In Yum Yum Cookstar, you’ll join chef Yum Yum in the kitchen to learn and create a variety of wonderful dishes. Take time to learn different cooking techniques from something as simple as cracking an egg, to knife skills, and even frying or grilling. There’s not a shortage of cooking techniques.
Once you’ve learned the appropriate cooking skills, you can make a fairly large assortment of recipes. There’s fun rainbow-color desserts like Rainbow Waffles and Unicorn Cupcake Cones. There’s also some savory dishes to prepare, like Falafel Pita, Sushi Burrito, and Japanese Summer Noodle Salad. Then, you present your creations to the judges to receive a score. It is a competition, after all!
Gameplay
The overall gameplay for Yum Yum Cookstar is fairly easy. You get a few options on what controls to use on the Nintendo Switch, which I found useful. I used the touch screen and Joy-Con controls. So, mixing and the swiping mini games were done via touch screen, while others like rinsing used the thumbstick, and baking used the Joy-Con buttons. While my rhythmic abilities are lacking, the touch screen made it easier for me than trying to use the buttons for everything.
You’ll need to learn some cooking techniques before you can work on recipes. Then, as you complete sets of recipes, you’ll unlock more cooking techniques, which unlocks more recipes to cook. You can learn each technique in a tutorial level with an unhurried atmosphere and no pressure. You can also revisit the technique’s tutorial to replay it at any time if you need a refresher.
After you’ve finished learning the techniques, you’re ready to cook the real recipes! Both The techniques and recipes involve playing a mini game. Many of the cooking techniques are rhythm-based mini games, which is fun. There’s a playful and unique soundtrack for the game that’s both relaxing and upbeat. I unfortunately am not rhythmic, so I never scored perfectly!
I would have liked to see more variety in mini games, though. It gets fairly repetitive the longer you play, because the techniques are always done one specific way. For example, stirring is always swiping left and right, swiping up and down, and making circles on the screen. There’s no change in that, or the order it happens during the mini game.
The Judges
The personalities of the judges are almost as wide an array as the different types of recipes. Max Picante is the fun, light-hearted judge who’s easy to please. Basil Wellington is the snobby restaurant critic who demands absolute perfection and will test your skills. Then, there’s ambrosia, the pop star who is the middle ground between the other two judges and gives a more fair assessment.
What’s fun is that National Lampoon is responsible for the lines the judges say throughout the game. And sometimes, they throw out some funny responses. The disappointment I’ve gotten when I’ve failed tasks has been entertaining.
Final Thoughts
Yum Yum Cookstar is bright and colorful, and a perfectly casual game with the choice to have a no-stress play through. Or if you like a challenge, there’s different difficulty levels to try. It did fall a little flat for me, though.
The cooking techniques were repetitive, though that makes it easy to practice the activities to get perfect scores! Sometimes the number of mini games per recipe made it feel like an eternity making that recipe. My biggest complaint, though, is the long loading screens that occur between each segment of cooking and each segment of cut scenes. That really made the game feel like it dragged on. There’s some really fun art to look at on the loading screens, though!
However, the variety of recipes Yum Yum Cookstar has is wholly welcome and enjoyable. The vastly different personalities of the judges made their scenes entertaining, and it gives the game a competition feel. Overall, it’s a pretty good game to just pick up and play when you have a moment to fill, or are bored but aren’t looking for something more involved.
Epic Chef is another cute cooking game to checkout!
Farming, Magic, and More – take a look my review of this magical game.
Wylde Flowers is an absolutely enchanting game with an incredible story line. In it, you play as Tara, a city girl who has just moved to Fairhaven to help her ailing grandmother with the farm. Unfortunately, the farm is in disrepair since grandpa passed away, so it’s up to you to restore it to its former glory. You’ll learn the basics of running a farm from Grandma Hazel, and the townsfolk will help you learn more advanced concepts. They’ll also prove to be a wonderful community to get to know.
