Posts Tagged ‘Mac game’

Pirate Poppers Review

Action, Arcade, Match, Puzzle | Posted by Zeke
Sep 01 2010

pirate-poppers

How can you go wrong with a name like Pirate Poppers? Aaargh! With its pirate theme and music what else is left but a treasure map and riches? You need to piece together a map for the location of the legendary treasure of Isla Calabera.

There are 3 modes to play in this pirate game: Adventure, Puzzle, and Arcade. The Adventure mode has 77 levels of Pirate Poppers3play. In the Puzzle mode you must clear the row of balls with only a limited number of cannons, so you must figure out exactly how and where you will place these balls on the rail. In the Arcade mode you get a number of lives before losing a level.

The play is to simply shoot cannon balls at groups of colorful balls rolling on a track towards a barrel. You must aim for like color balls and shoot while the chain of cannons continues to move forward. When the balls are blasted and disappear, the cannons on either side will come together and if they are the same color and are 3 or more, they may also explode and clear the game board.

There are a lot of power-ups in this game. Some of the extras will change the color of the balls to blasting a whole slew of cannons with an explosive one. With some of the other features, the balls will move backwards giving you extra time to figure out your strategy. There is a spyglass when you are able to shoot faster and more accurately. On top of all that there are many extras you can catch with your cannon. The many jewels and treasures will give you extra points and the skull medallions will increase the number of lives.

Pirate Poppers is very similar to ZumaSweetopia and Luxor where you shoot at orbs coming down a tube-like conveyor belt.Pirate Poppers2 This is an action packed arcade Mac game with pirate cannons, treasures (gold, silver and jewels) and much more. You’ll have fun just sitting back and shooting cannonballs out into the chains of multicolored spheres. This game takes some strategy and thinking, but on the most part it is just an enjoyable game to kick back and shoot.

Features of Pirate Poppers:
-Pirate Theme
-6 Power-ups
-Treasure
-77 Levels

Rating: ★★★★☆

Smashing Tennis Review

Action, Sports | Posted by Meg
Aug 27 2010

smashing-tennis
download Smashing Tennisbuy Smashing<br /> Tennis

Practice, practice, practice, that was my tennis coach’s daily drill. I spent many hours hitting the ball against the wall, throwing it up to serve, and volleying back and forth with a partner. No one got better unless you put in the time. Smashing Tennis is the same for me. In tennis, I used 2 hands only for my backhand. I used my feet for running back and forth, not the arrow keys. So I practiced, practiced and practiced Smashing Tennis and got better.

Smashing Tennis with its simple 2D graphics and accurate sound effects is a challenging action game you must practice to have any fun with it, but once you hear the “pong” of the hit ball, you are hooked. To serve the ball you use the space bar once to throw the ball up and again to hit it. The Practice mode will show you when to hit the serve. The arrow keys moves your player around the court. For the beginner you can limit the arrows to the right and left ones moving the character side to side until you are comfortable with the play. When you are ready, you may choose the advanced mode using all the arrows for a multidirectional play.

Smashing Tennis2It is very important to choose the correct ability of yours and your opponent’s skill level. This must be done carefully or your play will not be fun. You can adjust the skill, speed, strength and precision of each player. In addition, you can choose different court surfaces (grass, clay and decoturf). I’ve played on grass (fast) and clay (slow) courts but I have Smashing Tennisnever come across a decoturf court in real life.

The different strokes were amazing. I could actually see the drop shot. How do they do that? At this posting I have not mastered the lob or hitting the ball hard so I’m waiting to see the visual on it. Also the 2 player mode is still in the future for me, but it will be intriguing to see how everything works with 2 people playing on 1 computer. The tournament challenge is still out of my reach but for all those advanced players it should be quite entertaining.

