Bricks N Balls

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Load up the steam paddles with: Bricks N Balls

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Today is a simple and casual breakout style game. There are hundreds of clones of this very style of game on the playstore and this one is a bit of lower tier game. This game is very difficult and at times you are forced to watch optional videos to get a retry or have to spend red daimonds to do so. You also are urged to buy power-ups just to complete the levels.

If you play daily, you can earn free premium red diamonds or other power-ups. These gems are crucile if you want to finish some of the harder levels in this game. Progress can be very slow in this game and some levels can take several tries to complete.

The option menu is a nice slide out box that gives you everything you need in one place. You can log in via facebook to save your progress to the cloud.

On the main screen you can click on the bottom icon that looks like a map. Here you can replay previous levels and try to get to 3 stars. These stars are required to unlock special puzzle pieces to complete another mode of the game.

Here is a preview that you get before every level. The power-ups hidden behind the locks here will be gone over in the next screen shot. Here you can also pay 50 red gems to get a 'guide' that will help you aim for some time. This power-up does not really help much at all.

I won't spend time on these as the description is in the screenshot. These power-ups are much more expensive costing hundreds of gems to just by a single power-up.

This is the basic level. You have a limited number of balls you can use to try to break the blocks. The numbers represent how many hits that single block needs. The orange balls with the +1 gives you more balls to use on this current level. The green arrows are special in level power-ups that disappear after they are used once. The  main idea is to aim the balls to bounce around the map in the most efficient matter. This can be very challenging to complete.

After you complete a level you can see what you can unlock for completing a level with max hearts. You can win red diamond, power-ups or even special pieces (not pictured here.) 

Click on the trophie to bring up the different modes. Here you can play different variations on the base game in a randomly generated level. Here you can compete for a high score on the leaderboards.

A secondary mode is unlocked as you progress through levels as well. The road trip is access by clicking on the car. Here you are taking to levels that have the theme of different places as if you're on a road trip across the world.

Lastly is the shop menu. Some of these things are really expensive and the base level for powerups make it equivalent to a dollar per power-up. this is very expensive for the cheapest option. You can watch videos as well to earn some of the premium currency as well. 

Please leave a comment if this newer layout is easier to read on mobile devices.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this is a very middle of the road game. It has a lot of the flaws of hyper-casual games and they try to bleed money from you without offering too much value. I will give it this game is not very repetitive compared to similar but it is very challenging to complete a single level. 

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

-=Story not found=-

Amount of ads:

 

 Medium amount

There are several ads that show up in this game. You have a constant banner ad displayed on the screen all the time and you have a forced video ad after completing a level even if you watch optional power-up videos or not.

Accurate Advertising?:

15%

The screenshots on google play are completely click-bait and inaccurate. From the few videos I've seen for this game they can be a mixed bag of legit but many of them are indeed click-bait. This game does not adhere to transparent advertising.

Graphics:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This game has very basic and flat colored graphics. There is nothing special here graphically that is different from any other game like it.

Gameplay:

 2 of 5 cogs.

The gameplay is slightly better than some of the clones, but it is still very unfair and challenging. This really pull you away from the game unless you spend time watching a lot of optional videos.

Free play:

80%

For the most part, you can play this game for free but there is a lot of pressure to spend money if you wish to keep playing or make progress.

Fun factor:

😞 mostly flat gameplay.

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 on 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.

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Merge Rush Z

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Merge those weapons together to stop the zombies in: Merge Rush Z

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Today I bring you a mix of idle and semi-active game. A lot of the time you are waiting to earn enough Z coins to buy a gun. You have a limited space so you must merge the guns as soon as you can. Everytime you unlock a new gun you gain blue gems that can be used to buy power-ups or the last two highest guns from the store. Sadly if seems I lost the store screenshot. You can click on the stop watch to pay gems or watch optional videos to get a 2 times coin boost. From what I can see, the store lists only 50 levels of guns. Once you reach this I am unsure what happens. This game appears to have a possible top end limit to number of levels.

Clicking on the Prize Wheel, will bring up the daily spinner. Here you can get a few power-ups or currencies. You can also watch optional videos to gain even more bonuses.

If you connect your email address to the game you can gain 500 gems and get updates for this game.

Clicking on the calander will bring up this screen. Each day you can collect free premium gems. You can also watch a video to earn double the gems.

Each day you get very simple daily missions that seem to reset every 24 hours. These will also give you free premium gems for the game. Sadly these gems have limited uses.

