Mega Flux

SoFresh Games

Pipe Dream meets The Matrix meets a horrible accident at a chinese fireworks emporium. MegaFlux offers a great new twist on a classic puzzle game. The crazy symbols representing blondes, redheads, and brunettes float through a grid like tapestry of connections and intersections as you try and make sense of this crazy futuristic world you live in.

The objective is to attach the part of your screen this is spewing out this futuristic code to the color coordinated receptacle. You have to use up all the spaces, and some interesting things can happen if you cross the streams.

I vaguely remember the year when PipeDream came out for the original GameBoy, I believe I lost about 27 hours over a period of a weekend getting lost in that game, I think this is a winning game idea as an evolution to that games concept jacked up with more stimulants then the Yankees starting lineup. It may not be for everyone since, as I said, it is a fairly simple puzzle game at it's heart, but the execution for what this game tried to accomplish came out great.

Recommendation: If you are like me and loved the old school pipe dreams, give this one a try.

Words 'n' Blox

Greenlit Games AS

Are you a fan of doing crosswords and word finds, well, get ready for a game that has almost nothing in common with those other then the english language with Words 'n' Blox. The irony of a word game that refuses to use proper spelling in it's title is not lost on me.

Using the basic physics of sliding scrabble pieces, Words 'n' Blox makes you move lettered tiles around a colorfully plotted garden until you adjoin it with it's brethren to form a correctly formed word. There are some stipulations, they are looking for a particular word, not just any proper word that you can spell, this is usually intuitive based on the placement of the tiles at the beginning of each level (i.e. C-A-T is CAT, not ACT). The swiping action does seem prone to the accidental ad tap as well.

In the end you have a fairly simple word game that doesn't take a long time to master, throw in the simplicity of the words, and you have a game that will bore you one level, then frustrate the crap out of you the next. Scoring is based on the number of moves you need to complete them, though the specifics of the star system elude me as it appears that you can make only 3 out of 4 stars when you make what appears to be a minimalist number of moves.

Recommendation: Don't bother, the landscapes in the game will remind you too much of the old Legend of Zelda games and you'll never keep your attention on the game long enough.

Pudding Monsters

Zeptolab

A Puzzle game with characters that have a familiar resemblance to our friends in the game 'Cut the Rope'. The graphics straddle a line of fruitcake that is passed over at the company Christmas party and one of the characters you would see in the 'Lilo and Stitch' cartoon. The bright and colorful play action and avatars will keep you giddy while the general grotesque nature of the concept will make you wince, resulting in a very comical expression.

Gameplay is pretty basic, and the game is pretty good at giving you a quick tutorial each time a new rule or piece is introduced, though you may find yourself flubbing a move once or twice as you learn to interpreted said clips

Recommendation: Try not to flick your finger on one of the ads on the screen, otherwise let yourself smirk and remember this game is about the funny little images first, and puzzle solving second.

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RPG Izazov

6Cubed

Ich liebe ein gutes Kerkertaucherspiel soviel wie der folgende Kerl, aber es gibt eine Frage, wenn Sie nichts in den Richtungen oder in der Geschichte nicht verstehen können.

Zu den Lesern dieses Blogs, die möglicherweise wirklich Deutsch verstehen, wünsche ich zu zuerst mich entschuldige für mein Schlachten der Sprache, während ich jede mögliche Richtung der Diktat- und Satzstruktur verlasse.

Ich habe keine Ahnung, was ich mich einreiche, das, E-Mail-Adresse zu mir überschreiten müssen.

Empfehlung: Es sei denn, dass Sie fließend Deutsch sprechen oder diesen Posten lesen können, ohne einen Übersetzer zu verwenden, stören Sie nicht mit diesem.

Lair Defense: Dungeon

DroidHen Publisher

Lair Defense definitely gets a gold star to the developers who coded this up. One of the better games that I've played in the first several dozen of game reviews that we've compiled. It requires strategy, planning, active management, and a pretty good set of graphics to boot.

If you are a fan of the book series Eragon (or it's lack luster attempt on the big screen) you will appreciate a game where you are charged with the task of defending the precious few dragon eggs as hordes of invaders who crave an omelet risk and typically forfeit their lives trying to march through your gauntlet of dragon turrets. Red dragons kit hardest, blue hit farthest, green have a damage over time, though I question how effective the latter is.

The power ups you purchase with your gold are a little difficult to track and see the benefit for, so tread lightly when spending your rewards. The best hint I can give is to not think so much about how far your dragon blasts hit when placing them, but rather how many times the baddies will cross into your dragons path.

Recommendation: My personal favorite so far, get it, love it, then go and read the Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini.

Art of Glow

Natenai Ariyatrakool

Not so much a game as it is a way to pass the time while making amusing shapes and colors on your screen. It takes me back to the days of spirographs and lite-brites, though for some it may send you into a pretty nasty flashback sequence of raves and that time when the fireworks plant exploded.

For those readers who have never experienced a fireworks plant explosion, then just picture getting drunk on egg nog and watching your old man untangle the 7,000 piece string of Christmas lights in the garage. That is an image I'm sure we can all relate to.

Recommendation: There are more options as far as what shapes appear with what intensity and color to keep you engaged longer then any human being would want to admit to considering it is a lot of pretty colors on a computer screen. It is recommended that you slide your phone or tablet into a comic book or dirty magazine so people will respect your level of intelligence as you play with this app.

Ichi

Stolen Couch Games

When you download a game from a company that calls themselves 'Stolen Couch' and a game called 'Ichi' the first word that would come to my mind is 'Fumigate'. Luckily, this game has almost nothing to do with what the implied connotation. 

Though origin of it's name may be a mystery, the concept behind the game play takes me back to my junior high drafting class in a world that exists on a grid pattern and observes the basic principles of angle of entry equals angle of reflection. This statement ironically taking me back to junior high math class. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it takes the intelligence of an eighth grader to master this puzzle game. The kicker with my analogy is that you actually receive a letter grade for each level based on completion and number of taps that allow you to reorient the deflecting triangles on each stage.

Few of the levels are terribly tricky, though you may find yourself frustrated at both getting an 'A' grade and the speed at which you may have to turn a piece to prevent your little slamming ball from colliding with one of the squiggly lines that spell your doom. Heh, spelling, another part of my educational upbringing I don't miss much.

Recommendation: A nice puzzle game that allows you to stick it to your junior high math teacher that kept giving you C's because you couldn't remember the difference between sine and cosine. 

Fun Run

dirtyBit

Buzz saws hacking you in two while leaving your brains to rot, lightning bolts frying you to a crisp, bear traps that cut you open with a gush of blood, and a parade of cute pink bunnies are in this twisted player versus player racing game.

Be sure to start of doing a hand full of practice games before heading out into the wide world of wacky racing and playing against other players because there are a lot of aspects to this game to absorb at a very fast pace. For starters there are basically only two functions you can perform while playing, that is to jump/climb to clear obstacles and the other button that activates whatever special power you have garnered. Think Super Mario cart when deciding when to use your powers, taking into account who you will hit and effect with certain powers and also consider how soon you will come across another power up box.

After each race, you are given a couple rank points or docked a couple depending on where you are in the four person podium at the end. As best as I can tell, this is little more then bragging rights.

Overall, the game is very fast paced and can be very entertaining, just remember that for every sawblade you shoot and phony box you lay on the track, there is another player out there cursing away at your avatar.


Recommendation: Download it and then look for the pink bunny named kurmudkin, see if you can withstand my awesome assortment of acme like attacks and actions. See you in cyber space!

Crocodile Island

9kgames

Flash back to 80's style of RPG in this game from 9kgames, you are a young wizard character that finds themselves on an island, riddled with monsters varying from what looks like bears with pirate outfits and birds, just bids, but they flap around and look really menacing.

The game proceeds with you running across each screen full of obstacles and monsters trying to get to the next well that loads up the next screen with even more menacing birds and bears in pirate outfits. Manage your mana carefully less your character be forced in grueling hand to hand combat with said birds and bears. But don't simply maneuver around all the enemies to get to the next level, or else you will never level up and soon enough your ability to fight will be reduced to next to nothing.

