Harry's Top 5(ish) Games of 2014

5) Hyrule Warriors: now then, to begin my top five games of the past year is a game that both I and most of the world didn't expect: a crossover between The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors. Besides a couple of issues, this has proven to be a pretty brilliant decision by Nintendo and one that I would like to see continued with other Nintendo IP's and genres.
AND
Pokémon Shuffle: continuing on with the theme of good decisions that Nintendo have made that I would like to see continued (if more conservatively) is the free-to-play Pokémon Link title - Pokémon Shuffle. I've thoroughly enjoyed playing this title and think the game, by itself, is superb even without the pay system. Check out my First Impressions for more of my thoughts on this great game.  

2nd Birthday

26th March 2015: the blog's calendar reads. Two words are shown, scribbled hastily on with black pen. 2nd BIRTHDAY. I check the date. 24th March. Two days until the blog's birthday. It finally sinks in. The blog is TWO! Two years old! My word, have we had quite a year...

App Review No. 83 Reckless Racing

Strong Points:
Great graphics
Nice control schemes and enough for each style of play
Lots of characters, with varying play styles
Lots of courses
3 difficulties
3 types of gameplay adds even more variety
Addictive
Multiplayers good

Weak Points:
There are some difficulty spikes - especially from silver to gold medals
They don't tell you what play styles each character has
Can't change the colour of the cars except in multiplayer
A story would've been nice
The characters could use some slight tweaks to balancing

Rating: 92%

Review No. 108 Don't Starve Together - PC (12+)

Strong Points:
Keeps up the feeling of survival rather than luxury for longer than other games
Lots of items
Lots of characters
Characters have their own powers and abilities
Good, eerie music
Good, eerie graphics
Crafting is good
Challenging
Permanent hard-core mode keeps you on your toes
Seasons/day/dusk/night system gives you a goal and a deadline
Interesting lore
Multiplayer makes the game slightly easier and means you can split goals
You don't lose your world as long as one person is alive
The ghosts of your friends can light up the world around you
Free for those who already own Don't Starve
Endless and Wilderness Modes add more customizability to the game

Weak Points:
Controls can be fiddly especially with the strange camera angle
Can be extremely difficult at times
Hard to pick up past rudimentary survival
Permanent hard-core mode means mistakes can be costly
Bad map spawns can mean a few restarts - especially for beginners (although worlds can be edited slightly)
Quite hard keep track of insanity, hunger and health
If other players are ghosts, your insanity takes a beating pretty quickly
The map is not shared between characters which can be rather annoying
Adventure Mode is no longer in the game

Rating: 87%

Review No. 107 Don't Starve - PC (12+)

Strong Points:
Keeps up the feeling of survival rather than luxury for longer than other games
Lots of items
Lots of characters
Characters have their own powers and abilities
Good, eerie music
Good, eerie graphics
Crafting is good
Challenging
Permanent hard-core mode keeps you on your toes
Seasons/day/dusk/night system gives you a goal and a deadline
Interesting lore
Adventure Mode adds more to do as well a variety to the gameplay (a rougelike aspect) and a point to the game

Weak Points:
Controls can be fiddly especially with the strange camera angle
Can be extremely difficult at times
Hard to pick up past rudimentary survival
Permanent hard-core mode means mistakes can be costly
Bad map spawns can mean a few restarts - especially for beginners (although worlds can be edited slightly)
Quite hard keep track of insanity, hunger and health
Made for multiplayer

Rating: 86%

App Review No. 82 Amazing Brick

Strong Points:
A bit more skill is involved than with most of these types of games
Nice, minimalist graphics
Good sound effects

Weak Points:
A slightly steeper learning curve than similar games
Frustrating
Only one mode
No collectables (different bricks etc.)

Rating: 60%

Review No. 106 Pokémon Shuffle - 3DS (3+)

Strong Points:
Cute, cartoony graphics
Great music
Good, solid, match three gameplay
Mega evolutions, support Pokémon and abilities add more to the gameplay with a Pokémon spin
500 coins for checking in each day makes getting coins much easier
Getting a higher catchability for more using less moves adds a reward for skill (or blind, combo-based luck)
Lots of levels
Lots of Pokémon
Expert and Special levels add more variety to the game
Doesn't force you to pay real money
Keeps you coming back for more
It's a free Pokémon game!
Super Catch Mode makes it easier to catch rarer Pokémon, occasionally (although why they didn't call it Ultra Ball?)
Mega Speedup Candies let you Mega Evolve quicker

Weak Points:
No 3D (it just seems lazy, really)
Some Pokémon are ridiculously hard to catch (3% catchability for Riolu? Really?)
Great Balls are very expensive for what they do
Items are really expensive
Levels don't give out very many coins
A lack of story
Too many Pokémon have the same abilities (if I see another Pokémon with Opportunist...)
Pokémon only have one type which, while making it simpler, makes some well known type matchups unusable
Not using Play Coins as a currency is a bit of a missed opportunity
Lots of events forces you to keep playing which feels a tad underhanded
Too many of the starting Mega's are normal types which makes them rather underpowered to begin with

Rating: 77%

Video Game Character of the Month - March 2015 - The Barbarian - Clash of Clans

Video Game Character of the Month

March 2015

The Barbarian
Clash of Clans

Overview:
'We're gonna need more Barbarians' said the Witch and the Archers. Well if that doesn't grant you a place in the Hall of Fame that is VGCOTM then I don't know what does! How about being part of one of the biggest apps of all time? Yeah, that'll do it. Now for a quick bit of information on the Barbarian as I train some up, myself: