The Nintendo Gamecube released around 12 years ago, one chilly November day, and it came with quite a few games that have by now become well known classics; Super Monkey Ball, Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2, and Wave Race: Blue Storm, these are but a few examples of the launch lineup, but there was another game that caught the attention of the media.

Luigi’s Mansion.

It was a rather odd move from Nintendo, releasing a game not starring Mario, but instead starring his lesser known brother Luigi? What madness is this? So focused was this mindset, that the game received average reviews for the most part, something that was strange for a series made by Nintendo, bringing the series to an untimely demise.

But the real question is, why were the responses on this game mixed? Well, the answer is simple; the game was too different, it was something that many gamers  and critics could not comprehend at the time, the usual Mario staple was so engraved into everyone’s minds, that the sheer oddity of this game was just… Unprecedented? I think that is the correct word to explain that reaction.

Another such example of oddness would be another tittle from Nintendo: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, which was heavily criticized back then over its graphical style.

But still, many gamers embraced it (Wind Waker received a similar response), and they found something special in this title, and slowly, more were able to see how strangely appealing this game actually is, and so, after 12 years of waiting, we have a sequel at last; Luigi’s Mansion 2, or Dark Moon, the “edgy” and unnecessary subtitle given to the game here in the states, is finally out for the Nintendo 3DS.

The game begins with Professor E. Gadd, the scientist from the previous game that helped by giving Luigi the original Poltergust and the Game Boy Horror, now he occupies himself with studying ghosts, and everything is fine and dandy. That is until the Dark Moon (a mysterious crystal that hangs in the sky) is “mysteriously” shattered, the ghosts lose control, quickly wrecking havoc, and causing the good doctor to hide in a bunker. Unable to find answers, he unceremoniously calls on Luigi once more, who hesitantly agrees to go into not one, not two, but 5 mansions, and perhaps, find some answers.

Unlike the previous game in which you could explore one giant mansion at your own pace, this one uses more of a mission structure, basically treating each mansion as a world of sorts, and each mission as a level. Fans of the original will be turned off by this, but I feel like the straight path approach is more to the game’s strength. In any case, there are many secrets spread in each mission, allowing those who want to put the time to find them do so.

As Luigi, you can do a few different things in order to find secrets, as well as ghosts to capture; you can of course, suck and blow away things with your vacuum, you now also have 2 types of flashlights, the usual that allows you to frighten ghosts by flashing them with it, and the new Dark-Light flashlight, which allows you to reveal hidden objects in the environment. To those unfamiliar with this series, unlike pretty much every game with a Mario character in it, Luigi cannot use his supreme jumping skills, of course, the skill is unnecessary, you’ll be surprised how much you can do with the vacuum alone.

How does the game look? Pretty good, not the best, but it manages to do what it’s supposed to do, still, it looks great with and without the 3D, environments look detailed, and things like lighting effects and slight details like Luigi’s shadow help immerse you more into the mansions, which hold a rather eerie feel that in occasion, can be legitimately unnerving. The game runs smoothly for the most part, but when there is too much on-screen or there is a particularly crowded cut-scene, you notice a slight drop in the frame rate, it’s not game breaking, but it’s something to note. The ghosts themselves are very basic in looks, simply being different colored blobs of goo (minus a few exceptions and the Boos themselves), but each has different patterns and ways to attack, and the game introduces new variations of them, that spices up the gameplay as the difficulty appropriately ramps up.

The sound of this game is nothing to brag about, still, the music fits the style of the game, being more fitting to show the atmosphere than just to sound good, which it still does to some extent. Another thing to note is the sound effects, which sometimes go unnoticed, such as the sound of an object falling, or Luigi’s own footsteps, and maybe even the Toad’s squeaking sound whenever they move, it’s small details like this that do to the game’s favor.

The best thing in this game? I’m going to go with Luigi himself, of course. Luigi’s over the top reactions to everything, the short burst of slapstick humor thrown in (much to our hero’s chagrin) and the way he hums along with the music, I must admit, he oozes personality, something that his brother Mario has never had in any of his games, and something that Luigi proudly triumphs over in this one, it adds to the game’s charm.

But the game is not without its small flaws, as I noted earlier, the frame rate drops when action gets too chaotic on-screen, another thing is using the gyroscope to look around, it’s not quite as intuitive as it was in Ocarina of Time 3D, in which I actually PREFERRED to use it, another problem with it is that it’s also used to cross chasms by using wires, and this honestly, brings the game to a halt, as you have to accommodate yourself properly to do it correctly, or you will fall… A lot. Thankfully, these moments are few and far between.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon has a fantastic single player, but Next Level Games went the extra mile to give it an extra inclusion; the ScareScraper.

In this multiplayer mode (which you can play local, as well as online) you can play 3 different modes; Hunter in which you catch all of the ghosts on each floor. Rush, a mode where you need to find the exit before time runs out, and Polterpup; in which you need to find the ghosts dogs and catch them before time runs out.

It has some competitive aspects as well, as capturing more ghosts, getting more loot, and not fainting, net you a bonus reward of Gold at the end of the match, which goes into your vault. But as entertaining as this can be, it is nothing more than a small distraction at best, as it becomes repetitive quite quickly, it really depends on the player finding entertainment on the same environments each time, still, I would recommend to play this in small doses.

Overall, this game is excellent, it brings something rather different to the table, it’s entertaining, and like I said, it can be quite spooky at times, no joke. Next Level Games did a fantastic job by developing this one, they put effort, and it shows, as it feels like a game MADE by Nintendo themselves. I highly recommend this one, but not only for you Nintendo fanatics, but also for those who want a different experience.

For a while now we’ve heard about this new gaming tablet coming out, the Wikipad Android gaming tablet. Now when we first heard about the tablet it was going to have a 10 inch screen which some people were not too kin on, so what did the company do? They did a couple of changes to enhance the Wikipad

The refinement came from a “technical issue with the controller,” said Wikipad managing director Fraser Townley, which the company was afraid might lead to returned units. The delay for the controller retooling then pushed the timing of the Wikipad’s launch up against the end-of-life cycle for the 10-inch panel. That prompted the switch to the 7-inch screen. The company says that a 10-inch model is still forthcoming, although the timing and price are both to be determined. Why don’t we take a look and what’s new to the Gaming tablet

Design

Just over four months later, the company is once again preparing to release the Wikipad. Since then we see a major design difference, from a 10-inch screen to a 7-inch version. The smaller screen also brings a new price tag, dropping the launch Wikipad to $249 from $499 big difference. The Wikipad is the only tablet to possess the unique combination of truly show off video game experiences found in consoles with the functionality and portability of a tablet. How is this possible? The attachable dual-analog controller gives that feeling like you are playing on your console.

Specs

You want to talk about power. The tablet offers a premium 7″ IPS screen small enough to game comfortable with out the bulky and clunky feeling you would get with a 10 inch screen, 16 GB memory with micro SD slot to support an additional 32 GB of storage so you won’t be limited to the games you would like to download, ultra-light and thin chassis, is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core mobile processor will give you graphics of a console system on the go and it gets better the Wikipad also has cloud gaming. With an aspect ratio of 16:10, the Wikipad tablet offers true widescreen HD display.

Android

This is not like any other gaming tablet, not only can you game, but you can also enjoy watching your favorite films, listen to music. Just like any other Android Tablet you will have Google Play, which gives you all your favorite apps (Facebook, Skype, and Twitter) you come a custom to. The tablet will be shipped with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Not bad at all.

