I’m not that familiar with the original Deep Blue Sea game but basing from the Beta build of Deep Blue Sea 2, I must say that The Game Equation is doing a fantastic job in making it a match 3 game worth waiting for. It’s not just your average match 3, with so many elements that expands the gameplay to  levels rarely experienced for a puzzle game.

In Deep Blue Sea 2, players collect beautiful buried treasures and artifacts and progress through over 200 levels of match-3 puzzle levels that are easy-to-learn, yet challenging, and discover three different hidden object locations with over 60 different levels, hand-painted and designed with impressive detail.

Just a hint – it even features RPG elements of character development. Now, that would mean a great deal of re-playability, control and so much fun if you think about it. And another surprising hint – Melissa is not the only character you’ll be developing in this game! Well, I guess more will be revealed once the final build is released, but for now, time for some screenshots.

The Game Equation

Other Posts and Reviews

• Fishdom: Frosty Splash
• Fishdom: Harvest Splash
• Fishdom: Spooky Splash

Deep Blue Sea 2 Preview

Strimko

Like all modern casual games, Strimko also has a backdrop story to give the audience the impression of progression after racking their brains out in solving the puzzles. You play to aid the Princess Luana as she tries to save her planet from famine and drought. An object called the Astrolable will make the planet prosperous again; but before anything else, you have to find the Astrolable’s amulets, locked away in chests guarded by puzzles.

This will then bring us to the gameplay.

Strimko plays very much like Sudoku, so I guess Sudoku fans will appreciate the familiarity and added twists to Strimko’s gameplay. All numbers on each row should not repeat; this is the same for all numbers on each column. But what sets Strimko apart is the stream that connects some of the cells in the board. Not only are you going to follow the aforementioned rule, but also to make sure that all numbers on a stream won’t be repeating as well.

It is very ingenious actually, since the introduction of streams will open up a lot of opportunities for the player and puzzle-maker alike. For instance, it can serve as an additional clue, giving you faster means of solving the puzzles. All the same, it can also act as a whole new level of challenge, since confusion will play a major role when tackling most of the harder puzzles.

As a matter of fact, Strimko also introduces 4 different game types to choose from during adventure mode or through quick classic play in the archives. There’s the Zen puzzles, which is Strimko classic gameplay; Pave puzzles, which is basically the same as Zen but with a jigsaw puzzle mix; Fit puzzles, which will supply you with complete streams instead of usual numbers, and your task is to fit them streams correctly on the board; and Tri puzzles, which are twisted Zen puzzles with, well, a twist you have to find out for yourself.

All in all, it’s not just same Sudoku style gameplay you’re getting, but a lot more to keep you fascinated and grinding away through puzzles. Gameplay is simple and very easy to master. As you go through the levels and get more confused, you’ll even begin to make up your own techniques in order to leisurely finish each level.

One thing the game lacks is good sound. The graphics and environments are simple enough – that’s understandable; but without good accompanying sound, the game gets the feeling of being too bland. Graphics alone is not that flashy too, so it really won’t carry that missing element from the whole of the game.

Strimko also employs a replenishing hint system that will instantly answer a part of the board for you during each trigger. Since levels are not timed, it’s possible to finish a level without even thinking too hard on solutions. It’s a longshot but that’s not impossible for those who have really large chucks of time in their hands to waste.

Anyway though, I still loved the new twist in Sudoku-like puzzling that Strimko introduces in this game. It’s fun, it’s addictive and it’s challenging. Really recommended for puzzle gamers to get their hands wet on.

Strimko Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Happier Than You
• Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child
• Between the Worlds

Strimko

Well no, it doesn’t have new gameplay mechanics because it’s still the hidden object gameplay we all love, but it won’t stop the game in delivering a refreshing interface that is both enjoyable and challenging for the seasoned player. I mean for example, each stage may contain more than one room of hidden objects, and most of these rooms can’t even fit on a single screen. Just like looking to your left and right searching for objects in the list, instead of looking blankly on a single bland side of a room.

I know this is not something new to casual gaming fans but there’s just something in the mix of mini-games, searching and using tools, and the dark and mysterious nature of the story that makes The Tarot’s Misfortune special. Special enough to make us anticipate its release.

Well, no more blabbering here. Head on over to The Tarot’s Misfortune website and download the demo. Or even sign up as Triple Hippo’s game tester if you’re up to playing under development games in your free time.

For now, I bring you the screenshots:

Other Posts and Reviews

• Elementals: The Magic Key
• Gardenscapes
• Amazing Heists: Dillinger

The Tarot’s Misfortune Preview

The story of the game starts as the heroine of the game (that’s you) inherited a curiosity shop from her grandparents. Of course, she’ll begin to see the shop in shambles with a matching great tree growing at the shop’s center, but that’s where she comes in and cleans the shop up. Well, before all that though, you’ll have to help the fairy creatures that appeared near the tree rebuild their home too, prompting the game tutorial to run afterwards.

The gameplay of Little Folk of Faery is really much like Virtual Villagers. You grab little fairy folks around key points in the area and watch as they complete the quests you make them do. Max their stats through training on 4 different kinds of skills – harvesting, knowledge, discovery and music in order to make them work faster and more efficient. Of course, a couple of them should be gathering food, or else, you’ll be failing the main idea to keep the population happy and growing.

Complete all the quests and you get to finish the game, it’s just that simple. But even though there are just 9 main quests and 11 secondary ones, it will still take days to complete the game as each quest branches out into separate tasks to fulfill. If you’re able to, having more than 1 fairy folk doing a quest will greatly help in finishing faster, and random events may also help or hinder your progress. Just watch out for wistful spirits when doing quests, since a fairy’s morale will drop fast if the spirit is not distracted by an able musician.

Completing quests will get you more enchantment points than just the daily routine of the fairies. Points are spent at the Tree of Knowledge section of the Tome of Lore (the book that tracks all your achievements in Little Folk of Faery). More knowledge will mean better fairy performance on tasks. Knowledge will also unlock quests, serving as prerequisites for your fairies to access them.

The Tome of Lore also tracks the characters you come across during your adventure through its Bestiary section. In here, you learn more about each fairy folk type as well as other creatures that inhabit your realm. Aside from this, the tome also keeps track of collectibles – little sparkling things that appear randomly throughout the whole map, giving you additional knowledge when you collect all of them. Just be sure not to pick up a fairy holding some collectible or else the item will be dropped and lost.

All the gameplay of Little Folk of Faery certainly feels like playing Virtual Villagers or any other similar game; however, there is still a little bit of twist as what was said earlier on the review. Completing quests in the fairy realm not only develops the realm’s state but the outside world too, which is the curiosity shop the heroine inherited. The main character will have flashes of memory as she recovers items in the real world. I noticed how the ambience of the shop also gets better as you progress through the game.

I know it’s not nice to compare one game from another since I’ve been doing it very much during the course of this review, but in the case of this game, comparison will fare it well. Little Folk of Faery has great graphics, an expanding and engaging storyline, and of course, the little twist that distinguishes it from the rest of the pack. Of course, it still plays much like any other simulation game – that is it will take you a very long time in order to finish the game and watch the story ending. Well, you can always just leave the fairies doing their share of tasks and turn the game off, come back tomorrow and I bet the tasks are all finished already.

All in all, Little Folk of Faery is definitely a game worth buying and I count myself very lucky to get to play it for free. It’s simple to play and engaging enough to keep you for hours until you give up and have a crack at it early the day after.

Little Folk of Faery Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Westward III: Gold Rush
• Virtual Villagers: The Secret City
• Elementals: The Magic Key

Little Folk of Faery

Well, getting to the point early, I say that if you like the Fishdom mechanics and just can’t get enough playing it, then you’ll certainly love this game. The main gameplay is still match 3 wherein your objective is to clear all tiles from the board by matching 3 or more same objects on them. Either in timed or relaxed mode, you earn money depending on how well you performed during the match 3, and of course, get to spend that money afterward on the aquarium simulation part of the game.

Aquarium maintenance is still divided into 3 parts for Fishdom: Frosty Splash. Buy Fishes, Beauty and Comfort to liven up your once empty aquarium of busy marine life and decors. In this part, your objective is depending on what you want to see in your tank. Buy all of the fishes and decors, or save enough money to just buy the most expensive ones. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, just make sure you enjoy what you’re doing inside the game.

If you want to, you can also aim for earning the bronze, silver and gold trophies during the aquarium simulation game. By filling up all 3 meters (fish, beauty and comfort), you’re bound to get a trophy for all your efforts. Afterward, you’ll have a choice whether to buy a new tank or to continue earning the next trophy for your current tank. Yep, just like all Fishdom sequels you might have tried these past few weeks.

Fishdom: Frosty Splash does introduce new sets of fishes and decors for you to choose from. Just as the name suggests, it’s all snow and Christmas this time around for your swimming friends. With this, all I can say is: Nice Timing! Really, it’s so easy to get into the festive mood with this game around to play with, and even though I know that all gameplay is the same, I still got addicted for some reason since I really wanted to get that next Christmas decoration into my fish tank at all costs.

As bonuses, you can still take pictures of your tank as you progress during the camera view of the game, and set your tank as a screen saver just through a click of a mouse button. This is just like Spooky Splash and Harvest Splash, so it’s hardly not that unique at this point, but still, it’s always fun to play around and makes the game worth your money considering the bonuses.

Again, getting back to my earliest point, if you like match 3, never played Fishdom before or played Fishdom and can’t get enough of it from the earlier installments, then I say you’ll definitely love Fishdom: Frosty Splash. In my opinion, it’s the better of all 3 Fishdom sequels just because I believe it’s great timing for the festive winter seasons. Well, Spooky Splash is in good timing too, but I like Christmas better than Halloween (and yup, I’m biased when it comes to seasons too).

In the same sense, if you’re expecting more of a groundbreaking uniqueness in gameplay, then go look somewhere else rather than these sequels. Fishdom is designed to be expected and played with its classic gameplay, with large changes in design enough to make fans keep wishing for more.

Fishdom: Frosty Splash Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Fishdom: Harvest Splash
• Fishdom: Spooky Splash
• Fishdom: Spooky Splash Preview

Fishdom: Frosty Splash

Fishdom goes way back since the first game without any story to back up any reason for you to create a fish tank from scratch. After starting the game, you will receive a welcoming screen that will introduce you to the theme of the game. And after creating your profile, you’re off to create an award-winning fish tank of your own.

If you played the original or Spooky Splash, Fishdom: Harvest Splash follows the same concept and gameplay that you don’t even need to go through the tutorial anymore and just dive straight into playing. However for others, basically the concept is to start your own aquarium and fill it with fishes, ornaments and comfort pieces to keep your marine organisms happy and content. In order to do this, you’ll need money, and that’s where the match 3 gaming comes into play.

The roots of the game is in match 3, and the points awarded to you after each puzzle corresponds to the amount of money you can use to purchase tank fillers. To clear each puzzle, just break all the tiles in the board by matching objects above them. As you can see, it’s a straightforward match 3, and all graphics and sounds are familiar from the past Fishdom games, so veterans of the series will still be comfortable with the gameplay and controls.

As always in the match 3 game, you’ll encounter the very same challenges of chained tiles you need to match until all chains are destroyed. Another challenge would be to maneuver through the different patterns of the game board, and many of the patterns are very amusing too, adding enjoyment while you play. And to offset this, you’ll also have in your arsenal the same power-ups seen for Spooky Splash. Try to use them wisely in the game especially the lighting that clears all same objects in the board.

Still, there are new things you can explore with Fishdom: Harvest Splash, and most of these are featured in the aquarium decorating part of the game. There are new fishes, new decors and of course new designs in aquarium equipment that goes with the farm theme of the game. Most of the special fishes are very expensive though, so meaning longer hours of playing time if you really want to make your aquarium specially designed.

What I enjoy most in the Fishdom series of games is the additional feature to make your tank a part of your computer screen saver through the screen saver function in the main menu. Aside from this, you can also take pictures of your tank as you progress through the game. This is something real-life avid tank keepers do, and you can do the same yourself, but with the extra farm theme featured for Fishdom: Harvest Splash.

Frankly, I suggest that if you’re still exploring Spooky Splash, it’s still not worth it to transfer to Harvest Splash for another round of the same gameplay routine. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s really worth the try, but if you’re thinking of value for money, it’s advisable to just stick to one Fishdom game and enjoy as much as you can.

Much the same, if you’re new to Fishdom, it’s much better to start with this one and savor every fun moment from it before switching to another Fishdom series of your choice.

Fishdom: Harvest Splash Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Fishdom: Frosty Splash
• Fishdom: Spooky Splash
• Fishdom: Spooky Splash Preview

Fishdom: Harvest Splash

Elementals: The Magic Key

Albert is the name of the wizard in training and his trusty sidekick Fellian the Familiar is always there to give him advice. After his sister Lilian was kidnapped by the evil Sibelius, and the Key of Eiron shards scattered all around the world during the process, it’s now Albert’s task to gather all the shards back in order to prevent it falling into the hands of evil. Using magic, he has to crack witty puzzles and battle dangerous villains and of course, meet other friendly creatures along the way.

The main gameplay of Elementals: The Magic Key is hidden object, that is to say, you have to find what Albert instructs you to in order to move on with the story. There are no random objects though, since all items you need to find will be needed to crack puzzles and other hindrances throughout your adventure. And if you find yourself stuck, Fellian’s hint button will help you find those items without any trouble at all.

In each scene, you have to speak with other fantasy characters, interact with the surroundings using your gathered tools and cast spells. Many times, you’ll come across mind-numbing puzzles in order to move on with the adventure. This will engage a pop-up window where you will play the mini-game. Some of the puzzles are quite hard, so if you find yourself wanting to quit, just wait for the door-like icon to activate and skip the puzzle behind.

There’s a second gameplay involved in Elementals: The Magic Key – the battle mode against the enemies you encounter along the way. This involves a unique turn-based system set on a chess-like board with various elementals for you to move. The objective is to eliminate all of your enemy’s elementals by using your own elementals against them.

This part of the game needs great planning and strategy in order to clear since in later levels, your enemy will also gain the power-ups that you also use, which is really quite frustrating if you don’t think before you act. Just remember the basic mechanics – 3 of the same level and kind of elementals can combine to form a stronger one when lined up together. Stronger elementals have more life and greater destructive power, so try to make them as soon as possible.

Power-ups for the battle mode are gained by helping characters in the adventure mode. They are very helpful whenever in a pinch, so use them whenever possible to clear as many enemy elementals as you can. Power-ups are activated through elemental fusions you make, therefore involving more strategy in order for you to win each encounter.

Elementals: The Magic Key is made beautifully with all animation, backgrounds and design made as flawless as possible. Sounds and visuals join together to form a fantasy world you’ll enjoy playing in, making the game very hard to put down once you already start playing. And there are full of surprises and twists in the story too, comparable to the most popular casual adventure games in the market today.

The gameplay is very unique and the storyline drives the adventure unlike most hidden object games that involve random item hunting. The unique battle mode and puzzle mini-games are enjoyable to play and are repeatable through the Bonus feature in the main menu. All of these making Elementals: The Magic Key one of the best adventures I’ve seen this year.

Elementals: The Magic Key Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Gardenscapes
• Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child
• CSI: NY – The Game

Elementals: The Magic Key

The simplicity of the objective is still there since all you got to do in this game is to build and design your own aquarium by filling it with fishes, decorations and other peripherals to make your fishes happy and comfortable. However, just as the name Fishdom: Spooky Splash suggests, you have to make your aquarium as spooky as it can get. Well, that’s one easy task since all of the decorations, aquarium fixtures and even some of the fishes are hair-raising enough to help you with your objective.

Still, the base gameplay of Fishdom: Spooky Splash is traditional match-3 puzzle action. Swap 3 or more pieces to eliminate them from the board, and earn points (converted to game money) in the process. Destroy all of the tiles by matching the pieces on them just like what was adapted by the original game, Fishdom. And yes, there are still chained pieces too, just to make the whole experience more challenging.

As for power-ups, there are a plenty, triggered by matching 5 or more pieces within one swap. The number of pieces you successfully match corresponds to the explosiveness of your power-up. 5 matches give you a Depth Bomb, 6 matches for Dynamite and 7 matches for a devastating Warhead. Other power-ups include the puny Firecracker and the most powerful of them all – Lightning, triggered by using 7 explosives within a game level.

The power-ups are not in any way making the game imbalanced. As a matter of fact in later levels, you are more likely doomed if you won’t be using them as wisely as possible. More challenging levels await you as you try to fill your tank more of those grueling decors. And as always, it’s a greater chance for you to earn money enough to purchase the most hideous fishes available for your tank.

Fishdom: Spooky Splash entirely feels like playing the original Fishdom game, which isn’t a bad thing, but not that good either. Honestly, I expected more – something that may be able to surprise me as a seasoned player of casual games. For this game, it came only after hours of playing, after buying the Spooky Fish and getting some of those frightening décor sets available on the last parts of the Beauty tab.

Other goals such as getting bronze, silver and gold trophies for your aquarium keep you from losing interest in getting through the levels. It’s much fun to see your fish tank get filled up with so many decorations but do keep in mind that you get the same empty aquarium look if you manage to buy a new one for $2000. So, what I suggest is to save game money and only buy those fishes and decorations that really pack a spooky punch.

Fishdom: Spooky Splash also introduces a screensaver feature you can activate and enjoy whenever your computer gets idle. And when you wish to document your aquarium progress, take pictures of your tank during the whole course of your adventure. These are the best features I enjoy most, just what I would expect from a Playrix game.

Fishdom: Spooky Splash is still an enjoyable ride just like its predecessor. If you enjoyed the original, you’ll definitely enjoy this one too. And with the added spooky elements, you have enough game time to even have your ideal tank ready for the coming Halloween.

Fishdom: Spooky Splash Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Fishdom: Spooky Splash Preview
• Fishdom: Frosty Splash
• Fishdom: Harvest Splash

Fishdom: Spooky Splash

The story starts with you living in the middle of the city, filled with factories and polluted air and only having a little plant keeping you company. Then, news got to you that your deceased grandfather left the old mansion to your own care. With the mansion comes a once beautiful garden, now run-down and left with very little care, and of course, the trustworthy butler, Austin, helping you with the garden work you’ll need to accomplish from now on.

Actually, Gardenscapes doesn’t really make you tend to the garden because Austin does all the garden work for you. Your only job in the game as the mansion master is to make sure to earn enough money for all of the garden restoration work. You start with 5 coins, well yeah, that’s some puny cash, but by selling some of the mansion’s old stuff, you’ll be able to raise spending money in no time flat.

Raising money requires you to play a hidden object game through a jumble sale inside the mansion’s many rooms. The big “start” button triggers this event as you get transferred into a familiar setting – a room filled with so many random objects scattered about. Customers will come appearing at the left menu and all you have to do is to find what they want and if successful, collect coin payments after they leave.

There are timed and relaxed modes of play and as always, in the timed mode, you have to keep the game clock as well as the customer patience levels in mind at all times. In the relaxed mode, there are no game clocks but still, you have to save those slowly dwindling customer hearts. The more customers happy, the more money you’ll be getting, so find those items as fast as you can, an element that made Gardenscapes very exciting to play.

Of course, it would be very unfair to time you and not give you any aid in such a hectic gameplay. With this in mind, you get to have 3 kinds of hints you can use in case you find yourself unable to find hidden objects. The first is the basic hint designated by hidden question marks, enabling you to reveal the picture of the object needed by all active customers; second is when you find cameras, flashing all needed objects within a second; and the last is the thermometer hint, showing you when your getting near a certain object whenever the customer icon heats up.

Earning gold enables you to purchase garden upgrades for Austin to take care of. You get to choose on the quality of upgrades you want to purchase, so meaning you’ll have to get all the gold you can muster during the hidden object routine to purchase all the most expensive ones in the market. As you progress, just sit back, relax, and have a moment to setup up your own garden as a special screensaver for your computer.

Storyline is quite deep, since as the garden develops itself, Austin gets to receive calls from people getting to know your garden and even a chance to pit it against other gardens in a competition. The garden may appear in the newspapers too, and from time to time, you may also receive mail from other people for special item requests you can try to find in the mansion for extra gold when accomplished.

What’s amazing too is the animation of the garden and its inhabitants. Austin and your trusty dog travels around the garden doing work and playing really makes the whole area look like its real. Birds and butterflies fly around and you can even shoo them with the mouse if you liked. You can even make Austin work around, feeding the swan, trimming the plants and painting garden sculptures as if all of them were to collapse if not being tend upon.

All in all, Gardenscapes is a beautifully made game with unique elements embedded upon the same hidden object gameplay. It’s interesting enough to make you play for hours, with some funny quips from Austin himself whenever you add elements to your garden. Definitely a must try for all hidden object gaming fans.

Gardenscapes Download

Other Posts and Reviews

• Elementals: The Magic Key
• Call of Atlantis
• The Tarot’s Misfortune Preview

Gardenscapes

Build up your spooky Fishdom! Earn cash as you complete addictive tile-swapping levels and spend it to fix up your spooktacular tank. Create the eerie atmosphere of an underwater haunted house with witches, vampires and ghosts in your aquarium. Have fun taking care of quirky tropical fishies and adding boo-tiful accessories to the virtual aquarium of your dreams! Win trophies as you polish your aquarium design skills in this brrrilliant match-3 sequel to Fishdom™! Get splashed with Fishdom fun!

Features:

• Spooky match-3 fun
• Almost 200 boo-tiful fishies and accessories
• Unlimited number of tanks to create and design
• Endless replay value
• Set up your aquarium as a screensaver
• A spooktacular sequel to Fishdom™!

Screenshots:

Check it out soon at Playrix.

Other Posts and Reviews

• Fishdom: Spooky Splash
• Fishdom: Frosty Splash
• Fishdom: Harvest Splash

Fishdom: Spooky Splash Preview