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.

This is a love story that is usually very typical. It’s made more interesting because of the gods and the land involved. The story keeps reminding you that despite the gods acting like humans sometimes, they’re still unpredictable and can make harsh decisions because they just look at things differently. There is also a bit of Japanese culture that can make this game stand out. By that, I mean the fact that traditional objects or behaviours are mentioned and it’s explained when you click on the terms. It also helps that the characters are interesting and I did get involved with the story. It has a heart despite one fault that I am not a fan of but this depends on the reader whether it’s a flaw or not. This game’s story is, to put it best, the anime type that only seems to come from a male author. By that I mean almost every single women falling for the main character including gods, somehow impregnating women without doing the deed, women mostly thinking and fighting over guys, being a male pervert is somehow a normal personality trait etc. I’m totally not about that but it still won me over for the other things that I mentioned. Also the fact that many of the characters do grow and they learn some harsh lessons. Masaki (the main character) would always say reality is merciless and it’s quite fitting. Other faults are mainly typo and there could have probably been more budget since the game is mostly reading with some beautiful art that gets reused sometimes. 3D on the 3DS would have also been welcome. Another surprise is the game’s soundtrack. It’s quite catchy and enjoyable. Anyway, you probably know what you’re getting yourself into and you probably know whether it’s the right game for you or not. You can be rest assured that it’s not bad at least. It can surprise you in a good way.

Sooo I’m not sure what happened but I think I lost my save due to a bug. I’ve completed 3 levels, continued the next day and there was no option to continue or select a stage. I could only select new game even though the file icon showed my progress and the last level I played. I was hoping to select the stage I was in after selecting new game but that wiped out my entire progress. The game is not good enough to start from scratch again, especially if there’s a possibility I could lose my save at any point. Here are my impressions based on the 3 levels I completed.

It seemed okay but nothing mind blowing. I’m not familiar with the cartoon or the previous games. The story starts with a plot I’m not familiar with. The game is a hack and slasher similar to Ninja Gaiden but not as good. Still though, I was surprised by the responsive controls. I’m not a fan of the camera because it’s active on top of being able to control it manually. You can’t turn that off. The game does throw a lot of skills, moves and weapons at you early on. It feels lacking in balance and doesn’t have a good build up compared to other games. The stages are mostly simple and there are no real puzzles. There has been a good variety of enemies and different ways to beat them. There is also an upgrade system, a shop and being able to make your weapons stronger with the gold you find.

Samurai Jack looked like a decent time that is aimed at the fans. It doesn’t excel at anything in particular but there aren’t many games like it on Apple Arcade. It’s worth giving a try if you can do so on the cheap. The bug with the save is a serious issue though and I don’t know if you should give the game a try if you will encounter it like I did.

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 has been such a delight. It controls well, looks gorgeous, the bit tunes sound great, it doesn’t cost an arm & a leg and there is no filler content. What more could you ask for?

It’s a platformer with simple controls. Its focus is getting through obstacles without getting hit. One touch and you’re out, on medium difficulty at least. What keeps it engaging is trying to do flawless runs. They are runs where you have to collect all the bolts and beat the in-game timer in one go. The bolts are not hidden, they’re all visible but they can be placed in tricky spots. There are also 4 bosses which are very varied and fun to go through.

The game is challenging with flawless runs. I’ve died many times. This normally annoys me with other games but here it feels fair. It doesn’t cross the line of going too far and it kept me engaged. It took me 5.6 hours to get 100% flawless with all levels. I’m planning on attempting insane difficulty and get the 3 other achievements I’m still missing.

I don’t know what the experience is for players who just want to run through the game as quickly as possible. But this game is absolutely worth it for completionist players. The game also has online ranking with the best overall score if you’re into that.

I had some good first impressions upon starting the game. The controls are good, everything works as it should, there is TONS of content and options to customise the ball that you control etc. However, the more I played the more I disliked the direction the game was taking and I noticed how monotonous the experience became. It felt like I was pushing myself to play it after a while.

The main mode is classic that has 16 chapters. I’ve done about 60-70% with all 3 stars. 3 stars are awarded when you collect everything in the level. There are 10 other modes you can unlock the more stars you collect and the game has some daily rankings. The gameplay has you controlling a ball through rolling around an object. You don’t control the character in a traditional sense, it’s all based on timing and finding the next object you can stick to before reaching the exit. Kind of like Spider-Man I guess?

It works and it’s fun. The game became less fun when it started forcing you to move quickly and flawlessly or be killed by moving spikes or lasers. I liked taking my time and trying to figure the best way to collect everything. Kind of like a puzzle game. But the game is clearly not about that after a couple of chapters. The challenge kept increasing gradually to the point that I didn’t want to go farther.

If you like the sound of that, then definitely give it a try. It’s just not the kind of game I’m looking for.

It’s probably one of the best and most generous gacha games. I haven’t played many of them but I did play this religiously. It’s great seeing your favourite characters interact with each other, but honestly, it’s this element that keeps you playing. I’ve decided to move on, hopefully definitively. It was taking too much time playing it, watching videos and reading about it. Not to mention, most of the time is spent on grinding to get to the most difficult content. That content is often designed in a way to incentivise you to use certain characters. It becomes too much to keep up with the meta, afraid of missing out on rewards and the feeling that you need to pay for the basic moogle pass to avoid excessive grinding.

