Guidus Pixel Roguelike RPG

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Delve into the deep dungeons with: Guidus

Today's game doesn't have a title screen and throws you straight into the main camp. As you progress through the game, you save more people for your main camp. I do not know how many people there are to save but they each seem to have a specific function in the game.

You can click on the campfire you can change your class. You can unlock a random class by spending 1000 gold coins. You can also raise the initial level by paying coins as well. You also have a chance to watch a video to gain a free class or soul as the game calls them.

Across the bottom screen are buttons that lead to subscreens. The first one I will talk about late. The second one seems to be linked to a character you rescue later. I assume this NPC will catalog every enemy that you fight like pokemon. 

The third button is your active inventory. This is where any keys and potions you find. Anything else you find in the dungeon will also go here as well.

When you click on the pause button you get to see all the options. This game comes in several languages out of the box which is surprising for a mobile game.

The second option screen allows you to manage push notifications and cloud saving.

The first button is a special list of equipment that gives you boosts when you defeat bosses. These are permanent boosts among all playthroughs.

If you manage to make it through an area and beat a boss, you get to see a victory screen and you return to the camp. Even if you lose you keep the gold you find. Along the way, you can find special artifacts that give you a major boost just for the current run like Binding of Issac.

To move around is simple with the cross button. you move around and everything happens on a step-by-step basis. Like a game from sega genesis called Fatal Labyrinth. You move around from stairs to stairs as you go deeper into the dungeons. You can hold the arrow button to do a charge attack or special move based on what creature you have.

After you beat the tutorial you unlock the princess. When you click on her you go to the shop. Here you can watch options ads to gain bonus coins or a time skip.

You unlock this screen when you visit the fox NPC. This screen shows you all of the artifacts you have found before and a description detailing what they do.

And just for fun, the Shaman fox NPC to show off the level of detail in the pixel art.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this game is a lot of fun and brings back memories of similar games to this. There is a lot to explore and find in this game as I haven't even scratched the surface of the game.

Story:

 5 of 5 cogs.

There is a lot of story in this game that you seem to learn as you continue on. I haven't even made it through the second area yet because this game is so vast.

Amount of ads:

 

 low

The game has a banner at the bottom of the screen that always displays while you are online. Beyond that, there are only optional ads for various bonuses.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I do not recall watching any ads for this game as I think I found this game just randomly on the play storefront page.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

This game has a lot of great pixel art and it's pretty easy to make out what creatures are. The hud assets and menus have a nice feel of older RPG games.

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The game is pretty basic and simple. Everything happens on a step by step, but unlike Fatal Labyrinth, the enemies still move around on their own.

Free play:

💯%

Yup, you can easily play everything you want on this game with no paywalls or energy limits.

Fun factor:

🔪 Rouge-like.

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.

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My Little Universe

 

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Airships have crashlanded in: My Little Universe

Today I will be posting a much shorter blog. This game is one you may have seen many times on ads across the netverse, and I got around to being able to review it. This is a simple game from a mechanical standpoint but the main focus on this game is to explore worlds that you create one hexagon at a time. Since this game focuses so heavy on exploring and adventuring I have only a limited number of screenshots to keep spoilers to a minimum.

The main point of the game is you have to figure out how to survive and gain more resources. You start off with some very weak tools that slowly get upgraded as you explore along. As you progress you will get 1 or 2 new paths you can build. I didn't notice that the amount got cut off in this screenshot, but the white square will list a couple of materials with numbers. You must gather those materials and fill in that hex of land. As your progress you find more complex materials or new forms of the same resource with better output. You can clear out a spot of resources and it grows back in just a few seconds. This leaves to an interesting mechanic as you can idle in the middle of this resource and it will auto-collect for you as long as no enmy is nearby to attack you.

As you progess along you will find a few upgrade facilities. Some allow you to process materials into new ones which are then used at these forges to upgrade your tools or make a couple of new ones down the line. You can watch ads to gains some of the missing materials if you don't want to stand around and collect them yourself.

The HUD can only show about 5 different materials at a time so you click on your backpack you can get the full list of everything you've collected. There is a lot to explore and it seems there are many planets you can visit. I still am on the first planet as there is a lot to do.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a chill and relaxed game for the most part. The enemies can be a bit wiely at times but when you die, you just respawn at your crashed ship. I still have a lot more to explore in this game and I hope that there is still plenty to find. From what I can tell, each planet has a set level design and there is no procedually generated content here.

Story:

 1 of 5 cogs.

There is a small amount of implied story but there is no direct dialog or any other real hints of story behind just stetting. You seem to be traveling planet to planet for some reason, but beyond that I do not personally know.

Amount of ads:

 

Too many!

This game is chucked full with ads. Every time you build a piece of land you are forced to watch a video. You can circumvent this by playing in airplane mode as this game does run perfectly offline. There are some points around the map where you can collect resources by watching optional videos.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The advertisement is one for one here. The videos and screenshots are straightforward and no scam or clickbait here.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are very generic ans simple polygonal designs. Everything is flatcolored and there are no shaders used in this game. The art for the materials appear to be pixel art.

