So, you have a Nintendo Switch and have bought a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. With that subscription comes free NES and Super NES games. You’re excited to play these free NES and Super NES games, but you don’t know where to start? Then let me guide you to a little game called Fire ‘N’ Ice for the NES. Fire ‘N’ Ice has become one of my favorite NES games to play.
Story
This game begins with the story about an island of ice. On this island lived ice fairies that lived in peace and harmony, until one day a dark wizard came and attacked the island spreading his flame everywhere. This is where you come in. The queen has chosen you to save the island and stop the evil wizard.
Time to put these guys on ice!
Gameplay
Fire ‘N’ Ice is a fantasy puzzle game that will make your brain work! The game consists of nine areas with each one having nine levels and a boss level. The goal of each level is to put out all of the fire creatures. To do this you will have to create blocks of ice and knock them into the fire creatures.
You may be thinking; “But wait…I thought this was a puzzle game…” Well it is. Reaching every fire creature in a level is not as easy as it sounds. When you create a block of ice it appears in front of you one square down. Knowing this you need to place these ice blocks strategically so that you can either push an ice block into a flame creature or drop an ice block from above on a fire creature.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is very similar to graphics of a Gameboy Color game. I would describe it as a pixelated game with a cartoonish style. It is an NES game after all.
The imagery does repeat itself, but the bright colors and quality sprites help make up for it.
Tips & Tricks
This game can get hard sometimes. Remember that there are no lives. This means that you can try and die unlimited amount of times. If you are really stuck you can always skip the level and play another. That’s right you can play the levels out of order. But you will still need to beat all nine levels in an area to play the boss level.
Want to take a break? Are you feeling creative? Well aside from the main game, this game lets you design your very own levels. It gives you everything you have seen in the main game at your disposal to make your very own puzzle.
Conclusion
Fire ‘N’ Ice is a very fun puzzle game. Whenever you complete a level you get this great feeling of satisfaction knowing that you were smart enough to solve the puzzle. This game reminds me so much of the game Total Party Kill I reviewed a while ago on Polyspice. From the graphics and art style to the music.
If you have a Nintendo Switch and a Nintendo Switch Online subscription you should definitely check out Fire ‘N’ Ice. It’s free, and hey, who doesn’t love a free game? Well, it’s on to the next…
For NES era box-art, this is surprisingly accurate to the actual game!
If you’re looking for that next great game to add to your collection, then FEZ is just what the doctor ordered. What is FEZ? Is it a 2D platformer? Is it a 3D puzzle game? What if I told you that it is both? That’s right my fellow gamers, you have just come across a gem of a game. A game that is both 2D and 3D (and available on PS4 and Steam).
Graphics & Gameplay
FEZ is a fully pixelated game that makes beautiful 3D levels. The 2D portion of this game comes in the form of a 2D platformer. What makes this game 3D is that when you rotate the environment (which I will explain later) you can clearly see that each level is in fact 3D, but only being viewed from one angle of four at a time.
Sometimes you need to look at things from a fresh perspective.
So what do you do in FEZ? The goal in this game is to collect yellow cubes that have been scattered across the land. To do this you need to explore and solve puzzles. The cool thing about this game is how both the 2D and 3D are used together. You start off with a 2D view of each level as a platformer. What makes it cool is the variety of obstacles that this game throws at you.
Bounce pads, disintegrating floors, and invisible platforms are just a few traps that you will encounter. But in order to collect every cube you will have to use the power of the third dimension. In the beginning of the game you are given the power to travel in between the second and third dimension and rotate the level. It is your job to use this power to explore every nook and cranny. Using this power will let you reach different areas of the level you couldn’t reach before.
Careful, don’t fall.
Tips & Tricks
FEZ is a game of many secrets and collectibles. Solving puzzles will sometimes give you an anti-cube. Anti-cubes are blue and harder to find than the yellow cubes. Also one thing that you will like about this game is that if you fall from a high platform and die you will respawn in the same spot right before you fell. So don’t be afraid to explore high areas.
Another thing is that the more yellow cubes you find the more levels you will unlock. In this game you will either find yellow cubes or yellow cube shards. Collecting eight yellow cube shards will combine to make one whole yellow cube. Lastly, in the opening sequence of the game it may seem like the game has glitched. Don’t worry though, it’s all part of the game.
“Mysterious Cubes” could have been a good alternate title for this game.
Conclusion
I really loved playing FEZ. It was a very unique gameplay experience. The fact that this game is both 2D and 3D makes it that much better. I mentioned in the beginning that this game is a gem and I really meant it. There is really no other game out there like it. You can buy FEZ on the PlayStation store for 13 dollars or on steam for 10 dollars. Although I haven’t played FEZ on Steam, I would recommend playing it on the PS4, because in my opinion you’ll have better control over the main character using a controller. Well, now I’m off to play the next game to recommend…
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxeis a highly unique cooking game. It was originally released for Nintendo Switch and PC in 2017 as just Battle Chef Brigade. Before eventually being expanded on into its current version with several new modes and the added title of Deluxe. It remains to this day one of the most unique indie games that I’ve ever played. It’s unfortunate that more people haven’t heard about it. I suppose that’s the benefit of writing for a site like Polyspice. I get a chance to recommend a neat little side dish like this.
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe is – in the simplest of terms – a combination of a side-scrolling beat-em-up, platforming, cooking, and match-three gameplay elements. It might sound intimidating or like too much to handle. But I can assure you that it plays like a dream. Once you get used to the controls, you’ll be eagerly slicing and dicing your way through fantastical beast galore in order to assemble gorgeous looking gourmet meals.
I barely even care that that egg yolk is also an eyeball, that looks delicious.
You play as Mina, a small-town cook working at her family restaurant who runs away from it all to accept an attempt to join the Battle Chef Brigade. Most of the plat after that is twists and turns that I’d rather not spoil here. But it’s a largely light affair. The story smartly never compromises the gameplay and keeps it safe with cooking challenge after cooking challenge. Making sure to take the time to characterize your opponents in the time between the matches. While also allowing the difficulty to gently curve upwards at a reasonable pace.
Gameplay
In the average battle, you have several judges who want certain flavors emphasized in the dish you serve to them. And each ingredient that you collect from different enemies has different levels of three different types of flavor. All with their own set color. You mix the ingredients into the meal as necessary in order to match the general flavor profile the judge wants. And the rest of the details are up to you.
The dev team really wanted to make a cooking game that encouraged creativity, rather than forced you to strictly follow recipes as many other games do. Battle Chef Brigade shines once you realize that you can basically just do what you want. And as long as you do it well, you’ll succeed. Even if you fail a cooking challenge, most of them are only a few minutes long. As so retrying steals little time from you. And every failure teaches you a little more about how to play the game more optimally.
The meat is a little tough…
Elements
There are multiple elements and items added to the gameplay the course of the story that builds on the established mechanics quite well and added at a reasonable pace so that the gameplay doesn’t get too repetitive. Things like fragile ingredients and removing bones from meat, all-natural things for a chef to consider that makes the experience that little bit more skill-testing and immersive.
What also helps the gameplay expand from it’s already solid core concept is the simple but strong customization system. Different types of cookware, spices, and stat-changing gear can be equipped between matches in order to sway the odds in your favor or alter the playstyle more to your liking. It’s a system that provides depth to whatever you decide you want your playstyle to be without being too alienating with it’s depth.
The gear customization screen has more combos than an old fashioned diner.
Graphics and Content
Then of course there’s the aesthetic of the game. Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe was inspired by the works of developer Vanillaware, such as Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. This all shows in both the fantastical setting and beat-em-up elements, as well as the graphics. The visuals are all hand-drawn with an anime-inspired look loaded with both bright and soft colors and loads of memorable and diverse character designs. The animation itself might be rather minimal, but it’s mostly forgivable due to how expressive the art is by itself, held up additionally by the fantastic voice acting and solid soundtrack.
For $20 on all platforms Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe also offers a solid amount of content. On top of the roughly 12 hour long story mode, there’s also a local multiplayer mode, daily challenges with online leaderboards, free play mode, a mode similar to “Break the Targets” from the Super Smash Bros. series. It’s a great big buffet of a game with a one time fee, which is the best type of game and buffet.
