I'm still waiting for the sequel to Rescue Team 3 and the adventures of John, Hector and Margot. This isn't it. The graphics are back to the old style, and as in Rescue Team 4 there's no story and you can't put the rescued people to work in the buildings, which gave Rescue Team 3 an added aspect of strategy. I already have Rescue Teams 1-4 and I see nothing new in 5 that would make me want to buy this. Even the music and sound effects are exactly the same. If you haven't played a Rescue Team game before and you like Time Management, give it a try, the demo will tell you whether you'll enjoy it.
I have bought some of the previous Clutter games and you would think that the novelty might have worn off by now, but it really is addictive. As well as standard clutter games where you match objects in a pile of clutter, the box quotes have returned (which I love) and also the sliders where you get to slide broken-up pieces of a picture until it all comes together. And as usual the game developer Joe has his say. (I can't help wondering whether this guy is a hit at dinner parties or not.) There is also a game where you have to match objects as they fall down a tube; when the tube is completely cluttered up you're done. The only object is to beat your own high score, but it's more addictive fun. My few criticisms are: I always turn the timer off when playing Clutter. Normally I like a timer in games, but the time allowed in Clutter is just too short for me to find it relaxing. I dislike the "insanity" levels of Sliders. I no longer have, if indeed I ever did, the fine motor control necessary to complete these. I also don't see the point of endless variations of a striped piece of cloth in Slider games. I still can't make out what some of the items are. What is that shiny thing with the spout in the classic Clutter, a bedpan? Ewww. I miss Clutter Eggstreme!!!! I loved matching those eggs and watching for the new ones to appear. I don't like the jigsaw picture puzzles. Too much clicking and dragging involved, I find it too hard on the arms and wrists. That said, there's plenty of Clutter to be going on with and I absolutely feel as though I am getting my money's worth. The music is nicely varied, I must admit I like the Debussy the best. One more thing I really like about it: when you exit a Clutter game, you just exit. No messing about and pressing eight different buttons. I really appreciate that, because when I want to exit a game, I just want to exit, not go to three different screens and be asked if I reeeeally want to exit.
Another Monument Builders style game, this time with a Western theme. I lasted fifteen minutes of the demo. Here is what I didn't like: I'm getting really tired of hearing the same voiceovers in these games. Can't the developers come up with some new ones? The pictures of the resources are tiny. It took me a while to work out that the formless grey blob was stone. The tutorial pops up and obscures your screen and I couldn't work out how to get rid of it. Nor could I understand it half the time. I'm not familiar with Lucky Luke or the infamous Dalton brothers, are they some sort of historical figures? Literary figure? What's with the dog with the weird name? (Again, it took me a while to figure out that LL was referring to the dog, so some info on this would have been useful.) The "interesting facts" which are usually good in the MB games, mainly just drones on with the most boring details you can imagine about building a railway. In one level LL gibbered something about the dog then a large red arrow kept pointing to a yellow thing behind a rock. I never was able to work out what to do with this large red arrow, I clicked here there and everywhere to no avail. One of the earlier levels required me to build a bank then fix all the holes in the road. I didn't have enough formless grey blobs - er, stone. In the end I had to destroy the bank to get the stone and then I was able to order more. Why couldn't I just order more without destroying the bank, since I had to rebuild it? Doesn't make sense. The screen is just annoyingly messy and confusing, with or without the stupidly enormous pop-up tutorial. What I liked about it: The resources accumulate even if you don't collect them straight away. (A good thing as half the time you CAN'T because LL's tutorial head is in the way), and you don't have to click on them, just mouseover. Right, that's it. I didn't like anything else about it, it's a mess.
There is nothing new about this game, and not much to like about it. Gameplay is cumbersome: customers give their order, you click on the gardener and select the type of flower they want, then give it to the customer and pick up the money. You can't put in more than one order at a time, which really annoyed me. Graphics are OK, but I don't like characters with enormous starey eyes. I was bored after fifteen minutes and gave up playing.
...when I wasted a game credit on this game? Honestly, I cannot see the fun in having a guy wander through the fog for ages looking for an oasis. There's no strategy involved there, just make him wander hither and thither until you get the the point where you can actually start doing something mildly interesting. I bought the game, played on for a while then lost patience. Have game developers forgotten that we play games to have fun?
The aim of this game is to cut away shelves so that the greedy fat cat Dr Meow lands in the cookie jar. The music and the graphics are adorable. The tutorial - non-existent other than a couple of diagrams. It took me ten minutes to work out how to play (hint: draw a line with your mouse where you want to cut the shelf, or rope). There are powerups but it took me a few levels to acquire them. I've only given it three stars because I don't happen to enjoy these kinds of puzzle games, but at least it wasn't another Hidden Object. A few minutes game play will tell you whether or not you'll enjoy it.
This is a good game, but if you've played MB Cathedral Rising it's pretty much the same game except you're building the Big Ben clock tower instead of the Cologne Cathedral. You have to clear debris, chop wood, collect clues, bash thieves and build production buildings. Cathedral Rising had a lot of side information about the brothers Grimm which was really interesting, but this game appears to focus on a mythical serial killer called Pete the Strangler, which I could have done without. It's not different enough for me to purchase, but if you're hanging out for a good TM (and which of us non-HO players isn't!) and you don't already have Cathedral Rising, you could do worse than take a look.
I do not find this game in the least bit fun, and I have enjoyed pipe laying games in the past. It starts out with an easy tutorial level, then level 2 they double the degree of difficulty. Level three the degree of difficulty is cubed. There are hardly ever any pipes that fit where you want to go without bits sticking out in strange places. Where is the logic in laying pipes with an incredible number of dead ends? I find it strangely disturbing and unsatisfying, and I'm not interested in going to level 4. Nice to see the plumber depicted as a female, but I'm pretty sure she'd have to tie back those cascading blonde ringlets before going to work, and does she really need to be quite so - well, pneumatic?
This type of game has been done to death; I don't know why so many fishies like it. It's nothing new and the artwork is AWFUL, it looks like a lot of drawings done by a thirteen-year-old. There isn't much challenge, unless it gets better after the demo ends. Without upgrades Jasmine takes forever to move around the shop, which makes it boring, and it's also repetitive. Agree with the reviewer who said "rinse, wash, repeat".
I know, I'm reviewing this game years after it came out. It's still my all-time favourite game and I wish they would make a sequel. The goals differ from level to level and so do the characters, so it doesn't get boring. The dialogue in the cut scenes is hilarious. You have to manage the team of office workers, allocate tasks and balance their workload, quirks, likes and dislikes. Some like air-conditioning on, some don't. Some get angry when one guy stinks out the office with his stroganoff in the microwave. Some have a meltdown over too much work, or their colleagues spending too much time at the water cooler. Just like a real office! It does get really hard and frenetic at the end, but the goals are achievable.