Don’t Feed the Trolls presents you with a simple map separated into four zones to match the four face buttons on your controller. To the north is a desert, to the South woodland, East mountains and West snow. Your task is to score points by feeding any bears that pop up within each region by pressing the corresponding face button for each. If a trolls pops up you, don’t feed them, however, you can slap them to gain additional points. The overall goal is to progress through each level which gradually increases in difficulty by introducing different kinds of bear and troll that require different methods of feeding or dispatching respectively, as well as the speed at which the bears disappear back into their regions. Fail to feed ten bears or accidently feed three trolls accumulatively and it’s game over.

Indeed Don’t Feed the Trolls is essentially a reaction/observation puzzle game and it’s a thoroughly compelling one at that. The very first level introduces the concept but beyond that things get significantly more difficult, constantly testing your reactions and eye for detail as new bears and trolls pop up. Fast bears disappear more quickly than regular ones whilst starving bears require being feed multiple times. The trolls get savvier and disguise themselves as bears or send more aggressive trolls out. It soon becomes a hectic screen full of trolls and bears all vying for the food you’re dishing it. It’s great fun and compelling because of the high-score beating mentality introspectively and against other players through the online leaderboards. Additionally your intrigue as to what kind of bears and trolls will come next keeps you pushing to reach that final 15^th level.

Don’t Feed the Trolls certainly puts up a challenge and you’ll find yourself coming back to it for short bursts of fun. However, it doesn’t provide enough to sustain long bouts of play. Its simplicity makes it hugely accessible, its difficulty makes it compellingly challenging, but its scope doesn’t stretch beyond a mini game. However, for 80 MS points it’s absolutely worth a try.

MLG Rating: 7/10
Platform: Xbox 360 Release Date: 23/09/2011

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Don’t Feed the Trolls for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of two weeks on an Xbox. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

Okay so it isn’t quite the cocaine of the gaming world, but I would rather sit here and play Blocky for the price of a McDonalds meal than dish out good money on any number of titles from the All-You-Can-Eat bucket of gritty, brown space marine-a-thons. Blocky comes from the good people at Think Flow Games, otherwise known as my new BFFs.  It can only be described as a the lovechild of Pacman and Geometry Wars, if the parents had firstly enough an evening of acute RPG action prior to conception. And while you get that image of Ms. Pacman out of your head, I’ll tell you why Blocky is a must-buy to keep you warm on these chilly autumn days.

Blocky is a rock, or more technically, I guess, a block. It matters not, as all you need to do is keep your little block safe from ninjas, swinging spike balls, electric charges and a selection of other enemies. Actually, if I could just get my only real complaint out of the way with now, is that the enemies get a bit samey after a while, with (I think) there being only seven enemies to defend yourself against over the course of the game. Nonetheless, the enemies that are there for you to avoid are all cute and colourful and each have their own way of trying to knock your block off. Literally.

You direct Block around the screen using the left stick, avoiding enemies and picking up power ups as you go along. These include the ability to let you eat ninjas, a magnet to force the metallic enemies out of your way, coins (or moneky) to purchase further power ups and upgrades, and a few other tricks that slow down enemies and destroy small clusters of problematic pests. Getting to the power ups in time is all part of the fun, and sometimes you’ll get cornered and before you know it, they’ve flashed up and flashed right back off again, leaving you with increasing numbers of ninjas and other predators to worry about.

The two modes to play the game in are Retro, which is essentially a one-life, one-chance mode, and Main mode, which is pretty much your campaign of levels to work through. Things start of easy, introducing you to the styles of enemy waves you will meet, and how to despatch them. Some waves require you to just survive and wait out the time limit, or ask you to eat a certain number of enemies, or even push those evil metal nasties into black holes by way of your magnet upgrade. The waves and enemies get nicely mixed up, so you never feel like you are doing the same task too often.

You earn experience points and the aforementioned monetary gains as you progress, and when Blocky levels up you can then increase his four stats, which include useful attributes like moneky magnetism and power-up duration. Every time you gather and use your power ups, more experience points are earned, which then means more ways in which you can make Blocky stronger. Moneky buys you power ups to use when you are stuck in a corner, which you operate by pressing the right trigger button, and then selecting one of the four coloured buttons to pick your desired power up. It’s incredibly simple, yet foolishly addictive.

Other fun unlockables include hats for Blocky to wear, which range from a cute side ponytail and ribbon combo, to a fez, just to add another gloss of charm to the game. Even when things get overwhelming and the lives start dwindling away, the charm and atmosphere this game creates is just perfect for chilled gaming sessions that have a bit of a ‘kick’ to them. The combination of simple RPG elements and good-old fashioned arcade fun, with just a dash of silliness and aesthetic delight, all comes together nicely to provide one of the best XBLIG experiences I’ve had this year, especially for the generous price the game comes at.

Plus, in what other game do you have the ability to both consume and hammer ninjas to death? Exactly…

MLG Rating: 9/10
Platform: Xbox 360 Release Date: 11/10/2011

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Blocky for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of one week on an Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

It is becoming such a popular genre to release in that I fear it is going to lead to numerous games falling by the wayside and disappearing into obscurity. I fear that Guns of Icarus will be one such title, for while it has an appealing dynamic it lacks the refinement of some of the more heavily developed titles.