Of course, farming isn’t the only new thing Tara will learn. As it turns out, Grandma is a well-respected witch in the local coven, and Tara’s also a witch. She’ll learn to cast magic spells and craft potions to help with things like growing crops or restoring her energy, and more! All while building relationships with the townspeople, possibly finding love, and solving the mysteries of the island.
Farming
Wylde Flowers is pretty straightforward as far as game-play goes. You run a farm that needs to be repaired. You’ll utilize Parker, the town woodworker, and Natalia, the town blacksmith, quite a bit in order to fix up the farm. Otto, the local fisherman, will give you a lesson on fishing, and eventually you’ll be able to buy livestock from Marty, who is also new to the town.
The crops and flowers you’ll be able to grow are seasonal, until you build the greenhouse. You’ll then be able to use the crops in recipes you can cook in your kitchen, many of which will help you in becoming friends with the townsfolk. Unfortunately, the space you’ll have to grow crops and flowers is limited. The greenhouse only has 5 plots, while the first outdoor garden you have access to can potentially hold around 11 plots. It will depend on your creativity in how things fit together. It’s almost like playing Tetris, with more unusable spots. When you finally open the large garden, you can fit about 27 plots there.
It’s certainly no Stardew Valley in farm size, but it didn’t pose any problems for me. Crops grow within a few days, and when you control the seasons (more on that later), it’s easy to just grow everything you want per season.
Magic
The magic system is a fun addition to a farm sim (though I’d say farming is the secondary bit to this game, while the story is the main thing). You’ll learn spells to make it rain, create thunderstorms, freeze time, reverse time, grow crops faster, make crops yield more per harvest, and much more.
I think my favorite part of the magic system is being able to ride a broomstick as a way to fast travel. While the playable map is fairly small, it’s still a great mechanic to get to unlock. Even better is the incorporation of magic into it. What’s not fun about getting to ride a broomstick across town?
My one complaint with this system is the ability to occupy your cat familiar, Cleocatra. While it’s a fun mechanic, and does play a part in the story, it’s not as useful as I’d hoped. It’s used once in the story, and that’s the only time it’s necessary to even be a cat. It’s also a pain if you don’t know how to do it, like me. When you become the cat, there’s no way to cancel the spell, unless you go to sleep. So, use it wisely, if you do choose to use it more often.
The Townspeople
The townspeople of Fairhaven are possibly my second favorite thing about Wylde Flowers. The cast is wildly diverse. From Kim, who is of Japanese descent and identifies as nonbinary and isn’t sure how to navigate beginning a relationship, to Amira who’s super flirty from the start. There’s even Cameron, the local leader of the League of the Conscious Mind center (*cough* can you say cult *cough*) with his sketchy past and charming personality.
Each character you’ll encounter in Wylde Flowers has their very own personality and rich back stories. Even better is each one is fully voice acted. And I don’t mean one guy and one woman change their voices to act out each character. Everyone has their own unique voice actor to capture the personality of the character. It’s hard not to feel the charm and beauty in individuality with this cast. You even have the chance to date and marry one of seven romanceable characters. So, take your time to get to know everyone, and see who you’d like to date, or just build meaningful friendships with everyone. The choice is yours!
The Story
I won’t go into detail about the story line, because it’s what Wylde Flowers is all about and I want all of you to experience the joy of progressing through it, but this is my favorite thing about the game. It seems so simple at first. Tara arrives in Fairhaven to take over and restore the family farm as Grandma Hazel is no longer able to take care of it. Then, Tara discovers Hazel, and herself, are witches. Tara is welcomed into the local coven, and is tasked with discovering the secret identities of each coven member after she’s gained their trust.
After that, Tara spends her time restoring the farm, exploring the mines, raising crops and livestock, and delving into her magical studies. However, she’s also working to solve the problems and mysteries that the small island town faces. And all of this while building relationships with the townsfolk, or even dating.
