Game: Twistingo: Hummingbird Haven Collector’s Edition
Genre: Puzzle
System: Steam (Windows only)
Developer|Publisher: MixoGames Ltd.
Controller Support: No
Price: UK £8.50 | US $9.99 | EU € 9,75
Release Date: December 3rd, 2023
Review code provided with many thanks to MixoGames Ltd.
Twistingo: Hummingbird Haven Collector’s Edition is a 2023 puzzle game collection developed and published by MixoGames Ltd.
Premise of Twistingo: Hummingbird Haven
Twistingo is a classic puzzle game collection with a good variety of games. They are all connected around the story of an island, a hummingbird haven, recently hit by a big tropical storm. You, the player, must help the hummingbirds and the island residents rebuild their homes. You do that by playing different puzzle games. The game has an interesting message; by itself, it reminds us of the delicate ecological balance we need to keep and protect.
Gameplay
In Twistingo: Hummingbird Haven, we have a variety of puzzle games – finding objects, finding pairs of objects, variations of bingo, solitaire, and mahjong. Truthfully, it’s not as much a variation of mahjong as finding hidden objects using mahjong tiles.
There are three game modes: relaxed, normal, and extreme. Each has its characteristics, with extreme being the most difficult. For the writing of this review, I played in relaxed mode. You can change the game mode at any point during the game in the settings menu.
The games are accessible, and even though there is a hint button, you won’t need it much, if at all. The whole game took me less than 4 hours to complete, and that’s with the tea-making pauses. In any case, it is a relaxing experience; there is no timer. The artwork is beautiful and, more importantly, clear, as you won’t wonder what a particular object looks like. It’s a casual game you can do, even while doing something else.
There is a variety of collectables during the game – you collect tiles and coins for upgrades around the island, pearls, and shards to recover ancient artefacts and pieces of the map of the island. At any point in the game, you can go to the game room and play to make more coins and buy the upgrades mentioned above.
The Hummingbird Haven
As mentioned above, the game is beautiful, and the beautiful artwork and music make for a very chill gaming experience. The color scheme is very pleasing to the eye, and all the objects are somewhat logical to the tropical setting and culture. The dialogue and voice acting are somewhat wooden, but let’s be honest, that’s not why you might play this game.
The one strange thing was the animation for the people; it’s a static picture with the mouth moving. It doesn’t look natural. Still, it’s alright; you can skip the dialogue altogether. The funny thing is that the human models are beautiful by themselves, and if the developers had skipped the extra step of voice-over and animation, I might’ve read more of the dialogue.
Speaking of animation, I want to clarify that only the animation during skip scenes looks kind of strange to me. The animation and movements are snappy and on point for the rest of the game, especially during the actual levels. The game behaves beautifully, with no lagging or bugs.
Some Side Notes
Twistingo: Hummingbird Haven has all the standard audio and video settings. It has yet to have any Steam achievements and trading cards. After completing the central part of the game, we get access to some bonus content, cut scenes, galleries, collectables, music, and some levels of puzzle games.
Conclusion
Twistingo: Hummingbird Haven Collector’s Edition is a nice mini-game collection that will entertain you for a few hours. While it doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking, it still has all the ingredients to make it work. While I haven’t played the first game in the series, Twistingo: Turtle Bay Collector’s Edition, I did read Mina’s excellent review, and it appears this game is quite similar, if not identical, to that game. If you enjoyed the first Twistingo, you might also enjoy this one.
Final Verdict: I Like it