Thursday, August 7, 2008

Daily Random Game: A Stick's Quest

Hello again! This is Juice, and I'm going to give you a review/walkthrough for the game: A Stick's Quest.


Gameplay: 3.5/5
While this game is witty and fun, it gets a little old having your items disappear after one use. The levels are quite entertaining, though.
Graphics: 2.5/5
Stick figures. Go figure.
Replay Value: 1.5/5
This only gets points because it's kind of fun to go read the text again.
Music: 5/5
Catchy, fun music makes this game worth while. It's a techno mix that really makes you want to DANCE.
Kong Rating: 3.4/5
My Rating: 3.125/5
This has been Juice.

Review: Music Catch

Hello, Juice here. Today I'm reviewing the lovely game: Music Catch.


Gameplay: 4.5/5
This game is truly fun to play. Who would have thought catching little shapes with another little shape could be so entertaining? Music Catch is also quite relaxing. The music is amazing, but we'll get to that later.
Graphics: 4.5/5
I enjoyed the graphics in this game. They were detailed (or at least as detailed as triangles and squares go), and they were very fitting for the music, simple, but very well done.
Replay Value: 5/5
Who gets tired of this game? I suppose if you aren't listening to the music, it could get tiresome, but overall, it never stops being enjoyable for me.
Music: 5/5
Like I've said before, I love this music! The music in the game is called “Before Dawn” from Isaac Shepard’s album “Swept Away.” If you want to know more about it, go to http://www.isaacshepard.com.
Kong Rating: 4.3/5
My Rating: 4.75/5
This has been Juice.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Review: Bubble Tanks 2


Bubble Tanks 2 is out, and features a new upgrading system, and tons of new evil bubbles for you to destroy!


Gameplay: A

Bubble Tanks 2 is not only fun and addicting, but it has a quick upgrading system and a huge cast of enemies to keep you entertained. I had fun sailing from bubble to bubble blasting away with my "Balanced Bubble Tank".

Graphics: A-

Though it's nothing flashy, Bubble Tanks 2 has a streamlined appearance which enhances your experience by that much more. The bubbles are well done, leaving you to focus more on those flying bullets than the background.

Replay Value: B

Though the different upgrade trees are nice enough, there's nothing special to keep me coming back. That being said, however, it's a fun game, and I certainly wouldn't mind playing it once in a while.

Presentation: A

It's a great, polished game, and its flaws are small enough so you can ignore them.

Final Grade: A-

Bubble Tanks 2 is a clean-looking, addicting game, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see a couple of badges or a challenge here.

-Krick

Card Challenge Predictions

Sup guys, EsIeX3 here. I'm not going to have a computer for the next 4 days because of vacation, but I still should be able to get something of a guide down for the character tomorrow (smartphones FTW).

Anyway, to the point of this post. Challenge cards. Right. This is only about character cards though, sorry if you want to know about items.

So far, the only character cards that haven't been re-released yet are:

Tafari
Ubuntu
Marquis le morte
Anex
Vanessa Voss
Zina
(could possibly be others that I'm not remembering)

So who's likely to get another release this month?

Likely Releases:

Tafari:
Tafari is pretty likely to get rereleased tomorrow. Yes, not just this month, but tomorrow. The last two item cards were the Yellow Rock of Cowards and Caltrops, which were items that had to do with switching. Tafari could likely be put in to follow suit with the last two items that were released.

Anex:
Anex is likely to be released for underdog week, which starts august 11. Anex is definitely one of the most undervalued characters, with a decent hits fleeing move and a power move that will kill almost everybody if her innate is active (or if she crits with sharpening stone).

Marquis le Morte:

Basicaly, Marquis could get released for the same reason that Anex gets released: because he's undervalued. He has low HP and is really vulnerable to some characters.

Possible Release:

Ubuntu:
I actually wouldn't say Ubuntu's undervalued at all, but releasing him could make a "trickster" theme if Tafari and Marquis gets released as well.


Vanessa Voss and Zina:

Since Amaya just got re-released, we could see a Vanessa Voss and a Zina together that could fit an "attacks all enemies" theme.


And there you have it! This could really be an interesting month with card releases, and I'd love to see the items that they release with them.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Amaya Guide

Hey, first, a small introduction. I'm EsIeX3, and I'm gonna do some card reviews for KCCG. I've been playing Kongai since beta, and I'd say I'm a decently experienced player.