You and the coven are in charge of turning the seasons, which means you can progress as fast or as slow as you wish to, within reason anyway. You won’t get the opportunity (or appropriate spells) to change the seasons unless you progress the story, but when you reach that point, it’s all on you to initiate the change. So, take your time helping out the town with the bulletin board requests, exploring the mine, fishing, farming, and talking to everyone.
The downside is that you only get to experience one Spring, one Summer, one Fall, one Winter, then what I’ve deemed the Eternal Spring. You’ll change seasons one last time to Spring, and that’s it. You can play indefinitely after you finish the story line, but you better stock up on seasonal finds each season.
Final Thoughts
I LOVED Wylde Flowers and will absolutely be replaying it again and dating everyone I can. Even despite some of the minor irks like the cat transformation and the Eternal Spring. I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s perfect for cozy gamers, is absolutely beautiful, and a whole lot of fun. And any game that gives me the name “Cattleclysm” as a preset option to name my cow with is great in my eyes!
Created by Marvelous and XSEED, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a remake Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, which was initially released for Game Boy Advance back in 2003. No longer working with Natsume, Marvelous have rebranded their farming games, hence the change from the original game title. The game was recently released on July 10th in countries such as the UK, and is set to release on July 14th in the US. The game is playable on Nintendo Switch and PC.
Story (of Seasons)
Despite there now being a rather saturated farming simulation game market, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town still manages to earn a place amongst popular games such as Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia. In my personal opinion, it even manages to surpass such games in certain ways due to it’s adorable simplicity. The game features a charming close knit town, harvest sprites with unique personalities, and is unburdened with too many anxiety-provoking features.
Your character has inherited a farm from their grandfather which they used to visit as a child. Entrusted to restoring it to its former glory, you are entasked with raising both crops and animals.
Character Customization
A slight disappointment upon beginning the game was the lack of character customization. With only 3 different skin tones to select from and 2 character options from 2 genders (4 character options in total), the game seemed quite out of touch, and I found myself not relating to my character like I had in Stardew Valley.
For me, the gameplay experience was therefore somewhat comparable to living the lives of the pre-made characters and families in The Sims games. On the upside, a variety of different outfits, some of which are absolutely adorable, can be changed into. To do so, you simply need to interact with the mirror in your home.
Plot & Gameplay
Moving onto the game’s plot; there isn’t one. At least not in the traditional sense. However, players can watch their farm grow, as well as mine, forage, and fish. Players can also explore Mineral Town and its shops, meet the townsfolk there, make friends, and even find a potential marriage candidate if they so desire.
A nice element of continuity is that the child your character spent time with during childhood summers returns part way through the game, and is a marriage candidate.
Additional features include seasonal festivals and events, often occurring with mini-games that players can participate in. Examples include the Cooking Festival, the Frisbee Festival, the Cluck Cluck Festival, plus more.
A very much welcome addition to the game is the introduction of same-sex marriage. In the original game, players could only become best friends with NPC’s of the same sex of their character. Other changes include the introduction of two new marriage candidates, Jennifer and Brandon. Another cool feature is the introduction of a coffee cow, which produces coffee that players can harvest.
When in certain places at certain times/circumstances, players can also watch entertaining little cut scenes unfold. From gossiping, to acts of flirting to family squabbles, these cut scenes give an insight into characters’ personalities, and can also liven up the game when farming becomes a little monotonous.
Graphics
The aforementioned cut scenes utilize 3D graphics, just like the rest of the game. This a move from the 2D sprite art of the original game. The use of 3D graphics in the remake is controversial. Some have argued that the 3D graphics appear simplistic and ‘cheap’. Others, however, have shown approval of the game’s chibi-like art style, great resolution both docked and undocked, as well as it having a consistent 60 FPS.
However, from a personal standpoint, I can definitely see why the default Nintendo Switch cursor is 2D and not 3D. You can change the cursor to 3D, but I’d really suggest otherwise unless you fancy a floating box as a cursor…
Sound
I was confused to say the least upon starting the game, as I am accustomed to background music when playing farming simulation games. On the very first day of gameplay, there was no background music (BGM) whatsoever, which was rather unsettling. I messed around in settings seeing if there was a way to ‘turn it on’, but to no avail.
However, there was BGM from day 2 onwards, which also changes with each season. I then realized that the absence of music on day 1 was due to a lapse in my attention during the game’s introductory speech with the mayor. He had said that the first day there was a day to rest, and I assume the lack of BGM was to symbolize that.
A feature I found pretty cool (albeit a little eerie), is a chime at 8pm, followed by an absence of BGM and featuring the occasional hoot of an owl. This is helpful, as it is quite easy to get absorbed into all of the daily tasks and got to bed late. Going to bed late will mean that your players oversleeps the next day.
TL;DR 8pm is Bed o’clock.
Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town Tips and Tricks
1x bag of seeds actually covers 9x tiles of tilled soil, as opposed to 1x tile, which I wrongly assumed.
Pay attention to instructions and accept the mayor’s tutorials. It took me until nearly autumn of year 1 to realize I had to hold down the Y button on my Nintendo Switch to water more than one crop at a time with an upgraded watering can..
Befriend the 7x Nature Sprites that live in a quaint hut behind the church as soon as possible. By giving each of them gifts that they like, your friendship with them will increase. Once you have enough hearts of affection for a sprite, you can ask them to assist you on your farm (the level of affection required was 3x hearts in the original game.
Don’t chop down the fruit tree directly in front of your house as this is a source of honey, which can be used to befriend Nature Sprites. However, don’t panic if you do, as you can speak to Gotts to buy more fruit trees.
Each Nature Sprite’s favorite gift is the grass type that corresponds to their color. This is the ideal gift, as your fruit tree will only spawn 1x honey from the tree’s beehive each day. However, not all types of colored grass can be found all throughout the year. Since most Nature Sprites seem to like honey and fruit, these can be gifted to the Sprites whose corresponding grass color is in season.
In order to cook and participate in the cooking festival, you will need a kitchen. To have a kitchen (and also to obtain a fridge), you will first need to upgrade your house.
If you get stuck or are looking for tips, you’re in luck! A the game is a remake of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (and an authentic one at that!), you’ll likely find helpful information on existing guides for the original game.
Replay Value
As the game is rather slow-paced (as is the norm for Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games), it is unlikely you’ll immediately want to replay the game. Personally, it is the type of game I’d return to a year or two later, when my terrible memory has forgotten all about it and it’s like getting a brand new game!
Personal Overview
Albeit slow-paced, one of the most appealing things about the game is that there is always something to do. The phrase ‘not enough hours in the day’ really does ring true. With the only real danger/threat in the game being collapsing from fatigue, the game is definitely family-friendly. In comparison to more modern farming simulation games, some may feel that the game is too simplistic. But sometimes simple is better, especially when it comes with fond childhood memories, wholesomeness and a pinch of modern-day relevance.
The Pros
Only take up 999mb of space to download on Nintendo Switch
The most adorable of animals
If you see a beehive you don’t need to run for your life
The Cons
Little character customization
Gameplay lacks some features that more modern farming simulation games have
The 3D ‘curse-or’ of doom
★★★★
Big thanks to XSEED Games andMarvelous USA, Inc. for providing myPotatoGames with a copy of Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town!
Tools Up is a local cooperative game about home renovation developed by The Knights of Unity and published by All in! Games. Wait! I promise you it’s a lot more fun than that sounds. With up to 4 players you can make your way up several floors of a skyscraper and play a level in every apartment. You must successfully follow the instructions of your blueprints (i.e. by painting the right walls the right colors) in a race against the clock! The game released on December 3rd, 2019 on the Nintendo Switch, Steam, Xbox One, and the PS4. I’d like to thank the creators of Tools Up for supplying me with a Nintendo Switch code to write this review!
Choosing Your Mode and Renovator
The game starts with a short but hilarious opening scene displaying the utmost incompetence by a team of renovators. You have your choice of Party Mode where you can just play the levels you unlocked in Campaign Mode for fun or attempt said main game and achieve as many golden stars as possible. You can choose your avatar from a small pool of pre-set characters and then change their skin tone. These characters all look a little silly and it’s too bad I couldn’t play as someone…a little cuter. Although you can unlock more characters as you progress and I was slightly happier to be a chubby alpaca.
Read Those Blueprints First and Always Refer to Them!
Instead of going through a tutorial level or having instructions shown clearly before entering a level, you’re kind of on your own with figuring out what to do. With a lot of trial and error, I eventually got the hang of the controls and requirements to pass a level and it got a easier from there. One player should always go get the rolled up paper that are blueprints in order to know what work needs to be done.
There are images showing in color either walls or floor with the name of the room in the top left-hand corner. I found it to be strange that text doesn’t also appear above the rooms when looking at the blueprints so you know which rooms are which. However, after careful examination, I noticed that while the blueprints were being viewed, they were showing the end results of your rooms, not their current state. The rooms that need to be done pop-out ever so slightly but it’s really easy to miss. Switching back and forth from looking at your blueprints helps to spot the differences.
Rotate Your Camera the Way You Like Before Moving on
In a couple of levels, the game decides to throw you a curve ball with the blueprints where one gives you a second one to work with which was fun, and the other had 3 from the start all saying different things which wasn’t so fun. There was no explanation as to which one we were supposed to follow so I tried all of them to see what stuck. Another thing that will keep you going back to your blueprints is the fact that it’s the only way to rotate your camera and see different angles of your rooms. For the most part I never bothered as objects are highlighted unless I missed a spot and couldn’t see where. It’s such a simple thing, rotating the camera, that I think should be accessible at all times in order to relieve a world of frustration.
Know Thy Tools and Objects
Surprisingly there is a lot of variation with your renovation just like in real life which keeps things fresh and entertaining. With floors you can use carpet, laminate or tiles, and walls you can use paint or wallpaper, all in various colors. You’ve got your paint cans (which could be a little more obvious as to their colors), a garbage can for recycling, your grout, glue, or whatever else those bag and boxes were, and the items mentioned above. Sometimes it could be hard differentiating between your mixing items because the labels are small, they’re all white, and I also have no idea what certain things are used for because I’m not a real-life renovator and need a little more hand-holding.
Aside from that, and a hammer for later levels, you have no actual tools that need grabbing. For example, your character can walk up to a paint can to load up their roller and walk up to a wall to paint instantly. The difficulty lies mainly with your recycling can because there’s only one and you need to share. Meaning, you need to carefully plan what you and other players will be doing. Figure out what order you will be doing things as grout is needed to put down first before your tiles, or glue needs to be applied to the walls before you put your wallpaper.
The Recycling Can is Your Best Friend
The recycling can is portable and you need it to strip old flooring or walls or to pick up messes, but you also need to use it to pour mixing stuff in it. You can’t do both at the same time so the can needs to be emptied outside after use in order to switch to something else. The can also needs to be emptied when it’s full from recycling, or re-filled if empty when using it for mixing.
Most of the time, you won’t even have all of the items needed to do your work from the start. A delivery man will show up at the entrance and ring the doorbell. You need to respond quickly before they leave (don’t worry they return later) and grab your stuff! It’s pretty easy knowing the difference between a roll of carpet, a square box of tiles, or a long box of laminate. However, sometimes the patterns printed on one side of the boxes are hard to discern if they resemble others too closely. Perhaps that’s supposed to add to the challenge because you can add the wrong wallpaper to the walls but can always strip it and redo it.
Various Challenges, Environmental Elements and Themes
Where the game starts to resemble Overcooked, in a good way, are the crazy apartments where people would never actually live. Moreover, there are levels where there are lava pits to avoid and ice that will send you flying. There were also slight changes in theme, such as with how the doors to rooms looked like. Not every room had a door in all directions so the apartment can be quite the maze to navigate, especially when only one player can walk through a door at a time.
