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.

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Sliding Sea

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Load up the steamboats with refugees from: Sliding Seas

In this game, you are a survivor of a cruise ship that sinks. You become the mayor of this island and it is your job to build up the island and rescue other survivors. As you rescue others, the island slowly builds and grows. You can have survivors build other buildings to help everyone survive. Some levels allow you to retrieve lost items from the sunk ship and these allow you to change the scenery of the island. There is only 1 currency in this game and it is a premium currency. You can sometimes gain these blue diamonds from bonus crates that float in the water.

The Options menu gives you the ability to could save and find some hints. You can view other important information here if you choose to.

In the shop, you can watch a video every day to earn some free diamonds. Here you can buy a few different packs that give you power-ups and diamonds. You can spend diamonds to buy more powerups or retry a level. The last use is to refill your hearts as well.

You can click on one of the buildings you have to pay diamonds to change it to another type and you can see which VIP runs the building. VIPs will be recovered later in the blog. If you max out the level of the VIP that runs the shop, you get some kind of reward. I have yet to accomplish this so I do not know what the rewards are.

This game features 3 puzzle types I've run into. This one is the lost item mission where you must match water tiles to increase how rough they get. You make a match by a crate to start breaking it open. You can use one of the 3 different power-ups to progress in the level. The game does a good job of describing what they do so I will skip over them. The other two types of modes involve rescuing survivors. You can match tiles under the survivor to start forming solid land instead of ice like in the above screenshot.

The result screen gives you diamonds on each completed level. If you rescue more than the minimum amount listed you gain bonus diamonds. You can also watch an ad to double the diamonds you gain.

Rarely a survivor is a VIP and you need to prioritize getting these survivors to safety. I did not notice any increase in diamonds for rescuing them though.

on this screen, you can choose the skin for your VIP. Some of these VIPs have multiples you can save to gain a different look/person. As you do so, each VIP seems to be tied to a single building.

Over time you are given random quests to complete within a time limit. These can be for power-ups or sometimes diamonds. You tend to have 2 physical days to complete these tasks. 

Lastly, you can play some events that are limited time. These ones seem to have an independent energy system and you have to watch videos to gain bonus tries. These events give diamonds and other decorations.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this is a unique match 3 game that does things a bit differently. The game feels repetitive but as I have progressed, I've unlocked a couple of different game modes, but there could be more that open as you complete levels. There seems to be a finite end to this game and there is some content to keep someone going for a while but I feel it would run a bit thin after a long time.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

There is only a little bit of story I've run across in this game so far. It isn't the best setup but it gives a loose reason why you are doing things. As you unlock new buildings you get small clips of story as well.

Amount of ads:

 low

There are options for ads to gain various bonus gems but I can not remember if there are any ads in between levels. 

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I've only seen the video ad for this game maybe 3 or 4 times. The ads did not run very long from what I remember. As for the screenshots in the play store, everything is forward and transparent about gameplay.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are simple and bright, though they do not really stand out as unique. The art style is very similar to many other mobile games.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

As I have transcribed so far, this game has a few more interesting mechanics than the standard match 3 game. It is a nice change of pace from many games I've played in the past. I do not know how long a shelf-life this game will have but it is a relaxing game.

Free play:

💯%

Yeah, there are no paywalls that prevent you from progressing in this game other than a limited number of hearts that prevent you from eventually playing as much as you want. Though this game is pretty easy and you won't lose too many hearts.

Fun factor:

⛵ Full of water.

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.

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Or you can donate with CashApp at #HakuzoSionnach.

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.

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.