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This week I tried a recent addition to Steam. The Puzzle game called Eets Munchies. Eets Munchies is about a little creature that looks much like a mix between a rabbit and a piranha, who always seems to be hungry for sweets.
At first when I looked up screenshots of the game I thought it may be a platformer game where you control the little creature. But actually it is quite the opposite. The little guy moves on his own and you need to influence what he does and where he goes by placing items and environmental pieces, as well as interacting with the different things in the level to help him get to the 3 treats and lastly the cake at the end.
But as the game reminds you at times, it’s easy to get 1 or 2 of the treats, but getting all 3 before going to the cake is supposed to be the challenge. Because if you don’t do the right things, the little creature could end up going after the cake before you get all the treats in the area.
So this is how the game works. You start a level where everything, including the creature, is frozen in place. In this time you need to place the items they give you some place in the level where it could help the little guy go where it needs to go. These items include wood boards that can bridge gaps or block areas off, a flying whale that can inhale the little creature or other items and launch them in the direction its facing, bombs that explode when they come in contact with something, arrows that can dictate what direction certain items go, and many more items that you unlock as you go. There are also items that the creature can eat as well that affects how it moves. Like an onion that makes it unable to jump, a pepper that allows it to jump further and a cupcake that changes him back to normal.
Once you have the items where you want them you can then hit a button which puts everything, including the creature, in motion. While you can’t move the little guy around yourself, you can use some of the items in the environment that you either placed or were already there to move it or items around. While things are in motion you can click items like a spring flower which bounces things around, or click the flying whale to inhale the creature and items to shoot it in a certain direction.
Quite often you will fail a level, but don’t worry. This could happen if the creature jumps off into the void or if it doesn’t get all the treats before the cakes. You can restart the level anytime, no problem. In this game you practically need to experiment sometimes to see what works. This can take many tries. But all in all the puzzles aren’t too complicated. Once in a while you will get stuck on a puzzle or two but when you figure them out it feels good.
If puzzle solving is not enough for you, the game also has a built in level creator which allows you to make and share your own puzzles on steam.
One thing I do like about this game is the art style. It has a nice hand drawn cartoon look to it and the animation is really nice. Even the music supports that style. I can’t help but love the look of the main character. It looks cute but it also looks like it will bite your hand off if you got to close to it. 😉
Another thing that you would notice with this game when you first open it is that it is locked to a certain screen resolution. The resolution makes it look like it is more fit to play on an iPad then a computer. But then this game is also available on iTunes as well as Steam, so that may explain it. And while it would be nice to be able to change it, how the levels are laid out, it’s not too big of a problem.
So all in all I would recommend this game to anyone who loves puzzle games and who wants a game that they can jump in and out off quite easily. It’s a nice game to pick up if you want to spend a few moments figuring out things in a constructive mode where everything affects everything else. Otherwise this may not be the game for you.
You can get Eets Munchies on Steam and iTunes. (Steam currently has a deal where you get 20% off if you own any other Klei Entertainment games on Steam including: Don’t Starve, Shank, and the original Eets)
Action! Kung Fu! Stickmen? If you want to play a game that makes you feel like a badass, I found the game for you. One Finger Death Punch.
One Finger Death Punch is an action brawler where you only use 2 buttons, the left and the right mouse button, to defeat hordes of enemies coming at you. Easy you think? Not really. The game is surprisingly challenging especially if you don’t get into the rhythm of it. And don’t think you can just button mash. The game strongly discourages it. Button mashing usually leads to you missing attacks and leaves you open to attacks from your enemies. But when you get into the feel of the game you can’t help but feel awesome; especially when you take out a Brawler, an enemy that requires you to hit him with a series of clicks in a certain order to kill him.
While you are mainly unarmed in the game, you are able to pick up weapons dropped by enemies you defeat. These include bows and daggers, which can be thrown at enemies far away as well as kill tougher enemies in one shot. You can also pick up a variety of melee weapons like swords, staves, and even a broom at one point, that allow you to have a further reach to take out more enemies faster.
The main game mode of the game is a Mob mode where you have to just straight up defeat all the enemies that come at you. To break it up a bit, they have other “game modes” scattered between,
including a Timed mode (kill everything before time runs out), a Defender mode (deflect knives being thrown at you), a Smash mode (toss enemies into buildings and items), a Light ‘Blade’ mode (fight with a light saber), and many more modes. There is even a Boss mode which puts you against a single tough enemy.
The aesthetic of the game is quite interesting. The general graphics make the game look like it is older than it is; kind of like an old arcade game or old console game. The general overall feel of the game feels inspired by old martial art films. They even have a game mode that is sort of homage to this where everything is grey with a film grain. Even the music and sound effects contribute to this. One of the things I enjoyed most about the aesthetic of the game is that even though your character is just a stickman, you can tell that he is actually doing various martial art moves. The game switches between a few different forms of martial arts: Flying Crane, Eagle Claw, and Shaolin Tiger. They even have a Drunken Master form which seems to only be used in the Boss mode.
All in all, One Finger Death Punch is an addicting, fun beat them up that makes you feel awesome for just pressing two buttons. And I can’t wait to try to get a perfect score on all levels. I definitely recommend it. It’s a fun game for an awesome price.
I consider myself a collector of video games. Whether I got my games in a really good sale or from a game bundle; I’m currently sitting on over 300 games, many I have yet to try out. Guess it is time to delve into the pile and see if I can find some awesome games for you to play.
This week I chose to try out the game named Finding Teddy.
Finding Teddy is a Puzzle Point and Click game where you play as a little girl who is trying to find her teddy bear that was stolen by a monster from the cupboard in her room. She follows the monster though the cupboard and then finds herself in a magical world full of bizarre creatures and enchanting sounds. Now she must explore this strange land and help its inhabitants in order to rescue her Teddy.
The gameplay of this game is pretty simple. You mainly move around the world by clicking the sides of the screen to move on to the next area. You will quickly find that some areas you won’t be able to get to until you solve a puzzle or help one of the inhabitants. For example, one of the first “puzzles” you come across is trying to get bye a large blob creature blocking your path. If you don’t come to it with the right item it will eat you and digest you.
While these ‘bring object to creature’ puzzles are common in the game, one of the more unique types of puzzle that is common in the game as well is the musical puzzles. On the top of the screen you can reveal some lines of musical “notes” that you can press, each playing a different tone. As you go through the game you reveal more and more of these notes as you solve puzzles using them.
In this world the little girl is traveling though, the only way to communicate is by uses of these musical notes. This game contains no dialogue, only music. Even the sound effects in the game are just a series of musical tones. This is probably one of the things I enjoyed most about this game. It’s very calming and really adds to the atmosphere of the game.
One of the main problems I did find with the game was that at the beginning of the game you are just thrown into this world without really any idea how to move or how to even play. But after a bit of randomly clicking around the screen I quickly figured things out and was able to get the feel of it.
I would rate this game a 7/10. The games aesthetic and general atmosphere is very enjoyable. And while the puzzles weren’t overly hard, it feels good to figure them out and move on to the next area. So, if you are a fan of Point and Click games or just want a simple, calming game to spend a couple hours playing I would recommend this game to you. If you are not a fan of these sorts of games, it may not be for you.
You can buy it for PC, Mac, and Linux here. (Finding Teddy is currently on sale 50% off on Steam until 3/10/14)
It is also available for iOS and Android.
Four years ago, a new service called OnLive debuted, offering a whole new way to play and get games using online streaming. Rather than downloading games or buying them from stores, you streamed them from online servers and paid for the access rights – meaning low-cost, no-storage-required gaming that just required a solid internet connection and which promise to revolutionise the way we played games. The reality, however, was far less rosy. By marketing itself as its own platform – alienating both publishers who worried about game sales cannibalising those on established platforms, and players who were forced to decide whether to buy their games traditionally, via OnLive, or both; selling some games itself – cutting it off from retailers; and giving developers an extra step in the development process to support the platform, OnLive made an enemy of practically everyone; and in 2012, the company folded, its assets sold off and all the staff laid off.
Now though, OnLive is back and learning from its mistakes, thanks to a relaunch in the hands of the buyer, a new (legally-speaking) company also called OnLive. After 18 months out of the limelight, OnLive has returned under new management and carrying two new business models.
The key to the new OnLive is a brand new offering called Cloudlift. Thanks to a partnership with Valve, OnLive now has access to the full library of Steam games, bringing thousands of games of all different kinds to the platform. OnLive will now let you buy Steam games and add them to your Steam account through the service, solving the platform separation by potentially allowing the same game to run on multiple devices through both OnLive and Steam itself. The magic comes with OnLive’s streaming abilities. Once again, when playing a Steam game through OnLive, you won’t actually be downloading and playing the game locally – instead, the game is streamed to you over an internet connection from super-fast, super-capable servers hosted by OnLive, meaning no storage is required. In a genius touch however, slam in your Steam account details and as long as you’re using Steam’s Cloud Save feature, Cloudlift will grab your online save for each game as you load them up, so you’ll be able to continue the same game you have on your traditional Steam-enabled device. If you have a solid internet connection (2mb/sec minimum, 5mb recommended download speed), you may never notice the difference.
As Cloudlift is available as a smartphone app and as software for PC and Mac, the service potentially will allow Ouya and other Android-based consoles to get the full range of Steam apps and play them with high performance, instantly increasing their usefulness and the size of the game libraries; and also potentially means a game you start on your PC can be later played on the Mac at work, with little change in performance even if the power of all the devices is completely in different leagues – all you need is a compatible controller. Cloudlift comes with a heavy price tag, however, at $14.99 and £9.99 per month; and with only Steam games on offer at the moment, the choice is limited to your already-purchased and future-purchased Steam Games; you don’t get a whole range of games included in the price like with movies on Netflix. Along with this is the problem that not all Steam games come with cloud sync, meaning they can still be streamed but won’t allow players to pick up where they left off.
Luckily, OnLive are not resting on their laurels, as they have two additional plans in the works to increase the game library as they come along. First, the original OnLive game library will soon be relaunched, meaning the company will once again start sellings its own games too. While this will remain a separate service to Cloudlift for now, any games bought from OnLive will also come with seven days’ access to the same game on Cloudlift – whether this feature will remain or be enhanced in future however is yet to be seen, as the company are not committing heavily to the OnLive market to prevent it repeating its past mistakes. OnLive is also allowing games publishers to partner directly with them and deliver demos of their games to stream through the services, which will be a white-label service – so the publishers are free to credit the games however they like (expect names like “Sega Go” or “EA Live” to crop up, for example). Gaijin Games are one of the partners named to be on board.
Will the new strategy allow OnLive to succeed where it once failed? And will full online streaming become the future of, or a strong alternative to, both digitally stored and physical media gaming? Time will soon tell.