Don’t Let the Door, or Dog, Smack You on the Way Out
Speaking of doors, I hate them. You have to make a point to open them and can’t do so while holding something else, even if it’s just trash for the recycling can that you can’t get rid of. Which means there were times I need the other player to bail me out. Other times you can swing through them but they can get stuck on objects or people that are in the way. Then there were times where I accidentally punched the doors right off their hinges which is probably for the best, even if you need to put them back before ending the level. Something that would have abated my hate for doors I think would be to have opening or closing them be its own separate button.
The difficulty of the floors you’re on in the skyscraper isn’t so much linear as it is just random. There are a total of 30 apartments (levels) and you use an elevator to progress to another floor. Somewhere in the middle of the game was the hardest level which included an annoying little dog that would chase your around or knock stuff over. It was chaotic, but I also appreciated the fact that the levels were so varied. That, and the fact that there’s a high score system, keeps me coming back for more. You only need a certain amount of points to get 1 star out of 3 to pass that level so I love trying to perfect every one of them. Stars are also added up overall so you may need a certain amount to unlock the next area.
Strategize and Communicate With Others
There are strategies you can form in order to get things done as quickly as possible. Each player can work in a separate room or you can help each other out in the same room. Some rooms are smaller than others so it can get a bit crowded, especially if there are also objects in that room that you need with you. Where to place those objects is something you need to take into account as well, because putting them in front of a door isn’t the greatest idea. You may come across some furniture that you need to move out of the way to access the floors and the walls but it’s nice that you don’t have to put them back afterward.
Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Do Their Share!
When you’re done renovating, you do need to “tidy up” withing the time limit before finishing the level! I mean, it’s the respectable thing to do anyway. You can throw all things, and people, which can create a mess such as paint spills. Or just flat out run into your paint cans from rushing and knock them over. Then you can slip and fall in those paint spills and lose a lot of time that you could have used, you know, doing something productive. If that happens you need to use your portable recycling can, as mentioned above, or go outside with it. All objects that you used must also be brought outside so that nothing is left inside the apartment. I like putting say, my carpet, to the curb once I’m done with it anyway to get it out of the way and to see what’s left.
Lost Ember is an adventure game where you play as a wolf that has the power to inhabit other animals. Travel across beautiful landscapes and discover what happened, through memories, to the ancient civilizations now in ruins. Lost Ember is available now on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam (current 10% discount). I’d like to thank Mooneye Studios for supplying me with a PS4 code in order to share this review with you today!
When I started to play Lost Ember, I was expecting to really enjoy playing as several animals from birds soaring through the skies to fish swimming in the depths of the sea. What I wasn’t expecting is the emotional journey I was about to embark on complete with amazing voice acting and a breathtaking soundtrack. Although the ending is a happy one considering, be prepared for some tears!
A Tragic Story of Greed, Violence, and Loss
Lost Ember is a tale of the Yanrana people and their once mighty city. They believe that by giving their dead their traditional funeral, their spirits can freely pass on to The City of Light. You awaken to a talking ball of light wondering why it can’t pass on and why it appears trapped with no one able to hear it. As it is said that those that are denied The City of Light stay behind and take the form of animals, the ball of light, or rather spirit guide, assumes you must be a Lost Ember, a lost soul. Together you set out to remember who you were in your past lives and if you can be redeemed.
All names of the Yanrana people are carved into medallions that they wear around their necks. You find one with the name Kalani inscribed on it. Another spirit appears and bestows upon you powers that will help get you were you need to go. Scattered around several environments like lush green hills, snowy hilltops, and dark caverns, are memories represented as red smoke. With each memory regained, you can break through “barriers” and move forward. I don’t want to give away more than that as this should be experienced for one’s self. Piecing together what I was seeing had me constantly questioning what kind of person my character was. The larger point of the premise is to see things through others’ perspective.
