amphibious_ReViews

It can be a difficult thing to convert a fully physical game into a digital format. Questions like how to keep players' cards hidden from each other on a shared screen or how to handle house rules can stop a great tabletop experience from being a great videogame. While concessions were certainly made with Uno, I think the developers did the best they could with the options available to them. The problem is, the best part about Uno is the banter across the table as you play, and that will never come easy to a virtual adaptation. Just about everyone I know has played Uno (the physical version) multiple times before, so I'll spare you a rehash of the rules. Instead, I will say that whatever rules you've played Uno by in the past, you can probably recreate that same ruleset in this digital version. That was one of the most delightful surprises for me when trying this game out for the first time. While the official rules of the card game are faithfully implemented in this digita

For a variety of reasons, board games don't always have successful transitions into the video game format. Many manage the platform jump, but come with enough compromises that they aren't worth playing anyways. Risk is not one of those games. Save for the AI players that make solo play pretty much impossible, this turned out to be a remarkably well-translated board game. With all of the original rules in-tact, as well as "house rule" style customization, Risk Global Domination  feels just as playable as the board game sitting in my closet, but without any of the setup or teardown. For those unfamiliar, Risk is a strategic game about becoming the leading world superpower while preventing your rivals from doing the same. As the name suggests, whether you have a good plan or not, your actions are going to involve a degree of risk. In order to dominate the world, you must conquer the geographical regions held by your opponents while defending the ones you currently hold

Hard-as-nails platformers don't often find a home on touchscreens due to the need for precise controls, but that didn't stop Ubisoft from giving it a shot. The controls are surprisingly tight, and the try-die-repeat loop is actually pretty fun, as long as you don't have Internet access. Otherwise, the ads become unbelievably invasive, forcing a 5-30 second pause between gameplay at almost every death (in a game where death is designed to happen a lot). To make matters worse, reports from other players claim that paying to remove ads doesn't actually work. I was able to actually play the game once I turned data off, and I ended up enjoying it for a bit. Escape encouraged me to learn the patterns and structures of levels, and I felt myself improve as I played, which was quite fulfilling. However, after 30 levels, I started to notice reused level pieces; after 60, I stopped feeling challenged; after 70, I was bored. Prince of Persia: Escape offers an enjoyable time-w