Sunday Times

Level Up

Gaming & app news

- ● L S. Sylvia McKeown

★★★ Blink the Bee Facebook Messenger and Kik

If you’re a list person, here’s an app that might interest you. Blink is a chat bot in the form of a cute bee who reminds you of things you need to do. You can programme the bee bot to send you a list of reminders at specific times by sending Blink a text in Facebook Messenger.

However, although you can ask Blink to remind you to “fetch the kids at 2pm today”, most of the time the reminders are listed and you can’t programme Blink to message you specific things at a repeated time. You always receive the whole list at once. This can be a little limiting, repetitive and annoying.

But there is one way that Blink stands out. In its examples of things to remind yourself about it suggests things that many may forget, such as “drink water” and “be kind to yourself” — thus changing the tone of the app. It was strange to receive tiny reminders that “everything is going to be OK” at random times of the day, but it was oddly comforting — even if it was just a bee bot doing what you told it to.

★★★★ Donkey Kong Island Tropical Freeze Nintendo Switch (from May 4)

Nintendo continues to port its biggest Wii U hits onto the Switch — including Donkey Kong Island Tropical Freeze, too good a game to stay behind for long. The 2.5-D platformer where Donkey, Didi, Dixie and Cranky battle for their home against the cold-hearted Snowmad penguins is back, with game play and graphics just as buttery smooth and pretty as before. Likewise, the fun and breezy game is just as deceptivel­y punishing — think of it as the Nintendo’s version of Cuphead, but with more bananas and monkeys.

Nintendo’s added “Funky Kong” mode makes the game play a lot easier and faster but also offers a completely different way of playing the game, doubling up the fun. Although the port doesn’t take advantage of the Switch’s improved handling, it’s a solid port. If you weren’t one of the people who bought the Wii U, then make sure you get your hands on this.

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