Controls, Rendering, and Frame-Rate Need Improvement
The animals you can change into were the ones I knew about such as the adorable wombats and moles, but there were a few surprises like bison and elephants! The movements felt quite real although I found it a tad annoying to have to repeatedly press the X button to move and use L2/R2 for up and down when it would have just been easier to move around with the joystick.
As the wolf you can hold R2 to run quite fast so I found myself using that animal the most. That or a bird as it was hard not to just fly everywhere when my wolf got stuck often outside of the marked paths. This was a little frustrating for an exploration game where you can check hidden places for collectibles. Sticking to paths at times and not being able to jump down more than 5 feet or die took me right out of the moment.
Another complaint I had with the controls was the lag whenever I moved too quickly or entered another area, the occasional crash, and the glitches. I would run into invisible walls not knowing where I can and cannot go which often got me stuck trying to button-mash my way out. One time as the mole rat, which allows you to dig underground to get to another side, I rose up in a pile of rocks and couldn’t move. As I panicked, I decided to release my mole from my possession and watched as it ran off and faded from my view as I continued to be a disembodied being becoming one with the earth. Luckily, you can Restart Last Checkpoint and not lose much time.
The Animals are Adorable and Full of Life
There are no enemies and when you fall, the game just puts you right back where you were. This helped put me back into a relaxed mood as I can just sit back and enjoy the scenery and story. I also wouldn’t have been able to bear it if I had to hurt any of the animals. However, it did feel weird to possess their bodies at my will only to abandon them in areas probably far from their homes, exposed out in the open. I tried to remind myself that this was just a game. Then, when I was a fish and transformed myself back into a wolf on land, I saw the poor thing flopping around unable to get back into the water! I quickly re-possessed it, dropped it off somewhere nice with some friends, and doggy-paddled my way back to shore.
It would probably ease my mind if every time I approached the animals, they didn’t run away as fast as possible. Even though I understand that I am a wolf and therefore a predator. Are all the animals actually people inside anyway or is that just a legend? It was still nice to become these animals and have the wolf disappear and become part of the gang. You can also do many “silly things”, as the game puts it, like munching on some berries or taking a nap. It made everything feel so much more alive, and made for some great snapshots too. They also added some baby animals that you can inhabit which significantly upped the cute factor!
Can’t Stop Thinking About What I Just Played
With all of the negatives I just mentioned, I still found myself immensely enjoying the game. The beauty and care that was taken in creating the wildlife and this emotional story far supersedes any of my grievances. My heart ached when I looked around and saw how much nature was thriving now that the humans were gone. The very same humans that over-cultivated which lead to pestilence and hunger. The song with lyrics at the end of the game along with certain revelations had me crying. Lost Ember took me only a few hours to play through but I still find myself thinking about my experience.
This stealth game with a simple premise and slapstick humor created by House House, has recently become an internet sensation, memes and all. I have been following along Untitled Goose Game’s journey since 2017 and have been preparing myself to honk at, annoy, and steal from all of the townspeople. Thanks to the developers, I was able to play a copy on the Nintendo Switch and I was not disappointed.
The idea for the game started out as a joke and has evolved from there. It seems that everyone can relate with similar stories of their encounters with unpredictable geese. They don’t seem too menacing, but approach one the wrong way and expect to be chased. There’s just something comical about how they waddle and House House has captured the goose’s movements and actions quite realistically.
You’re a Mischievous Goose, Not A Malicious Goose
Even though the goose’s antics never get too out of hand, some people were hesitant on being horrible to lovely people minding their own business. However, to a certain extent, the game allows you do decide on how to accomplish goals, via a to-do list, so you get to project some of your own personality into the goose. The classical background music also cleverly reacts to your steps and antics which made me feel encouraged to follow through with my plans. Well, not so much plans as let’s just throw everything everywhere and see what happens.
Every character is faceless and there is no dialogue but they’re still so emotive. They’re all just living out their daily routines until you come by and give them a hard time. I actually enjoyed returning to the same areas again and seeing the townspeople putting their items back in their place and fixing things I might have broken. This way I don’t feel as guilty because nothing you do is permanent. No harm, no fowl. It also allows for you to do things over and over again, like a true sandbox game.