When you click on fight, you are rushed by zombies. If your basic gun is upgraded enough you don't have to do anything to pass the levels. If you get over-ran with zombies you can hold down the rapid fire button and you will fire many rounds off rapidly until you run out of energy then you have to let go to recharge your energy, or use a power-up to restore it.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this game is just a start. It seems to be complete but it is very stripped down and could use a lot more to it. I would give this game a higher rating if it had more to do and see.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Fairly standard zombie story. There isn't a direct story but there is a hinting of some as you unlock and save more girls along the way. So far I only found 3 extra girls and I do not know if there are more to find.

Amount of ads:

 optional only

There are only optional videos in this game. No pop-ups to interrupt you except for a small square ad that pops up when you start the game that you can close off.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

From what I remember, this game has screen for screen recaps that do not contain any clickbait.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Chibi style art. This game really remind me of a mini-game and possibly has the same character from other Z-girl games

Gameplay:

3 of 5 cogs.

There is not much of a gameplay. Merging the guns and clicking the fire button is the only. Other than that, there is not much you can do in this game that is active.

Free play:

💯%

You can do everything in this game without paying any money at all.

Fun factor:

🧟 Zombie.

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 on 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.

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Uno

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Time to play an old-fashioned game of: Uno

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The blog is back. I have been graced with the ability to once again create blogs breaking down all the value of random games found on Google Play. I will be trying a slightly bigger font to allow mobile users to read the text easier.

After a long break I return with yet another classic game. Don't let the colors fool you, this game is one step away from gambling and has very shady practices to get people to spend money.

When you start up the game, you get a small tutorial of sorts that leads you into a game. As your progress further in the game and gain more levels, you unlock different kinds of game modes with different rules that really trips up the game. Each play takes a 'wager' of 30 coins. As you play games you can win or lose coins based on what position you land in. To get more coins you can buy them or watch video ads to earn a very small amount of the coins.

When you click on your avatar you can view the game pass. Here it shows you how many trophies you have to earn to unlock other modes or cosmetics. This game really limits what you can start with until you play the game more. 

There is a lot of cosmetic options that take a lot of work to unlock. Some of the options are locked behind season events and as far as I know you can not get them until the season event comes back around.

Here is a quick shot of the emoji/reaction menu. These will automatically play during conditions that trigger them.

A sample shot of the options. Basic things here and nothing too exciting.

Next is the a sample of frame options for your avatar.

You can also add random friends to play with. If you know the person's ID you can add it yourself and connect with your friends.

The shop menu uses these M coins as a premium currency. You can not earn these and can only buy them with real money. There is a Gotcha machine in the option menu that you can watch videos to get some free coins and possible boosts.

Here we can see the different modes. As you progress through the game you can unlock even higher levels of wages on coins. This feels like it teaches kids to gamble. If you have a child I would highly recommend you not allow them to play this game.

This is the match-making screen. You get pitted with 3 other strangers. You can also use power-ups here to get a boost of coins or to automatically call uno.

Here is one of the the powerups. New players get a small discount on buying these power-ups but in the end they are ultimately eating your coins for very little return.

Here is the main game screen. All the cards autosort for you so you can focus on the game. This is important because you have only 2 minutes to play a full round. If you do not act fast enough your turn is auto skipped. It is very hard to successfully win the game by dropping all of your cards.

Here is a quick preview of a different game mode. This one introduces wild cards that really change the game play.

Here is the over-view of the easter event menu. As you play games in the main mode you can collect eggs that allow you to play a minigame to earn some bonuses. This event is very random and not very fair.

Here is the trophy. You collect these by landing on a space with an egg and getting a very random egg from the board.

Lastly here is the board. You collect dice every day or you can buy more. Sometimes you can watch a video to get more or earn special ones.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this game is classic Uno but with a lot more gambling. This game is designed to eat away money if you wish to play this game for an extended time.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

Funny, There is no story for Uno.

Amount of ads:

  Optional

In addition to many microtransactions you can watch some optional ads to continue playing for just a little longer.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

As far as I can tell, the screenshots are accurate but they do not tell you that this is still gambling for no real prizes.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are HD and colorfor. I feel this game is a bit misleading to children and could be viewed as a very shady practice.

Gameplay:

 2 of 5 cogs.

It's not a very fun experience because you have such a limited time to play or act. The practices of this game really put me off from playing it at all.

Free play:

40%

You 'can' play for free, at least for a short span of time. This game will eat away your wallet if your plan to play it seriously. In theory if you win first place every single game it may be possible to play this game infinitely. 

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 on 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.

Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.