I guess there are 2 negatives for me regarding Smashing Tennis. One is that it is difficult for casual players (I’ve watched gamers pick it up and play right away) unless you practice, and also there are no girl tennis players represented. What about adding the Serena Williams, Dinara Safinas and Justine Henins of the tennis world? The simple graphics did not bother me since being an avid tennis player and fan concentrating on hitting the ball back is what captivates my attention. It would be fun to be able to design your players. I also am familiar with the thrill of hearing the ball hit the sweet spot and beating your opponent. You have all this with Smashing Tennis so try it out and don’t forget to practice.

Features of Smashing Tennis:
-For all ages
-1 or 2 player mode
-Difficulty Options
-Adjustable Skill Levels
-Tournament Play

Rating: ★★★½☆

Sushi To Go Express Review

Action, Adventure, Sim | Posted by Zeke
Aug 26 2010

Sushi to go Express 7

Tony Tortuga’s company went out of business like many companies now a days, and the administration did not help it out with a stimulus package. That means poor Tony the turtle is out of a job, but his wife always knew it was about time for Tony to start his own delivery service. He quickly gets orders from different sushi restaurants to deliver the food to their customers.

The play is your basic sim game to click on the restaurant with the type of sushi the client is ordering. After waiting, the sushi is ready to be delivered to the home. You click on the sushi then click on the house with the order and Tony will swim first to pick up the sushi and then to the home. In addition you have to supply the restaurants with fish from the factory when they run out of items. You know when to click on the factory for your fish order when you see the closed sign at the restaurant. Each level is timed but there is plenty of time to Sushi to go Express 5make the sushi and deliver it. Every few levels there are puzzle games to get more points. One such mini play is to go through a maze collecting bags of rice before the stingrays eat them. If you find the wasabi, Tony will swim faster for you.

I felt Sushi To Go Express is a game for kids. The graphics are simple and cute. The sushi is easily identifiable. I didn’t see much difference in the difficulty levels, but it could be because the game kept quitting on me. I have a Mac Book Pro with Mac OS X, version 10.5.8. I even made the screen smaller to see if it would help. It got me a little further in the game before quitting. I’ve talked to others Sushi to go Express 2who were able to play the game without any problems. The game is repetitive with not much action. I found after delivering sushi to one house that same home kept ordering more items. This makes figuring out who ordered when a little difficult, but it really makes no difference in the play. I guess that kept the game going without having different customers rotating through the screen like other sim restaurant or store games like Miriel The Magical Merchant. Another very annoying factor is the strange sound Tony makes when he gets paid. Even though I didn’t find this sim game exciting, I can see some kids and casual gamers enjoying it.

Features of Sushi To Go Express:
-50 Reef Levels
-Upgrades
-Mini Games

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Sprouts Adventure Review

Action, Adventure, Sim | Posted by Meg
Aug 24 2010

Sprouts Adventure

Sprouts Adventure is a sim play where you are the one controlling the lives of young, small creatures called Sprouts. Darkness fell on the land of Sprouts leaving just a few Sprouts to survive on their own after a terrible storm. They are out of food and do not know what to do. You are there to guide the Sprouts back to their original prosperous life in this interesting Mac game.

The play is to meet the needs of the Sprouts, build their homes and buildings to make their lives easier, happier and healthier. The 5 Sprouts in your careSprouts Adventure 2 are called: Tulip, Basil, Rosa, Cypress and Pina. They will let you know what they need with the picture above their heads, and they will verbally let you know with their cute, squeaky voices. In order to feed them, you must click on a Sprout and drag him/her to a patch of dirt to till and work the ground. Afterwards you click on the rain button, drag it to the patch, then click on the sun, drag the sun to the patch, and the plants will grow. Click on any hungry Sprout, drag him/her to the patch to eat. Also dropping any Sprout on a flower will provide food for them.

In addition, you need to click, drag a Sprout to magic stones, butterflies, gems and weeds. This will increase their life attributes. All of which are important for the welfare of your group. In addition earning Karma points will open up various spells for your Sprouts. This can be done by the Sprouts’ offerings, fulfilling wishes from the well and by fishing. There is a day meter to display the time of day. This is important because some spells can only be done during certain times of the day or night. The map when you click on it will show the overview of the entire Sprouts’ world. This will allow you to view when the wild flowers, gems, magic stones and weeds are available. The weeds are important to click and drag a Sprout to remove them.

