Area 777 Review

How lucky do you feel? Area 777 is heavily dependent on luck, so you'd better hope that you're a naturally fortuitous person. Thanks to that dependency, it's not overly gripping. Even when it eventually introduces new chip types it feels like too little, too late.

The concept behind it is that it's part slot machine, part tower defense game. In reality, it's almost all slot machine with a hint of tower defense. Each level consists of a slot machine, with enemies slowly making their way across it in order to cause you damage. You have to hit the spin button and, mostly, hope that the reels line up and you take them out along the way.

There is some element of strategy in there, mostly through the acquisition of chips, but it's fairly basic. These chips frequently correspond to an element, such as fire or ice, thereby allowing you to set the enemies on fire or freeze a reel in a particular position. It's helpful but hardly enough to make you feel fully in control of the game.

Instead, most of the time you'll be spinning reels hoping it pays off, but feeling like a spectator. One-tap games can work sometimes, but Area 777 is too hands-offish to truly garner your attention. You'll soon find your mind wandering to more interesting things. Impatient gamers will also long for a way of speeding up the spins, as that pause between each one soon begins to grate when you just want to grind your way to success.

Progression is made through gaining experience and leveling-up, eventually unlocking new areas, but it's still far from enticing. Quickly repetitive, you'll wonder just where things went wrong for [adult swim] as there's a dire lack of imagination here.