Epic Stand is a game that is well-conceived and -executed (mostly), with a couple of unfortunate flaws that keep it from being rated higher. Although there are many options that make it fun to play and worth the time to complete at least once, the plot is paper-thin, and rife with grammar and spelling errors that will annoy anyone who has a decent grasp of the English language.

The graphics in Epic Stand are okay; the enemies that you face are varied and colorful in shape, size, and function, and it’s fun to watch the mob of enemies mill around your castle as you kill them off with the help of your minions. I think that there was too much green used, and that there could have been more variety in the types of enemies that showed up (there were a lot of goblins and orcs) but the functions and looks of the enemies were varied enough that it doesn’t distract from the overall experience.

The sound and music is actually one of the better things about this game; the soundtrack is a motivating and inspiring classical track, reminiscent of what the Lord of the Rings movies had, and there are sounds for most of the enemies and spells that you can cast in the game as well. I would have liked to see voices for the between-missions cutscenes, but they were not implemented.

There’s a lot of replayability value in this game, which helps its score a lot; you have Hard Modes for every mission, and the rewards for doing them help you advance in your talent tree so that you can gain new abilities and spells to use in your castle defense. The Hard Modes are challenging, much more so than the original levels are, and allow you to test yourself after you’ve gained some more powers.

Overall the gameplay itself is fine, but the biggest thing that drags this game down is the annoying amount of spelling and grammar errors that pop up everytime you see a cutscene. In every single cutscene and every single instructional screen, there is at least one error, and unfortunately that’s just something that has to be lived with as you go through the game. For someone who reads a lot and knows how to spell, it’s one of the more annoying things to see in a game. On the whole, though, the game in general is a good way to spend some time enjoying a castle defense, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.

Epic Stand:
Graphics – 3/5
Sound/Music – 4/5
Controls – 4/5
Replayability – 3/5
Gameplay – 4/5
Overall – 4/5

Papa’s Pancakeria, developed by Flipline Studios, is the newest edition in the Papa’s game series. Its sister games are Papa’s Pizzaria, Papa’s Burgeria, Taco Mia, and Papa’s Freezeria. Papa’s Pancakeria has received great reviews so far, garnering a 91% approval rating on Bubblebox.com, where it is currently being featured, and is a worthy contender for up and coming flash games.
As the game begins, you are set up as either a male or female character (you can choose which one at the beginning of the game) who loses their cat for a day, inside a pancakeria. When the cat is found, the owner asks you to watch his shop until he comes back, which leads you into playing the game in earnest. Scores in Papa’s Pancakeria depend on quality of service, just like in a real restaurant, and as you level up, you gain new customers and more ingredients to work with. Tips are earned from the customers as you play, which are added to your weekly payday and allow you to upgrade the shop in many different ways and offer bonuses to your score.
Music and sound are well implemented in this game; there are sounds for most things in the game including cooking noises, shop addition noises (such as a bell for when new customers arrive), and the music track is unobtrusive and quiet, allowing you to focus on cooking tasks when needed. There is no voice acting of any sort, either implied or overt, but honestly there doesn’t need to be; the graphics that show up on the order tabs convey what you need to fill the orders quite nicely.
Speaking of the graphics, the graphical quality in this game is really very good for a Flash game; animations are smooth and while the models are cartoonish, they are rather endearing that way.
Gameplay revolves around serving an increasing number of customers pancakes, and the controls allow you to manipulate toppings, flip pancakes, and serve customers their meals appropriately. The controls are mostly done well; there are no obvious bugs in the controls from my playthrough although I would have liked to see an option for removing one pancake from the plates you put them on for your orders so that you can put toppings on the one underneath that you forgot to do instead of having to trash the entire thing, but all in all that’s small potatoes. The game as a whole works, and works well, and it deserves its 91% rating. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to spend some time with a quality Flash game.

Stuck on a level in Hambo 2? Well then, Check out this nifty walkthrough!!

Stuck on Alien’s Quest? Check out this handy dandy walkthrough right here!

Attracto TD, our latest Bubblebox exclusive, can certainly be a tricky one! Lucky for you guys, we’re nice enough to give you some pro tips from the actual creators of the game. Hope these help. Good luck!

• Basics:

Resources:

Cash:Cash is used to buy new towers. Cash can also be used to buy new rubies. Cash can be acquired by collecting gold pieces which come from the Mining Stations and the Gem.

