Fugdale’s Funhouse

Object: Destroy enemy pirate ships and collect gold to earn upgrades.

Review: Ahoy Matey! Grab your eye patch and parrot and take up arms as you command your very own pirate ship out on the seven seas. This elegantly designed game puts you right in the middle of a pirate ship battle. You get a bird’s eye view of the ocean and your ship. Beautiful water effects and clouds rolling by add to the ambience, as do the sounds of seagulls and a creaking ship. Steer your ship about the ocean playfield and fire your cannons to attack enemy ships. The enemy ships float into view one at a time (at first) and you must maneuver your ship so that you can fire cannons off of either side. You can choose which direction to fire (up or down) by toggling the V Key.

Use the space bar to fire all your available cannons at once and tiny black bullets will spew off the side of your ship toward the nearest enemy ship. Each ship has four number statistics next to it. The top number is how much gold the ship carries; next is the integrity of the ship (hit points); then the number of cannons the ship has ready to fire and finally the number of pirates on board. You must also watch your own statistics at the bottom of the screen. Make sure you maintain at least one pirate or the game will end. If you get close to a ship, you can dispense with firing cannons and go into hand to hand combat mode, in which case the ships will turn red and you will see the number of pirates dwindling as they battle away.

As you sink each enemy ship, you collect all the gold on board. After you have destroyed all enemy ships on each level you will proceed to a store full of pirate booty upgrades; which include a faster moving ship; a faster turning ship, more pirates, more cannons, faster reloads and other fun upgrades to help you out. The game proceeds in the nature of a simple RPG, in which you mostly do the same thing over and over to gain more gold and increase the strength of your ship.

I found the design of the game to have very appropriate graphics, mechanics and sound effects. The transitions between levels are smooth and fun to watch, but the game starts to hit the same one note repeatedly early on and I found too much randomness at play in determining which ship will prevail in a battle. Aim is important and holding off firing until you have a good shot will decrease your chances of firing off all your cannons prematurely. Also, strategic purchases between levels provide much of the strategy in the game. But, once out on the waters, you have little more to do than move about and shoot at ships and the game loses some of its steam after a few minutes of playing.

Like all the games reviewed at the Fun House, you will find something fun about this game and it’s definitely worth playing It will surely provide lots of fun for a certain cross section of gamers, so give it a shot and let everyone know how far you get in our comments section.

Object: Move your ‘Quickling’ through all four seasons and destroy fairies along the way.

Review: This game by mofunzone.com has a great visual design. You control a tiny little quickling which looks a little like the Red Deviled Ham character. Leap and summersault from various suspended patches of ground as you climb your way through each level. When you start the game you will meet a little Yoda-like guide who gives you your instructions. Moving left will take you into the Autumnal area and moving right will bring you into Spring.

Your first task will be learning how to master the jumps. Jumping seems scary at first as the quickling packs quite a spring in his step. The platforms are often high above or just off the screen where you can’t see them well, so you have to take a few leaps of faith and hope you land correctly. The game’s jumping mechanics work really well (for having to use the arrow keys) and you will soon discover that the quickling just has to touch any area of a platform and he will grab on and climb on top. However, it is still pretty easy to overshoot your target and fall off the edges. If you fall or otherwise die, you will be transported back to the last runic portal you have touched.

There are also a variety of fairy sprites randomly scattered about the area. They take the shape of tornados, tumbleweeds, bunnies, birds, scorpions and more. Use the ‘A’ key to snap the cute little buggers into oblivion. You have four purple dots to begin with. If you touch an enemy you will lose a dot and if you lose all four, you must go back to your last save point. As you progress through each level you will meet more guides who will give you keys to unlock locks which are placed in obscure areas of each course. Once the locks are unlocked you will face a boss on each level. After defeating the bosses you will acquire another super power which can be activated with the ‘S,D,F’ keys.

The design of the game is gorgeous, with great attention to detail (leaves float through the air and the seasons change as you move). The soundtrack has a sprightly new-age sound and doesn’t get annoying. The controls are responsive and err on the side of too touchy at times. It took me a good half hour of play before I could reach my first ’save’ portal, so don’t give up too easily, or you will miss the fun of the game. The only drawback for this game is when you hit an enemy or fall off a cliff after going through the whole course you must start over and that can get infuriating. So I recommend mastering the jumping and whipping actions by playing around with it for a while and then come back to your saved game after you’ve had some chill time.

Quickling, quickly, without thinking…buy some stuff. The items below and more can be found in my store. Click on “Shoppe” in the menu bar for other items.

Object: Gather evidence on infidelity cases by finding clues and solving puzzles.

If you were the kind of super-sleuth kid who always carried a magnifying glass and finger print powder around with you or you love to delve into Sam Spade novels or even if you secretly enjoy watching the reality show Cheaters, then you will surely enjoy this new adventure game from Kayo Games.

You play as a private dick investigating infidelity cases. After getting a briefing on a client and their spouse, you investigate the area neighborhood collecting clues and evidence. Along the way you will find puzzling mini-games, which when solved, will provide you with cash to purchase new investigation tools. Tools will allow you to make phone calls, take pictures of suspects, eavesdrop on conversations and gather deleted text messages. You can even perform lie detector tests on suspects.

Private Detective: Heartbreakers has just been released for Windows (Mac, Linux, Palm and other OS coming soon). Right now only a demo version is available for download or online (Windows only), but a full version with 17 playable cases will be available for purchase soon.

The Funhouse will give a full review of this game once it has been released for Mac, but we wanted to bring it to your attention now so Windows players can get started.