New Yankee 8: Journey of Odysseus

Review

What would it be like to be married to a self-taught witch? I guess you would have to be someone with great strength and also very kind! If it was me, I would be quite sceptical every time I was handed a glass of juice (or any liquid), to be honest. A little voice at the back of my head would keep telling me, “Beware, you might be part of her next experiment. What will you turn into this time?” Interestingly, there was a famous couple during King Arthur’s era; one of King Arthur’s knights, Sir John, was married to Mary, who was a witch. She was a bit clumsy and while preparing a new potion, she dropped her magic recipe book into the cauldron and managed to open the boundaries of times.  Both of them, along with their faithful dog, Max, ended up travelling through time to new and exciting adventures. Their latest odyssey is the story of New Yankee 8: Journey of Odysseus!

New Yankee 8: Journey of Odysseus is a point and click time management game developed by Yustas Game Studio and published by Alawar Entertainment on the 7th of May 2020 on the Steam Platform.

It is the first game of the entire series that I have the pleasure to play, and it consists of 50 levels in the main story and an additional 15 levels after completing it. There are three levels of difficulty, in which Relaxed has no time limit, Normal does have a time limit, and Expert has a considerably reduced time limit. After selecting your level of difficulty, you’ll be introduced to the story and be on your way to play your first level.



This genre of game always has between 2 to 4 tasks to accomplish within the time limit to win the stage. The time is divided in three, and if you complete the stage before the time gauge passes the first star, you’ll receive 3 golden stars. But in this game, if you manage to do so you’ll earn points instead of stars. As you progress through the levels and accumulate a certain number of points, you’ll be given a choice to select one of three items each time you reach a specific number of points. For example, the first object to choose will be at 30,000 points, and it will grow significantly bigger for the next items and so on and so forth. In my case, after finishing the main story, I have accumulated 8 items and my next one is when I reach 1,500,000 points. So, choose carefully which Items you think might help you through your playthrough.

At the start of each level, you’ll have 2 or 3 workers as well as Sir John and Mary. In most of the stages you’ll also have a Gremlin but you‘ll have to clear the path to be able to use him. He is the only one who can break vases and remove big rocks and pillars after drinking one of Mary’s super potions and becoming some sort of Hulk Gremlin; yes, he triples in size for a few minutes! Sir John is extremely useful for fighting off skeletons, giant purple mushroom fighters and werewolves. Sam the dog will scare crabs and scorpions, and can immobilise trolls for a while. Concerning Mary, she will use magic but will need a specific number of mana to activate spells at the altars. Some spells will be to help your workers move faster, while others will freeze a lake, transform trolls into temporary ice blocks, defeat spirits plus a few more.

The levels are well done; the first ten or so you’ll be able to clear in around 4 to 5 minutes, but from then on it might take well over ten minutes to complete a level. And if you want the maximum number of points available for your extra items, you might have to restart a level several times over and over. As you would expect, most action will cost a certain number of resources, but you’ll also have a fair bit of free supply around the side of the roads (path) to help you out. In most stages, you’ll have to free the workers and the gremlin. Personally, I liberate the workers first so that I can regularly accumulate mana at the mana fountains, as well as gathering other resources, but if a pillar or a massive stone is in your worker's path, then you need the Hulk Gremlin to come to the rescue.  

You’ll also have specific buildings to erect, and you can send a worker to work in the building to create additional resources, which always comes in handy.

There are mini-games too. As you progress through the story, you’ll be able to play Sea battle (which is a Naval battle type of game, Birds battle (where you have to shoot birds before taking legs of ham from the ship’s deck), and the Ancient Puzzle (where you have to match two of the same symbol or animal in a puzzle that contains plenty of pieces).

Nice illustrations and the graphics are colourful and fun. The soundtrack is ok and not too annoying, and you can turn it off at any given time. The story is fun and different, and the levels are very good. I also like the extensive gamepedia which is available in the main menu. The game is played entirely with your mouse and keyboard.

 

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com!


Positives

+ Nice, colourful graphics
+ Fun little story
+ Very addictive
+ 65 well-designed levels
+ Additional mini-games
+ Good gamepedia
+ Achievements

Negatives

- No trading cards

Review Summary

New Yankee 8: Journey of Odysseus – A delightful and addictive time management game to add to your game library!

Share this review!

Zeepond Rating: 8/10

Video