My Own Kind of Freedom Review

I was late to the Firefly party. I rectified that earlier this year by watching all of Firefly and Serenity and even posting a review (here). The characters are great and the setting is very interesting. Like many who like the show/movie, however, it is over all too soon. Amazingly, as I was doing a different review, I happened to find on Wikipedia the Firefly media tie-ins list. There I noticed a reference to some books that were commissioned but never, ultimately, approved by Joss Whedon for release. One of those books, My Own Kind of Freedom, was written by Steven Brust and posted online for free. Get your copy here.

For those who don't know, Steven Brust has penned over 20 novels over the years with the most famous being in his Vlad Taltos series about a human assassin and crime boss living in as an alien in an Empire ruled by a race called the Dragaerans. It is great stuff as is the Khaavren Romances set in the same world (though at an earlier time). Finding out about My Own Kind of Freedom, I thought hey one of my favorite authors, a franchise I like, a free book - that is right up my alley, I need to check it out.

Literally, I just finished the book as I am typing this review. First off, if you don't know the Firefly universe, you should start with the television show. Following that, eventhough it isn't approved (meaning Joss Whedon didn't approve the story), My Own Kind of Freedom takes place sometime between the end of Firefly the series and the movie, Serenity. Which, if you know the show should give you an idea of who is in the story. Like any Firefly story, we find the crew taking on a job and things go awry from there.

In this case, Mal and crew have taken a job bringing wood to a major landowner on Hera. Hera being a site of historical importance in the show as the world where the Battle of Serenity Valley took place. Watch the show to get the reference - you can't miss it). It is a typical delivery job, but nothing can go quite as easy as you would hope for the Serenity crew.

What is great about the book is that it feels just like the show. The dialogue, the character's inner thoughts in their point of view sequences, the situations all feel straight out of an episode of the show. Each character feels right and thus the story is exactly what I was looking for, an extension of the show and universe. We even get flashbacks to what some of the characters were like before the events covered in the Firefly series. This is mainly done as a way to introduce some characters important to My Own Kind of Freedom, but also does more to expand our knowledge of these characters we love.

The only nit I found to pick were a couple of instances where some of the point of view sequences are a little different than what I would expect to have going on in the character's heads, but those are few and far between. They also don't detract from the overall tone, feel and story.

If you like Firefly/Serenity and want more, this is the ticket (did I mention it was free?) Think of it as a way to hold you over until the mobile game comes out in 2014. Also think of it as a way to get exposed to Steven Brust if you haven't already and then you can pick up his Vlad Taltos series to give you even more to do to fill your time. My Own Kind of Freedom gets 4 Mick Happies - not quite the original Firefly/Serenity, but a very good addition to it. Too bad there aren't more of these expanded universe novels approved. Guess we will have to settle for that mobile game and the graphic novels.

M.U.L.E. Returns Review - (Updated Dec 17)

Has it really been 30 years since M.U.L.E. was first released by Ozark Software? It has! To the benefit of all of us filled with nostalgia for the game, Comma 8 Studios, has brought M.U.L.E. Returns forward to iOS (Android coming in 2014). For those who don't know, a M.U.L.E. (or Multiple Use Labor Element) is a strategy game of supply and demand. You play a colonist dropped with 3 other colonists on the planet of Irata with the goal of developing a successful colony. Here's how it goes.

The game is setup in turns with each turn consisting of land selection, land development, resource collection and an auction of resources. The developer's website has a great strategy guide to help you with all the details of the game, here. Basically, each turn starts with a view of the game board with all of the plots of land shown. As you watch, the plots are highlighted one after the other. When the one you want to own is highlighted, you tap the screen to select it. In a game against AI opponents, this is done simultaneously, so it is possible that your opponents will swipe the plot you want right out from under you. Land is how you obtain resources. Each plot can sustain one M.U.L.E., a mule-shaped robot that you outfit to harvest either food, energy or smithore (think iron). If the plot has a river, you get more food from it, if it is just flat land - more energy and mountains/hills = more smithore.

After selecting land, you then can buy a M.U.L.E. from the colony store and pay to outfit it for the type of resource you want it to develop. Using tapping and dragging controls, you navigate the M.U.L.E. into vendor stalls to outfit it and then exit the store to take it to your land plot. Once at the plot, you tap to install your outfitted M.U.L.E.. The turn continues until you run out of time (how much you get is defined by how much food you had at the start of the turn - too little food means less time). On each land development turn, you can also hunt for the Wumpus, a little creature who pops up on mountain plots that if you are on the tile when he shows up, you can tap the plot and catch him to gain some money. You can also go to the Pub/Casino at the end of your turn to try and earn some extra cash.

After land development, the turn moves to resource collection where you see what your plots have produced. Each one makes a few of the resource you have setup the M.U.L.E. to collect. There are modifiers that can increase or decrease the amount as well as events that may happen to boost or decimate your production. After that, you move to the final stage of the turn: the auction.

The auction is where you convert your resources you have gained into cash, or buy resources you need for the next turn. At each resource auction, they happen one at a time starting with Food, you get to choose to either buy or sell. Once you choose, you use a up/down button to raise or lower the amount you offer to see or buy at until a price is agreed with another player or the store. Here is where the real strategy of the game shines. Will you try to corner the market on a particular resource by buying all of it up? Will you flood the market by selling tons of a resource and making it worthless for your opponents to develop? All are options.

The real trick of the game is that while you are rated on your total score at the end to determine who has won, the colony score (total of all player's scores) at a whole is also considered. The best players will find a way to score high (lots of money, resources and land) while also helping their opponents also score well enough to have the colony overall do well.

M.U.L.E. Returns is a faithful and re-skinned homage to the original M.U.L.E., the original often finding a place in the top 10 computer games of all time. The updated graphics and soundtrack are great. Plus all of the favorite game play elements are there and the game offers the same deep strategy of the original. And multiplayer, which was one of the key features of the original M.U.L.E., is coming soon. You should know, however, that there are some quirks of the touch interface that will take some getting used to. It can be a little touchy to get the right price level in the auctions using the touch buttons. Additionally, it can be difficult to get timing right on stopping buying or selling on the number of items you want when selling at auction. Finally, a end auction button to move to the next auction would be helpful as you are sometimes left waiting for the timers to run down with nothing happening on screen.

[Update: Only a couple hours after posting this review, an update was made to M.U.L.E. Returns for iOS that addresses many of the suggestions/little issues with game play I mentioned above. Great job, Comma 8!]

If you want a great strategy game that feels like a board game made into a video game or if you liked M.U.L.E. and want it back for the 21st century, M.U.L.E. Returns is for you. M.U.L.E. Returns gets 4 Mick Happies. Off to get my M.U.L.E.s to work. See you on Irata.

Doctor Who: Legacy Review

It is very rare (read basically never happens) that my wife and I like the same game. I am all about role playing, strategic, action RPG, simulation type games. She likes hidden object and match 3 games. What we both like though, is the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant Doctors. If you don't know what those are, you must be under a rock since they are part of the BBC's long-running Science Fiction show, Doctor Who. And a couple of weeks ago, Tiny Rebel Games released a licensed Doctor Who game called Doctor Who: Legacy (DW:L).

DW:L is a free to play match 3 game where you assemble a team consisting of the Doctor and up to five companions to try to defeat levels that the game calls episodes. These episodes are based on some of the actual episodes from the TV show, starting with Season 7.

To play the game, you match 3 or more gems of different colors. To match gems you just touch and drag the gem where you like it to be. No swapping with just the gem next to it, you can move it anywhere on the board. How you move it to where you want it will impact how the gems displaced move. Depending on the color you matched, one of your companions (or the Doctor) will attack the enemies shown at the top of the screen. The amount of damage done is dependent on the attack value of the character (more on that later). Combos (matching several gem groups of 3 or more) amplify the attack or healing effect of the matched gems. When each of the enemies health bar gets to zero, you move to the next wave (or win the episode). Each enemy you defeat has a chance to drop a time fragment or unlock a new companion or alternate art for your characters. (When you select the episode you want to play, it tells you what rewards are possible). You may even get a time crystal which can be spent in the game's store to unlock new companions.

Each of the characters in the game are from the TV show. Some are generic like the UNIT Commander, while others are well-known from the show like Rory and Amy Pond. Each character gains experience when you successfully complete episodes. That experience can be used to level up the character and allow you to raise their health, attack or heal values (all used during episodes to keep the team alive or defeat enemies). Each character also has a special ability that can be used after a specific number of turns or matches of gems. For instance, Rory's ability is Brace, which can heal allies for a certain amount of health. You start the game with the Matt Smith Doctor and Madame Vastra as your companion, but soon you will have a whole slew of characters to choose from.

Companion characters max out their level at 10. Then to progress them further, you use the time fragments you unlocked to raise their rank (unlocking the next 10 levels for them to gain). Even the Doctor's rank can be raised with the right combination of time fragments. Raising the rank also makes each character's special ability more powerful. This is essential as each episode of the game gets progressively harder and you need a maxed out team to defeat some of the hardest.

