This is the Police Review

Release Date: August 2,  2016 (PC, macOS, Linux); March 22, 2017 (PS4, Xbox One); October 24, 2017 (Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Weappy Studio
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch (Reviewed)
Price: $29.99

---

In This is the Police, you play as long-time Police Chief Jack Boyd.  At the beginning of the game, Jack is given the news that the Mayor is forcing him into an early retirement. He is given 180 days until his job is finished, and he will be forced to hand it down to his successor. You begin playing at the beginning of those 180 days as you attempt to and keep your police force together for those 180 days.  

The gameplay in This is the Police basically consists of managing your police officers, which are split into two shifts and alternate between days. As calls come in for your officers to respond to, it is your duty to send out what you feel is the correct number of officers, as well as which officers will successfully respond to the call without any injuries or casualties.  A majority of the calls you receive will be dealt with without your intervention, but some of them require your input on decisions that will end the situation in one of a few ways. For example, I had a situation where a domestic dispute was happening inside of a home and officers could hear yelling.  I could choose between knocking on the door, breaking down the door or surrounding the house and yelling in.

I found most, but not all, of these decisions to be fairly easy to choose the best answer.  It seems that every question has a logically correct answer, a “risky, but could work answer” and a “obviously not going to work, but let’s see what happens” answer.  I don’t think I had any of these events give me a decision that I didn’t immediately know the answer to.  Not only are the best answers obvious, the decisions don’t really make a difference at all when it comes to the story, which really hurts the game.  No matter what choices you make, the story follows the same path.  It would have been much better if there were different storylines based on the decisions the player makes.  The only thing that happens when you make a bad decision is that you can be fined money, which is used to hire more officers.  In the end, this does make a little difference in how you play the game, but the “fines” are not that big, so it doesn’t affect your strategy too much.  

There is some strategy involved in This is the Police that helps keep the game interesting, such as hiring new officers and promoting current staff.  Each officer has a rating and a “stamina” bar of sort.  The higher an officer’s rating, the more likely they will respond to a call without injury or casualties.  Each incident call has a limit to the number of officers you can send, so choosing the best officer combination for each call adds a bit of strategy to the game as well.  You don’t want to have your top officers out together on a call and have a high priority incident call come in, leaving you with only your lower rank officers to handle the call.  Each day the officers’ stamina bar will drop and if they get too low the officer will not perform as well as normal and will need a day or two off in order to restore their stamina.  Sometimes officers will request random days off, with various reasons.  It is your job to approve or deny these days off and, depending on your answer, the officer may get upset and not perform well because of it.  These are the only decisions that I found made a big difference in gameplay.  

This is the Police has a good concept and the story is actually pretty good, even though your decisions do not change it at all, but the non-branching storyline and repetitiveness are pretty big downfalls. At the $29.99 price point, I would wait and give the game a look when it’s on sale.

Pros
Good, funny storyline
Simple, easy to learn UI
Good concept and strategy elements

Cons
Non-branching storyline
Becomes very repetitive
No real consequences for bad decisions

Thank you to Weappy Studio for a review copy on the Nintendo Switch.

Slime-san Review

---

Release Date: Auguest 3, 2017
Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed)
Developer: Fabraz
Price: 11.99

---

Slime-san is a simple, yet very difficult platformer where each single-screen level consists of four very unique stages, which constantly change in mechanics and available tools to use.  Players control a green glob of slime and have less than a handful of moves to help guide him/her/it through the levels, a standard jump, a dash move and a phase move.  Each level is contains items that are one of three colors, green, red and white.  White is the main surfaces of the level, which are nothing special.  Anything red kills you immediately. Green can be used by Slime-san in many ways.   A green block can be used as a standard platform, but using phase allows Slime-san to pass through these blocks, which I will get into further detail below.   There is also a level timer that ticks away as you try to get through the stages.  As the timer runs out, the level will fill up with red slime from the outside in.  Touch this red slime and you are done. Players must use the different elements around the levels, along with these moves, in order to pass.  The dash move is exactly that; Slime-san dashes in the direction you’re pointing, whether in the air or on the ground to cover distance quickly.  It takes a little bit of practice, but It’s great for getting into tight spaces, and when coupled with the wall-jump it allows Slime-san to go pretty much anywhere.  Slime-san’s other ability is a phase move, which allows him to pass through anything green. You are able to use both abilities at once as well, which can be helpful for getting through a green block and is surrounded by red block on both sides of it, which can be pretty tough.  Phasing also slows down the level, but not the level timer.  The level timer is still ticking away at standard speed but everything is moving more slowly.  

The gameplay in Slime-san is great.  Controls feel very nice and fluid, which is necessary in a platformer that requires this much precision.  The game is difficult from the beginning, but the further along you get, the more mechanics you run into and the higher the difficulty gets.  For example, shortly into the game you learn a dash move that is used to push or break blocks.  It seems like a new mechanic is introduced every couple of levels, which keeps the game interesting.  I have even managed to find a secret exit or two along the way, which get you special coins to use in the Arcade.

While the main game contains a lot of content, there’s also a huge amount of extras in what is called Slumptown.  The little town of Slumptown provides a couple of areas to visit which contain creatures that sell all sorts of things, such as extra characters, each with their own traits, and clothing items for Slime-san..  There’s also an arcade with a selection of games. Slumptown is fairly expansive, with five main areas plus a few offshoots to explore, and the secret exits from the main levels add more characters to it's population.  

The coins I mentioned earlier are only for the arcade, everything else costs apples.  Each area in a level has an apple in it somewhere.  These apples are not hidden, but can be hard to reach.  I’ve found myself wanting to get the apples on each stage and have died multiple times because of this.  There are times I could have easily cleared the level without getting the apples, but for some reason I didn’t want to clear a stage without that dang apple.  

Speaking of dying, which happens a lot, Slime-san has infinite lives.  When you die, you instantly spawn back at the screen’s start, not the beginning of the level. There is literally no noticeable loading when the stage is resetting after dying, and yes you lose the apple if you die after reaching it on that stage.  

Slime-san is very trick, challenging and unique platformer that demands quick fingers and perfect timing.  Sometimes the difficulty can be a little frustrating, but it’s usually in a good way.  Slime-san is also a great game to pick up and play in short bursts.  The graphics are definitely nothing special, which may be my only drawback.  A game like this does not need great graphics, but I think it would be pretty cool to play this game with better visuals.

A special thank you to Fabraz for providing The Gamer’s Lounge with a review copy.  This review is for the Nintendo Switch version of Slime-san.

Pros
Controls and gameplay is very polished and smooth.
Lots and lots of contents, both in main story and extras.
Challenging enough to make you want to play more.

Cons
Graphics are not the best.
Can be a little too difficult at times, which gets frustrating.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Review

---

Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Developer: Sega Studios
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Price: $39.99

---

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a four-player puzzler mashup that launches April 25 for $29.99 on the Nintendo Switch. It combines the classic falling-block action of Tetris with the bean-matching gameplay of Puyo Puyo, which is similar to Kirby’s Avalanche. These games are mixed in a variety of ways, depending on the game mode you choose, but publisher Sega has found a way to do just about every possible combination.  As expected, you can play Puyo Puyo or Tetris on their own. You can also play them at the same time, on the same playfield, or randomly on their own playfield as the game switches between the two. You can even play Tetris against someone playing Puyo Puyo.

When you start up the game, you are given three options that allow you to instantly start a game of Puyo Puyo, Tetris or Mix Mode. A game like this on the Switch should be simple to pick up and go and Puyo Puyo Tetris is very good at this aspect.  The fact that I can boot up the game and be in a game in less than a minute is perfect for the handheld mode. 

Even with all of these game mode options, there is a full story mode in which you follow the characters of the Puyo Puyo franchise. They meet new friends who don't seem to know your game and only play something called Tetris. In story mode, you will play missions which vary from competing against opponents to clearing out certain objectives as quickly as possible. The objectives are pretty straight forward and the difficulty of these levels are at just the right level to give you a little challenge, but not too arduous.  The story mode is also a good tool to help learn different aspects of both games.  Each level also has a 3-star objective system, which you earn a star for completing each of 3 different objectives in a level.  These vary from defeating your opponent within a certain amount of time to earning a certain amount of points.  Some of these objectives can be tough, but I found myself replaying some levels to attempt to get that 3rd star.  It took me about 6 hours to complete story mode, but I didn’t 3-star every level.

I had the most fun in the competitive modes. One mode I really enjoy is Big Bang Mode, which is basically an Endless Fever game with up to 4 players. Players continuously solve easy puzzles for points and build up an attack bar. After a certain amount of time has passed, players battle it out and those with an edge can deal some heavy damage to the opponent's hit points.  Once a player is out of hit points, they are eliminated from the game.  The last player standing wins.

Multiplayer games can be played locally on TV or tabletop mode, locally with multiple Switches and online.  At the time of review, online matches were not available, but I am really looking forward to getting into some online matches after the launch of Puyo Puyo Tetris on April 25.  From what I could find in the Online menus, you can play against random players or easily set up a match with a friend. You can also make your own lobbies and add specific rules to challenge the internet at large.

Puyo Puyo Tetris makes its arrival on the Nintendo Switch in grand fashion. Anyone that enjoys a good puzzler from time to time should pick this one up. The solid amount of modes, both solo and online, keep the replayability high. Puyo Puyo Tetris is one of the best games currently available on the Switch. Don't miss out when it releases very soon

Pros

• Colorful art style
• Easy to pick up and play
• Great variety of game modes
• Very entertaining multiplayer modes

Cons

• Some single player competitive modes are too easy

Thank you to Sega for giving us a copy for review.