Everybody's RPG reborn

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

The conveyor belts bring: Everybody's RPG reborn

The game I brink to you today is not a free to play game. I caught this game for free for a short time sale, which will be gone when this blog publishes. The main problem is this game is like a paid version of Crush Them All.

There is a very long loading screen I found when you first start the game it downloads additional content.

You get a very annoying tutorial that has you clicking around with no context. You will be lost if you've never played this kind of game. I found the tutorial was no help to me because I have played Crush Them All.

This is the main game screen. There are many different currencies with the green diamond being a premium currency used to upgrade a LOT. Not only do you have to buy the game, you then have to pay to buy currencies that are needed to buy new heroes or increased bag size.

The quest tab is how you increase your silver. It grows as the game idles. You have the option to use diamonds to autocorrect gems.

The inventory bag has very limited space. You get weapons, armor, and a lot of upgrade materials. You have to upgrade your bag a lot or you will run out of space.

Next is the artifact tab that gives you boosts that affect your heroes or other benefits. You only get the materials from dungeon raids but at an extremely low chance.

The PvP tab has subtabs where you find dungeons and PvP arenas. You can use gold to buy more ticket slots so you can do move battles per day.

Lastly is the hero equipment tab. You can equip or upgrade items here. A +5 

Item can be upgraded to a higher rarity.

Overall:

 

2 of 5 cogs.

This game is clearly a clone of Crush Them All. There are many things you are forced to upgrade with the premium currency. You can earn some but this gave teeters heavily into pay-to-win territory. I would avoid this game and try Crush Them All instead.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

No story here. Just endless levels.

Amount of ads:

 

 None

There are no in-app ads but there is plenty for small amounts of different currencies or boosts.

Accurate Advertising?:

70%

The videos do not show you that this game is a clone. It shows you some gameplay but not very clearly.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics look great on a mobile device. Everything is so easy to see and has a high quality.

Gameplay:

 1 of 5 cogs.

I became bored with Crush Them All after it got too repetitive. There are some minor differences but nothing to hold interest or show anything new.

Free play:

50%

Nope, not very free to play friendly. If you were to play every day you could progress but never as fast as players that pay. The initial paywall to get into the game is a major deterrent?

Fun factor:

😐 Mediocre clone.

I would recommend avoiding this game. There are free alternatives for the exact same gameplay.

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My Cafe

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Throw on the brass percolator and learn about: My cafe

My cafe is a very chill game with indirect steampunk vibes. You become the owner of a new cafe and control things from the touch screen. 

You meet several different customers and learn all about them. This game has a cartoony yet realistic art style. Each one has a personality and has story connected to them.

 

There are two main currencies, gold coins, and blue diamonds. This is yet another game that uses diamonds as a premium currency, yet, I would love to see something new. I also find it strange that dollars or some form of paper money are used, maybe it's some kind of cryptocurrency? You can watch optional ads for diamonds, which appears to be only twice a day.

Further on you get more ingredients to put into coffee or tea. These must be combined by hand to learn new recipes as your star level increases. Customers teach you these things as you expand by ordering custom drinks or foods.

Clicking on the cash register brings up the shop for cafe decorations and equipment. As you level up, you get access to new machines. Each machine adds new things to sell and at a much higher profit point.

The primary way to level is by adding decorations. As you progress you can then choose themed items to buy. Themed items of the same theme net you a tip bonus. The game recommends to choose a single theme and stick with it.

You must level up fairly high to change how the outside of the cafe looks. Sometimes customers want to see a specific decoration to progress the story. 

If you click on the sign button brings you to here. A list of drinks and foods. You can learn the recipes by picking up the ingredients all into your inventory spot at the bottom left of the game. If you accidentally pick up something it is replaced with no loss. 

Lastly, achievements are the faster way to earn premium currency. You use diamonds for a LOT in this game. Mostly to buy new employee slots or spice slots. I recommend saving them up and buying spice equipment slots to fill special orders.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

This game is put together pretty well. Anyone can pick this game up and make an effective cafe. It has a nice mix of manual play and AI control. You do have to wait for machines to fill but you can play for just an hour a day and progress very nicely.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Story in a mobile game? Yes, this game has quite an extensive story. It's not anything that is blockbuster but it allows you to learn more about the characters.

Amount of ads:

 Low

There are no outside ads but there are sometimes in-game ads that try to tell you to buy stuff. There are very limited, optional ads for blue diamonds.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The ads have been completely accurate between Google play and video ads.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Crisp and cartoony art style. The art is detailed and lifelike. 

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Everything has been said already in this blog. The game is very polished and so far I've noticed no bugs or glitched.

Free play:

💯%

So far you can do everything without paying for anything. I do recommend saving all your diamonds for voice slits as these get you the most money for selling special orders.

