Legacy Games Blog

Road to Rock Stardom...Kudos: Rock Legend

I sing off key and have two left feet. Musical talent – questionable. Toned and ripped abs – lets not go there. Still, I can dream. It would be incredibly cool to be lead singer in a band. Kudos: Rock Legend lets even the most star-challenged of us become famous. I don't know where to start – there's a ton of stuff packed into this rock band simulation. The game play is much like the original Kudos, but with a lot more depth and detail. You are completely responsible for your band, from start to finish, over 5 years. Unlike the real stars, you can't just push off responsibility on other people!

Your first step is to build a band, with at least 3 new members. You have to audition them, and then pick the best candidate for the job. Each has their own ability level, but also their own quirks. For example, you might find a stellar drummer, but he's a total pessimist with an arrogant personality to boot. Or, you might find a great bassist who likes to destroy things. Is he worth it? Your other band members will give you advice, but its ultimately up to you.

Once you have a band, you need to write songs. You can get inspiration by attending other band's gigs, or buying and listening to music albums. Your song quality will vary, so its a good idea to retire the duds if you want to succeed.

Aside from that, you need to upgrade your equipment and studio, find a publisher, be your own publicist, and of course, practice. You can hire help and roadies, but you need to manage your money or you're toast. It can be challenging to keep band members motivated and not fighting, depending on the personalities involved. You can fire the troublemakers, or course...but everything you do affects the band.

The interface is menu driven, so you basically select from the various options available to you each day. There is a learning curve, be forewarned, but its very manageable. It's worth playing through a few times just to learn the ropes before seriously aiming for stardom.

Given the history of the developer, its reasonable to expect add-ons in the future, which makes the game very re-playable. On a side note, some of the famous celebrity quotes included are hysterical. I found this game quite cool and polished, definitely worth checking out.

LISA

DOWNLOAD KUDOS: ROCK LEGEND HERE>>

Old Ladies and Punk Rockers Alike...Sally's Salon!

What do blue-haired old ladies, punk rockers getting their eyebrows tweezed, and princesses getting their hair cut have in common? They are all part of a great game called Sally’s Salon, where the player has to provide customers with bad haircuts, catastrophic hair coloring, and painful eyebrow tweezing. Interested? Then step into the salon, take a seat in the waiting area, and grab a magazine since you will be here for awhile.

You play as a girl named Sally. She has started up her own salon and wants to make it the best there is. Now how are you going to accomplish this? By giving the customer what they want. How you ask? By clicking and dragging customers to the station they want and then clicking on them again in order to provide the service wanted. Each station will either consume time or show you pictures of the customer. Now you have to pay attention at this point. If you have to look over each portrait of the customer until you find one that is smiling. That is what the customer wants, so give it to them. No matter how odd their choice is you have to give it to them if you want a good tip. And no two customers are the same with what they want. You may have a customer wanting to dye their hair pink and then want a Mohawk, but right after you will have to wash another’s hair and tweeze their eyebrows into a clean style. Just remember the customer is always right.

The customer may always be right but you can never go wrong with Sally’s Salon. It is amazing how clean and smooth the game looks and plays. Each and every visual aspect of this game is beautiful. Everything stands out so nobody could mistake the hairstyling stations for the hair washing stations. When you give a customer a new hairstyle it will show up not only on their portrait but also their overall appearance as they remain in your store. Of course you aren’t here just to watch the game, you want to play the game. And when you play, the customers pay.

The more the customers pay, the closer you come to reaching your goal. Since each level’s goal is a certain amount of money. Anybody can achieve this and with some practice you can also reach every level’s Expert Goal. All you have to do is service as many customers as possible while keeping their heart meter full. As an incentive to keep those hearts high, the player will receive high tips from each customer. Then at the start of each level you can spend your hard earned money on better stations, a coffee maker, staff, and more. Every purchase you make will ease your game by either keeping the customers happy making it harder for them to lose hearts, or instantly boosting their happiness restoring lost hearts. Now after several levels you will enter into a new area. This will change the background of your store and allow new patrons to enter into your salon. Plus, it increases the difficulty. That way you have to work for those tips.