Conclusion
There is not much that Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe does that I can criticize. The story could have been a bit more fleshed out in certain places, and some additional animations and characters to play as would be nice. But aside from that there is a lot here to love. It is a serious value for money, addictively fun, and still now wholly unique among both puzzle and cooking games.
Playing a game like Battle Chef Brigade is like taking a break from your favorite restaurants that you normally order from to try out a weird new food-truck. Perhaps it isn’t as familiar to you as your other typical meals. But sometimes it’s good to try new things and experiment because you might find something new to love. Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe is available now for PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
What are you waiting for? Strap on an apron! Vive La Brigade!
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.
My first Article for Polyspice covered a game called Piffle, which I had some fun with and can wholeheartedly recommend to casual players. But…After all that candy, I wanted something deeper. Something more thoughtful and intellectually filling. If Piffle was the Mobile Game equivalent to Candy, then Labyrinth of the Witch is a big & beefy Steak. And so once it caught my eye and captured my fancy a number of times, it became the topic I wish to analyze today for you.
Premise
Labyrinth of the Witch/LotW is a Roguelike. Which means that every death takes away virtually everything you were carrying. There is a distinction to be made between RogueLite and Roguelike here, but I feel the player loses enough with each death to qualify as a Roguelike and doesn’t keep enough progress to describe it as a RogueLite.
Another element crucial to the Roguelike genre that LotW proudly upholds is its Pseudorandom/Procedural Level Generation. Even if you play a thousand times, your world will have a differing Layout each time. This prevents the Player from simply Memorizing paths and Loot and progressing through Trial and Error.
Roguelikes appeal to me for their Accessibility. (That sounds insane, let me explain.) I can pop into a Roguelike and attempt a run any time. I rarely have to remember where I left off since generally I’m starting from scratch every time. So I suppose I should clarify, I enjoy their Accessibility for Me and they satisfy my particular tastes. LotW lets me make Risk Assessing decisions, to gamble with solid stakes. I enjoy that sensation of Consequence that comes with Permadeath, the gravity of each decision.
And in the case of LotW, the cute Anime Pixel Art style satisfies my far less intense desire for as much cuteness as can be fit into my gaming experiences.
So now you know what makes Me love the game, Let’s start talking about how You will go about Playing the Game.
Gameplay
On the lower end of your Device, you’ll see multiple Icons. The Arrow Keys will allow you to move in the Direction they point, the Search Icon will let you look down at whatever is at your Feet, the Bow and Arrow Icon will let you let loose an Arrow towards wherever you are looking, and the Inventory Icon will look into your Inventory Bag so you can see what stuff you are carrying. The attack button depicts a Sword, and the button for accessing Magic Stones depicts a Magic Stone. I adore the simplicity and Accessibility of this Control Layout.
Movement throughout LotW takes place upon a Grid and is Turn Based, with everyone everywhere moving more or less Simultaneously.
There are Rooms and there are Halls, Rooms being the Open spaces where most Items and Enemies will be found, and Halls being the Dark (Visibility Poor) and narrow paths that connect Rooms to one another.
You’ll start with no shield, no weapon, and at LV1 (Level 1). This means your Defense and Offense stats will be very low until you find at least a Shield or Sword and Equip them. Your Player LV will increase when you have gained enough EXP (Experience Points). EXP are gained through defeating the various Monsters you encounter, and once you have enough you will gain a Level to LV 2 and so on. Each LV gives you extra HP (Health Points, ATK (Attack) and DEF (Defense) to help you along your way.
Something you’ll also always start with, is a full Stomach. This means you’ll have some time to find food before you start being in danger of starvation. The Hunger system exists as one way the game forces you to manage your Inventory and your Time. By Default, you can carry up to 20 Items at once, with stacks of any one type of Arrow being an exception and taking up only one Slot per type of Arrow. By eating Bread, your Stomach will fill by 50%, and so I always try to have two even if it takes up 1/20 of my Inventory space each. Every few turns, your Stomach will deplete by 1%, and when it reaches 0% you’ll start taking Starvation Damage until you Die or get some food into your system. Don’t go killing monsters willy nilly only to die of an empty stomach!
The first item I always look for is a Weapon. So long as you have a reasonably full Stomach, you’ll Heal damage over time. So my first Priority is wiping out Enemies as quickly as I can, and beggars can’t be choosers. Weapons vary, but in general all of them will do more damage than attacking Barehanded.
Similarly, I will take any Shield I can get my grubby mitts on. If later I have a better Sword or Shield and pick up what looks like an inferior one, I’ll Throw it at an enemy to score some free Ranged damage and get rid of the Item. You’d be surprised how often a little extra damage dealt to an enemy can turn the tide of battle. Note that Rings and Food to my knowledge don’t do much damage at all, since they lack the weight needed to really wallop something.
Rings! I love Rings. They often will Buff something, though bad Rings exist that will smack you with a bad effect coupled with a Curse for good measure.
Curses are a hazard inherent to all equipment, any Unidentified Equipment may be hiding a Curse, which prevents you from taking off the usually terrible piece of equipment. They’re cured with a Purification Scroll which will be covered later.
Potions, these are kind of an RPG staple. And in LotW as with most Roguelikes, they do not start off Identified. So you won’t know what that Cyan Potion does until you Drink it or shatter it on somebody else by Throwing it at them and observing the Effect. Every time you start a New Game, the Colors and their corresponding Effects will be Randomized. This helps prevent memorization of what is what, and helps create that “Treading the Unknown” kind of Tension I so adore in my Roguelikes. Anyway, should you choose to Drink an unidentified Potion, it will at least fill your Stomach by 5%. What it does beyond that point is anybody’s guess!
Personally, I recommend using up Unknown Potions if you are in good shape and should be able to Survive whatever they might do, so that at least you learn their Effect while in a Controlled Environment rather than the Heat of Battle. Especially if you know you have a Cure All Potion on hand to counter any Poison or other Negative effect.
These potions may inflict Leadfoot, Blindness, they may Warp you to another point on the Map, there are a lot of possibilities both Good and Bad to consider and Potions allow you to Use them on Yourself or on your Enemies.
Wands are similar to Potions, but they cannot be used on yourself. Instead they are Zapped in one of the Eight Cardinal Directions and will only be identified if you can see what Effect they cause (Or don’t cause). Wands may Swap positions between you and the Enemy. They may Damage the Enemy. They may Split the Enemy and cause you to deal with Two of them at a Time. Because of the nature of Wands, I recommend they be treated with more caution than Potions. On the bright side, they are Multi Use items. Even if you don’t know the number of Uses (Called Charges) they are carrying.
You’ll know the exact number of Charges by using an Identify Scroll or you’ll know it’s Zero when you attempt to Zap and nothing happens… SOOO don’t depend on an Unknown wand by any means for anything. A wand may be thrown once however, and this will both break the wand while also triggering its Effect on an Enemy once. This way you can milk an extra Charge out of a completely Drained Wand without any guesswork involved.
Scrolls are Single use with Effects comparable to Potions and Wands, but can Affect Equipment and their Effects tend to be more powerful. For instance, a Scroll of Shock will damage every enemy in the Room, and a Scroll of Leadfoot will give them all the Slowing Leadfoot effect. Scrolls can also Lift Curses and Enhance Armor or Weapons.
Curses are actually a type of Effect that prevents you from removing a piece of Equipment, trapping you in what will probably be a crappy set of Armor or with a Ring that makes you Hungry faster. Therefore Purify Scrolls are great to have ONE of at a time if you feel like trying on a bunch of unknown equipment, since they lift ALL curses on your Equpped items at once, but having more than one at a time is usually a wasted space in my experience. Especially after you already have a good Equipment combination going forward.
Some Scrolls will help you by letting you see All Items on the Floor, All Enemies on your Map, or Reveal the entire Floor Layout for easier Navigation. Using these tends to be best used early in a Floor. Personally I stupidly horde these Scrolls by nature, since using them and finding a Floor to have very few enemies or Items or Rooms can feel like a waste, but in reality even finding out a Floor offers little of value to you is still a valuable boon that is always useful in and of itself and so I hope you don’t repeat my common mistake here.
