MacGuffin's Curse - (by Ayopa Games) - Universal App

[metalcasket]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! If I wasn't already convinced, that "trailer" would have certainly won me over. Had me literally grinning ear to ear! XD

[Georgina]

So this is solid: cute graphics, enjoyable writing, intuitive controls. It's obviously had a lot of work put into it, and I appreciate the addition of a storyline over the puzzling to keep things moving along. But one thing I wish I'd known going in was that it's basically a fancy version of sokoban, because I'm horribly sokobanned out. Do the puzzles get beyond moving boxes, flicking switches, putting heavy things on buttons, and transforming?

I think this might be a Good But Not For Me game. Ahh, well.

Cheers.

[sladeums]

Originally Posted by Georgina

So this is solid: cute graphics, enjoyable writing, intuitive controls. It's obviously had a lot of work put into it, and I appreciate the addition of a storyline over the puzzling to keep things moving along. But one thing I wish I'd known going in was that it's basically a fancy version of sokoban, because I'm horribly sokobanned out. Do the puzzles get beyond moving boxes, flicking switches, putting heavy things on buttons, and transforming?

I think this might be a Good But Not For Me game. Ahh, well.

Cheers.

No I think that's basically it.
Box puzzles ... escape the room.
Pretty much all there is.

Fortunately I knew that going in from reading the preview here and earlier reviews elsewhere.
Otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd be similarly disappointed as it looks all adventure game on the surface.

Stiill, great writing, style, and artwork ... I'd recommend getting it before the price goes up.
Quite humorous so far.


This is from a preview here

http://toucharcade.com/tag/macguffins-curse/
The game consists of 150 different rooms across 11 different environments, such as junkyards, parks, mansions, museums, etc. Each room is its own grid-based puzzle that must be solved using Lucas in either human or werewolf form -- or both (walking into a beam of moonlight triggers the transformation). In addition to the 150 core puzzles are around 100 secondary features / quests that serve to add variety and keep Lucas especially busy at all times. In the end, the ultimate goal is just to get the cursed amulet off of poor Lucas.

[syntheticvoid]

Woo... For anyone wondering... It has iCloud support... Always nice when you don't need to go through 30% of the game again when starting on another device. =o)

[sladeums]

Oh and I should have mentioned, I found the control scheme somewhat odd and unintuitive.

Instead of a v pad, touch to move to a point, or touch to move in a direction ... you have to perform a sort of touch then slight swipe in the direction you want to go.

Think of it as an invisible movable v pad sort of.
You touch anywhere on the screen and that is automatically dead center zero then you can drag swipe the direction from there you want to go.

I've personally never played anything that controls quite like it and maybe someone else can give a better explanation or comparison ... but at the start I found it a little difficult to get used to, still find it somewhat imprecise, and it is not really at all explained from what I could tell.

[syntheticvoid]

Yeah, it's kind of like idatank, but no 360 degree movement. Ayopa has always had games that start out with kind of funky controls, but they get worked out and tweaked based on user feedback,and almost always pretty quickly, so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the implementation of a static v-pad and action button very soon.

[Gabrien]

Originally Posted by Georgina

So this is solid: cute graphics, enjoyable writing, intuitive controls. It's obviously had a lot of work put into it, and I appreciate the addition of a storyline over the puzzling to keep things moving along. But one thing I wish I'd known going in was that it's basically a fancy version of sokoban, because I'm horribly sokobanned out. Do the puzzles get beyond moving boxes, flicking switches, putting heavy things on buttons, and transforming?

I think this might be a Good But Not For Me game. Ahh, well.

Cheers.

Is there any IAP in this one?..yet?

[Georgina]

I assumed the controls were that way because there's also the two-finger tap/drag to move boxes? I really liked that there was a separate movement for boxes so you didn't accidentally nudge them when you were trying to walk.

I liked the controls, but I was playing on the iPad. I can see how they could be awkward on the iPhone, since you can't play with just your thumbs.

Cheers.

[syntheticvoid]

Originally Posted by Gabrien

Is there any IAP in this one?..yet?

Nope?.. And I don't see them adding any IAP in the future unless they did it for a DLC type expansion....

[sladeums]

Originally Posted by Georgina

I assumed the controls were that way because there's also the two-finger tap/drag to move boxes? I really liked that there was a separate movement for boxes so you didn't accidentally nudge them when you were trying to walk.

I liked the controls, but I was playing on the iPad. I can see how they could be awkward on the iPhone, since you can't play with just your thumbs.

Cheers.

I'm on the iPad.

Some of my concerns may arise from only 3 months experience touch gaming (but 30+ on console) ...
So having never experienced anything like this scheme and the lack of explanation left me literally poking and prodding somewhat aimlessly until I figured out the gist of it.