Best new games of the week: Til Morning's Light and Brickies
Every week, our staff will handpick a game from the past two weeks that we believe is a must-have download for your iPhone or iPad. These games will always be from a wide variety of genres, but they are chosen because our own staff members love it and can’t put it down. So here are this week’s picks! Enjoy, and happy gaming!
Til Morning’s Light
Solve puzzles and fight your way out of a cursed house in our Game of the Week.
In the mood for a spooky and mysterious puzzle adventure? Then you should check out our Game of the Week, Til Morning’s Light from Amazon Game Studios.
Til Morning’s Light features console quality graphics that are beautiful to look at and really pull you into the game world itself. The animated cutscenes are particularly well-done and the voice acting is fairly decent for what it is. Even though the mansion is dark and gloomy, there are plenty of fine details throughout once you dive in and explore the secrets of the house Erica ends up locked in for the night.
The story of Til Morning’s Light revolves around a young teenage girl, Erica, who ends up getting locked in a house with a 200-year-old curse. In her attempt to get out, she will discover ghosts, dark secrets, and plenty of challenging puzzles as she tries to make it out alive. The house is also riddled with creatures that she must fight her way past, and the combat is pretty easy enough with quick-time events.
Controls in the game are simple, with tap-to-move controls or a virtual joystick for continuous movement. Combat is done through timed event buttons, so you have to be a bit coordinated to land those perfect hits.
We love a good mysterious puzzle game, so Til Morning’s Light fit the bill perfectly. It’s a nice surprise from Amazon, and one that is worth checking out. You can find Til Morning’s Light on the App Store as a universal download for $6.99.
Honorable Mention Brickies
Clear the bricks before the clock runs out in our Honorable Mention.
In the mood for an arcade style brick-breaker game instead? Then you have to give our Honorable Mention, Brickies from Noodlecake Studios, a try.
This delightfully minimal and simple game has a flat aesthetic that fits in well with the rest of iOS. The background colors are soft, which make it easy for the Brickies and ball to stand out more. The game also has a soothing soundtrack that is fun to listen to.
There are two game modes in Brickies: Play and Endless, although the latter seems to be a bit glitchy. Play is based on levels, where you have to clear the one you’re on to advance. You can earn up to three stars on these levels, depending on how many points you can rack up.
While Brickies seems like a standard brick breaker game on the surface, there is much more to it. In fact, each level has a timer in the background, so you have to clear out all of the bricks before you run out of time. There is also a second paddle at the top of the screen that moves in sync with the bottom one, giving players more control over where the ball goes. Once time is getting down to the last few seconds, the ball moves a tad slower, which is like punishment for players who didn’t clear a level earlier.
We like some of the concepts here, like the timer and second paddle, but the ball should move at a consistent speed, and not get slowed down in the last few seconds, which means inevitable failure. Also, if you miss the ball, it goes from green to red, and won’t be able to break anything until you gain enough momentum again.
Despite the flaws, we’re still enjoying Brickies. Hopefully the developers can fix the problems in future updates, but it’s still a refreshing new take on a classic. You can get Brickies on the App Store asa a universal download for free.
For more about Brickies, make sure to check my full review.