pennmom36's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.7
- Helpful Votes:358,445
- Reviews Submitted:4726
- First Review:December 10, 2012
- Most Recent Review:July 21, 2025
- Featured reviews0
Status:
Fear for Sale: Sunnyvale Story Collector's Edition
Appease terrifying ghosts before they kidnap and punish the entire city of Sunnyvale in this dark and mysterious Hidden Object game!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 3 found this review helpful
Fear For Sale: Sunnyvale Story CE
PostedJune 18, 2015
pennmom36
fromCan't I just erase the names on the list to confuse the house?
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Out of the entire Fear For Sale series, Sunnyvale is my least favorite, I just had a hard time getting into the plot. The Fear For Sale magazine has sent Emma to Sunnyvale to investigate a recent string of disappearances, what she finds is a house bent on revenge! Thirty years ago a woman named Alice was kidnapped and murdered, her husband Jean was accused of the murder and executed. This very same house that Alice and Jean lived in, is now somehow reappearing randomly around Sunnyvale, and people are being taken by the house itself! That's paranormal for sure, how do you stop a killer house?
The Hidden Object Scenes are interactive list finds, which is a step up from the last Fear For Sale which had no interactions whatsoever. There aren't a lot of them either, at least not in the demo itself. The Mini Games I did thoroughly enjoy, Swapping color coded keys two at a time with a device controlled by up and down arrows, putting stained glass puzzle pieces together, and my favorite was lighting up all 10 lights in the correct order by trial and error, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Grim Facade: Hidden Sins Collector's Edition
A masked vigilante has the town of Coldstone in a death grip!
Overall rating
4
/
5
86 of 102 found this review helpful
Judge Thee Lest Ye Be Judged
PostedJune 18, 2015
pennmom36
fromToo late again, cross that one off the list!
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
They condemned the innocent, and now they are paying for those sins with their lives. Judge thee lest ye be judged certainly applies in the small corrupt town of Coldstone. Mayor Isaac Merel has requested your services detective, the who's who of Coldstone have been dropping off like flies, fear is swirling in the streets and people are afraid of their own shadows! A strange energy source has been discovered in nearby caves that could revolutionize this tiny town forever, but there are skeletons in the closets of the city officials. Is this a case of judgement, vigilante style, if so, what have these people done, and why?
I Beta tested this game a while back, it's a good game, not a great game. The graphics are hand drawn and nicely done, which is impressive when you think about all the talent involved, but honestly I prefer computer generated graphics with sharp lines, crisp resolutions and vivid colors that pop. Some reviewers have negatively commented on the subject matter of explicit scenes involving assassinations, and that's okay, personally it doesn't bother me, I didn't think any of the scenes depicted any more violence than other games with this type of storyline. With the hand drawn graphics and overabundance of pastel colors, it isn't even realistic.
You will eventually come across a device that can read the memories of an area, things that have happened recently, with the help of the energy crystals and a quick Mini Game where you catch the memory fragments. You will also collect random coins that you find throughout the game, which comes in handy at the local street vendor. Some of the inventory items are complex items that require some type of interaction before using it such as combining that item with another inventory item. There are 24 Achievements to earn and several Collectible Masks of different origins, you can read a brief description about each mask collected in the Collectibles icon.
The Hidden Object Scenes were just okay, and I was really disappointed in the fact that the HO scenes are repeated in the same exact area. At least the second time around, the type of HOS is different, sometimes they are interactive list finds, sometimes you have to place items from the inventory bar into the scene, and there are also multiple finds such as finding 12 bats. The Mini Games are way too easy for my taste, I was able to complete each puzzle usually within less than a minute and on the first try. Swap figurines from left to right and right to left, sliding tiles along several paths until each color coded section forms a complete motif, Rotating tiles so that the 4 doves are all in the center of the board, nothing new and all are very quick games.
This Collector's Edition has 16 Collectible Masks, 24 Achievements, Movies, Music, Wallpapers, Screensavers, Concept Art, replayable Mini Games and Hidden Object Games, a built in Strategy Guide and a Bonus Chapter, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Royal Mahjong: King's Journey
Experience this fresh take on classic Mahjong. Travel across your realm, collect tiles, grow your riches and fill your treasury!
