I had to try the game based on all the hype it’s been getting and it doesn’t disappoint. The quality of the game is incredibly good. It’s a beautiful mix of Animal Crossing and Zelda Breath of the Wild while focusing on increasing friendship levels. However, I decided to quit after 8 days for one big problem.

The game is grindy in many different ways. The main issue is your progress is halted with the friendship levels. In order to get new and important quests, you have to be at certain levels and you’re only allowed to gift 3 times a day with each character. You need to grind for the gifts every day and they’ll need more gifts with each level increase. The gifts can be anything from the stuff you find, fishing, bug catching etc. I find those activities fun and I like filling up my bestiary but I don’t like being forced to keep doing it too often just to progress.

I started feeling this way fairly quickly and I looked up what others thought online after reaching friendship level 6 with many characters. I found out that the game becomes even more grindy. It also becomes a chore to craft stuff for other things. The devs also nerved the game to make it more grindy and the players were not happy about it.

Nerving the game to make it grindy on purpose is something many devs are doing on Apple Arcade. It makes sense. They want you to keep paying the subscription for as long as possible. This ruins games though. I don’t feel like spending more time with Hello Kitty after experiencing this and knowing it’s only going to get worse.

It’s still a great game though. If you don’t mind and are in no rush, then I recommend giving it a try.

It was okay I guess? I like the style and gameplay for the most part, but I dislike the structure and how you're pretty much time limited. You need water to survive. It's reduced gradually while you're running in the desert trying to find the next water source. This can be through water tanks you find or killing others to steal their water. You'll need to do this long enough until the gate opens. Said gate opens after the specimen you're carrying is at least 100% grown. You can find tanks that increase this growth rate to 10% each time.

I died the first time after 20 minutes because I went all the way to the west (junkyard) and it turns out there was little to get there except for 10% growth. I died the second time after 32 minutes. I was in front of the gate and ready to finish things but I didn't have enough water. I didn't feel like playing a third time especially since walking around is so slow and that's a lot of what you'll be doing. I saw the ending on Youtube and it's pretty much a couple of seconds after entering the gate. So you can say I pretty much completed the game.

The ending is not worth it and I don't feel like you need to play this game since it's unsatisfying with its structure and it feels like it could have done with more depth and content. I would have paid more to get a more satisfying game since I understand the current price is too cheap to offer more.

Pros:
-Good controls
-A pretty indie game and some impressive animations
-Very well optimized and good performance
-No bugs experienced
-Varied gameplay (stealth, exploration, collectibles, light puzzles & crafting
-Good collectibles (notes, costumes, targets to shoot, moon pieces)
-Story & voice acting
-Relaxing experience with forgivable challenge

Cons:
-Cutscenes, particularly camera direction, certain animations and how NPC look
-Don’t expect the gameplay to have depth or lots of options
-Items not fully utilized
-Don’t expect the gameplay to be original
-Same with the story
-On the short side

Overall I had a good time. There are things that truly impress me and sometimes I'm reminded this still being an indie game. If you compare this to other (one man) indie games, then it surpasses many. You're at the wrong place if you're expecting triple A production values. I also like this being 3D and the genre chosen. We don't see enough of those on the indie side. This is a good first game that stands on its own. But you can also see there is room for improvement that should be easy to accomplish. I have the feeling the next game is going to be better. It was worth supporting and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

I’ve only played Rayman Legends and not Origins (yet). Oddmar reminds me of Rayman Legends a lot, only with a Viking theme and some minor things that are done differently. Oddmar is a very polished and decent platformer that is definitely worth playing.

The animations are gorgeous and done with so much charm, the music sounds lovely, there are cutscenes with a very good narrator, the story is engaging even if it’s not deep and not the best you have seen, the boss fights are great, the collectibles/challenges/secrets are good for OCD players and the doable achievements confirm this since most of them are about doing everything 100%. The jump mechanic is interesting, you will need to get used to it. You can’t control the strength/distance and it’s pretty floaty but you can position yourself after jumping.

I have 2 main flaws with the game. You can buy weapons and shields with the currency you collect but it doesn’t feel like it affects the game. It feels like an afterthought. While the boss fights are good, they take a long time with the different phases. You’re supposed to platform with some of them. It drags when you die and you have to go through all the phases again. I’d have liked a checkpoint system with the boss fights.

The flaws don’t detract from how good the game is. Even though the game is on the short side, I see it as a positive. There is no filler content and all of it is of high quality. It’s what I’d like to see of a mobile game.

Very enjoyable game that harkens back to the platformers of the past with a bit of a twist. The feeling of speed mixed with platforming can feel so good at times. The soundtrack is very catchy and the controls are great. The game is not without its faults. Mainly the camera movement. This has been pretty much fixed with the updates released. Also while the extra stuff you get after completing the game is very nice, one did annoy me for being a huge area and it wasting lots of time if you're trying to get an S and you mess up once, having to try again. Still though, get the game if you're a fan of platformers.

I haven’t played many kart racing games except for the Mario Kart ones and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. This game holds up really well when compared to them and this should tell you something about the quality of CTR. It has all the ingredients of being fantastic. The gameplay is good with some decent depth to get you engaged, the challenge is just right for the most part, the graphics are great for the time and and I love the adventure mode. It has good collectibles and varied races. If I compare it directly to Mario Kart 8 (one of my favourite games), then Mario Kart 8 is more polished (controls), the characters are more recognisable (though this is very subjective) and the quality is higher (graphics) but CTR has a better thought out single player mode and while the other points are less, they’re still very good. If there is one flaw, then perhaps an auto save would have been welcome. Or at least being asked to save instead of driving to the save tv every time you need it. Either way, you can’t go wrong with it. If you enjoy kart racing games, then this is definitely worth playing.

The old version of the demo made me cautiously optimistic while noticing some issues with the platforming. The new version of the demo improved on some aspects and I was ready to get the game day one but the reports of 2-3 hours of content discouraged me. The price of €15 seemed like too much based on that. Then the game released with a 33% discount and there was a bigger discount if you own Golf Club Nostalgia for a total of 46% off. I decided to get the game for €8 and I can definitely say it was worth it for that price.

Saying the game is a platformer is not really accurate. While platforming is definitely part of the game, there are also a lot of chase sections, other sections that add variety, there are a lot of collectibles, there is also a strong focus on fleshing out the story with lore and cutscenes between every chapter. Platforming might be the weakest aspect of the entire package because you need to get used to certain quirks of the controls and the game requires you to deal with some sections one way only despite there being multiple ways. For instance, the game has issues with grabbing poles when you jump between them. Even though you have normal jump and high jump, thus allowing you to adjust your position, the game doesn’t always like that. There have been instances where I adjusted my jumps and I should be grabbing a pole but I still miss. It’s preferred you either use normal jump or high jump once depending on the distance between the poles. Once you figure this out, the game becomes enjoyable to control. It’s not a fluid platformer like other games focused on platforming and this is something to keep in mind.

The game focuses on variety, atmosphere and telling a story through various means instead. The visuals and sound work together to successfully and uniquely get you invested. Seeing ruined buildings with details tells you a lot and the cutscenes are very effective and beautifully done despite the simplicity. The boy you control narrates the cutscenes very nicely and the host of the radio you listen to while playing is very soothing to the ears. The radio is not just there to flesh out the world but the radio also comments directly to what’s happening with the story as it develops and it’s quite brilliant. Then you have the collectibles. You can collect A LOT even though some of it is optional (not required for the achievements). You can find 22 books, 22 newspapers, 15 holo messages, 11 videos, 11 burps (food), 7 luxury items and 8 bears you can hug. The newspapers and books don’t have actual text, you mostly read the headlines with images to set the tone of the world. Those collectibles are already a lot for a longer game. So you can imagine where the focus lies when the game took me 3 hours on my first extensive run with only missing 4 collectibles and 3 achievements. Almost every collectible is easy to find. They’re not there to frustrate you but they’re there to enhance the story. You can check most of the collectibles found through the settings menu and the game also has chapter select right from the start. There are 8 chapters and a prologue.

It makes sense why the game is this short and costs this much. The 3 hours are not much but the presentation and almost everything around it is of very high quality. The game has lots of animations and the music within the radio seems to be done by actual bands/singers. The songs are also extremely good. It was such an enjoyable journey that I went back to complete it a second time straight away without rushing things even after I got all the achievements. I ended up playing the game for 7 hours. The Cub makes me want to play Golf Club Nostalgia asap because I want to see more of this world. Getting the game purely for the gameplay and content might not be a smart idea. But the game is worth getting if you like what you’re reading. €15 might be too much unless money is a non issue to you. Less than €10 is safer despite me fully understanding where the budget went and why it costs €15.

