Puyo  (or other similar titles) could be fun too. I still wouldn't actually play Panel de Pon for years after that, but it's thanks to Puyo Puyo that I opted to give this game a chance in the first place. Plus, I can be a sucker for games that only released in Japan. Panel de Pon is pretty straightforward. The board follows the typical rules of a match-3 game, clearing any blocks that match in color and form a contiguous line of three or more, with the game ending if any blocks make it to the top of the screen. As expected, the required block matches don't tend to happen naturally. You are provided with a cursor that is two tiles wid

The White Door is clearly a  Rusty Lake game, with the series' familiar art, puzzle, and storytelling styles permeating throughout the entire experience. This fascinated me, as The White Door sidelines the series' standard first-person room-escape gameplay for a unique and unfamiliar third-person two-panel system. In the previous games, you played as the title's respective main character, directing their actions in order to progress. In this game, you still technically control the main character, but the new approach to gameplay makes it feel more like he is directing you instead. With the game simultaneously feeling like a main-series title and something completely new, it ends up being a very unique and enjoyable "spin-off" that I wasn't expecting. Stepping aside from the narrative of Dale Vandermeer that had been kept at the forefront for most of the Rusty Lake franchise, The White Door dives deep into the mind of Robert Hill, ex-boyfriend of the late L

Cube Escape: Paradox managed to achieve a lot of firsts for the series, offering a level of production previously unprecedented in the world of Rusty Lake . The biggest addition here is an absolutely fantastic short film based on the game, offering a more atmospheric dive into the mysterious world that we've come to love. Paradox is also the first Cube Escape title to offer DLC, letting you have both the usual full-size game for free and a more substantial second chapter for a little less than a Rusty Lake title. I honestly loved this approach, as I still got the game that I was expecting, and, as an excuse to support the developers more, I got an even better game to top it off.  Because Paradox encompasses two chapters and a short film, all of which take place in the same room, I found its premise to be very clever. Our favorite detective, Dale Vandermeer, returns to the spotlight as he attempts to learn the secrets of the room he's trapped in with the hope of eventually

Continuing the tradition set by the previous premium Rusty Lake games, Paradise offers a lot more content than its Cube Escape siblings and ties up a lot of loose ends in the story. It actually leaves a considerable amount of the story developments up to interpretation, but the rest of the series has helped me to understand the world well enough that I felt pretty confident in my interpretations. The background knowledge established in this title felt a lot less important than that of the previous two premium entries, but it was engaging enough that I didn't mind too much. Playing as an inhabitant of Rusty Lake 's Paradise island, you return home in order to help your cult-like family escape the plagues they're facing. The gameplay is very familiar, asking you to interact with your environment and collect items to solve puzzles. New to this game is the ability to explore the entire island, rather than just individual rooms or stages. Unfortunately, the Rusty Lake formu

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a delightful puzzle-based visual-novel-style game. Through the unique artistic style and the humorous dialogue, the developers were able to craft a cute little world chock-full of bite-sized puzzles which make up the core gameplay. However, as the eponymous professor's first adventure, it's still a little rough around the edges. The game's core structure is solid, but the tactics used to increase the playtime could definitely use some polishing. I'm still more than satisfied with the time I spent with the game, it's just unlikely that this is an entry in the series that I will be returning to. In the Curious Village , you take control of Professor Layton , and his apprentice, Luke. Your goal is to solve a variety of mysteries that arise during your time in St. Mystere, which you do by investigating the town, speaking with its residents, and solving puzzles. The town itself is interesting, but the real fun happens during

  This is it folks. This is the Rusty Lake magnum opus. It has an intriguing story that ties itself beautifully to the established universe. Its gameplay builds on the solid foundation of its predecessors, and it stays engaging throughout the entire experience. The game even incorporates a little humor to balance the series' usual morbidity. Roots is easily my favorite entry in the franchise thus far, and I don't see it losing its throne anytime soon. As the second paid title in it's series, I had big expectations for Roots . The first premium game, Rusty Lake Hotel , earned its price tag with major plot points and a lot more content than was usually on offer from its Cube Escape peers. I anticipated that Roots would at least match that, but in many ways, it more than excelled. The characters were far more interesting, and their horrid relationships with one another were truly engrossing. Contrast to Hotel's  looping structure, playing this game made me feel like I

