One Minute Gaming #32 - Trioo

This week I've been playing a skill game called Trioo - it's been driving me crazy so I just had to share! The basic game is a little like Pong - just a moveable bat at the bottom of the screen and bouncing balls. That sounds so simple but it's all about timing!

The balls sometimes drop from both side of the screen and bounce to different heights so that means the bat occasionally needs to be in two places at once. Split second timing is required to stop the balls from falling off the bottom of the screen.

There are two modes - challenge mode and endless mode. I'm terrible at this game - so far I've only made it to level 12 and with 84 different challenges to do, it's going to take me ages! I'm no better at endless mode either, I think my top score is around 28!

The music is ok but I usually switch game music off and the sound effects are as basic as the graphic design but not too annoying.

It doesn't have a real cash shop but it does have adverts pop up now and then. You can share with your gamecenter friends and there is a way to link to Facebook and Twitter if you really want to but I don't think many people will use that function.

Overall, it's a very simple design and game but it does need fast reflexes. I'd give it a 5 out of 10 as I don't think it has much staying power.

If you have a game you'd like me to try, you can contact me on Twitter @NevAHAddict or you can leave a comment below.

So until next time, have fun!

***************

Check out my latest project!

Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

One Minute Gaming #31 - Robot Love

This week, I've been playing a cute puzzle game called Robots Need Love Too but it's under Robot Love on the app store. You get to chose the names for the two love lorn robots and the aim of the game is to reunite them at the end of each level.

The puzzle board consists of movable direction blocks and other random obstacles. Your job is to create a pathway for each robot to move from their seperate start point to their joint finish point, collecting hearts along the way too.The graphics are colorful and cute which will appeal to kids and the music is actually kinda soothing.

At the start of each level, you get a little more of  the story and there are 4 chapters. The first chapter is 25 levels but it looks like you need to pay to open the next chapters. It's only a couple of dollars though and you get an additional 75 levels to play through.

It's a fairly simple design and should appeal to kids. It's not as addictive as some but it's certainly a good game to waste 5 minutes here and there. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10.

If you have a game you'd like me to try, you can contact me on twitter @NevAHAddict or leave a comment below.

So until next time, have fun!

***************

Check out my latest project!

Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

One Minute Gaming #30 - Disco Bees

This week, I've been playing a game that Cold suggested, called Disco Bees. It's a match three type of game like Candy Crush but what makes this a little different is that the board is made up of hexagonal boxes rather than squares so all the moves are at an angle.

It has the same basic idea of swap two bees to make a row of 3 or more in the same color and some of the levels have boxes filled with honey which you have to clear. It's based on a limited number of moves per level and as usual, the levels get harder to complete the further up the ladder you get.

The animations are cute and for a row of 4 bees, you get a ninja bee which has a funny little animation to clear a whole row when you use it to make a match. I think Cold likes it because the music is pure 70's disco background. How he plays while disco dancing, I don't know!

It has a way to link to your Facebook account if you want to so you can send and receive presents and keep score on a friends leaderboard. There is some cash shop stuff but no where near as much as usual. I actually had to hunt for it which is a refreshing change for a free app!

Overall, it's a fun little time waster with animations that would be great for kids. It is just another version of Candy Crush though so I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

If you have a game you'd like me to try, you can contact me on Twitter @NevAHAddict or leave a comment below. So until next time, have fun!

***************

Check out my latest project!

Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

One Minute Gaming #29 - Kill Shot

This week, I've been playing Kill Shot, a mission based shooting game where you are the sniper with a variety of weapons. I'm not very good at these kinds of games but this one is fun so far.

You can move your guy sideways and swing the gun barrel in an arc and that's all (so far anyway). It's not a run around shooting stuff kind of game but with all the weapon upgrades, various kinds of weapons and enemies doing their thing, it's not quite as easy as shooting ducks at a fairground either!

The graphics are pretty good and it is quite gory with the slow motion kill shot but you can turn off the blood in the settings if you want to.

As usual there is a real cash shop but if you just want some lighthearted shooting fun, you won't need to worry about that. You can follow the leaderboards too & compare your scores against friends if you have GameCenter enabled or if you want to connect to Facebook.

I haven't played many games like this so it's difficult to judge but it's an ok game so I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

If you have a game you'd like me to try, you can contact me on twitter @NevAHAddict. So until next time, have fun!

******************

Check out my latest project!

Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

Return to Stormwind

Last week I finally caved in and bought myself a month of game time for World of Warcraft. I'd been seeing so many tweets about the pre-expansion patch that I just had to go and have a look for myself.

I logged each alt to see what they look like with the new character model and I'm ok with my Draenai's. My main definitely needed a new face though so I took her straight to the barber shop. Not sure the screenshot above is her best angle, I think she's half asleep but believe me, it's much better than the new version of her old face!

