Tikatoy's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:4.3
- Helpful Votes:1,359
- Reviews Submitted:111
- First Review:November 15, 2011
- Most Recent Review:April 30, 2017
- Featured reviews0
Status:
An ocean liner was caught in a storm and wrecked in the ocean. Discover mysteries, save your friends, and get back home!
Overall rating
5
/
5
3 of 4 found this review helpful
Not quite a village sim, not quite an adventure game, just lots of fun!
PostedMay 30, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
Oddly enough, the game I'd compare this to in terms of gameplay style is Grand Theft Auto 3 (onwards). You have a main quest/storyline to follow, but you are free to explore and do other things on the side like go hunting or fishing. You don't have any official side quests, though.
The premise is that you and a few other people are the survivors of a shipwreck who have washed up on a tropical island. Luckily, there are plenty of fruit trees around and you can gather fruit for food. Gathering food and cooking it and collecting recipes makes up a significant part of the game, which I guess makes sense as survival is the #1 priority.
You can also pick up branches, timber and shells as you walk around. It's strangely fun to gather stuff, even before you know what it's going to be used for. Everything "respawns" quickly, so if you walk over to another screen, then come back, you'll find new fruit, shells, etc.
The story unfolds through exploration of the island and talking to various characters in the game. There are a LOT of conversations and there are voice overs for ALL of them. Also, while some of the dialogue can be pretty ridiculous, and sometimes the reactions of the characters isn't quite believable, overall they do a good job of conveying the mystery of the island as well as the individual personalities of each character. I was always interested and motivated to learn more.
You receive a series of tasks to advance the story, which are typically simple things like talking to someone, or gathering specific items. I was pretty happy to do them, although they do involve quite a bit of running around the island. Nothing is difficult, and the closest thing to a minigame is fishing, which just involves waiting and clicking at the right time. It's repetitive, but not in an annoying way (to me).
Gameplay remains the same pretty much throughout, so if you like the demo, you'll like the game--I did! :)
I recommend this game!
Search for a town consumed by fog! Unlock forbidden doors and uncover mysterious items!
Overall rating
5
/
5
3 of 6 found this review helpful
Refreshingly original and challenging puzzles
PostedMay 27, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
This game has it all for me: gorgeous graphics, creepy, atmospheric music and sound effects, awesome puzzles/minigames, an interesting story with a twist, and I even enjoyed playing the hidden object scenes (which I'm usually just neutral towards)!
The best part for me was the puzzles/minigames. Typically in even the better HOGs, you will get mostly easy puzzles that you've come across in other HOGs with a few original and/or more challenging puzzles thrown in. In this game, every single puzzle was original and challenging! At the same time, none of them ended up being frustrating and could be completed in a reasonable amount of time or number of retries. (Click the Help button in the lower right for puzzle instructions).
The graphics were really pretty. It's yet another spooky HOG with decaying, dusty, abandoned buildings but I don't get sick of those and these looked gorgeous. The animations were also good, and some of the ghost animations (combined with sound effects) were quite spooky!
I generally don't like interactive hidden object scenes (where you can't click on an object directly--first you have to take some other action like drag another item onto it, or open a door) all that much because those involve mousing all over the scene until your cursor changes which is more tedious than fun. In this game they're done a much better way: the items you find on your list can sometimes be used on other objects in the scene to reveal another item. E.g. "key" is on your word list, you click on it and you can then use it on a locked chest which opens to reveal some treasure, which is also on the list. No need to mouse randomly over the whole screen!
The story is pretty good but I liked the concept more, the idea of a town being caught between dimensions. The only negative I can point out is there's no map and the game requires a noticeable amount of backtracking. Still nothing too bad and not enough to warrant anything lower than a five-star rating for me! :)
I recommend this game!
Help Detective Croft solve the case of the Baker Street Murder and uncover the conspiracy about the murder of her partner!
Overall rating
2
/
5
5 of 5 found this review helpful
Short and ended somewhat abruptly
PostedMay 27, 2012
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
I'll talk about the good stuff first. :P I LOVED the art style. I like detective noir and the graphics were really evocative of that. The music was okay but did serve to enhance this atmosphere. The variation on sparkles that shows trails of stars instead was also cool. The dialogue is done in speech bubbles with the text in a cool old-school typewriter font--very cool! The story was also interesting as you interview people and compile a list of suspects and uncover hints of corruption. All that good crime mystery stuff.
That was it for the good stuff. :( The game was REALLY short. And worse than that, it ended very abruptly. I'm okay with a short game (but not too short--preferably at least over 2.5 hours) if it's high quality, but this game seemed to end in the middle of the story. I was totally unprepared for that!
This is more or less a straight HOG where you go from hidden object scene to hidden object scene. Scenes are junk piles with objects in illogical locations. They were reasonably fun to play through, though. There are very few puzzles and they're very easy. No adventure game elements (no inventory items, no true ability to move freely between locations).
I wouldn't mind the average gameplay if there was a good story to go along with the amazing graphics, and I did like what there was of the story, but there just wasn't enough of it.
I don't recommend this game.
Gemini Lost
A strange light leads your group to an unfamiliar world! Build a new society, while searching for a way back home!
Overall rating
5
/
5
17 of 18 found this review helpful
Cute and fun sim game
PostedMay 24, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
I liked this game so much that when I finished playing, I immediately started a new game so I could play it through again.
This is a villager/tribe sim game similar to Virtual Villagers and VERY similar to Little Folk of Faery and Buried in Time (and Artist Colony). You start off with a small population and set them to do tasks like produce food, construct buildings, gather resources or do research. Your villagers can get married and have children. Everyone ages, so your original villagers grow old and die, the children grow up and become productive members of society.
That's the basic premise, but there are enough interesting added elements to make gameplay very satisfying.
First, the villagers are distinct individuals. Each has a favourite skill (farming, building, etc.) that they improve at more rapidly. They each have a zodiac sign; this is important as they will only marry someone who has a compatible zodiac sign (only two other signs are compatible). The most important personalization is that as they work at a task, they get better at it. I got to know some of my villagers by name: "Hey, something needs to be built--I'll grab Abby to do it!"
Another fun aspect of the game is exploration of the map. There are lots of areas to investigate as part of your quest to return home (which involves many, many steps) and different things to do at each site. The map and quests do stay the same if you start a new game though, so this does limit replayability somewhat.
There is also a fun "skill tree" where you accumulate knowledge points through having villagers do research, then spend them on technological advancements, e.g. advancing a level in farming allows you to start collecting honey for food. You also unlock potion recipes which are modest to start (a haste potion that makes a villager faster for a short period of time), but quite powerful at the end (immediately max out a specific skill).
There is a lot to do in this game, and there is no time pressure at all. Just take your time to explore and develop your people. Technically you could lose the game, but you'd have to make a mistake to do it (nobody farming and you run out of food, or set the game to run while you're not playing and forget about it and everyone will die of old age).
The only thing I'd want to see improved in this game is to have higher resolution graphics. I actually like the cartoony art style a lot and think it works great with the game's theme, but it just doesn't compare to something like Little Folk of Faery, which is gorgeous.
I have so many games that I rarely replay any of them, but I liked this one so much that I did.
I recommend this game!
Journey into the Nightmare Realm and save Emily from an imaginary world that has been taken over by darkness!
Overall rating
4
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Pretty good-looking for a nightmare
PostedMay 22, 2012
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The things I liked the most about this game are the beautiful graphics and the fun dream worlds that you get to visit. The story was pretty interesting too as you uncover letters throughout the game that makes the characters who are helping you seem to be untrustworthy; it was a good way to introduce a little intrigue into the game.
