Recent reviews by DrPixel

8-Bit Invaders is the third game in Petroglyph's series of 8-Bit RTS (real time strategy) titles. If you missed the last two games, those were 8-Bit Armies and 8-Bit Hordes respectively, with each taking a different sort of spin on the classic gameplay found in some of the more popular RTS titles out there (hey, can you tell which one is like Command & Conquer and which one is like Warcraft?). Honestly though, the 8-Bit RTS games play like Command & Conquer more than anything, which makes sense - some of Petroglyph's staff are old Westwood Studios veterans. If you're not familiar with that series, it essentially boils down to building the biggest, baddest, and coolest army out there in order to smash your opponents. 8-Bit Armies was aesthetically similar to C&C, 8-Bit Hordes was graphically more similar to fantasy RTS games like the Warcraft series, and of course, 8-Bit Invaders tackles the sci-fi side of things with a look somewhere between The War of the Worlds, the Alien series of films, and Starcraft. It's nothing massively different for RTS fans, but I think that this is perhaps the best game yet in the 8-Bit RTS series.

Note: I've only played 8-Bit Armies, but all 3 games in the series are designed to be pretty similar, so I think not having played Hordes shouldn't affect my review too much.

8-Bit Invaders features a few different modes for you to mess around in: 2 different five to ten hour long campaigns, a typical skirmish mode, cross-game multiplayer (between Armies, Hordes, Invaders, and the free multiplayer-only "Arena" client), a co-op campaign, and perhaps the most noteworthy new addition to the series, the Metaverse mode.

The campaign mode is pretty fun and definitely fairly challenging. As someone who's only played a few RTS games, I had a rough time with some of the missions while breezing past others. In particular, some of the missions mixed up the gameplay in ways that threw me off guard, like a stealth mission involving only melee units (against mostly buildings thankfully) or a mission with only aircraft. Of course, there's also the typical RTS missions with such riveting objectives as "smash the enemy", "smash the enemy in 10 minutes", or even the incredibly unique "defend your base for 15 minutes". I'm being a little facetious of course - the game actually has a surprising amount of depth to its campaign mode. There's multiple difficulties, stuff to unlock, side objectives for each mission that permanently reward the player with extra starting units or buildings in every mission, and even a cute (and powerful) little penguin hidden in a box somewhere on every mission. Oh, did I also mention that there's not one, but two campaigns? The only significant downside to the campaign mode is that there's no cutscenes or a real story of any sort - instead, there's a brief text box before each mission explaining why you're fighting. It would've been nice to have more of a substantial overarching narrative, but it's understandable why one wasn't really included - most of the production costs went into creating a solid game, which is totally fine.

In terms of the other modes, skirmish is exactly what you'd expect: pick a faction (including any from the other 8-Bit RTS games if you own them), and duke it out with an A.I. opponent, or multiple, if you'd prefer. There's a decent number of options available to you, including the opportunity to use custom player-made maps.

8-Bit Invaders has a pretty fun multiplayer mode as well, which is to be expected of most RTS games at this point. It lets you play as not just the two factions this game presents (the Marines and the Craniods), but also the ones in the other 8-Bit RTS games if you also own them. I think it's honestly fine if you don't though, because I was able to hold my own against four human opponents for a while as the Marines after my teammates had all died, so the factions they give you in Invaders are pretty solid overall.

The game also features a co-op campaign that's pretty decent. I really enjoy when RTS games let you play together with others, and this game's co-op mode was no exception. Me and a buddy had a pretty fun time doing missions together, some of which were pretty challenging. I have to give props to the developers for one map in particular that was similar to the melee-only stealth mission in the Marines campaign. My friend and I really struggled with getting all 3 stars on that map and we had to work together and plan things out pretty well to succeed, so it was definitely a fun map to play.

What might be the biggest addition to the series as a whole though (especially since they ported it back to the other two games) is the inclusion of the new "Metaverse" mode. Similar modes have been in other RTS games so it's not massively unique, but it's certainly a very refreshing and welcome addition to the 8-Bit RTS franchise. Essentially, the mode is what it sounds like - you have a world map of tiles and your goal is to conquer your enemy's home base and/or every tile on the map, depending on what setting you picked. Like most modes, you can build units and buildings, but in this mode you also can research new buildings/units using resources you get from conquering new tiles. To conquer tiles, you have to attack them with your army, which means you either physically fight the battle out yourself or you can auto-resolve it if you think your forces are large enough. The Metaverse is pretty challenging on higher difficulties and it can be pretty heavy on micro-managing regardless, but it's definitely a lot of fun.

Aesthetically, the game takes a lot of inspiration from other 8-bit/pixel games, but more significantly in my opinion, it looks most similar to other "voxel" games out there (like Minecraft, Trove, or Ace of Spades, just to name a few) - that is, the game employs uses 3D graphics to emulate a retro look, and in my opinion it looks pretty nice. It's kind of the whole graphical gimmick of the series, so if you're into the game's look, it should definitely deliver on your expectations.

The 8-Bit RTS games have always had some pretty kickass music, courtesy of the same composer as the Command & Conquer series, Frank Klepacki. This game's soundtrack does sound super similar to 8-Bit Armies', but regardless, I think Klepacki's tunes still capture that mix of action-packed battles and strategic thinking pretty well.

• Simple and accessible gameplay for RTS newcomers while also being super engaging for veterans of the genre
  
• Two fairly lengthy, fun, and varied campaigns with a nice mix of mission types and optional objectives that reward the player for their efforts
  
• Typical RTS modes like skirmish, multiplayer, and co-op, in addition to the interesting new Metaverse mode
  
• The graphics are pretty spectacular if you're into the pixel/voxel look
  
• Frank Klepacki's music is still great
  
• The game has Steam achievements, Workshop support, cloud saving, and trading cards

• Some of the missions can get somewhat repetitive - most of them involve destroying the enemy in whatever manner the mission tells you to go about, with not a whole lot of variety in terms of how you accomplish that goal
  
• There's no cutscenes and the "story" isn't particularly interesting or well done
  
• There was some minor bugs (of the non-alien kind) I encountered while playing, like the game refusing to start in fullscreen or how it would send me back to the menu after every mission in the second campaign when it was supposed to put me back on the mission select screen

Overall, I was really pleased during my time with 8-Bit Invaders. It felt like it took all the things that 8-Bit Armies did well and expanded upon them. It's a great title for both newcomers and veterans of the RTS genre.

Table Top Racing: World Tour (TTR from now on) is a racing game that takes place on…..well, what do you think? Tables of course!

Kart racers have been around for eons, but what about…..car racers? Y’know, kart racers with real-looking cars? I suppose that’s what I’d describe TTR as. It feels like a kart racer yet the vehicles have the appearance of realistic cars, vans, or trucks. Normally I’d talk about gameplay first, but hey, why not graphics this time? Let’s switch things up!

So, the game has a sort of realistic look to it, like I mentioned earlier. The tracks all consist of a table (or what generally looks like somewhere in a house) with various household objects (food, bottles, etc.) spread around the track/table. As you drive your little cars around you can then knock a lot of the stuff on the track over, which is pretty fun. The cars themselves are just a mix of realistic-looking race cars and knockoffs of cars from pop culture (the Breaking Bad RV, a “fauxrari”, etc.). Everything in the game looks pretty crisp and polished overall, so graphically I definitely have no complaints.

Now onto the gameplay. Here’s where things are both good and bad. See, the game basically consists of you driving your little car around a track over and over until you win. That’s….basically it, however there’s a small variety of modes to mix things up. From the main menu there’s “Championships”, “Special Events”, and “Multiplayer”. Championships is the meat of the game, and it’ll last you about 5-8 hours or so depending on how skilled you are at racing games. Within Championships you’ll find 6 different cups with a variety of events to choose from. These events are one of a few different game modes (Combat races where you can use powerups, pure/no weapons races, a “pursuit” mode, elimination, time trials, drifting, and a “get x lap time” mode), which helps to keep the gameplay from getting too stale. On top of that, there’s collectable coins scattered around each track in some interesting hidden locations so even if you’re terrible at the game it incentivizes you to collect them and use the money they give you to upgrade your car (or buy a new one) and get better.

The Special Events mode is basically a variety of events, like in Championships mode, yet there’s some very minor twists. It’s just extra content I suppose. I never got to try out the multiplayer unfortunately (no one was playing online), so I can’t comment on that mode.

Generally I enjoyed my time with TTR, but what did I dislike? Well, to start, the tracks. There’s…..5 of them. That’s slightly remedied by the slight variation given to them during certain events (I believe the game refers to each track’s variations as “track A”, “track B”, etc.), but after playing what is basically the same track over and over it gets a bit old. I’d have really liked to have seen more tracks, not just the same 5 ones over and over with tiny changes here and there.

Secondly, the game’s handling feels weird, at least to me. Maybe this is just a personal thing but it felt like on every turn my car would either hit a wall (at least initially) or just barely make the turn, while the AI seemed to make turns at full speed just fine. Now granted, with handling upgrades on the best cars in the game it’s not too bad, but when I had first started playing it was definitely frustrating watching myself hit walls on almost every turn. I think the speed of the cars is pretty fitting but their handling could definitely use some work,

Beyond that, there’s not a whole lot to talk about with TTR. It’s fun I suppose, and pretty well-made overall. Err…...oh wait, that’s right - the music. It’s uh…..well, I think some people will enjoy it. Personally I thought it was mostly generic hip hop/electronic/dance stuff, so sometimes I just felt like muting the game and turning on my own music while I raced. However, I feel as if it’s not terrible, but simply “tolerable”, if that makes any sense. Also there’s a song that says “be drunk” repeatedly. I….I don’t even know.

• Fun, energetic kart racer gameplay across dozens of fairly varied events - racing little toy cars on tabletops is quite exciting and silly compared to real races
  
• Decent vehicle customization is included (wheels, car types, stats, and paint jobs can all be changed)
  
• The graphics are fairly good overall - no complaints there
  
• The music is fairly fitting - it’s upbeat and energetic but also a bit laid back
  
• There’s Steam achievements, cloud support for saves, and controller support

• There’s only 5 tracks (even if the game advertises 20 - there’s 4 slight variations to each of the 5 base tracks), so more would definitely be better
  
• Car handling feels bizarre - AI cars turn fine, but for some reason (especially with early cars or ones that aren’t upgraded) you can only take turns super wide by default, which causes a lot of wall crashes to happen
  
• Some people may not like the music (personally I didn’t care much for it)

Table Top Racing is a pretty solid fast-paced racing game with powerups. There’s a lot to like here, from the lovely visuals to the decent amount of variety in both customization options and game modes. Despite my problems with it, primarily the small number of tracks and some weird turning problems (which are fixed with vehicle upgrades), I honestly really enjoyed playing this game. Bravo, developers - you’ve made a pretty great little racer!

With all the recent big blockbusters both coming out soon and having been released in the past few years, sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax with a simple puzzle game. Despite lacking any particular unique qualities, Mystery Castle is just plain pleasant to play, and if you're into that then perhaps this is the game for you.

Mystery Castle is pretty bland and vague story-wise, but coming from a game that looks so cheery and cute I'd expect nothing more. You play as Monty, a fat wizard guy (or at least, a lot of the jokes other characters make seem to generally be about his weight for some reason) who's placed in a mysterious cave area. There's a dwarf you can talk to and a puzzle to solve. The dwarf tells you that some evil guy appeared and did some stuff and now there's bad monsters and a bunch of lava. Cool, that's super vague and unimaginative. But hey, at least the dwarf guy is fairly funny! And story-wise I guess that's all I can give this game credit for. Most of the characters you meet are somewhat humorous (though your mileage may vary) so it helps both explain the simple narrative and adds some jokes to the mix.

Gameplay-wise, every level plays out in a different sort of puzzling manner. Each level (besides the bosses) basically involves obtaining five collectible items that open the exit door when all of them are collected. It sounds deceptively simple, yet in reality the game creates various challenges and obstacles that block your progress in some pretty creative ways. For example, one level consists of a "race" of sorts between you and a golem. You have to navigate your way around lava as fast as you can before he gets to the exit or else he'll kill you if he touches you. Many of the levels seem to use the same old "push some boxes into holes" formula of solving puzzles, but even those levels are difficult and pretty creative in a fair and enjoyably challenging way. As you progress, more and more stuff is added that helps to keep things fresh. Oh, and the bosses! I can't forget those. They add some nice variety and a decent challenge to the game since you have to find out how to kill/defeat them using your puzzle-solving knowledge.

The game is set across 5 different worlds with 36 levels each, so there's a total of 180 levels in the entire game. Luckily, you only need to beat 25 levels to unlock each new world, plus you can skip any levels you get stuck on and come back later if need be. The only mechanic that I wish would have been implemented is an "undo" feature, since I constantly made mistakes yet had to go to the menu and restart the entire level, redoing things I had already done in the process. It was just a minor annoyance, but still a noticeable one.

Mystery Castle has a pretty charming aesthetic to it. Is it anything mind blowing? Well, no, honestly. However, everything looks all cute and cartoony and nothing looks particularly unpolished, so that's good at least. The only other technical aspect that I feel is worth mentioning is the inclusion of controller support, which is nice. Despite that though, most of my time playing was spent just using a keyboard since the controls were so simple (literally just the arrow keys and spacebar), so both playstyles are equally feasible and comfortable.

• Charming art style
  
• The characters are pretty humorous usually
  
• Clever, challenging puzzles with varied mechanics yet simple controls
  
• Definitely no lack of content - there's 180 puzzles set across 5 distinct worlds/areas
  
• Steam achievements, trading cards, controller support, and cloud saves

• Story? What story? (hint: there pretty much is none)
  
• An undo feature would be nice to have
  
• The game doesn't feel particularly unique, even if it is decent

Mystery Castle may not be the "masterpiece" that it claims to be, but it's still a great game for fans of the puzzle game genre. The puzzles are varied and challenging and overall the game is simply a charming experience. It may not be fantastic or especially unique, but Mystery Castle is certainly an easy recommendation, especially for anyone who craves more puzzle games.

This game has a bland, dumb, uninspired name - I mean, seriously? "Ghost 1.0?" Surely I can't be the only one who thinks that way. Upon seeing that as my first impression I wasn't really interested. However, upon reading some other reviews, I decided that perhaps I had judged the game too early. So, I checked it out. And....damn, I'm impressed!

Ghost 1.0 may be a terrible name for a game in my opinion, but the game itself is anything but terrible. In fact, it's actually quite good! You play as a "ghost"-like female entity (AI? Human? Play and find out!) that controls a robotic shell armed to the teeth with guns. Or at least, after playing for a while you'll acquire a decent arsenal, though when you start out you'll only have a basic blaster. Regardless, the game throws you into a futuristic sci-fi story about a group of 3 people (a hacker, a random bloke, and you) who are trying to overthrow a massive producer of a variety of robots: the Nakamura Corporation. It starts off as a simple task but becomes more and more intriguing as various complications, comedic situations, and bouts of distrust arise. Why is Ghost infiltrating Nakamura's space station? And what exactly are their nearly life-like robots made of? Well, these and many more questions really help add to the game's interesting narrative, which is one that I'd say is worth witnessing with the help of the game's solid voice acting and great looking cutscenes.

Similarly, Ghost 1.0 does not disappoint in its gameplay. Well....mostly at least, that is. It's a Metroidvania first and foremost, but I'd say that it's more of a vania than a Metroid, with a small twist in the sense that you can take over enemy robots. In general, you shoot and kill a LOT of enemies - much more so than exploring and collecting cool new gadgets or items. Actually, there's very few of those - and even the powerups are mostly passive upgrades to health, damage, or maximum ammo (since it automatically regenerates, which is neat). One thing I will say is that despite there being hundreds of rooms in the Nakamura space station, most of them are disappointingly.....samey feeling, and also relatively empty. I know a lot of people love blowing stuff up for hours on end, but for me I look at how unique a game feels as one of its biggest points of critique. Sure, I had fun with the game, but towards the end of my play sessions I just kept feeling bored. That doesn't mean it's inherently a bad game, no, definitely not, but I just wish the rooms had more color (they all look the same mostly!) and life to them. Each one is generally just boxes, corridors, and enemies, with the occasional alarms, lasers, and elevators thrown into the mix. There's also some hidden secrets, but even those somehow got repetitive: shoot a wall and get some money (energy cubes), healing items, or "geek items" - items that change the look of something in the game. It's a cool addition I guess, but I was still bored at times with the game. Oh, and the rare puzzle segments just served to even worsen my mood while playing, since they were poorly designed, requiring constant backtracking.

Despite that, there was a lot of cool bits of the game, like its bosses. Wow, those bosses! I was expecting generic big robots, which some of them were, but others were also really cool and different, like a big bubble robot lady thing that absorbed and reflected any bullets you shot at it. Sure, most of the bosses were frustratingly difficult (like her), but I think they served as a good kick in the face to really make you think while playing. Another interesting thing about the game is its skill system, which is like leveling up except you only get skill points after collecting parts of key cards, which act as roadblocks to keep you from accessing certain areas. Now, I didn't really like how the game corralled you from area to area because I feel as though it would be more interesting to have a (mostly) completely open map, but it still was fine I suppose. Also speaking of that map, it's nice and massive, and thankfully the game compensates by having frequent teleportation stations (3D Printers can apparently do that in the future?), shortcuts aplenty, and a nice very informational map screen.

On the technical side of things I had no problem with the game. It ran smoothly, the animations looked great, and the music and voice acting were solid and fitting overall (I seriously don't know how to discuss sound, please forgive me). Graphically, it's probably above average for a 2D indie project, so it's pretty good there too. Not amazing, but everything certainly looks pleasing besides the somewhat boring room designs like I mentioned earlier. Even that is just a gripe really. This is a great game that deserves to be played.

• It's got a cool mechanic - take over other robots to solve puzzles or just make them shoot each other in the face! (also there's a biped mech you can control at one point!)
  
