Another week, another thirteen!

Hunters: Episode One



In short: A top-down, grid based, strategy shooter.

In Hunters you are a bounty hunter overlord, who send his minions out into space to perform hits. You get choose from a variety of unit types, and then then send them off to warehouse-esque looking locales to bump off goons. As said, the game is grid based, so you will tap your way around the virtual board to move and attack. Each unit will have a set number of ‘action points’ per turn; represented by orbs next to their health meters. This means you can move that many times, or shoot that many times. The amount of action points a unit has is also influenced by the armour they have, so hiring a unit with light armour will give them less protection, but will give you more action points.  As well as moving on the set grid, you can also freely rotate units, so you can keep entry points covered at all times if you need to. Each of your units also has two overlapping health bars: armour (white), and after that runs out, then health (green). So uh, yeah, there is quite a lot going on at once, and it can feel quite a deep and involved, even laborious process, just to make it across a room. Thankfully though, if you are struggling to understand everything, there is a brilliant help system that can be activated on any screen with a two finger swipe. It is an excellent feature, and one that more games should employ. Even in the menus though, there is so much to do. New hunters can be hired, hunter names can be changed, weapons and armour can be bought, sold and equipped.Some of the default hunter’s stats and weapon choices were little perplexing: Why would the melee expert (hammer wielder) have only light armour? Actually picking a contract is tough too, as they change every 24 hours. So can’t really plan ahead. Instead you must maintain a flexible team of hunters. Overall, the game does have one continuing annoyance; lots of tapping. Tap and double tap to confirm a movement in the game. Tap to select and item in the shop, then somewhere else to purchase it. Tappity tappity tap. Maybe it will feel less like a chore if I play a little more.

Verdict: An interesting collision of top-down shooter and strategy genres. I think I should reserve my judgement on this until I’ve played a little more. It is quite involved, to the point of being a little intimidating, but maybe over time it will become more rewarding. It looks like it is still free at the moment, (maybe it has gone free to play; I did notice some optional adverts I could watch for in-game rewards), so give it a crack and decide for yourself.

I’ll be keeping this for a little while and seeing if it grabs me more.


About Love & Hate and Other Ones



In short: A puzzle platformer that oozes style and substance.

In this game, you control two black blobs: Love (the one with the flower) and hate (horns). By tapping the button in the bottom left of the screen, you can switch between Love and Hate, and then you can tap anywhere in a level to send either one to that spot. Eventually, you’ll want one of the protagonists to reach a big red button, as this allows you exit the level and move on to bigger and better things. The only catch is that both Love and Hate can only jump one space higher than themselves, so you need to move them strategically; cover a hole, jump on top of each other and so forth. Love and Hate also have a special ability each: By tapping, you can make Love can draw “other ones” (they grey-green blobs) one space closer, and with Hate, the opposite is true; they move one space away. This allows you to use the same mechanics of filling gaps and jumping on heads on a larger scale, to climb out of pits and climb over walls to reach the ends of levels. It is quite an ingenious little game mechanic, and while the puzzles haven’t been super difficult so far, I still feel a sense of accomplishment when completing a level. I imagine the difficulty will ramp up, but luckily there is an instant-rewind feature that will take you back one move at a time, so frustration should be at a minimum. The game also has a great sort of rustic visual appeal, and the music is dorky sort of catchy. There is also no fluff here; there are no extra goals in each level, no time limits, no leaderboards, no achievements. Just pure puzzle platforming at your own pace.

Verdict: All in all, there is a happy little experience to be had here. Definitely worth the asking dollar download.

I’ll be gladly finishing this one off.


Word Bird



In short: A laid back word assembling game.

Unlike many word games, such as Word Seek or Wordsworth, Word Bird does not employ a time limit. And unlike other more social word games like Words With Friends, you aren’t under any pressure to compete with friends. You are only limited by a quota of turns (moves you can make) in each level (levels are called ‘pages’ here). Other than that, all you need to do is use each letter in a word at least once, and you will receive a score bonus for longer words. Gold letter are worth more than silver and so forth, but there are also special gem letters that offer big bonuses and may grant you a special power, like an auto-finding of the biggest word beginning with a letter of your choice. The only other restriction is that each word must contain one previously unused letter, so it gets tricky toward the end when you have a consonant like a ‘V’ without any neighbouring vowels. Thankfully though, you can use the shuffle button or the hint button to help you out, at the cost of one turn. In my experience, the hint system was useless, but the shuffle can really save you from a dead end. You basically continue through random pages of letters until you reach the turn limit in a mode called ‘Supreme’. But there is also a ‘Classic’ (endless; due to ever increasing turns if you play well) and a ‘Daily Challenge’ mode (where the world all plays on the same page). Plus, there are badges to earn and sixteen Game Centre achievements to strive for. So there is plenty of content for fans of relaxed word games. The game also lets you play with two control methods, by either drawing words with a continuous line, or tapping each letter individually to make them. Most word games only use one of these control schemes, so this is flexibility is nice.

Verdict: This does do a few things differently from other games in the genre, and should appeal to a broad audience.

I’ll be keeping this around for a bit.


Ready Steady Bang!



In short: A master-class in less-is-more design.

Less really is less: Basic, 2D grey-scale visuals are all this game has to offers visually. The game is also dead simple: You face off against a real opponent (in multiplayer, pictured) or against the CPU (presented the same way without the second HUD), in a first-to-five cowboy duel. The game will say “ready, steady… bang” both on the screen and from the speakers. You just need to tap anywhere on your half of the screen as quickly as you can after the “bang.” It is that damn simple. But the tension created in that brief time window between “steady” and “bang” is tangible. The single player game sees you face off against increasingly harder opponents who begin as slow old blokes, but soon become real sharp shooters. The game is a great time-waster, as you know each round will only last seconds, but is also has Game Centre features which add a little longevity. There is also a cool little kill gallery where you can watch the varying types of death animations that your opponents perform as they hit the ground.

Verdict: There are plenty of other things you could spend a buck on on the App Store, but I really do admire this game’s simplicity and restraint: It could easily have become a convoluted game with boosts and currency and a shop, but it keeps it clean and simple.

I’ll be keeping this for ages I think. It takes up no space, and will always be there if I need to kill a few seconds waiting for a coffee or a bus.


Red Baron’s Revenge



In short: Draw lines to land planes… This seems like a familiar formula…

This is an exact clone of the iOS classic (yes, iOS has classics, bitches) Flight Control with a lame WWI skin. If you’ve never played it, the game takes place at a airfield, presented from a 2D top-down perspective, and you are required to draw a line from different incoming aircraft that directs them to an appropriate runway (or helipad) for landing. You are able to redraw an aircraft’s path at any time, and you will need to do so, as the speed of incoming planes quickens over time. The game will continue until you crash two planes together. Red Baron plays exactly like this, except it offers a different array of aircraft, such as spitfires and blimps, that fit the war theme. Everything here is ripped from Flight Control; right down to the warning red circle around two planes on course to crash, the exclamation mark that indicates a plane is about to appear on screen, and the little messages of praise that appear and then fade as you land an aircraft. Unlike FC, this game is barren visually. It is generally blurry, nothing pops, the colours are dull and it just lacks personality.

Verdict: Just avoid this.

I’ll be deleting this pronto.


Motorblast



In short: A realistic take on the kart-racing genre, if such a thing can exist.