Gameplay:

4 of 5 cogs.

The game is easy to play. You have a virtual joystic that appears when you touch the screen and slide around. There are many resources to unlock and find. As you find one material you will eventually run into a new one that you need to collect. After a time, some materials are no longer needed and you can sell them at various vendors around the map for gold.

Free play:

💯%

This game is free to play and loaded with many videos. You can pay to remove the ads from the game but I do not know how this affects the optional ads. You can easily play this game without paying anything into it if you don't want to.

Fun factor:

👽 Extraterresial.

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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World Flipper

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

SWINDLER ALERT!: There has been a large number of mobile video ads on android devices. Each one of these videos shows what appear to be Asian-origin people with very bad voice-to-text voice-overs. These videos not only tell you the exact way they scam you, but they also claim they don't do it. Any apps that claim you can make hundreds of dollars a day are fake.

I have checked out some of these games. Each one of them follows the same pattern and all offer you nothing. A couple makes you think they are legit but they want you to pay them 5 dollars to collect 1000. These apps have you watch an infinite amount of ads and give you some wait time excuse or say that all claims are filled. Then you have to watch 20 videos to get your winnings. These apps are just gaining as much from ad views as possible before disappearing soon. I can not believe how much they spend on ads just to scam people into money. I will show a couple of screenshots of the games to avoid. As there are literally a hundred new games that dropped, and are in 'early access', that I can not post every possible one.

The Greedy Cave

 

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The caves are filled with greed! The Greedy Cave

Today's game you think you are playing Don't Starve, but it is a mobile game about trying to survive a dungeon filled with monsters. This game is very difficult and remind me of Fatal Labynth for Sega Genesis. There is a hidden easteregg if you press and hold on the screen for a couple seconds.

Unlike Dont Starve, you can create a character. There isn't too many options to choose from, and I do not know if you can unlock more as you play.

You get plunked into a world that scrolls around like you are moving on a very tiny planet. You have the dungeon viewed here and on the sides are different shops or forgers to help you along. This game is odd as you can only keep golden equipment from the dungeons. There are ways to upgrade some common pieces up to gold but they are very rare.

So the first shop item holds these coupons you buy with real money. These items are then used to buy crystals which are used for various purchases of items. I find this a very strange system to use as it adds extra steps instead of letting us just by the gems.

Here are the second tab. As you see you the lowest set costs a single dollar USD. I do not know how much of a value this is as I did not have time to progress very far in this game. I hope to revisit this game sometime later once I get through my review pile.

There is a very complex inventory screen. You start the game with 2 pieces of gold equipment that has poor stats. As you progress you can use gold to unlock more inventory slots. I do not know if these are permanent upgrades or temporary ones. I also seem to have lost my screenshot for the Skill tab. Here you get a skill tree that use must use points you collect from leveling up. These give you abilities that can help you along in battle with a new attack or a healing ability.

The third tab has a list of temporary buffs you can pick up through the dungeons. These runes give you large boosts to stats that appear to also be temporary. Here you also see all the loot you will keep once you leave the dungeon. 

Here is one of the merchants that provide special potions for you to use in the dungeon. I never got a chance to really try these out yet.

As you progress on, you can unlock a cosmetic blacksmith that can make your gold items look different. These cost tickets as well. The difference is these cosmetics actually give you bonus stats.

This is a screenshot of some of the missions you can do to earm special crafting materials needed to upgrade you equipment. You can pie up some of these things as well from defeating enemies in the dungeon.

Now onto the main game screen. Here you get a reminder of your quests and you can see your stats in the top left. In the top right is a minimap that you can click on to see more details around you. The pack on the bottom of the screen is where you can set up your quick-use things like health or mana potions. This game has all the standard RPG elements you expect from games since the 80s. 

Lastly to wrap up the overview of the game is the map. This is a very beautifully rendered map. That concludes all the screenshots I have for you today and I will not move on to the scores section.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

This game has a lot to explore and it's impossible to do so in one sitting. Though There seems to be a glitch where if you do not finish a dungeon and return to town, you have a chance of loosing all progress. I do not know if this is due to losing signal or some other bug.

Story:

 4 of 5 cogs.

There is a bit of story you find hidden throughout the dungeons. The story seems to be locked behind maybe certain levels of the dungeon and is very random when you will find any of it.

Amount of ads:

 none

As far as I remember there are no ads ever shown in this game. It is nice to play though a game without getting hit by an ad every second.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I recall only ever seeing an ad for this game maybe once. The screenshots on Google Play show the real gameplay and doesn't have any click-bait.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are great in this game. They appear to be higher quality than that of Dont Starve. I feel the graphics are high-quality for the kind of game this is.

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The game play works as you expect it to. you clock on a square to move to it or interact with any other menu without issues. This game has all the basics of older RPGs and it's a great nostalgic trip.

Free play:

💯%

As far as I know you can gain tickets from completing quests. I have not played long enough to verify this so as it stands it appears to be fully F2P with microtransactions.

Fun factor:

👿 must survive at all costs.

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.