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God of Light - By the same people who made Gemcrafter, this is a reflecting-mirror puzzle game where the goal is to light up all of the “gems” and also an end-piece. There are a lot of variants, as you often need to use alternate configurations to unlock the final one. You’re also looking for the hidden fireflies that can be spent for hints or to unlock additional worlds. (As there aren’t actually enough hidden fireflies, said fireflies are also available by watching sponsored content or as sign-in bonuses, and you can also pay money for the additional worlds.) The time limit only figures into your final score, so it’s a “fiddle until you get it” sort of puzzle where there really isn’t a failure condition.
99 Bricks: Wizard Academy - Imagine if Tetris was about stacking blocks as high as you could. Now imagine that those blocks would weigh down to one side or another and didn’t always line up perfectly or “glue down” once they hit. That’s what we have here. Later levels introduce spells that allow you to lock down bricks or otherwise stabilize your tower. It’s nerve-wracking and occasionally maddening if you have existing Tetris reflexes (which I do), and at least amusing in the short-term.
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper - Even more so than some other Square-Enix tablet games, this is a FF-themed mon-battle game with a graphical/”story” style similar to Theatrhythm. Gather a party of generics and named characters from various games, then fight sequences of battles in “paintings” of events from the various FF games. The battles are a simplified version of the turn-based ATB system seen in most of the games. And, of course, you need a steady internet connection to play. I found it a little clunky with loading times on my Galaxy Tab 4, and with little more than nostalgia to drive it—it’s basically rpg grinding without the puzzle or plot—which makes me more interested in playing either the original games or something like Dissidia or Theatrhythm, which have fun (and different) gameplay to them.
Pixel Dungeon - As pure a roguelike as one can get when the controls are simplified for touchscreens and the graphics are pixels, rather than ASCII characters. You go through a randomly-generated dungeon fighting monsters and grabbing loot, trying to find enough food to stay alive and dealing with the fact that most items are unidentified when you find them and can only be identified through use (carefully!) or rare scrolls. I only went down a few levels, but it hints of a much larger game when things like shops don’t start spawning until the 6th floor. I found it easy to play and fast-moving and not too deadly for the genre, but I’m just generally not a fan of the genre to begin with.
Siren Fantasia - Badly-translated mon-battle game where all the mons are anime girls and are called “spellbooks”. It relies on rotation block-matching puzzles as the main gameplay, which are heavily luck-based in creating long strings of chain matches. The other mechanics (randomly-drawn mons, daily rewards, sacrifice excess mons for upgrades, pay real money for better stuff, complete lack of plot) are pretty standard for the genre. I didn’t find anything to really differentiate it unless you love the gameplay, which I was unenthused by.
Spirit Stones - Boy, did this have a lot of push notifications. I barely even tried it as a game; the constant push notifications drove me nuts and I uninstalled it.
99 Bricks: Wizard Academy - Imagine if Tetris was about stacking blocks as high as you could. Now imagine that those blocks would weigh down to one side or another and didn’t always line up perfectly or “glue down” once they hit. That’s what we have here. Later levels introduce spells that allow you to lock down bricks or otherwise stabilize your tower. It’s nerve-wracking and occasionally maddening if you have existing Tetris reflexes (which I do), and at least amusing in the short-term.
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper - Even more so than some other Square-Enix tablet games, this is a FF-themed mon-battle game with a graphical/”story” style similar to Theatrhythm. Gather a party of generics and named characters from various games, then fight sequences of battles in “paintings” of events from the various FF games. The battles are a simplified version of the turn-based ATB system seen in most of the games. And, of course, you need a steady internet connection to play. I found it a little clunky with loading times on my Galaxy Tab 4, and with little more than nostalgia to drive it—it’s basically rpg grinding without the puzzle or plot—which makes me more interested in playing either the original games or something like Dissidia or Theatrhythm, which have fun (and different) gameplay to them.
Pixel Dungeon - As pure a roguelike as one can get when the controls are simplified for touchscreens and the graphics are pixels, rather than ASCII characters. You go through a randomly-generated dungeon fighting monsters and grabbing loot, trying to find enough food to stay alive and dealing with the fact that most items are unidentified when you find them and can only be identified through use (carefully!) or rare scrolls. I only went down a few levels, but it hints of a much larger game when things like shops don’t start spawning until the 6th floor. I found it easy to play and fast-moving and not too deadly for the genre, but I’m just generally not a fan of the genre to begin with.
Siren Fantasia - Badly-translated mon-battle game where all the mons are anime girls and are called “spellbooks”. It relies on rotation block-matching puzzles as the main gameplay, which are heavily luck-based in creating long strings of chain matches. The other mechanics (randomly-drawn mons, daily rewards, sacrifice excess mons for upgrades, pay real money for better stuff, complete lack of plot) are pretty standard for the genre. I didn’t find anything to really differentiate it unless you love the gameplay, which I was unenthused by.
Spirit Stones - Boy, did this have a lot of push notifications. I barely even tried it as a game; the constant push notifications drove me nuts and I uninstalled it.
