Laser Panic review
February 26, 2025 by RSS Feed
Games like Laser Panic put me in a bit of a quandary about this whole review business. On one side of things, reviews often provide the utility of like a shoppers guide or recommendation, but there's also the part of this business that's about examining and critiquing a game's artistic merit (a side of this we do not see nearly often enough and I am guilty of not upholding as much as I should). Laser Panic doesn't really fit comfortably within either of these modes of examination since--as a value proposition--it is freely available, and on the artistic front, there's some neat game design ideas going on it, but you're very much getting what you're paying for.
Multi-legged mayhem
Laser Panic is an arcade game where you control a spider-like robot by dragging on the screen to make it skitter around various levels. Your goal is to open an exit by collecting a certain number of yellow diamonds that spawn into the level while also being careful of avoiding enemies that look like laser spheres, hence the name I guess.
In addition to simply steering clear of these enemies, little green rocket powerups also appear that you can pick up to have them automatically fire at these foes, destroying them instantly. Once you have collected the requisite amount of diamonds, you can go through the exit door to be greeted with a new level layout and repeat the process.
Multi-layered mechanics
Where Laser Panic gets interesting is how all of these basic ideas intertwine to create a surprising amount of depth for what otherwise might feel like a basic spin on Pac-Man. To just quickly list some of the wrinkles with its systems: your movement is fully analog, enemies can attack diamonds to convert them into new enemies, rockets have a blast radius giving them the ability to kill multiple enemies at once, and killing enemies builds up a green currency that gives you more lives.
These tweaks don't change the basic premise of running around a maze dodging enemies, but it can totally transform the way you approach this challenge given different situations. Maybe you want to manipulate the enemy AI into grouping around a diamond before you launch a rocket, or what might happen if you can squeeze just around an enemy to steal a pickup from them? Perhaps you hold off on picking up a rocked until two enemies start to cross each other's path. These are things you start thinking about and then taking advantage of thanks to Laser Panic adding some dimension to these mechanics.
It is what it is
Now is the part where I stop giving Laser Panic so much credit. As genuinely surprised I am to find a completely free (and ad-free) game with so many thoughtful ideas at play, it also feels like these cool ideas don't quite have a full game built around them.
This might sound nitpicky given the game's price tag and it's arcade tuning, but even with those in mind I still feel like Laser Panic is missing something. At a certain point as levels get more difficult, it just feels like there is little left to do besides hope you banked enough lives to muddle through. I don't think Laser Panic needs to have some kind of bloated progression system or rpg mechanics (in fact it should not), but I can't help but feel like there's some ingredient missing even though I'm not sure what it might be.
The bottom line
Laser Panic conceptually is very interesting and exciting, which is not something I typically find with free arcade games on the App Store. That said, I am not sure the whole concept is as fully fleshed out to make it truly special. Given the price, Laser Panic is well worth downloading just to witness how much it does with so little.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270326/
credit : 148apps
Laser Panic review
February 26, 2025 by RSS Feed
Games like Laser Panic put me in a bit of a quandary about this whole review business. On one side of things, reviews often provide the utility of like a shoppers guide or recommendation, but there's also the part of this business that's about examining and critiquing a game's artistic merit (a side of this we do not see nearly often enough and I am guilty of not upholding as much as I should). Laser Panic doesn't really fit comfortably within either of these modes of examination since--as a value proposition--it is freely available, and on the artistic front, there's some neat game design ideas going on it, but you're very much getting what you're paying for.
Multi-legged mayhem
Laser Panic is an arcade game where you control a spider-like robot by dragging on the screen to make it skitter around various levels. Your goal is to open an exit by collecting a certain number of yellow diamonds that spawn into the level while also being careful of avoiding enemies that look like laser spheres, hence the name I guess.
In addition to simply steering clear of these enemies, little green rocket powerups also appear that you can pick up to have them automatically fire at these foes, destroying them instantly. Once you have collected the requisite amount of diamonds, you can go through the exit door to be greeted with a new level layout and repeat the process.
Multi-layered mechanics
Where Laser Panic gets interesting is how all of these basic ideas intertwine to create a surprising amount of depth for what otherwise might feel like a basic spin on Pac-Man. To just quickly list some of the wrinkles with its systems: your movement is fully analog, enemies can attack diamonds to convert them into new enemies, rockets have a blast radius giving them the ability to kill multiple enemies at once, and killing enemies builds up a green currency that gives you more lives.
These tweaks don't change the basic premise of running around a maze dodging enemies, but it can totally transform the way you approach this challenge given different situations. Maybe you want to manipulate the enemy AI into grouping around a diamond before you launch a rocket, or what might happen if you can squeeze just around an enemy to steal a pickup from them? Perhaps you hold off on picking up a rocked until two enemies start to cross each other's path. These are things you start thinking about and then taking advantage of thanks to Laser Panic adding some dimension to these mechanics.
It is what it is
Now is the part where I stop giving Laser Panic so much credit. As genuinely surprised I am to find a completely free (and ad-free) game with so many thoughtful ideas at play, it also feels like these cool ideas don't quite have a full game built around them.
This might sound nitpicky given the game's price tag and it's arcade tuning, but even with those in mind I still feel like Laser Panic is missing something. At a certain point as levels get more difficult, it just feels like there is little left to do besides hope you banked enough lives to muddle through. I don't think Laser Panic needs to have some kind of bloated progression system or rpg mechanics (in fact it should not), but I can't help but feel like there's some ingredient missing even though I'm not sure what it might be.
The bottom line
Laser Panic conceptually is very interesting and exciting, which is not something I typically find with free arcade games on the App Store. That said, I am not sure the whole concept is as fully fleshed out to make it truly special. Given the price, Laser Panic is well worth downloading just to witness how much it does with so little.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/laser-panic-review/
credit : 148apps
Loop Hero review
February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed
I have some complicated feelings about Loop Hero. I remember is as one of the big games culture phenoms under the height of COVID (along with Among Us), and it is an enjoyable upgrade treadmill that is fun as long as its systems are playing nicely together. Sometimes they aren't, as there are a ton of disparate things at play in the game, but the fact that any of it works is rather impressive, and even moreso seeing it tied so well together by its surprisingly cool art and worldbuilding. On iOS, you'd think it's kind of the perfect game to dink around with, and it is fully capable of sucking you in, but I'm not sure it has aged all that well since its initial release.
Loot loop
In the event that you haven't played Loop Hero, some explanation for how it works is required. This game borrows from a lot of other places, but as far as I know there aren't really games like it. You play as a hero who is trying to build up some semblance of civilization at the end of the world, and you do this by going on adventures where your character automatically moves around a track to fight monsters, secure supplies, level up, and find gear that will help you fight even more powerful monsters.
Your role as the player controlling this revolves somewhat around switching up gear to make your hero as strong as possible, but the main focus is actually on building up the land features on and around the track (via cards) to try and make things as hard as possible while still being able to survive so you can score the most chances at getting powerful loot to take down and end boss for big resource rewards and some story payoff.
Repeating randomness
As you advance in Loop Hero, you build up a village in between runs and the structures you build grant bonuses, add new cards to play with, and even unlock additional classes with their own gear and special combat abilities. The core of what you do in each subsequent run remains largely the same, though: kill, loot, die/retreat, repeat.
There are times where this formula is totally engrossing. It can be incredibly satisfying to happen upon a build that lets your hero go the distance to fell a boss or find special items like trophies to tip your battlefield builds in certain directions. There are plenty of other times, though, where things like this simply do not come together, and either you die or you retreat just to venture out again and see if things shake out better next time. As a game that you could basically let idle in the background of your PC while you do other things, this is mostly fine, but in other formats, not so much.
Meager on mobile
Speaking of format, this mobile version of Loop Hero is serviceable, though some of its ideas to make it more mobile-friendly are a bit odd. Perhaps the nicest thing about this port is that Loop Hero has flawless iCloud sync, allowing you to continue progress between devices, or even tie up a device to allow for some idle play if you so choose.
Beyond that, Loop Hero has added some options to try and make its smallish visuals a bit more readable, but it's all via an awkward magifying feature that didn't quite feel right in all of the configurations offered. Luckily, I found it easy enough to see and read everything on screen when playing on my iPad, though on my phone it was a little more difficult, to the point that I considered turning on high-resolution fonts on the game. I didn't, though, because it kind of ruins the aesthetic of Loop Hero, which I may have only mentioned in the intro but it's cool as hell and goes a long way to make its idle/looping gameplay more appealing.
The bottom line
Loop Hero hasn't suddenly turned into a different game in the years since its release, but you can also see why there haven't been any splashy games like it since. At times, the game feels like lightning in a bottle. At others, it gives the feel of countless other games that are just random systems slurries. When you could play it somewhat idly (and when folks had a lot more idle time), I imagine it felt more magical than it does now playing on a device where you have to face its imperfections head on.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270082/
credit : 148apps
Strange Horticulture review
February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed
Even though I don't love the term I'm about to use all that much, Strange Horticulture is most easily described as a "cozy game," albeit with some eldritch horror vibes. You play as the proprietor of a rare plant store, and much of your inventory has special properties that your clientele seeks out to achieve their own ends. But Strange Horticulture declines to simply be a management game about collecting and identifying plants, which adds to its allure and makes it a compelling experience.
Sifting through secrets
The structure of Strange Horticulture is fairly predictable. Each day, a procession of clients enter your store and you learn about their lives and what they are seeking and use that to try and provide a plant that will aid them. With a setup like this, you might expect a game where you're balancing expenses, buying upgrades, etc. to grow your business, but none of that is in this game.
Instead, you go on foraging adventures directed by cryptic clues, page through manuscripts to identify your inventory, and brew elixirs based on half-remembered recipes, among other things, all in an effort to advance and direct a story caught up in ancient rituals and otherworldly evil. This all takes place within the confines of your shop and your interactions are tied to shuffling through papers on your desk as rain patters against the window and the shop cat rests on your counter.
Patient puzzling
Though it's not entirely clear when the game starts, all of your interactions in Strange Horticulture are connected and lead to a larger overall story. To advance some parts of this story in specific ways, you may need to have successfully used clues to gather the right plants when the time comes or have opted to give people plants they may not have actually been asking for. At times, the excercise of solving these clues can be tedious and involve some amount of trial and error, but thankfully none of it is so obtuse that you won't be able to recognize that something needs to be done.
It's also an incredibly smart move by the developers of the game to make its clue-solving and foraging gameplay untethered from the days that the game is broken up into. On any given day in the shop, you can opt to explore the map to look for plants as many times as you want, with the only barrier being a sort of travel meter that takes time to refill and can be replenished more quickly by serving customers or watering your plants.
Digging up dirt
Strange Horticulture has multiple endings and--upon reaching one of them--has some more game to offer around identifying plants that went unidentified in your playthrough. It's a nice addition, especially since additional new playthroughs will likely remove a lot of mystery around the plants and clue-solving, but removed from the context of the larger story it isn't nearly as satisfying.
The only real sore spot of Strange Horticulture is some of its user interface. I appreciate the game's commitment to having players organize actual pieces of paper, but in doing so you can come across readability issues that work much better in theory than in practice. For instance, there's a zoom feature that is very flexible and lets you read even the smallest text rather easily, but it doesn't always play that nice when certain objects are stacked on top of each other or if it doesn't get fully zoomed out.
The bottom line
There are a lot of novel and extremely clever ideas in Strange Horticulture, but by the time I finished with the game I was truly tired of its gameplay. I'm sure the issues with the game's UI had a lot to do with this, but even when things are working as they should, there's just a lot of procedural referencing and looking up that can get sloggy after a while. I'm sure another game like this could come around and find some success, but I don't think I'd be ready to play a game like Strange Horticulture again for a good long time.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270089/
credit : 148apps
Warbits Plus review
February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed
They say war never changes, but that hasn't stopped Risky Lab from reworking their nifty little tactics game into an updated "plus" version. For better or for worse, the changes that are present in Warbits Plus are slight and mostly feel like a way to update the look and feel of an aged mobile game that can still offer some fun, tactical action.
Modern warfare
It is clearly intentional that Warbits Plus is named the way that it is. This is no sequel. At it's core it is essentially the same game as the 2016 original. This is not to say there is no new content or updated features, however.
Warbits Plus has been fully rebuilt from the ground up, which allows for the game to display in full screen on newer devices, switch seamlessly between portrait and landscape views, undo boneheaded moves with an undo button, and play cross-platform multiplayer against people on PC or Android. In addition to this, it seems that some levels have also been reworked even though that isn't specifically noted in any of the press materials.
Almost advance
The lineage Warbits Plus is playing off of is still clear as day in this release. Military skirmishes here echo those of Advance Wars, including the same kinds of mechanics for capturing buildings, using special powers, terrain advantages, and more. To be clear: there's nothing inherently wrong with this, especially since Risky Lab comes at this with a level of care that demonstrates their respect for those games while giving a unique identity to their own creation.
That said, this approach feels a little less novel than it did when Warbits first released eight years ago, and it still suffers from a lot of the same issues I bump into when playing games like this. Everything is all fun and dandy until there's some level in the campaign that challenges you to be a tactical wizard or otherwise grind out a war of attrition, and--whether I happen to figure out the swift way to win or not--neither approach ends up feeling all that rewarding.
Kinks in the war machine
Up until I got to some of the late stages inWarbits Plus that put me off a bit, I also seemed to encounter some strange game behavior that I can't tell was purposeful or just a bug. For example, the touted "undo" button in this upgraded version of the game doesn't always seem to appear. I also found that I was unable to use any command powers if there was a unit (even if it was friendly) on my headquarters.
These might sound like small issues, but there were multiple times where I'd run into them and they would effectively kill any chance I had at winning. Maybe these are just design choices, but if they are they feel bad because they are unintuitive, underexplained, and inconsistent. So, as much of this ill will could be coming from my own negative experiences where I'd do something wrong and mess up a mission, it almost always ended up feeling worse because tools that are seemingly available to help bail players out or correct issues seem to just vanish under certain circumstances.
The bottom line
Warbits Plus is a charming little tactics game, and it's worth celebrating as a quality revamp of a beloved mobile title. I don't love the way its difficulty spikes or how some of its systems don't behave how I expect them to, but I can imagine tactics nuts or anyone pining for another Advance Wars seeing a lot to like here. Heck, even I like a lot of it. That just ends at a certain point, though, and it was before I had completed the game.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270100/
credit : 148apps
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