The end game is what eludes me, and by eludes I mean that I have no idea what the objective of this game is. Move through a few dozen stages and advance several levels only to realize you are just going through the same motions of when you started. Perhaps if the story premise was on the screen for more then 3 seconds I could read it and get some glimmer to what the game was about. At one point in the game you encounter a Princess who warns you the game will get more difficult and to use gems and coins to spend at the store. A Store that I am unable to access. Keep in mind too though that this is the 'Lite' version. Perhaps the $2.99 version will shed some light on what is going on, on Crocodile Island.

Recommendation: Download it, beat it, and then tell me what the point of it was.

Classic Crocodile Dentist

Devel Apps

I present a challenge to you the reader, I'm guessing you can find, download, install and master this app faster then it would take you to read this review and draw a conclusion if it is worth your time to find, download, install and master this app.

You start the game, there are no intro graphics, you start a new game that reviews a cuddly 8-bit graphic of the classic crocodile dentist game, tap on the teeth using absolutely no scientific method whatsoever, and then the screen goes red and the phone shakes when you pick the one tooth that is tied to the nerve that causes an involuntary reaction of the croc to snap your hand off. This was a 'board' game once upon a time, though it was probably taken off the market after kids where scared out of the field of dental hygiene. Perhaps that's why dentist bills are so much?

So did you get the app installed for yourself yet? it's 655K and I'm not sure what the other 400K is used for cause this is about as simple as it gets when it comes to gaming.

Recommendation: unless you have a friend who wants to huddle around your phone/tablet with you to play, this is kind of an exercise in futility, and good oral hygiene.

Kodomo Island

javamovil games

For a change of pace, let's see what people are saying about this game on Google Plus reviews.

"Wish you could give it no stars"

"Where is the instruction?"

"Very difficult to control, uninstalled"

"I couldn't pass level one, very hard to control"

"Does anyone have a good recommendation for a place I can grab a cheeseburger?"

Ok, that last one is mine, just making sure you are paying attention. but these reviews sum it up, this game is possibly one of the most difficult to control that I've had to review to date. If you tap and hold the screen will give off a reddish flare that makes you think it's doing something, otherwise my strategy on this game was to take the screen like mad trying to get my character to jump on top of all the animals that have the spiral eyes. This bop on the head seems to bring them out of the trans and they become docile. Every time you start to think you understand how to tap the screen in such a way to accomplish what you need to do, you try again and feel like you are right back to square one.

My apologies to the cuddly animals of Kodomo Island, but whatever disease has turned you all into looney tunes characters suffering from dizzy spells appears to be incurable.

Recommendation: Take these poor inflicted woodland creatures out back and give them a quick and painless burial.

Mad Racer Free

demensdeum

A game that advertises Full 3D graphics, accelerometer controls, outstanding music, honest police, and dizzying chases, should bring a few questions to mind. What the heck do you mean 'honest police'? How do you get 'dizzying chases'? The answer is simple, they are just making up words and throwing them into the overview, because this game fails on every imaginable level. Oh, and the music isn't good either.

The game play is hard, very hard, frustratingly difficult to the point you may want to throw your phone against the wall if you commit yourself to actually mastering this game. You are the motorcycle thug 'Dooshce Bagger' who is trying to go 200 mph on his motorcycle on a major freeway with no helmet in a town that apparently specializes in the manufacturing and transportation of large ramps as there are about as many of those on the highway as there are anything else. You launch rockets to clear your way and to get 'the man' and his deadly assault helicopters off your back. 

The flaws in this game are too many to note all in this one review, the traffic flies at you waaaaaay too fast, there are no real explanations on what you are doing, you have to crash your cycle about 30 times before you start to even get a grasp on what you are doing. The best strategy is to aim for the aforementioned ramps and launch rockets whenever you see anything in front of you. The lack of power ups or any incentive other then score driving you makes this game a complete waste of space.

Recommendation: Don't play it, don't download it, don't even read this review of it.

Happy Fall

NoodleCake Studios Inc

A sudo sequel to the modestly popular Happy Jump. Also not to be confused with the toilet humor oriented happy poo jump, but we will save these for another day.

The premise is straight forward, fall through the holes in the floors, collect the coins, avoid or destroy the flies. You can purchase power ups and accumulate letters to spell out the word 'SHINY'. I was a bit scared after collecting only the first 3 letters where the game was going with the lettering system. The advertisement on the bottom of the screen leaves you with a sense that you could see a little bit more of what is coming, but isn't horrible.And the rate at which you accumulate coins can make this game drag out for a while between injections of new materials. 

The secret I learned early on is that you can tilt your phone one way or another at a steep angle and with exception of the small barriers and flies you encounter, you can grab the lions share of the coins and letters that you will come across, that can help you accumulate bonuses a little easier, but takes away from the entertainment of the game, which overall is pretty strong.

Recommendation: Avoid all poo substitutes and keep this much cleaner cross between Candyland and Pitfall on your phone. Just be careful buying the other character skins in the game. 

Talking Alien From Jupiter

Moarbile Family

Everyone wants to raise a little monster that mimics everything that they say and does tricks when you press the appropriate part of their touchscreen room. Don't even try and deny it. You can deny, however, that this game gives you any of this, which is sad when you consider this is what it is advertised to do.

Speaking of advertisements, the banner in the middle of the screen is a bit distracting, but does not take away from the 'play-ability' of this app. What does detract from this is the fact that it tends to crash every 5 to 20 seconds. I only got the alien to repeat what I said once, and it was barely discernible as my charming "Why hello there" sounding coming from my lips.

Assuming you can get this to run with any sense of stability, you will also be treated to a fist full of button functions that allow your little alien to have it's own little freak out moment.  from jumping to running around the border of your screen, whoever put this together did a pretty good job making the rendering of your little alien monster look good.

Recommendation: The good rendering doesn't trump good stability, pass over this one on the Play Store.

Holy Shiitake

bfg

What is in the title of a video game? In Mel's Holy Shiitake Challenge, extremely little. It's a pretty fun order fulfillment game wherein people come into your bistro and sit in what appear to be very low seated tables. while you toss toppings to create a variety of pizza pies with combinations like bacon, olive, and anchovies. Not long into this game you will find yourself having to jump over to your garden to collect additional ingredients with gives this order fulfillment game a leg up over some of it's counterparts.

The other thing that impressed me about this game was a true lack of ads. I recall playing through several days and not seeing any. Perhaps they have some sponsorship from the industries of the off the wall toppings, like chicken legs and hot sauce. Mmmm... thinking about sauce and wings makes me hungry for some Popeye's chicken.... well played Holy Shiitake, well played indeed.

The other fun aspect of this game is to look at the faces of your customers, not only as they get angry and upset as their pizze gets burnt after waiting for what must translate to 4 hours for their bacon and onion pizza, but also to try and tell what celevraties they look like. Is that Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington ordering extra peppers on their pie? It might just be!

Recommendation: Get it, but don't play on an empty stomach.

Welcome

Welcome to the Free Game Reviewer Blog, your source for all things both free and entertaining.

New Games will be posted almost every day, with a goal of reviewing 1000 games that are totally free by the end of 2013!

You can help me, show your interest by leaving comments, sharing with your friends on Facebook, and supporting the companies that advertise on this page, recommendations are always welcome, happy gaming!

Hill Climb Racing

FingerSoft

It's not often one can earn money by breaking your neck doing a flip, the obvious exception being submitting a clip of you trying to America's Funniest Home Video's. The other less obvious and much safer method is to take Hill Climb Racing for spin on your smartphone.

The premise is simple enough, do some fancy tricks and get as far into the course as you can without running out of fuel or landing on your noggin. You are rewarded with money that you can use for car power ups and unlocking more interesting courses. Once you unlock the moon course you can rack up the dough pretty quick since you can do a whole lot of flips and tricks with the extremely low gravity. Several variations and no need to fork up any cash (there are some pop ups, but they don't get in the way of game play) make this a game you can enjoy for a good long time.

Recommendation - Install it, keep it on your phone for a while, use it to kill time every now and then.

Brainless

Xiled Systems
Are you a fan of the Walking Dead series on AMC? Then this game will catch your eye. The premise is one that will excite most classic horror movie fans, as I was excited when taking this game for a spin. Much like some of it's paid counterparts for major gaming councils, the premise here is that you pick a couple of characters that have to battle their way through the remains of a neighborhood, oh yeah, and there are hordes of zombies meandering about.

As you fire this game up, you are asked to pick your characters, each is then given a unique stat list that you 'roll' for and can even re-roll if the numbers look unfavorable. Brief descriptions of the skills give you an opportunity to create a balanced duo between an ex marine, a waitress, a cop, and a criminal that appears to pretty satisfying to the role player in me.

 However, once game play begins, you start to realize that you have no idea what you are doing. Sure, there are objectives and rules in the game, but it's hard to translate their relativity easy directions into action once the game begins. you have grey and red boxes appear on your characters profile picture during a fight with the flesh chewing zombies, but it's hard to interpret what they are telling you, after several rounds I wasn't finding a strong correlation to the status of these indicators and when the character got his brain's eaten. After several deaths, I believe the strength of your opponent may need to be gauged some how to decide if you can survive a fight or not, and the game does not give you any real indicators for this. The characters don't seem to be able to handle more then a couple fights early on, making for a lot of running away.

Not knowing how tough your opponents are in each battle, and having trouble telling how up for the fight your avatars are, can make it very frustrating to advance in this game. There is a way to change the difficulty rating, but again, it is hard to determine what ev

Recommendation: If you are concerned with how you will react to a zombie apocalypse, give this game for a spin. Hopefully, by the end you will realize that surviving the end of days won't be as clear cut as you once thought.

Star Girl

Animoca

Once in a blue moon a game will come along that is near impossible to critique on the merits of the game itself, because the concept of the game play is so outrageous. My mind can grasp a game that makes you a lab experiment monkey that has escaped with a jet pack where you collect bananas to purchase a motor cycle that allows me to escape the clutches of my nemesis, Dr. Howler, but this game goes a bit too far.

In this game, you to play out the fantasy of being a superficial 11 to 25 year old girl/woman, the objective is to earn money by being a singer/model/actress for hire and then using the money to buy nicer clothes/shoes/jewelry. This increases your 'lipstick' score. With your new wardrobe you then go to the local coffee shop and buy the cute guy their cookies and blow him kisses until he is your boyfriend, you then take him back to your place where, you guessed it, he begins to buy you new shoes, dresses, etc. With your new look you then go to the beach to flirt with even hotter guys who promise to buy you even nicer things. This cycle continues all the while you are continuing to get your music/modeling/acting career up and running.

One other noteworthy aspect to this game is that it interacts with Facebook and allows you to 'like' other players avatar's outfits. Extra rewards are given to you if lots of people like your outfit/boyfriend etc. So, the lessons of shallowness and perfunctory that are being taught through this game are probably blinding me to the very elaborate interface it has developed that track several methods of gaining and spending that add up to a very intricate and well balanced game.

Recommendation: Keep this game away from your daughters, but look into what Animoca all has to offer, cause they appear to have some talent when it comes to game design.

Marvel: Avengers Alliance

Playdom

Who didn't love seeing the Avengers come to life in Joss Whedon's masterpiece of a movie this summer? Well, the indulging doesn't have to end when you leave the theater  and you don't even have to fork out the $30 for a pair of tickets in this game developed for Facebook uses (there is a standalone web version).

The story line is very thorough to the point that you may find yourself just hitting next 1,000 times just to get to the game aspect of it, but for the hardcore fans it's fleshed out enough to make for a good read. Also, all of the characters are there, from X-Men to Avengers, Spider-man to Fantastic Four, allowing you to create awesome match ups, though limited to two heroes, plus your personal SHIELD Agent character, at a time.

The Game is free, though as you play it several 'secret missions' become available that can be pretty diffucult to complete for the causual gamer, which translates to not unlocking the super awesome bonus items and characters, which leads to a lot of frustration when trying to compete in the Player vs. Player arenas.

