Hypercharge Unboxed from Publisher and Developer Digital Cybercherries
Feel like a kid again playing with action figures and fighting epic battles in this 1st/3rd person shooter/tower defense game reminiscent of “Small Soldiers”.
Hypercharge Unboxed is a first/third person shooter mixed with a bit of tower defense. You play as an action figure defending Hypercores from waves of enemy toys (think of the movie Small Soldiers or Toy Story with toys coming to life). You join forces with Sgt. Max Ammo to defeat Major Evil and save the Hypercore. This is the tower defense part and you are able to build objects (buildables) to defend the Hypercore; from traps to gun towers, all are part of your defenses. The in-game currency is used to purchase the buildables and there are set spots where you can build them during the between waves countdown timer. The currency is found around the levels and the enemies drop them when they are killed.
The story is set in 14 campaign levels that all feel a little different not just due to a location change but with the scale of the levels and the obstacles in them. As you might have guessed, playing from the perspective of an action figure, everything is massive compared to you. The game starts out in a bedroom, goes to a toy store, a backyard, and to an apartment. The levels grow in size as you progress and have more buildables available to add to your defenses as well as new enemies and enemy types. Not all of the levels are large. There are 3 that are pretty small; namely, an Air Hockey table, a backyard shed, and a battle arena for a boss battle. While these are a little on the smaller side they do offer their own challenges and enjoyment. To hit the nostalgia feels the story is told through a comic book style intro to the levels that really captures that sense of childhood memories many of us have.
One of the things we love about the game is the customization without monetization. All of the customizations are unlocked by completing in-game challenges. Each of the levels has a few challenges that you can complete. Some of the challenges are collecting all of the coins, making jumps from one location to another, and there are some bonus extra ones like finding hidden collectibles, placing stickers, and even shooting a bobble head or two. These are not mandatory to finish the story but if you want the customizations then you want to go for them. Most of them are pretty hidden and will take time to find but the game does have a free play option once you complete the level so you can go back and try for the challenges later.
The amount of customizations in the game is insane. From the amount of characters you can pick from, and several skins for each of the characters, heads, weapons, and even the boxes for the toys, all are made with care. All of it adds to the enjoyment of the game and really nails the concept of the characters as action figures.
The game has local and online co-op with cross play from Xbox to PC but can be played solo with bots. Like most online games, it is better with friends. There are several online PVP modes to play as well which extends the replayability of the game. You do not have to wait until after you’ve completed the campaign to play the PvP modes as they are not locked away behind story progression.
The only thing we did not like about the game was the story progression was locked behind getting a certain number of awards from the previous levels. Once you complete a level you are given an award based on how well you did and how many challenges you completed. We ended up replaying a few levels in free mode to complete the challenges before replaying the levels in story mode to get award credit for the completed challenges. There were a few levels where playing with the bots just wasn’t good enough but since you can play online we were able to play with others online and get the higher awards needed to unlock further progression.
Overall we really enjoyed the game. It had a good story and it made us feel like a kid again playing with action figures. We also spent more time than we would like to admit looking for the hidden spots to place stickers and for the hidden collectibles.
Hypercharge: Unboxed is available on Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Steam. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
Super Space Club from Publisher and Developer GrahamOfLegend
Similar to the arcade classic “Asteroids” but with some nice updates and improvements. Great for a pick up and play “endless mode” type gameplay experience whether you have a little bit of time or a lot.
Super Space Club is an endless lo-fi arcade shooter. Think of a colorful version of Asteroids with a lo-fi sound track. Sounds pretty interesting and confusing at the same time.
You start out with one character, one weapon, and one ship. You are able to purchase other characters, weapons, and ships with Stardust (the in-game currency). The characters are your pilot and each has their own special ability. These come in handy for tight situations or quick getaways. Just like the characters, the weapons and ships each have their own pros and cons that take a little time to get used to. Regardless of the combo chosen, the controls are going to be the same.
