The Banner Saga

So I missed all the kickstarter stuff for this game way back when. I played a little bit of factions when it was released, updating every other day and limited right down, testing the waters. The art style is wonderful, forgoing anything 'digital' for a genuinely lovely hand-drawn touch and feel. I liked the combat, and was sort of getting better, though generally atill getting served morw than my ego was pleased with.
(There was also a big pile of legal drama in between, but who wants to rehash that crap)

Fast forward.. 2 years? I ended up grabbing it not long ago when it was available for the cheaps as part of the humble bargain marathon, whatever it was, since it was cheaper than normal retail and came with a few extras. Then I waited for a while because I'm lazy and easily distracted.

Anyway, im in love with it all over again. I've only played through to the 3rd chapter so far but it's got its hooks in deep. All of what I already appreciated is still present, but the single player also has this fully realised story with richly detailed maps, lore that flows nicely with more depth accessible on my terms and a level of storytelling and character development that seema both natural and weighty.

I know my choices will have consequence but I am not sure when they will surface, whatvthey will be, or how much they will matter.
And in the game.

I'm still pretty terrible at the combat, but rarely do I feel cheated - more that decisions ive made in placement or priority ought to have been thought over a little more.

Its my newest 'oh when do I get to play it again' game, thinking about it all times of the day and hanging out for the next chance I can get.

Tilting and Tapping

Casting and firing.

Ridiculous Fishing is a game where you;
throw in a hook,
guide it to the lowest depths you can reach,
hook as many fish you can on the return,
break the surface and fling the fish into the air,
then shoot the fish out of the air,
profit.

With said profits you can purchase upgrades to your fishing kit, or your hunting artillery, or various hats and accoutrement to enhance rewards and appearance

That's really about it.
Thing is, explaining it in its simplicity does not adequately explain its addictiveness.
I played this on my android phone so the casting mechanic was tied to the tilting and shooting part was tapping all over the place. Wickedly simple, yet it gets its hooks in. You can drop in for literally 5 minutes of playtime and feels like you've taken steps forward for the upgrade dollars. Alternatively, you can waste a huge amount of time aiming for the depths or trying to collect all the wildlife.

I really appreciate the visual style, and the music was fun and catchy. There is a fun, aberrant humour present in the design and gameplay, which is reinforced by both the item and upgrade descriptions and the comments in "Byrdr" (an in game social media app auto-populated with comments from characters, which can be shared out into the twitterverse)

I acquired Ridiculous Fishing in a Humble Bundle, so the price was lost in the middle somewhere. It retails for around the $3 mark depending on platform and I think it's easily worth that price. It's the perfect mix of pick up/put down gaming with the hidden depth for longevity.

For studious protagonists

Robot Entertainment has delivered many an hours' worth of fun in the form of Orcs Must Die and its sequel, so i had some very high hopes for this title.

Hero Academy is an asymmetrical turn based strategy game featuring colourful cartoon style sprites battling each other for dominance of the board. You select the team you wish you use, each featuring their own characters, spells and synergies and then off you go. Board is selected randomly as is your opponent, though you can select from your friends list.

Once play commences, each round gives you 5 action points with which to either place a unit, move a unit, attack with a unit, or cast a spell. Units and spells are randomly generated at the beginning of each turn to fill up to a selection of 6 items. Then you submit your turn and await the opponents manoeuvres in return.
You can aim to either wipe the board clear of opponents, or try to take out any crystals the opponent has on the board.
You can run more than one game at once which is great, and the game will notify you when a turn is ready to play your next round. so you can play this as a quick distraction game with two games running and login once a day or so, or you can start 20 games at once if you want a non stop session.

I'm pretty crap at it so far. I quite like it. It's easy to pick up how to play and nothing feels very unfair even given the random nature of the  but i haven't invested the time yet to have developed the skill set to be a worthy opponent. At any rate, I was a bit sold given the pedigree of the developer. I really like their style of art and the animations, they also have a talent for making tight gameplay, apparently across different game types.

So far ive had no major dramas, except the occasional server connection issue. I have an odd codec issue on my box when i play but im pretty certain that's gonna be me and my clunky nerdbox more than a game issue.

I scored Hero Academy in a Humble Bundle so the price was super sweet, it normally retails on Steam for about 5 bucks (with only two teams) which is well worth it. You can also get a two pack at a discount, to bring along a friend.
However, the addon teams are each almost as much as the game itself which actually seems pretty steep. Even though they offer a wholly different experience to each other team, its hard to appreciate the high cost.

Get to the choppah!

Jack lumber.

i actually quite liked this game, it just runs a little shallow.
you play as the chop happy titular character, avenging his grandmother after a savage tree attack.
you play through each level, a series of rounds as logs (and later, other items) are sprung into the air in front of you. Your job is to drag out a path that will chop each of the necessary items before the timer runs down.

the art style, sounds and characters are fun, with each successful level letting another woodland friend return to your cabin, which in turn unlock various upgrades and powerups to use while playing.

very straightforward, quite fun, a little bit more addictive that i expected.
its very easy to play through just one more round. we all know how tempting it is to go back and 3 star a level if we missed out.

the bulk of my experience was played through steam, because given an option i like all my stuff in one place AND i'm a sucker for cheeves. However, I also played it on my Samsung android tablet and its far superior. Touching and swiping is a much more natural motion than mousing around.

 i got jack lumber as part of a humble bundle, but i'd say its worth a gold coin for admission. just keep in mind the android version feels like the better experience.

Burst Fire

Ok. Slack. Whatever. Self depreciation elsewhere.

Last night took a crack at 4 new games:
Bad Hotel, Jack Lumber, Hero Academy and Rogue Legacy. I also downloaded Postmortem: One Must Die (extended cut) but Rogue Legacy happened and Rogue Legacy which Rogue Legacy.

Turns out i played them in order of the most interesting of the night at least, and i feel that in terms of lasting impact this order will continue to remain true.

Bad Hotel is a tower defence game. Which feels odd as you start. feels real odd. feels dead simple with a garish colour branding and wicked simple clickity gameplay.
and you play for about 5 minutes and the obscure pulsating rhythm of the money beat gets under your skin. the lack of fixed building positions gives you an unusual type of freedom in the genre, and the silly monsters just dont ever actually piss you off. i didnt find myself screaming at the world ending bastard green seagull, merely thinking to myself 'bugger, he got through'.

you are a dude running a hotel. there are building the earn you coin, and building that take more coins but shoot stuff. stuff attacks you. different stuff attacks in different ways. boom. go.

through it all there seems to be a solid distillation of the core mechanics inherent in most tower defence games, so as it flits between its two types of phase (chillax and build stuff, crazy enemy spam) you just plug away and then you either win or don't. its straightforward approach and gameplay make it both easy to pick up and hard to recommend.

I played it for about an hour, and i feel like it was nice enough but i wouldnt really care if i never played it again.
id rate it worth a gold coin, but i think anything above that will leave you a little disappointed.