Tuesday 10 August 2010

Arctic Adventures: Polar's Puzzles

Whilst developing Coconut Dodge, I kept a close eye on the PlayStation Store to see where the bar was being set for minis games. It was exciting because I genuinely believed Coconut Dodge was a higher quality game in all respects than most games on there. Of course, Fieldrunners and Aero Racer were clearly awesome, but they were also ports of games already enjoying success on other platforms.

Coconut Dodge is an original IP exclusive to minis, and in that sense, I believed it was the best game I'd played on the platform.

That is until I played Arctic Adventures: Polar's Puzzles.



Three hours later I gave it a 5 star rating on PlayStation Store, and felt compelled to write this post.

It's the first minis game I've played (aside from Aero Racer, Fieldrunners and of course Coconut Dodge) that genuinely brings value and quality to the platform in my opinion.*

Hurray for Eiconic Games! The platform needs more developers like this to improve the reputation of minis.

Go and get it!

*If anyone reading this believes there are other minis games up to the standard of the ones mentioned here, please post your thoughts, and I'll check them out!

6 comments:

  1. You already mentioned Monsters (probably) stole my princess, right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The production values on M(P)SMP are top notch. I wanted to like it, but I was bored of it in seconds. I came back to it several times to try and get into it, but just couldn't. Very disappointing because it looks and sounds great - it just wasn't fun for me to play. It's personal preference no doubt, because some obviously love it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MPSMP is a nice game, but I think it just doesnt have enough there that makes it worthy of its praise (especially since the levels are in no way random, thus eliminating the "I could play this all my life" factor, because eventually, the game is done).

    I like Halfbrick's Age of Zombies, the character's charm is similar to MPSMP, but I really found that it was just fun to play once you get used to the mechanics. recommended.
    The other Halfbrick games are nice too, (AR, and AoZ are probably the best, though) Echoes and Blast Off. I personally would recommend Echoes to anyone in North America (due to it being a dollar (the cheapest game on the psn here, but by far, nowhere near the worst)), with trophy's, multiple game modes, and power ups, it really is a great game that's sure to entertain.

    And if you like puzzle games, I really recommend Kahoots, a hidden classic! with lots of charm and lots of replayability, its a game that can really keep you entertained for hours upon hours, just trying to get the Kahoots to and then the doors (theres also cupcakes to try to get, for additional challenge).

    additionally, almost all the games rated 8.5 ;) or higher on pspminis.com are games that I don't think anyone will truly regret purchasing

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Carson!

    Thanks for posting your faves :) I've been pondering Age of Zombies. Halfbrick seem to do no wrong, so I'll have to check out the others too at some point!

    ReplyDelete
  5. How about Young Thor? Definitely worth a try if you haven't already done so! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi there,

    This is Dave from Eiconic - I'm so glad you're enjoying Arctic Adventures and thanks so much for your kind words. We were really pleased with how it turned out on the PSP. I should mention that it is technically a kind of port from our PS3/XBLA game Polar Panic - albeit with an entirely different set of levels - so Coconut Dodge can definitely still hold the crown (or golden viking helmet!) for best exclusive mini.

    Speaking of which, I've had a blast with Coconut Dodge. You got that 'one more go' thing down perfectly :) Looking forward to your next game!

    ReplyDelete