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Conceptis Puzzles: freemium done right

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According to Mr Kavanagh, I have somehow missed the launch of the follow-up to my third most-played 3DS game.  I'm somewhat loathe to download this, as I know I'll end up playing it exclusively for the next few weeks.  I'm frequently tempted to do so anyway, but only at work and I can't connect my 3DS to the Internet there.

But yesterday I fancied a bit of a puzzle.  As I'm unable to buy Picross E 2 using work's WiFi network, I investigated what was available on the iPhone for my journey home instead.  There are, as you'd expect, a lot of picross puzzles, at various prices. There are also slitherlink puzzles, and other such grid games.  Some of the best I've found are by Conceptis, who provide a decent number of free puzzles in their (free) apps, with lots of additional puzzles available at a cost.  The controls of the puzzles have been well thought out given the limitations of the touch screen - a lack of accuracy in particular.

Investigating their catalogue has introduced me to some new puzzle types as well - link-a-pix and hashi in particular.  Hashi is a bit tricky to work out the logic at times, but I'm getting there.

Portal 2: Completed!

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A stunning game, overall.  It was a little too long, in that a few of the test chambers seemed a little too repetitive and the between-chapter sections were a bit sparse.  The story was a bit extended, and the dialogue over the last few chapters was bitty, but finding out where GLaDOS came from and how Aperture Science developed was well presented.  When I got back to meet Wheatley, his dialogue - while not on the same level as GLaDOS's congratulations for piling on the pounds - was very amusing, and I couldn't help but kill myself in each of the ways he suggested just to see what he said.

Wheatley's corruption of the centre was well handled as well.  From the physical decay to the blue screen error messages (something else that made me laugh), it felt very solid.


The last few chambers were very cleverly designed, combining all of the tools and environmental furniture.  It took me a while to work out how to get past the section below, for example, where a number of turrets were  sat behind the screen on the right.  To get rid of them, I had to drop a load of the blue gel onto the platform they were standing on; this involved catching the gel in light tunnels and manipulating it back and forth until it was overhead.



The final fight took me a few minutes to work out what to do.  Wheatley's surprise about me not being dead made me smile.  I'm not sure how my character was breathing when I went through the last portal, but the last lift journey was a fitting end.

I just need to find a cooperative partner now ...

New Super Mario Bros U: lava waves

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I was stuck on a level last night for ages - I must have lost over ten lives, but luckily there were loads of coins available to rack up extra lives, particularly in the room with the second star coin. Getting to that wasn't that easy - you had to go up the second green pipe in the screenshot, which involved waiting until the platform had raised to its peak, avoiding the waves of lava, and bouncing off the dry bones. I did that many times in the end, dying later in the level or on the boss.

The sign of a great game though - at no point did I think it unfair or want to give up.

Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure: ooh hoo hoo

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Rhythm Thief is like a combination of Layton and Space Channel 5.  Set in Paris, you move a character around the city from location to location, talking to other characters and playing games to progress.  In Layton these games are puzzles; in Rhythm Thief they're (unsurprisingly) rhythm games - listening for a scale of notes, tapping in time, or responding to or repeating movements.

It's charming, even if the story is a bit weak.  I'm well towards the end point now, after six hours, chasing Napoleon through Paris after a daring hang-glider rescue off the Eiffel Tower.  Some of the rhythm games are pretty difficult, and I'm currently stuck on a second Samba-de-Amigo-inspired side level which was reached by talking to a dancing Mexican.  I think the buttons just aren't responsive enough.

The other amusing thing is that the on-screen text doesn't always match up to the spoken words.  Challenged by Napoleon on the tower, he gave an evil laugh.  On the screen, he said "Ooh hoo hoo!".  Charlie, the detective's son, has a comedy cockney accent; the text read "roam free", he said "runnin' rampant".  Of course, this may be the case with other handheld games but I very rarely play them with sound on.  This demands that I do - and the soundtrack is great.