Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Yugioh Zexal World Duel Carnival for 3DS English version arriving in September

Siliconera article link

US version will be a digital release at the 3DS eShop while the Europe and Australia version will be a retail release at 26 June this year. A digital release will mean it will be missing the usual 3 free cards that came with the retail version. Hopefully, the price will be much lower than retail to compensate!

It has been so long since the last DS/PSP Yugioh game release that I've pretty much forgot most of the rules and cards...

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Metal Slug Defense Unlockable Units Stats (Updated with Unit FAQ link)

Update: As I'm no longer updating, check GameFAQs for Unit FAQ by whoami55 instead

I've managed to get all the given troops and levelled them to level 20, other than the Elephant Slug which is the 30th Daily Login reward. Having completed the game, I was no longer inclined to buy any new units from the shop... Anyway, here's a compilation of the unlockable level 20 stats and descriptions:

Name: Soldier
HP: 400
AP: 30
Mov: Normal
Prod: Very Fast
Stand. Atk: very short spread attack
Spec. Atk: normal range spread attack, grenade that travels in an arc

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Metal Slug Defense: Impressions, Tips and Links (Added Android Central Top 10 Trips and Tricks link)

Latest Update impressions in new post.

Metal Slug Defense is not a card game but has some reference to it in the form of using "deck" to hold the types of troops you deploy. It is described as a tower-defense/strategy game and if you played Cartoon Wars, it is something similar. You need to wait for AP to build up before you can summon your troops. The novelty is that each troop has a special move that can affect the battle.

The difficulty is higher than Plants Vs Zombie and I find the special moves as well as a super move where you called upon the "Metal Slug" tank to bulldoze through the stage to be necessary a few times. However, once you clear a stage, you just have to basically remember the order which you summon your troops in order to win again. I guess that is why the double-speed option is there in the game. You are also encouraged to replay stages in order to save prisoner-of-war (POW) to improve your abilities but it can get "grindy".

The graphics and sounds are very nice and will please fans of Metal Slug. I played a bit of those games and this defense version looks and sounds exactly like it. The UI is also done well and the game has the controls designed for touchscreen where everything is just a tap away. However, I do have slight issues  with the screen scrolling instead of activating a power or activating a wrong power when the troops get too close. As the difficulty increases, it does become just a crazy tap-all-you-can-fest.

There is IAP but it doesn't seem entirely necessary which is great as I'm progressing fine so far. I prefer this design for Free-to-play (F2P) games as people will instead show support by buying the IAP instead of having to do so to get past a "paywall". Interestingly, according to people from the Touch Arcade forum game thread, the game also uses daily events and daily login rewards but do not enforce it over a server; it is "controlled" individually per game so you can technically change the device's clock or date to get them. However, it messes up your current base stats, etc. A constant Internet connection is not required and there are no cloud or server saves so if you delete your game, the progress and purchases (I suppose?) are gone. Buyer beware! (Update: I figured out how to make a backup of your game to transfer your progress between devices for iOS. You need a program like iTools or iExplorer to browse your device directory. Your saved data is the entire App's "Documents" folder. I successfully transferred mine by replacing that folder on another device. Not too sure about Android though, but it might be something similar. Note: There is a store kit folder as well so IAP purchasers might want to copy those as well? The above steps are strictly for backup and transferring of game progress, your game progress will not sync between devices. Note#2: Be wary of app updates too which might or might not break the game save)

The other peculiar game design is that the rewards (other than POW) for each stage replayed is the same. It usually "tapers" off for most games but not in this game. You get the same amount of points for subsequent clears which is a lot. (source) On one hand, it makes grinding faster and as you basically use the same strategy most of the time, it does get boring fast. You basically need to do it to improve your base and troop stats though.

The game is out for both iOS and Android and is free so it's definitely worth a try, just be aware of the game design listed. Overall, I find the game enjoyable although it can get a bit repetitive fast even with more troops unlock; there is always multiplayer too if you get bored of the campaign or grinding. (Edit: Reports from the Touch Arcade forum is that there is no proper match-making algorithm to match equally "powered" players. However, I tried a few matches and it seem pretty even. The online matches are named rank other than friend matches so I think there should be some algorithm at work.) Update 21/05/2014: Version 1.0.1 fixes the "issue" of people quitting in PvP to escape a loss by allowing the match to continue which will effectively award the victory accordingly. This is great as PvP is the endgame when you've completed everything else and this fix will definitely help to extend the gameplay longevity.

iOS App Store link
Google play link

Tips and links: