Tag Archives: IOS

Match Masters Review

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It’s time for another classic IOS game but unfortunately this one was a little too ambitious and didn’t end up working out. Why does every game have to try and add an extra gimmick to itself nowadays? Stick to the classic matching mechanics and you’d be an absolute winner! Ah well, this game can be fun but it has game breaking mechanics that ensured I would be done with it sooner than later. It’s been trending as one of the top IOS puzzle games and I can’t cosign that in the end.

So the basic gameplay is that you have to match 3 objects together. Easy enough right? You can move any object by one space so if you see 2 that are together and a third is only one square away, you can merge them. If you can get a set of 4 or even 5 then of course that is the best. Doing 4 in a row grants you a line breaking symbol and doing 5 gets you a super power bomb. It’s a good blend of bonuses there. You can also equip a super attack which gets charged by matching objects of that color. So sometimes you have to decide between matching 4 of one type or 3 of your super attack’s type. Keep in mind which one will have the better long term effects and then you’re good to go.

So the main twist is that this is a multiplayer only title. The whole game is about fighting other opponents in real time. I can’t tell if I’m fighting real opponents the whole time or if these are bots. The game is definitely big enough where they could all be real but I know online games like to have a little fun with that so we’ll have to see if this is actually the case. Either way it is fun to see your rank go up or down after each fight depending on who won and how good everyone did.

The matches mainly feel luck based though so it can be a little annoying when you lose and don’t make any progress to your level or anything. That’s where the game misses the single player mode but the biggest issue is the time lag. Your opponent can take a little while to make their move and that has an absolute stacking effect in the end because you have to wait for so many moves. It gets annoying after a while when you just want to play. This is a fairly simple game with no extra mechanics so once you learn it that’s it. You want to be able to just keep on playing.

Unfortunately every match has you end up using one of your cards so then that’s it for it. I didn’t play enough to use up all of my cards but if that means you have to take a break from playing that would be annoying. At least there are no live ads or anything like that so I appreciate that. Those are the absolute worst things to see while you are trying to enjoy a game. Nearly a deal breaker all the way I gotta say.

The graphics are reasonably good though. Nothing amazing or impressive but at least it’s all pretty clear so you always know what you are looking at. I suppose I can’t really ask for much more out of a matching title. Likewise there isn’t much of a soundtrack but I wasn’t expecting one. You’ll likely just be listening to Pandora in the background anyway right? That’s what I would be expecting at least.

The only thing Match Masters needs to do is be fun and making this multiplayer only is really not the move. Having single player modes and a basic story would have taken the game so far. Instead, it’s probably best if you know someone else that plays it. Otherwise there’s just not enough time to get in as many matches as you want and it gets overshadowed by the solo games.

Overall, Match Masters is a good game but it is definitely hampered by the multiplayer mode. I don’t want to always be waiting for the other guy to make his 3 moves in a row. Depending on the combo and how strong the opponent is, sometimes you have to wait for 5-6 moves. Give me a single player campaign instead and also don’t have the super attacks be removed after you use them. You should be able to keep the options once you’ve unlocked them without this whole inventory system. Making me feel like I’ve just rented my own unlockables feels more than a little crafty.

Overall 5/10

Pokémon Café ReMix Review

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It’s time for another app game and so you already know this is gonna be good! Pokemon Cafe is one of those titles I remember hearing about a while ago but never really checked it out. There’s a whole lot of content here and you can tell they put some budget into it but unfortunately it ends up being a little too ambitious. It tries too hard to be new and different which ends up crippling the actual gameplay style. It’s a shame because this could have been a whole lot better. Still, if you get absorbed into the game I think you will have a good time.

The game starts off with the Pokemon cafe being opened and you are here to help. Basically you serve Pokemon their favorite foods and when they like you enough, they join the cafe as well. It means your cafe will eventually be a Pokemon master! So that’s pretty nice and that’s basically it for the story so think of it as more of a premise than an actual plot. It’s not too surprising though, Pokemon mobile titles rarely have much of a story.

The gameplay style is to match objects together. The main twist is that Pokemon have super powers that they can use as well. So you can blast away at things and use type advantages. Also instead of just matching 3 of a type, you are trying to match whole armies to each other. It’s really ambitious but also feels a bit more like RNG after a point and isn’t as engaging. I would much father prefer to be doing this with some matches at a time. Forcing us into doing all of them at once doesn’t really make for as captivating gameplay.

And that’s what the whole game boils down to. I actually like the matching style of gameplay ordinarily. It has been present in some of the most addicting mobile titles I’ve ever played. I just couldn’t get behind the idea of spinning everything in the whole level into one spot. Perhaps if I had stuck around long enough then it would work but I definitely have some doubts on this. You can tell early on if a game is your speed or not. For a mobile game that is especially important because there will really just be one style. So if you don’t love the gameplay then there isn’t much point in continuing the game right? At that point there is nothing else that it offers.