• If you're a fan of Metroidvanias, this game does not disappoint in the "pew pew bang bang" department
  
• The story is pretty interesting and has multiple twists and turns, plus the voice acting is good overall
  
• Bosses in this game are not only mostly unique and interesting but also very challenging
  
• The map is massive and houses multiple secrets (though don't expect anything too amazing secrets-wise)
  
• There's Steam achievements, trading cards, and controller support (though I can't vouch for how good it is or how it plays)

• Rooms often feel and look kind of the same - they need more variety and spice, y'know!
  
• The game's puzzle elements are generally just annoying and frustrating
  
• Many of the powerups feel like they're similar and kind of a bit dull (mostly the passive ones)
  
• The game can get boring after a few hours, so shorter play sessions are probably best (note: this may just be a personal complaint)

Now, despite the problems I mentioned, I still really enjoyed Ghost 1.0. Clearly a lot of heart, soul, and hard work was put into the game by a small team so I honestly respect everything they accomplished. Is it the best Metroidvania ever? Well....I'm not sure about that one. However, it's still a very good game that's probably worth your time.

Wow. I suppose that's the best word to describe my thoughts on this game. Finally, a tower defense game that innovates! And it's actually quite good!

So, let me clarify something - calling this a "tower defense" game is actually kind of horribly incorrect. It's more of an orbital shooter with a bit of TD and RTS sprinkled in the mix. I had initially thought I'd be placing towers and whatnot like usual, but instead the towers are merely an option the game includes to simply help you out.

See, Artificial Defense is what some people have called an "orbital shooter", like I mentioned earlier. I've never really heard this term before, but it makes sense - one of your two methods available of killing the little nasty creeps invading your computer system (the setting of the game) is to rain down bullets, rockets, and bombs onto the little buggers. It's pretty interesting, and definitely makes the game seem more RTS-like than anything.

Yet, there's also aspects of the tower defense genre of course. This means that you need to place production buildings to acquire RAM, which allows you to then either fire projectiles at the enemies yourself, since that costs RAM, or you can place either long range or short range towers. The long range towers have to reload, but their range is obviously a bit larger than the short range tower, which fires quicker but has a much smaller range than its counterpart.

The weird thing is though that for the most part I found myself rarely using offensive towers. Instead, I preferred to rush production buildings and just fire away myself at the creeps. This is because the game isn't really about lasting as long as you can, though that option is available to you. Instead, the game's progression system focuses on completing a set of 3 objectives that are specific to each level. These can include just simply killing a set number of foes or something weirder like sending out some little blobs of your own to "conquer" a building on the playing field. And here's where the game becomes a little too chaotic for more casual RTS players like me: juggling the 3 objectives while simultaneously trying to survive can be a bit daunting for inexperienced players in the genre. Yet, the game does include 3 difficulty settings in case things become too hard.

Thankfully, even though the 49 levels become harder as you progress, especially with the new enemies introduced every 7 levels or so, there's also a shop where upgrades for your weaponry, towers, or system itself can be bought. So, a really difficult level can be made a bit easier by buying new rockets for example. The interesting bit about the shop is that new upgrades aren't necessarily the best option for every level since older upgrades may actually be better depending on the situation. This creates a great extra layer of strategy in some cases and it's a nice touch that older upgrades can still be equipped.

In terms of the basics, that's pretty much it. The graphics aren't incredible but they're functional and fit the theme of the game (since it takes place in a computer). What did impress me however is the music - it manages to be energetic and engaging while not being overbearing or annoying. It's some kind of electronic stuff, but I enjoyed it (can you tell that I'm a musical genius who just knows all the correct terminology?).

• Pretty neat gameplay mechanics - more of an orbital shooter/RTS than a tower defense though, so just be aware
  
• Diverse set of objectives - generally not just "survive", but much more varied and unique between levels
  
• 49 challenging levels with 3 difficulty settings (and an upgrade shop!) give no shortage of content
  
• The music consists of some cool and catchy electronic tunes
  
• Steam achievements, trading cards, controller support, and Cloud saves are all available

• The difficulty can be a little intimidating for inexperienced RTS players since the game is more RTS than TD (though there's multiple tutorials, lower difficulty levels and an upgrade shop to ease players in)
  
• The graphics are serviceable, but they aren't anything noteworthy
  
• Sound effects (especially that damn explosion noise when you exit a level) can be a bit loud by default

Artificial Defense is something unique for its genre(s?), and that's one of the key factors I personally look at when deciding if I'm interested in a game or not. It's more of a RTS than a tower defense game, but for fans of either genre, it's a fantastic title to check out. Plus, it's made by one guy!

Did you ever like mixing colors together as a kid? Do you also enjoy puzzle games? Well, perhaps Meld is the game for you!

Meld is a deceptively simple puzzle game developed by Axis Games, who also apparently made a football game (Axis Football 2015)? Well, this is a weird departure for them I suppose, but oh well. Upon first glancing at the game, the graphics were kind of off-putting for me since they were so simple and bland, but after playing I can definitely say that the fun and challenging gameplay makes up for it.

See, Meld combines a few different puzzler genres in some interesting ways. Namely, it's a hex/tile puzzler mixed with those pipe puzzles in certain games. Oh, and there's color mixing thrown in the mix too. It may seem a little complicated but it's actually quite simple in theory: make a path from one end of the level to the other using only the same color as what the ends of the path/"pipe" (if you like to think of it like that) is. So, if the ends of the "conduit" (that's what the game calls it) are green, you need to make a green line of tiles to beat the level. You do this by dragging tiles of that color to form an unbroken path. Easy enough, right?

Well.....not exactly. See, tiles of base colors (red, yellow, or blue) can be "melded" together to make new colors (orange, purple, or green). The game starts off quite easy but as you progress the game introduces powerups and obstacles, which really amp up the difficulty as more and more are introduced. There's some basic ones like a lock on certain tiles which makes it so you can't move them, or meteors that can destroy both these locks and individual tiles if needed. Later on, some really wild stuff is added into the mix. I mean, just look at the store page description for what I mean - stuff like Black Holes, Supernovas, Superconducters, etc. It gets pretty crazy, but all the additions only serve to both add complexity and depth to the seemingly basic gameplay. Honestly I thought that this was a great way to make the game not get old fast.

