Abbi Smith


26 games reviewed
30.8% of games recommended
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Feb 12, 2020

Just A Phrase is a very simple game, with a very simple premise, that can easily be picked up and put down over your morning coffee. It’s a hangman-style game where you’re given 4 letters to choose from at a time. It’s nice to have a game that I can play one-handed while I consume my morning dose of caffeine with the other, and would probably be highly educational for younger children learning about homophones and spelling, but I found it a little too simple to really be engaging.

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Feb 18, 2020

There are a few necessary elements for a good RPG: easy to understand mechanics, interesting characters, and an engaging story. Unfortunately, Please the Gods failed to impress in 2 of the three categories. Please the Gods is an odd combination of outstanding graphics and mechanics, brought down by lacklustre story and sound, make this one a difficult one to judge. So unfortunately we find the turn-based RNG-reliant combat was too frustrating for the game to be enjoyable. But for someone who enjoys that type of game and is capable of looking past the lacking story elements it’d be good fun.

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Liked - Fred3ric
Feb 21, 2020

It’s a good thing I managed to follow the music by sound because, while the graphics are fun, I really wish there was an option of a plain background while playing. I have an eyesight problem anyway and the bright, cartoony, and constantly shifting background was playing absolute havoc with my sight, often making it impossible for me to see notes coming until they hit the piano keys and then it was too late to respond. It’s a shame because I love the art style in the cutscenes, but during play it’s just overwhelming and headache-inducing.

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Liked - Heaven Dust
Feb 27, 2020

Short but sweet, just that introductory screen already screams Resident Evil, and the rest of the game plays up to that. You’re running around a mansion, killing/avoiding zombies and solving puzzles in an attempt to get out. As you traverse the mansion you’ll find notes and diary entries that help flesh out the background, which is always a nice touch, but it didn’t quite go deep enough. Unfortunately, nothing really made me empathise with or connect to the main character which for me is a big thing in any game. It feels like Heaven Dust has tried so hard to emulate Resident Evil that it’s stunted it’s own potential;

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Liked-a-lot - Depixtion
Feb 28, 2020

Do you ever pick up a game with the intent to play just a level or two, then look at your watch and realise you’ve been playing for hours? That’s what Depixtion did to me, and I’m not even mad about it. I absolutely love this game, and can’t recommend it highly enough for any fellow puzzle fans!

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Loved - ibb & obb
Mar 5, 2020

ibb & obb is simple yet challenging, vibrant yet muted, and perky yet relaxing. It’s a game of contradictions, and we loved every second. It may be a little pricey for what it is, but a great game for you and your Player 2

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Mar 11, 2020

Soul Axiom is a really good puzzler; there’s such a variety of challenges and hidden secrets that it really keeps you on your toes, but sometimes things were a little too hidden and I just got annoyed trying to complete a level. I did always feel a sense of satisfaction when I reached an end-of-level cutscene, but sometimes it was more of a ‘Thank goodness that’s over’ than a ‘Yes I did it!’.

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Mixed - Voxelgram
Mar 13, 2020

I went into this wanting to like it. Unfortunately, while the graphics are nice, the game is just too difficult and navigationally awkward to enjoy for me. I think with a couple of navigation tweaks and more complete numbering this would be a very fun and challenging puzzler, but for me it was bit too frustrating.

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Mar 15, 2020

A super-sweet little visual novel with some rather dark humour elements, Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet is a good way to while away an hour or two with a cup of coffee. I’m not sure how the game came under PEGI 3: I don’t want to put spoilers in here, but with the naked candy girl and the whole eating-a-sentient-being thing, the age rating is surprising. On the other hand, it’s cutesy enough that it never feels malicious.

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Loved - Bug Academy
Mar 31, 2020

This Kickstarter project hit Steam in January 2020, then swiftly made its way onto my favourite gaming device. I wasn’t even 10 minutes in and I was already in love with this quirky little adventure platformer. I was zooming about like a madwoman delivering fridges and demolishing castles, laughing like a loon the entire time and completely ignorant of my partner warily edging further away. It was a genuine pleasure to play, and I’m looking forward to introducing my best friend to it next time we’ve had a few drinks.

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In the world of puzzle games, the picross/nonogram is as classic as a Sudoku or a Kakuro. The basic premise is always the same; you have a grid, with numbers assigned to each row and column that designate how many squares are filled in. Once you’ve completed the puzzle you end up with a pretty picture. The classic simplicity makes it easy to develop a nonogram game, but hard to do it in a way that impresses.

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Apr 16, 2020

A true throwback to the point-and-click adventures of days past, Black Rainbow takes a good story and decent controls, slaps some sub-par graphics and neutral sound on top, and still comes out as a quite enjoyable game. It took me around 4-5 hours to complete, and while £9 isn’t that expensive it feels a bit much for a lacklustre port. The Switch is capable of so much better, and it’s games should be too.

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May 7, 2020

A beautiful, atmospheric puzzle game that has proven just how nice a mobile port can be. Unfortunately, it’s a lot shorter than I’d have liked; the main story took me around 3 hours and the Winterfest content took a further hour. I’d happily sit and play that game for days, but at more than a pound per hour of play, I thought it a little overpriced. However, add some more levels in there and I’d easily follow Path Of Giants until the end of its days.