After the short tutorial, you are provided with a list of objectives/challenges. They start out pretty easy (kill a few enemies, complete a certain amount of waves, etc) and get harder the more of them you complete. There are even some objectives that require specific characters, weapons, or ships.
These objectives will give you a reason to try out the other weapons and characters, but you are very likely to pick a go-to weapon, character, and ship combo and go back to them after completing the objective. I know I did that while grinding for stardust so that I could purchase the rest of the weapons, characters, and ships. The objectives and challenges are a big part of the game’s replayability and help lessen the repetitive grind.
You get Stardust by killing the enemies and collecting it before it disappears which can be a bit of a challenge depending on how many enemies there are and how well you can control your ship. Since there are no difficulty or accessibility options, the amount of grinding needed to earn stardust is heavily skill based. Since earning stardust is required for some of the objectives/challenges and for purchasing additional characters, weapons, and ships, there will be a lot of grinding for stardust to get them all.
After each run you return to the menu and start over. Select your character, weapon, and ship and start at wave 1. Each run is a repeat of the last run. The waves will always have the same number of enemies and the same enemy types as the same wave in your previous runs. The only things that change are colors. This can be seen as a good or bad thing depending on the objectives you are trying to complete. It does get a little boring replaying the same waves and killing the same enemies over and over again. I would love to see a random mode added to the game where the enemies are randomized for each wave.
It took a little while for us to get used to the game’s controls. Your thumb sticks only control which direction your ship faces and they can cause you to spin around quite quickly. If you want to move forward in the direction you’re facing instead of spinning in place, you need to use the boost. The game also has actual “space” physics so whichever direction you shoot, your ship moves a bit in the opposite direction. We found that if we stopped playing for a while it could take a few games to get the hang of things again.
Sadly, there is no story in the game and only a few songs which you end up hearing over and over again. Don’t get me wrong the songs are great and fit the game perfectly I just wish there were more of them.
The art style is simple and colorful. It nails the retro vibe while still feeling new and adding some new additions to a classic formula. Each time you start a new game you have a different color for your ship, the enemies, and the background. We did find a few times where it was harder to play from a visual perspective as the enemies looked very close to the background color making it hard to see where you needed to aim.
One of the interesting additions is that the energy you use to shoot is also what is powering your shields. This keeps you from shooting the whole time, your power does regenerate at a decent pace but there will be times where you have to make a choice to shoot the enemy and hope you kill it or escape with what little shields you have left. You do have a boost that does not deplete the energy so make sure you use that while trying to escape and wait for your shields to recharge. Another great addition is that when your energy gets critical the audio starts to get a little distorted and a little hard to hear like the ship doesn’t have enough power to keep the music playing. You can also hear the music get a little distorted every time you get hit. This is a great example of the little touches added to the formula to make this its own game and not just an update of an old one.
When your energy has been fully depleted (aka you die) your character initiates warp drive to get away which works with the space theme.
Overall, we enjoyed the game and got sucked into the “just one more game” trap only to realize it’s been almost an hour since we planned on stopping. We would love to see more songs added to the game in a DLC or Title update.
Super Space Club is available on Xbox and Steam. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
Cat and Ghostly Road from Publisher Sometimes You and Developer BOV Games
Fairly standard point and click game play mechanics. Enjoyable story and characters. Very nice art with extras in “Cat Vision”.
This is a point-and-click game where you play a cat going on a journey to recover your master’s soul.
You start out as a cat walking around in the snow and get into some trouble. Your cries for help are heard by an artist who saves you and brings you in from the cold adopting you. All seems pretty normal, until one night when an evil spirit attacks the artist and takes his soul.
It’s time for you to go on a journey to defeat the spirit and recover your master’s soul and save his life.
Like most point-and-click games you will be going to different locations, picking up items, and combining them to see what you can make. You also have a special “Cat Vision” that lets you see into the spirit realm. You will use this ability very often to find items or clues to solve the puzzles. One of the nice quality of life additions present in this game is the option to press the LB Button to get a visual indicator (shining star effect) for items or objects you can interact with. This helps you identify what you can and can’t interact with. It also helps save time trying to figure out what you might’ve missed. We ended up spamming this very often when accessing a new area or just going back to a previous area when we got stuck. If you get stuck, remember to check to see what items you can combine.