When a Sprout gets an idea, there will be a light bulb above his head, and by clicking on it you will be able to find out what kind of thought it is. If it is to erect a building since they will need a place to rest, sleep and work in, you drag the supplies to an available site. The first building takes many days to erect but is essential for the Sprouts to sleep in and rest so they will be able to work on all the projects. The more Sprouts you have working will get the job done faster.

The Sprouts will be better when they are happy, curious, nourished, motivated, and rested. In this state the Sprouts will do wonderful things for you. This Mac game is like Virtual Villagers and My Tribe except it is a little easier to play since you can accomplish many things Sprouts Adventure 3without killing your little Sprouts. This game will be appropriate for younger children to learn a sim play of this type. There are achievements and discoveries to collect and find. Since the area is confined to a small area, and with the overview, it is easy to collect all the items for increasing life’s attributes. In addition, spells are locked and open up slowly one at a time for you to incorporate it in the play. Increasing your population comes from the earned eggs. You click on the egg, drag it to an open area and wait.

Sprouts Adventure is an adorable sim play for children and casual gamers to have fun raising a group of Sprouts who will become a useful, lively and responsible citizen of their world. I think the sounds effects and artwork are appropriate assets to this game. The play is enjoyable, if not a little slow, and fun to establish new inhabitants in their own village.

Features of Sprouts Adventure:
-Be a Deity
-Earn Karma to Unlock Spells
-11 Structures
-Dozen Sprouts

Rating: ★★★½☆

Abundante! Review

Breakout, Match, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Aug 23 2010

abundante

Hike into the darkest jungle of the Mac game Abundante, and find yourself deep in the midst of fun and excitement. This is a match 4 or more gems in order to complete a level game which will bring you closer to hidden secrets of this archeological hunt.

This exotic jungle adventure begins with Dr Ray Rumble’s archeological society funding a mission to find the lost temple of Nahca Rotha. Abundante2The myth is that the Nahca Rothians possessed great knowledge and treasures. You are an archeologist who is on this journey to verify the authenticity of this information, and to recover the gems and jewels.

The play is a match 4 or more gems game, and by moving a wooden mining cart at the bottom of the screen back and forth, you collect the jewels embedded in brick. Click on a brick with a gem inside, catch it in the cart and slide to another area with the same color gems, make a 4 or more match by shooting the brick back up, and catch all the freed gems in your cart. You must quickly move your cart back and forth, clicking as you go, because the bricks are constantly descending during your play. If you do not complete the level before the bricks crush the cart, you lose one of your 3 lives.

This is the basic play of the game but there are more “surprises” to come. The first few levels are easy and slow to help you adjust to the game, but it becomes faster and more challenging soon after completing the first few levels. Some of the helps and obstacles in the game are the lightening bricks when placed strategically can break all the bricks in one column or row, making shapes with the placed bricksAbundante3 will garner you more points, and the scaffolding and moss will create some problems for you if you are not careful. Another entertaining power-up is the fireball you get into your cart and shoot up to explode any bricks nearby.

There are mini games throughout the play, and you can win prizes on top of all that. Also a very important part of the story and game is unlocking pieces of a missing amulet that are scattered all over the temple. The main game will unlock a second mode and then after the second is unlocked, the 3rd one will become available.

Abundante is a exciting gem match game that will provide hours of fun play. I initially found this game challenging, but with practice got much better at it and enjoyed it even more. With all the different levels and modes, you will not get bored and will be pleasantly surprised to find a game worth playing.

Features of Abundante:
-Fun Story Line
-Lots of Challenging Levels
-Power-ups, Bonuses, Rewards
-Surprises

Rating: ★★★½☆