sereneorchid's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.6
- Helpful Votes:6,145
- Reviews Submitted:156
- First Review:November 13, 2011
- Most Recent Review:March 4, 2021
- Featured reviews1
Status:
Gardenscapes: Mansion Makeover™
Welcome back to Gardenscapes! Turn the hall into a masterpiece!
Overall rating
4
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Artwork even nicer than original Gardenscapes
PostedMay 20, 2012
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I played the original Gardenscapes a lot, so I was looking forward to the sequel, which involves rehabbing the great hall of the mansion instead of the gardens. Graphics are beautiful, and I think a little nicer than the original Gardenscapes. The hidden objects range from easy to a little tricky. But there are hints and the clever camera and thermometer tools, which can be devilishly tricky to find. Don’t forget to keep looking for the gold coins in the scenes. Sometimes they pop up after you’ve worked a scene for awhile. While I enjoyed the game, I just didn't have as much fun decorating the great room as I did creating the intricate garden of the original game, or designing the farm in Farmscapes, also by Playrix. I'm not sure why. But this is still an enjoyable game. I'd just try before you buy.
I recommend this game!
Paranormal Agency
Use your supernatural ESP to rid the city of malevolent spooks and spirits in this eerie Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
5 of 5 found this review helpful
Interesting approach to paranormal, but not friendly to HO newbies
PostedMay 20, 2012
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I'm interested in the paranormal, so I expected to enjoy this game. The storyline tries to be intriguing, but could have used some polishing from a professional writer and someone with a better knowledge of the paranormal. The dialogue bubbles only contain 1 sentence, so there is a lot of clicking, yet you don't want to skip the storyline or the game is pointless. Hidden object scenes are visually attractive, but the "lost" objects can be small and difficult to make out because of the style of artwork. Now and again, you'll find an object on the perimeter of the screen. You are asked to find objects by name, by outline, and by category, such as "lights." But some of the objects in a category don't seem to make sense, so you end up just clicking around.
Couldn't figure out the first mini-puzzle, and there were no instructions, but luckily, it could be skipped. Then there was a "find the differences between the two pictures" puzzle, again with no instructions. So this is not really a game for a hidden objects newbie, or someone inexperienced at gaming, although if you are "intuitive," maybe you can figure it out on your own! Try it if you are interested in the paranormal, but expect it to often be "unexplainable."
To avoid imprisonment, a deal is made to retrieve an artifact in Flower of Immortality!
Overall rating
3
/
5
4 of 4 found this review helpful
Good and bad
PostedMay 3, 2012
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Nicely done graphics and animations, and I liked the storyline in general. But the dialogue needs work, and there were too many inconsequential tasks for me. The game is heavy on the adventure aspect, and light on HO scenes, which are pretty easy, anyway. I'm not very experienced at adventure games, but it was easy enough for me to figure out what to do without using too many hints. Glad I tried it, but not interested enough to explore beyond the hour trial.
As a Piggybank your goal is to become rich, of course, and to do so you will travel around the world in a balloon gathering gems.
Overall rating
2
/
5
10 of 11 found this review helpful
Cute pig, average game
PostedMarch 3, 2012
Fun Factor
2
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
You click on a gem to catch it on the pig's back, then click again to throw it back to make a match of three. It just wasn't an exciting form of matching for me, especially since the gems drop down fast, so you've got to play really fast. There are power-ups, but the power-downs were the funniest. Tried several times to play this game, but the gems drop too fast, and there's little room to maneuver on the game board to get a fair shot at playing.
I don't recommend this game.
Gobble up the entire Tasty Planet in this fun and exciting Adventure game! Grow in size and take on even more delectable items!
Overall rating
5
/
5
39 of 50 found this review helpful
Screenshots don't give good impression of game
PostedMarch 3, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
I overlooked this game when it first came out because the screenshots did not look very interesting. Well, the graphics are fun, but that's not the point of the game. The entertainment is in moving your "blob" back and forth across the screen so it can eat whatever comes it's way. And as it fuels up, it can eat larger things: candy, test tubes, lab mice, lab kitty (that gave me the creeps at first when it squealed!), rocks, turtles, dinosaurs, skeletons, whatever comes its way. It's an eating machine. And just like the saying goes, "you are what you eat," your little blob becomes a big blob and even changes color to match its last munch. This is mindless entertainment, clean, and no nastiness, as the blob eats simply by absorbing the object. I have to offer a caution: the second time I played this, I was swinging my blob around the screen pretty fast on an eating binge, and was completely surprised to get hit with dizziness. You can play without a timer, so it's not necessary to be slinging your blob around at warp speed; it just gets to be so darned addictive.
I recommend this game!
Match objects, colors, and quantities while enjoying tranquil music and delicate paintings.
Overall rating
5
/
5
12 of 14 found this review helpful
My Zen moment
PostedMarch 3, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
This game seems simple, yet can be surprisingly challenging. You place tiles in horizontal or vertical rows by matching either color or item, and while you can get in a Zen groove doing that, you've also got to keep moving, as the squares that you've turned to coins will revert back to plain squares if you dawdle too long. The music is outstanding and so very peaceful. (Generally I turn the music off on games because it's usually annoying and repetitious, so this is a nice change for me.) Love the quotations from Lao Tsu, which remind me of what's important in life. Graphics are pleasant but not outstanding, but I think that adds to the gentle, meditative quality of the game.
I recommend this game!
Help Serena save the Kingdom of Rosefal and keep the dreaded Prophecy from happening in The Lost Kingdom Prophecy!
Overall rating
3
/
5
66 of 78 found this review helpful
It was okay
PostedMarch 2, 2012
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Not great, not awful. It was okay. Didn't care much for the matching icons. They are kind of dark, and the whole board is kind of dark. Not something I wanted to look at for a long period of time. It also seemed to take forever to accomplish anything, so the storyline got lost. I couldn't force myself to stick with it for the whole hour, so maybe that makes a difference.
Save the world from weird bubble creatures in Bubble Bonanza! Use your Marble Popping skills to blow up the invaders!
Overall rating
3
/
5
50 of 55 found this review helpful
Too hard for me
PostedMarch 2, 2012
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I like a good bubble-shooting game, but I like to have a fair shot at it, too (pun unintended). Although I went with the untimed option, the bubbles still drop down the screen very quickly. On top of that, the cannon sometimes has a momentary lag in movement that can quickly cost you a level. Graphics and animations are very entertaining, but geez, give me a chance at playing the game.
Spring is in the air! Journey through the beautiful Spring countryside with the Easter Bunny in this adorable Match 3 game!
Overall rating
5
/
5
110 of 128 found this review helpful
Sweet matching game
PostedMarch 2, 2012
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
This is a cheerful, spring-themed matching game with graphics that are probably targeted towards preschool and elementary kids. As an adult, I still enjoyed the chicks, bunnies, Easter baskets, birds nests, and spring flowers that still remind me of how exciting spring seemed when I was a kid. (I still like spring.) Definitely a great game for kids, and some adults, like me, are going to enjoy it, too. Power-ups are clever and entertaining, like the four-leaf clover that explodes in four directions. You also have a choice of using the various backgrounds as wallpaper. This would be a good game to teach someone how to use a mouse or how to play a computer game.
I recommend this game!
Dash across the galaxy to save Easter from the latest chicken threat in Chicken Invaders 3 – Revenge of the Yolk Easter Edition!
Overall rating
4
/
5
48 of 61 found this review helpful
Never enough lifetimes
PostedMarch 2, 2012
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
The one thing that has kept me from purchasing the Chicken games is their insistence that once you lose your 5 lives, you have to start over at the beginning. Why? There's only so many times you want to play the same levels over and over. So there goes a ratings star. You start the game by giving the Easter bunny a hotfoot, and there are additional Easter touches throughout, like an "asteroid" belt of Easter baskets. But actually I was disappointed that the flying chickens weren't "laying" colored eggs, just all green ones.
If you haven't played a Chicken game, it's a spaceship shooting game, and your opponents are space chickens. It's a funny premise and storyline, with outstanding graphics. However, the instructions are "yolk-free," so I'll help you out. Avoid the falling eggs, as they'll take a life off of you, and not due to cholesterol. As you blast chickens, fried chicken legs, roasted chickens, and chicken burgers will fall from the sky. Be sure to run your space ship over as many of them as possible for points. Also do the same for falling packages and power-ups, which will increase your firepower. I got hung up three times by the same Unidentified Flying Chicken spaceship with megawatt power, and couldn't face the frying pan from the beginning again. Developers, give all of us a fighting chance, and offer various safe levels to continue the game from instead of restarting at level 1. Not everyone has the time or patience to replay the same levels multiple times. But if you choose to keep trying, I discovered that you can use the space bar to space through the intro story. Also, I find the mouse 100x easier to use than the keyboard for maneuvering the ship and aiming the laser. Happy chicken burgers!
I recommend this game!