"If there is an app for that"

Athenion: Tactical CCG

ZERO-bit Company Limited

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Take the City Back from Evil Rodent Gangs in Beat Street

November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed

Beat Street (Free) by Lucky Kat Studios is a retro beat 'em up arcade game that plays a nice homage to games of the '90s. If you enjoyed games like Dan the Man, then you will like what Beat Street has to offer.

When I get stressed out, I usually feel like punching something, like a wall. But you know, that would end up hurting me and probably damaging property, which ends up being annoying to fix, so I take it out in video games instead. While I much prefer to relax with puzzles, sometimes I just need to tap into my destructive side, and what better way than with a beat 'em up type of game? That's why Beat Street is a fun option to have.

Dan The Man

Halfbrick

Visually, Beat Street is beautiful with the retro pixel art style that is reminiscent of classics from the '90s era. I have fond memories of games like Mike Tyson's Punch Out!, and this game is rather reminiscent of it for me. Despite the pixel art, Beat Street is packed with detailed environments and colorful characters that all stand out from each other. The game makes use of a bright and vibrant color palette that will hit you with a sense of better times. Animations are smooth and fluid with no issues of lag or choppiness on my iPhone 8 Plus. To top off this sentimental love letter, Beat Street has an upbeat and quirky chiptune soundtrack that wraps it all up nicely. Plus, the sound effects when you punch things in the face is downright fun.

In Beat Street, players are greeted with a map that shows the city. You take on the role of a young boy who has been given the task of cleaning up the city from the evil gangs that have been taking over. To move on to the next stage, the current one must be completed first. Up to three stars can be earned, depending on the difficulty level you choose. The goal is simple: clear out all waves of enemies on each stage using your awesome martial art skills. A boss, which is usually tougher than the rest of the goons and has a special attack, appears at the end. Everything is pretty straightforward, but the game still proves to be a fun challenge in terms of combat.

The controls are simple and clearly designed for touch screens. To move your character freely around the environment, just drag your thumb around. The game is a side-scroller, so when you reach the edge of the screen, you move on to the next sector. To do a basic attack, just tap on the screen — doing consecutive hits results in combos, which fills up your combo meter for an ultimate attack. Walking up to an enemy allows you to grab them, where you can then proceed with regular taps to perform hits while they're in your grasp. Swiping horizontally while you're grabbing them has you throw them. You can do a quick flick for a dash, but it uses combo points. Finally, you can flick upwards to do a jump kick attack, but be careful, as this one depletes your combo meter as well. You can also tap-and-hold to perform a charged attack.

Every now and then, you may find a weapon on the ground, such as a baseball bat. You can pick up an item by running over to it and tapping the screen. The item gets equipped on your hero and you can dish out more damage with it in your attacks. But keep an eye on how long you've had it — they don't last forever.

Once your combo meter is full, a button appears in the bottom left corner that lets you do an ultimate attack. This is a powerful flurry of hits that can take out most small foes and deal a hefty amount of damage to bosses, so make sure to use them at the right time. You can collect different scrolls that let you do different kinds of attacks, and collect tokens to upgrade your hero.

When you complete stages, you can get a plethora of rewards. These can include enemy figures that provide you with benefits in battle, and character tokens to upgrade, evolve, and unlock new heroes. The other characters that you can play as have their own play style and ultimate attacks, which can drastically change the gameplay. The more you play, the more variety you get.

After you clear the sixth level, you also gain access to the shop. Here, you'll find many useful items, and the offerings change every couple of hours. You'll need gold coins or green gems (premium currency) to get anything here, so save up!

Since Beat Street is a free game, there are ads every so often and an energy system. If you're low on coins and want to get something, you can watch ads to get more. It's pretty generous with the amount of coins you get, so it's not too bad. However, if you're looking for an ad-free experience, it doesn't appear to have an option for that. All of the in-app purchases are for getting more gems, which you can also exchange for coins.

A '90s inspired beat em up that is refined for mobile with one touch controls.

The Good

Beat Street is a fun little brawler for killing some time. The game's cute pixel art aesthetic brings back memories of my youth, and the chiptunes are excellent. The controls work well for touch screens and being able to play with just one hand is another bonus. The levels are challenging to play through, and the difficulty picks up at a nice, gradual pace. Even if you go back and replay levels with new moves or characters, the variety in play styles keeps things fresh and interesting. And while the game is freemium, I don't feel pushed into buying any IAPs, and the game is fairly generous with acquiring coins. There's also an online two player co-op mode that's sure to be a blast.

The Bad

While there's a lot of good things going on in Beat Street, it does feel a bit repetitive after a while. You end up having to tap the screen furiously trying to get long combos, and it gets tiring. I also am not a fan of how there's no way to remove the ads in the game, because this should always be an option.

The verdict

Overall, Beat Street is a fun little game that is perfect for taking out the day's frustrations in. I'm taken back to my childhood with the fantastic pixel art graphics (like other Lucky Kat games), and the music and sounds are fun to listen to as you play. The controls work out well, and being able to play with just one hand is especially nice. The levels are challenging and there is plenty of stuff to unlock to keep the game fresh and interesting.

I recommend checking out Beat Street if you're in the mood for some street brawling action. You can find Beat Street on the App Store as a universal download on the iPhone and iPad for free with in-app purchases.

8.8

OVERALL

Replayability 9

Graphics 9

Gameplay 9

Game Controls 8.5

Sound/Music 8.5

Beat Street

Lucky Kat Studios

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Push Your Luck in Brave Hand, a Challenging Card Game

November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed

Brave Hand (Free) by Heart Shaped Games is a single-player card game that revolves around pushing your luck. If you enjoyed other recent card games like Flipflop Solitaire and Onirim, then you will like what Brave Hand has to offer.

When life gets crazy (and boy is it this week), I want to just sit back and play some games to take my mind off reality for a bit. Usually for me, this involves puzzle games, but I also spend a lot of time playing Solitaire-style card games. There's something about them that just helps me relax, and I put in tons of hours into playing Solitaire back in the day. When I saw Brave Hand on the App Store, I was intrigued by the style and unique gameplay, so of course I had to check it out for myself. After trying it out, I can definitely say that it's an interesting addition to anyone's card game collection.

Flipflop Solitaire

Zach Gage

Onirim - Solitaire Card Game

Asmodee Digital

The visual style in Brave Hand is beautiful, as it features what appears to be hand-drawn artwork on each card back. These drawings also represent "story pages" in the game, which are clues to the origin of the card game, and they also reveal strategy and hidden powers. The drawings all appear like paintings, and feature a wide range of colors, including vibrant shades and muted tones. The scenes are depicted in incredible amounts of detail, and there's a nice texture with the cards themselves. Animations are smooth and fluid on my iPhone 8 Plus with no issues of lag. The game has an ambient and atmospheric soundtrack, and the sound effects of the cards are realistic. Overall, the developers did a great job with Brave Hand's audio and visual design.

In Brave Hand, players have three game modes to choose from, though only the first one is available from the get-go: Brave, Boost, and Jumbo Deck. You'll have to keep playing Brave Mode until you earn enough coins to unlock more story pages, which then gives you access to Boost Mode. And with even more story pages, you can get the Jumbo Deck mode. But if you're impatient, you can unlock all game modes, remove ads, and get extra themes with a $2.99 in-app purchase.

So how do you play? Brave Hand features a standard deck of 52 playing cards, as well as an additional two Demon cards. There are eight starting piles on the board, starting from one in the first pile and going up to eight in the final pile. You're dealt seven cards in your hand, and then 11 cards remain in the deck.

In Jumbo Deck, the deck consists of 90 cards and all piles have eight cards each. Boost Mode is like Brave Mode, except you get three sets of special boost expansion cards that can be bought for some coins. These power-ups include Bomb (reveals all piles on a win), Guardian (+2 bonus point stars on cash-in), and Phoenix (transforms Pile Bonus to 2X on a win).

The goal of the game is to score points by cashing in your cards from the piles. The game ends only if you run out of cards in your hand, or all eight piles are cleared out. How do you clear out piles? On each of your turns, you'll pick any card in your hand, and then choose a pile. If your card is greater than the card in the pile (they're all face-down, but a few are revealed at the start), then you win. If you lose, you get nothing and lose your card.

You'll have two options when you have a win: Cash-In or Push. If you Cash-In, you earn points and end the run, while also getting an additional card from the deck. When you decide to Push, you can challenge the next card in the pile, but risk losing all earned points. It's a game of high risk, high reward.

While that covers the basics, there are some special rules in Brave Hand that make things more challenging. In the upper left corner is the Dice Pile, which reveals the top card of two random piles in exchange for a card. The "2" card is also known as the Scout Card, and can beat an Ace (14) card. The Demon Card has the highest value (15) and if it's scouted with the dice pile, can lead to bonus points.

While it may seem like a lot at first, Brave Hand is actually pretty straightforward once you get the basics. And with the addition of unique rules, it leads to interesting strategies to get the best score possible in a game. I'll admit that I didn't quite get it at first, but once I started to understand what was going on and the depth of strategy required, I found it hard to put down.

Once you get going in Brave Hand, you'll have a hard time putting it down as you push your luck like never before.

The Good

Brave Hand is a great gem of a card game that anyone can play. The game features gorgeous art and a distinctive style that is rather whimsical. The music is immersive and the sound effects are realistic to what you'd expect from real playing cards. While the gameplay seems simple at first, there's a lot of nuances to it, opening it up for many in-depth strategies. The core game mode reveals the basics of the game, but the additional two modes that you can unlock are almost like playing a new game. The replay value is high with Brave Hand.

The Bad

Brave Hand is a good game, but again, it does take some time to practice and understand the rules and strategies to it. And since the game is mostly based on luck, it may not be for everyone. But I can say that once you get going in this game, it can be hard to stop. You just feel like the next run will be better, and it's just fun to push your luck.

The verdict

After spending some time with Brave Hand, I must say that this is definitely a card game that I'll be coming back to in my spare time. I love the cute graphics, the sound is engaging, and the gameplay is different from other card games I've tried. While it's a free download and therefore comes with ads, I didn't find them to be too intrusive, so it's definitely tolerable. However, the game stands out from the crowd, and I'm finding it to be rather enjoyable, so I think it's worth the in-app purchase to get the full experience.

I recommend giving Brave Hand a try if you're a fan of single-player card games. You can find Brave Hand on the App Store as a universal app for your iPhone and iPad for free with in-app purchases.

9.0

OVERALL

Game Controls 10

Replayability 9

Graphics 9

Gameplay 9

Sound/Music 8

Brave Hand

Heart Shaped Games LLC

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Run Your Own Campsite in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Free) by Nintendo is a full-fledged Animal Crossing game for smartphones, and it's been met with much anticipation. Pocket Camp joins the ranks of other Nintendo games on iOS, including Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes.

Even though Animal Crossing has been around siince 2001 on the Nintendo 64, my first Animal Crossing experience wasn't until 2012's New Leaf on the Nintendo 3DS. So while I was a bit late to the Animal Crossing thing, I became hooked on it, doing what I thought would be mundane activities to make money and repay my debt to Tom Nook. I also loved playing online with my friends, visiting their villages and doing various activities together.

Then New Leaf kind of fell off for me, and I neglected my town about a year after I started. Now it's been years since I last played New Leaf, and honestly, I'm afraid to fire up the game in fear of finding out which of my beloved animal villagers has left me. But that's okay, because now there's Pocket Camp.

Super Mario Run

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Fire Emblem Heroes

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has the same AC aesthetic from previous games. This means a lush 3D rendered world that's full of bright and vibrant colors and cute animal character models. If you've played previous AC games, then you'll feel right at home. If this is your first AC experience, then you should let the low-poly style graphics work their charm on you, because it's hard to not fall in love with the AC world. All animations are smooth and there's no lag on my iPhone 8 Plus. Pocket Camp includes the adorable sound effects from previous games and the music is relaxing.

If you played previous AC games, you'll remember that you start as the mayor of a small village, and your goal is to grow and expand that town to attract new residents. Pocket Camp is different. Instead of owning a town, you're the manager of a campsite. You can choose the theme of the campsite (cute, cool, sporty, or natural) and decorate it however you want.

Various animal campers begin to set up camp in different areas of the campgrounds (riverside, island with plenty of bugs, oceanside, and even a lush grove), and your job is to meet them and fulfill their requests to build up friendship levels. By earning their trust, you'll get rewarded with Bells (AC currency) and useful crafting materials. When you get to certain friendship levels with animals, you'll earn cool things like matching clothes, rare materials and decor, and eventually their character portrait.

The requests that the campers have vary, but they're usually pretty easy to fulfill. These include collecting fruit, bugs, shells, or even fish. To get these items, you'll have to go around the campgrounds and do various activities. Once you harvest an item, like fruit from trees, you'll have to wait a while before more fruit is available (hello timers). Bugs and fish are quicker to re-spawn, as you'll find more if you just walk around a little.

If you have trouble finding specific items that animals request from you, then you may want to turn to the Market Box feature. In the Market Box, you (and others) can list items for sale. These can be seen by friends you've added and vice versa, so if you're in need of something, check what your friends have for sale.

Your character can also only carry so much, so when your bag is full, you'll need to sell items or list them. As you raise friendship levels, you'll earn experience points for your character. Once you level up, you unlock more characters, your inventory space may increase, and you unlock more items to craft.

After you reach certain friendship levels with animals, you can also invite them to your campsite, and have them stay permanently if there's space. But each animal has certain requirements that need to be fulfilled before they visit, and this includes having specific decor items available.

There's also a marketplace area on the map, where mobile versions of your favorite shops come by to sell goods. This includes the Able Sisters for clothes, Kicks for shoes and socks, and the traveling Nook 'n' Go for various decor. The vendors rotate every few hours, so you'll want to check back often for new items.

On top of everything, you roll around in a mobile camper. This serves as your home in the game, and it can be customized on the inside and outside. New to Pocket Camp is OK Motors, ran by brothers Giovanni, Beppe, and Carlo. They can do paint jobs, change your camper style, and upgrade the inside to be bigger and better! They're also this game's Tom Nook, because you'll have to do loans for these pricey upgrade jobs, and pay them back over time.

Since Pocket Camp is a free game, there are Leaf Tickets. This is the premium currency that's used to speed up crafting jobs from Cyrus and even purchase special items like throw nets (catch many fish), honey (attract many bugs), and fertilizer (grow fruit immediately). While you can buy Leaf Tickets through IAP if you're low, I found that the game is rather generous with giving you free Leaf Tickets from leveling up and completing Timed/Stretch Goals.

I've spent a good several hours playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp since it came out, and not surprisingly, I find it hard to put down. I swear I swore off of Animal Crossing since I abandoned my village in New Leaf, but just like that, Nintendo has pulled me back in to this adorable world through camping.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a watered-down version of the console franchise, but it still provides players with plenty to do and collect.

The Good

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has a lot of things to do that will keep players (new and old) invested for a while. This is a nice mobile version of the popular franchise, though it's a bit watered down from the console versions. It's easy to navigate through the campground, there's a ton of animals (including your favorites), and the one-touch controls for activities makes it easy to play this anywhere, anytime.

And despite it being a free game, Leaf Bucks are not hard to get without paying a dime. And while there are timers (like the actual games), this game is meant to be played in spurts throughout the day, whether they're minutes or hours.

The Bad

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is its own beast. If you are expecting a full-on game with free-roam and vast areas to explore and collect things, then you won't find it in Pocket Camp. Each area on the map is limited in terms of things you can do there, and it definitely feels mini-sized.

I also wish that the mobile vendors sold more than three items at once. They stay in the marketplace for several hours, so when I go back to check, it's often the same stuff (yes I play a lot). I would like to see maybe six items at a time for the clothes and socks, because I love to customize my character and have favorite accessories that I want.

The verdict

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a great mobile version of the popular simulation game. I was afraid that Nintendo may ruin Animal Crossing on iOS (Super Mario Run didn't do that great after the initial launch), but Pocket Camp is fantastic for what it is — a mobile version of a fun simulation game. It may be a watered down version of previous games, but there's still plenty to do and collect in Pocket Camp.

I've spent a good amount of time with it so far, and I'm already level 20. If I get bored, I can just launch it, check on my campsite and do some requests, gather some items, and then put it away. Or I can just keep playing it for hours if I feel like it. It's also incredibly relaxing to play, and provides me an escape from reality.

I recommend Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp if you're a fan of Animal Crossing, or just want a relaxing game filled with adorable animals. You can find Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on the App Store as a universal download for free with in-app purchases.

9.5

OVERALL

Graphics 10

Sound/Music 10

Replayability 9

Game Controls 9.5

Gameplay 9

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

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Capcom's Puzzle Fighter is Here, But Not Without Flaws

November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed

Puzzle Fighter (Free) by CAPCOM is a mobile version of the popular 1996 game, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, except this time there's more characters from other popular Capcom franchises. If you enjoyed games like Match Land and Tetris, but want a bit more Street Fighter action in your match-three games, then Puzzle Fighter is a perfect match for you.

