Posts Tagged ‘review’

Plants vs Zombies Review

Action, Shooter | Posted by Meg
Aug 29 2010

Plants vs Zombies

Keep the zombies out of your house no matter what or they’ll eat your brain! Plant vs Zombies, an unique play, is not only fun, but it will get very challenging as the levels go higher. The cartoon artwork will alleviate any blood and gore worries you may associate with walking zombies. The only concern for young kids may be when the zombies are beaten will lose their heads and body parts.

The play is to click on the available seed packet, drag it to the green sod, plant it to stop the zombies. Clicking on the suns will gain you more seed packets. When you plant sunflowers, it will produce more suns to click on. After a certain number of points, Plants vs Zombies 3you will get different packets to stave off the monsters. The pea shooters can down the zombies, the sunflowers produce only suns (but are needed to increase your score to access more seed packets), cherry bombs will blow up your enemies, potato seeds only block and slow down the zombies, freeze shooters are similar to pea shooters but more effective, purple devourers will eat the Plants vs Zombies 6zombies and more seed packets will become available as you pass each level. Some plants shoot, destroy zombies and others slow them down. You decide where to plant each type of seed depending on what they do.

The higher the level, more zombies will be lumbering towards your home. Some zombies with poles can vault over your barriers. If they should get passed all your blockades, the last form of defense is the lawnmower. It will mow down the zombies in that path.

One of the mini games is the bowling for zombies with potatoes. The potatoes will roll across the top of the screen. When you click on a potato, drag it to the sod path where a zombie is walking towards the house. It will roll down the grass and knock over the zombie. This is a fast action game and you must quickly grab a potato and use it appropriately. The red, hot potato will explode the zombies but they are few and far apart.

Plants vs Zombies is just a fun action packed game and nothing more. Well, maybe you would like to protect your brain from being eaten so it’s prudent of you to keep pace with destroying the dreaded zombies.

Features of Plants vs Zombies:
-5 Game Modes
-Crazy Dave’s Shop with Special Plants and Tools
-26 Types of Zombies

Rating: ★★★½☆

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: ★★★☆☆

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☆

Text Twist 2 Review

Word | Posted by Meg
Aug 21 2010

Text Twist 2 6

Word games are always fun to play and are great workouts for your brain. Lately the current buzzwords for those who want to stay young and vital are mental fitness and brain training. Exercising your brain is in and Mac word game Text Twist 2 will do just that and more for your overall well-being.

Everyone is different and Text Twist 2 takes that into consideration by creating 3 modes of play to fit all types of people. In the Lightning mode you must use all the letters offered to make a word before the time runs out. Some people are good at this mode, but others, like me, need more time to figure out the word. What’s great about this game is you can twist the letters around so maybe you’ll have betterText Twist 2 7 luck making your word. The crossword puzzle mode is in the crossword configuration and you make words using the blocks presented both vertically and horizontally. Word of the Day will give you letters every day to form your words.

The classic play is time or untimed depending on how you are feeling that day. You are presented with a group of letters and you click on the one letter at a time to form words. The clicked letters will go into boxes above the available letters and you click again to submit your word. At the very top of the screen you will find empty squares of 3 or more. Once you make any accepted word, your word will be placed in the boxes. Once you fill up all the 3 letter words, the game will not take anymore even if you come up with a good word. You need to go on and make 4 or more letter words to fill up the rest of the boxes. If you are lucky enough to get the bingo word, you can go on to the next level. Most of the time the bingo word uses more than 4 letters. However if you do not get the bingo word and your brain is spent, you might want to use one of the couple of passes available to you, but remember the object of this game is to form as many words as possible.

Text Twist 2 is a great game for the whole family. I had fun just playing by myself and will return to this game. It is not only enjoyable and educational, but it’s addictive as well. If you are into word games, try twisting some of the letters and form your own words. Your brain will thank you for it.

Features of Text Twist 2:
-More Than 25,000 Words
-3 Modes
-Great Graphics

Rating: ★★★★☆