This is a very charming game with beautiful visuals, interesting characters and areas filled with details. The voice acting is also very good and there is a bit of singing in a theatrical kind of way. The game is a mix of simple fighting, solving puzzles and collecting 16 membranes. Although the 16 membranes are optional (I think), they explain the main story which is kind of kept vague for the most part, but you get the gist of it by guessing.

The things that I thought could have been better were the following:
-Fighting: it's very simple and feels stiff too. The character is not very athletic and maybe the fighting is like this on purpose to stay true to the character.
-Backtracking: you have to go through areas to reach a specific area. Even after clearing it. I prefer teleportation to collect what I missed.
-Framerate/animation: the way the character moves/animates is very weird and distracting on high FPS. I had to limit the FPS to 60 through Nvidia's Control Panel to make it look smoother. But there are instances where it still doesn't look natural. I'm not sure what it means but this is the only technical and graphical fault about the game.

The game's style is also very unique and original of course. You either love or hate what you see. I rather love it. One of the bosses is a spider. I usually detest spiders but this game made me fall in love with it due to how charming it is.

The game is a good first entry but there is also room for improvement. I enjoyed my 8 hours and am looking forward to getting my hands on Figment 2 the next time it's on sale.

It finally happened, a 1 star game. The game is addictive. So why the 1 star? It’s because you can’t complete the game. It has a serious bug on the 3DS. I’ve completed 75% according to the game. The next set of puzzles require special crystals to fill all the tiles with gold. The issue is all the special crystals/coins fall when they reach the edge. So if they fall right away, then how can you fill the edges with gold? Exactly. I checked the PC version on YouTube for comparison and nothing falls there. I’ve spent over 50 hours and now I can’t play the rest of the game (25%). This is only one thing I happened to discover. There have been a few puzzles that felt cheap/broken. There is probably more that is wrong with the game that made my experience worse. I also found out that you can get extra time or swaps if you fail too many times. Such feature doesn’t exist with the 3DS version. The PC version is also clearly prettier and sounds better. Jewel Quest IV is a good game if you enjoy match 3 puzzles, but play it on PC. I consider the game complete because I can’t advance further.

This is the kind of game that prevented me from playing other Apple Arcade games. It keeps your attention where you want to complete all the puzzles before thinking about something else. I’ve completed 594 out of 726 puzzles. There’s a reason for not going for 100%. The way the area is made (open world) is brilliant for puzzles, but also a real slog in terms of backtracking. Sometimes you have to bring logs from different islands, push logs from different angles, or bring them only after completing other steps on other islands. You can easily reach a point where you don’t remember how you reached a certain island and how to come back to finish a puzzle. This easily happens when the area looks like a maze and you’re just trying to retrace your steps. I would have far preferred having the freedom to teleport to every island after completing them instead of the transport points we have where they also cause backtracking. Other con is the hint system. The game didn’t have a hint system, so the current one got patched over time. It shows you the solution and where to go next if you haven’t reached the credits. I can’t imagine doing the game without those hints but what’s here is not enough sometimes. Showing a solution is showing the end destination, not the steps you took to get there. You can still get stuck with tough sections. And it’s kind of hard finding the solution online with the open world nature of the game. Still, the puzzles are fantastic. The game does a great job of teaching you new mechanics through playing. The game is very polished in every way. Play the game if you don’t mind the things I mentioned.

PoP tSoT is a classic. There’s no doubt about that. However, I feel that I’ve enjoyed it less than I could have because of the PC version. The game doesn’t natively support Xbox controllers. I had to force it through a program. You can tell the controls are off or even cause trouble. It made the game needlessly frustrating with the platforming and fights. But I’m not sure if I should hold this against the game itself since it never supported it. Other than that everything else is A+ for its time. Even though the story is not the focus, it’s beautifully told through dialogues that feel natural. The Persian atmosphere is very nice to see, it reminds me a bit of Arabic. The puzzles are good. The fights can be cheap but I’m not sure if it’s the controls that made it feel this way. Either way, it’s worth experiencing.