Two of my three gnome alts are lowbies so I've already deleted one and once I move everything over to another alt, my little banker gnome will be deleted too. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my level 86 Gnome Rogue though. I don't play my Rogue very often so I may leave her for now and decide later.

After scrabbling through all their banks and rearranging some stuff, I took my main over to the Blasted lands to have a look at the Dark Portal event. She's a Paladin and I've been struggling with her for quite a while but out of all my alts, her toolbar was the least empty so I did a quick shuffle to fill the gaps and headed out.

I'm pretty sure my DPS was rubbish but she felt more comfortable to play & I wasn't struggling to kill the mobs. I get the feeling that the mobs are fairly straightforward for everyone though so that's not really a good indicator!

I got a few gear upgrades too so her item level is around 500 now - I really hadn't done much gear chasing in the whole of Mists so it's nice to see it creeping up.

I've barely even looked at the Auction House either - I decided to make myself actually play the game rather than just one small part of it. I only have 30 days and I don't want to spend all of them in the Auction House! I am a returning addict though so this will be a good test to see if I can get back to enjoying questing, dungeons and maybe even some PvP.

****************
Check out my latest project
Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

One Minute Gaming #28 - Where's My Water 2

 This week, I took a look at a classic Disney game called Where's My Water 2. It's a swiping puzzle game where you have to create pathways for the water to get to various members of the Alligator family. Swampy wants to take a shower but Allie needs steam for her steam powered musical instruments!

That doesn't sound too hard at first but there are gates, funnels, steam, poisonous water and you also have to get the rubber ducks wet to capture them on the way! Some of the challenges flip the world upside down which is strange and kinda messes with your brain!

It has different ducks for you to collect and a variety of power ups. There is a real cash shop but it only has 2 options - a starter pack of power ups & hints and a monster bundle with more of the same. I've also not seen more than a couple of adverts which is a refreshing change for so many of these free games!

The characters are cute in a Disney way and the music is what you would expect. I think kids would love this game if they like puzzles and have the patience to keep trying. I only downloaded it a couple of days ago but I've been playing it a fair bit and I may very well keep this one for the occasional brain exercise so I'm giving Where's My Water 2 an 8 out of 10.

If you have a game you'd like me to try, you can contact me on twitter @NevAHAddict

So until next time, have fun!

****************

Ingress Got Me Out & About!

Just before I left for my trip to the USA, Ingress became available to iPhone users and Cold picked it up immediately. I have a few Ingress players on my Twitter feed too so I'd seen a few posts about it but never really took much notice. Sadly my Android phone is a 'lite' version which is nice and cheap on my monthly budget but doesn't have much memory so I couldn't play. All that changed when I arrived Stateside though. You'd think after almost 5 months apart that Cold would have put his phone away and talked to me - well, he did, for about 5 minutes at a time!

Yes, he was hooked. Everywhere we went, he had his phone in his hand to hack or capture portals, make links and fields and generally not pay much attention to crossing roads. At first it drove me crazy and I felt like slapping the phone right out of his hand but I'd budgeted to get myself a phone I could use in the US so once I bought my Samsung S3, I downloaded the game so I could play too.

I should mention that I had already downloaded it for my iPad and although my iPad is wi-fi only, I am able to use my old phone as a mobile hotspot so I had tried to play a bit at home. Unfortunately my whole town only had about 8 portals in it so it meant I needed to jump in the car every time I wanted to hack a portal! Obviously that wasn't practical, but in St Louis, Cold has about 10 portals within 50 yards of his building and 2 he can reach from his sofa! Needless to say, the old motto of 'if you can't beat them, join them' applied here and by 6 weeks into my stay, I hit Level 8 and over 1 million XP!

Enlightened Logo T-shirtCheck PriceBrake For Portals Bumper StickersCheck PriceI'd Rather Be Portal Hacking MugCheck Price

Living in a city with great public transport means you don't really need a car so we hacked portals as we walked or rode the bus. Once his vacation time was over and I had all day to myself, I found that I was going out to walk around the University Campus just to hack portals and maintain our coverage of the area. There's also a nice short walk to fill/maintain about 6 other portals too so if I didn't have time for a full Campus walk, I'd just go do the lap around the block instead!

It may seem sad but we also planned some of our day trips based on portal density. We were going places for me to see parts of the city I hadn't seen but if we couldn't decide where to go, the portal density was the deciding factor! There are various achievements in the game, including Unique Portals hacked and Unique Captures so it's a great motivator to get out and about to places you've not been before. We had a weekend in Philadelphia while I was there too and that gave us over 300 new portals on our scores.

Overall, it's a great idea for a game and if there's anything that will get a gamer out and about, it's having targets and achievements to reach. Now that I'm home, I will be keeping my eyes open for places and things to submit as new portals in my home town. Since I've been away, there are already 4 or 5 new portals here so I'm hopeful that a walk in town will not only keep me moving but will help my game experience too!

****************

Check out my latest project!

Gifts for Gamers and Geeks