ollers of the Realm is best described as a pinball puzzle RPG. The game makes use of the mechanics known to a pinball machine and places them in to a medieval fantasy adventure, that lightly implements the features of an RPG. Taking on the role of a Rogue thief as the game’s main character, there’s a strong emphasis on story telling as presented through the game’s cut-scene introduction.

The high usage of narrative voice-overs and fully voiced characters attempts to build a strong set of characters that players will find themselves immersed within as they venture throughout the game. While it’s great to see this implementation and the time taken to flesh out a strong cast is appreciated. Due to the game’s mediocre and “Heard it all before medieval” storyline it was relatively difficult to even care who the main character actually was, or who she would come to meet as I spent more time with the game.

A fair amount of my time spent with the game was focused on the gameplay itself as I found it challenging and enjoyable, and also where the game held the majority of its strengths. Unfortunate as it may be the story itself is fairly bland and makes no attempt to actually diverse itself from any other medieval tale that people would have know doubt heard before, through any other form of media.

" Taking on the role of a Rogue thief as the game's main character, there's a strong emphasis on story telling as presented through the game's cut-scene introduction."

Wondering the land as young thief destined to save the world from an ancient darkness, after it’s former protectors have been imprisoned by a an evil witch. Players will meet other characters along their journey that will form the basis for their team, each with unique and different abilities. Other than her home and family being torn away due to years of war and tyranny making its way throughout the land, not much is known of the main character.

The idea of a game using the mechanics of a pinball machine as a means of use within its level design, story telling, character mechanics, and gameplay, sounds a lot better than it actually plays. Navigating the game’s levels through the means of flippers placed out in certain areas of the maps is where the game holds enjoyability. But the implementation of a story along with RPG elements don’t really seem to make much sense when applied to actual gameplay.

For instance, the player is able to recruit party members throughout the course of the game either by purchasing them within the game’s store, via the use of gold collected from breaking objects and defeating enemies in the game. Or by meeting characters who play a role within the game’s story. Each of these characters that the player encounters will take on a role that most will find familiar to most RPGs. Those such as the Healer and the Knight which players will meet during the early sections of the game.

"Navigating the game's levels through the means of flippers placed out in certain areas of the maps is where the game holds enjoyability."

Items are available to purchase for each of these party members, which serve purpose in enhancing their skills and stats, which can be used in providing tactics, additional damage, chance of parry, increased critical strikes, bonus gold rewards, Mana, and the like. Items are available to buy once the selected character has met the required skill level, and certain items can be shared directly across the entire party rather than to that specific party member.

Items come in the form of stamina potions, gauntlets, cloaks, daggers, and so on, all relative to the game’s medieval theme. Now while all of this sounds great and could possibly make what is essentially just a pinball game vastly interesting. When applied to practical means I can’t help but think this would have just been better off as a straight up pinball game without the RPG and story, while still keeping  hold of it’s tremendous level designs.

The different classes of characters available actually do make an interest feature in terms of gameplay. The Rogue is light-weighted and quick, and makes use of a special distraction perk which takes on the form of the character’s pet dog. The Knight is heavier but stronger and this is essential in taking down certain enemy types. Those such as the Healer is able to revive the other characters should they face defeat by falling from the bottom of the pinball table.

"When applied to practical means I can't help but think this would have just been better off as a straight up pinball game without the RPG and story, while still keeping it's level designs."

As said previously the characters that the player will encounter are familiar to classes seen in a standard RPG. The problem that lies within the use of these RPG elements isn’t down to the character-specific traits, but within it’s emphasis on skill attributes and items. They don’t really seem to add anything to the game or to that of the character’s abilities.

So long as the player switches characters when dictated by the game’s hints and tips, in order to overcome certain enemies or bypass certain routes on the games map, then the items at the player’s disposal fail to add anything that can be considered of any value.

There’s no denying this is an enjoyable game and an interesting take on pinball. It’s fairly creative. But with that being said this is a game about skill and accuracy. The game can have all the items, perks, and skill attributes that it wants, but at the end of the day this is a game about skill, practice, and accuracy. And I feel this stands in direct conflict with the story and RPG features that the game fails to make any real use of.

