Hard or Light: 7 games for your style

Usually, gamers look for perfection in their virtual adventures - perfection of visuals, storytelling, multiplayer interaction, and various gameplay mechanics. The game difficulty is one of the most significant but often not so obvious aspects. Would you prefer (almost) a sadistic level of Dark Souls or the cute simplicity of Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World? 

There are lots of games somewhere in between, and sometimes they tend to come much closer to hardcore or casual. Let’s take a look at 7 very good games: 4 unexpectedly difficult and 3 relaxingly simple.

All the Pokémon of Generation IV in Pokémon Go

Getting all the creatures into your Pokédex is a huge part of Pokémon games - core RPGs and many spin-offs. Still, it’s not so easy to achieve this exciting goal. There are lots of Pokémon in the virtual existence and some of them are quite rare.

Niantic, the developers of the AR adventure Pokémon Go, add new species into their product gradually. In April 2020, we have most of the creatures till the Generation V. You can easily catch lots of them, but soon, you will be meeting mostly duplicates. Some Pokémon appear in special areas. Others can be met during time-limited events. Only very dedicated trainers can gather the whole collection.

The power of choice - Life is Strange (game impression)

Max started her study at Blackwell Academy quite recently and she is still in the middle of social adaptation. Suddenly, the girl finds herself involved in a mystical and criminal story, where she becomes a central figure who decides the fate of many other people.

Max is a heroine of Life is Strange, a very popular graphic adventure game. It’s available on PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and mobile devices. Have you played it?

On one hand, this game is absolutely amazing - the very possibility to make choices and see them changing the world makes a powerful impression. On the other hand, the story of Life is Strange is very dark, so it’s not really a cheerful gaming experience.

Playing Pokémon Go in 2020

This game was an amazing hit in 2016 - the world seemed to get obsessed with catching those fantastic creatures. People purchased new phones and power banks only to be able to play Pokémon Go. Even non-gaming media released detailed guides on how to catch 'em all. The revenue of Niantic, the development company, was phenomenal. So, what’s now? How is it to play Pokemon Go in 2020?

The popularity of the game is not at its peak at all. The gaming world loves to follow trends, and the Augmented Reality genre is not the biggest one nowadays. We still have interesting releases, such as Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and upcoming Minecraft Earth, but the fuss around them is never the same loud. Still, even with the much smaller quantity of active players, Pokémon Go remains the most successful AR game, and Niantic earns with it even more than in the starting year.

Donut County: fun, adorable, and simple (game review)

A raccoon plays an app, making holes in the virtual world that swallow everything around, including skyscrapers and mountains. Those holes “really” appear in the world of that raccoon, so players control him playing his app and thus helping him to destroy the whole town. Still, the raccoon is not a bad guy. He just wants to have fun, and play with quadcopters, and … Yep, the game story is quite weird, with specific humour.

Donut County is a fun little game, for quite a relaxing spare time. It’s available for PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and iOS devices. Here is a review of this interesting part of the gaming culture.

Kingdom Rush – (probably) the best Tower Defense game

Dark powers are threatening a virtual kingdom. Magicians, archers, warriors, and artillery guys gather together to protect the land from various sorcerers, barbarians, orcs, and evil beasts. Players place towers in the best order possible, activate their development, summon support of villagers and sky fire – to defeat all the opponents. which try to reach internal, unprotected territories.

With some variations, such a description can suit many games of the Tower Defense genre. Still, it is Kingdom Rush that has created standards here – of the quality, of the number of possibilities for players, of the gaming excitement. Here is my review of Kingdom Rush, made after playing it for the second time.

Calm farming of “Stardew Valley” (game review)

In a beautiful corner of virtual lands, your own farm can be brought to life. And it will offer a vast variety of exciting activities, not only planting vegetables and collecting the harvest. 

I talk about the game “Stardew Valley” – an amazing indie-hit from early 2016. It was released for Windows computers, then ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, to Mac and Linux. The developers released a Nintendo Switch version in 2017, and “Stardew Valley” became the most downloaded game for this platform that year. In 2018, gamers got a version for PlayStation Vita. Mobile “Stardew Valley” for iOS is going to be released on October 24 (with possibility to transfer data from the PC version.

The game is absolutely brilliant: it’s a relaxed experience with the freedom of actions, beautiful graphics and atmospheric music, with lots of small features in the single-player mode and the nice multiplayer co-operation. 

Motorsport Manager Mobile – racing from a different angle

In many aspects of our life, we need patience and constancy, thought-out planning. These words are quick to say, but in the reality, training of such skills stretch over months and years. It’s nice to have a concentrated practice of them in a form of a very good game. Motorsport Manager Mobile is exactly such a thing…

Here, we get a racing team and control its development “year after year”. At the start, it is a weak team that struggles to win not really powerful and prestigious championships. In the end, we lead it to success in the world most popular racing series with millions of fans and prize money, with so tense competitiveness, that every race turns to be an unpredictable challenge.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out – build Springfield of your dream!

In vast virtual Universe, players can get their own piece of land and build there a town. But not a usual town with usual buildings and people! It will be a super famous town of Springfield, where legendary Simpsons live. Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie along with their neighbours, friends, and relatives will develop their city, but this time not in the popular cartoon: they become heroes of the very good game in city-building genre.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a free game for Android and iOS tablets and smartphones. It has been made by Electronic Arts Inc. in collaboration with creators of the original cartoon series The Simpsons.

Are you ready to build your own Springfield?

Incredible adventures of Rayman

An amazing magic plant lives in a colourful virtual world. It’s a sacred flower that spreads life and happiness all around. And that beautiful plant is in a danger now, because many evil creatures burst into this peaceful land. They threat to destroy peace and harmony, so a hero should come to the scene and save the flower. Not only save, but also make it grow huge, and settle many magical creatures on its branches. Are you ready to become such a hero?

If yes, just download and play Rayman Adventures – a free game for Android and iOS tablets and smartphone. This is an official Ubisoft game of the super popular series, one of just few free Rayman games. And here is our review of it!

Injustice 2 Mobile – a place, where superheroes fight

It seems like somebody (superheroes, for example) just can’t live in peace. There always is something for them to protect, there always are feats to perform. And of course, near heroes should be villains. Super villains. They exist to create reasons for using and improving power of you know who. Without Joker, who will know and appreciate Batman? Without Brainiac and his evil fellows, who will need Superman? And in the real world, by the way, who will need army without some “bad guys” – terrorists etc?

Gamers with Android and iOS tablets and smartphones can get a chance to think about an uneasy life of super heroes, following their fighting adventures in the game Injustice 2 Mobile. This is a free version of a big game with the same name. It is just a good game without any philosophical or political thinking – just fight in the virtuality to get new heroes, to develop them and to fight even on a more powerful level.

Magikarp Jump – childish happiness of Pokemon trainers

Guys, let’s go fishing! No, we don’t mean killing real or even virtual fish. Let’s catch a lot of fish Pokemon, named Magikarps, and make glorious jumpers of them! This happens in a free game Pokemon: Magikarp Jump, released by Nintendo and Pokemon Company for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

Do we need to be a bit crazy of Pokemon to enjoy this game? Is it a nice one for adult gamers? Is it just a good game or not? Let’s answer these questions in our Magikarp Jump review!

Where are you running, Mario? A review of an extraordinary game

The legendary hero has appeared in another one game! Brave Mario continues his fight against evil Bowser in very different format – in Super Mario Run we can control the guy just with one hand, and do this not on Nintendo game consoles but on usual Android and iOS devices.

So, is the new Mario game worthy of being part of one of the most popular series? What’s going on in the virtual Mushroom Kingdom? Is it just cool to play Super Mario Run? Let’s figure out in this game review!

How to play Pokemon Go. Tips and Tricks

A good game contains many aspects and possibilities to make players’ experience really exciting. Often many of them aren’t shown, and we should guess about some ways of quick progress, shortcuts to success, and the most efficient methods of performing game actions. Such secrecy from developers makes their games especially interesting – we can feel as pioneers in virtual universes… But this is not always so cool. Players may make many mistakes, miss many chances, and just do not notice other ways of playing.

The Pokemon Go game is definitely a nice one! Collecting virtual creatures and battling in Gyms contain so many aspects, so many hidden possibilities, that the playing process becomes almost like learning a new art.

And there are different ways of doing so – explorations, studying, and mixed. 

Pokemon Duel – a digital board game with Pocket Monsters

Thanks to the fantastic success of Pokemon Go, the whole series of games with those Pocket Monsters has got a boost of popularity. 

Those, who have the Nintendo 3DS console, can enjoy the Pokemon Sun and Moon game – it has been made in a classic RPG style. 

Those, who have Android or iOS devices, can play the Pokemon Shuffle Mobile puzzle game to make a bit of training for their brains and to create a collection of virtual creatures.

And that’s not all! The Pokemon Company has released a new official game for smartphones and tablets – Pokemon Duel! It’s more similar to original series than Shuffle but still it is rather unusual. 

The game seems to be an exciting one, so we in Very Good Games have it tried and in fact have it played a lot. On the base of our experience, we’ve prepared several Pokemon Duel tutorials for you, guys. 

Let’s figure out what the game is about, how to play it, and how to succeed in it!