Merge Dungeon

 

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Merge the cogs together into a machine and take it into:  Merge Dungeon

 

Today we have a post-apocalyptic merging game that has mostly idle mechanics with a lot of active merging. This is a very interesting RPG that uses merge mechanics as a form of equipment upgrades. Each equipment has sever different levels of rarity similar to Borderlands. There are two main currencies, gold which is used to buy equipment or upgrade storage space. The second is a premium currency that is used to upgrade everything else. You can earn a lot by playing or watching videos quite often.

If you look in the Shop tab, (the Treasure chest icon on the bottom), you can move to the last place option and watch several videos to gain boosts that slowly decay over time. It says that it decays 10 points every 3 minutes but this seems to be a typo as you only lose 1 point every 3 minutes.

If you click on the cardinal rose at the bottom of the page you can see the level select screen. If you clear an area with different challenges you gain purple diamonds which is the premium currency and is used to upgrade a lot of different kind of things needed to progress.

Here is where you will spend most of your time. When you click on the middle button you force a new item. it takes mana, the blue circle on the right. You can merge the same item to create the next tier up item which tends to be the next armor piece along the hp bar. You have not only 1 character but 3 you have to try leveling up evenly by merging and getting them good equipment. The merging can be tedious and max rarity items automatically lock so they don't accidentally get merged. Even if you merge two separate items that are max rarity the next item's rarity is completely random. Note, each of the characters share the same inventory limit so this makes it very hard to focus on all 3 until you expand that stat.

If you click on the gem on the merge board, you come to this screen. Here you collect and merge gems similar to that of Diablo games. Along the way you find a dwarf that can put the gems into an item, upgrade the items further or reset the item.

Here, back to the compass button you can also go to special dungeons twice a day to collect special powder used to upgrade each character abilities individually.

Here is the sample of the micro-transactions You get a fair amount of premium currency for the price but it will not buy you many upgrades at all.

You click on the anvil and it shows you every item you've found so far from merging. As you collect higher tier items, you gain permanent boost to that character. Also note, across the top of the screen you also gain many small missions that give you a boost of gold or items. These seem to be very random and not a source of premium diamonds.

If you click on the book to find all the big power upgrades. This menu is where you go to get the biggest boosts to progress you game. Here is where you will spend all your hard earned premium currency.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

 

 

This game has a lot of interesting mechanics with how merging works. Every so often you get a rank updated based on how far you have traveled across the map. Number of deaths do not seem to deter your placement on the list, only the floor number you reach.

Story:

0 of 5 cogs.

 

 

Zero, none at all.

Amount of ads:

 none, all optional.

 

 

 

 

 

Every ad is an optional and could potentially be avoided to play this game without issue as you can play offline as well.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The ads and screenshots on google play store hide nothing and are not click-bait. This is a straight forward game.

Graphics:

5 of 5 cogs.

 

 

 

HUD elements remind me of Diablo 2. The rest of the graphics have a slight cartoony aspect that takes big influence from the 80s.

Gameplay:

5 of 5 cogs.

 

 

 

This is a very simple and easy game. Merge and merge and merge, then buy upgrades. I was able to quickly rise up on the server I played on as it seems many people may get bored with this game very quickly. It's easy to pick up and play for as long as you want.

Free play:

💯%

This game is very generous and you can easily play just by watching optional ads all day.

Fun factor:

💎 Purple Diamonds are for Merging.

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Mahjong City Tour

 

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Today the antique gears make: Mahjong City Tour

Today is a classic Mahjong Solitaire game. This game does suffer a bit of the same pay-to-play setup as the last game, yet this game does provide you a way to gain more coins than last week. This game is a little fairer in that respect and you can watch extra ads every so often to earn coins. 

Here you get a pretty standard map like every mobile game standard. Each level has 3 stars you can obtain and you must also farm some items that randomly drop after you beat a level to unlock the next set of levels. This is an artificial slowdown that forces you to replay several levels over again. You can view these under the Ticket button. You can also gain gifts and unlock special in-game visual locations for completing many levels with a max of 3 stars.

There is only one currency here and it's gold coins. You also have a set of lives that refill over time. The lives do not take too long to regenerate them. 

The first major button on the bottom of the screen is the shop screen. There are many options here to choose from but the basic shuffle upgrade cost 150 coins which is $2 USD and I feel that is way too expensive.

The second button on the bottom is the events tab. Here you have daily tasks that earn you coins or power-ups. You also have a daily spin as well. It says each objective resets at 3 am.

The fourth tab contains a club menu. Here you can join a club and get hearts to continue playing for longer. There appear to be club-only events as well.

The last button contains the global leader tab. It shows you who has the most stars of all the levels. You can sort it based on local country or world.

You can travel to other areas when you click on the airplane on the map screen. It shows you all the stars you've collected along with the special locations you unlock.

As you play along there are a few objectives that show up as well. Sometimes you have to free bears or only match golden tiles. Sometimes pieces will be 'wrapped' and you must remove all tiles around them to free them. So far this game only has rare super hard levels, unlike the previous blog post where hard levels are around every 5 or 10 levels. Along the bottom, there are several power-ups. The flashlight will highlight tiles that are considered 'free' by Mahjong Solitaire rules.

When you click on a level you get the goal overview and then you can select some power-ups to use. You also see the collectible trinkets needed to unlock new levels.

Each day you can play special levels to unlock alternate tilesets. You get 3 random ones a day and you can spend coins to unlock it sooner. Some sets may be easier or harder to match some tiles.

Lastly, as you can see, you have to earn a lot of points to unlock other tiles. Most of these seem to be locked behind holiday events.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Over all the game is classic Mahjong Solitaire. I have been a fan of mahjong for such a long time and I even own a physical set of tiles. Mahjong can be a very relaxing game to play but I have had several connectivity issues with this game. Normally the game will still let you play but the screen stays dimmed until you choose a level.

Story:

 1 of 5 cogs.

No direct story at all. You have an indirect story that is told visually thought the levels. No deep or filling story to find here.

Amount of ads:

 Many

You get shown many ads after every level win or fail. You can also watch bonus ads to gain coins or power-ups every so often.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

No click bait here. Just straight forward Mahjong action.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Professional and crisp graphics for tiles. The HUD and other assets are cartoony and kind of follow the paper art style.

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Basic Mahjong Solitare, not much more to say about it. It's easy for anyone that can match images to play. Those with poor eye-sight may have trouble with this one.

Free play:

💯%

Mostly free to play. There is a small amount of skill needed to pay attention to how some tiles are arranged or you can easily lock yourself out of a win. The concept of Mahjong Solitare is pretty standard now and have been around as far as I know since the 80s.

Fun factor:

🈸 Mahjong.

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Traffic Puzzle: Match 3 & car puzzle game

 

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers! (The following link is for the Android version of the game.)

Help the trains reach the station in: Traffic Puzzle: Match 3 & car puzzle game

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Today I bring you a short blog about a game that combines match 3 with a very old game concept. You have a parking lot full of cars and you have to move them around until all the cars can exit. Every 20 levels or so a new mechanic is added to the game to make it more complicated.

Every couple of days there is some kind of event that draws people into playing. Some of them give some nice bonuses.

The main map is an endless vertical scrolling map. You have to beat the last level in the section to get a key to progress on. Every so often there are super hard levels designed to make you burn through lives or powerups. This game follows a lot of what Candy Crush does and unless you get very lucky some levels are very impossible to beat without power-ups. I made it to level 128 then I could not progress anymore as it was impossible to get more coins to buy power-ups.

You have very basic options here, sound and music. Nothing exciting here to find.

There are many packages to buy power-ups and coins. Some of these packs get very expensive as the cheapest power-up is 25 gold coins. Which is over $4 USD, which is very expensive and not a good value at all.

Each level has a max of three stars and you have a simple image that tells you the objective of the level. You will run into the same kind of objectives as you play through and some of the hazard levels are thankfully rare.

Here is an example of the game field. You have to pay attention to the direction to which color of cars are matching and which direction cars are facing. If you clear a car by matching it, the other cars can drive out of the way and off the map even if you do not intend them to yet. There's a lot of thinking and planning that has to be put into the game. There are 4 power-ups. The van changes colors to match a car it connects with. The clown car will clear the car in front of it and to each side, This will not repair broken cars in later levels. The police car can remove cars in a straight line. Lastly, the rarest power-up is the tow truck that will remove all cars of the same color. As far as I've played I never got this power-up for free at all.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The game is a very unique take on the parking lot puzzle and match 3. I would love to rank this higher but this game suffers from the same problem Candy Crush. There are too many artificial difficulties that are added in the game to try to goad people into paying for money. This game is semi-pay-to-win and at the end of the day, it just leaves me feeling a bit swindled. 

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

None. Zero.

Amount of ads:

 

many

After level 10 you are forcefully shown a video after every completed level, and that really slows down your progression. Sometimes you can watch a video to earn extra moves on a level. 

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The ads are not click-bate and are the most genuine thing in this game.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are professional and high quality with a chibi style to them.

Gameplay:

4 of 5 cogs.

The game engine is unique and combines two different elements into one in a unique way. There also appear to be several clones of this game as well that may or may not have the same mechanics.

Free play:

50%

You could potentially play this game for free if you become very lucky to beat the harder levels. This game does a lot of under-handed sleight of hand to try to get you to spend money.

Fun factor:

🚗 "I like to move it!"

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Match Tile 3D

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Today the mechanical Tunnel Rats bring you: Match Tile 3d

Today's game is a very fast and simple one. There is no title screen for this game and it goes straight into it. This will be a short and sweet blog today. So strap in for the short flight.

The first button at the bottom brings up a lot of microtransactions that are very expensive. You also have only one currency in this game. These coins are only uses to buy temporary one-use power-ups.

The second tab will change once when you join a team. You can request lives once a day if you run out.

The frouth tab is the team tab. This is where you go to join a team to get bonuses or refill hearts.

According to the leaderboard, there are thousands of levels. I don't know how long this game will keep your attention but it is very fast and easy game that anyone can play.

The game starts off with just a hand full of items. You have to match 3 items at a time and you have a limited number spaces. You can have three sets of 2 matches and anytime you can match the third to clear it. If the bar fills up fully you will lose the round and a life. It follows pretty standard hyper-casual mobile games. Sometimes you have to dig out the times by matching stuff on top or using a power-up.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a game for all ages and a great time to relax. The game will become more complex and a lot of the items have similar colors or shapes. As you keep playing you unlock chests that give you coins for power-ups.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

None.

Amount of ads:

 Too many.

There are many ads. There is a banner ad that always displays at the bottom of the screen. Also everytime you complete a level you get a forced video ad.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The videos show a simulated hand selecting items at random and not trying to make any matches. As for the google play store, the screenshots matches the game.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are simple and cartoony 3D objects. Each object has a gravity physics attached to them and they jumble around as you pick them up.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a very simple and repetitive game. Most people may get bored of this game unless they are dedicated to climbing the leader board.

Free play:

💯%

This game is very feasible to play for free if you are skilled enough. There are many ads that do deter from the play experience.

Fun factor:

😐 Average.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can follow by email or via follow on desktop websites. f you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

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