I say ‘realistic’ because the cars are physically plausible, and the weapons are things like machine guns and landmines rather than turtle shells. But the powers are still pretty crazy: Cars will sprout landmine-deploying cannons from, crab-shell-like shields, or jet engines from their roofs. However, it borrows as much from the Burnout franchise as it does from Mario Kart. Car models show an impressive level of damage; door hang off and so forth, and you can also “take-down” opponents just as you can in Burnout. As the descriptions above might suggest, the game does have some pretty excellent graphics. The cars are well modeled, and there is a decent amount of foliage on the edge of tracks. Sadly, there are only four cars in each race, and there aren’t a huge amount of tracks on offer. However a diverse range of race types helps to make up for this. So far I’ve played in eight different race types! There are things like Goal Run (checkpoints), Time Trial, Treasure Hunt (coin collection), No Weapons, Full Race (normal race with all items) and then races that permit only one type of item, like Boost Only or Mines Only. The game also offers three camera perspectives, which is an unexpected bonus. You can view the race from the traditional close 3rd person viewpoint, but also in first person, or a pulled back 3rd person view, that makes the cars all look like little RC cars. The last view really does accentuate the fact that the tracks are actually really wide, so this won’t demand the most precise racing from you, and I think that’s a good thing. Speaking of precision, you’ll want to steer clear (pun intended because its a racing game trololol) of the tilt controls, as they are slow and offer nothing even close to precise control. Thankfully, there are touch/swipe controls offer and these are far better, though they do still take a bit of getting used to. It would be nice to have the option of a d-pad or analogue stick, but over the course of this week, I’ve managed to comfortably adapt. I’m not sure how the difficulty will curve over the course of the game, but it seems a little inconsistent at the moment, as the one-item-restriction races are far more difficult than the rest. But races are unlocked based on you earning X amount of stars in other races (bronze = 1, silver = 2, gold = 3, and so forth), so maybe it doesn’t matter. Other cars, a totaling six, can also be unlocked this way. If working through the campaign isn’t enough, there is also a multiplayer component, but when I tried this, there was nobody online.

Verdict: A rollicking racing experience, and something a little different on iOS. At four bucks, it isn’t exactly cheap, but it is pretty great. If it ever goes down to a dollar or free, you really shouldn’t pass this up.

I’ll be keeping this for sure!


The Creeps!



In short: Another addition to the already teeming tower defense genre.

This follows the usual formula of the genre. Enemies come in waves. They travel from an entry point toward your point of defense. You need to then place a variety of different turret types along the path (done with a simple tap) to automatically shoot your foes. Money is earned from each kill, and this can be spent on more turrets and upgrading already placed turrets. I can’t really see anything here that is new or different. It is only separated from other TD games by the “creepy” enemy types, like mummies an so forth, which is hardly enthralling. The game is also infested with ads, notifications and in-app-purchases. There are twelve level packs that you can buy, and only a few offered for free. I wouldn’t be spending money on any of them, because as I have said in prior weeks, I just am not a fan of watching the game play out before me as tends to happen in any enemy-wave or tower defense games.

Verdict: I think even the most die hard TD fans could find something more worthwhile on the App Store, so most should pass on this.

I’ll be removing this pronto.


Dungelot



In short: A self proclaimed ‘casual roguelike’.

Which is a pretty apt description. This has very simplistic gameplay. Each ‘dungeon’ is a grid, and with a simple tap-to-reveal mechanic you can clear spaces, break barrels, open chests and reveal/attack enemies. On the way, you will find potions to heal poison as well as power-ups (the icons pictured in the bottom-right) which will weaken or damage enemies en-masse. After a while you will soon realise that no waiting is required in this game, and you can just tap wildly until all enemies are revealed. Some squares will still be blocked by enemies, but by attacking the weakest enemy, you may just be able to reveal the dungeon’s exit and move along. Though that is always a balancing act: Sometimes you may want to try and get a bonus for defeating every enemy, but other times you may want to just get to the next dungeon and hope for more health etcetera there. In the end though, you will inevitably die, as this is a roguelike. But there is something nice about the game’s throwaway nature. Since this is so short and sweet, you aren’t able to become too invested in your character; you don’t need to ponder over what stats to boost, or what hair colour he should have. This high-turnover type of game is a perfect fit for the platform. It also may introduce a new genre to iOS users, as it is, despite a few complexities, able to compete with the time-waster apps that dominate the iTunes Store. There are also a range of Game Centre achievements here, thirty in total, which are ironically ‘lifetime’ achievements like get 100 of this or that, but they are related to things like how often you die.

Verdict: A fun game that finds opens up a genre well suited to the platform. Certainly worth looking into.

I’ll be getting a few achievements out of this, but I’m not sure it will be a long-term drain on my play time.


Unknown Orbit



In short: A 3D ball rolling game.

My iPod had a lot of trouble with this. The frame-rate was shockingly bad, nigh-on unplayable. So this review may be a little unfair. But if a device is supported, it should be playable on said device. Maybe it has something to do with the Unity engine, though I’ve had that work fine with other titles. Anyway, the game’s premise is not that great anyway: You control a comet that orbits, or attempts to orbit, a planet. You tilt your device to steer the comet, and by touching and releasing, you can drop into crevasses, and launch out of them. If you’ve ever played the iOS stalwart Tiny Wings, its basically a 3D version of that. I gather that there is also a temperature-balancing mechanic, whereby your comet’s ice core will melt if you spend too long close to the planet’s surface, even though doing this will get you higher scores. There are also items like snowballs to collect and these will help keep your temperature in check. The game’s graphics might look half decent, but it was pretty hard for me to tell, and I think there’s a limit to how good lifeless rocky planets can look anyway.

Verdict: If you can run this properly, then you should make your own judgements. But I would pass on this one.

I’ll be deleting this.


3volution



In short: A game of well considered ball pinging.

The “3” in name of this one gives me a good method of explaining it: There are three balls. They can be launched around the playing field (the size of the screen) via a touch-and-pull slingshot action. Pulling further will obviously result in a more powerful shot, and vice-versa. There are only two core gameplay requirements: One is that you can’t launch the same ball twice in a row, and the second it that the ball ypu launch must cross over the straight line that is formed between the other two balls. Failure to cross that line will result in the loss of health, and will eventually spell game over. So in the images above, you can see the two grey ” ” balls and the red ” :/ ” ball. The grey ones can be fired, and the middle grey one has the easiest shot at crossing the line between the other two. This is a tough thing to explain in writing, but it is a pretty simple mechanic to get your head around once you start playing. Though I should point out that the game’s launching mechanic is a forward-pull, rather that the backward-pull that you see everywhere else (i.e. Angry Birds) and that takes a little getting used to. Each game is endless, but you will earn points for successfully crossing those lines, and you score will advance you to new stages. More complex stages start to introduce lots of collectible items and other objects, as you can see in the screen-grab. Some of these, the smaller orbs, simple add and detract points from your score. The bigger ones are more hazardous, and make it harder to cross that magic line between the other two balls. Some of them though, are destructible with a few hits, so if you can manage to both hit the enemy orbs and cross the magic line, then you can really boost your score. Boosting scores is what it is all about. There isn’t a campaign to speak of, so this is a game for those who like to beat their own, or others high scores. iOS 6’s new Challenges feature in Game Center is ideal for this game, but I’m not sure if it is utilised, despite the many leader-boards and the forty-odd achievements on offer.

The other part of the game’s name, the “volution” describes the visual aesthetic on offer here; hence the cellular-looking bacteria-amoeba-things. Everything is bright and colourful and looks squidgy, so they really nailed that side of things.

Verdict: The game is what it is. There are simple set of rules, and it is up to individuals if they want to play by those rules. $2 might be a slightly ambitions price to set for a game that relies on users motivation, but there you go.

I’ll be hanging on to this for a little while maybe.


Luna Bears



In short: A lighthearted platforming romp.

You dear player, control a star (or maybe a Luma from Super Mario Galaxy), who likes to sleep with a teddy. Sadly, some ghouls steal you teddy, so you must strive to reclaim to in each level. As well as ted, there are three stars to collect in each level (forming the ubiquitous 3-star scoring system that you’ll see me comment on every bloody week) and also coins. The game is an auto-running platformer. So the little star dude will float along by himself, and at your touch, he will rise to ascend over objects. Now I’ve used the words ‘float’ and ‘rise’ deliberately, because that’s how this works: You don’t really walk or jump, but rather, float. So this isn’t really a platformer in the traditional sense, maybe its more like a 2D maze game. The way you move might make the game sound simplistic, but there is skill required here. You can only ever walk forward, so in order to reach some items or avoid some enemies, you will need make your floating very precise. In some circumstances, you will need to use environmental features, like a bouncy jelly wall, to spring backwards against the game’s flow. Levels also sometimes have divergent paths, with one offering a star, and the other, coins. So completionists will be encouraged to return to each level just to get all the dosh and achieve three stars. Even if completing each level perfectly isn’t your thing, there are still sixty levels (with more promised) to work through, and thirty-three Game Centre achievements to tick off. You’ll probably want to hang around anyway, just to enjoy the cute art style that is dished up here. Little star man shouldn’t be smiling, since his teddy has been nicked, be he’s full of joy, and he and the worlds he explores are bright and smoothly animated. Another thing the game does smoothly, is use the gyroscope: The word will tilt a little with your device. This is purely for shits and giggles, and adds nothing to the gameplay, but I thought is was a cute little addition.

Verdict: A well crafted platformer that tries to do a few things differently, and generally succeeds. This is certainly worth a look for a buck.

I’ll be playing this one through.


Distant Star



In short: A lo-fi resource management strategy game.

The idea here is to take control of a planet and build a mighty space empire. You can build ships, like probes to explore, frigates to attack, and colonisers to conolise other planets. You can also invest in research on your home planet, into areas like weapons, defense systems, but also economics and ecology. The game bases itself around a system of turns. In each turn, you can start as many process as you can afford; you can start construction of many ships and fund research, but to progress you must end your turn. Each movement then, tells you it will take X turns. So moving a ship from home to planet X could take six turns, while economic research may take ten turns to be completed. Things obviously start to get serious when other planets start sending out ships, and you need to keep up with their movements as well as just expanding your planet’s wealth and power. The game, as I said is very lo-fi, so this is only one or two steps above a text-based game. There are a lot of menus to navigate, and also branching skill trees in the research area of the game. So immediately, this won’t suit all gamers. There isn’t much action, and it is a slow process of planning and strategising. Aside from building up a space empire, there isn’t much else t this game. There are a handful of achievements, but no way to interact with the interstellar creations of other players or view records.

Verdict: Personally, it isn’t my cup of tea. But for real strategy fans, this might be worth a look.

I’ll be removing this.


Temple Run 2



In short: The sequel to the king of runners.

If you haven’t played or heard of Temple Run before, get your head out of the sand. It is a 3D endless runner that uses the title and swipe features of iDevices to let you control an Indiana Jones-esque adventurer who is fleeing from giant killer apes with treasure. It became a staple of the iOS platform, and naturally inspired many other copycat endless runner, some of which are pretty decent in their own right. Now a sequel has arrived, and really needs to show some improvement over the original to maintain it’s mantle. Thankfully, there is just enough spit and polish and new stuff here to re-energise the Temple Run name. To start with, there is an improvement in the graphics department. The textures are new, and most models are a little crisper. Most noticeably,  the draw distance is far better than in the original. Like the first game, there is a store where collected coins can be spent on improving the strength of power ups (that appear randomly in the game), as well as one off boosts. This has been fleshed out a bit now, and also includes new characters and other perks. The game plays just like the first, though there is now more variety in the types of obstacles you face; so things such as mine carts and zip lines have been added. Temple Run 2 has also taken a leaf out of the book of many other running games by including an system of objectives such as ‘run X distance’ or ‘collect X coins’ that will earn you extra coinage. These have not replaced the Game Centre features from TR1 though, so there are still forty-four achievements of earn and leader-boards to scale. The only real downside to this game is that the graphical enhancements may alienate the users with older devices. But that’s life when with anything technology related.

Verdict: A must have sequel, that is fun and most importantly, FREE! If you’ve just gotten over your addiction to the first game, then you’ll be in trouble.

I’ll be removing this.
_ _ _ _ _

This will be my last concurrent weekly episode for a while, as uni goes back next week. So this will become a more intermittent series for the foreseeable future. Thanks to those that have read any week, or any week. I’ll be editing and republishing previous posts (pre-XIII) on Potaku under the title “Keeping an Eye on iOS”, so check out that site and it’s podcast.

Adios!

Bam!

Meow Meow Happy Fight



In short: A nonsensical top down shooter.

This is a silly that doesn’t really offer any excitement. It is just a top down dual stick (or single stick depending on your preference) featuring weird characters and lots of lasers. But these aren’t weird characters like Angry Birds or Om Nom (of Cut the Rope fame) because the game just doesn’t give them any personality. To be honest, it isn’t always obvious where any felines are, despite the game’s name. There also just isn’t any gameplay hook to make this at all interesting. Every level is governed only by a time limit. No lives, no health, no ammunition limits. So nobody dies! They just always respawn. The game also doesn’t appear to have any retina graphics, but to be fair, I guess the neon style does pop nicely.

Verdict: At full price ($2) this is a no-no. But if you like twin stick shooters, give it a look when it is on sale. Otherwise, check out BigPixel’s other iOS games, as they have quite a few better than this one.

I’ll be removing this.


Endless Road



In short: A modern and attractive take on the traffic dodging racing game.

This is a game that really packs a visual punch. It features a great minimalist style and nice effects; such as the way the road folds upwards from oblivion as you progress, and falls away in chunks behind you. The grey, white, black and red colour scheme reminds me of Mirror’s Edge actually… The game has an isometric viewpoint, but has fully 3D models, so it all looks fluid and crisp. Gameplay-wise, it is largely what you’d expect. There is traffic to dodge; trucks, cars and the like, as well as other hazards. There are slow/fast arrows on the road that act as advertised. There are a few things to spice it up though. There is a subway system that runs under the road, which you can sometimes enter. It is free of hazards, but you will need to make sure you exit it at or before the last exit otherwise you will crash. So its a classic risk/reward element. You also need to keep your speed at 80 (kilometres or miles, I can’t recall, but it doesn’t matter) otherwise you won’t keep up with the pace of the road as it falls away behind you. So avoiding traffic and slowdown arrows becomes vital. The game is endless, but you will pass through different stages of increasing difficulty as you go, and it does get pretty tricky after about 5km or so. The game also has a really great menus, something I will always mention, because I love a good, clear, attractive menu. In terms of content, there are a swathe of Game Centre achievements, leader-boards, and an objective system that rewards you with coinage which can be spent in the game’s shop. A shop filled with new cars, boosts, visual enhancements and so forth.

Verdict: Endless Road is a pretty full package, and certainly a step above the usual endless, time-waster fodder that fills the App Store.

I’ll be keeping this one.


Heist: The Score



In short: An authentic gangster themed on-rails shooter.

There really aren’t enough tommy-guns on the App Store. Thankfully Heist offers plenty of that. It is a simple game to play, you just need to aim by sliding your finger around, shoot by pressing on the right, and take cover by pressing on the left. Movement may be strictly on rails, but the game’s enemies have a habit of really pinning you down, so you don’t really feel that restricted by the controls as much as you do by your adversaries. You also usually have to choice of a couple of cover spots in one area, so you can dodge grenades or get a better shot by moving around. The game is really fuelled by it’s typical, but nonetheless entertaining story: You two companions argue about what exactly the bank is guarding, the organisation’s hierarchy, and things of that nature. One is the typical violent gangster, while the other is more sophisticated. The banter between the crooks is done with full voice acting, which is great. The game’s tutorial also deserves a shout out: It takes place in a car on the way to the bank and does a wicked job of introducing you to the characters and the controls. For example, your first shot fired is considered as ‘first-job nerves’ by your buddies. The graphics are great overall; the cars outside and the bank’s decor all looks very authentic. Admittedly, the character models are a little on the N64 side of things, with square heads, square hands and when they move occasional clipping occurs. However this is more than made up for by other touches, such as normally static objects like chairs, actually falling over when you shoot them. The only downside here is the lack of content. They are only seven chapters, and they all take place inside the bank, and there are no achievements or objectives to fulfil. But it is a solid game, well worth the asking price of 99 cents.

Verdict: As an overall package, this one is short an sweet. It isn’t an oft-updated keeper like some more casual iOS games, so just download it, enjoy it, and delete it.

I’ll be finishing it, then taking my own above advice.


King of Opera



In short: A decent, light-hearted, local multiplayer party game. Not something you see everyday on the platform.

This is a dead simple one. There are four (red, green, blue and orange) portly opera singers vying for the spotlight. You and up to three friends (or CPU opponents) need to bump each other off the circular stage and try and avoid the same happening to you, using only one button. The opera singer will rotate on the spot, and walk forward when you press your button. Once you’re in the spotlight, you’ll start boosting your score, and the light will follow you as you attempt to dodge the other singers. As well as this mode, there is ‘Phantom’ mode where the spotlight vanishes once gained, making it more of a capture-the-flag affar rather than king-of-the-hill. There is also a third mode called ‘Fat Lady’, where all four singers compete with a fat lady who is determined to hog the spotlight. The game is very whimsical, and the soaring “la-la-laaaaa”s are constantly punctuated by slapstick sound effects. This could be a great little distraction to play with friends, though it is probably suited to the largers screend of the iPad/Mini. At $2, it might be a little expensive for what it is. But at least it is a universal app.

Verdict: A neat little distraction that offers some muliplayer on a platform starved of it.

I’ll be keeping this.


Majesty



In short: An isometric kingdom building game in the vein of Age of Empires.

Unlike AoE though, you can’t control your people. You can build plenty of buildings, sure, anything from warrior guilds, to wizard guilds, to marketplaces, to blacksmith shops. But you cannot directly control people. Instead you must lure and entice them by placing monetary bounties on enemies (an ‘attack flag’ for warriors) or by placing a ‘scout flag’ on unexplored locations (for other adventurers). This is a really interesting mechanic that immediately changes this from a “God game” to a more realistic “ruler game”, because you’re powers come up against real-world limits. The game’s intro and ongoing story is pretty whimsical; detailing how the last king went insane due to his love of rats. But once you hit the actual game, its all serious: You’re worrying about what level of castle collects what amount of tax, how many warriors your guild can hold and so forth. It isn’t that confusing, because everything is laid out pretty well, but there is a lot to take in in a short space of time. The aims in each level are fairly basic, like defeat X and reach point X, but I imagine this will become more complex as you progress. On the audiovisual side, things are swell. The music is pretty naff, but passable, and the details on the visual are so crisp that you will quickly forget that you are really just playing on an isometric field. Screen real estate is at a real premium here though. Fonts are small, and everything feels a little hemmed in, so if you were to play this, I’d recommend doing so on an iPad. The game also uses a lot of double-taps to confirm things, which often means that after lining up a proposed building site, you accidentally move it a tad on that second tap. This is a little annoying, so again, I’d recommend an iPad, where there is greater margin for error.

There is a big negative though: Seriously, how shit is the tagline “SEVERAL DOZEN SPELLS”. Wow.

Verdict: Despite initial appearances, this is not a lighthearthed little title. It is in fact, deep and involved. So I wouldn’t recommend it to all, and I would advocate getting it on an iPad if you can. It is universal, so your $2 is probably well spent on any device.

I’ll be keeping this around for a little while.


Storm the Train



In short: A run-and-gun platformer. On a train.

This is an endless, high-score-chasing, and objective-fulfilling affair. You can move left and right, and also jump, double jump and shoot. But running along and blasting enemies, you will earn currency which can be spent in the (wait for it) in-game store! You will be able to complete objectives, such as reaching a certain distance, or killing a certain boss enemy, and gain more currency to buy more upgrades in the store. These include boosts and power-ups, like flying turrets that will aid you in your spree. It really is the typical iOS gaming circle of life, and like in so many games, it just feels like a revolving process without much soul. At least the visual themes make the game a little interesting: You are usually pitted against skeletons and zombies, but further on, you will be able to leap from the front of the train, onto the back of a new one, such as the ‘future train’, which features robots and other sci-fi enemies. Despite my cynical attitude to the game’s store and such, I have another gripe with the game’s jumping physics: Even in the air, you will keep up with the speeding train. I’ve heard discussion on this in real life, and I can’t remember if this correct real-world physics or not. Maybe it is just that I’ve been playing Donkey Kong Country Returns a lot lately, and there it works a little differently. Another big issue is the lack of retina graphics. The font used by the game is prompts is tiny; bordering on unreadable. I have an 4th generation iPod Touch, and there have been two iPhones and another iTouch model since then that also have retina displays, so it isn’t really acceptable on 2013. But maybe that is a bug at my end, because the screenshots look pretty good. The game does have all the Game Centre fruit, and it is free, so while it isn’t revolutionary, it might be worth a look.

Verdict: It is a decent little romp, but one of many, many romps that can be had on the App Store. Not something to get too excited over.

I’ll be removing this.


Spice Bandits



In short: A tower defence game that follows the usual conventions of the genre.

Like a lot of iOS games, this has an absurd premise. You are some sort of octopus-looking space pirates, and you really like plundering, especially if it means you find spice. Eventually, you need to come to Earth to get more spice, and that is where the game kicks off. Enthralling, huh? The mecanics are like any other tower defence game: You have a base, usually a ship of some sort, that has landed, and you must defend it from oncoming humans with a variety of turrets. You don’t actually fire the guns; the game is all about the strategy involved in placing the weapons on the map. Placing a gun will const you money, as will upgrading it, but you earn more dosh each time you blast a human. The spaces on the map are indicated by a hexagonal grid (rather than square in some games) that shows up when you decide to build a gun, and you are also told where the humans will enter the map from, so you need to place your defences thoughtfully between the entry point and you base. There is also magic that can be used by you, that acts in addition, and independently of your constructed defences. As you’d expect, there is also a shop where you can buy new guns and magic abilities.
The game is presented very well. Every level has its own theme, wrapped in the same great cartoon style. The menus are also really crisp, and extra kudos go to the game’s tutorial, which is both simple enough to understand and complex enough to be all you need to start the game immediately.

Personally, I have a long standing gripe with any sort of ‘wave’ gameplay. It is just too stop-start for my liking. The tower defence genre is also a bit too passive for my tastes. There’s a lot of setting up, but no involvement in the actual action. In fact, I’m letting the game wage it’s own war while I’m typing this post. Oh, its now over. And I won.

Verdict: The App Store is flooded with tower defence titles, and while it is visually appealing, I don’t see that there is anything new here. The game does nothing to alter my prejudices against TD games either, so I’d recommend it to TD fans only.

I’ll be giving this game a little time, because I feel that it actually pretty good: I just need to overcome my impatience and aversion to the genre.


Pony Trails



In short: Here’s an accurate description you wouldn’t expect; iOS’ answer to Pokemon Snap.

