Chrome Games I've Played - Biogems

It might not be Final Fantasy, but there are a few games that I've been playing as of lately on Google Chrome, which I've gotten from the Chrome Store, so I'll also be doing a few reviews of them here as well.

The first game I'm going to be discussing is "Biogems", a cross between a regular puzzle game and a fighting game (those who've played the Street Fighter/Darkstalkers crossover puzzle game/fighter will know what I mean here) with a bit of leveling up for your characters.

Biogems is created by MochiGames and puts you in control of one of two heroes (three actually, but I'll explain that later), Ryu the Dog and Pixal the Cat. The story is simple. Your space colony is being attacked by invaders, and you need to go stop them. This of course means battling them, and the way you battle depends on what you match up during your turn.

Here's a quick explanation of what does what in the game:
Fist Icon: Your Basic Attack. It's grey and is powered up by leveling up the Power Glove.
Star Icon: This lets you do an Energy Attack. It's stronger than your Basic Attack. It is purple and is powered up by leveling up the Power Collar.
Reverse Arrow Icon: This lets you counter an enemy attack with one of your own (the basic attack, actually). It's pink and is powered up by leveling up the Reflex Boots.
Fire Icon: This fills up your Rage Bar. When it's completely filled, you can do a Rage Attack. Think of it as the Hyper Attacks from the Capcom Vs series. They are red, and the Rage Attack is powered up by leveling up the Rage Snacks.
Shield Icon: This is your defense icon, which allows you to take off a certain amount of damage from enemy attacks. I find it more useful than Counter during later battles, especially when it's been powered up. It's blue and is powered up by leveling up the Force Field.
Heart Icon: This heals you up by filling up damage to your life bar. It is green You can gain more life by leveling up the Space Armor.
Lightning Bolt: This gives you back energy, which is important because you need energy to do both the Normal and Energy Attacks (you can do Rage Attacks even if you have low/no energy), indicated by the yellow bar under your life bar. It is yellow, and you can get more energy by leveling up the Battery Pack.

Chains are also important as well, and higher chains let you do more, especially if you get more than three icons in your first move. Here are what they do.
Four Icons: You get an extra turn. I suggest doing this as much as you can, since the more turns you get, the less the opponent gets to do.
Five Icons: Bomb. This explodes taking out up to six icons. It can also help you combo easily.
Six Icons: Rainbow Warp. This takes out all of one icon and powers it up to the max. Use this especially on either the Rage or the Special, or if you need healing, since it's awesome. I've taking out bosses using this before.

The characters themselves each have their own strengths and weaknesses. You start off with Pixal and Ryu, but once you get through the game once, you get access to Bit the Bunny, who can be pretty fast.

The Bad Guys are pretty well done as well, but for the later ones (especially once you get to the Shark and beyond), it's important to level up. This is done easily by collecting the rubies, which can be found by breaking certain tiles and by beating the bad guys. The upgrades get considerably more expensive as they're leveled up, so keep this in mind as well. I typically start gathering rubies from the snake and bat to get the second upgrades and then move on to the bear and spider for the third levels and then the shark and moose for the final levels. I would not go to the Rhino until you at least have your defense and counter at the max. Trust me on this.

The last two bad guys, the slime boss and the Squid, who's the leader of them all, are some of the toughest of them all, so going in with anything less than max is just asking for trouble, especially once you get to the Squid. Also, speaking of the Squid, he does start off easy, but once he goes into his second mode (which is more enraged), the attacks REALLY start to hurt. Expect to be defending a lot against him, and make sure to combo as much as you can, especially keeping him from getting his turns.

All in all, Biogems is pretty fun, especially to waste some time on, but after you beat the game with all three characters, there's not much else to keep you there, unless you like beating up on the enemies some more that is. I find it good to blow some steam on, especially if I'm stuck on Angry Birds or not wanting to play one of my console games. If you've got Google Chrome, I'd suggest adding it on and trying it out.