Earlier I mentioned that this is a free-to-play game. Unlike other free-to-play games, there are no timers. You can play as long as you like. The currency in the game (time crystals) seems to only be usable to unlock new companions at the moment, which is not necessary as new companions can drop from episodes. Note that some companions drop automatically on a given episode (like Porridge) while others seem to never drop no matter how many times you play the Angels Take Manhattan episode (River Song). Maybe I am just unlucky.

For those who aren't patient, you can purchase time crystals and use them to get companions (randomly) or through the Women of Doctor Who pack that contains Amy Pond, River Song, Clara Oswald and Nefertiti. I can imagine that eventually new "seasons" of episodes may also be available from the store by spending time crystals. Purchasing a pack of time crystals also opens up a fan area in the game that has more goodies to play with. So far, nothing feels like you need to spend to win. My wife did by some time crystals just to support the developers.

The developers for the game, Tiny Rebel Games, have done a great job with it and are actively with their player base. For the month of December, they are doing an advent calendar promotion by providing codes to unlock companions, time fragments or new outfits for characters and opening up special (very very difficult) bonus levels to play through when you have completed most of the other content in the game. All of which is free from their website. I particularly liked my new K-9 companion.

DW:L is a fun, easy to pick up but full of depth match-3 game. No timers and little need to spend to win. It is available on Android and iOS. If you are a fan of match-3 games or Doctor Who, go check it out. DW:L gets 5 Mick Happies. Allon-sy.

Flick Kick Football Legends Review (Updated)

I played a lot of Flick Kick Football from Pik Pok on my iPod. When I saw that they were releasing a new Flick Kick game called Flick Kick Football Legends (available for iOS and Android), I was certain I would pick it up and give it a try. The original game, typically $0.99 or $1.99, uses a 1970's shaded-cel feel with a swiping mechanic to shoot soccer balls at the goal. There are often players put in the way as obstacles that you have to bend kicks around. All in all, a fun game.

In Flick Kick Football Legends, Pik Pok has taken the same 70s feel and the flick mechanic and expanded it to a full game. With game clock running, you will use the flick mechanic to pass the ball to teammates and attempt to score. Hit an opposition player, they will steal the ball and then you have to use the flick mechanic to dispossess them before they score on you. There are also Nigel and Kevin, the announcers who share some witty reparte after every match.

The game also has a player card mechanic added - each of your team members have their own trading card that shows their level and special abilities (like making the goal a little wider, stronger shot or better bending ability on shots). You swap players in and out depending on the mix of abilities you want on the field. There are also different rarities of cards, which translate to more or fewer abilities for that player and also impact their level cap (basic cards start all maxed out with no abilities, commons have one ability and can level 3 times, uncommons have 2 abilities and can level up 6 times, etc.).

You play your team through various divisions, earning promotion to the next level by winning your league. The amateur league has fewer, easier opponents and each subsequent division has more opponents, stronger competition and more games to play before the season is over.

As with most free-to-play games, you can earn two types of in-game currency. Gold coins are earned for winning matches, 10,000 of them can be spent on a basic pack of 3 common (possibly one of which could be uncommon) cards. Cash is earned by winning your league and 250 cash can be spent on a pack 3 cards and at least 1 uncommon or better card. Or you can spend more cash for better packs. There is also a stamina counter that limits how many matches you can play in a row before you have to wait for the timer to finish its 30 minute countdown and the stamina bottle to refill a bit (1 game worth per 30 minutes). Oh and did I mention ads? They show up as well - as banners at the top of the screen and full page ads you have to click out of between halves or after matches. According to Pik Pok, the ads will go away after making an in-app purchase and rebooting the app.

It is these free-to-play elements that actually overwhelms an otherwise fantastic game. I understand wanting to make money off the great game you have made, but the constant ads, stamina timer, slow cash earnings limiting getting more players all detract from a great swiping game mechanic with cool card/player leveling system and game progression through seasons and promotion to new divisions.

Where Pik Pok could have gone is to make this a paid app (a couple dollars) and then still leave in the currencies. If you want to pay to get quick cash - go for it. If you want to play to earn what you can - do that. Oh and remove the stamina timer as all it does is make me stop playing the game. Or change it to a player stamina timer so you have to rotate players (available skills) for some matches or just wait until playing. If those things were changed, Flick Kick Football Legends would be a 4 or 5 Mick Happy game. As it is, it is at best a 3 Mick Happy game due to the interruptions, timers, etc. It is really too bad that a great game is hobbled by the implementation of free-to-play.

As an aside, I have taken it as a personal mission to progress as far as I can in the game without spending a dime due to the annoyance I have with the In-app Purchase and timers. Which is a shame as I would have spent 2 or 3 dollars on the game otherwise. For another free-to-play game that has in-app-purchases done right, you should check out Dr. Who: Legacy.