Game Review: Pokémon GO

Game: Pokemon Go
Started Playing: August 2016
Current Level: 21

Synopsis:
Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Pikachu, and many other Pokémon have been discovered on planet Earth! 
Now’s your chance to discover and capture the Pokémon all around you—so get your shoes on, step outside, and explore the world. You’ll join one of three teams and battle for the prestige and ownership of Gyms with your Pokémon at your side.

Review: 
Haha... I had wondered if it was even necessary to put up a review on the game, cuz seriously, there are so many people playing this in Singapore, that it would seem like a redundant move on my end. 

But ah well, my work is done (for now) and it's still raining... and I don't need to be amy appointment till 7.. so... here we go!

It is a super smart game. Whoever thought of merging the idea of reality with these little pocket monsters really ought to win a Noble prize. Cuz seriously, considering that there are so many games out there, that you can think out of the box and come up with a game like this, that is pure genius. I firmly believe that this is just the first step. Moving forward, a lot of other game companies will be coming up with other games.. hopefully that are even more fun!

Anyhow, on to the game: 

The good: It is really an awesome tool for socalising. I am even considering becoming a matchmaker, pulling together different groups of friends to go hunting for pokemons. Haha... but alas, I have more female than male friends, so the gender mix of my social network doesn't seem to allow for me to be cupid!

Haha.. still it is really fun and it's good for me to go around catching pokemons while I am watiing for someone or just bored somewhere. The idea of walking to hatch eggs is also awesome, god knows the number of singaporeans who have bought fitbits, only to NOT WALK (yes, we need data to back up a fact that we already know, which is that we are a super sedentary bunch who don't walk, anything more than 5 minutes to a bus/mrt is a long walk)... where fitbit failed in the encouragement portion, pokemon go has succeeded. I have never seen such a record number of Singaporeans who are out walking!!

I for one, have always walked my dog hahaha (excuses I know), but now he/they (depends on whether Xena is bunking over), gets.. TWO walks a day. Actually, no, I am trying to toilet train them, but the pokemon gives me something else to play with while walking them. Haha. So they get two walks, and they have learned to sit on command, cuz I have to catch pokemons and their tugging at the leash keeps causing me to miss (and waste pokeballs).

Discussion topics which are fun, are about how to calculate CP, IV, and use of the different things. e.g. how to fully utlise your lucky egg? Ensure that you have at least 60-65 pokemons to evolve, it takes about 30 seconds each pokemon, then each evolution will give you 500 XP. So when you activate your lucky egg (which lasts 30 minutes) you will double your XP. So that gives you 1000XP. If you just keep evolving your pokemons, that would give you 60,000 XP. Errr.. my calculations are not the most trustwothy... but really... that would be best use of your Lucky Egg. 

So stuff like that makes lunch fun (and we start plotting different location for lunch), where the nesting grounds are supposed to be. 

The Not So Good: Well, there isn't many. If anything, it is the fact that there don't allow the use of IV calculators, so that you know which of your pokemons have higher potential, so you dump those that are not strong, and build on the strong ones, so you can go to the gyms and "hoot the shit" out of the others.

So for people like me, who can't calulate, it's very tiring le. Then I have to keep going online to check which are the powerful pokemons, and which of their attacks is better.. so many things... to the point where I hit Paralysis of Analysis. Analyse until I can't decide which of my pokemons to dump. But I need to dump, else I can't catch more. HAHAHAHA... 

So I am still upset that they are banning IV calculators that sync up with the app (yah, I get that the servers are struggling with all these 3rd party apps that are pulling/pushing data)... cuz that means I have to make decisions. And I have to think. And when I game, I don't want to think so much! Hahaha... so there... 

In Summary, still an awesome game. Definitely great as a time waster (although I shouldn't waste so much of my time!) ... go download it and play. Can't go wrong. At most you will get bored and delete it. But still, you can entertain kids to at least go walk around, instead of just huddling over their phones in a fixed location. :) 

Game Review: Twenty

Game: Twenty
Started Playing: July 2016
Current Level: TWENTY x 15

Synopsis:
Twenty is a colorful arcade/puzzle game that starts at 5, looks easy until 10, gets fiendish at 15 and challenges you to get to 20. Anyone can learn it, but you'll have to concentrate to make it all the way.

Review: 
Wahaha! for those who follow this blog, you must have been expecting me to write a game of Pokemon Go! right? And so... I have been addicted to this game, titled Twenty...WAHAHA... yes, it's another game...  (but yes, I am also playing pokemon Go).

So anyhow, this is a weirdly addictive game, where the aim is the match tiles of the same number, so e.g. if you match 4 & 4, the tile then becomes a 5. You then look for another 5, merge the two tiles, then it becomes 6. So this goes on till you have 19 and 19, which you merge to reach the end goal of 20.

As soon as you get to tiles where you hit 15, it gets a little more complicated in that tiles can now start being linked together. So you have to move them in the block. You can see the little black bar betwen the tiles in the photos, that's the link.

Then the next challenge is to see how many 20s you can get. It is the simplest, most brainless (and yet, not as brainless as you think) game that one can play. And yet, here I am.. playing it day in and out, whenever I have some free moments on my hand. My top score is 15!! any challengers? HAHAHA...

And the one up it has over candy crush.. there are no lives. yes!!! You can just keep playing, and if you die (as in the tiles have stacked up to the point where it reaches the top, sort of like tetris), you just start again. There are no hidden terms or conditions that requires you to fork out cash or irritate your friends.

Anyhow, after some fair amount of time spent on this, I have devised this strategy! Wahaha.. for once, I have a strategy... so this is what I do...

As you can see from this image above, tips are as follows: 

1. I have got three key columns. So what I do is to constantly stack and merge tiles based on these three columns. I have to say, I started with two columns, one on the extreme right and left, but that turned out a little far, and it just takes a bit more time to move the tile from right to left, so having the interim centre column works for me. 

2. Unless it is to free up tiles that are like totally linked together (and it requires a lot of manouvering so as to even reach and free up the tiles), always move a tile only to merge it with another tile. Don't make pointless moves as that wastes precious time and your tiles are just going to stack up more. 

3. And depending on which side you prefer, have the bigger numbers (e.g. 15 and above) stacked on the left or right side of the column. Then it's much easier to move things around to get your twenty when you are very close to it. 

4. Oh, and also, always break up the links first chance you get, or it will get into one big convulated link, where you move them as one big block! that makes it very difficult to free anything up. Which pretty much means you are reaching the end of the game. Haha..

5. And last but not least... it sounds a bit of a cheater bug, but sometimes, if you really need to blink, or just to rest your hands, cuz all that small movement can still result in a build up of lactic acid and also tears (haha, cuz if you are like me, you may tend to forget to blink frqeuently enough)... then hit the Pause button. As you can see... you are still able to see your tiles. Take some time to at least plot out the next 3-5 moves, so that when hit that continue play button, you know what to do to immediately continue the game and you don't lose the  momentum. Of course, this also works if you are stuck. You can use this time to strategise a little to see how you can move what and where. 

So there... waiting for challengers!!!