Both the location and hidden object scenes are really beautiful. All of the characters and animals are also done well, and you get a good sense of them being alive and having real personalities. There was a good variety of puzzles but nothing really new--fun to play nonetheless. The map and journal are also well done, consistent with the high quality graphics throughout the game. The map indicates rooms in which you can take actions so you can check it if you get stuck.
I appreciated the optional "side quest" of collecting hidden origami. However, I didn't know until I looked at the walkthrough that finding them unlocked instructions for folding different types of origami.
While the story was interesting (and had one very cool and satisfying plot element that was hinted at throughout the game), the ending left me feeling a little baffled and wanting to know more about the reveal.
I recommend this game!
Take up the role of True Leader and help your people flourish in a new land by training workers and building structures.
Overall rating
4
/
5
29 of 30 found this review helpful
Deceptively deep strategy game
PostedMay 22, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
This game seems simple at first glance: you can recruit different types of workers to place on buildings that produce different resources, and you try to finish the level objectives, which usually involves some combination of accumulating specific resources, recruiting specific types of workers or achieving some special objective (by assigning workers to the specific task).
Complexity arises when you have to make decisions on which objectives to pursue first. Do you upgrade buildings? Recruit more workers for lumber? Recruit merchants to earn money?There's a time limit so your choices are important. I had to do some careful planning to get the expert score on a lot of the levels.
The graphics are actually pretty cute, but they're very low resolution so they just don't look good. I think using the exact same graphics at a higher resolution would have improved the appearance of this game drastically.
If you're looking for a game that has more of a strategy element (as far as casual games so) to it and don't mind the graphics, check this one out.
I recommend this game!
A legendary secret agent has gone rogue and Intrigue, Inc. needs you to track him down. Uncover Raven’s diabolical plan!
Overall rating
3
/
5
13 of 19 found this review helpful
Ugly graphics
PostedMay 21, 2012
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
2
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
The main draw of this game for me was the spy theme, which is different from the norm in this genre. They didn't stray from the theme, and there were some good ideas such as having a classically evil villain, including traps and having tasks that involved assembling items MacGyver-style, but ultimately the execution didn't do much for me. The locations were pretty boring too; being a spy game, I would have appreciated travelling all over the world to exotic locations.
The graphics are pretty ugly IMO but I would have overlooked that for a good story or great puzzles. The puzzles/minigames were pretty average, although I did appreciate the inclusion of 3 arcade-style minigames (these can all be skipped).
The hidden object scenes were pretty decent despite the bad graphics. I liked that you could click on an object to see its silhouette for a hint before you use the real hint that shows you exactly where the object is. I liked the variation on hidden object scenes where you get a list of images instead of a word list then have to assemble those objects into some device.
I love it when you can (optionally) collect a certain type of hidden item throughout the game (e.g. morphing objects). In this case, it's valuable art objects. However, at the end of the game there was acknowledgement that I'd collected them all. I would have been happy with just a message or something.
The game had potential but it wasn't developed to the fullest and ended up being pretty unexceptional.
I don't recommend this game.
Control the forces of nature in this unique time management game!
Overall rating
4
/
5
Who knew weather could be so fun?
PostedMay 20, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
In a lot of ways this is a pretty typical time management/strategy game, skewing more towards strategy. You assign specialized workers to various buildings to produce goods that you require to complete the level objectives. In this game, however, your "workers" are the sun, clouds and wind (or several combinations thereof) that you use to grow crops or generate energy (to be used to power mines or production facilities).
Each type of crop has different needs: e.g. corn requires rainclouds (combine 2 clouds) and then sun in order to get a product. You can then sell this to make money to buy more weather elements, upgrade your farms, etc. You can "recycle" any weather element at any time to get the FULL cash amount back. So if you are quick at recycling unneeded weather elements for money then buying what you need, you can really increase your productivity.
After you finish the introductory levels, around level 5 or so, it immediately becomes non-trivial to achieve expert time. Part of this might be that I was still getting used to the game and figuring out what the best way to spend resources is. Upgrade the farm? Or buy more weather elements? The gameplay doesn't change significantly, and later on I was able to achieve expert time on the first try most of the time with a general strategy I developed as I was playing through the game.