One thing I will say is that the game can get quite hard very fast. I made it to about level 20 to 25 or so before I started to constantly get stuck, which would be a problem since the game has 200 levels (I believe). However, there's an in-game store where you can buy extra moves or various powerups using a currency the game gives you as you play, plasma, to help make levels easier. Though it can be pretty easy to run out of plasma if you're bad at puzzle games like me, I felt like this system helped compensate for the difficult nature of the puzzles. Plasma could be given out more frequently, but it's still a decent way to help people of all skill levels enjoy the game for at least a while.

The game also includes a level editor if you're into those. I didn't check it out since I'm not very good at making levels, but I did check out some of the user-made custom levels and those were pretty fun. If people keep making levels, there could be tons of replayability here, so it's definitely worth checking out if you somehow manage to beat all the main game's 200 levels.

In the graphics department, the game is clearly unimpressive. The only background in the game seems to be one of outer space and the only other noteworthy thing is the animations when using powerups, which may range from a small explosion to other weird jolts or whatnot. Sound-wise, it's a little better, with the music striking a decent balance between being pleasant and slightly repetitive while the sound effects are just about what you'd expect - some whooshes or explosions when necessary. Not too shabby I guess, but both areas could be improved on.

• 200(+?) levels of challenging puzzling goodness
  
• A level editor is included, along with user-made levels that you can either upload or play yourself
  
• Powerups really help keep the gameplay fairly fresh
  
• An in-game store allows for the purchasing of extra powerups or moves using currency the game gives you (though this only serves to balance out the high difficulty of the game - so it's not like a store in F2P games!)
  
• Steam achievements and trading cards are included

• The graphics and music are pretty simple, even if they get the job done
  
• The game can be pretty difficult at times, especially from level 20-30 or so onward
  
• Plasma (the in-game currency) could be given out a little more frequently or in different ways to help incentivize people who are bad at puzzle games to still try and beat levels once they run out.

Meld is perhaps not necessarily the best puzzle game for those who aren't above average at games in the genre, but for both skilled players and novices alike, Meld is a great, fun, and challenging puzzler with great replayability, definitely no lack of content, and decent variety to its puzzles. For puzzle fans who are confident in their skills, this game will definitely test you, but even for those who aren't very good, the game provides ways to still beat levels. Check it out if it sounds interesting!

What would you do to revive a deceased loved one? Perhaps sneak into a high-security warehouse, steal a spacecraft, and traverse through the stars until you reach another planet? Or, would you fight aliens, robots, and even a bounty hunter? Maybe.....just maybe......you would solve puzzles! Oh, the horror!

So, silly intro aside, The Way came as a unique surprise for me. See, I'm not very good at both puzzle games and platformers, but I do enjoy playing both of them. I also really love pixel art, so when a game came along that had fantastic pixel art along with an interesting story and puzzle platformer gameplay, I knew I had to check it out. Was it as good as I was hoping? Well....yes, generally.

The basic narrative of The Way revolves around a scientist of some sort named Tom and his obsession with reviving his deceased wife by any means possible. They apparently both worked at a company that produces spacecraft, and they had previously traveled to another planet to study it and simultaneously look for a "temple of life". Their attempt to find the temple was unsuccessful, but now, Tom decides to steal a spaceship from his company in order to try and use the mythical temple to try and revive his wife. However, the story has a few twists and turns in the form of various obstacles in Tom's way - namely, the hostile creatures of the planet he lands on and the many traps and mysteries that lie in wait for him.

It's a somewhat decent idea for a story that helps provide some form of motivation for the protagonist to go through all the trials and tribulations that he does. See, The Way was heavily inspired by tough puzzle platformers of the 90s like Another World or Heart of Darkness. This basically means that the game is very difficult and will involve the main character dying quite a bit. In my time playing, I must have died over a hundred times, and for others that number may be much larger. So if you're not comfortable with challenging games, you may want to avoid this game.

Yet, for those that are fine with some tough challenges, The Way is certainly both a good puzzle game and a decent platformer. In fact, I'd say that the game is mostly about puzzle solving than anything else, even the story. Most of your time playing the game will be spent solving puzzles of various types. For example, early on you need to find out how to steal spaceship. Later on, the puzzles raise the stakes, but you also gain various abilities like teleportation, telepathy, and a shield to help compensate for the added risk of death. Thankfully, the game is very plentiful with its checkpoints, so after dying it takes mere seconds usually to get back to where you were.

However, while I enjoyed the puzzles generally, despite getting stuck quite a few times, I have to specifically point out that the game has a very long and terribly-designed puzzle a few hours into the game (for me it was around 5-7 or so). [Slight spoilers ahead]At that point in the game, a bounty hunter arrives to take you down, since you're now a wanted criminal. However, the game decides to let you puzzle your way through a desert in order to defeat him. He sets up some robots, which are easy enough to take down using a mix of your shield power (to reflect bullets back at the robots) and a dog-like creature you had befriended earlier. Yet, after a while you start climbing up a mountain, where some sort of strange rock and some pipes are. At this point, me and many other players were completely stumped because the game doesn't really provide clues about what to do. It's not clear at all what to do, and to make matters worse, the solution is terribly obtuse. You have to figure out that there's some arrows on a rock that all need to be reversed, which causes water to pour out. From there, you need to backtrack all the way to the bottom of the mountain apparently, where a cave underground will have a small series of switches that change the pipes' rotation, allowing the water to flow into another pipe puzzle that you have to re-trace your steps back to, where you then have to use telepathy to alter the pipes' positions in order to flow water through them to push out a rock for some reason, which you then have to move across the mountain in order to drop it on a robot's head.

Excuse that horrible run-on sentence, but.....I mean, what the hell? How did anyone even figure that out? The puzzle made no sense because the game gave no clues about the cave underground, despite me even exploring it previously. To make matters worse, the whole puzzle itself is just silly. Why did I need to go through all that hell just to get a rock? Why couldn't my character have found a similarly-sized rock to drop on the robot's head, especially considering that the setting at that time in the game was a mountain of all places? It's ridiculous, and the puzzle really soured my experience by that point. It made me not want to continue because of how obtuse and frustrating it was, and honestly it took way longer than it should have just to get through that section. The game's other puzzles were logical and made sense in the context of their situations. That particular one though was a nightmare, and definitely was a blemish on the overall game experience for me.

