Q: How does a reviewer finish a backlog of 8 games in 3 days?

A: Have 2 of them crash on you and halt all forward progress, then skip the one that already has 4 reviews written on it.

It's been a strange, hectic week. But I've finally got my review queue back to 0 (except for Ys: Oath in Felghana, but that's $15 and not on sale so no need to rush that) and a whole slew of new reviews. This time, we've got quite a few stinkers, a couple crashes (and thus unreviewed), and 2 surprises. Without further ado, let's get to those reviews! (As usual, they're summarized in this post, but the links lead to the full reviews. Unless the name's italicized, which means, "Hey, no full review for this one, take a look at its wiki page instead!")

Bumbledore: An Android puzzler port that emphasizes high scoring through precise spell use. I found it decent; kids would probably love it.

Cubemen: Interesting "tower" defense concept, barebones execution with a horrendous aiming AI that is too random for this type of game.

Space Ark: No review; every time I finished the Tutorial stages, it crashed. It involved controlling a trampoline and the animal bouncing off it at the same time, which I'd compare to trying to drive and walk simultaneously. Probably a 3/5 if I ever got used to the controls... and it quit crashing.

Waveform: A strange, polished, addictive take on... I dunno, platforming meets puzzler meets Guitar Hero? Go read the review, the pictures help. Whatever it is, I got drunk with high score glee on it. Highly recommended.

Fowl Space: Crashed during the 2nd level boss fight due to some camera zoom bug; it zoomed out past the edge of the level, caused me to simultaneously die & win, and promptly caught the auto-save in some Schrodinger loop where it's not sure if I'm alive or dead. I really don't want to play it for 45 minutes again just to see if it happens again or not. It's a pity; the gameplay was decent and I was really digging the art style (and the weird sense of humor). Probably would've been 3/5 or 4/5 if it hadn't ate my save.

Mutant Storm Reloaded: The only thing going for this mundane dual-stick shooter is its price. Go spend an extra $5 on a shooter you'll actually remember the next day, like Scoregasm or Really Big Sky.

WARP: Skipped due to time constraints and because there's already 4 reviews up of the Xbox version. I might quickly look at it later just to see how the port fared, but I figure I would have very little to add that hasn't already been said about it.

Ys: Oath in Felghana: Not reviewed yet because I'm only 3 hours into this action-RPG. My thoughts so far: They make a potentially awkward control setup work and have some decent upgrade options and plot to back up the gameplay. It'd fall at a 4/5 right now.

Adam's Venture, Episode 1: Oh look, a decent discount adventure puzzler ala Tomb Raider for only- wait, it's supposed to be a Christian educational game? Why do they think Christianity is just about rote Bible passages?! We produced Faust, why can't we-*hauled off in a straitjacket*

What would I play again?Waveform, definitely. (I still have 4 levels to finish.) I would also finish playing Fowl Space... if they could fix my save. *sigh*

Well, that's it for this week. I'll have another stack of reviews ready in a couple days for your perusal & entertainment.

Q: How does a reviewer finish a backlog of 8 games in 3 days?

A: Have 2 of them crash on you and halt all forward progress, then skip the one that already has 4 reviews written on it.

It's been a strange, hectic week. But I've finally got my review queue back to 0 (except for Ys: Oath in Felghana, but that's $15 and not on sale so no need to rush that) and a whole slew of new reviews. This time, we've got quite a few stinkers, a couple crashes (and thus unreviewed), and 2 surprises. Without further ado, let's get to those reviews! (As usual, they're summarized in this post, but the links lead to the full reviews. Unless the name's italicized, which means, "Hey, no full review for this one, take a look at its wiki page instead!")

Bumbledore: An Android puzzler port that emphasizes high scoring through precise spell use. I found it decent; kids would probably love it.

Cubemen: Interesting "tower" defense concept, barebones execution with a horrendous aiming AI that is too random for this type of game.

Space Ark: No review; every time I finished the Tutorial stages, it crashed. It involved controlling a trampoline and the animal bouncing off it at the same time, which I'd compare to trying to drive and walk simultaneously. Probably a 3/5 if I ever got used to the controls... and it quit crashing.

Waveform: A strange, polished, addictive take on... I dunno, platforming meets puzzler meets Guitar Hero? Go read the review, the pictures help. Whatever it is, I got drunk with high score glee on it. Highly recommended.

Fowl Space: Crashed during the 2nd level boss fight due to some camera zoom bug; it zoomed out past the edge of the level, caused me to simultaneously die & win, and promptly caught the auto-save in some Schrodinger loop where it's not sure if I'm alive or dead. I really don't want to play it for 45 minutes again just to see if it happens again or not. It's a pity; the gameplay was decent and I was really digging the art style (and the weird sense of humor). Probably would've been 3/5 or 4/5 if it hadn't ate my save.

Mutant Storm Reloaded: The only thing going for this mundane dual-stick shooter is its price. Go spend an extra $5 on a shooter you'll actually remember the next day, like Scoregasm or Really Big Sky.

WARP: Skipped due to time constraints and because there's already 4 reviews up of the Xbox version. I might quickly look at it later just to see how the port fared, but I figure I would have very little to add that hasn't already been said about it.

Ys: Oath in Felghana: Not reviewed yet because I'm only 3 hours into this action-RPG. My thoughts so far: They make a potentially awkward control setup work and have some decent upgrade options and plot to back up the gameplay. It'd fall at a 4/5 right now.

Adam's Venture, Episode 1: Oh look, a decent discount adventure puzzler ala Tomb Raider for only- wait, it's supposed to be a Christian educational game? Why do they think Christianity is just about rote Bible passages?! We produced Faust, why can't we-*hauled off in a straitjacket*

What would I play again?Waveform, definitely. (I still have 4 levels to finish.) I would also finish playing Fowl Space... if they could fix my save. *sigh*

Well, that's it for this week. I'll have another stack of reviews ready in a couple days for your perusal & entertainment.