There are some mini games and puzzles throughout the game that you need to complete before being able to move on. You get an unlimited amount of tries on these so there’s no need to worry if you fail them a few times. There is a sneaky one towards the end of the game that took us a few tries before figuring out the secret (Hint: Cat Vision). We ended up over-thinking some of the puzzles and making them harder than they needed to be. Remember, the game wants you to figure it out and the hint is normally nearby.
There are standard fetch quests, getting an item from here and bringing it to there to use it, that are standard for most point-and-click games.
You could tell the game was designed for a PC with the pointer that moves like a mouse. But they did a good job mapping it to a controller with one thumbstick moving the character and the other moving the pointer.
The one issue we had was that the movement speed felt a little slow for both the character and the pointer. We would have loved to see a movement speed option in the menu so we could speed that up.
Overall we enjoyed the game, the story, and the characters but the art style might have been the best part. The backgrounds look great and have a little added extra when using Cat Vision.
Cat and Ghostly Road is available on Xbox, Playstation, Steam, Windows and Nintendo Switch. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
Hero Survival from Publisher Sometimes You and Developer Pigeon Dev Games
Rougelite shmup mashup featuring a host of halloween horrors. Beware the Flintlock weapon due to game breaking glitch.
Hero Survival is a roguelite game in which you fight off hordes of classic horror movie monsters. You go around killing monsters, picking up gold, and rinse and repeat all while trying to avoid the enemies and shooting them from a distance. The round is completed by staying alive until the timer ends. At the end of the round, you are presented with four options to choose from for different weapons or items that grant perks. You can only choose one of the four options, but if you don’t like any of them you do get one free reroll so you can try to get something better. If you still didn’t get something you want, you can reroll again, but it will cost you some of the gold we hope you picked up during the level.
While in the level you will be earning XP by killing enemies. When you level up you’ll get to pick one of three random perks. There are 3 different categories that the perks fall into. One grants a chance to spawn a bomb from a dead monster, another grants a chance to turn enemies into blocks of ice, and the third category has various upgrades for your standard weapons. There are also some one time or temporary perks that only last until you level up again and others that stay with your character until you die. All of the perks, weapons, and items seem to be RNG.
Every tenth round, a boss (the Devil) joins the monsters and chases you down. In the early levels he’s not too difficult but, as one would expect, he’s a bit more difficult in the later levels and deals quite a bit of damage. Depending on which perks you’ve picked up along the way and your current health, he could one-hit kill you.
You can hold up to 4 weapons at a time but they can be swapped out in between rounds if you find a better weapon. After enough runs you’ll have had a chance to try out the different options and will find your go-to weapons and pray to the RNG gods that they come up.
After beating the boss and completing the tenth round, you have the option of starting on a different map with different bonuses (i.e. harder enemies, more xp, and more loot) or replaying the same map. The new maps have a different look, but, sadly, they play the same way. It feels more like a different skin than a new map. We would have loved to see the maps leverage different mechanics to make them play a little differently. Like, the ice in the snow map could make you slide a bit, or the sand in the desert map could slow you down. This would have provided more of a reason to continue playing the new maps even after purchasing all of the characters and weapons and would’ve been some much appreciated variation in the gameplay.
Other than using the gold to reroll for better items or weapons, you can also use it to purchase new characters and new starting weapons. Each of the characters has different starting attributes/specs as do the weapons. A few of the characters appear to reference famous people/movie characters.
We did run into a game breaking glitch. All of our weapons stopped firing and couldn’t be reloaded. It looks like this issue happens when we have a “Flintlock” shotgun as a starting weapon and then add another one in between rounds. We have reached out to report this issue but at the time of this writing we have not heard back.