To sum up, Sally’s Salon is a great game. Every time I played it, I didn‘t want to stop playing. It was fun dying a princesses hair blonde and then give her a regal haircut. Then, I would laugh until my sides hurt as I would dye a punk rocker’s hair the same color as the old lady next to him. If you want a great game then take my word and try out Sally‘s Salon.

Aaron Roberson

DOWNLOAD SALLY'S SALON HERE>>

Kudos to Kudos!

I'm a real fan of simulation games, especially people sims. There aren't a whole lot on the market, so I get very excited when I find one. Offhand, aside from the Sims, I can think of only a couple...like Kudos, Ciao Bella, and Cute Knight. I am a fan of all of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, I'd definitely go with Kudos.

There is just so much to do in Kudos, so you have to really play with strategy. You start out at age 20, as a grumpy waiter without many skills or friends. You have 10 years to make something of your life. It's up to you to define this, but it more or less involves training for and finding a high paying career, making friends and networking, building your assets, and living a healthy lifestyle.

It's tough to start, since your cash flow is limited, and you have a lot of stress. You might want to try to find a better job, and start thinking about your career plans. Taking classes at the University helps prepare you for a better career, since you must meet minimum criteria to get certain jobs. You can't neglect your health either, or else you'll get sick and be unable to work. If your stress gets too high, you can't concentrate on classwork, and you won't get promoted if you're too grouchy!

Making friends can be tough, because you need to constantly maintain your friendships or they end without the ability to reconcile. If you get close enough to a member of the opposite sex, you can date (although the relationship never progresses to marriage). I'd love to see a sequel with more relationship focus and depth.

Game play is looooooong. Expect to spend hours and hours before you finish, since you plan out your day to day existence for ten years of your life. It's a casual game, but I found myself playing for 3-hour stretches easily.

The graphics are top notch. If you let your place get dirty, spots appear on your screen, and flies buzz around. If you have fish, they swim around in the background. As the weather changes, so does your screen background (snow, rain, sunshine, or clouds). The avatars are well done 3D, and you can download new ones off the creators' website.

Speaking of the creators, they still update this game frequently, so you can get new pets and other fun additions, as well as patches and hints off of their message board. It means there's new stuff to enjoy each time you play, so the replay value is high. I give it kudos!

LISA

DOWNLOAD KUDOS HERE>>

Baby Monsters Need Love Too...Daycare Nightmare!

If you've had any experience with children, I don't need to tell you that some days they do feel like little monsters! If you have any doubt, add some sugary cola and cake to a children's party. My husband recently introduced soda pop to my two-year-old, much to my chagrin, and we learned she can LITERALLY climb walls while under a sugar hype. Move over Spiderman. It's amazing how such tiny, sweet little things can get into so much mischief, and fast.

So...I had to chuckle when I read the name of this new game, Daycare Nightmare. You start off minding your own business while working in a donut shop, when a Mommy and her little monster – literally – show up.

Since you've seen them, they can't let you go, and decide to order YOU for a tasty take-away. Eeps! You manage to convince the overstressed Mommy monster that you'll watch her Baby Blob for her in exchange for your life. She accepts, and you're in business – taking care of all the little beasties in the neighborhood.

As your daycare grows, you get to take care of all different types of little monsters, each with their own quirks. Baby Dracula bites when he's mad, making you lose speed for a while. Baby Ghost scares other children, and Baby Cyclops likes to fight. Baby Dragon...well, he burns the place down if you keep him waiting.

There are plenty of different helpful upgrades you can buy, each requiring you to budget and save, so you get a real sense of achievement when you've set the place up nicely. Instead of the usual “bring item to customer” set up, you must bring each baby to the correct station for feeding, diapering, sleeping and playing. You need eyes in the back of your head, because the little guys can get into some vicious fights if you're not careful, and someone can really get hurt!

One downside to note – you can't really chain actions, which does slow down the game pace. It can still get chaotic when multiple babies want to be in the same spot at the same time. The best solution is to carefully pick your upgrades.

