Posts Tagged ‘review’

Mystery Stories: Berlin Nights Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy | Posted by musicaltrack
Jul 17 2010

berlin-nights

Mystery Stories- Berlin Nights puts you in the middle of a giant case involving unlimited renewable energy, beautiful reporters, World War II technology and Nazi escapees. Unlike most Hidden Object games, Mystery Stories goes above and beyond the usual Berlin5genre and makes it fun and interesting to solve the puzzles, including the mini games.

What makes this game great is the ingenuity of the puzzles. There is the classic I Spy game mode, but even in these puzzles, Berlin2there is something new. In the early levels, the game makes you look for something and perform the task within the puzzle. For example, one level has banana peels hidden throughout and one of the tasks is to throw these peels out. You click and drag the bananas over to the trash can in order to complete that task.

I also came across a couple of Hidden Object puzzles that were a little different from usual games. One puzzle had clues that slowly came up on the side that led you to look for a certain object. For example, if the clue was a baguette, the clues might be something like Long, France, Baked, etc. The faster you get the clue, the more points you earn. Another puzzle that was really cool was the sound I Spy. Instead of getting the list of clues, you get a list of sounds that the clues make. This is not as hard as it sounds, as the sounds are generally pretty straightforward (i.e. Frog, Drum, Radio).

The best part about these puzzles was the lack of clutter. Usually, these type of games have screens that are covered with small Berlin4intricate little objects that you have to spend twenty minutes looking for. Mystery Stories- Berlin Nights is much easier on the eyes and hides the clues cleverly, instead of in a sea of objects. This is definitely a plus, as my eyes were not straining like they usually are after a game like this.

This was probably one of the best Hidden Object games that I have ever played. Besides the new and fun gameplay, the story Berlin3was pretty interesting as well. You are a female reporter from New York in Berlin when you stumble upon some friends who are looking for a machine from a former German scientist who had to leave the technology for renewable energy to flee from the Nazis. It is your mission to find the missing parts and discover the mystery of Berlin. The only problem I had was with the slow load times, but that might just be my computer. This game is definitely worth the five stars that it deserves.

Features of Mystery Stories: Berlin Nights:
- Search the city of Berlin for clues
- 94 levels of mystery
- 14 bonus minigames
- Adventure and Free Mode play

Rating: ★★★★★

Zak and Jack: Showdown at Monster Town Review

Action, Adventure, Arcade, Shooter | Posted by Zeke
Jul 15 2010

Zak and Jack 1

Monster Town is under attack by evil monsters in Mac game Zak and Jack: Showdown at Monster Town. It is a colorful, fun shooter game full of action and speed. There are good monsters and bad monster in this comical play, and you must help Zak Zak and Jack 2and Jack, two good monsters, defend their beloved Monster Town. The 2 of them are creative inventor types who can rig up shooting machines in order to beat down the massive invasion of the enemy.

The play is simple and straightforward with the crazy contraptions used to defend the town. Just click to shoot while you move Zak and Jack up and down on their invention. It’s not as easy as it sounds because the evil villains constantly at different positions keep coming at you until you shoot all the monsters. After each level the swarm of bad guys increases exponentially rising high and low.

In addition to this mega invasion there are the bosses who can cause much harm and havoc to the invention causing you to lose the level and restart. Don’t fret, keep at it and you’ll eventually beat the levels getting a high percentage of accuracy. This percentage is important to complete each level so don’t shoot willy-nilly at anything. You can always get good power-ups to assist your fight, but beware of the red ones. They are not helpful.

Zak and Jack 3Zak and Jack: Showdown at Monster Town is an arcade, shooter Mac game with so much action you’ll need to take breaks after so many levels or you’ll get completely exhausted with finger cramps. You need to be able to think fast and act even faster in order to outsmart the countless invasion of evil monsters. Take the challenge and help Zak and Jack defend their Monster Town.

Features of Zak and Jack: Showdown at Monster Town
-5 Episodes
-Lots of Monsters and Bosses
-Power-ups

Rating: ★★★★☆

The Amazing Brain Train Review

Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Jul 14 2010

amazing brain train mac gameDownload the Amazing Brain TrainBuy the Amazing Brain Train

When you think you have figured out the target audience for a game, it changes and gives you a completely different perspective. The Amazing Brain Train is one those Mac games. The title itself is a clever play on words. What first comes to mind is the children’s locomotive, operated by Professor Fizzwizzle (the very one in the platform game by the same name and many others), which moves the play along, and then you find it’s also training the brain with diverse and changing mind exercises.

The Amazing Brain Train has 15 different games, 3 modes of play and 32 trophies to unlock. The Quest mode fuels the train along on the board with your “brain power”. Test has 5 mini games, and Practice has 15 timed or untimed mini games. Each mini game will test your logic, memory, dexterity and patience.

Instructions are simple and given by animated, colorful characters. The first few levels are easy enough for young children to figure out, however don’t let it fool you, it quickly becomes more challenging and difficult to keep in the timeframe. Some of the mini games were the memorizing what is behind the barn door, untangling dogs on leashes, connecting the stars to form a constellation, and bringing animals to food without sliding off the board. Once you get comfortable in the games it makes a complete 90 degree turn and your time runs out or you forget what really was behind that door, but don’t get frustrated just keep going you will conquer the toughest of tests. If the timed tests are too much, just switch to the untimed games until you get the hang of things, and you’ll do a lot better later on.

The pros of this Mac game is that the Amazing Brain Train will test and push your limits of thinking. It has different kinds of mini games so you are not always doing the same kind of play each time. The cons may be you will feel silly playing a game with the beautifully done graphics of very cute, pre-school-like animals and characters. If you can get past the children’s artwork, Professor Fizzwizzle’s Amazing Brain Train is for those practicing and maintaining their mental wellness. It is great for all those brain fitness people who are looking for difficult mind games, other than crosswords or sudokus. Also it is for those who just like to play fun and educational games, but be ready to put your brain to work while traveling down the railroad of thinking.

Features of The Amazing Brain Train:
-15 different games
-3 modes of play
-32 trophies
-easy instructions
-fun and challenge for both children and adults
-educational
-amazing graphics

Rating: ★★★½☆ Puzzle

Atomic Cannon Review

Action, Shooter | Posted by trackbum
Jul 11 2010

Atomic Cannon 2
Download Atomic CannonBuy Atomic Cannon

We, at Macgames.org, decided to change it up a bit, and videotape a blogger playing Mac game Atomic Cannon instead of writing about it. The variety and originality of the weapons are a strong draw in this army game, but the ultimate goal is to win your wars. In order to win, you take your knowledge of physics and aim your tank at the correct trajectory and power to hit your opponent. You take turns shooting at each other, but if you miss, you don’t need to worry since it takes multiple times before you or your opponent can be destroyed.

The graphics although simple are impressive when large chunks of earth are destroyed by a bomb.  The landscapes are changed with the multiple bombings between you and the enemy.  Other weapons will build up land creating a high mountain. Some weapons will affect your enemy over time like the radioactive bomb.

The sound effects are terrific and authentic to the play. Atomic Cannon is an awesome play without the usual blood and gore. It’s different but still loads of fun. Hope you enjoy the show.

Features of Atomic Cannon:
-85 Weapons
-26 Landscapes
-Multiplayer Mode

Rating: ★★★★☆

Kivi’s Underworld Review

Action, Adventure, RPG | Posted by survivorbuff
Jul 09 2010

kivi-1

Download Kivi's UnderworldBuy Kivi's Underworld

Come with Kivi the Lumen on a wild adventure to save his world from foreign and dangerous enemies. Kivi’s Underworld is an addicting game about a young warrior trying to save his race of Lumen people from the dreaded dark elves. He needs to leave his underground safe haven to rebuild the lost city of Defiance through dark tunnels and treacherous paths to bring peace and harmony to his people.

The story begins with Kivi, a young Lumen warrior, leading a disastrous and deadly mining expedition, and unfolding uncharted territories to uncover a mythical (or so they thought) race of dark elves. Kivi is the lone survivor who makes it back to his home only to find that no one will believe him about the elves. He is in a fight of his life and must do so alone. He needs to recruit Lumens and fight off the elves with limited lives and powers.

Kivi fights many enemies along his journey, including skeletons and zombies with fire mage, disguises and power-ups found along the way. Fighting in the game is very straightforward; you simply click on an enemy to perform a standard attack or right click to perform a special maneuver. To perform special attacks you must have mana which is regenerated as you walk around the game board or picked up from killing enemies. As you walk in the game and break open crates and barrels you will find magic power-ups to help you bash through crowds of enemies or avoid them through secret passageways. The range of extras can go from power strikes to bolts of lightning. There are lots of monsters, deadly traps, secrets to uncover and many different characters to choose from including different races of people with numerous story lines.

This slash and bash mac game is a follow up to Depth of Peril and reminds me of World of Warcraft and Runescape. This game has endless possibilities and hours of fun waiting for casual players with its ease of learning the moves or for the seasoned gamers looking for a high difficulty level to challenge their experience. The only negatives I found was the repetitiousness of the play and the sound and voice qualities. I give this game 4 out of 5 stars for its fast pace, exciting gameplay and interesting story lines.

Features of Kivi Underworld:

-Over 20 characters with different storylines
-Magical power-ups
-Lots of monsters, zombies and skeletons
-Deadly traps
-4 difficulty levels
-Great graphics
-Maps
-Easy to learn

Rating: ★★★★☆