Maze Climber (Game Review)

Some games are simple and some are complex. Simple works well on a phone, and Maze Climber is such a game. The premise is simple. You're in a maze and you must climb.

Why must you climb? Well, something bad will happen to you if you don't! At first you won't know that. You start out in a side view of a maze like Lode Runner or early Mario. But you might notice that there is a pool of red stuff at the bottom. What can that be?

You are that little white character near the middle, and you see red ladders and blue bricks. You can climb the ladders but not walk through the bricks.

Oh, no! The red stuff is rising and it is shooting out little fireballs. I bet it's lava, but I'm not going to sit around to find out what it is. I'm going to climb!

But if I don't climb fast enough, the lava will get me. It is very close. I'm hidden behind some fireballs near the edge of the lava, slightly to the left. You can see my head peeking out.

They got me. You can see me on the left, flying through the air. Owwww!

And I died!

But I can do this again and again. Here are some scores, showing the data, time, and how many meters I climbed.

Here's the home page in case you want more games from Short2Games!

And from the website, here's how to play!

Dig? What's this about dig?

If you touch a nearby brick wall to your left or right, a magic ray shoots out of you and blasts away at the wall. Hadn't noticed it! Makes it a little easier to get to ladders that go up!

By the way, the top right has a pause button. If you touch it, you get these choices.

I like the choices. Give up, play another game, or go back! Let's go back!

 

Now watch carefully. I'm going to drill a hole in the wall to my right.

I drilled through the wall on my right and climbed up the ladder. But the lava is coming up fast!

In case you are curious, here's a little bit more about the creator of this fun little perfect-for-the-phone game.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that he lists lots of programming languages, and even my all-time favorite, Forth! It's nice to see that someone still uses it (actually there was some Forth programming in the One Laptop Per Child OS) but it was very popular in the early 80's when BASIC was king and C was barely known.

By the way, there are sound effects for the rising lava and a cool whistle when you die! No music, but the lava noise would drown it out anyway.

Cost: Free

Genre: Arcade
Score: 4 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open C
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace
Developer:  Short2Games
https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/mazeclimber

Chrono & Cash (Game Review)

The people at Orange Pixel are definitely maniacs. They've created a handful of insane games that are challenging but ultimately crazy fun! I'm a big fan of pixel art and they do it really well. And the worst part is that they have catchy tunes that stick in your head and then you can't remember where you heard it on the radio and then you realize that it's not on the radio, but in a demented game.

They also are clever at porting their games. At last count, they do games for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Chrome, and ... now Firefox. All with creamy pixel goodness. I even remembered their company name (Orange Pixel) from a crazy game on iOS called Heroes of Loot. Not in the Firefox Marketplace yet, but I'm hoping. But today's game is pretty bizarre, too, and is called Chrono & Cash.

The story is about a thief who jumps around and grabs bags of cash before the guards can get him. The game is very fast-paced and will challenge you but will stick in your mind and make you want to come back for another go.

Before you start, check out Options.

First of all, you can change the pixel looks of the master thief, Chrono. But you have to unlock disguises by getting higher scores.

You can also mute the sound or just the music.

Also you can adjust the distance between the left and right buttons on the game screen, a feature I haven't seen before, but is very handy for letting you manipulate the direction of the character the way you want. By the way, I find it easier to keep the two direction controls close together so you can slide your left finger back and forth as you change direction.

And of course, you can find out who are the lunatics that made this game:

And here are the directions on how to play:

You need to rob things by grabbing bags of cash, but you need to avoid guards and do it very quickly. Here's a typical screen.

The two circles on the left move your character left or right, and the red circle on the right makes the thief jump. Simple, but hard. The guards are after you and you don't have much time! And the music is fast and catchy. This reminds me of an arcade game and if it was, I'd be putting quarters in all day!

For each screen, you start at the bottom and work your way to the top, grabbing as much loot as you can. But you'll get caught and when you lose enough lives (you start with three) you're done! You get a high-score screen and you can play again, without any of those annoying quarters.

This game is fast-paced and unforgiving, but if you keep at it, you'll keep getting better and then you'll find the next screen a little tougher. But that's part of the fun and this game works just great on the Firefox OS phone.