What I’ve seen from the developers of Planet Zoo, Frontier Developments, leading up to the Best Simulation Game‘s release, has been very impressive! From the very specific needs and behaviors of all animals to the challenging new modes, you can tell they really put a lot of love into this game! There’s so much more emphasis on animal care and education, including conservation efforts, that has me so excited to be a zoo keeper. I’d like to thank the developers for supplying me with a Steam Key so that I could put my tycoon skills to the test and show you all what you can expect before playing.
Zoo Tycoon Vs Planet Zoo
I’ve been a huge fan of creating habitats and taking care of my animals, all while making sure the guests are happy, for quite some time. I’ve put several hours into Zoo Tycoon back in 2001, which was developed by Blue Fang Games and published by Microsoft. They also went on to make a sequel and several amazing expansion packs. There was just the perfect balance of making the zoo your own and having some guidance with several tools at your disposal.
In 2013, Microsoft, along with Frontier Developments, released a Zoo Tycoon game for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I found that game to be hugely disappointing with the lack of animal variety, and almost no layout and design choices for habitats or facilities. For example, you had to place food and water bowls in pre-selected zones. It scaled way too far back on the creative freedom that it became real boring, real fast. However, I could already tell by the Developer Journals that Planet Zoo was going to be a huge improvement and was excited to try my hand at another zoo management game.
When I started to play Planet Zoo, I was already excited at the fact that I could customize my own avatar. Then, I decided to go for Career Mode first as I know I should get some tips before I go off on my own and start from scratch in Sandbox Mode. I could not believe how beautiful the parks were and was eager to build some of my own. It was a little intimidating in fact because there was so much to work with, more than I have ever seen.
Now, not only can you place whatever you want, wherever you want in your habitats, but you can also make everything from scratch. This might make the game harder to get used to at first, if you’ve watched my Planet Zoo Gameplay Bloopers you’ll know what I’m talking about, but it becomes very addictive if you stick with it. Sure the paths and fences are harder to use then they have to be but little changes, such as adding digital boards and speakers for your guests to learn about your animals, makes it worth it.
It is worth mentioning that I lightly touched on the fact that you have to have available power for all of your facilities during my first couple of levels of gameplay, which is also a new feature. Meaning, there’s a bit more to do this time around, similar to Sim City. I’ll be continuing to play Planet Zoo and will write updated articles when I find out how it all goes together! If this already sounds like fun to you, you can buy the basic Planet Zoo game and/or the Deluxe Edition on Steam right here.
Donut County, devoloped by Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive (What Remains of Edith Finch), released on Steam, PS4, GOG, the App Store, and the Mac App Store in 2018. Thanks to the awesome Steam’s Halloween Sale, I was able to play this hilarious physics-based puzzle game. It is indeed reverse-Katamari from the gameplay mechanics and premise, to the colorful and whimsical world of strange characters. In Donut County, you control a hole and put everything and anything in it! My only complaint is that I wish the game was longer because I enjoyed it so much. You can check out my full gameplay of 2 hours below!
The idea of starting with consuming smaller objects so that you can grow-in-size and move on to larger ones, had me sold. But the game goes even further by adding a fully-formed and ridiculous plot about raccoons building a bigger trash empire through use of their technology. Apparently that includes this remote-controlled hole that brings what it swallows 999 feet underground. So don’t worry, no animals were harmed during your enjoyment of total destruction.
To shake things up a little, certain levels require a tad more strategy like with hard-to-reach objects. For example, you can upgrade the hole to have a launcher to shoot things upward, such as a frog to catch the flies. You can’t die and you can’t really mess up so you can just keep trying different things until they work! Eventually our friend the raccoon, BK, gets stuck down under with the entire town and helps to come up with a plan to send everyone back.
Dec 7, 2022