There is a ton of content but not more gameplay. For example there are several different modes for baking, you can recruit Pokemon, learn new recipes, etc. There are hundreds of levels and so far no energy system that I can really see so that means you can play as long as possible. That’s really fun if you liked the gameplay. I can say this is a high effort mobile game that didn’t really cut any corners. They clearly put a whole lot of thought into this one so I can appreciate that.

It’s a bit of a tricky dilemma for any mobile title. Typically you figure the more content the better for any game but when it comes to mobile titles, sometimes less is more. Sometimes there is just so much to do that it can be overwhelming or it feels like you aren’t moving forward and that can happen at times here. If it stuck with the normal kind of matching gameplay then it all would have worked out but all of the spinning didn’t work for me. A better story also could have helped but I wouldn’t have expected that from a Pokemon baking game anyway. So you could say that all balanced out either way.

The game’s graphic already looked real sharp and the soundtrack wasn’t bad. I imagine as I went through the game more and more I would be able to find even more tracks. So the technicals definitely hold their own here as well. I will also say that while the game is very busy with modes and such, the UI isn’t bad. I generally know where to go in order to get to the mode I want to play. I’ve definitely played games with UI that were considerably worse than this one.

Overall, Pokemon Cafe isn’t really my thing but I can definitely see there being an audience for it. The foods all look pretty good after all and the matching gameplay does have some depth to it. The fact that you have to account for all kinds of Pokemon types and special abilities is really something. You really can’t just dive in here and pick any random Pokemon. I mean you can try to do that but it’s definitely going to end really badly for you. You want to get the maximum amount of stars on your first attempt or you’re going to have to end up replaying the level anyway down the road. I doubt this game will be going anywhere any time soon so definitely feel free to jump in and see what you think.

Overall 6/10

Pokémon: Magikarp Jump Review

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Time for another one of those quick mobile titles. I figured I’d give this one a quick shot because of how absurd the whole concept was and it’s actually better than I thought it would be. It’s the kind of game that you would need to stick with for the long term to actually get to the end though. Raising a Magikarp is a whole lot of work and it’s set up in a way where you will go through many Magikarps before you actually get one that is strong enough to take you to victory.

The simplicity of the game is part of what makes it so addictive. At the same time, it is clear that they are hoping you will spend money on this game so the grind gets longer and longer as you go on. Before long you will either decide that you want to be in it for the long haul or not. For me, there are just too many hype games to stay with any one title for long but they still did a good job with the title. I made it up to level 25 before calling it a day here.

So the story is straight forward as you raise a Magikarp and work to obtain all 8 Gym badges. In this world, Magikarp is the only Pokemon that is used for battling and so every Gym Leader has one. Whichever Magikarp splashes the highest wins. You then have to fight through a few trainers before the next gym leader and repeat the process. Gym Leader may be the wrong word though, I think the game just refers to them as champions but it’s basically the same concept in the end. You don’t actually control Magikarp during the fights so you just watch it splash. Each fight only takes about 5-10 seconds which is fast and if you lose the first time then you can just skip the animation the second time. You do have to start the tournament from the beginning each time you lose but you don’t have to re-complete previous ones.

The actual gameplay comes into the picture between battles. To get your Magikarp stronger you have to feed it a bunch of berries. They spawn every few seconds and then you tap on them in the screen. Rinse and repeat as you go through the game. As you get stronger you will unlock different training equipment which the Magikarp can use every once in a while. You will also unlock Pokemon who appear in the background to help out. There s even a sub genre for this game, it’s known as an Idle mobile game. So the idea is you just play it for a few minutes here and there when you have time and your Pokemon will keep on getting stronger.

Of course Magikarp will eventually retire and then you start from scratch. Your next Magikarp will always be stronger though based on your trainer level going up as well as his motivation. There is no way around losing at least 100 Magikarp or so as you go through the journey but eventually you will have one that is strong enough to beat all of the leagues. The game itself is effectively dead at this point so once you beat the 8 leagues you would be all done. There is no post game so you can just keep on getting stronger forever. I called it a day after beating 4 of the tournaments.

There’s a lot more on the details side I could mention here but you get the general idea. You have coins and gems to buy upgrades and the game essentially runs on a loop. It may sound a bit overwhelming but once you are playing the game, you won’t think that is the case. It’s a game that has an incredibly good UI so you always know where to go next. They did an absolutely excellent job on this one. I definitely can’t emphasize that enough. There’s not really much of a soundtrack here but the whole thing is going for a really peaceful vibe.

The graphics are pretty solid. Nothing that will rock your world or anything like that but the game looks and feels nice. Naturally there is a ton of replay value here and beating the main campaign will take a long while either way. Pokemon has definitely had some really strong hits over the years and this one is no exception. Hopefully they continue to make more Pokemon mobile titles in the future.