I expected this game to be a simple, casual affair culminating in the riding of a pony through the woods, thus allowing me to be comedic in my review. But that isn’t what Pony Trails offers. It is actually a surprisingly extensive photography game! Sure, you do ride a pony on a trial through different types of wilderness, but the idea is to stop along the trail, and snap some pictures of wildlife and scenery. These pictures are then scored by the game (as one, two or three star photos) and can then be compared and shared these socially if you wish. There are deer, bears, goats, skunks all lurking in the woodland trail alone. The actually process of taking the photos is surprisingly intricate, since photos are captured automatically, and will only do so when you are very still. So precision movement of the camera-controlling d-pad is needed. Unlike Pokemon Snap, you are a little limited in what you can take a photo of, rather than being free to take your own, potentially hilarious pictures, regardless of how terrible Oak considered them. The games controls, as stated, require preceision and are a little finicky, but overall they are bearable. Pony Trails  also has a shop with different saddles and reigns and other horse gear that offers bonuses: Like a quieter horse, or one that rides better at night (yes, there are day/night versions of each trail). Visually the game is also pretty darn sophisticated. It clocks in at under 90MB, and yet has a fully 3D world. Sadly, this means it didn’t run terribly well on my iTouch4, but it was serviceable.

Verdict: This is not the casual fare I expected. It really isn’t time-waster game, the opposite in fact. Sadly, the combination of required precision and touchy controls means isn’t really a great fit for the platform. It might be better on an iPad, but I think it is just to fiddly for my tastes.

I’ll be deleting this shortly I think, even though it is a real surprise package.


Critter Escape



In short: A competent line drawing strategy game.

All you need to do in this game, dear player, is guide your ‘critter’ (it looks like a potato with legs) to the exit of each level by drawing a line with your finger. Your critter will then set off. If he gets into trouble though, you can freeze time redraw the line at any time to avoid an enemy or obstacle. Each level has three objectives, and this forms the ubiquitous three-star scoring system. One is for completing the level, another is for collecting a red gem and the last if for being sneaky; remaining undetected by enemies. These can all be achieved in a single playthrough, but the idea is obviously to create some replay value. To my mind, the game moves a little fast when you draw lines, so you have make a conscious effort to move slowly. The detection of you finger is also a little buggy, but thankfully the game does a good job of evening out the kinks in your path. Visually, the game looks alright, though the colour palette is a wee bit bland, and it isn’t super smooth: There is a bot of lag here and there, and instant-restarts are sorely missed. Maybe it just isn’t optimised for my device. The content on offer here is pretty extensive. There must be easily over a hundred levels, and there are a swathe (thirty-six) Game Centre achievements to keep you occupied.

Verdict: It isn’t overly compelling, but it is a solid title nonetheless. Personally, I’m already covered for line drawing games, with titles like Flight Control, Flight Control Rocket, SPYmouse and Time Ducks, which I would recommend above this if it was a one-or-the-other choice.

I’ll be playing a little longer, but probably deleting this.


Infectonator



In short: A point-and-click of apocalyptic proportions.

The zombie apocalypse that is. It is your job to unleash your very own zombie virus across the globe, from Australia to Austria, China to Chile. In World Domination mode domination mode, that is how it goes down: You select a region, then by city, you gorge on the humans. The game’s mechanics are dead simple, to the point of boring if I’m honest. You just tap a spot, and watch the zombies go. It takes some strategy, and you need to infect a set number of humans before your zombies rot, but generally it isn’t too hard, especially when you employ the various power-ups that run along the base of the screen. Said power-ups can be bought in the game’s store, where you can spend coins (dropped by dead humans) on viral upgrades, boosts, and you can also raise the stats (like the lifespan, and speed) of your zombies. The game also features an Endless Mode, which just feeds you wave of ever-increasing humans to infect, and lets you stock up in the shop between waves. The game certainly deserves some props for its art. It features a pixellated retro look, that extends beyond the in=game sprites, to the menus, and to news-report-style statistics at the end of each level. The game also has eleven Game Centre achievements and also leader-boards, if you’re keen on earning bragging rights. Apparently this has only recently gone free-to-play, so there are ads, and this has annoyed some players who paid previously, judging by iTunes reviews.

Verdict: A well made, but ultimately repetitive zombie romp. At the (non-existent) asking price though, it is worth looking into.

I’ll be removing this shortly I think.


Extinction 3D



In short: More zombies! This time though, it is a 3D, top down, action affair.

Extinction offers and old-school GTA (pre III) experience, in a zombie infested environment. Visually, everything is three-dimensional, and the game takes place in 2019, but the actual gameplay is pretty rooted in the past. You just walk and shoot the undead, or drive and crush the undead. You also need to navigate the city with the GPS system, and locate survivors and transport them to the safe zone (a helicopter). Each game is endless, but you are scored on how many zombies you kill, and how many survivors you rescue. Getting a good score might unlock a better weapon for the next time you play. The game is riddled with inconsistencies: When driving, you will splatter a zombie even at snail’s pace, you can knock over trees but not lampposts, and you can idle happily in fire without dying.the game also has a terrible time deciding where to direct your gunshots when you on foot. Your little character jitters and jumps, and usually fires in the opposite direction to where he is facing. I guess fear does that to you. Or bugs. One of the two. Overall, the game feels like it lacks polish. The menus are blood stained and feature “hardcore” guitar riffs, which can’t help but give off a slightly ‘try-hard’ vibe. Not to mention the iTunes image gallery that features the tagline; “drive anything, kill everything.”

Verdict: A top down action game that leaves a lot to be desired. Like the zombies it wants you to hunt, Extinction lacks soul.

I’ll be deleting this promptly.


Ninja in a Barrel



In short: A 2D grid based puzzle game.

This is a fairly straightforward game to explain. You just simply swipe in one of four directions to roll the barrel to its goal(s). The goal is usually some sort of mushroom-looking enemy that you need to bump into. This will trigger the ninja to pop out of the barrels and slice the enemy to bits. Sometimes, there environmental hazards and other objects, like boxes which need to be slid from place to place in order to get to a certain spot. The aim it to finish each level in the least amount of moves, and you will be scored accordingly; between one and three stars. It actually requires a bit of thought to reach the goal in some levels, and fans of this sort of low-risk, inoffensive puzzle gameplay will have fun. That said, everything here has been done before, so it bring much anything much to the genre. The visuals are fairly decent, and the graphics will alter in different themed levels, such as the winter season pictured. The game is totally free, and as a result, there are some advertisements. But the payoff is pretty big: For your $0 you do get almost one hundred levels, so if you like the look of this, don’t hesitate.

Verdict: I’m not a huge fan of these sorts of games, so I’d pass. But for those who dig it, it is pretty generous.

I’ll be deleting this.


Captain Nova



In short: A short, slow retro platformer.

Captain Nova is a fairly standard experience. The idea is to navigate a series of levels and do three things: Avoid or stomp enemies, collect bolts, and at the end of each level, collect a piece of spacecraft to fix your crashed rocket. The enemies are all pretty much variants of what you see above, and the colours of the sky and the ground are constant. So it is then, pretty dull. The captain himself has a jump that is on par with Mario platformers, but his movement is pretty darn slow, so the game become a pretty monotonous affair. It is made all the more monotonous by the single chiptune that plays over and over again. I gather the game mush be pretty short, as there is no level select screen and no option to continue. Nor is there anything else on offer in the menu: The main menu simply has a ‘play’ button, and the pause menu offers only on/off controls for sound and music. I reached level seven before I ran out of lives, and to be honest, I won’t be going back.

All that said though, the game is a dollar, and it is a two-man project, so I won’t knock the developers for making this, as it plays fine, even if it isn’t overly exciting. Though there does seem to be one bug: The captain always starts levels jumping automatically, and I had to press the jump button to regain control of the jumps. Maybe he’s just super keen to fix his ship…

Verdict: An average little platformer. Take it or leave it.

I’ll be removing this.
_ _ _ _ _

Until next time!

Another week! Now also published on Potaku.

Jay & Silent Bob in: Too Fat To Fly



In short: A run-of-the-mill launching game.

This app follows a pretty simple formula; you direct your slingshot, and then after keeping an eye on the scrolling power gauge, release to fire. Then, as your man-cannonball flies through the air, and bounces along, there are objects will help and hinder his flight: Blue items provide another little launch, giving height and speed boosts, while yellow items slow him down, and red items will stop him completely. There are coins and money bags to collect, which can be spent in “The Stash”, which is again, the usual casual iOS in-game store. (Despite the endless possibilities of shop names, lots of games also use “stash”, notably Jetpack Joyride, so its pretty unoriginal). There’s the usual stuff in there: Boosts, gadgets, new slingshots, and also skins, most of which will increase distance and high scores. The only tweak to the usual launching shtick is that with each shot, there are five fireworks that can be used to boost the height of the flying dude. The game also has a slow motion mechanic that kicks in when a red object approaches, so it is pretty easy, too easy in fact, to get out of the way by using a firework.

The only really draw that this game offers, is the cartoon likeness of Jay and Silent Bob, who are characters from a weird canon of American comedy films including Clerks. I’ve seen a bit of said film, and it didn’t really appeal to me, so I don’t really find this game any more enticing. I might be missing some references, but even so, it seems like a pretty thin addition to the game. Furthermore, it appears that the game is based on a spin-off cartoons series, so it is an extra step away from the film(s) for fans. Aurally and visually, the game isn’t very exciting either, though the characters are a good representation of the aforementioned cartoon’s characters.

Verdict: A fairly bland and basic game that does nothing to advance the genre. Fans of the characters are about the only ones that should consider this, even though it is free.

I’ll be removing this this one.


Monster Dash



In short: An 2D endless runner that has a bit in common with Halfbrick’s (the world-beating Aussie developer’s) other games.

This plays like any other 2D auto-running, shooting platformer: You’ve got a jump button, a shoot button, pick-ups scattered through the level and enemies and environmental hazards coming at you with ever increasing rapidity. The game is set in may locales, giving it a chance to show off its nice pixelly artwork. You will change areas every 1km that you run, through exceedingly diverse worlds like Zombie Metropolis, Demon Dynasty (running along the Great Wall) and Yeti Heights. Gameplay is exactly the same in each area, but the world (including enemies and objects) is re-skinned.
Each enemy has their own quirk that makes them challenging: Zombies can pop up from the ground, while vampires swoop in in bat form. The power-ups are fairly standard, but are good fun. SMGs and rocket launchers make an appearance, as do items that made it into latter Halfbrick games; the “bad as hog” and the famous “machine gun jetpack”. I keep making all these comparisons to other Halfbrick games because I think time will forget this creation, as it was totally usurped two years later by the master-class of iOS gaming that is Jetpack Joyride. But this remains a fun romp. The only issue is that the game freezes if you try and access Game Centre achievements (of which there are 26) from the menu, which is annoying but not deal-breaking.

Verdict: This game cannot exist now without being compared to Jetpack Joyride. If feels like a prequel to that game, rather than a game in it’s own right, which is a shame, because it is quite a bit of fun!

I’ll be keeping this for a little while, and racking up a few Game Centre achievements.


Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots



In short: A return to the winning fruit slashing formula.

Halfbrick had runaway success with Fruit Ninja, and you and me both could be forgiven for thinking that this tie-in with Dreamworks Puss in Boots would be nothing more than a dirty cash in. It is far more than this. FN:PIB is actually quite a robust companion to the orignial game, even if it falls just short of the titles ‘successor’ or ‘sequel’. Aside from the occasional appearance of the eponymous Puss, the use of some Spanish names and items, and cat-related stuff, the game retains it’s fruit slashing focus. (Mind you, I haven’t seen the Puss in Boots film, so I may be missing some references.) Unlike the first FN game, there are only two modes offered here. One is ‘Desperado’, which is the classic survival mode from the previous game, where you go on slashing until you deplete your three lives. If you’ve never played, it is just a swiping the screen affair, with points awarded for chopping more fruit with the one slice. Fruit must not fall out of sight un-sliced, and bombs must be avoided at all costs. The second mode is the all new ‘Bandito’ mode, which offers twelve challenges split into three rounds, and a final boss. These challenges expand significantly on the classic slice and dice gameplay: They some times impose tough time restrictions, or ask for only a certain fruit to be cut. There are also environmental hazards that fruit will bounce off (pictured), as well as fixed bombs that fruit passes around in patterns, fruit attached to balloons, and fruit hidden in opening doors that test your reflexes. In these levels, you will be scored on fruit sliced, accuracy, and reflexes. Since you have three lives in this mode, so you can make it to the boss fight even if you take a fail a few challenges. Bandito mode is where this game comes into it’s own, and actually become a worthy addition to the Fruit Ninja series. A game like this still needs online features to give it a bit of pulp, and thankfully all the Game Centre fruit are here; both short term and long achievements totalling 24, and leader-boards. The game also has the unlock system of the previous game, with new blades and backgrounds on offer as rewards for skilful play. Oh, and there are tomatoes! I don’t think those were in the original!

Verdict: Almost worthy of being called a sequel, this is certainly not a quick cash grab. Definitely worth getting for existing Fruit Ninja fans, and almost equally recommended for newcomers. Though it is unlikely to ever receive the post-release love (updates etc.) that Fruit Ninja has/is, so keep that in mind.

I’ll be keeping this.


Grooh



In short: An isometric, colour coding, puzzle game.

Grooh asks players to guide Grooh, a rotund teddy-like thing, through levels, one grid-space at a time. There are coloured tiles that need to be matched and ‘exploded’ to open a door at the end of the level, as well as boxes to be picked up and placed strategically depending on the puzzle. Grooh absorbs colour much like de Blob, and this is what causes the coloured tiles to explode like a landmine when he jumps off. This doesn’t really make much sense, but that’s how the game works. All this, despite the fact that the game scores you on your number of moves, awarding gold, silver or bronze depending on how economical you are with your movement. Grooh is, I suppose, a cute little character, and the whole game world is bright a clean. The animation is also pretty good, except there is a little to much of it, making this game an unnecessarily time consuming affair. I’m not sure if there are issues with translation, but the tutorial and later mid-game prompts have quite a few grammatical and tense errors, which is a nitpick, but it really irked me. Furthermore, Grooh is supposed to be talking in some of these prompts, and so nonsense sounds like “rrrh” and “rooh” have been added to the ends of words, which is even more annoying when you are trying to learn the ropes of the game. You also can’t skip tutorial pop-ups, even when you’re retrying the very same level. The game is also two dollars, which is more than the average game. But you do get close to 150 levels, Game Centre features and reliable performance, so it is a decent proposal for those interested. I gather it gets quite tricky later on too, judging by this screenshot.

Verdict: I’m not a huge fan of these types of games. But if you have the time, and don’t mind the silly languagerrrhhh, then Grooh is a safe bet.

I’ll be deleting this one shortly I think.


Spaceteam



In short: A zany, unique multiplayer experience.

This has to be one of the most original games I’ve seen on iOS. Spaceteam is a local multiplayer (Bluetooth/Wi-Fi) game that pairs up to four iDevices together to fly a spacecraft. But this isn’t flying in a normal action-game sense; no, this is all about pressing buttons, flicking switches and twisting knobs. Player one will have a set of instructions to shout (in the real world) to players two, and vice versa. Each command must be enacted by the other player before the timer (the green bar pictured) runs out, otherwise it will be replaced by a new command, and the ship will take damage. As the game goes along, through a series of rounds with different controls, the pace quickens, until eventually things start to fall apart. Steam will issue from the instruments, things will fall off and hang precariously, and you might even need to wiggle your device to move a broken dangling knob. Eventually, despite frantic shouting, your ship will implode and it will be game over. This really is a lot of fun, and hilarity really does ensue as you play, largely thanks to the ridiculous names for you’ll need to shout for different buttons and levers, like “flushbypass” or “set prismneck to 4”. I’ve never played anything quite like this before. It is similar to when banter is exchanged in a multiplayer console game of, say, Super Smash Bros., yet it is a different experience because the banter and yelling is the core mechanic of Spaceteam.

Verdict: This is something you really should try out, even just once. It does require at least two iDevices, but thankfully it is a free game. If you do want to throw down some dosh, there are a few extras that can be purchased too.

I’ll be keeping this one for sure.


Ichi



In short: A beautifully simple puzzle game that requires good timing.

ichi is a game that is easy on the eye, and easy to control. But it will require much planning, or alternatively, quick reflexes. The yellow ball must be guided to each of the goals; the hollow yellow circles. The ball will rebound off any surface, except for the spikes, which will destroy it. After touching the screen, the ball will start moving, and further touches will rotate the red equilateral triangles. The aim of the game is to use the forty-five degree angles of these to direct the ball safely through each goal. Later on, other objects are introduced to spice things up, such at the breakable grey rock (pictured) and the swirly yellow portals (also pictured). The game features shimmering sketch visuals that are restricted to bright primary colours. It is an attractive, clean look that makes it easy to remember the game’s mechanics. So you can never really be confused, and any failures will be your own fault and not the game’s. The UI also lets you know how to achieve A, B and C ratings in each level, based on the number of rotations you make in each level. There are sixty levels and seventeen Game Centre achievements here, so there is a fair amount of content. Still, I might have criticised the usual $2 price, if it weren’t for the full level editor that is offered. This also means that there are currently 13089 user created levels (yes, there is a live tally in the menu, how cool) available to play. These can be played, rated, tagged with labels like “hard” “fun” “fast” “puzzle” and optionally, shared to Facebook. Most of the levels were pretty damn hard, so there is plenty more on offer for those who beat the games packaged levels.

Verdict: A well made package with great longevity. Definitely recommended.

I’ll be keeping this one and working through it.


Wizschool



In short: A combination of the classic match-three formula and other flimsy wizard stuff

Seriously, there are so many of these games on the App Store now, that combine match-three gameplay with some sort of over-arching story. Here, it isn’t done well. There are ‘cut-scenes’ or rather static images with dialogue, that feature cartoon witches with sexist body proportions, and there is also a map of Hogwarts a castle that will move you between levels. All of this stuff is boring and uninteresting, and just distracts from the game at hand: Making potions by matching things. Sadly the matching side of things isn’t much fun either. Apart from being potion-themed, with weird herbs, flowers, mushrooms and the like, it plays like every other bog-standard Bejeweled clone out there.

Verdict: I’m sure there are game that really do a good job of linking match-three with other mechanics but Wizschool fails to do so, and just isn’t very exciting in it’s own right. Pass.

I’ll be deleting this, and getting my matching-game fix Zookeeper Battle.


Squids Wild West



In short: A 2D top-down perspective game that successfully meshes action and turnbased strategy.

Like so many games on the App Store, the most famous of which is Angry Birds, this game too features a slingshot mechanic. The squids in your party, of which there are four, must use their tentacles to sling themselves in the direction of enemy crustaceans. Thanks to their array of sturdy headgear, they can defeat enemy crabs and lobsters and move onto the next level. However the game is strictly turn based, so while it is your turn, you must think methodically about how you can cause maximum damage before your enemy can move or attack you. This may mean pushing an enemy into a spike, or ricocheting your squid into multiple enemies with the one shot. I have no idea why the squids are in the Wild West, but since they are, this means that some of the squids can deal bonus damage with their pistol prowess, and it also means lots of cowboy hats. The hats aren’t just for show either, as there is a shop where better headgear (like hockey masks that increase defence) can be bought along with power-ups, and new squids can also be recruited. I imagine that as the game progresses, certain squid’s powers will need to be chosen and used strategically. One squid is a healer, for instance, so I’m sure that will come into play more. Each level will see you scored with the iOS-ubiquitous three star scoring system, with one awarded for completing the level within a certain amount of moves, one for keeping all squids alive, and then there is a third hidden star in each level. This game is actually a lot of fun. There’s also a lot of love gone into it: The artists have had great fun, the music is adventurous and twangy in places to suit the Wild West theme, and there is even a brilliant little quasi-3D title screen that uses accelerometer. Content wise, there are easily 60 levels, along with over 20 Game Centre achievements, and also bonus comics. Lots to look forward to.

Verdict: Despite all the zany characters and the generally absurd premise, this is quite a fun game, that manages a perfect balance of action and strategy. I played the original Squids, but I didn’t endear itself to me the way this has.

I’ll be playing through this.


Mad Skills BMX



In short: A surprisingly smooth, good looking, and challenging 2D racing game.

Upon first launch, this game could be dismissed as a port of the oft-seen flash game of bikes racing over bumpy courses, with shonky physics and much head splitting. However, this game is a step and a half above those. The visuals are really really nice. The riders are all drawn in a semi-anime cartoon style, and pop nicely on the retina display. The physics don’t feel at all shonky; there is no crazy stretching suspension, nor are quadruple back-flips encouraged. The controls are also fairly complex, or at least, the timing of certain movements is pivotal to winning a race, and takes some time to get used to. A touch on the left side of the screen will make your rider pedal, while an array of swipes on the right will perform jumps, flips, and speed-inducing wheelies. The game is also overflowing with content. There are plenty of tracks to race through already, and there are more on offer: One is free, one is for facebook fans, and the rest cost a buck. I’ve mentioned facebook there, and that is one annoyance I have: The game requires facebook for any type of leaderboards, which a real game breaker, since I think you could only go so long in a game like this without some sort of real-world benchmark for your race times. The reason for this is of course, the fact that the game is also on facebook. Stunts are also poorly implemented. There is almost no advantage in doing a flip, as the four seconds of adrenaline you gain (a speed boost) is nullified by the time spent in the air losing speed. The bigger issue is a lack of variety. Each race is just a time trial with you and a single CPU opponent facing off. There is no multiplayer and no stunt mode or anything. So I don’t think think this is type of game you could stick with until the end.

The game also had a crushingly hard tutorial, but thankfully this was replace with a simpler one in an update this week. So I won’t harp on about that.

Verdict: A good looking game that doesn’t reach it’s full potential, and is bogged down with facebook integration. It is free though, so if you don’t mind hooking up facey, go for it.

I’ll be deleting this one.


Word Derby



In short: A word building game that dabbles in horse racing.

Okay, even calling it a dabble is a stretch. The horse racing is really just a graphical representation of who is winning. Basically, all you need to do is make a word with twelve random letters, and one additional anchored starting letter. You are then scored, letter for letter, Scrabble style and also receive bonus points for how quickly you crafted that word. Then, it is your opponent’s (sourced from Facebook, usernames or randomly) turn to create a word with the same letter. Then the tiny bit of horse racing comes into play: You and your opponent are represented on horseback, and the points you score will propel you along the track toward the finish. Of course, there is in game currency, though it is pretty much an optional component of the game, and this is earned by placing bets on yourself to win. (You can select a never bet option which is a well considered addition, and slightly ironic since jockey’s aren’t supposed to bet on themselves.) The menu layout of this game is almost identical to Words With Friends. The only thing Word Derby has going for it is the ability to play against three other people in the same match. Though this means races will take a fairly long time. There aren’t a massive amount of people playing this either, so don’t expect to instantly find an opponent.

