Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Sept. 28th
The Heart Goes Last
By Margaret Atwood
Kindle/iBooks/Kobo
After a devastating world collapse, couples are asked to enslave themselves half the time in prison to earn the comfort of houses for their free hours. In an effort to escape the drudgery, they end up indulging in relationship games that are often comical, but woefully tragic.
Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer
Nintendo 3DS
Rated: Everyone
This terribly disappointing outing from Nintendo takes one task from their popular Animal Crossing series, decorating homes, and tries to turn it into its own game by repeating it ad nauseam.
You have a real estate office where animals wander in and ask you to decorate their single-room homes based on a theme such as “books” or “stylish” or “cookies”. You choose their flooring and wallpaper, arrange some new furniture, and they cheer happily regardless of your choices. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Missing is the sense of a digital life. You’re not given a house to live in yourself and your relationships are purely business ones. While past Animal Crossing games come alive with new activities for different times and days of the week, there’s no such surprises here. You can play through all the décor tasks in one sitting if you like, with the only variety being the unlocking of new types of furniture and décor tools.
This is well below Nintendo’s reputation and only the most compulsive interior decorators need apply.
Flipp 3.0
iPhone/iPad/Android
Free
A new update now matches manufacturer coupons to your local retail flyers as well as the shopping lists you create using this service that gathers deals from over 400 stores.
Mikey Young At Heart
iPhone/iPad/Android
Learn life-saving skills from this streaming video course covering both CPR and the use of defibrillators for cardiac arrest. High School students in need of volunteer hours can count the course towards their goal.
Downtown Abbey: Mysteries of the Manor
iPhone/iPad/Android
Free
Featuring the cast and beautiful locations of the popular TV series, you must help the Earl of Grantham recover the house after it was ransacked, creating a hidden object and detective puzzle where all the residents keep secrets.
