G5 Entertainment’s Line Up Review

June 21, 2012

Good grief, G5 Entertainment has been keeping me busy! They are quickly becoming one of my favorite Social Gaming developers. I’m having a hard time keeping up, as they release a new game app EVERY WEEK!!!! Seriously, I just do not have that much time in the week. The good news is, their games are simple, yet challenging, addictive and fun. Currently, I am playing G5 games on my Nook Color and my iPod Touch. After looking at their website again, I see that they have some games for Android. WOOT! I’m PC/Android all the way baby! (Well, not really anymore, since I have to keep up, but I do all of my own game design on my PC since they have the stronger capacity for game engines.)

So far, here are the titles I’ve played so far and my thoughts on them:

Virtual City 2: Paradise Resort:

Device: iPod Touch

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

I had a chance to first play Virtual City on my Nook, which was a lot of fun. During E3, G5 was kind enough to send me Virtual City 2: Paradise Resort for my iPod Touch, so I could play that one as well. Let me first just say, that I really enjoy simulation games. The fun factor can vary between Chill and Super Fly! I like them because I can go at my own pace. I remember the old school simulation games like SIM City where you had to create your own city and pray that you made the right choices and kept up before your city crashed and burned. Virtual City is reminiscent of the old school sim games but are way better. I appreciate how they are objective or quest based. I like being able to come in to a town, see the little briefing from the hot redheaded librarian looking NPC and then meet the challenge. Challenges such as setting up transportation for the locals to various entertainment spots or making sure your delivery trucks are good to go for your cosmetics run, putting out fires, building up the population and keeping them happy can be arduous at times when trying to beat the clock but I like how there is even if you don’t finish all of your tasks in time, you can still meet your objectives, get cool rewards and keep playing and building if you so choose. Once you’ve finished with each objective, you then move on to the next and so on and so forth. This is a great game to pick up on a casual basis here and there for a few minutes or play for a couple of hours.

I have to say, however, I preferred playing this game on my Nook as it had more screen space. All in all, quality game.

Virtual City 2: Paradise Resort is available for download to Nook Tablet today. Gamers can try the game for free and buy the full version for $4.99. The game is also available on iOS, Mac, PC, Kindle Fire and Google play.

Stand O Food:

Device: Nook

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Okay, I like games of this nature, where it’s fast pace, you have hungry customers waiting for their food and you have to really understand multi-tasking and how to make the best burger possible to keep the customers happy. However, I couldn’t get into Stand O Food. I think the graphics are super cute and the electronic 8-bit chiptune music is fine. My problem with this game was that it was a little hard to follow. Not enough tutorial assistance in game. I didn’t know where all of my options in the game were–for instance, when trying to make the burgers, whenever I’d mess up I didn’t know how to reset until I mashed all of the buttons. No bueno.

Plus, after each level or day was complete, you can purchase additional items for your restaurant that would make the customers happy or up sell the food, like ketchup or a jukebox. I wish that once you bought the condiments, that you could use them indefinitely during that round instead of purchasing only 1 at a time for a unique usage. With all of the burgers that I had to make, I only had enough money to buy one thing of ketchup and could only use it for one lousy burger in order to get the extra moola.

Also, hate to say it, but I was bored playing this game. Even though there was variety in the kinds of burgers or food that you had to prepare and different recipes, I wasn’t really interested in continuous play after more than a couple of levels.

But what do I know…you may LOVE this kind of game. If you do, you can get it for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3G/3GS, the original iPhone, and iPod touch and Nook now for free and buy the full version for $4.99

 

Spirit of Wandering – The Legend:

Device: Nook

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Hidden Object games (HO) make me happy, I’m not gonna lie. I don’t know why, but they just do. I remember being a kid and loving the Word Search puzzles and seeing how fast I could find the words. I would time myself and my cousins and I would always challenge each other to word search duels. I guess that’s why I’m a HUGE fan of this genre. Not only is the art always fun, but the variety of the kinds of things you have to find in strange and exotic places are just great eye candy. Here’s why you should play Spirit of Wandering: The Legend over other hidden object games: The gameplay is so different than any other HO games I’ve played before. Okay, yes, there’s the storyline, which is totally cool if you like Pirates and legends, and seriously, who doesn’t? And yes, the original objective of finding a list of objects in a cluttered picture remains true, HOWEVER, what I like most about G5’s new take, is that after you find the aforementioned list of objects, there are special (can you give me an “ooooOOOO”) objects that can only be viewed using this fire circle thingy. By using your finger, you drag this circle looking glass around the picture and when you are “hot” or close to that object, the circle catches on “fire”. It’s a great added bonus to keep playing in that scene and a unique way of helping the player find an object.

Gamer-geeks–you need to play, it’s so fun and I played it for hours!

Spirit of Wandering – The Legend is now available for free download on Kindle Fire and Google Play. Gamers can try the game for free and unlock the full version through an in-app purchase for $4.99. The game is also available on iPhone and iPad

What I’m REALLY wanting to play, is their new game, Jumpster

Jumpster:

Device: iOS

Rating: TBD

G5 gave me a little idea of what this cute game is all about. Here’s what they tell me. Jumpster is a AAA gravity-defying, physics puzzler that leaps into iOS orbit in July and has been developed by Vogat.

It has easy to master game mechanics, challenging but beatable gameplay, beautiful graphics and a soundtrack to which you’ll find yourself humming along.

In the game you play as Jumpster, a cute little alien who is touring a galaxy. His ship gets hit by a meteorite and springs a fuel leak. Poor Jumpster crash-lands on the planet Okadia and now needs to recover the lost fuel, if he wants to continue his trek. To do so, he must tackle traitorous traps and hungry monsters in his path.

To play, you slingshot Jumpster by pulling back while setting your angle, and then you let go. You’ll fly Jumpster trough death defying traps and teleports, you’ll maneuver him though teeth gnashing monsters and control numerous moving vehicles while in search of the UFO fuel.

I’m sure you’ve just checked out the video above and can see how cute and fun this game looks like it’s gonna be. I’ll give you my true, honest to goodness answer after I play it and tell you if it measures up to the hype!

All in all, I’ve got to say, from the few games I’ve play so far from G5 Entertainment, I give the developer a 4 out of 5 Stars rating. They crank out a new game every week with some really great game companies. I like the variety of gameplay that they have to choose from. Yeah, so I may not like every game they are offering me, but hey, there is something for everyone!

Game On–Andrea