Ever wondered what would happen if your favorite cartoon characters from FOX were to meet and battle it out. *Slowly raises hand* I would and if your anything like me then I know you would too. You see I grew up watching The Simpsons and Family Guy and Futurama just to name a few. These shows always made me laugh and entertained me. And now to have all of these funny characters in a trading card game and to have it in one free andriod app is awesome.
STORY
So, how did this hilarious combination occur. Well you can blame Professor Farnsworth for that. One of his experiments goes haywire bringing all of FOX’s animated characters together.
GAMEPLAY
So first things first you have to pick a character that will represent yourself in the game. They give you a small list of characters for you to choose from. I chose Bob from Bobs Burgers. After that they give you a starter pack of cards to get you going. Then its time to BATTLE!!! Each card has two symbols that represent health and attack power. The character you chose to represent you also has a health meter. Your job is to bring that characters health down to zero. Harder then it sounds because the cards you play are there to protect you. Each card has a picture of an item or character from its respective shows. The coolest thing about this game is that you can fuse the cards you have together to get a stronger item or character from their show. How do i know what cards can fuse and which cards cant. Well there are two ways to figure that out. Way number one is that while in the middle of a battle your cards will surge with electricity. All of the cards in your hand and field that are surging with electricity can be fused together. Way number two would be to choose two cards to be put in a chamber and wait for the chamber to tell you if the cards can be combined. The good thing about fused cards is that not only are they stronger they also have an extra effect. It can be from poison to extra hits to healing.
GRAPHICS and SOUND
The graphics in this game stay true to the shows. Everything in this game is as it should be: Cartooney. One thing i would have liked is voice work for the game. All the conversations in the game is in speech bubbles.
I recommend this game because it is easy enough to understand how to play and the rules are simple. What attracted me to this game apart from other card games is that the cards are recognizable. Each card has a picture of an iconic item or characters from their show. And even if you dont recognize the card it might just still make you laugh. This game is free to play in the google play store. you are really going to enjoy playing this game.
I am Mrboldlyblue. A gamer, a reader, a writer, an artist and all around nerd at heart. I am passionate about all these things and would love to share these things with you. What better way then with a blog.
Moonsprout Games’ turn-based RPG Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is a love letter to the first two games in the Paper Mario series. Those first two entries in the console-based Mario RPG series are regarded by many as some of the best games ever made by Nintendo, which is no small feat.
Bug Fableswas made with a crowdfunded budget of just under $25,000. Considering the massive scale and high standards of quality set by the original two Paper Mario games. It seems that attempting to capture the magic.
I can say confidently, after having – at time of writing – dumped more than 35 hours into the the game, that Bug Fables is the single best Paper Mario game that I’ve played since Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
If this image triggers the same chemical response in your brain as mine, then I suggest you keep reading.
Story
I don’t want to dwell on or over-emphasize the extent to which Bug Fables takes inspiration and mechanics from classic turn-based Paper Mario. So I’ll refrain from going into detail about the similarities unless a major difference between the two comes up. Okay? Okay. For now, let’s take a look at the story in this self-titled “Fable”.
Bug Fables tells the story of Kabbu the Beetle, Vi the Bee, and Leif the Moth, three complete strangers who end up forming an expedition team by circumstance to carry out quests and treasure hunts for the mighty Ant Kingdom. What starts as a simple and friendly quest into the local monster cave turns into a surprisingly long, emotional, and effectively dramatic story of three friends learning and growing together in an attempt to save all they love.
In many respects, it’s a standard RPG story. But it’s presented very well and the high density of memorable and likable characters both in the main cast and on the side kept me intrigued over the course of the plot. Especially when the odd serious moment popped up in the middle of what was mostly a lighthearted tale. I’ll avoid spoilers for now, but just now that there are a solid story and overarching quest to follow on this adventure. With that laid out, let’s talk about gameplay, and how it differs from the familiar Paper Mario formula.
Combat
Unlike the games that it takes inspiration from, there are no bonus partners that get added to party over time. The three members of your party that you have at the start of the game will be your whole party for the rest of the game. Normally for myself and many others part of the fun of an RPG like this is found in adding new characters with new backstories and all to the party. You may not have that to look forward to in Bug Fables. But as a trade off the game is wholly designed around having just these three party members.
