Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night

When Puzzle Quest came out, nobody had seen anything like it. Its combination of match-three gameplay and RPG character building was a huge breath of fresh air. Konami has tried to change things up again with Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night, a re-telling of its classic PlayStation title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Amazingly, Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night manages to feel free and new like Puzzle Quest, and yet stays true to its roots as an action/exploration game.(In the interest of full disclosure, I have played the original repeatedly over the last decade. I am so intimately familiar with the game that I can literally play it in my head without a controller in hand.)Following the plot of the classic title, Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night tells the story of Alucard, son of the evil Count Dracula, who is drawn to CastleVania to put a stop to his father’s reign of terror once and for all. However, there are others who roam the castle, and not all is as it seems. The hero of the people, Richter Belmont, has seemingly turned to the dark side, and his sister-in-law Maria is searching for answers. Even Death himself has a say in your fate.

The castle layout is the same as the original – that is to say, enormous! CastleVania is made of up different areas, like the Marble Gallery, Underground Caverns, Outer Wall and more. Each area has a vast number of rooms to explore. Saving your game comes in the form of Safe Rooms littered throughout the castle. These rooms allow you to replenish your HP and MP, as well as shop with another important character, the Librarian. If you know where to go from the original game, you’ll know where to go here. If you’re new to the Castlevania universe, don’t worry as you explore the massive map. The Librarian character will help guide you to your next destination with the game’s generous hint system. Read full story...

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Tiny Castle Review

It should really come as no surprise, but with their latest game Tiny Castle, Nitrome has once again proven themselves to be one of the kings of original content. Tiny Castle is a challenging platformer that breaks from convention and offers up something truly unique: rather than progressing from stage to stage, you’ll stay in one gigantic room that will transform to present you with new challenges as you progress.It should really come as no surprise, but with their latest game Tiny Castle, Nitrome has once again proven themselves to be one of the kings of original content. Tiny Castle is a challenging platformer that breaks from convention and offers up something truly unique: rather than progressing from stage to stage, you’ll stay in one gigantic room that will transform to present you with new challenges as you progress.As a young knight you’re attempting to reach the castle’s maiden who is locked away in a cage dangling from the ceiling. To reach her you’ll need to navigate the one massive, ever-changing room that is Tiny Castle. You’ll climb ladders, slay creatures, and find keys to unlock doors. All the basics of the platform genre are here. Movement is controlled with the arrow keys, and your hero can attack by tapping Z. It’s simple, it’s smooth, it’s precise -- but what sets this one apart isn’t the controls, it’s the environment.As you progress through the game you’ll see the castle change over and over again as it offers up new areas to explore. The environment must change a dozen times during the course of the game. Platforms crumble, areas flood, lights go out – every manner of game changer is introduced, and every time it offers up a new set of simple objectives to tackle. In the dark? You’ll need to light all of the candles. Flooded? You’ll need to swim past dangerous fish to find safety. The changes are paced out at smart intervals and the figuring out what to do is never too complicate, so new content is never more than a few minutes away. Read full story...

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The Clockwork Man: The Hidden World - Review

The Clockwork Man: The Hidden World is everything the first game should have been. It has all of the things that made The Clockwork Man enjoyable (exquisite hand-drawn graphics, unique scrollable and zoomable scenes, cool steampunk theme, fresh and challenging puzzles) but addresses the issue of the first game's short length. Boasting six rich chapters instead of the original's scant three, The Hidden World feels like a full-fledged game and delivers a satisfying ending.

The story once again centers on aspiring engineer Miranda Calomy and her robot friend Sprocket. Miranda is searching for her parents, who disappeared eight years ago. Her search begins in an abandoned mine in Ireland, the last place her parents were seen alive, and takes her to several increasingly exotic and wondrous locations.

The Hidden World clearly assumes you've played the first Clockwork Man and dumps the player into the story a little abruptly. And to be honest, the story isn't the game's strongest point. No, you'll be playing this one for the beautiful graphics, polished hidden object/adventure gameplay and ingenious puzzles. Read more...

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Hidden Mysteries: Vampire Secrets - Review

As the hidden object genre becomes more and more crowded, games have to try harder to be considered worthwhile. There's nothing really wrong with Hidden Mysteries: Vampire Secrets, it's just terribly ordinary. In a field where true standouts are emerging, Vampire Secrets' biggest crime is that it's simply not special.

You play as Claire, who decides she needs a vacation after suffering from a series of painful visions. She heads off to visit her beloved Aunt Rosie, who she discovers has mysteriously left town. Rosie, it turns out, suffers from visions of her own, and only Claire can discover the evil that is threatening the town and allow Rosie to return. It doesn't make much sense, really, but it does give Claire an excuse to prowl around the churches and lighthouses of Savannah. Read more...

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Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister

If you’ve ever seen the movie Twister, then you know that tornado chasing can be full of excitement and drama. The thrill of the chase, the danger and unpredictability, working together as team, tornado chasing has it all. But when you’re an intern, much of the excitement is lost. And that’s exactly the situation that Nancy Drew finds herself in during her 22nd adventure, Trail of the Twister.
When the original intern for an Oklahoma tornado research team runs into some mysterious car troubles, Nancy goes undercover to investigate, taking over his spot. She joins a group that has been hit with a string of bad luck, mostly related to equipment malfunctions, though there are plenty of hints that suggest sabotage. And since the research team is competing for a $100 million grand prize, it’s cause for investigation.
In her role as an intern, Nancy attempts to learn about the different members of the research team to figure just who might be responsible for all of equipment troubles. Each member has their own particular motivations and figuring out just who is the culprit is no easy task. But even with all of this mystery and sabotage -- not to mention an incoming tornado -- the story is rather thin and not as exciting as you’d imagine. Instead of chasing tornadoes and questioning witnesses, most of Nancy’s time is spent doing chores. Lots and lots of chores. Read more...