I’m giving it 4 stars to show that it’s the best when it comes to this type of game. If you feel the need to try gacha games, then it’s best to try this one. But ideally, it’s better to not play them at all. I came to the conclusion that I can use all this time to play more quality games that don’t have any predatory elements.

This game feels like a mix of Mario sport RPG and Pokémon. The Mario sport RPG part is in terms of structure. The main battles are through sport (dodgeball), some light RPG elements (levels, equipment) and a simple story to follow that is just an excuse to keep playing. The Pokémon elements are minor but they’re definitely present. Players stop you for a battle when you’re near them, there is a ‘pokecenter’ where you heal your party and both examples have catchy Pokémon like tunes. The battle system has more depth than expected. This game is very charming but it feels a bit repetitive because you keep fighting teams. Many fights feel like excuses just because a certain section needs a fight. That part is not a good story telling. Regardless though, this game is pretty polished. Especially for an indie.

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.

I have a weird history with this game. I got it around launch for the DS based on hype and I didn’t really get it. I sold the game and ended up getting it again around 2-3 years ago based on recommendations. Playing it again I understood the hook and I was planning on continuing. But I got busy with other games and kind of forgotten about it. I continued with the save yesterday and I understand why it just won’t work out between us :P

The interesting thing about this puzzle game is that you’re not allowed to change the blocks horizontally but only vertically. It definitely shakes up the formula. The game also has different planets with different rules like the speed of the blocks launching and how quick the blocks drop. The main mode is having you carry out missions and select the route you want to take. You earn lots of different currencies that you can use to create new things like new items, music and even planets if I remember things correctly.

Here’s where things start to get problematic. You can’t save and continue with your progress in the main mode. You have to finish it in one go or put the DS on standby. There is an option to play a separate mode with only one planet but it’s barebones and not the main course. The game also crams lots of info in the lower screen and it expects you to select the blocks with perfect accuracy while the blocks are super tiny. I’ve had many times where I just can’t pick the block I want with the touch screen. Then there are the mechanics, the game seems to have way too many things to keep in mind that it kind of gets in the way of a pure puzzle game. It feels like being complex for complexity’s sake. And lastly, it looks like the game is going to be very grindy if you want to unlock everything. You’re going to need a lot of different currencies.

It feels like this game had the potential to be one of the best puzzle games with strong gameplay. Its appeal is limited to a small niche for being too ambitious and trying to do too much with the small screens. It doesn’t quite reach the perfect balance of lots of depth while easy to pick up and play. But that small niche will absolutely love it.

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.

This is one very unique game due to its controls. You decide an eyeball’s direction with the touch screen but it moves on its own. You can also stop the ball from moving by touching it once but you can’t control the eyeball directly. The levels, enemies and bosses are very well designed. I get strong GBA/Super Nintendo vibes with the soundtrack and graphics. There are many collectibles within the levels and modes such as hard, boss rush etc. However, the game’s controls while very refreshing and interesting, can also be seen as a weakness. The 6 worlds ramp up in challenge and there are times where it can get on my nerves when the controls can cause you to die easily. Still though, definitely give the game a try if you’re open to new gameplay wrapped up in retro style.

This game is magical and a feast to the mind with how beautiful it looks and sounds. I loved exploring, solving puzzles and collecting things. I'm giving this a negative on principle. This game is left in a buggy state that can be game breaking if you're not careful. Here are my main cons:

1. There are sections in the game where your save can become useless and you have to start from the very beginning. I experienced one of those instances in the desert where I returned to a previous area to collect something I missed. The door didn't open on the way out and the game only has one save. There is also no option to return to the hub. You have to finish the level first. I was fortunate enough to be aware of the problems based on the impressions of others. So I've made multiple save backups to be on the safe side.
2. It's ridiculous that the game doesn't allow you to return to your hub whenever you feel like it. If you miss any collectible, you have to return to a level and finish the level in its entirety. There are 3 levels total but each one is huge and takes a long time to finish. This unnecessarily wastes your time.
3. The trophies for collecting all drawings and toys are bugged. Even though I collected everything, I didn't get them. Some did when you look at the stats. So I'm not sure what I did wrong.
4. The game is very badly optimized. I have a 4070 ti, i5-13400f and 32gb ram. My 1440p monitor allows 165fps and I was worried it would be too much on the highest settings. I put the game on 120 fps just to be on the safe side, there were still many instances where the GPU would need 100%. There have been brief moments where the fps dropped to 100 or there were stutters when parts of the areas were loading. I had a pretty smooth experience for the most part but I'm not sure about older hardware.

This game is worth playing if you are aware of its problems and come prepared. Make sure you back up your saves. It might also be better to have a guide for all the collectibles if you know yourself to be impatient and don't like repeating long levels for them. If you prefer finding the collectibles on your own, at least the first time, then try not to backtrack while you're in the levels. It's better to finish the levels and then do them again.

This game could have been so much better if the devs patched it at least once. They never did. They mentioned they would fix the bugs for a while around release, then things went real quiet after that. Those kind of devs/publishers are not worth supporting. Hence the negative review.