Orange Pixel is based in the Netherlands but makes games in a way that makes me want to play the rest of their work and I can't wait for more of them to be in the Firefox Marketplace. Oh, did I say their music won't leave my head, no matter how hard I try to think about something else? These are people to watch!

Cost: Free

Genre: Arcade
Score: 6 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace

Cupcakes vs Veggies (Game Review)

The underlying premise of this game is that sweet treats are good and vegetables are bad. Ardent vegetarians can sent protests of email to TreSensa, but even if you like vegetables, you might want to play this game because it is a great game for phones, and delivers perfectly for Firefox OS.

Here's the opening screen. You can see we're dealing with sugary treats!

You can choose to play, shop, look at your achievements, and get some tutoring. It is always a good idea to figure out how to play the game before you start (unless you just like to wing it -- some do and some don't. I usually like to bash away first and then see what I get).

The Help is excellent, with lots of fun and pictures. Here's the first Help screen:

What could be more simple than that. Eat cupcakes, don't eat veggies. And in fine print, it tells you that you need to click to eat. Well, we on Firefox OS don't click, we touch or tap. So bang on those cupcakes with your finger, and you'll need to tap fast! This is a very fast reaction type of game and would be a good way to wake up in the morning. And get good finger exercises all day long. And these cupcakes fly fast!

But TreSensa didn't want to make it dull. So they throw in perks you can get, as explained by this next screen:

For example, the Freeze snowflake will temporarily stop all the cupcakes so you can eat them easily. These things will fly through the air and if you're fast, you can catch 'em.

But if you're not fast and you need some help, they've got a plan just for you.

Eating cupcakes makes you rich! (And you thought it just went to your waistline.) You want to accumulate gold! Gold lets you buy ways to make things easier. And you can buy gold with real money!

Here's the exchange rate:

And here's what those tokens will cost you in real money: you can buy 10 tokens for $0.99, 50 tokens for $4.99, and 100 tokens for $9.99. And remember, each token is worth 10,000 gold. And what is it worth? Well, very early on, you can buy Freeze Flakes for 100 gold. And other items are priced accordingly.

So they can give away the game for free and let you buy your way to the top. Of course, you don't need to ever buy, because the real point of the game is to see how fast you can eat those cupcakes and NOT eat a vegetable.

Now that you're completely confused, here's what the game looks like:

A cupcake flies up from the bottom of the screen. You have to tap on it before it falls back down again.

Here's another.

The cupcakes fly fast and furious, but you must not ever click on a vegetable. If you do, you'll get a big YUCK. And if you don't get all the cupcakes, you'll get a big DON'T WASTE FOOD!

And at the end of each level, you get an update on where you are:

And something to keep in mind: "A dropped cupcake is a dad cupcake." One of the things that makes this game outstanding is the whacky sense of humor that comes through in the theme, the art, and even little slogans about sad cupcakes.

And as well as a sense of humor, there's a real challenge. This game makes you be on the alert every moment. Cupcakes look different, vegetables are not cupcakes, and various perks add up to a fast-paced game of speed and skill that will make you want to try again.

TreSensa also makes an HTML5 game engine and I'm curious how it works and compares to others. But their engine clearly works and these guys know how to put together an HTML5 game. The art is great, the play is flawless, and they have a sense of humor.

The game is hard, in the sense that you have to move fast, but there's a place for that in the game world. Some like it fast, some like it slow. I like this game and it delivers well on all fronts.

Maybe their next game will be made for vegetarians, and you must choose between brassicas and nightshades. But until then, this game will keep you occupied.

Cost: Free

Genre: Arcade
Score: 5 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace

Captain Rogers (Game Review)

When I saw Captain Rogers in the Marketplace, it jogged a recent memory. Oh, yes, the guys who wrote Captain Rogers had an article about their experiences writing the app and putting it in the marketplace.

