arnold1049's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.8
- Helpful Votes:4,545
- Reviews Submitted:555
- First Review:February 24, 2012
- Most Recent Review:December 24, 2024
- Featured reviews0
Status:
This Halloween, enjoy Halloween Riddles: Mysterious Griddlers – it's terribly exciting!
Overall rating
5
/
5
4 of 4 found this review helpful
DON'T BE FOOLED
PostedOctober 31, 2015
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
If you haven't played these kinds of games before, don't be fooled by how easy the first part of the games are. If you only play the demo, you may think the game is too easy. But the longer you play, the harder the grids become.
Griddlers are another name for fill-and-cross. You must fill the board with spaces or turned tiles. The top and left side of each grid shows how many tiles must be turned in that particular column/row. There must be at least one space between the end of a tile/series of tiles and the next turned tile.
As you play, you win coins that can be used later in the game to purchase help as the grids get harder. That is a good thing about the early grids being easy; you must build up your store of coins for use later.
Each grid starts with 2 hints. Additional hints can be earned during play or purchased from the store. Two mistakes are also allowed before you are required to replay the grid. However, each mistake takes away a star, so if you are "shooting" for 3 stars for each grid, you cannot make any mistake.
I didn't play with any sound, so cannot comment on that.
This is another great griddler with vibrant colors and atmosphere for Halloween. A definite "buy" for me.
I recommend this game!
Save Mary’s father from the demon that possesses his body in Pirate Mysteries: A Tale of Monkeys, Masks, and Hidden Objects!
Overall rating
4
/
5
9 of 11 found this review helpful
HUMOROUS HOG
PostedOctober 30, 2015
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
The storyline is about a daughter who must rescue her father after he is shipwrecked on a tropical island in a group of islands. In the process, she must free him from a mask that has allowed a demon to take control of him with promises to rule the world. Getting the mask off her father is not the end of the story, as the mask must be found and destroyed so the demon cannot get in control again. Along the way, she meets several curious characters who "help".
There are no voiceovers so there is a lot of reading if you want to follow the story. But they can be skipped if you just want to play the HOS. The dialog was humorous and sarcastic. The minigames/puzzles have either bare bones directions on how to play or no directions at all. I skipped a couple because I am impatient and don't like to spend time figuring out how to play the game before I can solve it. I also don't care for games where there is no logic to solving the game, just a series of guesses until you accidentally hit the right answer.
This game is heavy on HOS, which is what I like about a game that is labeled as HO. There are at least 4 different types of HOS in this game, and none of the locations are repeated. There is the classic "list" HOS and ones where riddles have to be solved in order to figure out what object you need to find in the scene. A third category has a list that shows the pictures of what you are looking for and the fourth type shows pictures in the list that must be moved to the right spot in the scene. With lots of locations spread across several different islands, and the number of objects in some list exceeding 30, there is a lot of HO searching.
Hints and skips are available. The hint button provides two levels of help; providing a clue to the object (a silhouette of the object) to pointing to the actual object in the scene.The clue does not require the hint button to recharge and almost always provided enough help to avoid having to use an actual hint and waiting for it to recharge.
This is a basic SE with only one extra. At the end, the "Arcade" version of the game is unlocked. "Arcade" is not the right word to use for this additional gameplay. It just consists of the ability to replay all the locations finding ALL the objects in each location with time of play provided. I set a goal of completing each location in under 5 minutes, which usually required me to replay each scene more than once. I like this additional gameplay as I like to find all the objects in a scene.
The HOS are often dark and many of the objects are tiny. The items in the scenes are not in proportion, so that makes the search a little more difficult. For example, a shovel maybe smaller than an egg. But that just adds to the challenge and enjoyment of the game for me. I looked for more games like this from the same developer, but there aren't any others.
A good game I'm glad I purchased.
I recommend this game!
Experience a new installment of colorful mosaic puzzles in Fantasy Mosaics 11: Fleeing Dinosaurs!
