Recent reviews by kayhmkay

This is a 'if you liked the previous ones, want plenty of achievements and get this on sale' recommendation. Otherwise known as 'mixed'.

Zup! 4 returns with another 60 level set of box explosion puzzles. The game does come with hundreds of alphabet style achievements just like the previous ones. (Though these are the most attractive ones, in my personal taste.)

The game mechanics are the same. Click the red box for explosion, get the blue ball on the green platform. The green moving boxes and grey deletable ones return. The new mechanic in Zup! 4 is the orange box which will slowly erode after the blue ball touches it. For me, the orange boxes was a nice addition, but maybe not enough to make this game stand out from the others: this easily could have been just a DLC to the previous ones.

Out of the 4 games in the series, I found this one clearly the easiest. It took me less than 35 minutes to 100% the game. Personally, I think this is too little content even for a $1 game since I'm not interested in the alphabet achievements. The number of achievements, while more moderate than in the previous installment, is still too much in regards to content. Still, there is something oddly satisfying in completing the levels as easy as they might be.

All in all, nothing really new, but nothing wrong with the game either. It takes a certain person to enjoy these kind of puzzles, but they are addictive and very relaxing which is the basis for my 'recommended'.

This review is updated in Dec 2021 and after around 75 hours in game. At this point, with this experience, Pixel Puzzles Ultimate still feels like a work in process. This and the following points makes this near to impossible to recommend.

Firstly, too many DLCs with too few puzzles in each 'pack' will make this game way too expensive.

Secondly, technically, this falls short.

While there is plenty of customization available, and most notably the annoying 'snap-to-piece' which made it impossible to select the piece you want from the river in the older Pixel Puzzles games has been removed, there is still no proper windowed support. A simplified theme with at least 800x600 resolution would be so useful.

This game still lacks the ability to combine pieces into movable groups so even if you know these three pieces go together, you can't really do anything about it.

There is also no way to use your keyboard to select pieces. Instead there is only drag and drop.

While the Kiosk allows puzzle purchasing, the prices are impossibly high. You will still need to purchase over 90% of the DLCs to get anywhere.

The game is way too heavy to run! My laptop goes way above the minimum reqs, even the recommended ones, but still this game runs like a ladybug in tar. Granted, I like to listen Spotify at the same time, but still. I struggle to find the sense in this: the game is casual, the main audience will be casual gamers -- do they really own the gaming PCs needed to run this smoothly? I should think not, but maybe I'm wrong.

All in all, don't bother! Go and play free jigidis instead. Only if you must have a jigsaw game on Steam, this *might* do the trick. Would wait before making that assessment, though.

Too many achievements, too little game. What's the point, really?

The Zup! series has a nice little game behind them. Your mission is to get the blue ball on the green platform by blowing up the red squares correctly. Sounds simple, because it is. The game is oddly addictive and relaxing.

However, at a $1 and less than an hour to complete with 1700 achievements the concept is completely skewed. With around 100 achievements this would be a good buy. So therefore, go buy Zup! 2 and forget about this.

This is a card game with a sinister story that needs a complete rewrite.

In Lamia's game room you play a young man who has been trapped in a room with others, the only hope of escaping being behind winning in a card game.

While the art is nice, the atmosphere creepy and the premise interesting -- as well as the card game not being based purely on luck -- the game falls short thanks to one of the most horrible writing and translation jobs I've ever seen. The VN style story bits are full of unnecessary "..." and exposition/thoughts written out as dialogue. The English translation is weak at best and full of typos. The most glaring is the "cancle" = cancel option in the card game scenes.

This would be a very interesting casual VN/card game hybrid if only you didn't have to wade through a sea of bad writing.

Plantera is a cute pixel graphic iteration of the popular clicker/idle game genres. If you have experience from the hardcore games of the genre, Plantera will feel shallow, empty and very very short.

However, those are the positives of this clicker. It is more like a relaxation tool than a 'keep clicking until your mouse and/or finger breaks' clicker. There isn't a lot to do: just plant some plants and add some animals, make a couple of clicks to get things started and then... Just watch, click whenever or collect the achievements in order.

So, if you are looking for something cute and easy to relax with, Plantera might be your thing. If you're looking something complicated and time-consuming, this won't please you.

Portal of Evil is a classic HOG with a pretty cliche story. Regardless, it is entertaining and the style feels 'fresh'.

During my first playthrough I found myself liking the game a lot. The pacing seems a bit too slow at certain points, but the hunt for the stolen runes manages to have enough content and scenes to keep the the interest up.

Playing the HO scenes only twice is a good thing. Even better is that one scene is a classic HOS and the other one is a 'use item' HOS. However, I would argue the 'use item' HOS are more like 'find a match' HOS: you need to place an item on the scene, f.ex. coins in a purse, instead of actually using it. Sometimes they feel a bit tricky but at least the approach is new.

If you are accustomed to Artifex Mundi's minigames, this brings a nice variation. Some of the puzzle types I came across for the first time which added a little difficulty in a positive way.

Despite all the positive points, the game manages to get a clear 'not recommended' from me for one single thing: broken achievements. To me this is unnacceptable. If you do not care about achievements, I would recommended giving this HOG a try.