Each member of the party gains new abilities both in the overworld and in battle over the course of the story. Which leads to continuous development of new strategies. As well as new obstacles to overcome and puzzles to solve in the overworld. Not to mention, the core combat itself is built around.
The combat is a familiar and time-tested affair. But with it’s own twists on the classic staples of Paper Mario-style turn-based combat. Every character has their own distinct advantages in battle. Which makes each of them equally useful for different reasons. Kabbu can only attack the first ground enemy but can piece defense. Vi can hit airborne enemies, and Leif can attack enemies buried in the ground. Everyone also has a series of different special moves which take TP (Teamwork Points) which they gradually earn throughout the story as well as by leveling up.
The pebble is mightier than the sword!
Leveling and Medals
Adding further depth to the combat are both the leveling system as well as the Medals. Every time the party levels up you get to choose between a permanent addition to health, Teamwork Points, or Medal Points. So your growth in each area is dictated entirely by how you want to build your strategy.
The Medals on the other hand allow for many, many different battle strategies and builds for your characters. There are medals that swap defense for attack. Some that prevent status ailments, and even some that unlock moves for certain characters. It’s straight out of classic Paper Mario. It is just as wonderfully simple and yet staggeringly deep as before.
Side Quests & Bonus Content
As for what you do outside of battle, there’s plenty extra to do. There are boss fights hidden away on secret paths, dozens of side-quests with their own associated characters and storylines. In general a ton of positive reinforcement and rewards for experimentation and exploration. While the world isn’t the largest out there, but no space is wasted. You’d never guess how small the game’s budget was when looking at some of these massive areas loaded with different enemies and obstacles. Had this game released at the time of the original Paper Mario on the N64 or PS1, it would have easily been a rival to the original series’ quality and scale.
There are so many mysterious and curious moments in this game that you’ll find yourself searching around every corner for goodies and new things to fight and collect.
Special
The side quests in particular are something special. Don’t expect Witcher 3 levels of depth and scripting for them or anything. But you still get a ton of excellent side-stories, extra bosses, and loads of intriguing lore and secrets that help build the world of Bugaria. On that note. there are also Lore Books you can collect to help fill you in on the history and culture of the world around. Adding more texture and narrative depth to what appears on the surface to be nothing more than a cutsey game about bugs.
There’s also a simple yet deeply fun to explore cooking system that encourages risks and experimentation. A Magic the Gathering style card game on the side that gets better the more you study enemies in battle, and tons of different items to find and collect. It almost seems like you’ll never run out of things to do, and even though you do eventually. I promise you you’ll be satisfied with your own journey by the end.
Conclusion
There is much more good I could say about Bug Fables. I could go into detail about every little reference and element directly lifted from Paper Mario (of which there are MANY), or how many moments from the story will stick with me for a long time. But I’d rather say this: If you enjoy classic Paper Mario or good RPGs in general, you need to play Bug Fables.
I must stress that Bug Fables is not a perfect game. I did come across the occasional minor bug or performance issue. But it was only ever a minor annoyance at worst, so I can forgive that. The controls for overworld abilities can be a bit difficult and sometimes annoying. But it never becomes too serious or stressful of an issue.
Any other complaints I might have would be to the tune of “the Paper Mario games did X element better”, and I don’t want to linger on thoughts like those, because I believe this game stands strong enough on its own.
While Bug Fables may not be better than the classic Paper Mario games. It might be just as good and deserves to be regarded as a modern RPG classic all it’s own. I am hopeful that many of you will go and enjoy it for yourselves. This game made something fresh and new out of an old formula and made something magical that is all their own.
Watch this video for some extended thoughts on the game.
Greyson is an aspiring author and YouTuber with dozens of consoles and hundreds of gaming hours under his belt. He’s always looking for something new to play, and is always happy to share it with other people. He also likes the Shantae games, like, a lot.
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Alien Isolation. So here’s a point of shame for me: I have never seen the original Alien films. Classic Sci Fi Horror, later would cross over with the Predator series to create some truly awe inspiring Comics, and yet I’ve never seen the Original Material. Despite this, Alien Isolation’s layers and layers of Detail work never fails to fascinate me. These are my thoughts on Alien Isolation and my stay aboard the Sevastopol Space Station.
