Diaballik

Diaballik is a game I've been playing and have yet to beat it. It's a strategy game that looks a big rugbyish in nature... actually it reminds me of a board game I have called Street Soccer.

In this game you play on a 7x7 grid and each end is lined with 7 players (a team). The middle player starts with the ball and your objective is to march down the field and get one of your players on your opponent's starting line with the ball. A turn consists of one or both of the following in order:

a) Move two spaces. This means one player can move two spaces or two players can move one space. A move is always orthogonal (up/down/left/right) and not diagonal.

b) The player with the ball passes the ball to another player within line of sight orthogonally or diagnoally. Players block line of site (including your own). [Edit: Actually your own players do NOT block your line of sight... only your opponents do]

It's simple really, but the AI is quite good and has had me on the ropes since starting to play this game. The game offers two modes of play (minor rules difference). My only concern is that perhaps once I do win I'll have figured out how to beat the AI and that will be that, but that's speculation. You do always have the option of playing against another human in hot seat mode. Games that combine sports with strategy are difficult to do well. There's nothing fancy about the graphics or sound here... it's just good, strategic game play. If you like games that require thought instead of reflexes give this a shot. And did I mention it's free?

River Blast

River Blast from Gyco Productions has an accurate title. It's a blast to play and all for just $2. I really wasn't expecting much when I purchased it as the Android Market can be so hit and miss. Panzer Panic was the last game to make this kind of impression on me. And I'm not a big fan of race games, but I can be sold on them if some extra little twist is thrown in. For example, I wasn't much of a Need For Speed fan, but add being chased by cops that go as far as setting up blockades to stop me and suddenly racing becomes quite the rush. River Blast on the other hand can actually be relaxing... and frustrating... at the same time.

First things first, River Blast is a kayak racing game that offers 3 regions (plains, arctic, and rocky) with 5 rivers in each. I've been playing a lot since yesterday and I finally completed the first 'plains' river this afternoon. Once you get the hang of it things move quicker... I finished the first 'rocky' river shortly thereafter. What makes this game so cool is a combination of the tranquil sound, the great controls, the nifty rivers, and the global leader boards. The sound of paddling a kayak is great. With every paddle you hear the woosh of water. It's quite beautiful. The controls are where the game really shines... simply drag on the left side to use the left paddle and on the right side to use the right paddle. You can even drag backwards to paddle backwards. And there's no reward for furiously paddling away. This isn't a twitch fest. In fact, you're rewarded for nice, long, powerful strokes instead of quick ones and the instructions clearly spell this out (but with the typical game rewarding players for hammering away as quickly as possible that actually takes some getting use to). As stated it took me a day to get past the first river and get that concept through my head. Fortunately, while struggling away with failure you can turn off the timer and play in "Chill Mode" where you can paddle around wherever you want to your heart's content without fear of "Game Over". You can't advance to the next river in chill mode, but it was quite useful for practicing. Next, the rivers... each one is different. You might be paddling with the current or against it. Along the way there are various obstacles such as logs floating down the river, small islands, and even rapids to travel over that give you a speed boost. There are also checkpoints that give you extra time if you pass through them. And throughout this you'll be competing on a global scale which isn't anything new, but it's nice that this game includes that option. I'm using my real name of "Alan" on them if you want to see how well you can do against me.

I can't quite put my finger on what makes such a simple game so pleasing... it's just how well it all flows together (no pun intended). I've mentioned a few times how good audio really backs up a good game. Include some mesmerizing music and suddenly game play becomes more enjoyable... kind of like listing to music at work to make a job more palatable. The only flaw in the game I found... and it's kind of funny... is as if the proofreading staff got bored after page 6 of the instructions. The well written rules have typos galore in them after that. And the game actually acted really odd for me on my first play... the controls didn't respond at all. I don't know or understand what happened as it's worked just fine since then with zero glitches. And today an update was released, but without any info as to what was changed/fixed so who knows if any of that was fixed. All in all though this game is a gem. Get it!

ExZues - Coming Soon

From the makers of the impressive LoveCatch comes a new 3D shooter. You can check out a video in advance of its release below. From the looks of it I am reminded of Space Harrier...

infeCCt

As stated in the past, I'm tired of reviewing puzzle games on the Android platform because that genre is overrun. InfcCCt is a puzzle game from the same company that brought us Panzer Panic (one of the few Android games that still gets played on a regular basis such as last night) and was pointed out to me by one of my readers (thank you!). Given that I'm reviewing it you can guess that I like this game...

But first, what is it called? On my Droid, on Handy Game's website, and on the title screen it is called infeCCT so why in the Android Market is it called Snake infeCCt? Just an observation...

The game itself is simple and is a kind of maze game. You have a start point, a grid of spaces that might be empty or covered, and you have to navigate from the start space touching each empty space exactly once. The game has 300 levels and the first many are good confidence builders as they're very easy, but the game does get harder as the grids grow in size and new types of spaces are introduces such as a cross space that must be crossed twice.

The game has excellent graphics for a puzzle game and a nice, relaxing sound track that is probably a factor in me wanting to keep playing. The game's advertising compares it to Sudoku, and quite bluntly that is ridiculous. Sudoku is a puzzle where you apply logic to narrow down a cell's content to one possibility... this is a look ahead, maze game. The two are very different so if you like Sudoku I make no guarantees that you'll like this and vice versa. Ultimately, however, this game is a beauty and I'm happy to have it as a part of my collection!

Stereogram Riddle

When I saw this over the weekend it brought back memories of one of the bigger fads of the mid-90s. They used to appear in newspapers, there were calendars, and, of course, books. In fact, there was even a Seinfeld episode featuring a sterogram painting... that's how mainstream they got. The main brand was Magic Eye.

In essence a sterogram is an image such that if you can focus your eyes independent of one another at a perfect, magical angle then you'll see a 3D image on a 2D piece of paper. I never could do it until one day I was visiting my wife's grandma (may she rest in peace) in Aiken, SC and she was doing them. Not to be outdone by grandma I tried and tried and eventually the 3D image came in to focus. It was so cool! From then on I was able to participate in this elite club and decode these 3D images.

So I downloaded Stereogram Riddle hoping to relive some memories and have access to countless stereograms in my pocket at all times. Wrongo! I don't understand how this app has 4.5 stars unless a lot of the author's friends are rating it...

1) First there's glare... and obviously the developer of this app can do nothing about that. That's just an unfortunate side effect of trying to do this kind of thing on a screen versus paper. It was a real challenge trying to find a 'better', less glare environment to do these in, and I could never find a 'great' environment that would be glare free. Perhaps devices other than the Droid have a better screen for this, but I doubt it... as soon as there's a perfectly smooth, flat surface there's a reflection.

2) I'd be staring away trying to bring the image into focus... and my Droid would dim itself. VERY distracting. I presume the developer has different settings on his phone, but mine conserves power after 30 or so seconds and I don't have this problem with other games (and it could be that other games require more interaction with the touch screen). Nonetheless, a serious flaw!

3) After about 3 images it started repeating images... maybe that's bad luck, but #1 and #2 kept me from doing a detailed investigation.

4) Finally, all the images I saw are quite boring. A donut ring... a tea pot... I'll stick to my Magic Eye books, thank you!

Now there's another app called Stereograms, but after trying this I just don't think devices with screens are a good medium for these 'puzzles'. My advice... go check some Magic Eye books out at the library or buy them. It's much more satisfying and they make great coffee table books...