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Skies of Glory

2010 is quickly shaping up to be the year of cross-platform gaming. Steam kicked things off earlier with their Mac vs PC multiplayer announcement back in March. Right behind that was the release of Namco’s UniteSDK platform, and later this summer we’ll even see the OpenFeint network running across multiple mobile devices. Thanks to publisher SGN, there’s one more title we throw on the cross-device fire.
Launched on the iPhone in December 2009, Skies of Glory is an aerial combat game featuring the sights and sounds of World War II. With the recent release of the Android version, players who pick up the game on either the iPhone or Android will be able to compete against players on both devices. The Android version was developed in collaboration with Revo Solutions Games, the same development partner that helped SGN bring Skies of Glory to the iPhone late last year. Read more...

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Moonbase Alpha

Space. The final frontier. At some point all of us have wondered just what it would be like to venture out into the starry sky and view the mysteries of the universe first hand. But, of course, it takes a lot more than wishing to be able to take a trip to the Moon. Like, an engineering degree, for instance. So, in an attempt to inspire a new generation of space explorers, NASA has released Moonbase Alpha, a new game that aims to recreate the experience of living on the moon.
Set 15 years in the future, the game takes place on a new moonbase that is now self-sufficient, thanks to the wonders of solar power. Unfortunately for everyone living on the base, at the outset of the game a meteor strikes the Moon, damaging many of the important components necessary for producing oxygen. With just under 25 minutes, it's your job to repair this damage so that everyone can continue on breathing. Read full story...

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Vera Blanc - Episode 1: Full Moon

Werewolves were originally conjured up to account for unexplainable killings, and the mythological beasts soon became known in folklore as a shape-shifting creature, with the ability to switch between human and wolf form. Of course, the idea of such a monster is ludicrous, but from Vera Blanc's point of view anything is possible - she herself can reach minds!
Vera Blanc: Full Moon is an adventure mystery story, set out in the style of a comic book, which asks players to investigate a series of crimes and make crucial, plot-altering decisions. While the storyline is sometimes a little too random, the overall charm and mystery make this a worthwhile experience.
Vera Blanc is only sixteen when she is diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors give her six months to live, but her multi-millionaire father is having none of it. He pays top dollar for a very experimental procedure, and soon afterwards Vera has miraculously recovered.

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Deadly Sin 2: Shining Faith

When the Seven Deadly Sins were first conceived, they were divided into venial sins, which referred to minor offences and were not of grave importance, and capital sins, which could potentially render a person's soul as "dead." Deadly Sin 2 is a gorgeously pixelated RPG with a huge storyline and plenty of skills and moves to keep the most hardcore adventurer busy, but ultimately commits a whole host of sins. Fortunately they are all of the venial type, but the overall experience is still heavily impeded.
Players take control of Carrion, an Imperial Soldier to the Empire who finds himself stuck in the middle of deadly conflict. Along with Maric, his adopted brother who can be a little crude but always has his back, Carrion sets out on a simple mission to rescue the Imperial Princess, but soon discovers there are troubling times afoot.
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Chisel

Combining elements of Qix, Dig Dug and Super Mario Galaxy is no easy feat, yet that’s exactly what Nitrome’s latest game Chisel accomplishes with finesse. We take command of a drill-headed robot named Chiseller as he drills planets in half over and over again and love every minute of it.

Chisel is an action arcade puzzler that tasks players to shrink planets to a certain size. To do this, Chiseller will hop on his head and drill in a straight line from one side of the planet to another, taking out some of the mass and causing the two bisected pieces to come together. Players will do this over and over until the planet is tiny enough to progress to the next level.

The game wouldn’t be much of a challenge if all you had to do was cut a planet in half. Thankfully in typical Nitrome-fashion a healthy combination of brilliant level design and new gameplay twists throughout manage to keep players on their toes.

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Breaking Bad: The Interrogation

Interactive fiction isn’t something we cover a lot of here on Gamezebo, and there’s a good reason for that. It’s often boring, dry, and excruciating to play through. ...and then there’s Breaking Bad. Focussing on a character from the popular TV show of the same name, Breaking Bad: The Interrogation plays out like the Serpico equivalent to Choose Your Own Adventure. It’s gruff, it’s gritty, and it’s incredibly fun.

Players take up the role of DEA Agent Hank Schrader. Hank is investigating a fire in a church, and the only lead is a weasly little bookworm named Hadley Berkitz. Hadley volunteers at the church and does their bookkeeping. He may be good at math, but as far as Hank’s concerned something doesn’t add up.

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Race to Rome

The road to Rome is paved with the thunder of horse's hooves in Race to Rome, a free-to-play chariot racing game from Shockwave and the Article 19 Group about a man seeking revenge against the Roman Emperor Caligula.

The game's Roman revenge story, which echoes that of Ridley Scott's Gladiator movie, focuses on a former Centurion named Marcus. The Emperor Caligula is not happy when Marcus decides to leave the army and return to his home on the island of Crete. As punishment, Caligula sends soldiers to invade Marcus' home, assault his wife, and kidnap his son. Marcus sets off for Rome with vengeance on his mind.

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