This 'not recommended' comes with a big condition:
- If you are looking for a story rich solitaire, this is a no.
- If you are looking for any solitaire, this is a yes.

While 'Chef Solitaire: USA' is an enjoyable solitaire experience with its varying card layouts, soothing soundtrack and clean visuals, it is let down by the story portion being only a side dish at best.

The story premise is nothing spectacular (a woman changing careers to build a restaurant empire), but it is nice to follow. Especially if you know something about the culinary industry. The problem, and ultimately the reason I'm not recommending this otherwise good game, lies in story progression. It is way too slow! The game is divided in states with 10 hands of solitaire each. The story exists in chapters at the start of a state. But: not every state. I am not sure if the story chapters come every 5 or 3 or random number of state, but it is not enough. Playing 30-50 hands of solitaire between does make the story difficult to follow (remember) and thus the chapters uninteresting inconveniences.

If you are not interested in following a story but would like to play solitaire, get this. The solitaires are well varied and the special items (bacon, grease, onions) that stop you from playing certain cards as well as the hunt for specific (chef hat) cards add rather than subtract from the gameplay. The ability to play in a small window is a huge plus. And you can't go wrong with nearly 500 levels.

If, however, you would like to play a more story-driven solitaire, I heartily recommend 'Legends of Solitaire: Curse of Dragons' by the same devs.

This is a weak Artifex Mundi HOG. Yes, it has a female protagonist. Yes, it has a glowy-eyed baddie. Yes, it has the usual puzzles.

I was very excited when I first heard about this before the release. Artifex Mundi usually provides decent, detailed environments and nice enough atmosphere. That + Tibet = winner. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

The game is bland, the story pretty much predictable. Granted, many HOGs are like that. On top of that, this one feels... empty. There are next to no NPCs. That wouldn't be a problem, if the surroundings supported that 'all alone in a forgotten world' atmosphere. This feels and looks like everybody just popped out of the dorm to see the UEFA Cup final and you're the only sad loser who doesn't like footie.

When it comes to the Tibet part, the game will let you down. It's as if the devs have looked at exactly 3 pictures of Tibet, extrapolated and cut-and-pasted the rest from old games. The phrase 'winging it' comes to mind.

Aside from issues with plot, atmosphere and immersion, this one suffers from annoying (but not game-breaking!) glitches/problems. The clicks don't always register. There are HOS that have two or more same/similar items with only one correct (spoiler: my fave is the one where you have a living butterfly about 40 pixels above a butterfly brooch with the clue "Butterfly". The insect is not the correct answer.). The hint is 'not ready yet' despite me having never used it before in my 100 minutes of playing.

The same goes for puzzle logic and variety. I think I've found and used about six different axes and pulled another half a dozen stuck objects out from wherever. Sometimes you can break the ice, sometimes you have to melt it, oh wait -- *this* time you can't use the Staff of Melting in your inventory! Not impressed.

Is this the worst thing ever? No, absolutely not. But only get this if you have played all the other AM HOGs (even the Time Mysteries!) and can get the game for next to nothing.

I'm on my fifth playthrough right now and so thoroughly over the game I have to review it negatively.

Sure, Frankenstein manages a good sort of a story and the puzzles are not your usual artifex-mundi-esque stuff. However, while at least in the hard mode the puzzles seem complex on the first glance, they are extremely easy to solve.

The atmosphere and 'feel' of the game is generally good. The weaker moments are thanks to cutscenes that don't really add anything to the story nor atmosphere and two notable failures in representing the era (VW Beetle and a plane).

The game's biggest failings come from the design. Playing this requires constant back-and-forth. You move 4 screens forward, the same 4 back, same 4 forward in quick succession. Nothing seems to be in the same or the next room. All the locks (and there are plenty) are in the 'find an item that fits here' style, usually requiring three such items. When you're looking for 4 sets of 3 random badges, it's not fun. The UI gets constantly in the way, especially in the HOS where it is not uncommon to have items under the UI buttons (like the hint button!). I like that you have an inventory full of stuff, but I have to question the design choices when you have 4 items with a blade but need to find a fifth to cut something.

On top of all that you get a lot of bugs and glitches. F.e. the HOS have nice little minigames, but on two separate playthroughs they have glitched in a way that I could not proceed forcing a restart of the whole game.

If I weren't an obsessive completionist, I would have given up on this game at least three playthrough attempts ago.

An adorable story-centric and atmospheric platformer. Albeit short, very much worth your while.

In this little metroidvania like platformer you, as the main character Kinubo, try to get to the moon. There are no battles, no brain-scratchingly hard puzzles to stop you. The platforming is on the easier side even for someone who does not really excel at such things. That's alright though, for as silly as the story seems to be, it does grip you quite unexpectedly.

The design choices are excellent. The art is well thought out and executed for a cute, simple look. The music however, is the thing that makes this game come together. It's relaxing and sets a great mood for the game. Moonlight might just be one of the only games which soundtrack I loved through and through.

An excellent game. Highly recommended, especially for winding down after a busy day. Would also work well as an interactive goodnight story for children (though there were some word choices you might feel the need to edit).

Rarely have I been this impressed in this short of time.