Tag Archives: puzzle game

One Piece Mansion: the puzzle of stress management

One Piece Mansion is not a Capcom game I had any familiarity with whatsoever prior to receiving a surprise copy of it from a YouTube viewer a little while back.

I’ve spent a bit of time with it this evening, and there’s definitely some appeal there. It’s an exceedingly peculiar game, to be sure — and I’m all for exceedingly peculiar games at the best of times.

Thankfully One Piece Mansion backs its exceeding peculiarity up with some solid gameplay and original ideas, making it a worthwhile addition to your PlayStation library. Let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading One Piece Mansion: the puzzle of stress management

Atari A to Z: XPoker

When contemplating video game history, an important side of things that often gets overlooked or ignored is the public domain sector.

Here, programmers would put together often very good pieces of software, release them into the wild for free and be perfectly happy for people to distribute them as they saw fit. Such is the case with this week’s game XPoker, which was originally released via a bulletin board system, and subsequently found itself getting into the hands of all sorts of people.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

header-5603011

Atari ST A to Z: XOR

The unusually named XOR from Atari promises a game with no random elements, and a focus on logical thinking rather than twitch reflexes.

One could also describe it, as someone did to me the other day, as a curious blend of Boulder Dash and heraldry, in which the main obstacles to your success will be fish and chickens. Yes, it’s a rather odd game — but if you enjoy some tricky puzzles it’s worth a look!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

header-4165360

Atari A to Z Flashback: Save Mary

Back in the early ’90s, people were just getting to grips with falling block puzzlers such as Tetris and its numerous imitators.

Which makes it quite a shame that Save Mary, an interesting and original twist on the formula, never made it to release back in the day — because it’s a really fun puzzler. Still, at least we can enjoy it today as part of Atari Flashback Classics!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

header-4165360

Atari ST A to Z: One Step Beyond

Whenever someone mentions the Atari ST to you, doubtless the first thing you think of is the delicious, relatively low-calorie cheesy potato snack known as Quavers.

What do you mean, no? Well, that might all change after today’s game, in which the erstwhile mascot of this longstanding British junk food favourite is tasked with clearing a series of puzzle-tastic levels while attempting not to fall into the abyss inside his computer. It makes about as much sense as it sounds, but it’s a surprisingly fun time — and the product placement isn’t as obnoxious as you might expect.

Check out the game in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

header-4165360

Mighty Switch Force: Perilous Policing

WayForward have made some great games over the years — and not just in their flagship Shantae series.

One of their most interesting and enjoyable series of games comes in the form of Mighty Switch Force!, which provides a delightful blend of platforming and puzzling with plenty of that distinctive WayForward charm about it.

And it’s easier than ever to jump on board with the series today, thanks to the release of Mighty Switch Force! Collection on Switch, Windows PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. So let’s dive in and take a look at the first game in the series.

Continue reading Mighty Switch Force: Perilous Policing

Atari ST A to Z: Gem’X

When is a colourful Japanese puzzle game not a colourful Japanese puzzle game? When it’s made by Germans!

Gem’X, despite appearances, is indeed a German-born game designed to resemble Japanese arcade titles, thanks to one of its designers’ love of Japanese anime and manga. While there are certain areas where they didn’t quite nail the presentation, it certainly has a distinctive look and feel among the rest of the Atari ST’s library.

And it’s an interesting, surprisingly cerebral puzzle game, too! Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

header-4165360

short;Play: Petal Crash

After a period of… let’s call it “dormancy”, standalone, non-freemium puzzle games are very much alive and well, and I am 100% here for it.

Petal Crash, a Game Boy Colour-inspired puzzler from Friend & Fairy, published by Freedom Planet creators Galaxy Trail, is a fine example. Featuring gorgeous visuals inspired by 8-bit handhelds and a fantastic chiptune soundtrack — plus excellent gameplay — I was immediately smitten with it when I wrote about it.

Now you can see it in action in the video below, too. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

The Brainies: Furry Balls

As we’ve seen a number of times already at this point, Blaze’s Evercade retro gaming platform is home to a wide variety of obscure titles that many people probably haven’t played — and which certainly haven’t been rereleased many times over the years.

Some great examples can be found on the two Interplay Collection cartridges, which include not only games that are associated with Interplay themselves, but also titles hailing from developers that subsequently ended up under the Interplay umbrella.

Interplay Collection 2, for example, plays host to a rather entertaining puzzle game featuring small, round, furry creatures. Let’s take a closer look at The Brainies, also known in some territories as Tiny Skweeks or The Tinies.

Continue reading The Brainies: Furry Balls

Multidude: One-Player Co-Op

Have you found it difficult to get together with friends lately, perhaps due to a global virus pandemic? Are you missing the joy of cooperating with your fellow dudes, and open to an electronic surrogate? Then do I have the game for you.

Multidude is a short puzzle adventure by Russian developer RetroSouls. It was originally released for ZX Spectrum in 2014, then subsequently ported to NES the following year, at which point it was picked up by Mega Cat Studios for a packaged release.

It’s also part of the Mega Cat Studios Collection 1 for the Evercade retro gaming system, and that’s the version we’ll be looking at today. Bring on the dudes!

Continue reading Multidude: One-Player Co-Op