Sevastopol Station
The setting of Alien Isolation is as much a Character as Amanda Ripley is. Built by the ailing Seegson Corporation, Sevastopol Station was already in the process of being Decommissioned well before life within became a living Hell. Within Sevastopol, you’ll (Usually posthumously) get to know the friendly folk serving as Seegson’s Finest, be it by meeting them face to face, discovering their mangled remains, and especially by finding and reading the seemingly endless exchanges of corporate emails.
Einstein the Xenomorph
It just wouldn’t be an Alien story without at least one of these iconic Sci Fi Horror Villains.
My brother and I call this one Einstein. He got the name because he seems pretty bright, luminous even. And he only ever seems to get bolder and brighter as he familiarizes himself with Sevastopol and the hiding places preferred by its horrified survivors.
While the uninitiated might say Einstein is hungry, I believe he seems more likely to be violently territorial. If he were hungry, I think we’d see much fewer intact bodies. Instead, Einstein only seems to Execute/Educate his victims and leave their corpses to rot.
You must use every asset at your disposal to get around the station whilst Einstein searches for you. Looking at the Map is an action that will pause time, and you’ll be very grateful for that as you plan your escape routes.
Working Joes
Samuels is an Android from Weyland-Yutani, and is a State of the Art model meant to be at least as capable as a Human employee in addition to being nearly indistinguishable from one.
Working Joes… They’re his conceptual Opposite. Working Joes are Androids meant to function as Unskilled Blue Collar Labor, and to be identifiable as Androids at a brief glance. Their faces and skin seem plastic/rubbery and no attempt was made at disguising their mechanical nature. I like the idea of these dudes, but Seegson should have spent a bit more time and money on R&D. Their lack of smarts and strict/blind adherence to Seegson’s every Order (Provided by Sevastopol’s AI Core “Apollo”) has caused/enabled them to use excessive force on anybody that dares to break the Rules. Soooooooooooo these dudes will kill you dead if they find you trespassing… Probably while claiming you are hysterical and simply overreacting as they snap your neck and/or crack your skull.
Apollo
Apollo serves Seegson as the AI Core that keeps everything running on Sevastopol. Having an AI to handle day to day tasks frees up Sevastopol personnel for vastly more free time than they might otherwise have. Though by now all closed, Sevastopol was formerly home to a plethora of businesses owned by Third Parties meant to Entertain and Serve the needs of Seegson Employees.
General Gameplay
We’ve got what is mostly a standard FPS Control scheme. Right Trigger fires, Left Aims, D Pad switches between Weapons. Beyond the basics, there are a few unique mechanics that help define what Alien Isolation is all about.
Peeking Around
This sounds so small. But it’s thematically critical to the experience, especially on harder difficulties. By pressing the Left Shoulder button, you can lean over barriers and peek around walls to get a glimpse of what sits behind it without exposing too much of yourself. This feature is brilliant to my mind, even if very situational since it has synergy with the Motion Sensor to enable this super sneaky “Look before you Leap” gameplay. If playing on Hard or Nightmare, you’ve got to avoid encounters whenever possible. Thus I always find myself relying on this move when the Motion Sensor feels inadequate for assessing a situation. You’ll also need to use it to hide successfully in Lockers from the ever attentive Xenomorph.
Motion Sensing/ The Booper
This is Isolation’s answer to Radar. Occasionally while walking about, the Motion Sensor will Boop to indicate a Moving Object is detectable within its range. It’s very basic, and occasionally unreliable in tight spaces and crowded areas. The Motion Sensor (Booper) feels like a real technology, one that a person might use for hunting down Rats and other vermin for extermination. This Sci Fi Fish Finder will be your bread and butter, the only reliable way to detect Hostiles outside your Field Of Vision.
The Motion Sensing Booper will also direct you towards your next objective with a little bar that moves around your screen, functioning as a Floating Arrow would in other games. So looking at the Motion Sensor serves both to warn you of threats and as a Navigational Aid.
Using the Vents
In Space, Breathable air is an essential feature of any Space Station or Space Craft. And along with that comes the need for circulating the air so as to control temperatures and generally maintain livable atmospheric conditions. To that end, you’ll find countless Ventilation Networks of rather generous proportions probably meant to be easily accessible when repairs are needed. Sometimes, your Motion Sensor may give up on you or otherwise malfunction. And other times, you’ll find far worse things in the vents than mere Technical Difficulties. Do try to remember that many doors and blocked passages can be circumvented by Clever Girls that know their way around a vent or two.