General Use:

Without her (or his. I don't know, why are ours characters so gender confused?) innate, many of his decent matchups would be 50/50 rather than 7/3 or 6/4. Amaya's moves are the "annoy the enemy to hell" type of moves. Shadow curse lowers the chance that everybody on the enemy team misses. Her (or his) shadow wrath chips away at all the enemies. Ninja port can be used to combo into Dark Chi Blast, or it can be used to stay away from close ranged enemies.

Any way you play her (maybe him), Amaya ends up being a very irritating character to play against with some ironicly good matchups.

Moveset:

Suggested Items:

Jade Figurine: Quite possibly the only ninja where this is one of the preferred items. Amaya loses certain matchups when he doesn't use this.
Scroll of Inner Focus: This item lets him ninja port 3 times before falling into the “no dark chi blast” range. Shadow curse goes down to 20 energy, so he can shadow curse over and over again without having to worry about having enough energy to use the move.
Flash Powder: As Amaya is one of the most fragile characters in the game, you may want to switch out more often. However, the Scroll of Inner Focus and Jade Figurine makes his matchups better. Use this if you want Amaya to be more of a hit and run character.

Noted Matchups:

Note: I did do the math, but for a lot of these it’s too damn long to type out.

If it's tl;dr for you, skip to the end for a summary.

vs Cornelius: This is one of the most hilarious matchups, as Amaya happens to be one of the few good characters against corn. Corn will most likely not get a pilebunker off due to ninja port and amaya’s innate. It takes 4 voidstreams in a row to kill Amaya, but unfortunately for Cornelius, there’s a 60% chance of one of those voidstreams failing because of Amaya’s innate. If Amaya equips a Jade Figurine, it takes 5 voidstreams to kill Amaya with a 70% chance of one of those voidstreams to be unavaliable. Even if a voidstream fails, Cornelius has to face a Dark Chi Blast. (thanks to northern for helping me out on this one).

vs Tafari: On average, it takes Tafari 4 poison darts to kill amaya (including procs, I haven’t done the math for without procs) (also for both jade amaya and scroll amaya). However, like before, there’s a ~60% chance that one of these is gonna fail if you do them in a row, and that’s not counting miss rate. Starting at close, Amaya’s moves would be ninja-port -> dark chi blast -> rest -> dark chi blast. However, Tafari can close in, which would mean Amaya would have to ninja port again. This means that Amaya’s Dark Chi Blast has to proc in order for him to win. Of course, then there’s the chance that Tafari’s poison dart gets disabled. I’m guessing this matchup is around 5-5 or 6-4.
I have not done the math if Amaya uses Shadow Curse, however. If anybody else would like to do it, go right ahead.

vs Marquis: It takes Marquis 2 Vamp Touches to kill Amaya. He can get the first one off (~75% chance), but definitely not the second one. (apologies northern, your math was wrong :P). If amaya ninja ports as his first move, Marquis can’t get the second one off. After a VT then a teleport, Marquis is left with 45 energy, which isn’t enough for another VT. However, it takes amaya either 2 ninja ports and 1 dark chi blast + proc, or 3 ninja ports and 1 plain dark chi blast to win this matchup. I’m guessing amaya has a 9-1 advantage here.

vs Juju (thanks to CMiner):
Amaya has a huge advantage because his Ninja Port is speed 5, which lets him avoid all of Juju’s close range attacks, provided he has enough energy. This puts the fight at far range.
Hex only does 10 damage to Amaya, but will kill him in 6 hits (7 with Jade Figurine). Amaya’s innate should disable Hex at least once in that lineup, giving you at least 7 turns to take Juju out.
The real danger is Healing Touch, which can prolong the fight and drain your energy. This is why you really need Scroll of Inner Focus for this matchup.
Starting at close range:
Ninja Port -> Chi Blast -> Rest -> Chi Blast -> Rest -> Chi Blast -> Rest -> Chi Blast
If Juju does Healing Touch every turn, without Burn procs or disables on the healing touch, he will be at 20 energy and 5 health by now, and you with 25 energy, enough for another Rest -> Chi Blast. But most likely a proc/move disable will let you win this fight quicker than with 5 Chi Blasts.
The worst Juju can do damage-wise is 20 (2 hexes at far range). The biggest issue is how much energy he can drain from you before you kill him, but with a 25% chance of disabling Healing Touch each round, and no chance of an up close attack, this should be an easy, if long, matchup.