The story is hilarious, and the graphics are very cute. The sound effects really work for the atmosphere. The trial goes by very fast! It's really a fun one, worth checking out.

LISA

DOWNLOAD DAYCARE NIGHTMARE HERE>>

The Perfect Pairing of America's Most Popular Game!...Lottso! Deluxe

Whoever invented those scratch off lottery tickets was brilliant. We all know the odds are against us. It's designed as a money making scheme, after all, and the printers have complete control over the odds. Yet, despite this, I find it really hard to resist spending a buck here or there when I run to the 7-11 for a cup of coffee or a Slurpee. There's something so rewarding about scratching off that silver stuff, even if I do lose more than I win!

Which brings me to another brilliant concept – Lottso! Deluxe. It's the perfect pairing of America's most popular (and tamest) gambling games, bingo and scratch-off lotto. Game play is simple. You have scratch-off tickets lined up around the screen. Numbers pop-up in groups, bingo style, and you must quickly cross them off of your scratch off cards. The timer is always ticking, so speed is important. When you fill up a card, you can play the corresponding scratch off game to win big bucks!

There are other features which you can unlock as you beat rounds. If you like playing online, this games allows you to chat and play at the same time. You can team up with other players, and have up to 20 opponents at a go, so there's plenty of ways to play. The replay value is high, because every game is different. It's very hard to put down once you start. This game is brought to you by the same people that made the Sims, so you know its got to be good.

If you like this game, I'd also recommend you check out Saints and Sinners Bingo. It's another hilarious game in the same genre, and one of my favorites.

LISA

DOWNLOAD LOTTSO! DELUXE HERE>>

Fun Flash Games!

It's me again, back from a wonderful vacation in Hawaii.  Like every good family trip, we played card and board games until late at night - Uno, Skippo, Monopoly, Jenga, and more.  I was the Jenga queen, although my six-year-old niece shamed me at Uno. (I couldn't believe how much fun she had, dishing out those "Draw 4" cards.) 

Imagine my excitement when, upon returning home, I found a Flash game equivalent of Jenga, called Thor Towers.  You can find it all over the web, including here: http://www.vivalagames.com/play/thortowers/. It's the perfect game...easy to learn, difficult to master.

I like to check out as many Flash games as I can, because they invariably give me good ideas for the downloadable, free-trial games we have in development. For example, we are going to be announcing in the next week or two a really exciting side scroller/platformer game.  I can't believe the Hollywood talent we are working with on this one, but more on that later! So I've been checking out similar web games, and found a really cute one: http://www.nitrome.com/games/toxic/. The levels are exceptionally well balanced, and I love the deadly robots, toxic slime, bombs, and more.

For a complete change of pace, I also recommend this planting "game", where you talk to your garden and watch the results. Plant a Seed.  Check out what happens during a rainstorm, or when the sun gets too hot. I actually found it very relaxing; just wish my garden could be "persuaded" to grow like this!

Enjoy, and see you next week!

Ariella

President

Legacy Games

A Fever Fairytale!

Imagine a world (á la Michael Moore) where hospital patients had rights that superseded the arbitrary, cockamamy rules of insurance companies, and paid bills based on the caliber of care they feel they received. It comes to life in Legacy’s new game, Fever Frenzy, where you play doctor to patients that are vociferous divas, albeit with a beehives over their heads, horse faces to match horse throats, or heifer bodies to match mad cow disease (and only the non-contagious kind). No one dies and everyone is as good as new upon release. It’s so LA.

Let me explain why it’s “so LA,” where I used to reside, and not “so Boston,” where I now reside (and yes I am about to generalize). Every day people move to LA by the Nebraska-licensed-plated-truckloads in hopes of being alchemized from a plebeian with (questionable) talent to a star. Hey…anything can happen, right? Like being discovered where you work as a barista to getting your first line in an indie movie, and ultimately, winning an Oscar? This game, in which plagues are treated with “happiness boosts,” is not so far off from lala land where rich women drive their Jaguar X12s to the doctor and leave with brand new faces ready for unveiling at Beverly Hills lunch hotspots just a few days later.

