Something about everything
There will never be a shortage of the cliche high school romantic comedies, which is what makes My Teen Romantic Comedy stand out even more. It’s an excellent look into the world of the social outcasts of high school with a little humor and, yes, romance peppered in.
Non Non Biyori is slice-of-life at its best. You follow around four girls as they explore the countryside. Not only do you get to appreciate the beauty and stillness of the Japanese country you also learn a lot about edible plants, wildlife and Japanese culture. Non Non Biyori isn’t a prequel to Repeat. Instead both serve as an independent look at the lives of Renge, Natsumi, Komari and Hotaru during the same year.
Totes The Goat is simple but genius idea, swipe to move your goat around the entire play area of the floating island map. To move to the next level you have to land on every square. The hazards are enemies that are scattered on the island or drop in as the game goes on. Every time you clear a map you move to the next level. The controls are great and the art pops enough to keep things interesting.
Mad Aces is an endless high score game that feels one dimensional and.. well kinda pointless.
This sexy beast of a game is something I just discovered at the last Playcrafting NYC event a couple of nights ago. DreamSail Games knocked it out of the park with this super polished arena deathmatch game that bleeds style, fun and replay. Blade Ballet has several arenas that are interactive, power ups, a good choice of bots with individual powers and weaknesses and more content is on the way. Blade Ballet is a wonderful looking multiplayer gaming take on robot wars.
Arcadian Atlas is a 2D isometric tactical RPG set in the richly detailed pixel art world of Arcadia. Watch your footing and mind the elevations as you traverse the maps. Let the moody jazz soundtrack carry you through a thought provoking and ruthless story of love, deceit, murder, companionship and war.
I was worried Insatiable would be a lot of forced shock or hyper sexualized content, thankfully it wasn’t. It was more of an autobiography of a young woman trying to find and understand herself. Insatiable is built on a lot of little stories that read very quickly. These many stories explains how and why she became the woman she is today. I really loved that she didn’t make herself out to be a victim or a saint. In fact Asa lived her life up to the book on her terms and owns all of it.
Squareboy vs Bullies is a beat’em up made in homage to classics like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. I honestly believe Squareboy vs Bullies is the best beat’em up on the iOS App Store right now. It is classic gameplay and the controls work perfectly on both the iPad and iPhone. Best of all IT’S FREE!!!!!
Haikyu!! Starts off as a cliche sports anime, but it quickly moves away from the stereotypical “if I try hard enough I’ll win” mindset. There’s quite a lot of humor here and the episodes move at a pretty quick pace. Just when you think things are dragging the show speeds things up and you’re back on the rollercoaster ride. I don’t have any real interest in volleyball, but Haikyu!! does a good job melding the more technical information into the frantic action of the game.
At Playcrafting NYC’s last Demo and Play night of the year I was treated to a whole slew of games that caught my eye. Today lets talk about Sumer!