Guns of Icarus puts you in the boots of a young airship pilot who takes his zeppelin from town to town fighting off marauding pirates in a desperate attempt to protect his precious cargo. Your ship has six gun emplacements, one at the front and one at the back with two on each side giving you ample scope to scour the skies for the bandits which are trying to destroy you.

There is a bit of a logic fail in that respect, for if the pirates were to destroy your ship they wouldn’t be able to get their grubby hands on your cargo, and when you do ‘die’ there isn’t a sense that they board your ship to steal your goods. It doesn’t really affect the game as such, but it does make you stop to wonder why they are so intent on taking you down.

Regardless of the reasons for their attacks, it is your job to protect your ship and get it to your next town without being destroyed and by ensuring you arrive with as much cargo remaining as possible. Keeping a healthy level of cargo on board is essential if you want to survive the more challenging levels. When you arrive in a town you are able to upgrade your weapons or get some armour, but what you get all depends on how much cargo you arrive with.

Your weapons of choice range from a standard gatling gun, which provides a nice rate of fire directly at where you aim your reticule, to a rocket launcher which chooses an enemy ship to follow. In some towns you can even upgrade to a tesla device, with a bit of charging this shoots off great lances of electricity at several pirate ships if they are grouped together. This is the most visually rewarding weapon and one you will definitely want to try.

There is a good variety to the weapons, some are better at short range whilst others are better at longer distances. The different strengths and weaknesses add a level of tactical intrigue, deciding which ones to take on your mission and where to position them can be the difference between getting to your target with all your cargo or perishing in a flaming wreck.

You aren’t solely focused on destroying those pesky pirates, any good pilot knows that keeping their airship intact and working well is of the utmost importance. As such you have to keep an eye on how much damage your engines have taken to maintain a good flying speed along with your airframe and the zeppelin itself.

On the more challenging levels you will find yourself busily rushing from one point of your ship to the other, madly trying to find a balance between keeping your machine flying and destroying the pirates. The campaign allows you to choose your route though so if you don’t fancy a hard fight you can always take the easy option. At the end of a campaign you take part in a last stand where certain doom awaits.

It is a shame that after completing a sequence of missions once, you don’t really feel enamoured to starting again with the basic weapons and simply take a different route to your eventual death. Tie this in with limited graphical wizardry and an empty co-op scene and you are left with a game which is fun for one play through of an hour, but little else. There is potential and it is much more enjoyable if you are able to find a friend to play with, and it is nice to know that a sequel is in the works, but Guns of Icarus fails to convince me about the overall experience, even at its’ low asking price.

MLG Rating: 5/10
Platform: PC Release Date: 12/05/11

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Guns of Icarus for review purposes . The title was reviewed over the course of one weeks on a PC. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

As Nintendo know all too well, the biggest gains to be made in the market aren’t from persuading gamers to swap product allegiances, or buying up platform exclusives, or developing award winning content. The serious profits are from the casual and non-gamers; the Brain Training Grans, the EA Sports Active Dads, the Farmville on Facebook Fans. Instead of requiring dedicated hardware to access content, i.e. a home console, all potential players need is a computer and an internet connection, something that in the western world, we have in abundance. Tie this into insidious methods of viral product marketing, such as Mafia Wars auto-posting to the wall of your Facebook page, and you have a lucrative combination of untapped market, ease of access and an abundance of brand exposure.

It does.

For a totally ununified platform with different hardware load outs from machine to machine, developing for PC offers some interesting benefits that can level the playing field. Taking Blizzard’s approach to World Of Warcraft and building a title that can run on practically any system out there, yet remain visually appealing because of art style, is useful to game developers for two reasons. To begin with it means that a wide range of players can access content produced by the team, you don’t need an Alienware gaming rig to just while away a few hours with friends, creating a larger potential market. Second, production costs of making the game in the first place are much lower and without the need for that next leap in graphical fidelity, dev teams can concentrate on putting out the far more profitable expansion packs.

There are other benefits of course, there are many superb, PC native middleware tools and SDKs to get game creation software into the hands of budding bedroom programmers. Epic recently even went so far as to release the Unreal Development Kit completely free of charge for non-commercial use. This abundance of tools for those eager to break into the industry creates a lush, fertile environment of smaller, more experimental games, just look at the blossoming indie scene at the moment and you’ll see that nearly all the games there start out in development for the humble personal computer.

It might not look pretty, but it gets the job done.

Distribution models can also deviate wildly from the industry standard of ‘create a game, release for download’. Facebook games, Jagex and Free Realms are all products of companies who realise that when you have a permanent online identity tied to the play structure of a title, the potential of piracy is almost zero. Likewise the payment methods don’t necessarily need to conform to boxed releases; lower start-up, maintenance and distribution costs mean games can not only be inexpensive to purchase, they can be free, with ad support, micro transactions and pay-what-you-feel models a distinct possibility moving forward through the coming decade. These models are only really possible on, you guessed it, PC.

The ‘traditional’ PC gaming that was so popular ten years or so ago, may as well be dead, we probably won’t see a return to the keyboard and mouse as a viable platform for the ‘hardcore’ market. However the home (or office, or university, or library) computer may still be the most lucrative and experimental area in gaming’s very bright future. PC gaming is dead, long live PC gaming!