ATTENTION!

The contest has officially ended, but unfortunately nobody entered. However, if you still want to fill out the crossword, I'll leave this article up so you can still do so. The answer key can be found on Fractyl here. I wish you all the best of luck with next year's contest!

Tengami is an amazing point and click puzzle game, that uses a stunning pop-up book mechanism along traditional Japanese art and storytelling. While being a short game with only three levels I still logged 2.2 hours of gameplay from start to finish.

With a 3D environment made in a origami style world. This is one of the most amazing games I have played. Along with amazing Dynasty era soundtrack that fits the mood of each level. After an update this game is flawless, there are NO bugs, and everything works perfectly.

The puzzles are fairly easy, and even if you get stumped there is an official walkthrough, along with a few secrets.This game is a great stress reliever, it plays like a virtual zen garden. This game has a great replay value, I have seen others log in as much as 13+ hours of game play.

This is a great debut for Nyamyam, the UK developer of Tengami. I can not wait to see what they come out with next. I see a bright future for them. Released last year on IOS and WII U. Now the game is available on Steam for PC and Mac for only $.9.99.

I really liked point and click PC games when I was growing up. I remember that my favorites were the Indiana Jones and Maniac Mansion series. I really have been getting back into them over the past few years. I started out playing Telltale's The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. After that I bought a few more. I really like the challenge they bring that you don’t get from a lot of games out there.

So when I saw this article about this new point and click what was made outside of a computer program I had to review it. What is the name you ask? It is called Lumino City. A point-and-click puzzle adventure about a little girl named Lumi who is trying to find her abducted grandfather.

Lumino City is a very amazing game from State of Play, a video game studio based out of Camberwell, London. What makes this game, and its prequel Lume so amazing, is that is was all built by hand. Everything you see in the game was made using paper, cardboard, and glue. The whole game takes place in a 10 foot high model city that used miniature lights and motors to bring it to life.

Like most games with a big task at hand, Lumino City took three years to make. Though with most games all built in a computer engine, the team hand crafted this whole game. They started in 2011 which is the same year Lume was released. So they wasted no time with production of the sequel.

With So many puzzle games using a handful of the same puzzles throughout the game. The puzzle in the Lumino City are all pretty unique. I only found a few with the same mechanics. One thing that I like about the story of the game is that Lumi always seems to be cheerful when it comes to helping others with their problems. It really shows the idea of putting others before yourself. Even though Lumino City came out at the end of the year. I think it will make a good number of top games for 2015.

You can buy Lumino City on Steam and GOG.

The concept of the game is simple: Put Tetris and Puyo Puyo in the same pack and experiment on ways for the two to coexist. First off you have your standard Score Attack and Marathon game modes of the two as well as a Versus mode where you can face up to three human or CPU controlled opponents either in person or online, but you also have these special modes like Big Bang (where you quickly clear out a pre-made set of blocks or puyos in succession to take out you opponents), Party Mode (which is basically Versus but with field affecting items), Swap (where you play both games at once by swapping between the two), and my personal favorite: Fusion.

Now Fusion mode is similar to Swap in concept, but executed very differently. Instead of swapping between the two playing fields, both the tetriminos and puyos occupy the same playing space which make for some very interesting ways to make combos and chains. Now you'd think it would be difficult to make lines with the tetriminos when the puyos would be in the way, but since the puyos are goo they can be squashed by the tetriminos to make room and will reappear on top of them; this also completely removes garbage puyos from the playing field.

In addition to all of these game modes you also have Adventure mode: a wacky and humorous story scenario featuring the cast of the previous Puyo Puyo games, plus a small handful of new characters that represent the Tetris series. The story is this: The crew of the S.S. Tetra crash land on the Blue Planet that the Puyo Puyo characters call home due to a little incident involving both the puyos and the tetriminos. So in order to fix these problems, the two teams battle each other through the means of Tetris and Puyo Puyo matches. Not exactly the most compelling plot, but it gets the job done. I just think of it as a glorified training mode for the online matches.

Overall, I think this game is a fantastic addition to both franchises and a magnificent crossover to boot. Both games are extremely addicting by themselves and in fusing them made them even more so, and the story is fairly entertaining at times and the voice actors certainly sounded like they had fun with their roles (keen listeners will notice that the voice of the Dark Prince is none other than Xander Mobus, the VA for Smash 4's announcer). I really hope that The Tetris Company does more crossovers like this in the future like with Dr. Mario or Puzzle League. So until next time, I'll be seeing you.

Score

To me, the game feels like Borderlands textures meet the cartoon styles of Fleischer (Inkwell) and Disney Animation Studios. While the game has puzzle mechanics where you have to flip levers and switches to find items and the next open door reminding me a bit of the puzzle you would find in Portal. There is a lot of backtracking in the first few chapters that started to get old quick though was easy enough to breeze right through. I did get lost a few times trying to find a few switches and when I watched an old walkthrough I found out how much the game had changed from the earlier releases. 

One thing that I found out that some of the gameplay was different for me then it was when I finally found a walkthrough for the Nintendo Switch. I don't know if it was a bug or the game was made that way, but I really enjoyed the unique experience. The game still has some bugs to work out. Though it's way less buggy than Fallout 76, I found that I either had to restart or die to get the game to progress. Rooster Teeth sent me an email saying they are fixing known bugs, so there should be a patch sent out soon after they stop playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

You play as Henry Stein, a retired animator who used to work at Joey Drew Studios who returns after an invitation from his old friend and employer Joey Drew. To me, Joey seems to be a Walt Disney type visionary, and Henry is Walt’s old friend and partner Ub Iwerks. As you look around you find something called the Titular Ink Machine. While looking for items to turn the machine on you find a real-life Boris (Goofy type). Not knowing why Joey did this, you find tape recordings of Joey and the employees have been partaking in occult practices.

Though why bring these characters to life at all? You later find out that Joey’s investors were not happy with the studio and a new theme park. To bring something new to the amusement park landscape Joey wants to bring their mascot, Bendy, the dancing demon, and all of his friends to life with a brand new invention called Titular Ink Machine from the Gent Corp. Thomas Connor of Gent tells Joey that these creatures are soulless. Joey replies that he has thousands of souls to occupy the bodies. One of these people is desperate voice actress Susie Campbell. Joey tells her she will bring Alice Angle back to life once again after she takes part in Joeys "small project".

To me, this sounds like how Disney really runs things. Finding young talent promising the world, then, in the end, you’ll sell your soul and become something ugly you don't even recognize. I don't know if theMeatly and Mike Mood had the parallels in mind for the story. Though they really know how to bring my nightmares to life.

I really like some of the Easter eggs they have in the game. Benny's eyes are Pac-Man, there are times where Joey reminds me of Cave Johnson the CEO of Aperture Science in the Portal series. 

"Ok, let's stop it right there. I can only do so many takes of this trash a day. And tell the guys in writing I want more use of the word dreaming in every message. Keep railing on that, get it? Dreaming! Dreaming! Dreaming! People just eat up that kind of slop. Hmm What? It's still on? Well, turn it off, damn it!". - Joey Drew

Wally the janitor finds a big chocolate cake sitting in a chair. Yet another Portal node. I bet there's more that I didn't realize, so comment below on more. Another cool Easter egg is the posters you see on the walls are fan art that they put in the game, along with music created by fans. This is a first for me to see such community involvement in a game outside of it being crowd funded.

This was definitely one of the better first person games I played this year. If you're looking for something different to play this holiday season, Bendy is a good 6-10 hours of gameplay with new tools and a bonus level to play after the first go around. I have it for my Nintendo Switch. So it's great for those night time road trips. 

The game evolved with every opening of a chest. From getting basic functions as being able to move to the graphics, colors, layers, and sound design updating in real time. I was so surprised this game was on my phone. Though it took me a while to beat it due to phones being stolen or broke. I finally beat the game.

While doing some research for this review I found out that Evoland was made during the Ludum Dare game jam, an online contest where developers attempt to build a game around a particular theme in just 48 hours. Ludum Dare 24’s theme was evolution. "Instead of doing a game where players can make things evolve, we thought that having the game itself evolve as you played would be a far more original approach," Shiro Games CEO Sebastien Vidal stated to The Verge back in 2013 about the idea behind the game that came from Shiro Games co-founder Nicolas Cannasse.

Evoland Classic ended up winning the competition (out of 1400 games) and quickly gathered a very dedicated and enthusiastic fan base, reaching over 300,000 players in the first few months after its release as a flash game. The success led the Shiro team to make a full game which doubled their dev team and took four months to finish something they could be proud of.

It was a true love letter to the RPG genre. Though it's short, 4-6 hours of gameplay. It made us fans want more, and in 2015 we got Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder. Then last year we finally got it for mobile in 2018. (I'm not sure why it took a whole year to get the game to the Nintendo Switch. I would have figured they would have just ported the PC/OS X version over to the Switch for their birthday last year.) The game promises over 20 hours of gameplay I have put in just over 12 hours and am on level 20. This time around the game does a tutorial in Game Boy green then goes into a Game Boy Color. The game’s story starts out in a similar storyline to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Where you are found by a villager in the woods and woken up by his daughter with no memory of who you are.

The story is an extension of the Evoland humans versus demons. In our second story we find that there has been a great war between the two. You find yourself saving the villager's daughter in the forest where you were found. After you save the daughter she joins you on your journey to find out who you are. This gives you a special ability where she uses her super sword move.

As you journey through the forest you stumble across three demons who are trying to activate an ancient artifact called the Magilith. The only way to activate the Magilith is to summon the forest guardian and harness it's Magi energy. Though the demons find out the guardian is more power than they thought, so it's up to you to defeat it before it makes its way to the village. Though after your victory the Magilith activates and sends you back time during the great war. This leads you on a whole other adventure of trying to get back to your original time. Though as you find out the Magilith always just sends you to another time. In each timeline you become friends with someone new that gives you a new special move. Even though this is a review I don't want to give away the plot to the whole story. I'll tell you this, you become friends with next to the demon thrown and an archaeologist who helps you along the way.

With each timeline comes a different graphics style. The time you start your adventure in is a classic 16-bits over the top layout, the past is an 8-bits over the top layout, and the future is 128-bits (PS 2) angled down layout. As the game goes on it becomes more then a love letter to RPGs. To get from a mountain top to the top of a pyramid the game becomes a top down airplane shooter. Once you get to the pyramid the boss fight is a tribute to Street Fighter II where you have the same moves as Ryu or Ken. In one level you have to play classic Atari games such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Snake to name a few that opens the doors to the next room.

The controls are simple. There are only three buttons: action, jump, and special character swap. The physical buttons are way more intuitive than the touch screen ones. Though you can't remap them, but it still works play with one hand. The layout feel natural and I got through game faster by dying less.

If you can't wait for Link's Awakening and Dragon Quest XI S, or you just want something different in your RPG, give Evoland a try. It just might be the game that holds you over till the one you're waiting for comes out later this year.