TL;DR summary:

Basically, Amaya can win against some of the more powerful characters. However, this section assumes that it's the last two characters, full energy and full HP at close. It also assumes certain items. If it's not the last two characters on each side, Amaya has to worry about intercepts, and it's pretty likely that he'll get destroyed if an enemy switches out to a fresh character.

Interesting Math:

When Amaya uses Shadow Curse once, there’s an overall 40% chance that a move will either A) be affected by Amaya’s innate or B) Affected by shadow curse and will miss.

More Information:

http://kongregate.wikia.com/wiki/Amaya

Card Reviews

I am going to tag each card set in the right panel to in depth reviews of each card. This will be a long proccess but it will be worth it in the end. I will also do a starter guide for choosing your starter cards. Much is to come here at KCCG so keep your eyes and ears open and always make sure to tune in.
~hipcheck

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Daily Random Game: Adventure Ho!



Hello, this is Juice, and I'm reviewing the new Kongregate game, Adventure Ho!













Gameplay- 3/5

A traditional click adventure game, there's nothing that really stands out. Features include 11 different areas to battle through, a shop, 4 animal characters, and a princess to save! Like I said, traditional. (Yes, even the "animal character" thing is getting a little old.) Also, it lost some points for being pretty luck-based.

Graphics- 4/5

I give the graphics a 4 because they're very nicely detailed, one might say the main characters are "Kongai worthy". In my opinion, anyway. The enemies are slightly less detailed, and there isn't much of a scenery.

Replay Value- 3.5/5

A 3 1/2 because there are 4 different characters, but really, the game gets old after the second time.

Music- 4/5

The music is catchy and original. The in-battle sound effects are quite bland though, but what can you expect, they're game noises.

Kong Rating- 3.5/5

My Rating- 3.5/5

Once again, we are in agreement, Kong.

This has been Juice.

Pandemic 2 Review


Godsend here. I’m giving my FIRST review today for this site! I invite everyone to give me feedback on this review and suggestions for other games to review on my profile page.

Pandemic 2 is quickly becoming one of the biggest games on Kongregate. It is only a matter of time before it reaches the top of the Strategy & Defense List. Pandemic 2’s popularity was increased even more when it was recently involved in one of the weekly challenges. Along with over 100 points you can win for your profile this game is a must for any online gamer.


You control a disease that randomly infects a country. Using Evolution Points you nurture and grow you disease into a deadly infection that can kill every human on Earth. There are two Play Modes. Relaxed, this is a quicker condensed version of the full game. Then there is Realistic, which is the full game with all the traits available. After you choose which mode to play you pick you Disease Class. Virus, Bacteria, or Parasite, each with their own traits and abilities. You go to select your disease’s Symptoms, Resistances, and methods of Transmissions. Just be careful not to be detected or countries will begin to close their borders and even worse a vaccine will be created.

Now for the badges:

Darwin Award Badge (EASY-5 points): Earn 50 Evolution Points in Realistic Mode.
Pretty much no difficulty here. With a virus you’ll get this badge in less than 5 minutes.

Apocalyptic Optimist Badge (MEDIUM-15 points): Infect 2/3 of the world’s population in Realistic Mode.
The key word is infect. You don’t even need to kill anyone. SO just keep you disease on the DL and you’ll get it first try.

Ultimate Relaxation Badge (HARD- 30 points): Kill off the entire human population in Relaxed mode.
This separates the boys from the men. SO many times you will come so close to infecting every country and just missing one country usually an island. You will quickly find out why everyone on Kongregate hates Madagascar.

President Madagascar Assassin Badge (IMPOSSIBLE-60 points): Obliterate the entire human race in fewer than 100 days in realistic mode.
Redefines Impossible. Killing of everyone is one of the hardest things to do on Kongregate. Throw in doing it in 100 days, you’ll be pulling your hair out. Good luck with this one.

GODSEND’S OVERALL REVIEW: 85%
So ends my first review. I hope it proves helpful and I look forward to feedback. I wish you well in killing every last human being on the planet. ~GODSEND

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Promo Cards

Hey, my first article is on the various promotional cards Kongregate has offered. These cards feature different art, but ingame, they're the same. They are normally released for holidays or events, so stick around and you might see a few.

PAX Tafari:


PAX Tafari is currently the only Promo card you can still get. At the PAX convention, Kongregate had a booth, and gave out real live PAX Tafari cards. They had codes on the back which allowed you to unlock the ingame version. They have extras and are giving them out here


Halloween Blood Vial
:


The Halloween Blood Vial was released on Halloween 2007, for one day only.


Valentine's Day Gem:



The Valentine's Day Gem was released on Valentine's Day 2008, for one day only.

Rickrolled Breastplate:


The rickrolled breastplate was the result of a funny prank by Kongregate on April Fools' Day 2008. They pretended Kongai was launched, but instead you got rickrolled. The challenge that day was watching the whole thing to get the Breastplate.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Daily Random Badge: Bloons Tower Defense 2

Hello, I'm Juice, and this is my Daily Random Badge review/walkthrough. Today's game - Bloons Tower Defense 2.

Bloon Popper Badge
(easy - 5 points)
Complete level 20 on "easy" in Bloons Tower Defense 2


Even though this badge is easy, I am completely in love with this game. Great gameplay, fun little tips at the bottom after every level, "THERE ARE NO LEFT-HANDED MONKEYS. SORRY, LIVE WITH IT." Great fun. Back on topic though, this badge is quite easy to obtain. I'll be posting a walkthrough for this and the others at the end of this review.

Bloon Destroyer Badge
(medium - 15 points)
Complete level 35 on "medium" in Bloons Tower Defense 2


Quite obviously, this badge is harder than the badge above. Still, not too much of a problem. The only annoyance are the dreaded lead balloons. For me anyway. Like I said, walkthroughs shall be posted!

Bloon Slaughterer Badge
(hard - 30 points)
Complete level 50 with at least 40 lives remaining in "hard" mode in Bloons Tower Defense 2


This one is difficult. Building a monkey-defense with minimum leakage through 50 tough levels makes for some frustrating times. But, the happy atmosphere of BTD2 never fails to keep you smiling, even when the evil balloons start flooding en masse. Now then, walkthroughs galore. Since I don't want to make a whole-page review, I'll just post a couple links.

Easy badge:
Part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4cz7T01XlU
Part 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beOSaDtacRE&feature=related

Medium badge:
Part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE5_FD-abns
Part 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDymiCHqmPM&feature=related
Part 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FNiFE9nFGM&feature=related

Hard badge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt8Fkb8ISAQ&feature=related

Gameplay- 3.5/5
While BTD2 keeps your attention throughout the entirety of the game, once you find the perfect build, there is a lot of down time where you aren't doing much.

Graphics- 3.5/5
The graphics are cute, but not very detailed. This follows the traditional Bloons graphics, so I give it points for sticking to it's guns. There's no real problems with them, though.

Replay Value- 5/5
You can play this game over and over and over, it never gets old.

Kong Rating- 4/5

My Rating- 4/5
I agree with you Kong, nicely done.

This has been Juice!

Challenge 68: The War Of The Future, Today Challenge

Ello, I'm Juice, and this is my review of the new badges for Age of War: the Field of Strife Badge, and the Age of Victory Badge. Also, I'll do a review for the challenge that goes along with it, The War of the Future, Today Challenge.

Field of Strife Badge
(easy - 5 points)
Train 100 units and lay waste to 100 enemies in Age of War

This badge requires no skill, just a small bit of time. Play the game normally and you should have no trouble with this. In my opinion, it is here only to introduce you to the game, (as most easy badges are), not to actually challenge you. Nonetheless, it is quite fun to obtain. How can you not love destroying the generic evil enemy?

Age of Victory Badge
(medium - 15 points)
Defeat your opponent in Age of War

This badge is good for people who actually want to finish the game. Personally, this one was hellish for me because this game is all about the turrets. Which means once you get about three upgrades, you don't do anything, besides the occasional click on a Super Warrior that lives just about long enough to take 300-500 health from the opponent (if played on normal difficulty).



The War of the Future, Today Challenge

The wars of the future will truly be an incredible thing to behold, for those of us who survive the wars of the present.

Futuristic Warrior – Live to see the future of warfare by surviving until the final tech level on "normal" mode.





Considering how this challenge is easier than the medium badge, there shouldn't be too much trouble attaining it. But, then again, when are challenges ever hard? Seriously, this isn't really a challenge, it's just a small time-consumer. Grind, grind, grind. Bang, slash, bleed, death, gold, experience, upgrade, repeat. And then...hello Amaya!

Overall, it's 20 easy points, and a card. This has been Juice!