Overall rating
5
/
5
2 of 3 found this review helpful
KEEP THEM COMING
PostedOctober 28, 2015
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
All of the games in this series are excellent. The colored tiles make the completed mosaics very eye catching and playing each color one at a time keeps the game interesting. I played the advanced mode, which means that the numbers at the top of the row or column will not cross off until you have revealed all the right tiles.
There are 20 locations and within these 20 locations are 5 mosaics to complete. Winning a gold cup for each mosaic requires that the mosaic be completed with no mistakes. They can be replayed as often as you want in order to obtain the gold cup. The mosaics must be completed in order; the next one is not unlocked until the current one is completed, but obtaining a gold cup is not necessary to unlock the next scene. And each location must be completed before the next one is unlocked.
Completing each location adds an item to the garden. Each mosaic starts with one hint, but during game play, additional hints are added. At first you can only make 2 mistakes before you have to start the mosaic over. During game play, the number of allowed mistakes increases, but I'm not sure what affect making these additional mistakes has on the level of award earned. I think a gold cup still requires zero mistakes, a silver cup only one mistake, etc. The only thing the additional allowed mistakes makes is that you can make more mistakes before being required to start over.
There are two other ways to get help during play. Each of these requires quite a bit of time for them to reload before they can be used again.
One is a pickaxe that will reveal any tile you set it on and click. Very useful when you have 12 tiles and only ten need to be revealed. Using the pickaxe will narrow down the choices for selecting the correct tile.
The other help is a starburst that reveals a 3x3 grid of tiles around the spot you click on the mosaic with it.
These games are certainly addictive.
I recommend this game!
Journey through time to an amazing land of dinosaurs and help the penguin meet unpredictable ancient creatures.
Overall rating
5
/
5
8 of 9 found this review helpful
ANOTHER WINNER
PostedOctober 28, 2015
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
All of the games in this series are excellent. The colored tiles make the completed mosaics very eye catching and playing each color one at a time keeps the game interesting. I played with no time limits.
There are 20 locations and within these 20 locations are 5 mosaics to complete. Winning a gold cup for each mosaic requires that the mosaic be completed with no mistakes. They can be replayed as often as you want in order to obtain the gold cup. The mosaics must be completed in order; the next one is not unlocked until the current one is completed, but obtaining a gold cup is not necessary to unlock the next scene. And each location must be completed before the next one is unlocked.
Completing each location adds an item to the garden. Each mosaic starts with one hint, but during game play, additional hints are added. At first you can only make 2 mistakes before you have to start the mosaic over. During game play, the number of allowed mistakes increases, but I'm not sure what affect making these additional mistakes has on the level of award earned. I think a gold cup still requires zero mistakes, a silver cup only one mistake, etc. The only thing the additional allowed mistakes makes is that you can make more mistakes before being required to start over.
There are two other ways to get help during play. Each of these requires quite a bit of time for them to reload before they can be used again.
One is a pickaxe that will reveal any tile you set it on and click. Very useful when you have 12 tiles and only ten need to be revealed. Using the pickaxe will narrow down the choices for selecting the correct tile.
The other help is a starburst that reveals a 3x3 grid of tiles around the spot you click on the mosaic with it.
Game # 11 in this series was released today, so I'm off to go play it. These games are certainly addictive.
I recommend this game!
Blaze through 30 locations like South America and Egypt to detect hidden objects in this exciting race.
Overall rating
4
/
5
6 of 6 found this review helpful
DON'T WORRY ABOUT TIMED MODE
PostedOctober 27, 2015
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I don't like games that are timed, particularly the ones that set the time limit at levels that are mostly unattainable. For this reason, I almost passed on this game. However, the description indicated that there was a non-timed mode of play and the HOS looked interesting, so I gave it a try. After the demo, I went ahead and purchased it.