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Loved - ZHED
May 25, 2020

I love ZHED, and am going to keep pushing for that Level 100 completion, but it is far from an easy game. It starts out really simple, and I found some considerably easier levels mixed in as I got further into the game, but there was many a time I had to just put it down and come back the next day because I could not figure out the current level. I did notice, however, that when I came back the next morning I managed to solve it almost straight away, so maybe I was playing too much in a day and not consuming enough caffeine! ZHED is minimalist, challenging, and a thorough joy to play. It may get frustrating at times, but that never stopped me coming back and won’t stop me shooting for Level 100!

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Jun 11, 2020

I wanted to love House Flipper. I’m a huge fan of the building and design aspects of The Sims 4 and was looking forward to playing a game dedicated to such, but the limited options tampered my enthusiasm considerably. While the control scheme does feel bizarre – even after a good 2-3 days of play I was still trying to use A and B instead of ZR and ZL – it does work, and it doesn’t feel too cumbersome despite my fingers not being used to trigger work. The task list bug did wind me up, but was thankfully a relatively easy fix so I’m not too upset. I wanted to love it, but in its current state, I can only say I like it. It was fun, and I’ll be redesigning my early houses for ages to come, but for the price tag, I’d expected more options and variation for replayability – even having the DLCs included would have significantly elevated the game. If you’re a more careful decorator though, you could probably sink a lot of time into House Flipper and feel like you got a bargain.

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I enjoy hidden object puzzle games, I’ve always enjoyed a game where I look at something and can go “Wait a minute… I think I know what I’m doing with this!” so I leap on every chance to review them. I like seeing the variation in the style and difficulty of the puzzles, and Myths of Orion is no exception. Some puzzles I figured out straight away, some took me a good while, and one particular zoom location took me a good hour to find which really annoyed me once I figured it out. Depending on your mindset, I imagine some of the puzzles are easier or harder for various people, but overall I would call them a low to medium difficulty, easy enough to be fun for most people. I enjoyed my time with Myths Of Orion: Light From The North. There were a few frustrations, such as the sorely lacking cutscenes and bizarre UI bug, but overall it was a fun little experience that filled a fair few hours of my time. I might call it a little steep on the pricing, as it only took me around 6 hours tops, but I definitely recommend it for any puzzle fan’s To Play list.

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Jun 24, 2020

I can’t call The Almost Gone difficult, exactly, as the puzzles were generally easy to figure out, but it wasn’t an easy game either. There’s a lot of sequential puzzling, where the outcome from one is required to solve another, and a fair amount of non-linear thinking required – one puzzle required me to obtain numbers for a key-code lock, that were scattered not only across rooms but also across perspectives. The only time I really had difficulty was my own fault; I turned off on my Lite partway through the game saving, so once I loaded on my other Switch the core piece I’d just earned was no longer collected even though I thought it was, so I spent an extra hour looking for what I’d missed! While there are a couple of minor flaws, The Almost Gone was a beautiful and enrapturing point-and-click mystery exploration adventure that I can’t recommend highly enough. Be warned that there are a number of sensitive topics covered, so it may not be one for the easily upset, but otherwise it’s a truly enjoyable yet saddening tale that deserves a spot on anyone’s download list (and shelf if a physical is released – I’m praying!)

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Liked - Pack Master
Jun 24, 2020

While the idea is very simple, the game itself is anything but. Some levels are nice and easy, others are considerably more difficult, and the difficulty progression doesn’t seem to be linear. I’ll barely pass a level, then the following few will be a piece of cake – it keeps me on my toes! I wouldn’t call Pack Master a child-friendly game from a difficulty perspective, but I’m sure it’d help develop logical thinking abilities in older children. Pack Master is a very basic puzzle game that doesn’t try to push harder than it should. There’s an excellent balance between design and difficulty, and something wonderfully relaxing about the simple nature of the game. There’s not much to say about it due to its simplicity, but I’d definitely put it on the recommended list for a younger audience!

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Liked - Biped
Jul 3, 2020

Despite some noticeable performance issues, utterly frustrating controls at times, and sometimes ridiculously hard sections, I actually found Biped an enjoyable game. I wouldn’t recommend it for a young audience though; it’s too demoralising, as just holding a direction for a fraction of a second too long or sometimes even the game itself flinging you too far off a ramp can mean death. It’s cute, quirky, and I love the idea, but it needs some tweaks and polishing before I’d go back and try for the optional challenges.

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I also managed to pick up all but one of the collectable objects on my first pass without really looking for them, so they can’t be that difficult to complete. Some of the puzzles made me pause for a while, which was nice, but the majority I just breezed through. This isn’t unusual in this type of game, but I’m sure someone less accustomed could get quite a bit more time out of each puzzle. I spent most of my time playing annoyed at either the off-track story, dodgy controls, or lacklustre animations, which is a shame because with a refresh (which really, should be done as standard when porting such an old game to such a new system) it could be a pretty decent bit of fun. As it is, I’d have been sadly disappointed at paying for this short, badly-ported adventure. However, if you’re looking for a game to sink a few hours in to and exercise your brain while you’re at it, it’ll fill that need nicely.

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