Overall we enjoyed the game for what it was and fell into the “just one more try” trap a bunch of times.
Hero Survival is on Xbox, Playstation, Steam, and Nintendo Switch. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition from Publisher and Developer New Blood Interactive, Nightdive Studios, Apogee Entertainment
A remake of a cult classic 90’s first person run-and-gun shooter. Adrenaline runs high with crazy fast movement speed and occasional frustrations from not being able to find the exit for the level. Recommend giving it a try and blasting some enemies with your super bark of destruction or Excali-bat today!
Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition is the updated remaster of the cult classic 1995 game Rise of the Triad. It’s a retro First Person Shooter that actually lets you pick from one of the five Members of the High-Risk United Nations Task-Force (codenamed H.U.N.T.). Each of the characters has different stats in movement speed, health (or hit points), and accuracy.
As expected it plays like a 90’s FPS run-and-gun which is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. If you didn’t grow up playing these kinds of games you will get frustrated as there are no tutorials and there are hidden entrances all over the place. You end up getting stuck and have to just start spamming the A button against the walls hoping to find one of the hidden doors and open a path. Some of the levels feel like a maze where you keep going back and forth trying to figure out what you missed to find the exit. There is a map that is a little bit of help but there’s no mini map so you need to open the menu and check it all of the time or you risk having to run back and forth for something you missed. The story is about what you’d expect from a 90’s FPS game. There are bad guys you need to stop, that’s pretty much as deep as it gets.
As someone who didn’t play the original Rise of the Triad I was surprised by the crazy powers you get in this game, like being able to fly for a small amount of time, turning into a dog with a super bark, having a magic baseball bat (Excali-bat), becoming a god, and making people explode. The powers added some diversity to the game play and let you experiment with different play styles. Just like most good FPS run-and-guns, it’s all about the weapons. Along with the normal standard weapons like pistols and machine guns, they have some other interesting weapons with several of them firing different types of rockets.
Since it is a remake, we wish they would have added some quality of life improvements, like autosave. You read that right. It’s 2023 and there is no autosave, only manual saves, which is easy to forget to do nowadays as that has become a standard function in games for quite a while now. It’s frustrating when you forget about that and end up losing hours of gameplay. This happened to us as we stopped playing for a bit and when we reloaded, we realized that our last save was from hours ago. Another thing we would have loved to see is the option to change the controller sensitivity. It felt like it was set way too high which made some of the platforming parts much harder than they needed to be.
There are 4 different campaigns to play, with a total of 109 levels, giving you hours of gameplay. Just make sure you remember to save often (or at the very least, save before you stop playing). There is also the option to use the game’s original cheat codes if you remember them or you can look them up online. The game gets bonus points for letting you unlock achievements while using cheat codes. Unfortunately, the console remake did not include the multiplayer game type from the original game. But we hear the PC version does include this game type. Would love to see this come to consoles in a future title update.
Overall, it did hit that 90’s FPS nostalgia nailing the ever so classic look and feel of those games. The controller sensitivity was a challenge at times and made us feel like our character was speed skating on ice, but the option to play as different characters was a really cool option and we ended up playing as the character with the slowest movement speed to help offset some of the issues we were having with the controller sensitivity.
Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition is available on Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Windows. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip from Publisher and Developer Total Mayhem Games
Short but fun puzzle game in the We Were Here franchise. Good for an afternoon co-op experience with a friend.
“We Were Here Expeditions” is a new series in the “We Were Here” franchise. “The FriendShip” is the first game in this new series and is a smaller game than the previous We Were Here installments. It also has a smaller price tag at only $4 US. It can be completed in around 1-2 hours depending on how good your communication, teamwork, and trust are with your co-op partner. Going for perfect scores on the 3 puzzles will likely require more time and practice.
Like all of the other We Were Here games this is a 2 player co-op game. You will need to work together to solve puzzles. Communication is key in these games as you will be separated from your partner with each of you only seeing part of the puzzle or clues. Each of the characters has a walkie talkie that you use to communicate with each other. So as you might have figured out, a headset with a microphone is mandatory if you want any chance at solving the puzzles.
