Macenstein

GAMES THAT DON’T SUCK is a feature dedicated to games that I think are well worth your hard earned money, but not worth me sitting down and spending 3 hours crafting an in-depth review (these things are 99¢ after all). However, you can rest assured that any game bearing Macenstein’s GTDS rating is worth buying, sight unseen, based solely on my expert opinion.

Helsing’s Fire [iPhone 99¢, iPad $1.99, Lite (free)] is a game I meant to review a few months ago, but never got around to. It has one of the most refreshing art styles and game mechanics I’ve seen in an iOS game, as well as a nice sense of humor.

From the screen shots you may think this to be a sort of Dungeon Crawler type game, but rest assured, it is not. It’s a pure logic and puzzle solving affair, wrapped up in lighthearted originality and topped off with a bow of awesomeness. You play as Dr. Helsing, famous vampire hunter. Along with your trusty sidekick Raffton, you seek to rid the underworld of vampires and other monsters by using a torch and a series of colored tonics to solve logic puzzles. Basially you need to use your torch to highlight select colored monsters, then activate the appropriate colored tonic to fry ’em. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and if you accidentally hit a blue baddie with a red tonic, it strengthens them. Oh, and watch out for damsels in distress, they’re easy to accidentally fry.

Helsing’s Fire It starts out easy and the difficulty ramps up nicely as you go. The overall vibe of the game is wonderful and it’s well worth plunking down a buck for. Go get it now and then come back and leave me a comment telling me how right I was.

You’re welcome.