The game has 40 levels, which seemed a bit on the short side to me. I liked the unusual concept and thought it was a fun little game.
I recommend this game!
Build a railway, operate railroad points and semaphores to help your trains avoid crashes and to deliver cargo in time!
Overall rating
4
/
5
36 of 37 found this review helpful
Trains are fun!
PostedMay 20, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
The premise of this game is pretty simple: build train tracks to allow the transport of food between farms and towns and food production facilities (e.g. taking tomatoes and producing ketchup). Your objective for each level is to deliver the specified quantities of items to town in the given time.
A lot of the fun comes from playing with the trains. Part of the track is usually laid out for you but you get to fill in the rest however you want. You can also switch the tracks (controlling whether the train turns or goes straight) and toggle traffic lights which will make the train reverse direction when it hits a red light. Loading and unloading of goods is automatic so all you need to do is plan your routes. Clicking on the train gives it a burst of speed (and a cute "choo choo" sound and puffs of smoke).
There are about eight levels within a chapter, which represents a specific region on the map. This means that your previously built tracks carry on to the next level within a chapter. There are also special levels called "Maneuvers" where typically you have no stations and you're challenged to lay down tracks and to pick up the specified quantities of food in the given amount of time. These have the feel of mini-games or puzzles, and are a nice break from the regular gameplay.
A significant gameplay element is the ability to buy power ups with "stars" you get at the end of each level (the faster you finish, the more stars). There are a variety of power ups, like maintaining the faster speed of the train (after clicking on it) for a longer time, or unloading goods more quickly. The MOST important one is extra time, and unfortunately I think this one makes the main game much too easy after you get it.
The game is a good challenge to get expert time once you get past the introductory levels. There were some I repeated several times and just managed to squeeze in with seconds to spare. However, once I got the "extra time" bonus, all of the levels became really easy and I didn't have to replay many levels to get expert. Also, since you can replay earlier levels and use all the power ups you've earned, you can get expert time with ease. The game does include several bonus levels which actually are challenging, but I'd prefer the main game to be tough.
I recommend this game!
Clarence Flatt, an expert clockmaker, has asked for your help and has offered you the chance to explore the Timeless Tower!
Overall rating
4
/
5
6 of 7 found this review helpful
Original variation on the standard HOG
PostedMay 18, 2012
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
In this game, instead of getting a list of words in each hidden object scene, you get a few items in your inventory and you have to put them back into the scene in appropriate locations, e.g. if you have a shoe, you can place it with an identical shoe in the scene to make a pair. When you click on an inventory item it "sticks" to the pointer and you then see some descriptive text when you mouse over areas of interest in the scene. This makes the task of figuring out what goes where much easier, and are often funny. Like mousing over a "sleepy owl" and putting a sleep mask over it so it can go to sleep.
This comprises about 80% of the gameplay, so if you don't like this type of hidden object scenes, you should give it a miss. ;) Personally, I found it refreshing to be playing something a little different. You have some adventure game elements (finding/using inventory items) as well, but I thought they were pretty straightforward (find a key, unlock a door).
There were some puzzles as well--not many of them, but I thought they were well-designed. Most of them show you a scene with an objective, and 4-6 drawings of actions you can take. Your task is to choose the actions in the correct order to achieve your objective. E.g. you have a scene with a person, a tree and a cloud. Your actions are to make it rain, move the cloud, or cause lightning to strike and your objective is "don't get electrocuted". Different things happen depending on the order in which you take the actions. I enjoyed this type of puzzle a lot and some of the later ones required a few tries to succeed. There are also a few other puzzles that I've seen in lots of other games before.
This game is a little older so the graphics were just okay, although not ugly. I liked the gameplay enough that the graphics didn't matter that much to me.
I recommend this game!