Overall, Magikarp Splash is a lot of fun. Almost deceptively so I would say since the actual sessions are really fast but you want to keep going back in to play some more. You could easily get addicted if you aren’t careful so you should definitely watch out for that. At the end of the day though I tend to gravitate to more story based games in the end. Pokemon Go is really the big exception to that. If you are looking for a fun little game to play though, this is a nice one to have on your phone. There are also no ads at all which is really nice. I always give the developers credit for that on not being greedy.

Overall 7/10

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom Review

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It’s time to look at good ole Sonic Dash. I never actually played the original but I did try out the Sonic Forces title a while back which was a lot of fun. It was time to check out good ole Sonic Boom and as you can probably guess it wasn’t given quite as much attention as the others. It feels really barebones next to Forces although I can’t quite compare it to the original yet. Considering that the game has been out since 2018, it’s just surprising how few characters and stages there are. You’re really just playing the same stage over and over again except for one different one that showed up for the Shadow tie in. There’s just not a lot to this game.

It’s an endless runner type of game so the basic gameplay is really similar. You have to run as fast as you can all the way to the end of the stage. You can jump over obstacles and slide under others. When you have enough energy meter, you can turn on auto run for around 5-10 seconds to bust through everything and get more points. Then the level never ends so eventually you can intentionally destroy yourself to end the stage. After you’ve done that, you keep your points and rings which can be used to level up your characters. You can also get a handful of red rings to eventually unlock new characters but those take a while to get. You can only get up to 10 red rings in a day and it takes 120 to unlock any characters.

It makes sense why they would want to make this a slow process though because there aren’t many characters like I said before. There are less than 10 around which is definitely not ideal. You can unlock Shadow through his event at least and he actually has his own attack. All the other characters just slide while he can actually shoot his chaos spear to destroy enemies in front of him. That’s pretty cool at least.

Still, it feels like there should be more content here. I would like to see at least a basic plot, something to keep you progressing through the game. Maybe a lot of costumes or something like that if you couldn’t afford too many characters. Although since it’s just a character model running, I wonder how hard it really is to add more. It doesn’t feel like that should be very difficult at all. Maybe there isn’t much incentive to improve the game since Sonic Boom is basically dead but at the same time they are still doing a Shadow tie in for the movie so it’s not like the game is dead.

One of the biggest weaknesses for the game is also the fact that an advertisement plays after each level that you complete. For me this is always a dealbreaker because I just don’t want to be seeing advertisements like that. It doesn’t really make any sense. It should always be an optional thing like if you decide to earn extra rings or something like that. I’ve always liked the model of using advertisements for bonus power ups and things like that but not as a mandatory part of the game. That to me is when the game starts to feel super greedy.

Also, you have to keep in mind that you are playing tons of levels here so the advertisements add up very quickly. A game cannot succeed like that so this doomed it really quickly. To even try and get me tempted back into the game you would need to cut those out and add some actual content. Not every mobile game needs to be completely endless of course but you still need to have enough content to keep me busy for a while. I seems like I would already be out of content for this one very quickly unless they artificially ramp up the grind factor later on.
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I will say the most tempting part of the game is the fact that almost nobody plays anymore though. I was near the top of the rankings for the Shadow event despite barely playing at all so that was pretty cool. It’s the one big incentive about playing dead games and this only works when they don’t just add a bunch of bots to inflate the numbers. Fortunately that wasn’t the case this time. If they did that then you would never get to reach the top.

At least I can say that the graphics are really good. All of the character models are very sharp and look like their Boom counterparts. It would have been nice to have seen characters who weren’t in the show though so they could have had new designs. I suppose that was beyond this title though. The soundtrack is also good, just very limited due to the lack of stages. On a technical level I would say the game did what it needed to. The core gameplay is also really good. Granted, I tend to really enjoy endless runner titles so that’s no real surprise.

Overall, Sonic Dash 2 is just severely lacking when it comes to overall content. The fact that Miraculous Ladybug at launch had more content than this one did 6 years in is absolutely crazy. Sonic can and should have more content than what was represented here. It’s like they really weren’t trying at all and that’s unfortunate. So I would say to give this one a shot. I’d recommend the Sonic Forces dash game way more than this one. It puts in so much more effort.

Overall 5/10

Godzilla Battle Line Review

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It’s time to jump into the next Godzilla app game but I’m afraid to say that this one is not very good. It’s one of those app games that is a clear cash grab from start to finish. Nothing about the game is very enjoyable to me. It was just missing the key elements to make this a high quality title like fast paced gameplay, quality fights, etc. In the end the strategy styled gameplay just didn’t have anything on the console Godzilla games and this one would have been better off with a connect the dots gameplay style like Fruits Mania. At least that gameplay style is always guaranteed to be off the walls hype. I generally play over 100 levels of that gameplay style real quick.