Fun factor:

☕ freshly brewed.

This is a solid game. It's not trying too hard to drain your wallet and it's safe for any age.

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Castle Battles

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Today the steam engines bring: Castle Battled

Today is a rainbow-colored game called Castle Battles. This is an RTS that can be played in a short time.

At first, when I saw this game I thought it would be a fun and quick RTS I could play whenever I had downtime.  This game has simple mechanics but don't let the art and colors fool you.

This is a free to play game yet it contains DLC to buy the full game. There appear to be 4 different campaigns but you have access to only the Blue Meatstachios. There is a very strange comedy for this game.

This is as far as I could reach. I don't know why but level 5 is impossible for me to beat. I am no stranger to RTS games yet this level has a ramped-up difficulty curve compared to the previous levels. Even putting it on easy did not help as the enemy overruns you in a zerg rush style attack before you can build up materials.

Here is what the first campaign looks like.

This is the hexagonal field. You get a castle then you must build forts to claim new territory, very similar to how Protoss work in starcraft. You have limited reach until you build more nodes. The green hexagons are food tiles, the yellow is gold and the dark-colored ones are stone quarries used to make more castles. As you see. You can't build more castles because the distance is too far, making this level impossible to progress on. Food is supposed to help your workers in some way but this resource is never displayed. Last is gold. It takes 2 gold coins to gain one battle unit... Very slowly. Lastly, you can speed up time to 8 times when you don't want to wait to be overrun.

Overall :

 1 of 5 cogs.

This game looked promising but it was just a real let-down. I quickly got turned off to this game.

Story:

 2 of 5 cogs.

There is some story. Cheesy and nothing to be excited about.

Amount of ads:

 None.

No ads at all. Just paid DLC content.

Accurate Advertising?:

50%

The video ads are kind of accurate. They only show you a small part of the graphics and then claim it's an easy and fast RTS. 

Graphics:

 1 of 5 cogs.

Hard pass on the graphics style. There is too much going on and it can be headache-inducing.

Gameplay:

 1 of 5 cogs.

Nothing is clearly explained. You are rushed through and not given enough to learn how to use the basics.

Free play:

25%

There is only a little amount of actual free-to-play content. There is a DLC required to do anything more.

Fun factor:

😠 letdown.

 

This game was a big letdown. It had potential but fell very short.

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Puzzle & conquests

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

The steam wagons bring you: Puzzles & conquests

Originally, I was excited to try this game until I found out it uses the same base engine as Mobile Strike, and right away I ran into the same problems I've seen in Mobile Strike. 

This game still has no level limit. A full-powered account can easily destroy your city once your shield falls. Once again, this game left me with bad experiences.

This is your standard castle. After you clear the tutorial you can start building up your castle and town. Each building is capped to level 30. Each level adds more time for it to upgrade. Some skills and research tasks lower this slightly.

You gain heroes via a gotcha system. 5-star generals are the strongest. You collect more puzzle pieces to power up generals you own.

This is the first screen of the general here takes these moon gems to level them up. When you reach the level cap you may evolve them to increase the cap. Each evolution takes items you collect from gem-matching levels.

The next tab shows you all the extra puzzle pieces unlocked of a general. Using these items powers up the stats of the general.

This screen shows you what skills and bonuses the general provides you. These increase when you power up a general with puzzle pieces.

The last tab shows the skills you use during match 3 battles.

I provide a preview of the daily quests you can complete for rewards.

The match 3 maps. This is the single player campaign of the game. You beat levels to gain general pieces and evolution items.

Standard natch 3 mechanics except, you have to match gems in the same columns that line up under the enemies on top or you do no damage. You can click on a general's portrait when it's glowing to use their skill.

Overall:

 0 of 5 cogs.

This game had promise but it still has the same flaws as games like this. It is pay to win game and it is hard to progress unless you join a strong clan.

Story:

 1 of 5 cogs.

There is a small storyline tied into the single-player campaign. None much to say about the story. It is fairly short and generic.

Amount of ads:

 

None, there are no outside ads.

Accurate Advertising?:

50%

Previews only show you half the gameplay as a match-three. The ads leave out the whole building and PVP.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The game has decent graphics. They portray a nice fantasy world and the monsters are very detailed.

Gameplay:

 1 of 5 cogs.

The match 3 portion of the game feels tacked on as an afterthought to the engine of this game. This game had potential but it fails to fix the problem all games of this type suffer from. They lure in new players just to take their wallets.

Free play:

1%

You can not progress very well without paying. No real way to achieve defenses without shields to protect you. You can only gain small amounts of premium currency to rarely buy these shields.

Fun factor:

⛔ don't bother.

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