Visually stunning and relaxing, but game a little frustrating This is the type of game I love. The visual graphics and environment are gorgeous, and the game is not timed and allows you to complete a round in your own time. The game itself was a little frustrating for me, and ultimately I removed it from my device for the amount of room it took up. I could not seem to get the billards off without hitting something. I play to relax, and love a challenge, but not one my own chubby fingers can’t seem to bypass.Regardless, I would likely buy whatever this designer puts out based on the quality of the game hat made it worth the try.
Mystical and Challenging “Garden of Orbs” is a visually beautiful game. The Japanese Garden, for example, has bushes and cherry blossoms. The orbs are arranged on a straw mat that has been placed over a sand trap. Your goal is to use the green orb to knock the pink orbs off of the mat and into the sand. You can also try to pick up a few coins as a bonus.The beautiful Japanese-sounding introductory music sounds wispy, like someone is playing a set of different length hollow pipes, and blowing into the top. (Think about filling tubes with different levels of water and then blowing on the tops to produce different sounds.) The sound effects include chipping insects and bird calls. The nature sounds play in the background while you’re lining up your shots, inducing a state of calm as if you are relaxing in a peaceful garden. When the orbs fall off of the straw mat, they make a crashing, glass-tinkling sound, as if the fragile orb has fallen off the table and shattered into a million pieces.The instructions were a bit confusing at first. Players are instructed to “drag crosshairs to aim.” Working in the practice mode, I carefully lined the crosshairs up on the “shooter” orb, and pressed shoot. I expected the game to react as if I had shot the target orb with a pool stick. But the physical reactions were backwards. (If I wanted to make the orb move up the screen, I had to line the crosshairs up on the top of the target orb instead of the bottom.) I was able to play by aiming at the green orb, but it was very frustrating because I had to think about how to line up my shots and then hit the opposite point on the orb from where I wanted the orb to go.After playing in this manner for about 10 minutes, I experimented. During one of the experiments, I lined the crosshairs up on the pink “target” orbs. BINGO! Now the physics and movements of the orbs made sense! I also discovered that adjusting the level of force with which I “hit” the target orb helped to move the game along more quickly.This game will take quite a bit of practice to master. As you increase your skill levels, obstacles are added to the playing field, increasing the difficulty. There are a lot of options, so the app will not get boring any time soon. In addition to Japanese Gardens, the game includes Scottish Gardens, Sonoran (desert) Gardens, and French Gardens. The pictures and sound effects change to adapt to each garden’s theme, but the introductory music retains a mystical Asian flair (except for the French Garden, which sounds Parisian). It is nice to have three different playing modes to choose from when entering each garden level (practice, timed and challenge) so you can suit your mood when you play. This is a great free app of the day, and I recommend checking it out. 🙂
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Visually stunning and relaxing, but game a little frustrating This is the type of game I love. The visual graphics and environment are gorgeous, and the game is not timed and allows you to complete a round in your own time. The game itself was a little frustrating for me, and ultimately I removed it from my device for the amount of room it took up. I could not seem to get the billards off without hitting something. I play to relax, and love a challenge, but not one my own chubby fingers can’t seem to bypass.Regardless, I would likely buy whatever this designer puts out based on the quality of the game hat made it worth the try.
Mystical and Challenging “Garden of Orbs” is a visually beautiful game. The Japanese Garden, for example, has bushes and cherry blossoms. The orbs are arranged on a straw mat that has been placed over a sand trap. Your goal is to use the green orb to knock the pink orbs off of the mat and into the sand. You can also try to pick up a few coins as a bonus.The beautiful Japanese-sounding introductory music sounds wispy, like someone is playing a set of different length hollow pipes, and blowing into the top. (Think about filling tubes with different levels of water and then blowing on the tops to produce different sounds.) The sound effects include chipping insects and bird calls. The nature sounds play in the background while you’re lining up your shots, inducing a state of calm as if you are relaxing in a peaceful garden. When the orbs fall off of the straw mat, they make a crashing, glass-tinkling sound, as if the fragile orb has fallen off the table and shattered into a million pieces.The instructions were a bit confusing at first. Players are instructed to “drag crosshairs to aim.” Working in the practice mode, I carefully lined the crosshairs up on the “shooter” orb, and pressed shoot. I expected the game to react as if I had shot the target orb with a pool stick. But the physical reactions were backwards. (If I wanted to make the orb move up the screen, I had to line the crosshairs up on the top of the target orb instead of the bottom.) I was able to play by aiming at the green orb, but it was very frustrating because I had to think about how to line up my shots and then hit the opposite point on the orb from where I wanted the orb to go.After playing in this manner for about 10 minutes, I experimented. During one of the experiments, I lined the crosshairs up on the pink “target” orbs. BINGO! Now the physics and movements of the orbs made sense! I also discovered that adjusting the level of force with which I “hit” the target orb helped to move the game along more quickly.This game will take quite a bit of practice to master. As you increase your skill levels, obstacles are added to the playing field, increasing the difficulty. There are a lot of options, so the app will not get boring any time soon. In addition to Japanese Gardens, the game includes Scottish Gardens, Sonoran (desert) Gardens, and French Gardens. The pictures and sound effects change to adapt to each garden’s theme, but the introductory music retains a mystical Asian flair (except for the French Garden, which sounds Parisian). It is nice to have three different playing modes to choose from when entering each garden level (practice, timed and challenge) so you can suit your mood when you play. This is a great free app of the day, and I recommend checking it out. 🙂
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