Overall rating
4
/
5
57 of 60 found this review helpful
Mahjong With A Little Kick
PostedJune 17, 2015
pennmom36
fromMore typo's
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Sometimes Mahjong get's boring, it's the same thing over and over. What I like about this game is the fact that you get to make chains of mahjong tiles, similar to solitaire games! The goal is to collect as many coins as you can, Gold and silver coins are worth the most, but chains will earn you more coins. Each mahjong tile represents a number, to make a chain you simply make consecutive matches in numerical order, (15 is the maximum chain length), you can also match the same number several times. You can choose from 9 different styles of Mahjong tiles in the settings option as well. Some of the tiles contain Crowns under them which unlocks and upgrades bonuses.
There are several bonuses that unlock as you progress and earn crowns. You have to purchase bonus slots with the coins you collect, and then choose which bonuses you want to fill those slots as they are unlocked. There is a Hint bonus which will show you a random pair of matches, an Undo bonus which allows you to undo your last move, a Multiplier bonus which multiplies the coins received by 2 for 10 consecutive moves, a Swap bonus which swaps two tiles around, an Unlock bonus which unlocks any tile, a Step Back bonus which reduces the turn counter, a Hide bonus which hides accessible tiles that have no pairs, and a Remove bonus which removes all accessible pairs. Each bonus will have a "cooldown" period of a specific amount of moves before the bonus can be used again. Enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Venture through more than fifty different meadows and defeat the enemy! Can you lead the army of mushrooms to victory?
Overall rating
5
/
5
54 of 57 found this review helpful
Growing Shrooms
PostedJune 16, 2015
pennmom36
fromGot any lettuce?
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
It took me several minutes to figure this game out, the instructions are way too vague. Once I got the hang of it, wow! There are 30 different Achievements to earn, some of which are hilarious, such as Serial Killer which is earned when you explode 5 enemy Mushrooms. In a nutshell, you begin each level with a Mushroom Commander that is already placed on the grid somewhere. You usually start out with 3 Mushroom moves as indicated on the top left of the grid board, and you select where you want to grow the next shrooms, either to the left, or right, above or below the original mushroom, you can't skip a cell or move diagonally. The goal is to move the mushrooms to each Dew Drop on the board, each Dew Drop you click upon will give you three more mushroom moves. This sounds simple, and it really is, but you will need to grow the mushrooms in a specific pattern, or risk not having enough moves to collect all of the Dew Drops. There are 3 stars placed randomly on the board as well, to collect them, you will need to grow the shrooms up to the star (s) and click on them, which does count as moves. You don't have to collect all of the stars, but if you don't collect enough, you won't be able to progress by unlocking the next level pack, and you will have to go back to those levels to earn enough stars to continue. You can replay the level as often as you want to try new strategies or different patterns. You don't have to grow the mushrooms in a continuous line, you can branch off from any mushroom grown at any time. The fun part comes into play as various rocks and obstacles are added as well as enemy shrooms, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Fear For Sale: Mystery of McInroy Manor
Emma Roberts has been tasked with writing a story about an old haunted manor. Help her explore the McInroy Estate!
Overall rating
5
/
5
5 of 6 found this review helpful
Fear For Sale: Mystery of McInroy Manor SE
PostedJune 16, 2015
pennmom36
fromNerves of steel
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The editors of the Fear For Sale magazine have paid a hefty price for exclusive rights to investigate this haunted manor. The magazine has sent their best investigative journalist, Emma Roberts, who has a ghostly encounter within minutes of her arrival! Lady Averill greets Emma at the front gates, pleading with her to rid the grounds of the evil presence that binds her and all the other spirits roaming the grounds. The first thing Emma must do, is find out what happened that fateful night nearly a century ago when police discovered Lord and Lady McInroy dead, as well as all their servants!
I've always been a huge fan of the Fear For Sale series, but for whatever reason, I overlooked this first episode, as well as the Sunnyvale, so I can't wait to find out more about the McInroy family! For an older game, the graphics are still pretty decent, which would have been over the top in it's heyday. There aren't any frills, no Morphs or Collectibles, but the storyline makes up for it. The Collector's Edition has 8 Achievements to earn, but most of them are done as percentages, for example, each HOS you complete without a hint will keep tabs such as 6/31 HOS completed without using a hint.
The Hidden Object Scenes are just simple listed items with no interactions required, some items are multiples such as 3 fish, 2 crosses etc. The scenes are dark enough to be creepy, but bright enough to make items recognizable. The Mini Games are entertaining, such as turning several tokens with different shaped connectors, to allow the electrical current to flow freely from one end to the other.