Crafting System
Amanda Ripley is blessed with a knack for dealing with Machinery. A talent that comes handy in this journey through the dilapidated Sevastopol Station. So as you look about, you’ll come across Blueprints for devices Amanda will be able to assemble from Components you find laying around. This is a rudimentary Crafting system that feels grounded in reality and Justified by the Gameplay when compared to many games that seem to have such a system just for the sake of having it. While this is mostly limited to flavors of Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs aren’t so scary when you’re the one making them… And everybody can appreciate turning some bits and bobs into a MedKit!
IED/Grenades
Pipe Bomb
The classic IED, Pipe Bombs are activated and then go Kaboom a few seconds later. An advanced recipe requiring a lot of components, and a great way to blow yourself to bits if you get careless. Sorry, but it’ll at most annoy Mr Einstein and maybe startle him.
Smoke Bomb
While Einstein the Xenomorph has Thermal vision and can easily see through Smoke, anything else will have a hard time detecting anything through it. Great for making an escape when you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.
FlashBang
For those times you just want somebody to Pay Attention and stand still for a bit, the FlashBang beats all. A FlashBang will detonate soon after activation, and its flash of blinding white light and deafening noise make it a solid Item to Invest your Components into building at any opportunity. Einstein hates these, and they’ll disorient him for a little while.
NoiseMaker
This thing is precious, but I screw myself over with it as often as I use it correctly.The Noisemaker will start making a racket of Electronic noises a few seconds after Activation. This lets you make a simple distraction anywhere. Just, keep an eye and ear out for Einstein before you throw it. Several times now, I have used a Noisemaker and fled the scene only to run directly into a big Xenomorph hug. Verify the location of any threats before you toss one of these.
Molotov
Soooooooo why is this so complex to build? I don’t know. But it’s probably for the sake of Balance. Fire is something Xenomorphs are genuinely afraid of, and the Molotov Cocktail is the Improvised Incendiary of choice for Anarchists throughout the Universe! Unlike other Grenades, the Molotov will detonate upon Impact. So be careful not to forget and try to bounce it against a wall for a trick shot!
My Experiences and Final Thoughts
This is not a Shooter. While combat and weapons and ammo are important for surviving. It is all but useless against Einstein in a direct confrontation. He’s simply stronger, tougher, and a lot faster than you’ll ever be.
Despite all the details that abound in Alien Isolation. It always returns to the simple formula of you trying to survive the pursuit of a terrifying beast. The Plot does a good job in my opinion of making each step of the journey feel justified, and the environments feel real and inhabitable. I can really imagine people living and working aboard Sevastopol, it makes sense to me.
AI
The AI of the Xenomorph is unique, and the player cannot help but become familiar with its habits as they play. It feels Alive in a way few games have ever managed, and reminds me in a malevolent way of the benevolent Trico creature so central to the Gameplay of The Last Guardian.
Alien Isolation is a game that has not Compromised one bit in fulfilling its Promises. Even to its own detriment in some ways, and I greatly appreciate that. You are promised the experience of a lone survivor trying to stay alive and get off a dilapidated Space Station that has completely gone to Hell.
You’re promised that a vicious and awe inspiring and seemingly immortal beast will hunt for you, and that is exactly what happens. Consequently, you’ll need to deal with that beast in what few ways you can. By Evading it, Hiding from it, and Distracting it so you can then Run from it and hopefully reach the next Section of the game. While Einstein the Xenomorph will at times relax his pursuit to terrorize other survivors within Sevastopol. He’ll always come back around to you before very long. It gets frustrating and at times even tedious. But I can’t realistically see a way to get around that without sacrificing some of the experience.
Cinematic Horror Brilliance
Yes, you’ll spend more time than you would probably prefer to spend sitting in a locker and listening for the footprints to fade off, or for Einstein to switch things up and climb into a Vent, and you’re definitely going to get very well acquainted with the Booper. But in all truth, I don’t think I’d enjoy this game so much if the game were any different.
I consider Alien Isolation just about as good as it could possibly be while fulfilling its artistic vision. It’s an uncompromised piece of Cinematic Horror Brilliance.
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.
