Last Call BBS is a game that is part of December’s Humble Choice.
“Boot up your Z5 Powerlance and dial into Last Call BBS, the last game from Zachtronics! The Barkeep’s loaded up his retro computer with a full set of puzzle games for you to download and play. No need to worry about copy protection, they’re all fully cracked and ready to enjoy!”
The game costs 19,50 €. It has previously been on sale for 60 % off.
You play on a retro computer. The game “Sawayama Solitaire” is preinstalled already. All other games need to be downloaded and installed (within the game, not in reality). I felt very nostalgic when I heard the modem sound of connecting to the internet. I guess you need to be at least a certain age in order to know that feeling. However, I encountered something I have never seen before: Once a game is downloaded, you have exceeded your download quota and need to wait a certain time before you are allowed to download more. This may have happened in the USA, but I never saw that here in Germany. I guess it could be because we did not have a flatrate in the beginning. We paid for every single minute that we were online. So of course, we could continuously download stuff because… ka-ching! €.€
The games that you first need to download are: 20th Century Food Court, Steed Force Hobby Studio, X’BPGH: The Forbidden Path, Dungeons & Diagrams, ChipWizward Professional, HACK*MATCH and Kabufuda Solitaire. But as it turns out, the only game I am good at is the pre-installed Sawayama Solitaire. And do you know what? I used to play Solitaire so much when I was younger! Sawayama Solitaire has a few different rules (you can only go through the deck once, for example), but it is still fun to play!
The first mini game I tried was Dungeons & Diagrams. This is a nice puzzle game that requires logic. I am not too good at it because I always lose patience at some point. You basically need to place the walls in the dungeon according to several rules. There is also Steed Force Hobby Studio, which is a simulation game where you paint and put together miniatures. And then there is a variation of the Solitaire game, Kabufuda Solitaire, which I was bad at at first, but finally got the hang of and even won one match.
The games are partly fun. I did not get how some of them are played but I admit that I wasn’t too invested in trying to figure that out. The game consists of mini games with no overarching story, no way to “win” the game itself. But don’t get me wrong, I believe that the games are good and that Last Call BBS is a gem. The game has an overall rating of 95 % positive reviews (Overwhelmingly Positive) and I think that is accurate! But would the game be worth 19,50 € for me? No.
Apart from the Solitaire games and the puzzle game, I am not really interested in playing the others. If the games do sound interesting to you, then that’s a different story! I think I will continue trying to get through Dungeons & Diagrams because I really like this one game and I may start up a game of Solitaire here and there. So, as part of Humble Bundle, I do think it is a good addition! But I would not get the game for its full price.
Nerdy Bookahs 
1 Comment