UlverHausu

Gravity Quest

1 hours of playtime, 5 of 5 achievements
Date: 2017 |★☆☆☆☆| Genre: Casual

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Don't know what to call it, The store description classifies it as a 3D Maze, though that's not very descriptive.
Its a 3D maze where both sides of the path exert gravitational pull, And it's very mild on the "maze" part.

I don't dislike the idea, i only dislike the game. I've seen it done better and even there similar concepts have been more interesting to play, like Escher's relativity in Echochrome for the PSP. People either got keys for free, or they are easily satisfied looping the same path from the opposite side. I won't deny there's something to the latter, that could be worth, had this been a proper game

So, the main issue, is the lack of mechanics and non existent thought process in leaving the maze. I haven't seen any other mechanic aside for gravity pads that turn you upside down. It was the easiest, most bland game i've played in quite a while. Not a puzzle, Not a walking sim, No narration. Just paths on a boxed area and a minimalist wallpaper.

Super Turbo Demon Busters!

13 hours playtime, 21 of 24 achievements
Date: 2017 |★★☆☆☆| Genre: Turn based combat

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STD Buster sounds like a derogatory term.
There is little to no reason to play this. This is a port of an android game called Dead Shells, however, as android games tend to fall into "games as service" modules. It means this is an older version of a game that as been updated several times since then. The current dead shells is now an endless game, very different from to the 125 very short levels presented here. So really, the only thing on offer here is the end game.

STD Busters is a very simplified rogue-lite with turn based combat, its almost like a clicker game. It ask little strategy and management from the player. The combat itself is not important, it's almost entirely dependent on preparation before entering the level and roaming the level itself. basically you choose and upgrade the characters you are most comfortable with, the ship inventory space to send it in search for items, then in the level, you mostly worry about selecting the 2 primary weapons, keep an eye on ammo, look for special health packs that delay the virus spread in your squad.
I don't know much about the original android version, but i can only assume that from the updates it got, one of them was for Balance.
seriously the squad is a joke, there's a clear superior character and there is a clear inferior one. Its not balanced, and levels aren't even made to force you different builds, it all plays out the same.
You can just upgrade D Scout, that one class is enough to beat the game, its easy mode. The sniper, is a terrible class, that makes zero sense, and has no unique mechanics you usually see from them in other games. What does it matter if you are a long range character if the damage output is the same?

Color Syndrome

6 hours of playtime, 2 of 12 achievements
Date: 2016 |★☆☆☆☆½ | Genre: Puzzle

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Color Syndrome, combines tetris with connect 4 and possibly Lumines. To a confused and mismatched result.
The board is huge, which makes it last for an insane long time. Ideally you would show the player whether or not he understands and is getting better at it. But here it hardly matters. Maybe old tetris is heavy on RNG, but any of the recent ones, you can survive an awfully long time on skill alone. Its overall a better feeling than making the board multiple times the original size.
The design is terrible, it's incredibly hard to combo or set blocks for a chain. I kept thinking of lumines and how brilliant it was, and so, much like the screen size, it also overly relies on abilities. Almost like it's there to cover an unsuccessful fusion of games.

Then there's the janky controls and the bugs. I played this 2016 game for the first time, and to me its not finished.
It feels like it happens at random, but most likely blocks won't rotate if there's one direction that wont fit. When you eliminate a bottom row Blocks can get stuck or be fused together in 2 different colors.
There's one cleaning block that can be controlled by the player, and boy does the game hate it. It has this mechanic to avoid exploiting the ability that sort of makes it disappear. Its when it doesnt work, and i move the block from one side to the other, that i can get wedged just below the bottom of the screen.

Curse of the Crescent Isle DX

4 hours of playtime, 10 of 19 achievements
Date: 2017 | ★★★☆☆| Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

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It's a puzzle platformer. It looks like Super Mario Bros. 2 or Doki Doki Panic, but the grab ability works exclusively on enemies to use them as a platform, throwable object, or to use their own ability. A fun small game and i could see a fully fledged version for the Switch. But as is, you are getting what you paid for, which in this case was 0.39€. Dont be surprised if you managed to pass an obstacle in a non intended way.