Recommendation - If you are a true Marvel Fan, give this game a spin, if you are not interested in putting a little bit of hard earned money into it, then quickly put it down again, but this game is definitely one that you can get sucked into and lost in.

Army of Darkness Defense

BackFlip Studios

Ash is back, armed with his boom stick and chainsaw to reek havoc on the evil 'deadites' as you try and defend the book of the dead. The game caught my Eye being a fan of the original Evil Dead Movies, and I must say, it is very addicting. 

A better-then-normal cinematic intro brings you up to speed on the plot premise, which will be a hoot for any of the movie fans but probably a waste of precious playing time for people not familiar with the plot. In short, undead army is trying to kill you, you have to kill them (again) first. 

There are two modes in the game, leveled and endless, by default, you start with the leveled version and knock off the baddies in low numbers, earning coins that get you power ups and stronger support soldiers all the way to level 50 where a super tough villain emerges to frustrate you. The part of the game is very win-able, which will leave you with the Endless Horde version that will slow your rate of coin collecting but allow you to set new goals for yourself in the way of basic score keeping. 

The Game is truly free, there are only a couple ads at the start up, and spending money to get power ups faster is definitely not needed. So I can recommend this game for the player who wants games to be truly free. Game length is moderate, you can sneak in a quick attempt or two while waiting in line at the bank, but it may take a few warm-up rounds to recall what your strategy was. The graphics have a pretty nice amount of detail, and the special power effects are pretty neat (remember "Clatto, Verata, NECKTIE!"), but the level is the same castle you are defending every time so they can get old pretty quick. I can also report zero bug issues after several hoes of play, so kudos to the team at BackFlip.

Recommendation - Get this game, get addicted to it like mad for two days, and then go back to a mundane life working at S-Mart.

Meteor Panic

ETI

ETI appears to have passed on possibility of using the voices of Ben Afflek and Bruce Willis in this shoot-em up cross of the classic Asteroids game and the movie Armageddon. This is unfortunate as it may have actually created a reason to load this game up more then once to take it for a spin. In the unfortunate universe this gae takes place in, you are charged with destroying all the asteroids as they appear to be on a direct collision course with Earth, but instead of nuclear missiles you get to give planet killing rocks the tap of the finger and blast them into pieces.


Gameplay can be summed up in a few statements, tap on rocks to destroy them, tap on crates to get bonuses, tap on astronauts as they hurl past to kill them and lose the game. A fair enough aspect because killing astronauts is just not cool. This game premise is about as simple and straight forward as it gets, and with no power ups or coin collecting that carries over from one game to the next it can get pretty old pretty quick, but take heart that if you take the time to master this game, you ill have the thanks of a grateful nation and Liv Tyler will run across your yard and give you a great big hug*.

 *As always, any promises, guarantees, or insinuations made on this site are completely conditional on the premise that I will one day win the lottery and can afford my very own cloning facility and collect a sampling of Liv Tyler's DNA.

Recommendation - Don't bother, Go to the store and grab Armageddon on DVD instead.

Brain Age Game

Best Addictive Brain Games
 
Hopefully some of those reading this review are old to remember that band Blink 182 and their hit song "What's My Age Again." which is the objective of this app, considered a game by some and a training session by others, these simple set of challenges are meant to keep your brain sharper for longer.

Anyone who has owned a Nintendo hand held system from GameBoy on are familiar enough with the concept. Jump through a few hoops and then be told what group of people you should be able to match wits with. Though this game appears to lack a large variety of methedology and falls very short in much of any explenation as to what your results mean. I ran through the test the first time and was told my age was just a smidge over 20. "Great." I think, "Is that good or bad?" I ran through the test a second time and it dropped a whole half of a year. So is 19.5 years old better or worse then 20? it seems that younger would be better, but surely there is a tipping point somewhere, who wants to be told you have the brain of a 4 year old?

As time goes on I'm sure we'll look more closely at other trainer/puzzle games offered by Best Addictive Brain Games, but something tells me that they can do better then this game.

Recommendation - Go buy a Nintendo 3DS and grab one of the Brain Age games.