Despite that however, the game has many praiseworthy aspects, especially it's visual style and soundtrack. The game has very high quality pixel art, and many scenes were not only memorable but also fascinatingly beautiful. A simple walk through a rain-covered graveyard or a hug during a sunset on an alien planet were transformed into pixelated beauty by this game's developers. Honestly I'd love to see more sprite work from whoever did the pixel art because it's just so damn good. Similarly, the game's soundtrack really helped add to the atmosphere of each scene.....generally. I will say though that the song that plays during the mountain area (where I got frustrated beyond belief by the puzzle design) got to be a little annoying after 2 hours of being in there. Regardless, the game is still pretty solid musically and definitely a joy to behold in terms of its visuals.

• The pixel art is absolutely beautiful and really brings the game's world to life
  
• Fans of puzzle platformers like Another World or Heart of Darkness will probably really enjoy this game for its extremely difficult yet rewarding gameplay/puzzles
  
• Most of the game's soundtrack helps add to the ambience and overall feel of each area
  
• The game's story, while not superb or overly original, is fairly interesting and does provide adequate motivation for the main character going through all the difficult situations he faces
  
• The game takes 10+ hours to finish
  
• Steam achievements and controller support (though a mouse may be needed for certain precision-based puzzles)

• The puzzles can be very frustrating and difficult (with particular mention for one absolutely horrible puzzle involving pipes, water, and a rock)
  
• Some of the puzzle solutions can be a bit obtuse, while many others require lots of patience (so the impatient may want to avoid this game)
  
• No Steam Cloud support for saves (at the time of this writing)

For those who aren't comfortable with difficult games, you may want to avoid The Way. However, for fans of puzzle platformers, puzzle games in general, or just really great pixel art, you may want to check this game out. Go revive your wife! Just be prepared to die a lot along the way! ;)

Hey, you! Do you remember classic real-time strategy (RTS) games like Command & Conquer? You know, collecting resources, building a base, amassing a huge army, and then annihilating your opponent(s)? Or perhaps, like me, you’re a bit intimidated by the seemingly complicated mechanics and high skill ceiling of these types of games. Well, in either case, I may just have the game for you: 8-Bit Armies!

8-Bit Armies is a pretty simple game: collect resources, build a base, create your army, and then attempt to destroy your opponent(s). It’s simple, easy, and fun. Now of course, the game is a bit more complicated than that, but that is essentially what it boils down to.

Resources are gathered using “harvesters” that deliver the main resource (oil I think?) to your refineries. That then gives you a steady stream of cash, from which you can use to build a variety of buildings. Among these are the basic machine gun turrets or barracks to train soldiers in, but you could also build more….interesting buildings like a building to allow you to create aircraft in or even a nuclear missile silo. There’s a few others worth mentioning, like a radar building and a tech lab, but beyond that it’s pretty much what you’d expect. There’s 3 buildings to make troops, ground vehicles, and air vehicles in, and then there’s the “extras” - y’know, the ones that are necessary for both defense and the gradual progression from lowly bungalow to mighty base. Oh, but you can’t just rush all the cool buildings, no, you have to not only progress in a natural order (barracks → ground vehicles → tech lab → radar → air vehicles), but you also need to constantly build power stations to keep your base up and running. I found this to be pretty fair and an interesting handicap since it promotes a fast-paced early game playstyle once you know what you’re doing.

The basic gameplay is split into three main modes: skirmish, multiplayer, and the campaign. Skirmish is basically the “custom” game mode where you can pick a few settings, a map, add some A.I., and try to defeat your opponent(s). It’s fun in short bursts and the A.I. is definitely quite good, especially on Insane difficulty, so if you’re looking for a challenge the game certainly will provide it. Speaking of challenge, there’s also multiplayer! Uh….yeah, it exists! I got completely destroyed on my first match and never touched it again, so that’s about the extent of my experience. I didn’t really notice any lag-related issues, so that’s a nice touch I suppose, though your mileage may vary of course. On top of that, the multiplayer supports up to 8 players and I believe there's even a separate co-op campaign, so in that department the game definitely isn't lacking.

What is probably the meat of the game though is the campaign mode, of which there’s actually going to be TWO campaigns (and very well might be by the time you read this review!). Right now, there’s only a 25-level campaign featuring the “Renegades” faction, but there’s another additional campaign featuring the newly-added “Guardians” faction coming quite soon. Oh by the way, did I mention the developers added a whole new faction with brand new units and buildings shortly after release for free? Yeah, that’s a pretty cool gesture on their part, and they’re still adding updates even after that big one. Anyway, the campaign mode is what you’d expect: it has a 3-star system based on completing various optional objectives, which I found to be quite nice. Most of these are slight handicaps you can give yourself or just a goal of “destroy their base”. It’s definitely fun to attempt to get all 3 stars on each level, and one unique thing the game does is that it rewards you in future missions by giving you extra units, buildings, or cash for any extra stars you earn. This personally really surprised me and helped motivate me to try harder, so there’s an incentive to actually attempt the optional stuff here. One last bit that I’d like to add from my time with the campaign mode is that it seems like the difficulty progression is pretty fair from what I played. I’m not sure if the later levels hold up the same, but from what I played I felt like the game nicely challenged me and yet wasn’t simultaneously overwhelmingly hard.

The graphics of 8-Bit Armies are not quite what the title claims. I mean, yeah, I get it. Making an actual strategy game these days in an 8-bit style would be pretty difficult, so the developers behind this game decided to go with a more voxel-esque look. I’m not sure if they’re actually voxels, so hence why I say “voxel-esque”. Everything looks like it’s made of blocks, or at least everything is both simple and stylish at the same time. The game looks like something that both kids might enjoy and adults might have a lot of fun with, even if the game isn’t quite aimed at kids but more so fans of RTS classics like C&C. It’s definitely an interesting choice of an art style for a game that isn’t really aimed at the demographic of little tykes. I didn’t have any problems with it, though I somewhat wish it looked more polished at times, since everything looks so simple.

Sound-wise, this game doesn’t disappoint. The sound effects are entertaining and the soundtrack primarily consists of some rockin’ instrumental tunes. Nothing really stood out to me here, but it was a nice part of the experience for sure.

• Harkens back to enjoyable fast-paced Command & Conquer RTS gameplay while simultaneously being a blast for newcomers to the genre
  
• 2 campaigns (one singleplayer, one co-op), with a third on the way
  
• Optional objectives for each campaign mission add both extra challenge and unlockable rewards in the form of extra units or buildings at the start of each level
  
• 2 distinct factions to play as - one of which was just recently added for free!
  
• Skirmish mode (with 4 A.I. difficulties) and the game's multiplayer are quite fun and entertaining
  
• The graphics are simple yet stylistic. Oh, and the environment is partially destructible!
  
• Steam achievements, trading cards, workshop support for levels, and cloud support for saves are all included

• The graphics could look a bit more polished
  
• Buildings can't be rotated, which is a bit odd (though considering how fast matches typically are, this isn't that big of a deal)
  
• The A.I. loves to constantly rebuild buildings as you destroy their base, so it can take a little unnecessarily long to try and defeat them (again, this is a small nitpick)

For fans of real-time strategy classics or even for potentially interested newcomers to the genre, 8-Bit Armies likely has something to offer. Whether it's taking on the fairly challenging A.I. in the robust campaign mode or in a simple skirmish match, you're bound to have a lot of fun. Plus, there's multiplayer and co-op! Sure, there's some small bits that may be a little frustrating, but overall the game is a blast to play and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who thinks it looks interesting, even if you're not a huge RTS fan.

You know, people always make out the Vikings and Norse mythology in general to be a complex web of intricately-woven tales of honor, bravery, and combat. I mean, with some badasses like Odin, Thor, and Loki included in the mythology, it's pretty difficult to not be interested in their crazy tales. But.....what about the mythological figures no one talks about? Like Leko, the supposed son of Odin and the god of building? Does that not ring a bell? Well, I don't blame you, I'm pretty sure he's fictional, and he's coincidentally also the protagonist of this game.

Valhalla Hills begins with a brief cutscene describing the story of the game. Leko, that guy I mentioned earlier, has been banished from Valhalla by his own father, Odin, because he wasn't into fighting people or something. Poor bloke! Anyway, he now sets off to regain his father's favor by being honorable through whatever means possible. And by that, I mean building stuff and fighting stuff using his little Viking minions people.

See, Valhalla Hills is a randomly-generated strategy game primarily focused on building with a side emphasis on combat. It's up to you, Leko, to open and enter the portal on each map through whatever means you choose. This may mean fighting the portal guardians using your Vikings or offering them various resources. Personally, I primarily like to offer resources because fighting can be pretty challenging. Regardless, just managing a town itself can be quite the struggle. You start with only a few Vikings, but by building a complex web of inter-connected buildings the process of maintaining a bunch of happy and healthy Vikings can be quite the struggle.

This is mainly because of the nature of the game. Valhalla Hills is not a story-based or progression-based RTS like what you may be used to. Instead, the only story is given in one short cutscene, and the rest of the game plays out in randomly-generated maps with an arcade sort of feel to them. Each map could take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to complete, as it just depends on if you want to rush to enter the portal or not. However, depending on how you complete this task can alter how you play. If you want to fight your way to the portal, that can prove to be quite the ordeal because you would need to first build tools, harvest resources, make homes, make even more buildings, find a way to feed all of your Vikings, and finally make some soldiers to fight the portal guardians.

However, this is one area where I feel like the game is a little weak. It can be very, very difficult to properly balance soldiers with food production. See, soldiers eat a bunch of food even while just sitting around, which is frustrating because it requires a constant and large supply of food to them. Yet, they can't leave their military camp for some reason, so they need to have food near them. Yet, since you can't order Vikings around or move the soldiers' camp, you need to either only use them defensively or build your town far out near the portal. I know this sounds odd, and to me it really is. It basically makes the option of fighting the portal guardians basically implausible because it'd take ages to be able to build a town large enough to both place soldiers in a path all the way to the portal (which is typically far away from your starting area) and simultaneously feed them all. Sure, after a while you can unlock couriers to transport food near soldiers, but it's still a hassle, and it's frustrating trying to do a military-based run, which takes some of the fun out of that aspect of the game.

However, despite that, attempting peaceful runs is still quite fun. It's both challenging and enjoyable to try and balance the needs of non-military Vikings while keeping them busy. When you get a successful, bustling town running finally, it's a joy to just sit and watch all your Vikings go about their daily schedules. In that sense, the game can be really rewarding. Yet, there's even more rewards given to successful playstyles in the form of unlockables. And wow, this game has a ton! Only after a few hours of playing, I've unlocked a bunch of hats, buildings, environment types, and even new enemies. It definitely helps increase the replayability of the game, which is important for arcade-style games like this that caters to people who don't want to play for hours upon hours (though that is certainly an option). Though, if you do decide to keep at it and play for a while, eventually some of your Vikings will reach Valhalla itself. This is because every Viking gains honor as you play, and when they reach 100,000 they'll ascend to Valhalla. I don't think it does much, but it's still a nice addition.

And y'know, there's a lot of little intricate details that the game includes that are quite nice just to have. Each building explains what it does and there's a mini-tutorial given at the start for most of them. In addition to that, the depth of the seemingly simple economy is quite impressive. What seems like a simple progression of getting resources --> feeding vikings --> fighting stuff/collecting portal offerings is much more complicated than that. For example, if you only have 1 fisherman but have 50 Vikings, they'll eventually go hungry, causing them to work less and less until they stop working entirely, at which point you may become doomed to failure. Or, if you chop down too many trees but don't have someone who plants new ones, you'll struggle to get more wood which can collapse a large part of the town's economy. Likewise, if you hunt too many animals and don't have an animal breeder to balance the food supply, your townsfolk may starve eventually. Sure, these are all small details, but they add up to make a fun, challenging, and engaging experience.

The game may be a little complicated gameplay-wise, but it certainly isn't graphically. Everything has a simple, cartoony look to it that I think actually works quite well. The Vikings look cute (and you can give them hats!), the environments look simple but lovely, and the animations and lighting all flow in a nice, cohesive manner. In fact, I think that's the key to this game's graphical beauty: everything just flows nicely. Unreal Engine 4's lighting capabilities probably helps with that too. Yet, despite the game's aesthetic beauty, it still runs quite nicely, at least from my experience. My computer is a little old, but the game still ran very smoothly with no issues whatsoever. Sound-wise, it's what you might expect: some nice, pleasant tunes and standard sound effects for stuff like building placement. Nothing really stood out to me there.

• Fun, challenging, and rewarding arcade-style RTS gameplay focused on city building on a randomly-generated map (though combat is an option)
  
• Loads of replayability in the form of dozens of unlockable buildings, environment types, enemies, and hats
  
• Beautiful graphical cohesion - a big, successful town simply looks gorgeous. Thanks Unreal Engine 4! (oh, and it runs nice too)
  
• Steam achievements, trading cards, and cloud save support

• Story is largely non-existent besides a short initial cutscene
  
• The gameplay can become somewhat repetitive after long play sessions, so it's best played in short bursts
  
• Military-focused playstyles will suffer from a massive drain on food supplies, so be warned if you're interested in that aspect of the game

Valhalla Hills can be a highly challenging experience, especially for those who are interested in focusing on combat. Yet, it's still certainly very satisfying to play, from witnessing the gradual progression of a tiny settlement to a bustling, sprawling city of Vikings. If you're interested in arcade-style RTS gameplay that's both fun and rewarding with beautiful graphics as well, this game is definitely worth checking out.

Earth. Wind. Fire. Water. These are the ingredients that make up.....the Powerpuff Girls! Alright, that was a dumb reference! Anyway, these are the basic elements of course! Video games include them sporadically all the time, but what about a game that includes all of them? Well, let's see how it is!

Mythic Wonders: The Philosopher's Stone is a hidden object game (HOG, for short). If you're not familiar with HOGs, essentially they're a clickfest with a story and puzzles attached. The basic gameplay consists of you clicking on objects to either collect or interact with them to progress the story. This time around, the plot is about a woman, Emma, whose uncle, Alfred, has dedicated his life to pursuing the mythical philosopher's stone. Y'know, the one that is supposed to turn basic metals into gold? Now, the game never really explains much about the stone, but I feel like that's because Artifex Mundi HOGs tend to be a bit weak in the story department.

See, this game is published by Artifex Mundi, and at least from my experience, it seems like the basic story of each of their hidden object titles is mostly the same. You play as female X and need to rescue/find family member Y, who is probably interested in or searching for object/location/thing Z. Now, there's nothing wrong with this basic concept, don't get me wrong - in fact, I think it's important that more video games include female protagonists. Yet, this all just makes it feel like the game is treading familiar ground in the HOG department - if you've played one, the story won't really feel unique at all. Actually funnily enough, two Artifex Mundi HOGs I played recently were surprisingly similar in some ways to this one: Time Mysteries involves moving through various themed areas (time periods in that game and elemental-themed areas in this one), while Tibetan Quest's "final boss" used the same memory-based gameplay as in this game to defeat it.

Despite the "hey, I've seen this all done before!" feeling of the game's plot, I must compliment the game in terms of its gameplay. I've played a decent amount of hidden object games by now, but I was really surprised at the diversity of puzzles and hidden object scene types here. Usually, the types of puzzles are recycled from game to game, but there was a fair amount of new ones (to me at least) in this game. In addition to that, the hidden object scenes themselves were not only beautifully detailed but also had multiple types which surprised me a bit. Some involved the usual word lists (a bit like those "I Spy" books), but quite a few were different. Lists of pictures or symbols were sometimes used, which in my opinion made the scenes harder yet also helped diversify the gameplay, which was nice.

Graphically the game looks pretty beautiful, like I said earlier. The landscapes are fantastic and the hidden object scenes look great. The characters look a little strange, but I think it's hard to get a good balance between realistic-looking and cartoony, so I think the developers struck a decent balance at least. In terms of sound, the game is standard fare for a HOG: simple yet calming music and a general lack of sound effects besides affirmatives (like a little "whoosh" if you pick up an item or whatnot). The voice acting is nothing noteworthy in my opinion. Or at least, the protagonist just sounds pretty neutral about everything. It seems like she lacks emotion most of the time, even though [slight spoilers--->]it turns out we learn that her uncle isn't exactly good. Oh, and the uncle's voice actor is a little better, but still not great.

The game is a "collector's edition", like most if not all of Artifex Mundi's Steam releases. This means that the game contains a bonus chapter that's about 1-2 hours long on top of the main game, which takes around 3-5 hours to beat. The length of the game is pretty average compared to others in its genre, but I think that it's just about the perfect length. Any longer and I'd personally get bored from the repetitive nature of the gameplay, and any shorter and I'd feel like my money wouldn't be well spent.

Overall though, I enjoyed my time with Mythic Wonders. It has some problems, mainly in the "samey" feeling of the plot and the lackluster voice acting, but the pleasant music, lovely visuals, and interesting mechanics of the puzzles help propel it to a solid recommendation from me.

• Beautiful landscapes and hidden object scenes
  
• Decent variety in terms of gameplay: multiple creative puzzles to solve, different types of hidden object scenes to search through, and numerous item or element-based obstacles to overcome
  
• Music is calming and fits the mood of each element-themed area
  
• The game takes 3-5 hours to beat, but also includes a bonus chapter that's around 1-2 hours long
  
• Steam achievements, trading cards, and cloud support for saves

• Story feels incredibly similar to many other hidden object games
  
• Voice acting lacks emotion

Gameplay-wise, Mythic Wonders: The Philosopher's Stone is superb. The puzzles are varied and fairly unique, and the hidden object scenes themselves were diverse in their types of lists of objects to find. It also certainly helps that the game looks quite nice. Despite the lackluster story and uninspired voice acting, this is a great hidden object game that any fan of the genre certainly should check it out.