PixlBit

Hey folks.  Before I go to PAX West in Seattle this coming weekend, I thought I’d post some more reviews I’ve written lately over at GamerDad.com. Plus update you all on some things in my life.  Anyway, please click on and read as many reviews as you can, and maybe even post a comment or two.  I’d really appreciate it. 

But first I thought I’d give you a couple of updates on things in my life.  Some of you may remember that the last job I had, I quit back in November of last year due to lack of transportation.  Which was a shame since I had worked there for nearly nine years.  But I didn’t really like that job much anyway so it was probably time to move on.  Although I will say the people I worked with were nice.  Anyway, since then I’ve been looking for a new job, and in the beginning of July, I finally got one! It’s just part time for now, and nothing special, but at least it’s a job and slows down money from leaving my account.  At my last job I saved a lot of money, so I’ll be fine for a good while, so don’t worry too much. 

So where am I working?  Well, I don’t like to divulge too much information about my private life on the Internet, but I will say that I work at a major retail chain and I’m in the lawn and garden section.  So I'm kind of like Leif from Animal Crossing, except I won’t pull your weeds!  If you want to know more about where I work and what I’m doing, feel free to send me a private message and I’ll gladly tell you more.  Speaking of which, you might also be wondering whatever happened to what I was doing at the National Videogame Museum?  Well, like I said, I don’t want to divulge too much stuff about my life on the Internet, or say too many bad things about others.  So if you want to know more about that, you can send me a private message about that, too.  Just know that if I got another job, my prospects at the museum probably didn’t go as planned.

Anyway, that’s all the updates for now.  I’m still going to PAX West this coming weekend, so please pray that I have a safe trip there and back, and I don’t run into any snags or problems, and that it’ll be a fruitful trip overall.  OK, now onto the reviews!

Disney Art Academy (3DS)

This game has been out for a while, but I finally got it.  I like to review the Art Academy games because I think they are a great Nintendo series but often get ignored.  Since you’re drawing Disney characters in this one, the game is more kid-centric (even more so than Pokémon Art Academy).  But that’s OK, because kids deserve good games, too.  It’s sad that Disney Interactive shut down, but maybe now we’ll get more good licensed Disney games from other companies.  Get on that, Capcom!  Like I do in my other Art Academy reviews, I dedicated this one to my grandmother, who was a talented artist and painter.  But since this was Disney Art Academy, I also dedicated this review to a former Disney animator I once knew a long time ago.  He helped create Chip N Dale, my favorite Disney characters.  So if you’d like to read more about him and my grandmother, check out the review!

Tadpole Treble (Wii U)

What is it with tadpoles and music?  First Super Mario RPG, and now this!  I first saw this game at PAX South two years ago, and it finally came out.  You play as a tadpole swimming down a river that has lines and spaces like a music staff.  You must avoid spiky balls that represent notes in a song, among other things.  The neat thing about this game is the music is actually really good and catchy, and some songs even have lyrics.  The folks who did the music deserve a raise.  It also has a lot of personality, like an old Twisted Pixel game.  I don’t know if it’s because of the frog theme, but the game also has a “Jim Henson” charm to it.  The game was made in Louisiana, so that might also have something to do with the good music and frog themes.

Buddy & Me: Dream Edition (Wii U)

It may just be yet another continuous runner, but it’s the most charming and best looking one I’ve ever played.  You play as a boy or girl, and when you fall asleep you play with your friend Buddy.  Buddy is a big yellow fuzzy floppy eared thing that looks like a cross between a Dr. Seuss critter and something from My Neighbor Totoro.  The art and animation is great and it’s just plain charming.  Too bad it’s just a continuous runner and not a real 2-D platformer.

Tap My Katamari (iPad)

There’s a type of genre of mobile games called “Endless Clickers” where you just continuously tap on the screen to make something happen.  I swore I would never review one of these, but when they made one based on one of my favorite video game franchises: Katamari Damacy, I just had to play it.  Needless to say, it’s not very good.  It’s a shame that this is what video games have become sometimes.

Shephy (iPad)

This is actually a real life card game that they put on mobile devices for you to play.  It’s very Japanese, in fact, that’s the default language.  In my review I even explained how to switch it to English.  In the game, you must draw cards and use them to get your sheep flock count to 1,000.  But the odds are stacked against you and it’s easy to lose, unless I’m just missing something.  If any of you have played this game and can understand it better, maybe you can give me some pointers?

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (Vita)

When the first Mutant Mudds game came out, I was excited about it because it looked like an 8-bit Mega Man game.  But after that novelty wore out, what you have is just a slow and bland run and gun platformer.  And it was also really hard.  And this version is even harder!  Only get this game if you like stupid hard platformers.

Rodeo Stampede (iPad)

This game is made by the same folks who did Crossy Road and Pac-Man 256, the latter of which is a pretty fun little take on Pac-Man.  Rodeo Stampede has kind of a neat idea.  You must ride animals in a stampede, but before they get angry and buck you off, you must find another animal, jump to it, and lasso it and ride it to keep going.  If you jump on an animal you haven’t ridden before, you can befriend it and it’ll live in your zoo.  You get money when people visit your zoo, and you can use that money to upgrade your zoo and help you out on your next stampede run.  Only problem is that as a free-to-play game, you must wait to activate things like visitors, and it takes way too long.

Frantic Shooter (iPad)

I love it when a game describes what it is in the title.  This is a free-to-play arena shooter game, kind of like Robotron.  But you only use one finger on the touch screen to move around, and you automatically aim.  It’s all right, not too great, but not bad either.

And that all for now!  Again, thanks so much for reading my reviews and posting comments here and there.  I really appreciate it.  And don’t forget to please pray that I have a safe trip to and from PAX!  You know I’ll have articles and pictures up when I get back!  See you all then!  --Cary