Okay so this is similar to Digimon Championship in that you don’t control the Kaiju themselves. You throw them onto the field and then they move towards the enemy. Along the way you can drop them some assistance, items, and such. These will be the difference between victory and defeat so definitely pay very close attention here. If you make the wrong call then that could be it for you. That’s about it, I mean I’m over simplifying this by quite a lot but that’s about the size of it. It all comes down to who has the better strategy and monster team.

I can say that the cast of Kaiju in the game is pretty impressive though. You’ve got numerous different Godzillas running around and pretty much every Kaiju you can think of. The game didn’t feel too greedy in terms of what you need to pay for but granted, they tend to all seem that way at first. I would probably have to stick with this game much longer to see if that is really true or not. The gameplay just wasn’t fun enough to hold me.

So okay, what’s the problem with the gameplay? Well because I can’t control the Kaiju, it feels more like I’m just watching the A.I. attack each other. It’s not interactive enough for me. It’s like watching computers playing against each other in a game, it may be interesting for a minute but for the whole game? No shottttt, that’s just not my cup of tea. What I need is to be doing something. Let me assume direct control of the Kaiju so I could go over there and take the enemy down. I would pull it off even if my opponent had a higher power level or something like that. You’re missing the human touch with this kind of setup.

The graphics aren’t bad at least. It’s not really something to write home about but the chibi character models are good and I liked the explosion effects. As a whole it really doesn’t look super bad or anything but of course it does completely look like a mobile game the instant you lay your eyes on this one. There is really no escaping that fact, that’s for sure. The soundtrack is completely forgettable. You won’t remember the tunes by the end, it’s definitely not the kind of game to sneak in some kind of lyrical song or big metal tune.

At least I can say that the replay value is basically infinite. You can keep on playing until you are the number 1 ranked player in the world or something like that. It is definitely a tough road to the top but if you keep on practicing then anything is achievable. The fact that the game is still going means that at least some people are still playing here and after taking a quick look online I see a lot of positive reviews for it. Granted, the people who are searching up videos for the game are probably fans first and foremost so that makes a lot of sense. They would be more likely to enjoy the game and so I hope their community is able to stay strong. This may not be a game that I was particularly interested in but the plus side is that it helps to continue keeping the Godzilla brand nice and strong. I’m still waiting for that big Godzilla vs Kong game which is supposed to be coming out in early September. Hopefully that one is a lot more fun.

Overall, Godzilla Battle Line is lacking way too much in the actual battling. You’re not fighting here and I know that this is a strategy game but even then I need to be doing something. If I have my hands empty for so long it just doesn’t feel like I’m really playing a game at all. If you’re going to pull off a strategy game like this I dare say that the levels have to be shorter or you have to find some way to make the player more engaged. The original Godzilla mobile game was also strategy oriented but it was a lot more fun as you planned out your resources. That was interactive and high stakes. This game couldn’t quite match up to that no matter how hard it tried.

Overall 3/10

Pokemon Go Update

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My Pokedex is back to being complete at 437/437! Technically I’m missing one or two evolutions but I haven’t seen them so at least the Pokedex doesn’t show an uneven number. Hopefully I finally hatch a Salandit that I can evolve soon.

Mega Lucario was a nice addition to the mega army! I think they’ve nearly released all of the Megas now so just a few left.


Finally got a Ceruledge! Now the battle resumes to hatch another one so I can get the other evolution. Probably gonna take a while tbh.

Pokemon Go Update

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I finally got Naganadel! This one took a long time to get all of those candies so that definitely felt good. Was one of my last remaining spots on the Pokedex.


Double update! I was able to go out and catch enough Necrozmas in order to get both his day and night forms. (Speaking a bit early here. I can’t formally fuse the day one until it becomes day time over here)

My Pokedex is now at a nice crispy 844/844 although I am still missing Zygarde’s evolved forms and Charcadot. Once those 3 have been caught I will really have made it all the way!

Pokemon Go Update

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I finally have Mega Rayquaza! I wasn’t able to seal the deal last year but this time that changed. I now have all of the Mega Pokemon that have come out for the game so that feels pretty good. I’ve got the perfect record for these guys, now I just have to keep on pushing forward until I can say the same for the main Pokemon although I’m super close on that front as well. Definitely the game that keeps on giving.

Pokemon Go Update

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I have finally maxed out all of the Sinnoh Pokemon to level 40!! Less gooooooo. In the meantime I also caught the two new legendaries and maxed out Bisharp so I’m getting closer to having powered up all of the Pokemon to level 40, next up is Unova where I’m missing about 4 of them so far. Will see how long it takes for the next update