Gaming Apps

I’m sure you haven’t seen apps like this on any tablet before. Big Fish games has teamed up the Wikipad to give you guys will allow Wikipad customers to instantly play hundreds of Big Fish’s high-quality casual
games anytime, anywhere. Big Fish Unlimited is a streaming service that features a growing catalog of games 150 today with new games added every week. Not into the hard core gaming? Well don’t worry they also have a section for casual gaming, these games included Hidden Object, Puzzle Adventure, Match 3, Time Management, and more. Because games are streamed, progress is saved in the cloud, allowing you to easily pick up your game session on any supported device. PlayStation Mobile and Onlive have been added as well. Now you have every game in reach.

Best of Both Worlds

Not only can you game, but do work as well. Just detached from the controller, and the Wikipad becomes an enterprise tablet with the blazing power of a Quad core CPU and 12 core GPU. Need business apps? Look no further you have access to DocumentsToGo, OfficeSuite Pro, GoTo Meeting, and Splashtop Remote Desktop. Checking emails will be a snap Wikipad is Microsoft Exchange account ready, with secure out-of-the-box access to your email and attachments, calendars, along with your contacts, it’s like you never left the office. Thw Wikipad will be released this Spring.

As part of the promotion of Wreck-It Ralph‘s UK release, Disney has made one of the most amazing promotions a gamer can imagine happen. They took a street in London and gave it a touch of nostalgic 8 bit glory. The street in question is Brick Lane, and I recommend anyone who lives in the United Kingdom or in a European country that can easily access it to visit is before it’s scrapped.

My thumbs are ready.

For those of us who would kill to see it but sadly can’t make the overseas trip, there is a tiny hidden object video game that takes you down the street to find 8 distinctive items with 8 bit qualities. It’s simple and educational, and once you’re finished you “unlock” a promotional clip…. Or you can just see it on YouTube.

The street also hosts the world’s first Blippar building. A large print of the building from the Wreck-It Ralph universe was hung on a building to be played once you aim the phone at the screen. What you get to do is basically play the video game from the movie in real life, which I find amazing.

My only complaint  was that they couldn’t show more of the street in the aforementioned game. There are some amazing things they have not shown, like a Tetris Wall and a Next Level arrow I’ve seen in other pictures. I only hope my fellow gamers in the UK all get the chance to experience this Disney magic, they’re quite lucky.

Suda 51 (or Goichi Suda), is simply known to the general gaming community as a very strange, far out developer, even in the eyes of Japanese consumers, what with such oddball games such as Killer 7, No More Heroes, Flower, Sun, and Rain (anyone? No? Just me? Okay…) and most recently, Lollipop Chainsaw for the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Liberation Maiden is a surprisingly tame game in terms of craziness, that is of course, in comparison to his other projects, because this game is crazy in its own right. This game is the first in the contribution effort ‘Guild01’ retail card originally released in Japan, and Suda51’s contribution to the package itself, the separate entry was released for the Nintendo e-shop in other countries, and it’s available by the time of this review.

The story is an odd one, 100 years in the future, where Japan is in a struggle, trying to liberate itself from “Dominion‘s“ ruling. This is being taken care of thanks to Japan’s decision to get rid of their parliamentary system( with its limited Prime Minister powers), and opting for a President instead. Here, you control high school student Shoko Ozora, who has now become President of Japan after her father has been assassinated, and her job is… To take charge herself and destroy the enemy forces using a mech suit… Mike Haggar has got nothing on this girl.

Story aside, this game looks… Okay. Sure there are much better looking games, since the 3D graphics nor the 3D effect will impress anyone, but the style serves this one well, the graphics look a bit dark, but it helps set up the war-torn mood of game. The voice acting and cut scenes on the other hand are great, the animation having been made by Studio Bones, and the English acting being top-notch, even if there isn’t much acting (or cutscenes for that matter) in the first place, it’s easy to like the few lines they do have. The music itself is great, providing a compliment to the action, from the kick-ass first stage music, to its boss track, the rest of the game brings more great music like this, even showing some mellow music that fits the area you may be in.

Where the game truly shines, though, it’s the gameplay. You control Shoko with the Circle Pad, you strafe side to side by holding L, and you fire by holding the stylus to the screen, and lifting it when you need to release your shots, but do be careful, since the shots fired come from your shield itself, and the more you fire, the more chances you give an enemy to damage your actual health bar, it‘s something that brings some strategy to the equation, and it‘s something worth addressing. On the same note, I will admit it’s a bit odd to control at first, but you can quickly get used to this, and it works marvelously, still, the controls may or may not remind you of games such as Sim and Punishment, or even most recently; Kid Icarus: Uprising.

After all of these good things, is the game perfect? In one word; No. For one, the game is short, VERY short, coming at 4 stages and a final encounter (no, a boss does not count as a whole stage), also, the game can get very repetitive, as the stages themselves give basically the same mission every time, that is normally destroying “lesser spikes” and then engaging in a boss battle with a “greater spike” simply said, there is not enough variety.

So, do I recommend this game to you guys? Yes, while its short length is a glaring flaw, players who love beating scores will certainly love this one, for those looking for a meatier experience, well, it’s an Eshop game, but it might still not be your cup of tea, so try looking elsewhere, but for the asking price, you’d be missing up on one very addicting game.

Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile Logo

LOADED ROSTER…….my ass

The review was based on the IPod 4th Gen, 8 GB device, and results may differ from device to device. Please take this into consideration while reading.

Spending any form of money through a mobile device, one would think that Capcom would put out a premium product. I thought the same way too, while downloading the game that’s been a giant cluster fuck since the first release on the consoles. With a 99 cent price tag, is it still worth it?

The price tag is good for only the offline experience, which alone consists of insane lagging and jagged pixels which are painful to the eyes. When your playing the “Arcade Mode”, it’s simple to see exactly how much health your main character has, but when you look up to see how much red health your back up character has, it’s damn near impossible.  The roster is only 6 deep for both sides, but I find this to be one of the downfalls as I have been spoiled in recent Tekken titles with Asuka Kazama. I understand that as far as mobile devices are they are insanely limited to space, but as a fan service next time up a poll on the Capcom Unity threads, you know just tease us a little bit. As far as the ranked online experience goes it blew so much. Even while sitting right next to the WI-fi router, had to be, hands down, the worst online experience I have ever had console or otherwise.

This is going to be short and sweet, don’t bother with this game, if you want to get it on the consoles.

This game is going to keep me from reviewing other Capcom games, on the IPod for a while, until I get the balls to go spend money again.

A couple of weeks ago I was totally blown away by the awesome hack & slash game on iPad, He-Man The most Powerful Game in the Universe. After beating Beastman, Merman, Hordak, Skeletor and more nasty fiends I’ve completed the game and unlocked everything there was. What was I to do next? Don’t worry He-Man fans!

The lads and ladies at Chillingo had an awesome surprise this week with a special update for He-Man’s manly videogame. Princess Adora has joined the ranks and is ready to kick villain butt as the voluptuous She-Ra. Princess Adora was abducted as a child and brainwashed to become one of Hordak’s many henchmen. Good thing she chose the light instead of the darkness.

You can watch the announcement trailer here.

First released back in 2008 for the Nintendo DS, Professor Layton and The Curious Village became a hit with owners in America, and since then, has released a subsequent game every year with great success, and after 4 games on the original DS, the series finally moves to the Nintendo 3DS.

Professor Layton and The Miracle Mask is the latest game in the series, and with the move to the 3DS, the presentation has taken an obvious upgrade/downgrade depending of the point of view of the person.

The game begins when the Professor himself , accompanied by self-appointed assistants Luke Triton and Emmy Altava, visit the desert oasis of Monte d’Or, where strange incidents have been occurring. Soon after their arrival, they are greeted by the mysterious Masked Gentleman, who apparently has turned many of the carnival attendants into stone, he soon flees and is followed by the trio, only managing to escape in a cloud of smoke, this puts everyone on a journey for the truth, where even the past might have some answers.