This is not to say that no one in Boston ever gets a new face, but it is definitely a rarer occurrence. Here people are more interested in expanding brain power, or thickening their wicked pissah accents while screaming at the Red Sox on TV at a bar.

To have a fever in Fever Frenzy’s frenetic universe is like having an excuse to go people watching at a busy spa facility, and get a temperature taken and drugs administered by you, a soap star-like doctor whose looks and cavalier attitude make up for lack of experience. I would be a casual doctor too if I was able to work in a dance hall setting with lounge music that contained four hospital beds and funny hybrids pouring in, like bipolar bears and mother goose bumps. Elixirs abound at the pharmacy in the back of the room, mixed up by the hot-little-pharmacist-betty-with-an-attitude. She always has them ready in 15 seconds, just enough time to drag your tight doctor’s hiney to change the dirty sheets on an empty bed for the next patient. Talk about multitasking! Phew!

The most beautiful thing about this alter-universe is that it demonstrates what hospital care would be like if the doctors actually had direct incentives to provide fast, efficient care under pressure (not to mention a clear diagnosis and cure available for each patient). It reminds me of working as a waitress, an on-the-fly job that I’ve picked up one too many times in my experience with “career ADD.”

Just as patients in a hospital are wont to do – however more justifiably – restaurant customers whine and act entitled and want sublime incarnate on a plate “NOW!” I have waited on some people who I’ve envisioned putting in the hospital after I punched them in the jugular while they disgustedly ate the delicious food I served them. And as their doctor I would’ve let them sit and wait an extra hour before dropping off their jello for dinner.

It’s fun to live in a fairytale!

Flower Child

DOWNLOAD FEVER FRENZY HERE>>

Take a Quick Hawaiian Vacation!

Hi everybody!

Ariella couldn't be here this week, as she and her family are still trapped in the dangerous wilds of Hawaii. We've organized massive search parties equipped with emergency supplies of Pina Coladas, towels and suntan lotion, and feel extremely confident that we'll be able to find her in time for next week's newsletter.

Until then, hello! My name's Don, and Ariella's asked me to fill in for her this week to tell you about some of the exciting things going on here at Legacy. We've got all sorts of great things in the works, but first off, I want to remind you to try our newest game Fever Frenzy!

I worked as producer on Fever Frenzy, and had the privilege to watch it grow from a good, solid idea to an excellent, first rate game. I'm a big fan of service games, as my last game The Apprentice Los Angeles showed, and I tried to make sure that both of these games brought something new to the genre. In Fever Frenzy, I wanted to make sure that the game play was fun and challenging, as any good game should be, but I had the most fun working on the characters. I hope all of you have as much fun discovering the new patients in the game as we had making them! Each time a new character design was approved, everyone in the office would want to see it, and would gather around my desk to see the early versions. The gifted voiceover artists we found only made things better. There's a patient in the Mental Ward level that still makes me laugh every time I hear her, and the monkey in the Jungle level always makes me smile. Enjoy!

Aside from Fever Frenzy (and of course The Apprentice Los Angeles), there are a lot of other great titles to try on Legacy Games right now. Want to take a quick trip to Hawaii yourself? Check out Dream Day Honeymoon, the hidden object game set in beautiful Hawaiian locations including gorgeous beaches, hotels and underwater scenes. The game itself is fun and the romantic little mini-games are a treat. Try it and you'll be saying aloha in no time. Following along with our Island theme, try out Burger Island, where you run a burger shack in a South Pacific paradise, learning secret, ancient burger recipes from the friendly natives. Last but not least, try out Yumsters. This little treasure has you helping some multi-colored snakelike critters eat fruit and earn enough money to buy instruments for their rock band. OK, it's not Hawaiian, but fruit, fun and some groovy music? It's almost as good!

I hope all of you are having a great summer so far, and that you're getting your own share of fun in the sun! But after the beach, dont forget to stop by Legacy Games and see what new games we're surfing up for you!

Enjoy!

Don