⁃ Rubies: Rubies are used to upgrade towers. All rubies that are used to upgrade the tower return to the inventory after a wave ends. Rubies can be collected after they are released from the Gem. Rubies can be bought using cash. When a tower self-destructs, all of its upgraded rubies return to the inventory.

Tower types:

⁃ The Gem: If this is destroyed by the enemies you lose. Creates Rubies and Cash.

⁃ Mining Station:Mines Cash to be collected

TIP: Strength can be upgraded to mine faster

⁃ Mag Tower: Pulls enemies into it

TIP: Mag Towers pull all enemy projectiles into it. Build these to take the bulk of enemy projectiles.

⁃ Wind Tower: Pushes enemies away from the Gem

TIP: Avoid placing this too close to the Gem because if their push zone extends to the other side of the Gem it will pull the enemies in.

⁃ Teleporter: Teleports enemies to a random position on the map

TIP: These are the best tools for stopping strong enemies

⁃ Reflector: Pushes enemies away

TIP: These are the best tools for stopping non-ranged enemies. If they are upgraded all the way and supplemented with teleporters and Wind Towers they are close to invincible.

⁃ Enemy Types:

⁃ Smart Enemies: Unlike most enemies, smart enemies will attack more than just the Gem but also your other towers.

TIP: These enemy’s ability to be distracted can be used to your advantage. Build some cheap Mag Towers near them and they will stop moving towards your important towers and attack the cheap towers instead

⁃ Ranged Enemies:These enemies do not need to be in melee range of your towers to attack them and instead shoot projectiles. Ranged Enemies are generally considered the most dangerous enemies.

⁃ Fast Enemies: These enemies move lightning fast across the land making reacting to their actions quite difficult.

TIP: Plan ahead. Don’t try to react to these enemies but instead try to stay one step ahead of them.

⁃ Strong Enemies: These enemies are slow but strong and are capable of getting through the push field of any single tower without upgrades

TIP: Do not try to stop these enemies. Instead try to either distract them with cheap towers or use Teleporters to throw them across the map.

• Pro-Tips:

⁃ Restart as often as you would like:

⁃ Restarting a level is fast and free. So if a battle is not going your way don’t be afraid to restart the wave and try again.

⁃ Get Cash:

⁃ Never be too secure in the amount of cash you have. Though you may have plenty of cash at one time, chances are you will need more of it down the line. As such you should always try to keep three (ideally four) mining stations going at all times. Also, if you have some spare rubies it might be a good idea to invest in your mining station’s strength.

⁃ Don’t be afraid to lose towers:

⁃ Towers are meant to be distractions and deterrents from your Gem. Therefore, do not be afraid to lose towers in a battle, as long as your Gem is alive you win.

⁃ Use rubies to invest in health sparingly:

⁃ When a tower is under attack it may seem like a good idea to invest rubies into its health to keep it alive. It is not a good idea. You will very quickly bankrupt yourself all to hold off an attack for a few seconds. Instead try the next option.

⁃ When you are about to lose a tower, self-destruct it:

⁃ When a tower is lost its rubies are lost with it until that wave is over. However if a tower is self-destructed you get all the rubies back to use again. So when you realize that a tower is going down, self-destruct it.

⁃ Prefer more towers over better:

⁃ It is easy to be suckered into the idea of sinking all of your rubies into creating one super powerful tower. Unfortunately what will happen then is all the enemies will attack that tower and even with all maxed-out attributes its push field will be breached and it will be destroyed in a matter of seconds. Instead try to invest in multiple towers. Three enemies attacking three separate towers will last longer and cost less than one tower with full upgrades

⁃ Invest in Rubies:

⁃ Although Rubies do come naturally over time you will find early on how useful they are in supplementing your defenses. Not only that, they are a long term investment which the enemies cannot rob you of. As such, it is a good idea to spend what ever surplus you have on new Rubies.

⁃ Use distractions wherever possible:

⁃ Mag Towers are cheap therefore they make for awesome distractions. Enemies will usually attack whatever is in front of them first. So if you are having trouble with an enemy attacking something valuable try placing a cheap mag tower in the way and watch the enemies waste their energy on that.

⁃ Cross-Pull:

⁃ If two enemies get caught in the pull of two towers pulling opposite directions they will be disabled and unable to attack anything. The best way to do this is to place two Mag Towers near each other so their push zones overlap.

Hope this was helpful and makes you a better Attracto TD player. Good luck!