Arrows may not come into the dungeon with you, but thankfully your Bow does, enabling you a reliable Ranged attack once you find Arrows. Stacks of Arrows only take up One Inventory Slot per Type, and you may Equip or Shoot them from your Inventory Menu. Equipping anything takes a Turn, but doing so will let you fire as many Arrows as you like by pressing the Shoot button instead of opening your Inventory to fire each Shot. As with most items, these are Tiered according to their Material. Wood, Iron, Gold, Holy etcetera. Gold arrows are strange in that they do less damage than Iron but will Penetrate through targets dealing damage to each enemy they Hit.
I tend to horde Gold and Holy Arrows, and will usually freely expend my Wood Arrows on anybody that might land a hit on me in order to keep my Slots as Open as possible.
Monster Crystals
In addition to these other items, Monster Crystals are Single Use items that have Effects of all sorts. Each Monster has a Chance of dropping their particular type of Crystal with their own unique Effect and Animation. These are collected in their own designated storage, and some Playable Characters carry more than others. The Default Player Character of Claire can hold up to 3 at a time and again these Slots are NOT part of your Regular Inventory. All I can advise you to do is to use your best judgement with these. Often I’ll find that making heavy use of them pays off handily since you’ll be killing a lot of enemies and each can drop their own special kind of these. However, you may find one you want to keep holding in case of emergencies since they have powerful effects sometimes.
DLC
While there are Three characters you can Purchase with Real World currency, I’m reviewing the Base (Free to Play) game and don’t want to say anything one way or another. Apart from that I love all of their Character Designs.
Labyrinths
Sooo these are what you go to when you wanna actually Play the game. These are the Dungeons, the Procedurally Generated Series of Maps you will traverse on your Quest. Since these are Procedurally Generated, they primarily differ in Difficulty and Length, with Labyrinths after Easy having more Floors, Harder Enemies, and better Equipment to be found. You can actually choose to take items into these with you if you have brought any back from previous adventures or purchased them from the Store. But everything you are carrying will be lost upon your Death. The only way around this is putting them into Storage instead of taking them with you.
Store/Storage
Sooo Enemies will sometimes drop Gold. This is a place to Spend it, as well as a place to Sell unwanted items. Items brought into dungeons can give you an Advantage if you are stuck, but personally I prefer playing this as a Traditional Roguelike as I enjoy the Tension. This is the part where LotW is debatedly a RogueLite, though I think it’s more of a Roguelike Coffee served black with a handful of Sugar and Creamer packets. The Storage facility can be expanded, but by Default it lets you keep some items in reserve to bring on a later Run. Handy if you don’t feel like you’ll need that extra Identify Scroll but want to keep it on hand.
Expedition
This option is… Uhhh… It’s not very useful. You can sometimes send a little fellow off to collect something over a period of some hours. Generally one single solitary thing. Selected at random. It’s usually not very good. You’ll most likely find more use in this than I do.
Ranch
I love the Ranch. This exists as a Collect ‘Em All aspect of the game. Once in a while, a Defeated Monster will actually be Tamed and will go to the Ranch. You can then visit the critter and read a little about them and admire their Character Design in detail. Every videogame needs a feature like this, people work too hard on these things for their work to not get its own little pedestal like this for players to appreciate. Still, I hope one day to see the Ranch’s Monsters put to a practical use in gameplay somehow, maybe costing a certain %Fullness to Summon Monsters organized according to Tiers with higher leveled Monsters costing vastly more to Summon.
All in all, I see a lot of promise to this game. And I’ll be very excited once I hear back from the Developers someday since it’s become one of my favorite ways of killing time. It’s both basic and deep, it’s cute, and it’s endless without ever becoming monotonous to me.
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.
Laser Overload is one of the coolest puzzle games i have ever played on my phone. And I have played a bunch of puzzle games. This game will force you to use your brain to solve alot and I mean alot of challenging puzzles.
