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Month: October 2019

Game Recommendations -PifflePiffle

Game Recommendations -Piffle

Published by Robert Ball on 28th October 2019

Piffle is cute, a very cute little Block Breaker game. That being said, it feels like half of my impression already. There are deeper items almost anywhere you might think to look. Simplicity isn’t bad though, and having spent four hours on this simple pleasure… I want something substantial.

Piffle is candy. A nice flavor, delightful presentation, and for a bit at a time it’s fine as a little dopamine rush.

But there isn’t a lot to chew on at a time. I spent a dollar on my Shiba Inu Piffles, and so was able to play without ads for a long while. As said, several hours went into this.

You have a number of balls called Piffles, they’re cute. You carefully aim a shot, considering the rebounding and bounce trajectory, then fire all in rapid succession at once toward the same point, trying to break a variety of blocks. Oddly cute blocks because of course the blocks you break are cute. My favorite is the Pigata. Piñata shaped like pigs, they drop random stuff when broken.

All blocks have an HP count, piffles do a set damage per hit. Blocks descend in turn based fashion, one space after each throw, smooshing you once they draw too near. Several Item types exist, helping give a Resource Management aspect, purchaseable in a pinch with ingame currency. Rest assured, when you get smooshed, you are smooshed in cute fashion as well.

Piffle is cute, accessible, and you should try this bit of virtual candy if you have a Mobile device that will run it.

That being said, I’d be more engaged if I could skip to some ultra hardcore difficulty. Simple and Easy isn’t really my thing.

I’m 29 years old today and a parent of one delightful six year old. I love just about everything about videogames, and am thrilled that I can write about them. Advocating for the poor is my other hobby, and I will gladly offer whatever aid I can if approached.

Twitter: @RobertKellyBall

Email: llabtrebor@gmail.com

You can recommend games to the Polyspice audience too. Take a look at our content guidelines.

Recommended Game-Sonic DashSonic Dash

Recommended Game-Sonic Dash

Published by Sean L. Akins on 14th October 2019

If you’re like me and have been playing video games for the better part of the past 25 years, mobile games are a hard sell. Which is why a game like Sonic Dash is so good. Published by Sega, because of course an official Sonic the Hedgehog game would be, Sonic Dash is an endless runner where you take control of one of many characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe and have them run forever forward collecting rings and rolling into badniks and dodging obstacles until you fall off the edge, hit a badnik without any rings or run into an obstacle.

Graphics

Sonic Dash looks like a modern Sonic game.  Every character has their modern character models and all the zones and animals look like they were created with a modern zone design.  All the text is large and easy to read, and everything is easy to distinguish the portrait mode the game sets you into.

Sound

Sonic Dash sounds like a modern Sonic the Hedgehog game. All the sounds come from the modern games, and each zone, whether throwback like Green Hill or Sky Sanctuary, or more unique zones like Temple and Snow Mountain, all look like they were made to fit in with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

Controls

Sonic Dash controls very well for a mobile Sonic game. All the controls are swipes, pure and simple, and you don’t need to be extremely accurate with them. You have plenty of time to swipe to dodge, jump and roll to get through the stages, with an occasional tap for the homing attack in the few instances you need to do so.

Gameplay

Sonic Dash has you running endlessly forward as you collect rings, roll into badniks to save the captured animals and defeat either Doctor Eggman or Zazz in a specific stage tied to the boss fights. And when you get enough rings, you can activate a boost that lets you crash through obstacles and badniks and draws rings to you no matter where they are on the screen. You keep doing this, trying to beat your previous high score until you finally succumb to mistakes. From there, you use the ring to upgrade your characters and animals you collected to unlock new stages.

Ads and in-app purchases

Sonic Dash has both ads and in-app purchases. The ads aren’t too bad, since you can view one to double your ring count at the end of a run, bring you back from the dead to continue a run and at the end of the run. In-app purchases unlock certain characters you can’t unlock through other mean, though since I’ve owned this game, I’ve seen a couple events that allowed me to unlock a couple characters that I’d have had to buy with real money normally.

Final Analysis

Sonic Dash is a perfect implementation of Sonic the Hedgehog into a mobile game. It feels right to have Sonic the Hedgehog and his pals running forward, dodging obstacles and collecting rings as you work toward a high score. Whether you’re a Sonic fan or not, don’t miss out on this.

You can check me out on twitter to see my personal updates, my personal blog for full reviews and other things, or my patreon for updates on my novel and access to certain blog content 48 hours early.

You can recommend games to the Polyspice audience too. Take a look at our content guidelines.

Recommended Game-We Bare Bears Match3 RepairsWe Bare Bears

Recommended Game-We Bare Bears Match3 Repairs

Published by Sean L. Akins on 2nd October 2019

If you’re like me and have been playing video games for the better part of the past 25 years, mobile games are a hard sell. Which is why a game like We Bare Bears Match3 Repairs is so good. Developed by SundayToz Inc, this is a match 3 game starring the cast of the Cartoon Network series, We Bare Bears, a very smart show that doesn’t talk down to the kids who are fans of it, and it tackles issues like “modern millennial anxieties” and is great for representing racial minorities. You play as Grizzly, Panda and Ice Bear, as well as their friends, as they clean up and rebuild the areas you see on the show through match 3 puzzles.  Every time you solve a puzzle, you get a star, which you spend on items to clean up the map.  This is a very family friendly game, so even though I know the Polyspice audience is mostly adults, it’ll be fun for your kids if you let them use your device.

Graphics

We Bare Bears Match3 Repairs looks like the show, so if you or your kids   Every single thing in this game looks like it came from the show, so all the characters and locations look like they should look for this series. Griz looks like Griz, Panda looks like Panda, Ice Bear like Ice Bear, Charlie like Charlie, etc, and so do the locations.  I would have to say that everything in this game looks like it came out of the show.

Sound

We Bare Bears Match3 Repairs has sound clips for vocalization of the characters, sound effects from the show, and distinct music for both maps and the match three sections.  All of it feels like it came from the show; everything from the vocalizations to the music to the sound effects.

Gameplay

We Bare Bears Match3 Repairs is a simple match 3 game, which has all that kind of game entails. You swipe up, swipe down, swipe left and right to move your “gems”, fruits, veggies and other snacks the bears eat in this case, in order to match 3 or more of them to make them disappear. This game also has objectives to complete in each map, from destroying a certain number of popcorn pieces to breaking ice blocks to finding all the Charlies on the map.

Ads and in-app purchases

We Bear Bears Match3 Repairs has absolutely NO ads. However, it does have a LOT of microtransactions. Too many, in my book, because, since this is a family friendly game based on a cartoon, you absolutely NEED to lock down your ability to easily make purchases if you’re going to let your kids play this.  Do NOT let your kids play this without locking down their ability to make purchases, because every adult has a horror story of their kids getting their hands on a game and them buying $300 dollars or more on microtransactions.

Final Analysis

We Bare Bears Match3 Repairs is fun Match 3 game, overabundance of microtransaction options notwithstanding. Your kids will love the game due to it being based on one of their favorite Cartoon Network shows, and you will too if you’re a fan of We Bare Bears. 

You can visit me on twitter to see personal updates, my blog for full reviews and other things, and you can support me on patreon for updates on my novel and access to certain content on my blog 48 hour early.

You can recommend games to the Polyspice audience too. Take a look at our content guidelines.