Spellfall - Puzzle RPG Review

I like a nice match-3 game with RPG elements. Dr. WHO, Puzzle Quest, 10000000, Hexic all have sucked copious amounts of my waiting time over the years. Take a little move the pieces to make color, item matches and see things blow up and add some battle trappings and power-ups and we are going to have a good time. That made it very easy for Spellfall™ - Puzzle RPG (Spellfall) from Backflip Studios - free on iTunes - to jump right onto my iPad mini.

Spellfall is set in a fantasy world where spellfall has started and monsters are pouring out to take over the land and only duskwalkers (like you) can cast the spells needed to stop them. You cast spells by matching elements on the game board by swapping elements (fire, water, air, electricity, plant) or collect coins. String together more than 3 tiles and you can get powered up elements that can change all the tiles around them when matched. There are also glowing tiles that when matched will give you a special attack. The element structure also comes into play since monsters may be weak to one element or another. You get a certain number of moves before the monster will attack. Monster attacks will lower your hit points, run out and you lose the battle.

In addition to the basic mechanics of swapping and matching tiles, you have equipment you can bring into each battle - armor and weapon - that can also have runes equipped that will give you further power-ups. Equip a heal rune and you can power it up by matching water tiles allowing you to eventually cast a heal and recover hit points in the middle of a battle. You can only have one active rune at a time, so its best to switch to the one you want to power before you make a move on the board.

Being free to play, the main timer in Spellfall is your hit points. If you are low, you can just wait a while and they will recover. Luckily this is not an all at once type recovery and you can choose how long to wait before proceeding to the next battle. You can also spend some of the coins you earn to heal quickly. Coins are pretty easy to come by as you can get them in your battles as well as from areas of the world you have already cleared of monsters. I am only a few areas (about 50 battles) into the game but I am always hovering about 10,000 coins. Coins are also used to buy equipment (which comes in different rarities - of course) and runes from the store - you unlock new items in the store by defeating monsters (one per battle). The inventory rotates so things are constantly entering and leaving the store.

There is a lot of customization you can make to your equipment depending on the runes and items you equip. During battles you also earn experience and rune points that help level you and your runes up. The further along you get into the game, you will run into monsters too tough for you. If so, you can always go back and redo battles you had previously completed to get more experience. The longer the game goes on, monsters can retake areas you have already cleared. Re-clearing them will be harder but give better rewards.

You can play through Spellfall just mindlessly matching tiles, but the real benefit is through deciding the right equipment for the monster you are fighting and carefully deciding which rune to have active before you move. The way Spellfall is monetized is the typical - spend money to get more equipment or to retry a battle ($0.99 per) if you lost. Some items are outrageously expensive (see the $79.99 price per Claideahm sword), but I recommend you avoid them as the one I have doesn't seem to make that much of a difference in battles. To help you get items without spending cash, the game also offers you a mystery box containing one item for free per day. There are also rewards for login in each day - get 20 days in a row and get a Claideahm sword.

Spellfall is a fun match-3 with RPG elements. A lot of work has been put into adding depth in the strategy of equipping your character and choosing which load out to use against each monster. There are also 3 save slots in the game in case you want to run different games on the same device. While not quite at the level of some of the games I mentioned at the start of this review, Spellfall gets 3.5 Mick Happies.

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.

10000000 Review

My name is Mick Happy and for the last few weeks I have had a problem. The problem is I spend most nights (right before bed) running down the battery on my iPod playing 10000000 by Eightyeight Games. It is easy to play and frustratingly difficult to win.

The game is about you being locked in a castle and trying to get out by running through a hallway filled with doors, chests and monsters. To get past the said obstacles, you try to match 3 or more items in a typical match 3 game played on the bottom part of the screen. You can match keys, wands, stone, wood, packs or swords. Match swords and wands to damage monsters, keys to open doors/chests, wood and stone for resources and packs for special items.

Sounds easy right. Sure it is. For every obstacle you overcome you get gold or score points. Get to 10000000 score and you get your freedom. As you match items in the matching game and beat monsters, you move a little farther to the right on the screen (safety) as you get hit by monsters or take too long to make a match, you move to the left (running out of time). When you go off the screen to the left your run ends. You can then either run again or go home. Once home, you can spend your gold, stone and wood to upgrade your castle and “level up” your skills (making your matches more effective.

Each run you have a few objectives you can try (get 800 wood, defeat X monsters, etc.), which if you achieve them you get a gold or experience bonus and achieve all of them on a level and you will level up your explorer status. (The higher explorer level the more score bonus you get). Whew…that’s a lot to remember, except you don’t have to remember it as all you have to do is start a run and then match tiles as quickly as you can by moving a column up or down or a row side to side. One unique feature of 10000000 is that the screen wraps so if you need something moved you move it as far as you need to up/down or side/side none of this just swap with the tile next to it stuff here.

As you maybe can tell, I like this game. At first it was a bit maddening and a little too frenetic for me, but once I got over trying to get 10000000 each run, it became fun trying to get the little goals each run or raising my score a bit more each time. Now I have nearly maxed out everything I can in my castle and I still only have a high score of 3800000…so much farther to go. But you can bet I will still be running to get there. 10000000 is a 4 Mick Happy game. I was able to pick it up on sale through iTunes for $0.99. It is currently listed at $1.99 and would have been worth it at that price. Here is a trailer from the developer to help you decide: