Does Not Commute Review

Mediocre AB's Does Not Commute won one of Apple's design awards at the 2015 WWDC. Quite an honor and the game is in some distinguished company with other award winners. I am not surprised to find it winning awards. Let me tell you why.

Does Not Commute is the strategy game based on trying to help citizens of a town get where they need to go on their daily commute. On each level of the game, you are given the top-down view of that section of the town. You are given a commuter, a little bit of their story about who they are and where they need to go and are shown the direction they need to go to exit the screen. From there you help them get to their destination by turning left or right by touching the screen on the left or right. The cars auto-drive forward. If you run into anything, the car will be damaged and slow down. Get all of the commuters to their destinations before you run out of time, you reach the next checkpoint and start the next screen (with any remaining time available from the last screen being your starting time for the next one).

A simple premise, right? Wrong. As you help each commuter, they still drive over the same path you took them down last time as you are trying to drive another car! You will end up with a snarl of traffic and have to plan ahead to make sure each car can get where it needs to be. As you complete levels, you will unlock power-ups that can be used to help each commuter. Faster speed, better traction control, armor are all earned in the first few levels and really come in handy. You can only have one activated at the start of each commuter's run. There are additional time power-ups you can collect during the commute of one of the cars if you drive to the right place.

Beyond the simple gameplay and deep strategy that it brings with the layering of each car moving across the level, Does Not Commute has really nice graphics and a quirky storyline going one. You get a voyeuristic view into the sleepy little town these people are commuting across. Most are funny and weird but all are interesting. All of this comes together into a really fun game.

Does Not Commute is free on iOS (also available on Android) and you can play the whole game free if you make it all in one go. To unlock the use of checkpoints that you earn by completing levels, you will need to make a one-time in app purchase to get the premium version of the game. If you like it after the first few runs, I am sure you will find the couple dollars to be well spent.

For me, driving controls on touchscreen and even console games just don't work as well. There isn't the force-feedback you get driving a real car, so I tend to be awful at them and over-correct or over-aggressively turn. I wish that Does Not Commute had a Draw Race 2 mode where you could draw the route you wanted each car to go rather than real-time trying to drive them. If that mode was available, this would be a 5 Mick Happy game for me. As it is, Does Not Commute if 4.5 Mick Happies. Well worth checking out. See you on the commute.

A Kingdom for Keflings (Xbox 360 - XBLA) Review

For this review of A Kingdom for Keflings from NinjaBee on the Xbox 360, I have to start by stating that I have never played the game. However, I have watched my daughter play for hours and as such feel I can provide a good indication on how good the game is.

A Kingdom for Keflings is a kingdom (city) building simulation where you play a giant (either a character from the game or your own Xbox Live Avatar) help a small race of people, Keflings, build their kingdom in a peaceful little valley. The game revolves around assigning the Keflings to various tasks of collecting resources or working in the various buildings that you make for them.

In A Kingdom for Keflings, you are responsible for assigning each Kefling to their particular role and training them on how you want it performed. Want them to cut wood and take it to the lumber mill, you can do that. Training is done through picking up the Keflings (they sometimes scream when you do) and carrying them to where you want them to work. You also have the option of drop kicking them there too. Once placed, a light bulb comes up over their head indicating that they get the training and then begin performing their task.

A well developed Kingdom

The goal of the game is to create a castle and set one Kefling up as King or Queen. To get there, you will need lots of resources and will have to complete a sizeable building tree (think technology tree). To get some buildings built, you will need the output of others, creating a large infrastructure of resource movements and Kefling activity to get to the later buildings.

The game is cute and straightforward and fun. My daughter has spent hours building up her little village and getting closer to the castle. For her, this is the first Xbox game she thinks she will be able to complete all of the achievements. The base game isn't hard and there is a sandbox mode for those who just want to build the perfect kingdom for their people. There is also downloadable content for more kingdoms to build (some intending to provide a harder challenge).

For those who like building simulations and placing their homes and industry in all the right places or just bossing around people smaller than yourself, A Kingdom for Keflings is a great way to relax. I almost forgot to mention that the soundtrack is very nice, upbeat and takes a long time to get repetitive (at which point it will be stuck in your head). This is also a good entry point for those with younger children that you would like to expose to the real-time building strategy genre.

A Kingdom for Keflings has been around for a while, released for Xbox in 2008 and on Windows in 2010, but still fun. It is regularly $10 (800 MS points) on Xbox Live Arcade. If that is too much, it will probably be on sale on and off in the future. There is also a sequel available, A World for Keflings. Having watched my daughter enjoy herself with the Keflings, I can easily give A Kingdom for Keflings 4 Mick Happies. Go out there an get yourself from Keflings.

PC Trailer