The opening cutscene finds our intrepid duo on a ship in a storm-tossed ocean when they hear a distress call over the radio. They head toward the call and land on an island with an abandoned amusement park. As you may have guessed, the amusement park is Friendship themed. You and your partner will need to work together, relying on your friendship to make your way through the park. After navigating through the beginning area that teaches you the basics of movement and interactions, you’ll board a small boat and go on a long ride reminiscent of a certain pirate attraction at a certain magical mousey amusement park.
There are 3 stops along the ride where you’ll both deboard and work together to solve puzzles and earn a bronze, silver, or gold ticket to upgrade your ship. You can keep retrying the puzzles as many times as you want in order to obtain a maximum score and the corresponding max level upgrade. The first puzzle is based on Communication, the second is based on Teamwork, and third is based on Trust. These 3 things are the central themes of the game.
After completing the game you are provided with a QR Code to scan which takes you to a site where you get a little video of your upgraded ship going through the end of the ride as well as your Friendship Results. This was a nice addition to the game. The video is different based on your performance and has the classic freeze frame souvenir photo that you see at most amusement parks. If your Friendship Results are less than perfect, this addition might be enough to make you want to replay the game to increase your results and see the different ship upgrades and endings. They also have a custom story relating your adventure in the amusement park that includes a lot of little details about what happened during each of the challenges.
Overall, as fans of puzzle games we enjoyed the game even though it was a little short and we look forward to seeing what the next game in the series has in store.
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip is on Xbox, Playstation, Steam, and Epic Games. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
Antstream Arcade from Publisher and Developer Antstream
Nostalgic retro games galore. Cloud hosted so can have some latency issues at times.
Antstream Arcade is your home for playing legal copies of Retro games with over 1300 games available to play anytime. Sounds a little too good to be true right? So, what’s the catch…? Well, first off, you are buying a subscription/license from the service to play the games. There are currently two options; buying a 1 year license (that you would have to buy again if you wanted to access the games after that 1 year is up), or a lifetime license. At the time of this review the 1 year is $30 USD and the Lifetime is $80 USD on Xbox (it is also available on PC). The second catch is that all of the games are cloud only versions that are streamed to you and not installed or run locally on your system which can lead to a little lag with your controller input at times. But, at least it saves hard drive space, right?
When you first access the arcade you might be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of games. 1300 is a lot of games. If you were gaming in the 80’s, 90’s, and even the early 2000’s you will find tons of games that will bring back memories, some good and some bad. There is a search option to help you find games to play but you need to know what you are looking for to make it helpful. We noticed a bunch of times that the same game appeared more than once since it was listed separately for different systems/consoles (ie: Skatin USA for the Spectrum and for the C64). We would have loved the option to make our own playlist. You can favorite a game by clicking on the star but you need to go into your profile to access your favorites. Having that on the main Play Now screen would have been a better choice. We would love to see this changed in an update to the arcade.
Going through the games we instantly found a few games that made us stop everything and play. The music, the sound effects, and the look just hit us with all of the nostalgic feels. Replaying these was both good and bad as it seems some games weren’t as good as we remembered them being and would’ve been better left safely locked away in our fond memories. It also took a little bit of getting used to trying to play the old games with a modern controller as most of the games only use a few of the buttons since that’s all that was available when the game first came out.
In all of the games we played we were able to make a save at any time and had 3 save slots. This was a welcome change from the original versions as a lot of the older games were known for being harder than they needed to be and not being super forgiving with checkpoints. Being able to save at any time lets you take a break from that game to play something else or just put it down for a while without losing your progression. For anyone who remembers playing early console games you know that saving on demand was not an option.
Just playing the games can be a little boring after a while which is why Antstream added Mini challenges, weekly tournaments, and community challenges. These are great additions to the original games and completing the challenges rewards you with a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medal as well as some system currency. You even get a daily login bonus just for loading the game. You might be a little confused about the system currency since you already have access to all of the games. We were confused too at first since we couldn’t find anything to buy with it. We eventually found where we could use it to unlock new challenges, join the tournaments, or create challenges against a friend or the community. This extra layer of gaming on top of the original games was really interesting.
Overall, we enjoyed playing a lot of games from our childhood and discovering new old games to play. If you are an older gamer with young kids it would be fun to show them a bunch of games you played when you were growing up. For anyone who missed gaming in the 80 and 90’s this is an easy way to check out the games without spending a lot of money on the retro hardware and games.
Antstream Arcade is available on Xbox and PC. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
Rabbids: Party of Legends from Publisher Ubisoft and Developer Ubisoft Chengdu
Rabbids are up to their usual hijinks in this minigame filled party game. Can be played solo or local co-op.
Rabbids: Party of Legends is a party game with a crazy story. If you’re familiar with the Rabbids you would expect no less. It has local co-op for up to 4 players and is better when played with friends. You’ll start off picking your mode, either Adventure or Party mode, select your Rabbid from the 22 available to start out with (another 23 can be unlocked by earning XP through gameplay). Each Rabbid has a different look but they play the same way. There is no difference in abilities, just pick the one you enjoy the most.
Adventure mode is the story part of the game where you will play through 50 minigames. Most of these are fairly repetitive standard issue minigames but there were a few that stood out as better and more enjoyable. You can either play solo or couch co-op. If you are playing solo, you will play against AI characters with 1 of 3 difficulty options; Easy, Normal, and Nightmare. We found the Easy and Normal difficulties to be pretty much the same but, Nightmare really ramps up the difficulty. It seems like all of the AI players go after you more often than they do each other making it basically a 3v1 whereas on the lower difficulties everyone goes after everyone in a more balanced way. If you are finding Nightmare a little too hard, you do have the option to change the AI difficulty between levels. Once you select the difficulty options it is set for everyone and cannot be changed mid-game. Some of the games are team based, matching you up with another player.
Party Mode lets you create a playlist by picking a bunch of levels or a single level that you want to practice. Not all of the mini games are available at the start, you will need to earn Enlightenment XP by completing levels to unlock them in Party Mode. This makes it very helpful if you missed an achievement or trophy since you can keep replaying a level until you complete the requirement to unlock your achievement or trophy.
Overall it’s a fun party game with crazy colorful characters but we do wish there was an online option as not everyone has people local enough to come over for couch co-op.
Rabbids Party of Legends is available on Xbox, Playstation, Ubisoft Store, and Nintendo Switch.
We Were Here Forever from Publisher and Developer Total Mayhem Games
Possibly the hardest co-op puzzle game we’ve ever played. Creepy AF Jester included.
We Were Here Forever is a cooperative first-person puzzle solving adventure and is the 4th game in the We Were Here Series. When we say cooperative we mean it as there is no single player option. It is a co-op only game like the previous games in the series. You don’t need to have played the previous games before playing this one but there are some easter eggs referencing the previous games that you’ll spot if you’ve played them.
You and your partner must work together to escape the realm of Castle Rock. To escape you will need to explore several locations in the frozen realm and find the clues needed to solve the puzzles blocking your exit. It sounds pretty simple working with a partner solving puzzles, doesn’t it? But, wait! What if each of the players takes a different route seeing only what is in their area and the clues you need for your puzzle are in your partner’s area and vice versa? And what if sometimes those clues are auditory and only one of you can hear them? Not quite so simple anymore. Needless to say, a good headset for each of the partners, a healthy dose of patience, and good communication skills are mandatory if you want to be successful in this game.
The puzzles start out pretty easy, giving each of the partners the clues to each other’s puzzle. After solving a few of the simpler puzzles the game throws you into the deep end for some complicated ones which can be stressful as you will need to be working with your partner and communicating all of the time. This can be difficult if your partner does not share information and communicate effectively. Some of the puzzles were pretty straight forward for what you need to do to solve it, while others were not so much and kept us stumbling around trying everything we could just hoping to get lucky and happen upon something that worked. To say that the game does not hold your hand at all is an understatement. At times it feels like your hand gets slapped away.
