Alice and You in the planet of numbers Reviews

If you like fun puzzle games, you should give this a look! Difficulty isn't too hard but it's also not too easy either!

It's a good puzzle game that feels like it has been made in 2006 with click fusion.

A very solid arcade puzzle game with some mind shredding difficulty in places.

It's a really good puzzle game. The basic concept is fairly straightforward but it's fairly challenging. The visuals and sounds are nothing more than they need to be.

A fine tribute to the Nintendo games of yesteryear. The nostalgic music and innovative game-play will transport you back to those good old days.

Developer has a history of making games that area easy to get into but difficult to master. This particular title is one of the easier ones to get into as the game play is very arcade like the games used to be in the past. Colorful graphics give a nice bubble bobble kind of vibe which is easy on the eyes. Game is easy to get into but beating the high scores may require some try. Plenty of challenge available as things get interesting when you either enlarge the playing area or play the mode where there are no walls around you. And good luck beating those time trial times. All in all a high quality pocket sized game worth it's price either as-is or on sale.

Very unique puzzle game. A lot of thinking in advance is required before you make your moves, and it's very rewarding when after minutes of deliberation you find the correct path. It's hard to explain, so all I can say is, "It's fun."

Cute little puzzle game! It's worth reading the manual to understand how some functions work, but once you've got that down, it's a nice diversion, sort of a hybrid of a Namco game and a homebrew thing from the PC-98 or X68000.

Arcade enthusiasts hankering for a cerebral and disturbingly habit-forming diversion will find much to enjoy in [i]Alice and You in the Planet of Numbers[/i], Mindware's latest upbeat retro offering. The fearless spacefaring cat girl Alice and her faithful friend You have an audience with the benevolent King Donut, who promises to provide them with a euphoric donut-eating extravaganza if they can successfully traverse over all of the numbered tiles situated on his home planet. The gameplay mechanics are simple and won't leave players glazed and confused. Once Alice and You descend onto the playing field, they move forward across a set amount of tiles depending on the number listed on the tile directly in front of them (Players can move in a maximum of eight directions). The tiles vanish after they are stepped on, making it necessary to continually acquire hearts which will compel King Donut to replenish segments of the field. I cannot adequately convey the sense of reassurance that builds up inside of me whenever King Donut triumphantly emerges onscreen and deploys the surplus tiles for the benefit of our heroes - he is truly a donut you can depend on! Tantalizing fruit and cash bonuses are also sprinkled throughout the landscape, and elicit joyous exclamations from Alice and You whenever they are collected. Players will need to be methodical when charting out a course around the field; a seemingly innocuous sequence of moves can quickly cause our donut-seeking duo to arrive at failure's doorstep. There's a significant element of chance at play here due to the random distribution of the numbers and items, but the game rewards prudent decision-making. A variety of game modes are available; Game A features a closed field and proves to be the most accessible challenge, while Game B removes the walls, making maneuvering considerably more difficult. The Time Attack mode is a nice gift to speedrunners. A delightful, genuinely old-school soundtrack rounds out the package. I wish King Donut would drop by my place for coffee sometime. He may lack a physical centre, but his personal integrity is in tip-top shape!

Alice and You is a gem. A retro numeric puzzle score chaser with wonderfully unique and addictive gameplay. The mechanics are simple: you're dropped into a grid of mostly numbers. You can move in 8 directions. The distance you move is equal to the number shown on the first tile in the direction you choose to move (although certain tiles stop your move early). There are essentially two goals: * "winning" the game by stepping over every tile at least once - this is tied to the achievements * high score - for this, you don't necessarily need or want to clear the whole board + Time Attack - a mode (with a leaderboard) where you try to clear a small board as quickly as possible Both are fun. It took me a few hours to collect all of the achievements, and I'm still having fun chasing high scores. Now a bit of background: The game is developed by Mikito Ichikawa (aka Micky G. Albert), a game industry veteran whose credits include Streets of Rage. You can read more about him (including the origins behind his anglicized alias) here: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:Mikito_Ichikawa https://spillhistorie.no/interview-mikito-ichikawa-of-mindware/ https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,100460/ Alice and You was inspired by Numbertron, a homebrew for the Sharp MZ: https://spillhistorie.no/numbertron/. Numbertron was in turn inspired by Greed for Unix and Gold Monkey for Windows 3 and innovated on them in a number of ways. With (Numbertron developer) Joachim Froholt's blessing, Mikito Ichikawa took the concept much further with Alice and You (though it's worth noting that Numbertron retains some unique features that make it an interesting game in its own right; in particular, the multiplayer mode). One of the key innovations in Alice and You is the varying background color of tiles, which enables the goal of "clearing" the board (stepping on each tile at least once). This feature isn't even practical on Numbertron's target platform, the Sharp MZ-80a, and is a good example of how Alice and You innovated while keeping the retro feel. Alice and You also reworked the score chasing mechanics, resulting in a gameplay loop that, at least for me, does not become tiresome despite the simplicity. The key components of the score chasing mechanics in Alice and You are: * fruit tiles (new) - the primary scoring vehicle. Depending on board size, there are 1-4 of these. Every time one is collected, a new fruit of a higher value respawns elsewhere on the board. * heart tile (clover in Numbertron) - stepping on this tile replenishes a part of the board. The amount of tiles replenished diminishes every time the heart is collected, which helps control the length of game sessions and adds strategic depth. * diamond tile - stepping on this tile, which does not respawn, doubles your current score, so the player is incentivized to wait a while before collecting it. This tile is present in Numbertron as well and is actually inspired in turn by Mindware's earlier title, Cosmic Snake. * wand (new) - a single use ability (a different one for each of the two characters) that could help get you out of trouble and extend your game There are plenty of other improvements too. For a more complete description of mechanics and strategy tips, check out this great guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423713443 Mechanics aside, the look and feel is generally pleasant. Pixel art sprites are combined with modern rendering techniques unconstrained by the apparent resolution of the sprites. An effective combination. The "chiptunes" music is a real treat. Composed by Junko Ozawa, a veteran of Namco. You can read about her here: https://spillhistorie.no/interview-with-namco-legend-junko-ozawa/ https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,186082/ The story is simple, pure, and cute, and the audio works to emphasize the lighthearted, upbeat feel of the game, making it a joy to play, tapping into something "essential" that modern games generally cannot. Given the simplicity of the game, the price point may seem like asking too much, but if you have a few bucks to spare, and this looks like something you might enjoy, then you are probably better off spending that money on this unique title than on Generic RPG 23!