You can read that first if you want in this tutorial: http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/firefox-os/preparing-for-firefox-os/

The tutorial is called "Preparing for Firefox OS" and has some good things to think about. The game itself was written by Andrzej Mazur (coder) and Robert Podgórski (graphics). The tutorial was written by Andrzej and covers subjects like moz-opaque, CSS Transform Scaling, and Nearest Neighbor Rendering. Also references a cool article on optimizing for Firefox games at https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/05/optimizing-your-javascript-game-for-firefox-os/. Andrzej even includes a manifest and permissions code, which is useful.

He wrote a separate article about working with Clay.Io at http://enclavegames.com/blog/2013/07/26/captain-rogers-with-clay-dot-io-the-joyful-fun-of-leaderboards-and-achievements/

Also, he lets us know that the game was written using the game library, Impact.js at http://impactjs.com/. which has a cool game creation editor and I seem to remember a book on Amazon Kindle!

And if that wasn't enough, he's shared a big fat set of links to information about creating HTML5 games. You go, Andrzej!

It's nice when people share and I hope to do the same when I get further along the coding road. Right now I'm splitting my time between playing games and writing them. So back to playing games.

How does Captain Rogers play?

Well, it has a user interface I still can't get used to after several tries. The art is nice and the idea of flying through asteroids and picking up power pills is fun enough, but the game is designed for one finger tapping. Which isn't a bad idea, but the way it is done is hard for me.

Captain Rogers flies through space from left to right. This is a common space shooter style. The asteroids are moving from right to left and you must dodge them. The issue is that you tap to move your ship up and ... let go to move to move the ship down.

I'm not sure if I'm just not cool with up and down in space. What pulls the ship down when you don't tap the screen? Gravity? What makes it go up? A hidden thruster? The concepts seldom really matter, but I can't get the hang of it. My I can't aim well enough and die pretty fast.

So it didn't work for me and I can't even tell you if there are different levels or what happens when you get to the end. Even the game "A Space Shooter for Two Bucks." Had more entertainment value!

On the other hand, I applaud using a different control mechanism. Most phone space shooters use a variety of places you have to touch to make the ship turn, shoot, speed up, or slow down.

Wait! I want to shoot things!!! There's no bullets. I've been shooting things in space since the first Asteroids arcade game and it just seems unnatural to hop/limp out of the way of the dang things.

But the game may work for you. So I'm going to waffle and give the game a 3 for effort and I'll be curious if anyone finds this control mechanism useful.

The Help was a little crowded but when I went back to look at it after playing a bit, it made more sense:

The art is fun and cheery, but I still can't wrap my finger around it. But there's a big plus to this game which is that it is on Git Hub (where?) and there are other Captain Rogers games already http://m.blackmoondev.com/crkarmax/. So give the Captain a break because he's trying to share what he knows.

Cost: Free
Genre: Arcade
Score: 3 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace

Penguin Pop (Game Review)

When I saw this game in the Firefox Marketplace, my heart leaped up and I thought this might be a variation on an old arcade favorite of mine, Pengo.

But alas, it was not. The game is Penguin Pop and you can get it at https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/penguin-pop. Penguin Pop is a variation on Whac-A-Mole, which was an early action game from the arcades where you physically "whack" little moles as they come out of their holes.

 

Well, that's not this Penguin Pop either! The Penguin Pop in the Marketplace is a fun little game that lets you whack penguins and see how high your score can go. Here's the opening screen:

And here's a screen at play:

You tap on the screen with and hit the penguins as they pop up and before they pop down again! However, if you tap on a bear or a shark, you get a "fault" and three faults and the game is over. Also, if you don't get three penguins in a row, you get a fault. As the game progresses, you also will be tapping on fish and igloos, and some penguins "may need more attention than others".

Overall, this is a good game to play when you have a few minutes and don't want to think a lot. This game is good for increasing your ability to react quickly. This is the kind of game I'd like to play while I'm waiting. My only complaint is that I tire of it easily, but I can always go back to it.

The art is very nice, however, and pleasing to the eye.

Rules were easy to read and understand and told me everything I needed to know.

The developer, TweenSoft, has lots of other games, and it looks like Penguin Pop is also available for Android and iOS as well.

Cost: Free
Genre: Arcade
Score: 4 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace