Game Review: BADLAND

Title: BADLAND
Type: iPhone app
Genres: Side-scroller, action adventure, puzzle
Developer: Frogmind
Rating: 5 Stars

I was instantly drawn to the atmospheric art in BADLAND. It’s as if a space station crash landed and a few hundred years of forest growth had taken it over. Yet, there are still functioning gears, saws, and exploding elements. And a host of silhouetted bunnies that stare creepily at you from the background.

And then we have our character, a pudgy thing that flies. I’ve taken to calling them ‘hedgies’ since they look remarkably similar to a squeaking hedgehog toy my dog gets overly possessive about. The hedgies move in response to screen tapping—if you hold your finger down, he flies to the top of the screen, let go and he falls to the ground. A multitude of things can happen to the hedgies from power ups: grow, shrink, multiply, spin, or get super sticky.

Pretty simple, yeah? Well, some of the puzzles and obstacles become quite difficult. Bombs sometimes look like just a normal part of the scenery; other times spiky balls of death look like a bomb that might propel hedgie through the landscape. Some puzzles take two or three plays just to find out what you need to do. Then getting the timing and luck right may take 5+ more.

While some of the trickier puzzles make me want to throw my phone across the room (a desire I have so far kept at bay), I cannot stop playing. I become a little masochistic with difficult, yet simplistic puzzles—playing until I’m a fuming ball of hate, and then I keep going. Yet despite that, these are my favorite. It’s a gorgeous challenge with a mix of thinking, timing, and dexterity.

Not only can I become a fuming ball of hate in single player, but I can also attempt to ruin my friendships with multi-player mode! A player wins if their hedgie survives the longest or they have more points from course time and clones saved. Levels are filled with the same tricky traps as single player, but now opponents can kill their rivals by pushing them off screen, squishing them, and knocking them into traps. At least with consoles there is a slight distance, but on the iPhone or iPad the potential ex-friends are huddled close with easy elbow jabbing potential.

Despite all of that, I love this game. I highly recommend it for fans of Portal, Jetpack Joyride, Limbo, and Super Meat Boy.

Find BADLAND online:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | App Store

Game Review: Girls Like Robots

Title:  Girls Like Robots
Type:  iPhone
Genre:  Puzzle
Creators:  Adult Swim and Popcannibal
Rating:  4.5 Stars

Girls like robots. Robots like girls. Nerds like girls and robots. Robots are nerd neutral. Girls hate robots. It’s simple, right?

In Girls Like Robots, players must use the simple list of relationship preferences while arranging characters in order to fill a happiness meter. Or an un-happiness meter, depending on the level.

The gameplay starts simple with the aforementioned girls, robots, and nerds being placed on grids. The game is kept interesting with various goals, including deflecting giant bugs. Things get tricky when cows, pie, fish, and fire are added. A couple levels kept me scratching my head for a while, and I had to revisit the final stage a few times.

As the player progresses through the three acts, a cute story of love and an epic showdown to save the world are revealed—all to an upbeat folk soundtrack by Peacemeal String Band, complete with banjo action!

Even when players cannot find the best puzzle answer to make each and every little square character happy, they can still beat it., since happiness has never been black and white. But the happier the characters are, the more bonuses the player receives—which unlock bonus games.

I loved this charming game and give it high recommendations for all ages. My biggest complaint was the inability to undo the final move in a stage, BUT Popcannibal listened to its players and fixed it! I am overjoyed when developers implement good player suggestions. Just another reason to like the game and creators.

Don’t forget to check out Adult Swim’s website for more games and their TV schedule. And Popcannibal’s website for more Girls Like Robots information and screenshots.

What do you think about Girls Like Robots? Tell me in the comments below.

Game Review: Amateur Surgeon Hospital

Title:  Amateur Surgeon Hospital

Type:  Facebook Social

Creator:  Adult Swim and Mediatonic

Rating:  3 Stars

Once upon a time, Adult Swim created a game called Amateur Surgeon. In this game, players perform back-alley-esque surgery with pizza cutters and lighters in an illegal hospital. The premise and stylization brought me in. However, I found it difficult to perform some of the tasks using my laptop’s trackpad and abandoned my surgeon’s post (because, really, I was not buying a mouse for one casual online game).

A few years (and sequels) later, Adult Swim releases Amateur Surgeon Hospital on Facebook. In this iteration, the player is managing the hospital, as well as performing surgery. This includes everything from hiring scummy staff to building rooms to the decorating scheme. I figured I would give it a shot, since the simple Facebook games have been manageable with the trackpad (and I have since invested in a mouse, if the difficulty persisted).

For the first two weeks, this game is enjoyable. There are a variety of interestingly designed characters, as well as items for the hospital. I found the surgery easier than before, but whether that is true to gameplay or me getting better at computer games is uncertain. Players can only perform as much surgery as their blood bar permits, so the rest of the game is time management and layout. It’s easy to set up a hospital shift and let the staff handle the patients while players are away. This also allows the blood bar to fill, vending machines to collect coins, and machines to produce materials.

There are some problems I’ve experienced, though. When I leave the game with a shift in progress, the money earned is usually less than if it is up in my browser, and occasionally, I have reopened the game where the staff has cured zero patients and earned zero coins. I’ve also noticed the tendency of higher level patients flooding in before I have unlocked the rooms they need in order to be cured, which, if lines are too long, will make the curable patients leave in a huff.

The biggest issues for me are the repetition and necessity of neighbor activity and real money. I am into the third week of play and right now all of my quests are curing 50 patients, of several different types. That will take several shifts and a few days at least. I am also getting to the point where I need diamonds, instead of coins, to purchase items. There are a couple ways to get diamonds. Completing certain quests will give you one diamond, but at this point, they are few and far between. Second, players can buy them with Facebook credits, which cost real money. I am not giving Facebook my credit card or Paypal information. Lastly, you can earn diamonds through the loyalty card—where players earn coins, and eventually diamonds, for logging in each day. Otherwise, you can ask a friend to send the needed items to you, but I cannot allow myself to annoy everyone like that.

So I am rapidly approaching the point in which I will be unable to progress--unless Adult Swim allows me to buy diamonds with in-game coins. That would be fantastic. But even if I stop at that point, it was fun while it lasted. Amateur Surgeon Hospital is a decent casual game to kill a bubble of free time too small for anything immersive.

Some people use tongs for cooking. I use them like MacGyver. . . to save lives!

Don’t forget to check out Adult Swim online for more casual online games and their TV lineup.

What casual games do you play? Tell me in the comments!