PixlBit

I’ve cooked up a buffet of game reviews for you to feast upon for the Thanksgiving season.  You should all have nice fat tummies by the time you read all of these reviews I’ve written recently at GamerDad.com.  Please click on the links and read as many of them as you can and maybe even post a like or comment or two.  I’d really appreciate it.  Dig in!

Pokémon Playhouse (iPad)

Now THIS is how you do a preschool kids’ game!  The game is free-to-play, but has NO in-game ads or purchases.  I’m not sure how they’re making any money with this, unless they think they can reel the kids in at an early age to buy more Pokémon stuff later.  But the game is still of very high quality and I’m surprised they haven’t made more Pokémon games for a younger audience before this.  Although I think Pokémon Channel would be a good Pokémon game for the younger set.  I think I’m the only one who liked that game, though.

American Girl Welliewishers: Garden Fun (iPad)

And this is how NOT to make a kids’ game.  American Girl is a popular (yet expensive) series of toy dolls for girls.  Welliewishers are a group of these American Girls who love hanging out, playing in their garden, and helping others.  The game is also free-to-play, but when you download it, there’s nothing you can really do until you pay money to buy the other stuff in the game, and that stuff doesn’t look like much fun either.  If I had a little girl, I’d rather just get them an actual doll or something other than this game.

Super Mario Odyssey amiibo

I got the amiibo figures based on Super Mario Odyssey, and it’s Mario, Peach, and Bowser in their wedding duds.  I wonder how many people will actually use these as wedding cake toppers.  You’d think I would, but I’d rather use Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.  That is, if my future wife would let me.  But I’d have to get married first.  Who do you think I should marry? Let me know in the comments section. :) Anyway, Mario Odyssey was a very fun game, but I beat it in less than a week.  And while the initial post game rewards are neat, nothing after that has enticed me to collect more moons.  So it won’t be winning any Game of the Year awards from me. I like Mario games, but I’m actually a bigger fan of Nintendo’s other franchises like Kirby, Zelda, Metroid, and Animal Crossing.

Soldam: Drop, Connect, Erase (Switch)

This is an addicting little puzzle game on the Switch, and it looks like it came straight from the 90’s.  But that’s because it actually did!  Sorry folks, I’m about to get a little hardcore on you.  If you remember my Retro-Bit Generations blogs from a while back, you might remember that I talked about a game from Jaleco called Rod Land that played similar to titles like Bubble Bobble.  It’s a really cool game and also a very rare NES cartridge!  Anyway, turns out Soldam is a spinoff of that game featuring the same characters!  I didn’t even realize it at first, and I played the Game Boy version of Soldam on that same Retro-Bit Generations collection and talked about it on that same blog!  But the connection is a bit more apparent on the Switch.  Jaleco is no more, but the company who is publishing these games now is called City Connection, which is cool because that’s the name of another Jaleco game!  And their next game on the Switch is a remake of Penguin Wars!  I hope I get to review that one!

King’s Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon (iPad)

In Final Fantasy XV, some of the characters supposedly enjoy talking about and playing a video game in their world called King’s Knight (anyone who’s played FFXV, please let me know how much they really talk about it).  And now you can play that game for free on mobile devices. But King’s Knight has a bigger history than that.   King’s Knight was originally a game on the NES.  It was a 2-D vertically scrolling shooter with fantasy themes.  It even predates Final Fantasy, but as a kid I never heard of King’s Knight until AFTER Final Fantasy came out.  After Final Fantasy was released, I was really big into Square games and tried to look up as many as I could.  I was glad to find out that Square made a NES game I already had called Rad Racer.  But there was one Square game I hadn’t played but I did see it once in the box at the front of a grocery store that rented games and movies, too (grocery stores used to do that).  Later on they actually had that game for sale, and I kind of wish I would’ve bought it.  But I had also heard the game wasn’t that great, so I didn’t feel too bad.  The new King’s Knight game is much improved, which is good.  Plus it’s free-to-play as well so if you’re curious, you won’t lose anything by trying it out.

Universal Classics Pinball (PS4)

Zen Studios has a new pinball platform in the form of Pinball FX3.   They’ve added more organized menus, ways to upgrade your tables, and a cute virtual lady guides you through it all.  Plus you can carry over your old tables from Pinball FX2/Zen Pinball 2 as long as you got them on the same brand of console.  The three new tables for Pinball FX3 are based on popular Universal Studios movies: Jaws, E.T., and Back to the Future.  They don’t utilize the movie licenses as well as the LEGO games do, but they’re still decent tables.  The Back to the Future one is the best.

Earth Atlantis (Switch)

This shooter has a unique visual style that makes it look like an old timey map.  It’s a neat effect.  The fact that you shoot mechanical fish and the post-apocalyptic themes make me think of classic Taito shooters like Darius and Metal Black.  I wish it were a bit more straightforward (and maybe easier), but it’s still a decent shooter.

Beach Buggy Racing (Switch)

It’s a kart racer with tropical beach themes.  But it’s rather mediocre.  My question is this: why would you get this game when you can get the far better Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?

The Amazing World of Gumball: Wrecker’s Revenge (iPad)

And finally is this bad free-to-play mobile game based on The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon.  I’m not a fan of the cartoon, but I do like the mixed media art style it has.

And that’s all!  You should all have nice fat bellies after all those reviews!  Thanks for reading and commenting.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Later!  --Cary