Tinys World of Technology BS

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Way back in April 2014, I told you about one of my favorite word games, 7 Little Words.  I still play it every day and have purchased several extra puzzle packages.  In July, I reviewed Red Herring, another game by the same developer.  I thought it was okay, but not near as challenging.

The developer, Blue Ox Technologies has released another word game.  I think that two years from now Monkey Wrench will still be on my favorites list.  Monkey Wrench is a word finding game with clues to figure out what the hidden words are.  The clues are given in categories which will definitely challenge your brain.  Some are easy (sports with a round ball – tennis) and others are difficult (edible flowers – fennel).

Opening a puzzle presents you with a screen of letters.  The object of the game is to spell the answers by sliding your finger through the correct letters.  When you get an answer right, the letters are removed from the grid.  Each puzzle has three difficulty levels you can play.  Easy shows all of the words you must find.  Normal shows the first letter of each word.  Hard reveals how many letters in each word.

If you get stuck, you can use a hint.  The game comes with ten free hints or you can buy an upgrade for $1.99 and get unlimited hints.  The hints give you a choice of showing all the vowels, showing the last letter or showing the entire solution.

The game comes with one free bundle of fifty puzzles.  You can purchase more puzzle packs.  There is a promotion where you can sign up with an e-mail for their newsletter and get another bundle of twenty puzzles.  There is also a free game each day that you can download.

If you enjoy word games, you’ll like Monkey Wrench. It can be downloaded from the Play Store for free with in-app purchases.

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been excited lately!  Fireproof Games recently released the third installment to their popular “The Room” series.  It all started in September 2012 with the release of The Room, a physical puzzler, wrapped in a mystery game, inside a beautifully tactile 3D world.  It was followed with a sequel, The Room Two, in February 2014.  Last month, January 2016, gave us the release of The Room Three.

Fireproof Games describe themselves as “a team of 15 based in Guildford, UK and since 2012 we’ve been creating our own games.”  So far, they’ve only released the three Room games and a virtual reality Jetpack game for the Samsung Gear.  Many game companies churn out a lot of games that are mostly the same old thing with in-app purchases to try and get your money.  Fireproof has a slightly higher price but delivers a quality game with no further cost.  The games are also available for Apple and Windows.  This mini-review is for the Android environment.

In The Room, your task is to open a safe.  The safe is really a big box that changes as you solve the many puzzles, riddles, games and other bafflements.  In the course of the game, you find a story unfolding about locating a strange machine.  I estimate that it took me about 20 hours to complete the game the first time.  I replayed it last year and got through a lot faster, even though I couldn’t remember a lot of the game play.

The Room Two picks up where the original game left off.  You have to recreate the steps of the scientist and complete the strange machine.  The first thing you notice is that the room is a lot larger and has several boxes.  There are many more puzzles and many of them seem to be much more difficult.  I don’t think any of them were repeats from the first game.

I haven’t yet finished playing The Room Three, but I can tell you that it is more diabolical that the first two.  So far, the biggest difference I have found is that the game “world” is much larger.  Instead of a single room, the game starts on a train.  As you start solving puzzles, you soon find a secret entrance to a room.  Once again, you find many puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc.  The difficultly level has increased again.  It appears that the machine you discovered in the previous games has put you in another world and you need to solve the game to get back.  So far, there have been several rooms and many more puzzles.

The games all have spectacular graphics, perplexing puzzles, eerie music and are very playable on a touch enabled tablet or phone.  I originally paid full price ($5.99) for each game.  Over the years, the price has been reduced:
The Room is $1.10, The Room Two is $2.07 and The Room Three costs $5.55.  I can happily recommend all them.

   
Thanks for reading.

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Trainyard is a fun little puzzle solving game that I originally downloaded because my grandson wanted to play it on one of my devices. That was in September of 2013, before he got his own tablet. I’ve still got the game on my machine and I still play it frequently.
The object of the game is simple. You have to get your trains from their departure points into the correct station. You control your trains by drawing track on a square of grids for them to follow. Trains and stations are colored and the train must go to the correctly colored station. Each square on the grid can have two tracks overlapping at angles, but every time a train runs over that square, the track that is on top switches direction. When timed correctly, multiple trains merge into single ones. Two trains can merge together and change color. I’ve relearned the primary colors chart by playing this game.
The games begin with a tutorial that demonstrates the basics of the game. Initial puzzles are simple tracks from depot to station (see figure 1). As the game progresses, you have to route multiple trains, switch track and combine trains (see figure 2).

    
The puzzles continue to get more complicated. Eventually you will get squares that change your trains color, split them up or block them. This is one of those games that is easy to learn, but requiring thought to master. There is no single answer for any puzzle. In fact, most of the Trainyard puzzles has thousands of solutions. If you find a unique solution, you can upload it to the games online data base. If you get stuck, you can also consult the data base for suggested solutions.
With no time limits for solving each puzzle, Trainyard is the perfect game to play when you get a spare minute or two. I’m addicted. Why don’t you give it a try?
Trainyard Express is the free version of the game. You get more than 60 puzzles. The paid version of Trainyard is $2.99 from the Google Play Store. It features more than 100 additional puzzles. There are also some more advanced functions for the higher levels.
Give the game a try. Thanks for reading.