Mobile game review

We all know grandma and the hijinks she gets up to from the ads. But is the game actually like that? Honestly, I don't know. Maybe it gets really good the deeper you get, but as far as I've gotten, not so much. You have to renovate the house and gardens, so many of the objectives are wrenches, flower pots, rakes, etc. (Some of the spawning items dont make much sense; seriously, why do I get light bulbs from a broken toy car?) The board is small and fills up fast, energy just flies by, and the story bits are few and far between. There's not a ton of ads but there are plenty of paid bonuses and energy packs. Music is fine, relaxing but with a little bounce to it, sound effects a little jarring. Graphics mostly fine but the most recent update made half my entrance garden blurry, as shown in the first image. Overall, this seems like a "play for a few minutes then put it down" type game.

Final score: 2.5/5

The Tower is a free, very simplified tower defense game where squares fall in towards your centralized tower hexagon. You shoot at the squares to defeat them and you have various power ups and defense upgrades to choose from. Each level scales in difficulty pretty quickly so you have to think about your strategy and what to upgrade and when. You earn cash and coins from each enemy you defeat; cash is per round while coins are saved. You can use coins to research better upgrades or to upgrade skills you already have. Ads are completely optional. Music is relaxing and there are minimal sound effects.

Final score: 5/5

Decor Life is a decorating game where you pack up rooms then unpack and decorate them. The items are fun and cute and the music is nice and relaxing. You can decorate your own house with items you unlock along the way and you can pick your partner (yes, you can be gay)! There's pretty much always a banner ad and ads will auto play throughout the level. Yes, while you're still playing the level!!! Ad free version is $10. Not really worth it imo. Airplane mode play is fine but can get a little buggy.

Overall rating: 1.5/5

This is a resturant management game with not too much else to it. You tap ingredients to cook/prepare them then again to serve it to customers. There are bonuses based on how quickly you serve customers and you earn coins to make upgrades to the food and equipment. There are occasional events that feature the same gameplay just at a different setting. Music is generic and unremarkable, sound effects generic and bubbly. This game really wants you to connect to facebook. Ads aren't after every level but were often enough to be a drag. The ad free version is $0.99 or with any other purchase. IMO, there's nothing especially memorable about this game and you'd be better off playing Potion Punch 1 or 2 instead.

Overall rating: 3/5

This is an arcade style dungeon game where you collect dots, coins, and stars as you progress. You swipe the screen to move your character around different obstacles with patterns to avoid and make it to the end of the level. There's an endless arcade mode where you go as far as possible while you outrun rising lava. You can unlock different characters and powerups. Some levels feel amazing once you finally clear them! Music is fine but sound effects are kinda of grating. Ads are everywhere and play after ever single level attempt. It is $0.99 to remove pop up ads.

Overall rating: 4/5

township is a farming/city building sim where you build your population to expand your town with factories, farmland, and other public amenities. There are no ads but the timers for things are so long you'll wish there were just to speed things up a bit. Building materials are hard to come by and you get locked behind the population wall or max item cap very quickly. There are occasional minigames to earn coins and things but honestly they aren't that fun or suffer from long timers. The current tile matcher is actually pretty fun and I played it for a bit but if that's what I wanted to play, I wouldn't go out of my way to play township for it. Music and sound effects are fine enough, nothing special I would stop my own music for.

Overall rating: 1/5

Holedown is a brick breaker game where you dig down to the core of a moon, planet, or other large body. You can upgrade different aspects of the game and unlock larger things to dig into. As you play, a little worm will chill in the corner of the screen and has some dialogue if you click on it. the game is $2.99 but is completely ad free, not buggy at all, and is a good level of challenging. There is no limit to how many times you can try digging, if you fail you can just try again. The blackhole level is endless but maintains an excellent level of difficulty even when everything is fully upgraded. The music is nice and scify-like and the sound effects are cute! This is a good game to play as a quick brain tickler and I hope the devs update it in the future!

Overall rating: 4.5/5

This is a simple tile game where you can build a peaceful world. There are 3 tile types: water, city, and grass and each tile can be some combination of each. You collect stars by pairing the same types next to each other. Stars level you up and get you special tiles that are worth more stars when connected. The graphics are cute, the music is soothing, and it's a good game when you just want to chill. However, an ad will play every 3-4 tiles you place and special tiles require an ad to unlock. With how simple the game was, the amount of ads was kinda annoying and the ad free version was $10. Airplane mode is fine but you won't be able to get ANY of the special tiles.

The below screenshot is from the game's app store page because when I tried to open up the game to take my screenshots, it refused to load. I had a really large map and I had played for less than a week before the game stopped opening.

Overall rating: 2/5

This is a 2048 merge game where you drop the numbered bubbles onto the stage. The levels get more challenging as you progress and different obstacles are added. The music is nothing special but the sound effects are a little annoying. Ads play after every single level, pass or fail, and a banner ad pops up if you stay on one screen for too long. The game gets very buggy on airplane mode and the ad free version is $10. There is a city building aspect on the main screen and there is one minigame with fruits instead of numbers that is available once per day for extra coins.

Overall rating: 3/5

This is a standard match 3 game with a couple of side elements that round out the game. You can customize girl's outfit and guitar as well as the room. The music is chill and very pleasant to listen to, all ads are optional, and the game gives you a lot of ad skip tickets. There are minigames you can play for extra coins as well as seasonal events for new clothes and items. This is NOT a pay to play/win game; you can very easily get full enjoyment without paying a cent. This is one of the games I've stuck with the longest, over 3 months, and I don't think I'll be ditching it any time soon!

Final rating: 5/5