There are approximately 20 HOS with locations all across the world. The scenes themselves look like photographs. Some of the items are very small and extremely well-hidden. I played the non-timed mode first, which simply meant playing each location once. This made it a pretty short game, so to get my money's worth, I decided to try the timed mode.
The timed mode consists of several teams of players competing against each other to find all the objects as quickly and with as much accuracy as possible. Each HOS is set up like a race, with the race track shown at the bottom of the screen that lets you know where your position is among all the other players.
For each HOS, you get 2 hints and one "bomb" that will blow away your nearest competitor. One hint was of the "thermometer" variety where a flame flared or wanned depending on how close you got to the object. You have no choice as to which object the hint will focus on; it will always show you the first object in the list. This hint was hard for me to discern the differences in the flame, so I still found it hard to find the object. This slowed me down and made some of the races extremely close for me to win.
The second hint is a compass, much easier to use than the flame. It actually starts spinning when it is sitting on top of the object and all you have to do is click.
My strategy was to try to find all the objects I could, then use the hints on the last two to speed up my time. With the trouble I had with the flame hint, by the end of the game, I was trying to use only the compass hint. The bomb was not that helpful as usually there were two teams close to you and it only blows away one.I did have some very close races; I purposely came in last in a few, but was allowed to play the race over. One race I came in second, so got a silver cup instead of a gold. This location I could not replay. After that, my strategy was to slow down my play if one of the teams had already finished. This way, if I came in last I could replay the race and have another chance for a gold cup.
The race part of the game was very extensive and it takes you to each location several times over. Each time the objects that you need to find are changed and I never felt like I had "memorized" the location. Each time I returned to a location, it was still a challenge to find the objects in the available amount of time.
This is a very enjoyable game and I hope we will see more in this format.
I recommend this game!
Solve a variety of puzzles and find hidden clues as Nick Chase, a hard-boiled P.I. down on his luck with a keen eye for detail.
Overall rating
3
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
LEFT ME SCRATCHING MY HEAD
PostedOctober 24, 2015
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
3
/
5
My impression is that the game was a little short. I played it in several sections, but none of them were for very long.
I found this game wore me out trying to figure out what to do, particularly in the mini puzzles. The "tasK' button gives a short description of the goal of the puzzle, but often that is not enough to figure out how to play it. For instance, faced with a jumble of wires going in and out, over and through, from the outside of the circle to the side sets of screws, the instructions are to "cut the connecting wire". Connecting to what? My guess was wrong and I blew us all up.
The hint button recharged extremely slowly. I can't remember if there was a choice of difficulty levels. The cut scenes were like the pages of a comic book, a black and white one with text in "talk" bubbles. I thought I left the sound on for the voiceovers, but they didn't work.
At the end I was told to play again to get a gold star. I think the star I won was silver. Actually it is a badge in the shape of a star. I have no idea how the game is scored to come up with the different badge levels, so I had no intention of playing it again if I couldn't figure out what I needed to do better at and how much better. I know I had to skip a couple of puzzles and at one time I had to exit and go find a walkthrough.
By the end of the game, when Nick supposedly saved the day, I couldn't remember exactly what he had to do or how he did it. I just couldn't follow the storyline that well.
I may have a go at the other game in this series, just to see if I can figure it out better. I hate to play a game over because there are so many games out there to play, I hate to waste my time on a playover. I feel the same about reading a book a second time.
Definitely "try before buy" this one.
Can you solve the warlock’s puzzles and save the world’s good mages from a tragic fate? Complete 120 new griddlers in Magic Griddlers 2!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 4 found this review helpful
SEEN ONE, SEEN THEM ALL
PostedOctober 17, 2015
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
There is nothing about this griddler game to make it stand out from any other game of this type. There are 6 worlds, each of which contain 20 puzzles. Each puzzle must be played in order, as completing the previous puzzle unlocks the next.
This is a straight griddler game with no extras. The puzzles start out fairly easy and progress to harder grids. The biggest and most common grid is 20x15. A couple of hints are available at the beginning of each grid, with game play adding more. Each completed grid earns coins that can be used to purchase additional hints during the game.
No mistakes are allowed in order to obtain all 3 keys for the location. Two mistakes stops play and the grid must be started over. Skipping a grid is not an option, as completing one grid is necessary before the next grid unlocks for play. I think zero mistakes is an unrealistic standard, but only for us perfectionists.
This game takes a long time to play, particularly if grids have to be replayed. I returned to this game whenever I had only a short time to play or when I needed a break from more intensive games.
I recommend this game!
Help Emma restore her grandparents' old house! Hidden Object, Match-3 and decoration all in one game.
Overall rating
5
/
5
114 of 126 found this review helpful
FOR DYED-IN-THE-WOOL HOG LOVERS
PostedOctober 14, 2015
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
In the storyline, you are helping to renovate an old home for your relative and for a place to live. In order to get the money to do so, you must have sales. Therefore, you have customers with which to interact.
I love pure HOG games, even if they get a little repetitious. I played the timed game; there are only 2 levels of difficulty, timed and not. I applaud the developers for making this choice available, as I don't usually like playing under the created stress of time limits. However, this game has reasonable time limits and the consequences of not meeting the set time are minor. You collect less money, which takes you longer to purchase the items needed to decorate the house.
I played the first part of the game, where the purpose was to decorate the living room of the house, and was a little disappointed when I thought this was the end of the game. Wrong. Now I'm decorating the porch. After that, I'm not sure what happens. However, in order to start on the porch, I had to have accumulated a total of $20,000, which I hadn't. So it was back to playing more HOS until I had earned the requisite money.
Under the "Extras" tab, there are about 6 ways to play the game, depending on how you like to see the list of objects; pictures, silhouettes, names, etc. I'm guessing that, for each HOS, you can play it six different ways. Providing these "extras" makes the game extremely versatile and I would imagine very long.
During the time I played, even within one HOS, the way the objects are listed changed within the scene. Really made it interesting. For example, maybe the first few objects were named, then the list changed to pictures, etc.
There are also "memory" HO lists, something I've not seen in a HOG before. I was shown a list of objects, first pictures of them, then after a few seconds of study, I was taken to the HOS to find the objects based on my memory, and again with a time limit. Later in the game, the pictures of the objects changed to the names of the objects and the list got longer. I can see silhouettes used, as well as other variations, maybe later in the game.
There are also several different ways time is used to increase the difficulty. The first is a straight forward list of items that must be found. However, the items are attached to a customer and with a price that the customer will pay for that item. Helping all the customers purchase their items, by finding them in the HOS, must be done within a given amount of time. Since the scenes repeat themselves a lot, this gets a little easier, but the items in the scenes move around from one scene to another, and other items are added. Really keeps you on your toes and the "repetition" really wasn't a factor.
In this variation, adding to the difficulty of meeting the time restraints, just finding the object isn't enough. You must move your cursor over the list and collect the money earned by the sale. That allows the next customer to come in to show another object that must be found. So if you don't collect the money and allow another customer to come in, you lose time. But moving back and forth between the list and the scene also takes time. I developed a strategy where I would find 3 objects in the scene, then collect the money. Four customers appear at one time, with the total number of customers (objects to be found) varies from scene to scene. Not sure this strategy saved a lot of time, but at least it kept my head from swimming with all the back and forth. If time runs out before all the customers have been taken care of, you are allowed to finish the customers on the list at the time, but no new ones come in.
Another timed HOS occurs when the customers come, one by one, to purchase a specific item. In this case, each item is timed, not the whole list. If you don't find that customer's item, then the next customer comes in. I've not seen this variation either.
A third timed test is, as mentioned before, the memory test. And the forth is finding X (usually 20) of a certain object, like animals, or clothing.
Hints are available, but take some time to recharge. When you are trying to beat the clock on finding the objects, this recharge time can take too long and the scene timer runs out before the hint can be used again.
To help add to your money, there are several coins hidden in each scene for you to collect. Of course, this also adds to the time you spend on the scene. And there is a set of "collectibles" to find, one in each scene. This is an origami circle and you must find 15 of them.
I'm not sure what could be added to this game to make it a CE, because there are also achievements to be earned. A couple of them are finding all the coins and origami circles hidden in the scenes. Again, cudos to the developers; these achievements are attainable, although not that easy. Few of them are based on time, so that helps a lot. When I finished the living room, I had not attained all the achievements, but I was allowed to continue to play the scenes to complete them.
Wow, the more I write about this game, the better it gets! LOL. I've just upgraded everything to 5 stars. Great game and I'm ready to get back to playing it.
I recommend this game!
Help Epiphany O’day sneak on board the luxurious and dangerous Imperial Majestic to stop murder and mayhem in its tracks!
Overall rating
4
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
EXCELLENT VOICEOVERS
PostedOctober 13, 2015
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
4
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
I played the demo of this game and immediately purchased it. Then I went back and played the rest of the game in one long session, it held my interest that much.
The storyline is the usual Good vs Evil in the form of a Dragon's Wheel that can awaken the ancient terra cota warriors of Japan to conquer the world. Enter the heroine to save the day. Murder and mayhem follow.
I played without music but left the voiceovers on and really enjoyed them, particularly the British accent of the heroine. Her accent seemed stronger at the beginning than at the end.
In fact, the beginning of the game seemed much stronger than the ending. The later chapters did not seem to flow as seamlessly as the earlier chapters and I often had to use the hint button to find my way. In fact, the very end seemed to have me in a continuous loop with no help from the hint button. Finally, after the umpteenth time of returning to the same location, it changed to a different location and I was able to end the game. Weird and frustrating and robbed the game of a 5-star rating.
This game seriously needed an interactive map, again, particularly at the ending. By the end, there are so many locations open that having to go back and forth became a distraction and a frustration. This running back and forth is a pet peeve of mine and will keep me from purchasing a game if it is bad enough. I managed to deal with my frustration so that I was able to finish the game.
The locations are beautiful, colorful and complex. Real eye candy. The graphics are excellent and seem to be a good representation of Japanese items and decor. There are a lot of HOS in the game, although repeats are included. My unfamiliarity with Japanese items made the HOS a little more difficult. I did use the hint a few times.
None of the puzzles were too hard, but were unique in several ways and really stayed within the context of the story.
This is a SE with no bells or whistles, but just a solid, entertaining game well worth the money.
I recommend this game!
King Arthur
Follow Arthur’s rise from boy to king! Listen to Merlin’s story and meet an amazing cast of characters as you live a classic tale!
Overall rating
5
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
AN EXCELLENT TAKE ON THE KING ARTHUR LEGEND
PostedOctober 12, 2015
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I was attracted to this game because of the subject matter; King Arthur. I agree that this game has some flaws. The progression of the story of King Arthur is not linear and I see no reason why it couldn't have been. The repetition of the same HO to find is a little tedious; same spiders, same salamanders, etc.
The mini games/puzzles weren't too hard, but I liked the ones that were based on runes; they melded well with the story, One of the rune puzzles completely defeated me; I had no clue how to play it and I didn't want to take the time to go to the walkthrough to find out. I'm also not good with constellations, so I played that puzzle by just placing a symbol over and over again until I found the right spot for it.
So why am I giving it 5 stars? Because the storyline is a pretty accurate rendition of the King Arthur story, from beginning to tragic end. The graphics were extremely well done and representational of the historical period. The poem at the end was a really nice touch. I liked that there were a lot of HOS, even if they were repetitious. And the games did a good job of staying within the story material.
So, if you really don't care about storylines and just want good HOS and puzzles, then skip this game; it isn't for you. But if you are a King Arthur fan and pretty much enjoy any HOG, this try this game. I was sorry when it ended.
I recommend this game!