The Collector's Edition has 8 Achievements, Screensavers, Wallpapers, 31 Hidden Object Scenes, 15 Puzzles, Music, Concept Art, a built in Strategy Guide and a Bonus Chapter, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Riddles of the Past
Discover the secrets of Riverside, the abandoned town without memory. Save your love and avert the catastrophe facing the doomed town!
Overall rating
3
/
5
65 of 78 found this review helpful
Picking Up The Pieces Of The Past
PostedJune 16, 2015
pennmom36
fromEmily's memory is so bad she thought her quarterback boyfriend was a soccer player
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Hidden Object
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
Emily Hanson (ever wonder why everyone's name is Emily in these games) moved to the town of Stokesville ten years ago with no memory of her past, her name is the only memory she retained. When she comes across a torn photo from her past, she decides to return to Riverside, where the photo was taken to search for answers.
I'm not a fan of the Bubble Search type games where the areas of interest pop up several Bubbles with pictures of the items you need to find to complete the task. Once you find an item shown in the bubble, you click and drag that item to the correct bubble. It's not bad the first few times, but then it get's old and boring after a while.
The Mini Games I will admit are clever and most of them require you to figure out the solution with the clues given. The one I enjoyed the most was figuring out the numbers that were assigned to each typewriter key letter, for example, A=5, B=A-3 and so forth. My least favorite was the Cash Register puzzle where you had to enter in $10.50 by figuring out which buttons (with numbers like 36/12/9) would total that sum.
The graphics are very plain Jane but doable, the storyline had me hooked at first, but once I finally made my way into Riverside, the story did a 180 and lost my interest. The plot should have thickened at that point with a Riverside conspiracy or maybe Emily's memory loss was an experiment and the "homecoming" was part of the plan. Instead, they gave us transformers! To make the game less credible, the hint system has a cartoon hound dog with googly eyes, who simply cannot sit still. It's a no go for me.
Fear for Sale: The Mystery of McInroy Manor Collector's Edition
Emma Roberts has been tasked with writing a story about an old haunted manor. Help her explore the McInroy Estate!
Overall rating
5
/
5
23 of 25 found this review helpful
Fear For Sale: The Mystery of McInroy Manor CE
PostedJune 15, 2015
pennmom36
fromBoo!
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Emma Roberts has been sent to the haunted McInroy Manor to cover an exclusive story for the Fear For Sale Magazine. Within minutes of her arrival, the lady of the house introduces herself as Lady Averill McInroy. Yep, you guessed it, she's been dead for 80 years now! Lady Averill first met Lord McInroy after he had fallen from his horse, breaking both legs and three ribs, as she diligently and tenderly nursed him back to health. Lord and Lady McInroy were happily married for six years, until that tragic day they were found dead, along with all the servants! But that was almost a century ago, now an evil presence lurks within the Manor's grounds, a presence that binds their spirits to the afterlife.
I'm a huge fan of the Fear For Sale series, but for whatever reason, I overlooked this first episode, as well as the second, and I cannot wait to find out more about the McInroy family! For an older game, the graphics are still pretty decent, which would have been over the top in it's heyday. There aren't any frills, no Morphs or Collectibles, but the storyline makes up for it. The Collector's Edition only has 8 Achievements to earn, but most of them are done as percentages, for example, each HOS you complete without a hint will keep tabs such as 6/31 HOS completed without using a hint.
The Hidden Object Scenes are just simple listed items with no interactions required, some items are multiples such as 3 fish, 2 crosses etc. The scenes are dark enough to be creepy, but bright enough to make items recognizable. The Mini Games are entertaining, such as turning several tokens with different shaped connectors, to allow the electrical current to flow freely from one end to the other.
This Collector's Edition has 8 Achievements, Screensavers, Wallpapers, 31 Hidden Object Scenes, 15 Puzzles, Music, Concept Art, a built in Strategy Guide and a Bonus Chapter, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Deadlings
Death has trained a massive army of zombie minions! Do you have what it takes to navigate through Death's maze and complete Project Deadlings?
Overall rating
4
/
5
52 of 60 found this review helpful
Love the "Sticky Zombies!"
PostedJune 15, 2015
pennmom36
fromBWAINS!!!
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I'm always attracted to zombie themed games, and although this game has flaws, it quickly becomes addicting. You can use the Mouse controls OR the Keyboard and choose between Normal mode or Nightmare mode. The zombies hit the road running, as soon as you click on the play button, the portal door opens and off he goes, you cannot stop him or slow him down, which was a wee bit disappointing. Study the blueprints that are shown before the start of each level, because you can only see small sections at a time to the left, right or even above. This will be more challenging for some players, others like myself need a little more of a "heads up."
The basics of the game are simple, keep your zombies alive? or dead? or undead? or keep him from being killed? or re-killed? how about, keep the zombie out of harms way! There are different kinds of zombies, my favorite is the Sticky Zombie who sticks onto any surface he touches. In order to beat some levels, you need to choose between regular zombies and sticky zombies. Usually the regular zombies are used to blaze a path to the buttons which open upper levels, and of course, they must hurdle over spiky traps and jump over sawblades, and various other undeadly obstructions. Along the pathways of the game, the zombies will need to feast upon the bwains, all of them in fact, to earn a perfect score.
Dawn of the Deadlings has begun, and you'll love this game, if you are able to click quickly, and make split second decisions, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
Grim Tales: The Final Suspect
There's a corpse in your house, but who killed him?
Overall rating
5
/
5
114 of 127 found this review helpful
The Saga continues.......
PostedJune 15, 2015
pennmom36
fromWhy are there saltwater fish in the goldfish pond?
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
The Gray family has another crisis to deal with, this time it's Aunt Gray herself who seems to be in a pickle! With the discovery of a dead body in her living room, Aunt Gray calls the police, and passes out. Eventually, Anna Gray regains consciousness, but has no idea what happened, now we have a problem! Anna will have to travel back to her own past, and try to piece together clues, who is Howard Kelley. Why was Howard Kelley in her house, and most importantly, did she kill Howard Kelley, if she did, why?
Grim Tales has given us another fantabulous episode of the Gray family saga. I do prefer the Collector's Edition over this Standard Edition which has Morphing Objects and Achievements to earn. Either edition has just about any feature you can imagine, an Evidence Panel, Panoramic Scenes, Dialog Options to choose, as well as Plus Sign interactive inventory items. As always, Grim Tales has superb graphics and one of the best whodunit, time traveling, mysteries available!
The Hidden Object Scenes are mostly Silhouetted Shape finds, and they are a bit scarce, at least within the demo time. There are however, a ton of entertaining Mini games and puzzles, ranging from simple tasks, swapping tiles or clicking on gems to change colors, others are longer and slightly more complicated. My favorite was the Fishing game where you attempt to catch fish by dropping the hook upon the desired fish, but, a frog protects the fish and you must either be faster or outwit him. The goal is to score 100 points, large and slow blue fish are worth 8 points, Orange fish are worth 10 points and the small Red fish are worth 15 points.
The Collector's Edition has Concept Art, Achievements, Morphing Objects, Collectibles, Wallpapers, Music, a Secret Room, a built in Strategy Guide and a Bonus Chapter, enjoy!
I recommend this game!
FBI: Paranormal Case
Aid a young FBI agent in uncovering an incredible international plot!
Overall rating
1
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
FBI: Paranormal Case
PostedJune 14, 2015
pennmom36
fromThat's pretty important work there agent!
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Puzzle, Hidden Object, Time Management, Adventure, Match 3
Current Favorite:
Phantasmat Collector's Edition
(101)Fun Factor
1
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
1
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
1
/
5
Looking at the description and screenshots of this game, I drew a conclusion that it had potential, it definitely doesn't. This is an HdO seek and find type of game where you can zoom into any area of the screen as well as drag the entire scene. I've never been a fan of this type of game, even when zoomed in as close as you can, many of the objects are small an unrecognizable. The items aren't hidden, therefore I consider this game a seek and find game not a hidden object game. The items to look for are given a few at a time as a list find, as you find one item, the next word shows up. You can play this game in Timed mode or Standard, and I will admit, that Timed is very fast paced with an average of one minute time periods to find all items. Each scene has one item that must be clicked on to move it out of the way which exposes an item from the list, I also noticed that the item that needs moved, will have a glow to it if it's not identified right away. You get a limited amount of hints to use, but you will receive extra hints for each star you find, usually there are three in each scene, with 99 hints the maximum you can earn. There are the occasional mini games, the one I enjoyed the most was selecting the correct folders listed to match clues on the folder themselves. This may have been a great game back in the day, when HO's first came out, but the click and drag HdO system seems very archaic by today's standards.
I don't recommend this game.