Bricks N Balls

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Want to be updated when the next blog goes live? Join my newsletter at: https://tinyletter.com/Hakuzo

Load up the steam paddles with: Bricks N Balls

.

.

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.

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

Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.

Hero Tower Wars

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Want to be updated when the next blog goes live? Join my newsletter at: https://tinyletter.com/Hakuzo

Today we build up the steam stacks with: Hero Tower Wars

Today I will have a nice short game that is based on all the clickbait ads you see everywhere. I enjoy looking up and finding these meme games that all of these ads use to get you to download something.

This is the basic game screen. You start in a tower and you have to grab weapons and kill enemies by having the larger number. 90% of the game is easy, but there are some rare levels that you must have to retry.

From the main screen, you click on the castle button to come to this arbitrary build mode that doesn't do anything except give you an achievement. These buildings do not produce gold or do anything at all. I do not understand what they do for the game.

When you click on the hammer, you open the build menu. Each building has 5 stages of progress, each becoming more elaborate as you add more coins in. 

The map button opens this menu that allows you to travel to a new location, but only after you reach a very inane number for the levels you complete. I can not fathom there is 20,000 levels in this game or more and I feel that it gets boring very rapidly. I made it to level 200 before I started to loose interest in the very repetitive game.

You can find the leaderboard by clicking on the trophy on the main screen. Here shows you how far you have progressed in the game compared to others. The first place is insanely high and seems like a fake account.

Clicking on the middle top button that looks like a calendar, maybe, you arrive at the daily rewards. You can watch a video to double the coins you get. For the first 15 days, you can unlock 2 skins for free. Other than that the coins you earn are only used to build or unlock skins.

There are many skins you can unlock for free without paying coins. When you complete 10 levels you can watch a video to unlock a skin for free. There is just a couple that are not unlocked this way and must be done other ways. One skin can only be unlocked if you get lucky enough to land it on the spinning wheel.

Clicking on the quests button brings you to this mission screen. You have several different missions that change every day. You have to complete 10 of them to get an achievement to unlock one of the skins. I did not grab a screencap of the achievements, but if you complete all of them you can unlock upto 3 skins for free.

A part of the game that looks to be incomblete is the the library button. This only seems to list upto 200 level worth of items and then it cuts off. I do not know if this was because the developer could not finish it in time. This book shows you everything you run into and gives a short description of each one, giving you just a hint of story to the game.

Lastly, the shop. You  can buy coins, unlock all skins or remove ads. Most of thesse options are very low cost and it makes it easier for anyone to buy these things. 

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Overall, the game is a meme based on the clickbait ads that you seem many times over. The game gets very repetitive and its mostly a game for a laugh.

Story:

 2 of 5 cogs.

There isn't much of a story but at least they tried to give it one. That gives them some points of credit.

Amount of ads:

 

 many

There are many ads that you must endure inbetween every level. Plus there are optional ads to unlock every skin. You can sometimes bypass these ads by clicking on the home screen before tapping the screen to go to a new level.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

For a game that is based on clickbait, the game its self isn't. The screenshots in google play show you exactly what you get. The game is a real tower game.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are interesting for this kind of game. It still has the feel of a Flash game but there are many easter egg skins for you to unlock.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

It can be repetitive and there isn't much in the game to break up from the main game loop. 

Free play:

💯%

It's easy to unlock most everything for free just by playing the game. You have to watch a few ads to unlock many skins but its a game that you can play easily anywhere.

Fun factor:

🏰 Grow your tower.

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.

Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.

Solitaire Dragons

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Burt Price has not contacted me for winnings. If I do not hear back by the end of Monday, January 31, A new winner will be picked. Cash app is temporarily off the table due to a bank connectivity error. Paypal is the only way to win at this moment.

Want to be updated when the next blog goes live? Join my newsletter at: https://tinyletter.com/Hakuzo

The airships have found rare dragons eggs in: Solitaire Dragons

Today I bring you a very fast and simple game. I won't take too much time to go over things as Solitaire is a pretty standard card game that most people know how to play.

A quick reminder of how the game works is a goal of moving all the cards into 4 separate piles of all matching suit. You move cards around the board by moving an opposite color but lower notation card ontop of the higher card. You can only place cards in descending order and you can never put a higher level card next. You can also double tap a card and it will move it from where ever it is to an 'legal' move be it to the ace pile or to a play stack. Once you have the board solved, all cards automatically move to the ace piles for you.

You unlock gold coins for beating levels. As far as I can tell you can only win 10 coins per game you win. Sometimes you can't win a solitaire game and have to replay from the start.

You get to ollect many random presents for playing daily. When you get a coin day, you have a chance to watch a video to gain a boost to your coins.

As you progress along and grow levels you get access to dragon eggs. Each one costs coins to buy and then takes time to hatch. As far as I can tell these are just small little pets thast get added to the game that doesn't really change anything for the game except have animations of a pet dragon as you play.

You can only hatch one egg at a time at the start of the game. You can pay coins to buy new slots to expand the number of eggs you can have hatching at one time.

Lastly you can buy coins if you really want that rarer dragon but you still have to play a lot to be able to unlock them all anyways.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Overall this game is average in every way. It doesn't have any flaws or glitches that I've found but it doesn't really do anything more for Solitaire except for adding an on screen kind of pet. 

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

Nope, no story at all unless you look up the history of the person that created Solitaire.

Amount of ads:

 

 many

After you get past level 5 you start to get a video everytime after you complete a playthrough. To avoid this you can play with airplane mode on.

Accurate Advertising?:

80%

This game is one that has been shown a lot the past few days again. The ads for this game does try to hype up the dragons and act like they help you in a game. They literally do nothing special.

Graphics:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are average quality art that could possibly be found in any asset library. There isn't anything that sets the graphics apart or make them memeroable. 

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This is a solid game that will keep most people that play solitaire happy for some time. It is the same classic version of the card game you can find anywhere. The ads can become annoying sometimes as well but as I've recommended before you can play in airplane mode.

Free play:

💯%

You can play as much as you want for as long as you want. There is no energy or other things that make you stop playing every few seconds. This is a game you can play stress free when you have any spare time.

Fun factor:

😐 average.

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.

Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.