REVIEW: Fantasy Friends on Nintendo Switch

Review By Jon Donnis

One of the hardest things to do when reviewing games, is to review a game that is totally not meant for you. I am a grown man, and Fantasy Friends on Nintendo Switch is clearly not aimed at me. So, what I did was give the game to my friends 7-year-old daughter, and let her play it, I then asked for her opinion. This is simply put the best way to review such a game. But before we get to what she thought, let's take a look at the general idea of the game first.

"Fantasy Friends takes place in a gorgeous fantasy forest where anything is possible! With the help of Aurea, the magic fairy, you will care for 12 adorable new pet friends! Take care of them and make sure you give them all the love they need. If you do, your pets will grow up and play with you!

The more you care for them, keeping them happy and healthy, the more mana you will earn. Use your mana to get new creatures, buy them new clothes or even cooler toys to play with, and decorate the forest with incredible fun items!

From a flying panda to a rainbow unicorn, discover 12 incredible creatures you'll love to cuddle and play with. As soon as they hatch, all of them will need your attention."

Put it simply, this is a digital pet game. There are lots of skins and colours and so on, you can play with your pet and look after it, it will become more and more unique. You can even decorate their surroundings.

But now we have to get to the opinion of a 7-year-old.
The first test with such a game is the simplest one. Give the child the game and see what they do.

Well, I am happy to say that the child played the game, didn't get bored, and didn't ask for any help. In other words, from the start, the game is easy to pick up and play, and has enough to it, that it can keep the attention of a child. I asked her if she thought the game was too babyish, and she said no.

Next up I asked directly what she liked about the game.

"I like the colours, I like the dragon, I like that you can name the pet and play with them".

Is the game her favourite? No

Has she gone back to it, after putting it down, or playing something else? Yes.

So, there is definitely something here that not only keeps the attention, but also draws the child back.

That is basically as much as we could get out of her as she had more important things to do.

The Good

Bright colourful game, that entertained a 7-year-old on more than one occasion.

The Bad

This game is firmly directed at young girls between the age of about 3-7. That is a tiny market for a game, I think girls older than about 7 might find it too babyish, and girls under 5 might simply not want to play video games.

Overall

If you have a young child that likes Unicorns and digital pets, and want to give them a game that will entertain them and keep them busy for more than 5 minutes at a time, then this might be the game to do that. Will it break any sales records or become a cult classic, no.

With the advice of a 7-year-old, I score the game a simple 7/10

Review by Jon Donnis

Out Now on Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Fantasy-Friends-1863207.html

Patron, survival city-builder with deep SOCIAL aspect announced

Just received some info from Overseer Games on an interesting new "survival city builder" game. This could have some serious potential. Released in the third quarter of 2021.

Looking at the images and trailer, so far so good in my opinion.

Take a look at the blurb, and Alpha Footage below.

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Patron is a survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system. Gather and produce resources, build your fledgling village into a prosperous city and navigate the intricate social tensions before they reach boiling point.

Key features:

A survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system

Gather and produce resources

Establish sustainable production chains

Build your fledgling village into a prosperous city as you construct and upgrade buildings

Manage your people and steer your citizens towards needed professions

Balance social issues: Class strife, Immigration, Religion, Health, Safety, Loyalty...

Plan growth through an extensive Research Tree and unlock technology, policies and upgrades

Plan production and overseas trade to support your economy through difficult times

Genre: Survival city builder

Platform: PC Windows

Release data: Q3 2021

Developer: Overseer Games

For more information check out https://www.patronnewworld.com

and Wishlist the game on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1538570/Patron/

REVIEW: A Glider's Journey on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

One thing I have missed in recent years, is the kind of game that just relaxes you, but still offers up a challenge. A Glider's Journey seems to fit right into that genre.

You play using the mouse or a gamepad, there is no accelerator or brake, you just glide. The idea of the game is to get from your starting point, to the finish which is identified as a landing spot.

The problem being that gliding alone won't get you there, so you need to collect power ups that are conveniently placed around the flying area, each one gives you enough power to reach the next. Miss one or two and you will run out of power and crash.

Luckily for me, there is a "very easy" mode, whereby the physics of the game are simplified, and you will never run out of power, so you are free to glide along to your hearts content. Miss a power up, just do a U-turn and pick it up.

Want to just fly around for a bit and listen to the cool chillout music, you can do that too. But at the end of it all, you do need to reach the end of the level, if you want to unlock the next level, and you also need to collect enough of the power ups to activate the landing spot.

There are 15 levels in total, all of various landscapes and locations, and depending on how quickly you pick up the game, you should be able to finish it all in a few hours. 

The Good

Easy game to play, I liked the simple polygon graphics. And the music really is very relaxing.

