Aggretsuko: The short timer strikes back

 

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The steam vents release: Aggretsuko: The short timer strikes back

Today is a match 3 game based on the Netflix show called Aggretsuko. This game gives you a large insight beyond what you see on tv. As you beat several hundred levels you unlock a lot of mini-episodes in this game. Sadly every video is subtitled only. 

Starting off you don't get much to work with. You get access to a menu with a mailbox for all the rewards you receive and access to the episodes. There are two main currencies in this game, coins and a premium currency, blue diamonds. Ritsuko must renovate the new office. She has many themes she can choose from for each floor. 

When you click on Retsko's face, you enter into the main game. You can choose an employee to help you in the level if you have any. You must clear about 10 levels before the rest of the features in the game opens up.

The levels are very simple. You can only move 1 face in any cardinal direction to match them. As you match a specific colored face that works well with your employee, the employee's face starts to fill in. Once it is completed you are able to activate the employee's special ability. As the levels progress, stranger things start to block you. First is a box of files that take several matches beside them to remove them.

When you complete the level you get a screen that shows you how well you have done. You earn employee shards, coins, stars, or other various items. Stars are another form of currency of sorts that will be explained later.

This game has a lot of costly microtransactions in it. You can use premium gems to buy different things but I would recommend not to do that and save these gems for a chance to get new employees.

The next two screens are themes you can choose for each floor of the office complex. You can click on the youtube button to see a preview of what the office space looks like. 

You can unlock new themes the further on you go but each theme costs a lot to unlock. Sometimes there are limited-time themes that can be bought as well and I do knot know if you have other chances to get them again.

Once you progress you get more options that open up. You unlock quests and the ability to join a department. This is where you start building up the office. Each level gives you starts for successfully completing them with many moves remaining.

Most decorations cost 2 or 3 stars to place down. If you have a lot of stars you can turn on auto-complete to be able to build multiple items. Each floor takes a lot of stars to fill up. Once everything is decorated on the floor you can move on to a new floor. You can only choose a theme but not choose what individual items you put into the floor sadly.

You have a friends list as well. I assume that once you add friends you can send each other a heart a day. I did not know anyone that plays this game at the time of this blog so I was not able to test out this feature any.

Daily quests allow you to earn coins and sometimes gems. You can watch optional videos up to a maximum number of times a day. I think the limit was 7 videos but you had to wait 15 minutes between each one.

Along with daily quests, you have more long-term quests that net you better rewards if you manage to complete them. These quests give premium currency or employee shards.

This game has an odd system of progression. When you unlock an employee from shards or from the gatcha, you can then level up the employee. It takes a lot of levels to be able to power-up an employee's ability slightly.

Welcome to the elevator gotcha. Sometimes you get tickets that give you free draws. Without the tickets, you can draw with diamonds or coins. I would recommend saving your premium currency and use them to draw employees.

You can watch one video a day to get a mystery shard. When you get 30 mystery shards, you unlock a new random employee. As far as I can tell, you can get extremely rare employees this way.

Weekly there is a bingo board that you complete to get various rewards. These rewards can give you a good source of mystery shards.

Lastly is a fortune cookie. You have to watch optional ads to get a chance to get 1 of 4 items from a list. Each video has a 15-minute cooldown and as you level up the rewards get better.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This game is a very big nod to the Netflix show. The game has a lot of upsides but it suffers from common pay to keep playing games. It takes a lot of employees to level up one to have strong skills. Secondly, some of the levels are extremely difficult to pass and it could take you many tries just to pass a level.

Story:

 5 of 5 cogs.

There is actually a lot of stories but you have to unlock it by beating a lot of levels. There was I think 50+ videos of about 2 or 3 minutes each. These are fully animated and voiced acted scenes but it is in Japanese with subtitles. 

Amount of ads:

 None

No outside ads interrupt your gameplay. You can watch optional ads

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

Since I preregistered for this game, I was excited about it for some time. This game is a standard match 3 with no click-bait whatsoever. This game relies heavily on name brand to advertise the game.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are exactly the same as the show. It is all high-quality animations and effects. I can't say enough about it.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

I have to rate the gameplay lower. As stated above, this game suffers from many issues that most mobile games suffer from to get you to spend money. There are some slowdowns and a glitch with departments. The game is just not easy to play for long stretches when these glitches do hit.