GAMEPLAY: In this puzzle game you have to guide a laser to a battery. If it was only that easy though. In order to do this you must point the laser at different mirrors so that it will reflect the laser to reach the battery. The challenge is figuring out how to position the laser and mirrors to reach the goal.
As you get further in the game it adds more obstacles in your way(which can be a blessing and a curse). I say this because these obstacles are there to help you reach the batteries. The only negative thing about them is that each level has a different combination of these obstacles which will definitely confuse you. One of these obstacles splits your laser in two. You can use this to reach multiple batteries at once. Another one is like a teleporter. Guide your laser to this and it will take you to a different area of the puzzle. There are many more like blocks that get in the way of your laser and double sided mirrors.
GRAPHICS: This game looks really cool. It has a futuristic look to it. The laser and obstacles has a nice white glow to them in contrast to the dark colored background. Speaking of backgrounds and lasers when you beat a level you earn a certain amount of coins which you can use to buy different background and laser colors.
DIFFICULTY: This game is really challenging. How challenging? Well not only do you have to make it through all the obstacles, to 100% the game you have to collect all the stars too. The stars are placed in different parts of each puzzle. Your job is to figure out how to guide the laser to the stars and make it to the battery aswell. The levels are sorted into packs of different difficulty: WELCOME, BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, ADVANCED, and EXPERT. Also there are multiple packs labeled ADVANCED and EXPERT. When you reach the end of one pack you have the option to spend your coins or watch an ad to unlock the next pack.
As I have said before this game is challenging. Challenging but not impossible though because if you experiment with the different obstacles you will get it right eventually. Sometimes you may even guide the laser correctly without even knowing what you did. Overall this game is really fun to play and satisfying once you beat a level. It makes you feel smart which makes you feel happy which makes you want to play and complete the next puzzle. No two puzzles look alike which makes the game refreshing every time you win. This game is free to play on the Google Play Store. I definitely recommend this game to everyone who likes a good puzzle 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.
Are you looking for a challenge? Something that is satisfying? Total Party Kill just might be the game your looking for. This game is a puzzle platformer where the goal is to reach the door. Sounds simple enough right? Well if you factor in the three warriors you control and the obstacles that stand in your way, you might start to think differently.
Total Party Kill is a unique game. You control a party of three warriors each with a different ability. The archer shoots arrows, the wizard shoots balls of ice, and the swordsman swings his sword. What makes this game so unique is how you use these abilities. You see instead of working together like a normal party of warriors, its everyone for himself. For example, if the door is a little out of reach, shoot an arrow at a party member to stick them to a wall. Now you can use him as a step to reach the door. Is a spiked wall keeping you from pressing a switch? Swing your sword and knock a party member through the wall and into the switch. A pit of spikes in your way? Freeze a party member and use him as a platform. You get the picture.
The graphics in this game. I would compare them to a gameboy color game. You know…pixelated but still makes for a nice looking game. As for the controls they are pretty straight forward. See through on screen buttons that let you move left and right, jump, switch between warriors and use your ability. All of which responds well to your touch. Sometimes the controls are a little too sensitive though making you move more then you wanted to move. Another annoying thing is when the same music plays on repeat. which some players may like since the music sounds alot like a sonic level.
This is a challenging game. it really makes you use your brain and think ahead. The higher the level the harder the puzzles become. Forcing you to try and figure out which combination of abilities works well with the current situation. Sometimes the game may even give you only two out of the three warriors to use. Or you may find that the warriors have been seperated. Want more of a challenge? This game also has a Time Attack Mode where you play the game as fast as you can and try to beat your best time.
I must repeat this. This is a CHALLENGING game! If you want a cute easy game to play then this game is not for you. But if you like puzzles and retro looking games (because lets face it. Who doesnt like a good retro game) then welcome home! This game will have you glued to the screen. When you beat one level it feels so satisfying that you wont want to stop playing. Its that addicting. Gamer Tip: If your stuck on a level it is best to walk away from the game for a while and clear your head. Also thinking ahead while trying to solve a puzzle works to. But at the end of the day its really about trial and error due to the fact that you have an infinite amount of tries to solve a puzzle. I love this game and i know you will too. This is a free mobile game that is available to download from the google play store.
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.