This game comes with 2 versions, World One and Radical Edition. Radical Edition is a sort of definitive edition with extras such as new playable characters and mini games. I played up to the 9th level. I didn't finish it and also had one more mini game left along with the last boss. Why you ask? The Radical Edition is super buggy. It's insane. It's a plaftormer with heavy emphasis on collecting things, yet it's impossible to collect everything in certain levels due to bugs. My motivation for collecting everything, something that I enjoy, is sucked out of me. I accepted this and wanted to just finish the game. Level 9 has a nasty bug where you get stuck on environments and not being able to fix it. Time wasted because you have to restart the level. I tried again for it to happen a second time elsewhere in the same level. I've had enough. I'm noticing a pattern with this publisher where they pretend to care about the bugs and then they hide, never to be heard from again. They should be ashamed of themselves for leaving the game buggy like that. I learned my lesson when other reviewers warn of buggy games. World One edition is apparently more stable but I'm not planning on giving it a try any time soon, if ever.

This game is mostly talking with others to gather evidence. So you need to be in the mood for reading. There are very few puzzles or gameplay sections. And what’s there is also on the easy side. So they’re there for the game’s pacing. Luckily the dialogue is engaging and you want to know more about the main characters. The case is solved but it seems they left some things out for a potential sequel. Some flaws would be the lack of customisation options in terms of hints and holding your hands. I got a bit annoyed when Pikachu wouldn’t shut up whilst I was still talking with others or trying to examine an item/document. Also the game is one of the few pretty 3DS games. It’s a shame there’s no 3D at all. It feels like it could have suited it. Overall I enjoyed the game. It’s worth playing if you’re a Pokémon fan who wouldn’t mind reading and is doing it mostly for the Pokémon part and less for the gameplay/seeking challenge part.

The game is a top down 3D shooter with rogue lite elements where you control one of the 3 characters to fight the evil guys and save your planet. I wasn’t sure about getting the game at first but it still had something that made me interested enough to give it a try. And boy, am I glad I went for it! It always felt great playing the game and making progress with your upgrades. You level up and earn various enhancements such as badges and the ability to buy new weapons & skills. Badges are permanent upgrades you equip before starting your run. Weapons and skills make a huge difference and you often feel their impact when you find them. The controls are perfect. You move and shoot but there is also a dedicated dodge button, a special move, reload, quick change and manually changing weapons. You can equip up to 5 weapons. Dodging makes you invincible when it’s active but you need to wait until it charges again before you can use it. There are abilities that make dodging far more powerful. Specials can slow enemies down, make your hits critical etc. Each of the 3 characters have unique dodge and specials. They have different default weapons and different stats. I’ve tried all of them and like the female character the most with her Nightbane weapon. Her health is very low though. The devs succeeded at making the play styles distinct and worth trying out. There are 8 levels with each level having a shop, an upgrade room and a weapon room. With the last 2 you’ll need keys that are either bought at the shop or dropped by the enemies. I’ve tried a few rogue lites (Crypt of the Necrodancer and Spelunky) and while I enjoy those games, I don’t like the part where they’re too challenging and there are no options to fine tune how you want to play them. TombStar was no different until the devs patched the game to offer easy mode and the ability to save before continuing with the next level. This makes a world of difference. Easy did not feel easy, it still felt challenging and I had to pay attention to survive. I only managed to complete the game on my 13th run. To me it feels like the perfect difficulty. The ability to save also helped me to get invested and get better at it. You can increase the difficulty or equip special badges that can make your runs a living hell but I love that other players are not forgotten. And once those players are ready for more challenge, they can get it. If I have to think of flaws then I can think of those 3: the levels might look a bit repetitive and samey, the load times might be a bit longer than I’d like and the story is just there. About the first flaw, it’s the most apparent one but it didn’t bother me. I rarely thought of it. The load times might differ depending on your pc. And the story is mostly presented through text that you download in the shop (it’s random whether it’s there but it’s saved when you find those story pieces), one intro cutscene and one short cutscene near the end. The story is generic but you obviously don’t play this game for that. It’s just there to give you a reason to fight and that’s totally fine! I love what the developers did with TombStar. They know how to make a fun game that feels very balanced, challenging but still fair. It’s definitely the kind of game I’d want to return to all the time if I didn’t have a huge backlog. When you just want time to unwind, stop thinking about things and just want to jump straight to the gameplay, then this game is perfect for that.