Yvonne van Geloven's Reviews
Cirrus Business has the framework to be a cute, wholesome game, with growing plants, restoring the energy for the biomes and lovely graphics. I feel the balance of Cirrus Business Economy, as the game calls it, isn’t right. But, if you are more nimble-fingered than I am, you might have no trouble beating the Slobsters and gathering all the Windsprinkles you need.
Sunny Cafe is a sweet story of young love, touching on some deeper topics that mirror the way adolescents view life’s goals. It strives to include knowledge about making coffee in a very charming and graphically beautiful way. I would have liked this part to get more attention, combining the visual novel part with a management part for serving the customers the right coffee. But that may just be my personal preference. The visual novel tells the story in very descriptive and flowery wording but still has some translation errors, as well. Graphically Sunny Cafe looks nice and crisp, and it reads like a nice book.
Distant Bloom has a lot of elements that attract me to a video game. Exploration, crafting, managing seeds and turning a barren landscape into a lush environment. Giving your crewmates little gifts ups their friendship levels. All of this is set against an unusual scene of an alien planet and an alien crew. The Assistant and KEi.Ki are busy bees and it’s very satisfying to make the sick planet, plants and animals healthy again, just by sowing seeds. Collecting strange-looking seeds that produce interesting plants adds an extra incentive to Distant Bloom, as well as unraveling the mystery. I am really loving my time in the game, and I love the little humorous touches in the conversations between the crew mates and quirky things like adding a trademark sign to the Exomulti. Oh and…. did I tell you you can pet the animals?
Match Village is available for a nice price. It doesn’t offer a visually wowing experience, but it looks colourful and clean. Though placing the tiles is a strategic challenge, there is no deep puzzle gameplay mechanics to consider. Surprisingly, I found the gameplay very relaxing and rewarding. Just place the tiles in the best way you can and see how far you can progress. The sounds of plopping down a tile and getting new tiles as the structures combine are very satisfying. For this little game, made by a solo developer, the name Match Village is well chosen. Get to matching, and populate your islands in the process.
Playing SummerHouse, I am reminded that a game doesn’t have to be grand or intricate, nor does it need a deep storyline. In SummerHouse it’s just you with a set of pre-made elements with which you build a house. Or a castle. Or a hotel…or even Bagend. Your imagination is key when you get to work, building the little neighbourhood just like you envision it. No stress, no goals and no time, just your own creativity helped along by a collection of building blocks.
There are two conditions for someone to enjoy Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons. First, you have to like nonogram puzzles. Second, it helps if you are a fan of Story of Seasons. If these conditions apply to you, as they do for me, you can’t get a better nonogram puzzle experience than in Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons.
The Lost Legends of Redwall: Feasts & Friends has such potential and tells an interesting tale. Although I haven’t read the entire series, I do have the first book and have looked forward to seeing the world of Lilygrove for myself. The visuals are enchanting, the background music is great, and the characters you cook for are the stars of the show.
From the start, it’s clear that Immortal Life is far from your average farming simulator. With its roots deeply embedded in Chinese culture and fantasy folklore, the game offers a fresh take on the farming/crafting RPG simulation genre. All the elements work well together, and you are totally free to do what you want in the game and progress at your own pace. I won’t say I’ve finished the game; I think I barely scratched the surface of this huge game. It looks amazing and controls well, even well enough to play it on the SteamDeck. The graphics are wonderful and a joy to look at, even when you’re not pursuing the next quest. The characters of your brothers and sisters in the sect are well-fleshed out and distinct. I would almost give it our highest praise but for the very small text, a frozen screen now and then and the way of moving in the dungeons. But I can safely recommend this game, many, many hours of fun for a moderate price.
Alephant is a puzzle game that can really be qualified as a Thinky game: no instructions, it’s up to you to figure out why some moves work and others don’t. The game is brilliantly made and has a no-frills approach to puzzling. But even with the minimalistic approach, it looks very good. If you’re a fan of hard puzzles that require a lot of thought and trial and error, and you feel the Eureka moment is worth it, Alephant is the game for you! If, like me, you are more of the casual puzzle type, this might not be the one for you.
Playing Another Code: Recollection, I found a deep and engaging adventure. The story, focusing on Ashley’s mysterious journey, is the heart of the game. While the puzzles offer an enjoyable challenge, they’re accessible enough for all players, helped by the handy Dual ANOTHER System and the newly implemented hint system. The game excels in the storyline, making me eager to uncover the mysteries. The game looks very good with its 3D environment, though the camera is a bit slow. The updated visuals and voice acting add to the immersive experience, making it a compelling game to play, especially if you value story over complex puzzles and don’t mind a lot of reading. Want to give it a try first? There is a demo available in the eShop!
I’m guessing if you loved Dorfromantik, you would want to look at Pan’orama as well. I haven’t played Dorfromantik, but I read online that Pan’orama is the more relaxing game of the two. The mechanics of placing tiles to get the most points and extra tiles to play with worked well and had me puzzling quite happily. The tutorial really could be better, but what made me really like the game was the graphics and the way the world you make comes to life. I loved zooming in to the max, admiring the structures I had built and seeing movement on the ground, an animal here and there or the tractor harvesting the grains. It’s fun just to sit and watch this colourful and detailed world come to life.
Pixel of Memory is a nice little puzzler with nice, challenging puzzles. A hint system would be very welcome, though, as you can’t progress without solving every pixel object. It works well on the SteamDeck, making it a great coffee game!
Pixel Cafe is a challenging time-management strategy game. The farther I got in, the more difficult the levels were, having to do them repeatedly. I felt the controls on the Switch weren’t always logical, and I just couldn’t manage the right sequence in time to keep the customers happy. The storyline is nice, the soundtrack is good, and if you don’t mind the challenge, then this is a very good management game. Not for every moment of the day, though, as you need to feel fresh and energetic to beat the levels!
Doodle Harmony is a nice idea, executed well simply and cleanly. Match 100 doodles with their outlines and try to better your own time of completion. Or take it easy and just enjoy the little display of coloured confetti and happy sounds when you match them. It’s a nice, wholesome game for a very pleasant price.
Train Traffic Manager offers a lot of content and hours of gaming fun, alone or with friends. You have to keep your head in the game. It’s not a puzzle game that you can play while multitasking. But if you want to exercise your brain and planning capability, Train Traffic Manager is a good one to pick.
If you are looking to manage a store, if you want a storyline or deep gameplay, you shouldn’t go for Fashion Dreamer. Instead, this is a lighthearted game, bringing fun and distraction. It’s easy to pick up for short gameplay sessions, and it’s extra fun when you can share it with people you “know” across the globe. I use the term “know” loosely, though; let’s say people you’ve met on social media or in other games. Even though I recognize that Fashion Dreamer could use more beef to the bone, I’m still having a great time playing it. Let’s hope the promised updates for December 2023 and January 2024 bring us more elements. When that happens, my verdict might just go up a notch.
It will come as no surprise that I love Logic Town. It runs smoothly, the puzzles are great, and the variety keeps it fresh. Being busy with restoring the town, venue after venue, adds a nice touch and a goal to strive for. If you like your logic puzzles, I believe you can’t get any better than this!
Spirit of the Island looks lovely and detailed and has a lot of content. There is so much to craft; there is so much there to make your homestead exactly the way you want it. Explore new islands, slay monsters and find new ingredients for your crafting. Get those tourists in to visit your attractions, like the museum, and buy your items. I did get the feeling that the developers wanted to put so much content and different gameplay elements in there and sacrificed things in the process. The user interface and all the restrictions in storage can hinder the flow of gameplay. The lack of speed in walking and the need for sleep are a bit annoying. Not storing the tutorials all in one place is a missed chance. Overall, though, I do feel the developers have put a lot of ideas and work into Spirit of the Island. There is certainly a management part in the game that kept me playing and will keep me returning for more.
Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is a great game for young and old. Those of you who are very deft in your reaction skills might think me silly, but for me, it presented a very nice challenge. The K-pop song list added hugely to the fun, and the colourful and cute world was much to my liking. If you don’t like Hello Kitty and the sugar sweetness, this might not be the game for you, but for me? Playing Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade left me happy and sometimes frustrated, but all the while tapping my feet to the rhythm!
Varenje – Don’t Touch the Berries is a good point-and-click adventure with very interesting scenes to puzzle through. The solutions to move things along and reach the next chapter aren’t always logical. But judging by the slide shows in between the chapters, logic wasn’t what the developers were going for. These scenes felt jarring for me, as the things I saw and the texts didn’t fit the world I had just perused intensively. This makes it a game I wouldn’t let younger children play alone. Just in case you are curious: Varenje is a whole-fruit preserve popular across Eastern Europe. Hence the reference to the raspberries. According to the info about the game, Grandmother’s raspberry jam is a remedy for all ills, and it’s certainly the solution to right everything in the end. If only it was…