The presentation in the Professor Layton games is always top notch, right from the opening anime video sequence (the game contains many of them for your viewing pleasure) the art style is very distinct and charming, the music in the game (just as before) is some of the most “classy” sounding from any videogame, it’s soothing and can help you concentrate on the puzzles, and even it can be downright beautiful at times, as shown in this video.

The gameplay in this game is simple, yet difficult. You spend your time touching things on the screen, finding characters to talk to, searching for collectable items and hint coins (more on that later), and finding puzzles. The hard part (to many) comes from the puzzles themselves, and this is the meat and bones of the game, there are over 150 different puzzles that are found at different points in the game, some are optional, and many are required to advance, the puzzles are varied, and range from arithmetic problems, to use of logic, to observational puzzles that when solved, give out points.

Speaking of points, puzzles are given rank with points dubbed “picarats“, the more picarats it’s worth, the more difficult it is, the value of the picarats decreases if the player gets it wrong, but you can get a hint in the form of “Hint Coins” that give tips ranging from minor, to “this is the answer” in order to conserve picarats. And some may ask; what is the point of picarats? Well, picarats are used for post-game content, ranging from character profiles to in-game movies.

The game adds variety to the mix by introducing some minigames in the form of a Robot (lead it to the right spot using a limited assorted of movements) a Shop (arrange items in the correct pattern to make an efficient sale) and finally, Rabbit, (help a rabbit become a great actor in order to be allowed back on the circus). These mini-games aren’t necessary for game completion, but each can give bonuses, one of such is the rabbit, which helps you find Hint Coins, Treasures, and even Hidden Puzzles in other areas.

The story keeps you immersed, switching between the past version of Layton and his present self in order unlock the mysteries surrounding the Masked Gentleman, the mask, and the city of Monte d’Or itself, as the Professor, the player will come across many colorful characters that may help, or most of the time, hinder you, not with violence mind you, but with puzzles, since that seems to be the answer to 90% of your problems in this game.

This game also has some replay value, that’s right, replay value, because from the day of release for one year, players will be able to download a different puzzle a day, testing the limits of your intelligence each and every day, the difficulty varies from puzzle to puzzle, but some might leave you stomped.

One of the complaints in the game comes from the graphics, while not my personal complaint (this comes more from other fans) is one of the most controversial to longtime fans. The character designs being changed from static images to all out 3D models was a low blow to purists, who think it makes the characters to be clunky looking and somehow removes the charm found in the previous games.

Another complaint personally, is that the series has not shied away from the usual fare, it still works mind you, but there will be a time when it just won’t cut it, thankfully, Level 5 is a dependable company and I’m confident they will give us gamers something new in the future..

I give this game an 8 out of 10. It is a great game that will appeal to those who enjoy text based games with an interesting story, or those who enjoy a good puzzle. But those who are trigger happy keep away, most of the gameplay involves poiningt and clicking.

To those whose interest has been piqued, here is a video with the first 15 minutes of the game.

Brandmania: Hidden Objects

This game in an interesting tidbit. Imagine playing the old find hidden objects book I Spy except that it doesn’t tell you exactly what you need to find and all the objects are related to famous companies and you’ve got Brandmania. You’re a detective of some form that has to find escaped logos and trademarks that have gone on a riot (I don’t get it either) in cities all over the world. At first it took me forever to figure out where some of these hidden trademarks are, which doesn’t mean the game itself is bad, it just means I fail as an American consumer.

Capitalism. Also the only thing I recognized on sight was the hidden Xbox logo.

With every city you get a scenery full of references to well known companies (like a guy with a book on his face for Facebook) and all you have to do is match something in the scenery to the brand you have to find, if you can’t find it at the moment you can switch to another. The game depends on a battery to smoothly keep on going, and to charge it you have to find hidden objects, switching between brands too many times and using too many hints lowers the battery. Between games you will be taken to a scene filled with regular objects to “recharge” your battery, it’s exactly like playing a regular game of I Spy.