While I'm not a huge fan of Street Fighter due to my lack of skill in the game, I've always been interested in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, though I don't have a way to own the original game. But as a big fan of matching puzzle games with battling elements in it, I couldn't resist Puzzle Fighter when I heard about it months ago. Now that it's here, I have to admit — it's kind of a mixed bag on this one.

$1.99

Street Fighter IV CE

CAPCOM Co., Ltd

Match Land

Race Cat

Visually, Puzzle Fighter has a polished look when it comes to the character models and the game pieces on the board. The game's rendered in 3D with the characters and the backdrops, and even the gems have a bit of depth to them. In Puzzle Fighter, all of the characters carry a bit of a cute and chubby appearance, which is what makes the Puzzle Fighter games stand out. It's not as serious as the regular Street Fighter games, and makes you feel a bit more relaxed, even though the matches are still intense. Puzzle Fighter features an abundance of bright and vibrant colors and lush backdrops, and animations are smooth and fluid. The soundtrack is upbeat and quirky, and the sound effects are just as you'd expect from a fighting game. Puzzle Fighter also has the voices of your favorite characters announcing their special moves, which is a nice touch.

Puzzle Fighter on mobile has two modes: Online or Missions. The game only gives you about three missions of various difficulty to do at a time, before you have to wait hours for the next one to unlock. Online pits you against other players within your skill rank, and you must beat other players to unlock better rewards. Regardless of the mode you go with, the goal remains the same: make matches and have your fighter K.O. the opponent before they get you first.

The controls in Puzzle Fighter are simple, especially if you've played games like Tetris before. The pieces in Puzzle Fighter consist of two colored blocks, sometimes with an orb that can break other like-colored blocks for matches. You drag your finger horizontally to move it to the column you want it to be in. Tapping lets you rotate the piece, and then swiping down makes it drop.

When you get four like-colored pieces together in a square formation, it creates a power-gem that you can crush with the orb to do your character's special power move. Matching enough power-gems will charge your super move meter, which unleashes a devastating attack on your foe. All matches allow your character to do a hit on the enemy, though damage dealt is dependent on how good it was.

While you can make matches with any color gem on the board, it's best to go with your character's affinity color. This dishes out the most damage and is most efficient. Again, you can still make matches of any color, but if it isn't the character's affinity, the damage will be less.

As you play and win matches, you'll earn rewards like coins and experience points. The game also features cards for characters and their special moves, so you can change the selected power move if you want to try something new. Each move can be upgraded as well to deal more damage.

Since Puzzle Fighter is a freemium game, you can expect a lot of free-to-play aspects here. There are timers galore for the free chest, and you'll need gems to get rarer chests with better prizes. There may not be an energy system, but you do have to wait a bit after winning or clearing missions for new battles. It also tends to push into pay-to-win territory, since player pairing is imbalanced.

A match three battle game featuring characters from Street Fighter, Mega Man, Okami, and more.

The Good

Puzzle Fighter is a fun and intense puzzle matching game that contains your favorite Capcom characters. It's easy to learn and the controls are nice and intuitive. There is also a lot of content to unlock, and it's a nice homage to the original game.

The Bad

While I was wanted to like this version of Puzzle Fighter, I can't help but feel disappointed at what Capcom came up with. The PvP battles are imbalanced, as I'm only level one facing off against level three people with full teams — how is that fair? I'm also disappointed with the lack of single player, because three "missions" at a time is not what I would expect for a single player campaign. Plus, single player would give players a chance to improve their characters before facing off against others, and all of that is missing in this game.

Due to the imbalanced PvP in Puzzle Fighter, the game leans heavily towards pay-to-win, and I can't find myself getting any real enjoyment from it.

The verdict

I think this is one of the bigger disappointments of the year for me. I was eagerly looking forward to Puzzle Fighter for months, as I'm a sucker for matching puzzle battle games. However, this just feels like a cash grab from Capcom and has no soul to it. Personally, it's like an empty shell to me, and that's sad. Aside from the endearing graphics, there's not much else that's good about this game.

6.7

OVERALL

Game Controls 8

Sound/Music 8

Graphics 7.5

Replayability 5

Gameplay 5

Puzzle Fighter

CAPCOM Co., Ltd

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