Maa Gamer

Having worked through a few retro video games lately I thought I'd try one of the earliest I could find. Similar in play to something like Final Fantasy Tactics on the Game Boy Advanced, Chess is a deep game, easy enough to pick up but becomes brain hemorrhagingly complex very quickly. Oddly for games of this period it's multiplayer only, similar to say Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 with no single player mode. You actually have to have friends to play this and, much like the Game Boy Advanced, they must be sat in front in of you. Mercifully, batteries and link cables are not required which could explain some of its popularity. Chess has evolved a rich tournament following too and global competitions are held regularly, accumulating five times the viewers of the League of Legends World Championships. The game does have its draw backs. It’s very easy for novices to get into a none winnable situation, two pieces following each other round the board until someone nods off. A little of ...

Mini Motorways seems to be one of the more popular and addictive titles on Apple Arcade. If I were an over 40s video game player, I’d describe it as Jony Ive’s version of Transport Tycoon (I am BTW).  All complexity is ripped away like an unsightly headphone socket, leaving the player with nothing more than drawing roads and plopping in the odd roundabout or traffic management trope. How interesting can that be you might scream from behind your tiny steering wheel, well lots it seems. Each level starts off with a mini-Ikea (I’m assuming because tons of people drive to them) and a couple of houses. How delightful the players face gleams, slowly smudging their little finger from one to the other. Little cars drive happily from Home to overpriced 3D furniture puzzles. Ahh, but what’s this, more and more appear, green shops, blue and little houses and cars that only prefer certain outlets. Slowly but steadily chaos ensues. Getting to this stage might seem painful but somehow the sereni...

Welcome to your new life! Nintendo exclaims! As if there was something wrong with the current one? Well, unless you already live on an abandoned island ready for development by an enterprising Racoon and his chums, you might find this a nice change of pace. You begin by being accosted by said trash pandas at the airport. Channelling the friendliest of TSA agents, they begin by gathering the basics about yourself before you move onto the frankly hilarious character customization screen. If you’ve ever pulled out a Mr Potato head from a charity shop shelf, you’d honestly have more customisation options. A short plane trip later and you’ve arrived on your new island home! Gameplay, such as it is, involves a few main tasks and a seemingly infinite number of minor ones. Overtly, your main objective will be to sink yourself further and further into mortgage debt with your furry striped friend and he offers you larger and more opulent living accommodations. Secondly, make the island pretty. T...

Animal Crossing Wild World (DS) It’s often said the most impactful fiction is that which hits closest to home. So rather than blasting Nazi Zombies why not try making friends, completing little jobs about town and paying off your mortgage. Animal Crossing Wild World is a game about all these things, more than these things and none of them… You start the game by taking a taxi to your new village home. Like any good cabbie many questions are asked about you and where you are going, so you can customise yourself a little and plant a name on your new town. Once you arrive gainful employment is provided in Tom Nooks corner shop as his new Granville. It’s not mentioned what happened to his previous assistant, we can only gather they “Dilly Dallied” a little too much for the Racoons liking. With a few errands out the way, serving as a nice introduction to the folks and important locations about the town, you’re on your own. With your only real formative goal, to pay off the mortgage on the ho...

Here at the Maa Gamer offices, we often have lively discussions about the realism of various video games. The journeys of small children across strange lands with only captured wildlife for companionship, as realised in the Pokémon series of video games, leaves us with little doubt as to game’s feasibility. However, one small aspect of this game series never quite added up in our fevered minds. Nurse Joy cannot possibly heal your Pokémon that quickly, she must be killing and replacing them! Today, we look at the evidence. One: Instant Healing. As mentioned, you can’t heal animals at the press of a button, that’s ridiculous. More so, when you consider some of the injuries we’ve inflicted on our furry chums in the name of fame and glory. From Iron Tail concussions to nervous system damage caused by Thunder shocks we’d be surprised if The Incredible Dr. Pol would give our furry pals a 2nd look. Two: Disk Space. Nurse Joy is clearly a sophisticated trainer who has collected every type of P...

  What would happen if you tried to get the creator of some of the most popular JRPGs to make one for a device which has a bit of a reputation for casual gaming. A device that you might say is pretty good at doing lots of different things but not specifically designed for anything, certainly not gaming. Whether the iPhone, iPad or i-whatever is really an appropriate platform for a AAA game is a question we’ll leave for another time, but we can be certain MistWalker thought so.   Fantasian is the latest game, but not the first, created by the MistWalker studio famously headed by the Hironobu Sakaguchi; Director and Producer of many Final Fantasy games up to about 9. The game will come in two parts each promising around 20 hours of play and at least the first part seems to have taken at least 3 years to develop. The music alone taking over Nobuo Uematus’ life for over a year for 13 hours a day, and it shows.   The effort and depth in the game is present and will hopefully s...