This is not a complete game and to keep playing the other stages have to be bought, whether or not you do after the initial amusement is up to you. I can’t be bothered to buy a game that might as well be free considering it’s basically free advertisement.

4/5

Motorcycle Bike Race Fire Chase – Pro Racing Edition

This game is pretty annoying. You’re basically controlling a motorcycle with an invisible driver running away from an invisible fire you can only keep track of with a meter stick of how far away your motorcycle is from said fire the motorcycle keeps getting closer to. And that’s the biggest problem.

The game has multiple hills, to advance every time you go down the hill you’re supposed to tap the screen to speed up the motorcycle, because hitting the gas pedal is a bad idea when you head uphill since the bike gets incredible momentum from the downhill dive. Well if you perform this correctly you should be in midair, and here’s the real challenge: take the nosedive at the correct time, hitting downhill should propel you in midair again, hitting the middle or uphill, which is often unavoidable, results in you slowing down and getting closer to the fire.

That would be completely fine if you could actually get away from the fire, I went past many many hills after several mighty jumps, and I didn’t get a smidge bit farther from where I currently was with the fire. Yet, land in the wrong way and I end up closer after a half second halt. It’s challenging and becomes a quest to become more accurate, but after a while you begin wondering what else you could be doing with your time.

You know, since on the opening screen the motorcycle is on fire the entire game might just be a metaphor from how you can’t run away from the fire considering you’re fated to stay stuck on the same level. And the fire is symbolism for how bad this game is.

It’s like the game was purposely made to make you buy the motorcycles you can’t unlock until you buy them by making whatever progress the default motorcycle accomplishes insignificant. Throw in annoying repetitions of the messages “BOTTOM OUT!” every time you don’t land and “BIG FAT AIR!” after many good jumps and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

1.5/5

PuffOut

This is a very simple game made to pass some time. You move a fish in order to keep him away from three puffer fishes bouncing around the screen. The goal is to keep him from getting popped by avoiding the puffer fishes as long as possible. The challenge is they keep bouncing at ever increasing pace, occasionally slowing down, and they randomly puff up. Items like starfishes and lifesavers pop up and depending on the item give you additional seconds.

The biggest challenge to me is the screen only gives so much space, and because this is a very simple see how long you can last game there’s less engagement than more complex games that operate on survival like Jungle Run. Other than that the game is a decent way to pass time if you’re on the go, just turn off the volume and listen to some of your music.

3/5

Cpt. Backwater

This is a game made to exercise your mind without you noticing. You have to match items in closed chambers with every level revealing new obstacles like wormholes (I believe) and bombs that need to be set off during specific times.

In terms of progress, the game performs splendidly. Every level seems to get subtly harder as you go along and levels eventually need to get unlocked with coins and bananas you earn during gameplay. It is a demanding game, but not unreasonable.

For a simple game, it also has decent and graphics that go easy on the eyes. As a pirate themed game it also does a splendid job with sticking to its theme and remind you you’re out for booty! With 100 levels you’ll be able to enjoy the game for a long time. I’d say this is an app everyone needs to have.

5/5

I have played games created specifically for phones before, and I have found at least some form of entertainment on them, minor, sure, but entertaining nonetheless.

DeadGrind is an on-rails shooter, you are tasked to just shoot zombies, that’s it. There is no story, no actual motivation, and no endearing elements that would make you come back to it again, let me explain by telling you about the game in detail.

You control an unnamed character who is tasked with shooting zombies, shooting them fast is a must, because if you get hit at least once, you become infected and start losing health, you regain health by shooting zombies quickly and efficiently; in the head of course, you can also regain health by shooting crows flying about.

The visuals in DeadGrind are gritty, stylish cel-shaded graphics, everything is, and it feels a lot like a zombie film as you move forward, that’s probably the best thing, unfortunately, everything is forgettable, it gets stale, and it will become uninteresting, so coming back for more is out of the question.

The music is composed by 3 different tracks, the title screen, the main game, and of course, the game over guitar riff, I have to admit they aren’t half bad, tracks soundbut the tracks are forgettable either way, so you won’t remember much about them.

The worst part of this game is the gameplay, you have one gun (M16) and you can unlock a total of 6 guns by getting money from the main game, the thing is the main game gets old quickly, shooting zombies can be a bit fun the first time, but repeatedly, it gets dull, and getting the money needed to unlock the rest of the guns can be a huge drag, since you get a measly amount from killing each zombie, oh, and if you die, that’s it, game over, no going forward for you, the only way to get more enjoyment is by purchasing the premium version along with the gun packs, but once you do that, what’s the point?

All in all, I cannot recommend this game at all, it would be a waste of space on your phone, there was no fun to be had here, the game is free, but unless you like to mindlessly shoot stuff, you shouldn’t waste your time with this.

Well, if you want to spend some space for a game that you‘ll probably forget after the first few playthroughs, be my guest, you have been warned.

Bronies.

It’s a portmanteau that has been going around the internet for a while, and a term that the variety of fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show want to be labeled as, and yes, variety of fans, from little girls to grown adults enjoy this show, and its appeal and fame is something to behold in this day and age, and now, an official game has been released for them to enjoy.

Gameloft was put in charge of creating a game that could appeal to the mass fan base, and surprisingly, they came up with one decent free product, it isn’t as much of a game, in fact it’s more of building city-sim with minigames, and it even has a story, go figure.

You begin with a purple unicorn pony called ‘Twilight Sparkle’ your mission consists of getting all of the ponies who fled because of another evil pony called ‘Nightmare Moon’ and in order to accomplish this, you need to gain all 6 ‘Elements of Harmony’, and as well as getting rid of the darkness covering most of the land.

From here, you have to basically build places for the ponies to work (by buying them from a menu), and in turn, gain coins, gems, and experience that allows you to expand the land by getting rid of some of the darkness covering it, purchase more things in-game, such as more jobs, as well as even more ponies, including the main characters that are needed to access quests that allow you to gain even more coins, gems, and experience.

Calling this a “game” doesn’t really cut it at this point, but there is some sort of gaming that can be done. 2 minigames are available from the start and are alternated with each pony, one involves catching apples as they fall, and the other involves keeping a ball bouncing in rhythm to get more points, the points gained give the pony itself experience that in turn allows them to gain a star that in order to be obtained, needs to play another bonus minigame, which involves flying while getting coins. Getting more stars allow them to do jobs that require certain levels..

The game’s music isn’t much, but it’s there for the sake of having some, it contains basic sound effects as well, but surprisingly, it has voice acting from the actual actresses from the main show, which came as a surprise when I booted up the game, it’s surprising when actors actually voice their characters on games like this instead of stand-ins, listening to Tara Strong’s voice was certainly nice.

The visuals are the thing that impressed me the most, all of the characters are 3D models, and some have specific animations for each that can be “d’aww” inducing at times, the production values visually are actually a treat, most them are simple, but it gives the game a calm atmosphere, although with so many things on-screen, the game can slow down to a crawl.

All in all, this is a simple city simulator game, a free one for that matter, you can easily get it for Android devices and Apple devices such as IPhones, it has its problems with some slowdown, and it can get annoying, but many can look past that. I was reluctant of this game but I enjoyed it enough in small bursts, and isn’t that what mobile games are supposed to do?

Surprisingly, I actually would recommend this to the bronies themselves, if only because small children might not enjoy waiting for the minigames or want to build the city at a snail’s pace in order to see everything that it offers, dedication is at hand here, and the big fans will be very dedicated for a while.