The Bad

There are some moments when you have to fly underground that you can easily lose your bearings and not know which way is up or down, but this is solved when you have tried the level a few times.

Overall

Although the game is quite short, it is fun, and if you truly want the most relaxed experience, just put it in Very Easy mode, and just chill out.

I score the game a solid 8/10

Review By Jon Donnis

Out Now on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1102500/A_Gliders_Journey/

REVIEW: Spooky Chase on Xbox One

Review by Jon Donnis
Spooky Chase may very well be the toughest platform game ever, and in part YOU are to blame! For your every move is then replicated by the monsters, over and over again. Imagine a game whereby you know exactly where the monsters will go, yet you still die!

The general idea of the game is to collect flags, when you collect the flag, the level resets and you start again, this time the flag is in a different place, but now there is a monster, and he is following the exact route you took in the previous level.

Suddenly you find yourself on level 10 in search of the golden flag and you have 9 monsters all repeating your previous routes to glory.

It is insanely hard, but in a really good way, because you are in control of where the monsters will go, it really makes you think and plan where you will go. Add to that the difficulties of levels that are half in darkness, or smoke covering holes in the ground, traps, trap doors, and so much more, and you have a challenge that I don't think I have ever found before in a platform game.

The graphics are fun and simple, very retro style, the music is annoyingly catchy, the controls work perfectly. There are various areas to complete levels in, Graveyards, castles, dungeons and so on, and extra things to collect to keep you busy.

All in all, a very fun, but deviously difficult platform game.

I loved it. Make sure to check out my gameplay video below.

8/10

Review by Jon Donnis

Available now on multiple formats, here is the link to buy it on Xbox. Worth checking out.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/spooky-chase/9p45tq1d1pt1

REVIEW: In My Shadow - PC (Steam)

Review By Jon Donnis

In My Shadow is a unique game, you play as a girl (Bella) who is trying to find answers to questions she has about her past, and to find these answers, you collect memories by way of solving single level platform-based puzzles.

There are 4 different rooms that you will play in, and about 50 levels in total. A level consists of the use of shadows. The shadow of a little girl, trying to collect memories that are represented as collectable shadows. You switch between two parts of the puzzle, the first of controlling the little girl, trying to get from point A to point B, while collecting hard to reach memories, and the second switch is to a more external view of the room whereby you can control the furniture which in turn creates shadows on the wall. Move a chair closer to the wall to make the shadow smaller, or move it away to make it bigger, then when you switch back to the girl she can then jump on the chair's shadow to reach her goals.

It a rather unique idea for a game, and one I was excited about when I first read about the game.

As your complete each level, a story plays out through cut scenes, as you learn more about the young girl, and get the answers she seeks.

The puzzles themselves can be tricky, there can be more than one solution to the puzzle, and the trial-and-error method here really is your friend.

The Good

This is a really unique game, a great idea, and along with the melodic music, when you are in a level, everything looks and sounds great.

The Bad

There are some graphical inconsistences between the main scenes, the cut scenes and the game itself, which seems strange to me.

The biggest problem to the game however is the controls. I hate them, simple as that, now I have spoken to the game maker, and he released an update which did improve some of the lag between pressing a button and then the character moving. But there is still a problem there. Now the more you play the game, the less you will notice it, as you will subconsciously adjust how you play to make up for it, but even then you will find yourself in a position whereby you will have all the shadows in the perfect positions, you know exactly what you need to do, and how to do it, but instead of then being able to do it, it may take you numerous attempts, whether that being because you walk off a surface because you didn't jump in time, or you landed one pixel too far and hit a trap. All in all, instead of you feeling that you need to beat the challenge, you feel frustrated because it is like the game is letting you down, as opposed to your own abilities.

When a game relies on pinpoint accuracy when it comes to jumps etc, any little issue is amplified massively, and this is where this game does have a problem, and even after improving the delay times, I still find it an issue. There simply is no margin of error. You need to be perfect. And when the controls are off by a nanosecond, that perfection becomes frustratingly hard to achieve.

You can skip levels however, which I found myself doing, not because I didn't know how to finish the level, but because after failing 20 times in a row at a simple jump, I just lost patience.

Overall

I like this game, I like the idea, the concept, everything about it is original, but the controls just let it down, it is not fun to play. Can this be fixed? I don't know, I am not a game maker. I would like to think that a redesign of the character and the mechanics of movement could make this a great game. But as it is, it is just not quite there.

Maybe it is just me and I am too fussy.

If there is a demo available, try the demo, if you don't see the problems I mention, then buy the game, but you really need to play it first.

I score the game 6/10.
If the game receives some updates in the future, I may revisit this review. In the meantime please check out my game play video below, hopefully this will better explain the game than words ever could!

Review by Jon Donnis

Out on Steam Today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1406200/In_My_Shadow/