This brings us to the game’s hint system that is not helpful at all as the hints are very general and more about the area that you are in and general gameplay tips instead of about the puzzle you are trying to solve and might be stuck on. We stopped even trying them after a few levels because they were useless. We would have loved to see the hints be more specific to the puzzle or current objective.
With communication being so key to just playing the game we found ourselves getting a little frustrated at each other. We realised that part of that was due to a lack of communication between us as partners while others had to do with the puzzles straight up not giving enough information or not giving clear enough information to solve them.
In a few of the later puzzles you needed to explain to your partner what you are seeing and hearing as well. This added to the challenge and frustration of the puzzle solving as trying to explain what a sound effect sounds like is not easy. Since some of the puzzles are timed you will need to clearly agree on the language you’ll be using to describe objects and positions/orientation/direction to let you communicate the information faster.
Overall we did enjoy the game but really wish the hints would have been helpful and that the direction/clues would’ve been a little clearer in some parts.
We Were Here Forever is available on Xbox, Playstation, Epic Game Store, and Steam. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
MY LITTLE PONY: A Maretime Bay Adventure from Publisher Outright Games and Developer Melbot Studios
A fun game for kids of any age (even grown up kids) with great mechanics and in game guidance so you never get lost.
MY LITTLE PONY: A Maretime Bay Adventure is a third person Pony adventure game. You play as Earth Pony Sunny who wants to make the world a better place by hosting Maretime Bay Day, a forgotten celebration of friendship and magic. But some pony is out to spoil the celebration – and they’re stealing cakes, letting bunnies loose, and even spoiling Pipp’s paintings!
On your adventure you will meet up with other ponies from the My Little Pony universe and a very helpful butterfly. The ponies that you meet need your help with tasks and crime solving. Some of the tasks are as simple as finding items and using your magic powers to “uni”-cycle (fixing up or painting an object) or herding bunnies. The helpful butterfly will appear if you’re ever lost or “off course” for too long and will lead you to the objective that you should be working on. This was very helpful and great to see as the game is geared for a younger audience who may need the extra guidance. I would love to see something like this added to more games as it was very well executed.
The story and gameplay are pretty linear but you do have the ability to revisit places that you’ve previously been should you want to return and explore them further. While playing you will come across 5 different mini-games to play that will give you a star rating after completing them (up to 3 crowns). There is a timed bunny herding game, a timed obstacle course, roller-blading chase, flight academy (which is a flying obstacle course), and a rhythm based dance game. The mini-games are pretty short, enjoyable, and replayable in case you want to get a higher score or just replay them for fun. After completing the mini-games you will be rewarded with Star Magic according to how many stars you earn.
There are customization options that let you dress up Sunny with a variety of accessories when you visit the Magic Mirror. These are unlocked automatically as you collect the required amount of Star Magic. This is earned from completing mini-games and also collected on your travels (they are the pinkish-purple stars you’ll see all over the place). The changes you make to Sunny’s outfit are visible at all times, even in the mini-games and in cut scenes. We loved this attention to detail. It adds that little extra to your enjoyment of the game and makes the customizations feel more worth doing.
In the latter parts of the game new mechanics and new areas are introduced keeping the gameplay fun. You get roller skates which lets you move faster but they do take a little practice to get used to as Sunny slides around a bit. Luckily you do not have to use them and you can put them on or take them off with a push of a button. We used them most of the time but took them off for some of the area’s that needed more control of our movement.
Overall it’s a fun short adventure game for gamers of all ages and you don’t need to be a fan of My Little Pony to enjoy it.
MY LITTLE PONY: A Maretime Bay Adventure is available on Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. A digital copy of this game was provided to SimpleGameReviews for the purposes of reviewing the game.
