Merge Gardens

 

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Find the land of merging at: Merge Gardens

Today I bring you another merge game that falls into the same trap as others do, and gives you very little space and way too many items you have to merge. This one also has a match-3 mini-game that feels a bit tacked on and doesn't even match the theme of the game in any way. The game is similar to Merge dragons or Merge Magic. You combined 3+ of the same item to get the next stage up. You then have to collect and merge, in this case, nectar, to expand the areas around you. There are at least 3 plots of land you have to buy with real money that cost around $20 USD per plot.

You can click on the book to see all the items you have merged already and get rewards for each new stage you complete. 

When you click on the egg you can see all the animals you've collected from eggs. You can mearge 3 or 5 from this screen even though their eggs do take up space on the board.

Next up is all the mini-shop tabs. This tab uses purple gems to buy rare items with the premium currency. This game offers a fair amount of these gems as rewards for doing the match-3 minigame or other events along the way.

The second shop tab is where you can buy animal eggs. Some are easy to buy with coins but the others require more of the premium currency. You have to collect stars from completing the missions that show up along the left of the screen, just to unlock more options to buy.

The next tab is where you will access most of your building items. Here is where you build all your resource generation buildings. They get exponentially more expensive as you buy them.

This last tab is used for all the direct loot crates in the game. You literally do not get anything of worth in these boxes and you can find chests when your animals gather from trees.

This last tab is the real money shop. You can buy a range of things that doesn't give you much value.

When you click on the green play button you access the mini-game. This screen gives you an over-view of what you have to accomplish.

The mini-game is a basic match-3 game where the pieces look like plastic toys. As you progress on you can unlock power-ups to help you clear the board or earn objectives.

Here is a quick shot of the option menues. You can connect your game to facebook here to save all your progress incase you lose your phone.

Lastly, this is an example of one of the quests you have to complete to get stars.

 

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This game has a common engine that many of these games use. This games doesn't offer anything unique to a merge type game. It uses a lot of under-handed things to try to get you to spend money. Loot crates being one of the biggest.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

There is really no story at all in this game. The event area's may have a very small intro of a story but this game doesn't have any direct story you learn about aside from the little clips in the item encyclopedia.

Amount of ads:

 

 None

There are no ads in this game at all that I can remember. There are no optional ads either.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

From what I remember of the video ads, there are no click-bait tactics here. All of the screenhots in the store are accurate as well.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

I like the art for the animals in this game but the art for the humans I do not like at all. The art for the match-3 is 'clean' but it makes to sense in this game and doesn't match the theme of this game. The art is kind of all over in this game.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The game is an average merge game with poor choice in tactics to earn money. This game feels scummy to play as you have such a limited amount of room and the game quickly throws things in that will eat up your space because it takes a very long time to merge them with other things.

Free play:

60%

You can kind of play the game for free but you run into many issues and hassles that you have to work around if you wish to play this game for free.

Fun factor:

😒 poor copy-cat.

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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Bricks N Balls

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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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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Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.

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.

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

Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.