  Although its main mechanic of sliding an object over a 2d plane isn't very unique in the puzzle game scene, Quell was able to set itself apart with an absolutely gorgeous aesthetic. I'm used to puzzle games focusing on minimalism and often leaving their visuals rather simple. Quell shook that up all the way from the structure of its menus to the animation of its sprites. Everything in this game is beautiful both visually and audibly. Unlike similar titles, such as Flow Free , the content in this game is far from endless, but the developers do a good job of stretching each of the levels enough to extend the gameplay without causing any of them to overstay their welcome. The main task presented by this game is guiding a water droplet through the small (but intricate) mazes found on your window panes. The droplet has to collect each of the pearls in the maze without getting trapped or popped by the hazards around it. As you progress through the levels, the time period in which

  When it comes to mobile games, the best performers are typically those that are conducive to the "pick up and play" mentality. Flow Free has held it's ground on mobile devices for nearly a decade while other games have come and gone, and I believe that is on no small part due to the fact that it is the epitome of "pick up and play." Bored at home? Waiting for a friend? Stuck on an elevator and surrounded by strangers? Flow Free is always ready to help. The gameplay is very straightforward, tasking you with connecting colored dots with each other, while filling in every space in the grid. Once you get a hang of the general structure of the puzzles, they typically aren't too difficult to solve. However, solving them is super addictive. There are thousands of puzzles, so I never really felt bad when I completed a few hundred in one sitting. Flow Free provides you with a large selection of "packs," each with over 100 puzzles following a certain th

As the first Picross game to make it to the west, this title didn't do nearly as well as Nintendo was hoping, leading us to be without a new Picross game until the DS . Although the franchise was doing well in Japan, westerners just weren't ready for these clever logic games. I think part of the issue was that this was advertised as a Mario title, but that aspect of the game boiled down to his face in the corner of the screen and a small number of related puzzles. Despite the poor reaction upon release, I found this to be a really enjoyable title. Some of the rules implemented in future entries, such as the inability to fill in a space that you've marked with an X, are sorely missed here. However, complaints like those don't really undermine the fact that this game is loaded with solid puzzles and is a delight to play. If you're familiar with other Picross  titles, you'll be right at home here. If not, the game does a great job of easing you into the nonogra

  As the first premium game in the Rusty Lake meta-series, I was a little hesitant to spend my hard-earned money on this. However, the Cube Escape games had seriously hooked me, and I couldn't just skip ahead, so I eventually gave in. Right at the start of the game, I knew this was unmissable. Presented as a prequel of sorts, Rusty Lake Hotel stars some familiar faces, but also introduces new characters that are poised to become more important in future games. Although it doesn't answer every question I've stored up from the previous games, I didn't really expect it to. However, it did provide a couple important reveals, and it gave me a few more things to be curious about. All of that makes for a pretty solid Rusty Lake experience. As an employee of the Rusty Lake Hotel , you are responsible for both keeping the guests comfortable and collecting the ingredients for each dinner. That all seems pretty dull and straightforward, until you figure out that the guests and

The Tetris series has more than it's fair share of spinoffs, so it's never much of a surprise when a new one is announced. However, I don't think anyone saw this one coming. Tetris 99 released while the battle royale genre, led by the likes of PUBG and Fortnite , was absolutely exploding. Every online shooter was trying to capitalize on the last-man-standing action. Then Nintendo blindsided the world by announcing this gem as a free title exclusive to subscribers to their online service. Competitive Tetris games have been around for awhile, so the basic concept wasn't profound, but the fact that Tetris was diving into the battle royale scene was enough to draw plenty of attention. I picked up Tetris 99 right away, because I like Tetris , I was intrigued by the concept, and the price was right. After trying to get my Tetris fix from the Puyo Puyo Tetri s demo, this was a welcome change. It complemented my style of playing in short, intense bursts, and the multipl

Picross is a prolific series of nonogram puzzle games, and I'm constantly surprised that they're able to come up with hundreds of new puzzles for each title. Although it's not the first entry in the series, Picross DS can be credited with bringing the series back to the West after Mario's Picross flopped, and I'm grateful that it did! Picross has become a go-to series for me thanks to the simple pick-up-and-play style, and the addicting buzz from solving each puzzle. Picross DS is loaded with cute grid-based drawings to uncover, and it has enough content to last for ages. I think part of it's success can be attributed to it's accessibility. The game guides players from easier puzzles to harder ones, allowing them to learn the ropes and develop strategies as they progress. It also allows play via the buttons or the touch screen, depending on player preference. As I prefer using buttons, I'm glad that touch screen play wasn't forced as it was with