Free play:

💯%

You can earn a lot of stuff just by playing and you don't need to pay to make a significant amount of progress.

Fun factor:

🍱 A game you can play during your lunch break, over a nice bento box.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

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Dice Merge: Matchingdom Puzzle

 

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Time to roll the dice with: Dice Merge: Matchingdom Puzzle

Today I is a very quick game called Dice Merge. It is a very simple game that is harder than it looks. You get a random combination of either a single die or a dual set like a domino. You will have to rotate the dice around to fit into any free spots.

The main playfield only has 25 spots. A die will only increase if it matching numbers are placed together. This allows you to make combos that can trigger all the way up. Once you combined 2 six dot dice they disappear from the board. There are a few powerups that you can use along the way 

In this game, there is nothing to unlock. There are 3 sets of themes you can choose from the very beginning of the game. It is nice to have everything available to choose from at the start for a change.

You unlock some bonuses for completing different achievements. The only thing you really get here is just some of the powerups that you can use in the main game.

Once a day you can spin a wheel that gives you free power-ups. I do not remember if you can watch ads that allow you to spin more.

There is a lot of microtransactions for the powerups. This doesn't feel like any tangible value at all in this game. 

Lastly there are daily challenges. I did not get a chance to try out any of these apparent mini-games. Sadly this is something you must find and experiment for yourselves when you get bored of the main dice merge.

Overall:

3 of 5 cogs.

This game doesn't have too much going for it. The concept of merging dice is nice and all but there is nothing else to it. I've featured a couple of dice merging games that offer a lot to do or some unique mechanic, where as this game is just lackluster. 

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

Sorry, roll again.

Amount of ads:

 

Many

You get a lot of ads. You have a constant bar at the bottom of the screen and you get a forced video ad between rounds.

Accurate Advertising?:

50%

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are clean and fancy. They add to the game a little but is not really enough to hold interest for very long.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Easy but very repetitive. This game seems to be fairly bug free but the concept is very limited and does not offer much variety to it. This game just falls short of something I feel I would want to continue to play.

Free play:

💯%

This game is very much easy to play without paying for it. There are no paywalls despite the very silly microtransactions in this game. I feel this game really goes for the low hanging fruit.

Fun factor:

😐 Mediocre.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media. All tips will help me financially to keep producing these reviews.

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Merge Wood Block Puzzle

 

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 stack the cargo into the Derigable on: Merge Wood Block Puzzle

Today is a very simple game that has been advertised a lot in the past couple of months. This is a game that has many clones on the market and may or may not contain the same mechanics as the others. This game is based on the merging game called 2048. 

The game is easy you click on a block to select it and then you slide it around to match it up with the same number. As you combined the number, the number is increased by 1. Over time the board fills up with more random numbers. If any blocks touch the top like Tetris, you lose the round.

Sometimes you can find a block that will give you a key to unlock new block skins. There appears to be 4 different skin thems for number blocks. You can only unlock a skin for a single block at a time. At a point you can also pay coins to unlock a random skin.

The effect tab allows you to buy new particle effects that show up when you drag around and connect blocks. Honestly these effects are very hard to notice and dont add to the experience all that well. These also cost gold coins as well to buy.

The themes tab are unlockable backgrounds that also cost gold coins. You can earn more of these coins by completing some daly challenges that I do not seem to have a screenshot of them.

The last tab which has the most expensive unlock changes the blocks to alphabets. This makes me think the highest block number is 26. I was only have to reach number 25 only once while I played this game. I have no idea what happens beyond that.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a game you can pretty much play in one sitting. It is very easy to master and the game doesn't offer too much beyond what you see.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

There is no story, except the story you tell about your progress.

Amount of ads:

 Way too many.

Many many ads. You get a bar on the bottom of the screen and then an ad after everytime you lose.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The video ads are very straight forward and do not contain any click-bait methods in them. Again there are many clones of this game on the google market.

Graphics:

5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are simple but the themes for the different blocks do look very nice. The graphics are the best part of this game.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Simple, fast and repetitive. The game works well without bugs but... it doesn't offer anything longterm for anyone to keep playing. I feel you can play this game and unlock most things in a couple sittings.

Free play:

💯%

Yup, you can play through and get everything in this game without paying for anything. There are many ads in this game that make up for that.

Fun factor:

📱 A game playable anywhere.

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Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

Throw a cog(tip using PayPal) to your blogger.