"The problem that lies within the use of these RPG elements isn't down to the character-specific traits, but within it's emphasis on skill attributes and items."

Although the game has a story to tell which largely directs the flow of the gameplay and the objectives it delivers to the player. All the player is essentially doing is pushing flippers and destroying enemies. And since the nature of pinball is largely reliant on the player’s skills and control, simple objectives in the game such as reaching a certain gate located on the map, can become increasingly time consuming as well as frustrating.

The nature of an RPG is built around player choice, as well as some form of exploration and control of character progression. But since the game, for the most part guides the player through each level and the player’s only real input is to switch characters when needed and figure out how to overcome obstacles and enemies, the attempted implementation of RPG mechanics just feel shoe-horned in as a way of making a pinball machine seem more interesting than it actually is.

Frankly, I would have enjoyed the game more had it not tried to implement RPG gimmicks, and the basic goal was just get reach the other side of the map. There’s no denying the creativity and design here. Rather than using a simple pinball table, the game takes flippers and places them within the game’s world which in turn makes it appear more arcadey than immersive. And while the story is by no means great or for the most part even that interesting or memorable, it serves as a means for player purpose, and adds a nice touch to what is essentially just a glorified pinball machine.

"Frankly, I would have enjoyed the game more had it not tried to implement RPG gimmicks, and the basic goal was just get reach the other side of the map.< /span>

Level structures aren’t standard to a simple table with enemies and flashing lights that the player is required to defeat. Gameplay takes plays from a top-down perspective peering in to the game’s level, with pinball flippers as the primary means for traversal. The levels have more in common with a simple maze that requires precise timing of using the flippers than to that of an actual pinball machine. It’s in this use of level design that demonstrates the game’s strengths and enjoyability.

As the game’s world adheres to it’s theme of medieval fantasy and magic. Players can be expect to be bouncing around villages, fields, and towns, each with their own branch of distinctive levels. There’s dens, courtyards, caverns, sewers, enemy hideouts, and the like. It’s fair to say the level variety is plenty and the game makes good use of its setting. Progressing from one stage to the next is presented through the game’s map, with past levels to go back on and replay, should the player wish to earn more gold or re-experience certain levels again. And why not? the levels are fantastic.

While I didn’t actually expect anything amazing from the game’s levels due to the theme it takes on, I was pleased with the design of the levels as each one has to incorporate pinball mechanics in order to keep things interesting, and this is where the game shines. Playing through the game with a mouse and keyboard the controls are simple in nature and are user-rebindable should the player desire more control. The player will spend most of the game controlling the left and right flippers, while switching between characters at certain points in the game.

With brief instances of navigating the ball itself with full player control without the need for flippers, I found this to be fairly useless as it didn’t add anything to it’s gameplay. Should the player wish to use a game pad instead, the game welcomes them to do so and I found no control issues whatsoever with either method. It’s one of the only few RPGs that come to mind, where I have no problem recommending a game-pad instead of a keyboard, as they seem to adapt much better due the nature of such games containing a hefty number of controls.

"The use of deep colour and lighting allows the game to visually pop, and it delivers an acceptable amount of detail. "

The visual aspects of the game take on a cartoonish aesthetic with semi-realistic exaggeration. The use of deep colour and lighting allows the game to visually pop, and it delivers an acceptable amount of detail. Nothing appears flat or washed out and the textures of brick work and grass fields look rich in quality.

The game offers various presets to tailor different PC configurations and the performance is reflective of the what the game delivers on visually. Needless to say the game runs without flaws, and enabling the highest preset is by no means taxing, even for those with low-end hardware. The game doesn’t offer up many graphical-specific options and given it’s theme and visual style it’s fair to say it doesn’t need to. A light bloom here and there or maybe a few particle effects would have been nice, but the game looks as well as it plays and is by no means a turn-off.

Rollers of the Realm is an enjoyable and challenging game. Character class pinballs put a twist on traditional pinball and this is what the game thrives on, along with it’s intricate and creative use of level design. While I’m not particularly fond of the RPG features in the game, the amount of creativity the game holds is quite impressive and the game as a whole is vastly distinctive to anything out there at this point in time. It feels like quick and easy fun that attempts to keep you invested by integrating a story that’s by no means interesting. It’s in the gameplay where this game holds up well, and it’s the only thing that I found to be of most entertainment.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Spearhead Games is proud to announce that their upcoming co-op puzzle game Tiny Brains will be available for PlayStation 4

The objective of the game is to escape from the mad scientist’s experiment lab by taking control of the super-powered animals and solving puzzles throughout different levels.

Each of the four animals have special powers such as Force, Teleport, Create and Vortex that can be combined to get through the challenging puzzles.

Tiny Brains was first shown-off at PAX East back in March, and the title received positive feedback from people who managed to get the hands-on experience with the game. Tiny Brains will be playable at this year’s E3 next week, those who are attending the event can stop by their booth and give it a shot.

Screenshots:

Tiny Brains is another excellent addition to the PlayStation 4 library, it’s truly exciting to see so many unique games being put on Sony’s next-generation platform.

Let us know if Tiny Brains has peaked your interest in the comments below.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more E3 updates next week.

Tiny Brains is an upcoming  cooperative puzzle game that is designed for a total of four players. The game has four tiny different animals with special powers such as Force, Create, Vortex and Teleport. You can pretty much guess what every animal does just by reading their name.

In Tiny Brains, each player must work cooperatively to solve puzzles in order to get through levels. Tiny Brains is going to be a downloadable puzzle game for current-gen systems, next-gen platforms and PC this Fall.

The game was recently showed off at PAX East and now will be appearing again at E3 in June. The game has received positive feedback regarding its gameplay elements and fun factor at PAX East.

Let us know if you’re interested in Tiny Brains, in the comments below.

Check back on GamingBolt for more updates and media for Tiny Brains.

So yes, when reviewing a game for iOS, considerations such as these must be given weight. Specifically, the questions, ‘does this game do enough to stand out?’ and ‘will I keep returning to it?’ need to be given some weight. On those two fronts, Jewel Factory succeeds, at least partially. A lot of it, I believe, depends on the extent of time you invest into it, and depends on how often you’re able to just launch the game, if only for a couple of minutes, but the game does do enough, at least aesthetically speaking, to make itself stand out from the crowd, and it does have a variety of hooks to have you coming back.

Jewel Factory is a free to play simulation/puzzle game hybrid. That’s the best way to describe it. You’re given some tools, and you’re told to build a city. There’s a degree of resource management here, more than most other similar games on either the App Store or other platforms such as Facebook, and you need to look after not just your Gold and coins, but also look after ‘Jewels,’ which are used to accomplish anything in game, and look after your power consumption. The idea is to create a big, thriving city that attracts as many ‘visitors’ as possible.

You can access some buildings, but some of them are locked. To unlock them, you don’t actually have to ‘pay’ for them, either in terms of real money, or in game money. Jewel Factory adopts a much more honest approach to the entire process, unlocking buildings as you progress ‘levels’ in the game. Progressing levels is a simple question of either meeting the required objectives, or adding buildings to your cities, or decorations, or managing resources. As you grow in Level, more buildings, factories, decorations, and resources are available to you. You still have to buy them using the game’s currency, mind you- spending coins, and stuff. But unlike other free to play games, the price isn’t so unreasonable that the only way to have enough currency is to buy it from the game’s store. It might take some time, but aggregating enough money is completely possible, in game, entirely.. This runs completely counter to how a free to play game is structured, and actually ends up generating some good will towards the game, as it doesn’t feel like the developers are trying to nickel and dime you at every instance *cough* Zynga *cough.*

In game activities often take time, like processing of jewels before they can be used to power a factory, which may take up to five minutes, and you do have the option to pay up and get it done immediately. Although it is possible to earn the ‘currency’ in game, you are best off buying it outright from the game store. So yes, the game does try to steer you towards purchasing, but it is entirely possible to play it without spending much.

So much for the simulation parts of the game. Where does the resource management come in? On a macro level, while you are expected to look at your resource usage every time you lay a building or putting down a factory, or a decoration. However, you also have to power your city using the titular jewels. The game’s cities’ infrastructure is entirely dependent on mining and harvesting the power within jewels like Ruby and Sapphire, so you have to build jewel specific factories, that will generate not only just money for you from time to time, but also open up new upgrading options for your city if you harvest the factories’ resources right.

Doing that is actually interesting, and it is where the game’s puzzle aspects come into play. You click on a factory, and you click ‘Play.’ This takes you to inside the factory, to a sort of minigame, where you are expected to take jewels off their assembly lines and take them to their containers. The problem is, the conveyor belts zip out the jewels at top speed, mix it up, there are multiple conveyor belts, and multiple containers. Trying to make sure each jewel enters its container, and only its container, consecutively, so that the stringed combo is not broken, so that you have enough points to meet the objective, is quite hectic, and can actually lead to some of the best moments of the game. It’s the part of the game you probably turn to everytime before class when you have a few moments to kill. The problem is you can’t do it often enough in one go, since doing so uses up power.

Jewel Factory breaks no new grounds. It is essentially taking concepts that exist beforehand, and mixing and mashing them up, all under a new package. However, underneath the wrapping, it is still just a typical iOS city simulator, merged with the typical iOS puzzle game, still trying to make you buy in game gold, still trying to have you keep coming back by offering incentives daily. However, it is honest, it does what it does well, and most importantly, it is fun to play, and in the end, that is what matters.

This game was reviewed for iOS on an iPad 2.

10. Puzzle Quest

Puzzle Quest isn’t frustrating like other games are. Rather than the single fatal flaw, or a generally annoying nature, Puzzle Quest just has the odd few things that really grind your gears. Like the way you save up all your mana for a skill only for the board to reset as there are no more gems to match, causing you to lose all of the mana in your reserves. Or the way the gems that fall from the top always seem to be working against you, giving your adversaries unfair chains of skulls. What’s probably the most distressing thing about PQ is the fact that, in spite of all these irritations, you still keep coming back for more. Puzzle Quest is too addictive for its own good, so much so that you’ll keep coming back no matter how annoying it gets, and you’ll keep enjoying it regardless.

9. Portal

Us gamers are generally used to dealing with abnormal worlds and situations. Mushroom Kingdom? No problem. Gun-slinging marines who can carry fifteen guns on their back without impairing their movement? Standard. But the moment you start bending the general rules of physics and gravity within a puzzle game situation, things start to get a little sketchy. Combine this with the skillful requirements of shooting your portals in the right places and Portal could really get on your nerves. Don’t even get me started on some of the harder challenge chambers.

8. Peggle

The very nature of Peggle is to frustrate gamers. Peggle isn’t all that hard but once you’ve fired of your pinball from the cannon, you can only watch and pray that you made the right shot and that your ball (don’t smirk) will be clearing all those orange pegs. I know the animals on screen are meant to be cute and stuff but they didn’t help with my anguish. It just took me back to that stupid dog from Duck Hunt mocking my feeble shooting abilities. Shut up stupid Unicorn! I know I missed a few orange pegs!

When you move, a small grid around you shows you how many mines (sorry, moles) you are touching. Using logic and a bit of cunning you can eventually work out exactly where the moles are hidden. Also, once you’ve passed over a square the color of the grass will change to let you know you’ve safely passed over this point, so you won’t go back and cover ground you’ve already explored. If a number shows up on your kart, that number will stay on the ground once you move so that you can try to figure out where the mole is hiding.

While the basic mechanic is that of Minesweeper, it’s the level design that sets Mole Control apart. Certain objects or obstacles might block your way, making it infuriatingly difficult to pinpoint a mole, or a fence might stand in your way.  This brings me to one of the major issues with the game; some levels are very long, there’s no mid-game saving and you only get 3 incorrect guesses of where moles are hidden- any more than that and you will be booted right back to the start.

The levels are also quite large, and retracing your steps, one painstakingly lengthy square at a time, can be tedious. A rotor on the top of the buggy lets you fly around, but the controls here are lacklustre.

The story itself is simple in nature, making it a great game to play with young children. For many, Mole Control may prove to be just too slow in pacing to be very enjoyable. It is, at its heart, a puzzle game more than anything else, and it suits that audience. I wouldn’t recommend rushing out to go and grab it now, but next time you head to the game store, keep a look out for this interesting little indie game.

This game was reviewed on the PC.