Tetris established itself as one of the greatest puzzle games ever made very early in it's life, and it has held that position with minimal competition ever since. In addition to the addicting gameplay, Tetris's  success may be attributed to the fact   it is extremely prolific, being playable on almost anything, from consoles to calculators. It also maintains interest by regularly releasing spin-offs that shake up the gameplay. However, they all generally maintain the structure of the original. Tasking players with fitting falling blocks together in horizontal lines, the basic gameplay is deceptively simple, but strategy is required, especially when the game starts to speed up. I have developed a technique that works for me, but I'm always trying to get better, which makes Tetris  engaging, even after playing it for ages. I have a lot of fun with  Tetris , especially competitively, but even when it's broken down to it's most simple form, it's addicting. Plus,

When I first heard about Pokémon Café Mix , I thought that it looked like a cute little game, but was probably just another Pokémon Shuffle . For context, Shuffle was an early free-to-play Pokémon puzzle game that was heavily pay-to-win, making it a pretty disappointing title. However, I'm a sucker for free, so I thought I may as well try  Café Mix , despite my low expectations. After playing it, I think it may be the most enjoyable free Pokémon game after Go ! The puzzle format is a physics-based gimmick-oriented icon-matching game. Put simply, it's Tsum Tsum meets Candy Crush . I found this game to be so delightful because the puzzles are structured in such a way that they provide a challenge, but are never unfair. As of this review, I'm almost 200 stages in without having used a single power-up, save for the one required in a training stage. For contrast, after a few dozen levels in Shuffle , I was using more than one paid item per stage. Café Mix is also absolutely

Combining the tried-and-true mechanics of the prolific "match-3" style puzzle game (remixed with tumble-y physics) and Disney's recognizable characters make the original Tsum Tsum title into LINE's greatest gaming hit. Targeted towards casual mobile-gamers, this plushie-themed puzzle game asks players to clear as many little Disney characters as they can within a 60-second timer. In order to keep things exciting, events introduce limited-time gameplay gimmicks and rare collectibles. Although I wouldn't consider myself much of a "match-3" lover, I have recently been getting more into the mobile gaming space, as life gets busier. As I love Disney , Tsum Tsum was almost a no-brainer to at least try. I found the gameplay loop to get a little repetitive, but only after amassing quite a collection of Tsums and playing through multiple events. For the time that I was playing, I would definitely say I was hooked. Tsum Tsum offered me a unique take on a genre

Although I was essentially forced to get this game (it came in one of  GameStop 's manipulative bundle deals), I'm actually really glad that I got it! Because my major focus on the Switch  was Breath of the Wild  and its single-player experience, it was nice to have a multiplayer option available that allowed me to share the magic of the Switch  by cooperating (or competing) with my family and friends! The simple basis of Snipperclips , cutting your partner in order to solve mind-bending puzzles, was surprisingly intuitive and enjoyable! The characters and settings are well-crafted, and frankly, super adorable. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed that the base game only had three "worlds" of content, but the four-player party mode was enough for me to be content for a while. For those looking for even more content, the DLC introduced new levels, modes, and more! However, I still haven't had a chance to purchase or play that yet, so I will update this rev

At first, I was a bit skeptical at coming back to Minesweeper . I was aching for a good, old-fashioned puzzle, like sudoku, but I never really got around to finding one. Soon after, Minesweeper came to my attention again, but I was a bit wary to give it another chance, as my only experience with it previously was as a clueless child clicking boxes (which was no fun, I'll have you know.) But upon my return, I was pleasantly surprised! The thought process in this early  Microsoft  gem is very similar to that of sudoku, which I was pleased to discover, but I found that Minesweeper is plenty of fun, whether or not I'm craving a puzzle! The gameplay is engrossing and addictive, causing a "one more round" type of mentality. However, it isn't without it's flaws. The one major downfall that I've found with this game is that it can't all be solved with just deep-thinking. There is always a degree of luck required, especially when you're pitted with