Verdict: A word game that does a few things different, but not really enough to stand out from the ever-growing crowd.

I’ll be deleting this one.


Galaxy On Fire II



In short: A 3D space shooter with all the bells and whistles.

This is one game that has taunted me for ages. It’s price travels almost fortnightly, visiting exotic locales like $10.49, $7.49, $5.49 and $0.99. So when it finally went free, I had to have it just out of spite, even though it is a whopping 440MB app. Now most of the time, it is pretty damn expensive, and the developers seem to know this; putting things like “TRUST THE MEDIA” (a hilarious statement) and “TRUST THE FANS” in the iTunes description. Now for free, this is a substantial game, but I wouldn’t be paying full price for it. I’ve mentioned before that iOS isn’t really suited to big 3D space games, as it is hard to get your bearings and sense of direction in an open, seemingly endless environment when you have your fingers obscuring the screen: There are swiping motions for speed and dodging as well as the virtual joystick and other buttons. The story isn’t too bad here: You are attacked by space pirates and marooned in an unfamiliar galaxy. Luckily, some alien has taken you in, and mining is the way you will accrue currency to upgrade your ship and repay the guy for saving you. Asteroids can be mined by your clunky (at first) ship. These contain crazy made-up elements like ‘orichalzine’, but also good old ‘gold’. You’ll also be ambushed by pirates during mining operations, in some cases you will deliberately set out to find their hideouts. The game has a GPS with a fast-forward system to help you get you to further locations quicker, but even then it is all a bit slow. As well as this story mode, which I should mention has a convenient-for-shared-devices five save slots, there is also a ‘Supernova Mode’: Which is a a friend-challenging minute long shoot-fest with leader-boards. It’s not a bad inclusion, but again, the controls aren’t really suited to speedy manoeuvres and precision shooting. One of the things this game seems to pride itself on are it’s visuals. These are pretty good, but don’t believe the iTunes description hype. It is well put together as a whole though. Menus look great and there is full voice acting in the campaign mode. The biggest let-down is that the game has ads! I’m not sure if it is to do with the current free offer, but if it was full price, that would be outrageous. There are also in-app purchases offered in GoF2, such as the usual $2 for 100,000 in-game dollars, then there are actual expansion packs, but these are getting up over $5 dollars, so they are just as expensive as the game.

Verdict: A good looking title that can’t feel a little bloated and slow. This genre isn’t really suited to iOS devices, in my opinion, and the developers seem to be forgetting that to compete in the App Store, your prices need to be cheap.

I’ll be deleting this one, and regaining half-a-gig, thank you very much.


Where’s My Holiday? / Where’s My Valentine?



In short: A free introduction to Disney’s Where’s My… puzzle games.

This is a demo basically. It offers six levels of both Where’s My Water? and it’s sequel Where’s My Perry? and runs with a vague seasonal theme; so it was Christmas with Holiday but has now updated to Valentine in February. Both games are all feature puzzles that require you, dear player, to manipulate each level so that water can flow to a certain point: Swampy (the crocodile in Water) needs it for a bath, while Perry (the duck in Perry) needs it to operate an elevator that takes him away to the next level. Often, this means that you will use your finger trace a path through dirt so that a pool of water will drain from point A to point B. Things are more complicated if you want to collect all the items (usually a little buried gnome thing) in each level. There are always three of these and this forms the typical three-star scoring system seen in so many iOS games. There are also a few other mechanics that add to the puzzles. For instance, in the Water levels, there is foliage that will grow when touched, and thus use up all your precious water before you can finish the level. In Perry levels, things are much more technological, with heat rays and ice rays that will zap bodies of water and either evaporate them or freeze them. All these puzzles are quite fun, and offer a similar level of casual engagement that iOS stalwarts like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds do. However the package, while totally free, is a little stingy: There are only 12 levels in total, and even if these are exclusive levels, and even though this has it’s own Game Centre listing and achievements, the game is just too riddled with advertisements. There are menu button ads for buying the full versions or Water and Perry, pop-up banners for the full versions, and also pop-ups for other random games. It is nice that there is a standalone demo for people to try, rather than littering the full games with IAPs, but I think they really could tone down the ads, or offer more than a dozen levels.

Verdict: A stingy introduction to what appears to be a great duo of puzzle games. It doesn’t offer a lot, but it is better than nothing, and allows players to try before they buy.

I’ll be deleting this one. But my interest in the series has been piqued.


EDGE Extended



In short: A great minimalistic, puzzle/platforming game that doesn’t render it’s predecessor null either.

Edge Extended builds on the foundations made by Edge. Both games feature a colourful cube that players navigate across blocky worlds as quickly as they can. The cube is moved with simple finger swipes in any given direction (diagonals, thanks to the isometric perspective) and the cube will continue in that direction until your finger is raised. As well as reaching the exit (a coloured square in the floor) in the fastest possible time, there are also coloured prisms to collect, the number of which varies from level to level. The number of prisms collected, the number of times the cube fell to it’s doom, and the speed at which the exit is reached, will give players a grade from A down to D. Levels often feature moving blocks, thin blocks that break, elevator blocks, portals, and even blocks that form together to make a robot that destroys the level as it moves. The game features stark grey-scale worlds, which helps payers to concentrate on the traps and puzzle ahead, and also allows the coloured cubes to really stand out. Differences between whites and greys will need to be noted by players, as this often signifies collapsible or moving blocks. The music is also fairly minimal, offering a quiet groovy techno vibe that suits the mood perfectly. Extended isn’t a huge leap forward from the first game, besides offering 44 more levels. However there is a slightly more dynamic camera here, that zooms in and out at pivotal moments, (one of the benefits of a new 3D engine) and there are new sneaky tricks in the levels that even players of EDGE won’t be familiar with.

Verdict: Overall, it is definitely worth getting for both new and old players. Extended is actually cheaper than the original too. Those without iOS and Android can also grab it in Steam, where both EDGE and Extended content is bundled together.

I’ll be keeping this one, and aiming to finish it.
_ _ _ _ _ _

Until next week!

On time this week! K, go!

Dungeon Story



In short: Another match-three plus game! (This genre seems to be exploding at the moment!)

Dungeon Story is like WarGames from a few weeks back, and like some others from prior weeks too probably, insofar as it combines match-three gameplay with an overarching game. You, a faceless adventurer, faces-off against other faceless opponents. The battles are decided entirely by how you match the threes. You and you’re opponent are only represented by an name and a health bar: i.e. “Skeleton 17/30.” The icons in the matching area offer similar functionality to most of these games; there are swords for attacking, coins to earn money, hearts to replenish health, and then there are also icicles and flames to perform magical elemental attacks. There are five dungeons to work through, though these are just a battle-until-you die affair. There are also quests you can accept in the alehouse or something, but these are really just thinly veiled objectives like ‘defeat fifteen enemies’ and the like. To be honest, all the games I’ve looked at in this genre prior to this, did a better job if integrating the match-three system with a greater story/game. But to be fair, it all works pretty well. You get to buy little perks from the randomly-appearing merchant, like the ability to deal damage with each turn, or replenish health each turn. However I still have a hurdle with the game, and this genre as a whole. Match-three games are simple, and addictive, so why do you make me wait thrice during what should be fast-paced gameplay: 1) for the enemy to ‘make their move’, 2) to deliver me an arbitrary ‘Skeleton attacked you’ message, and 3) for my health bar to deplete. I know it is part of the attempt at making an overarching RPG, but it ruins and insults the game’s own core mechanic.

Verdict: I’m sure match-three mechanics can be paired up with other mechanics in a game successfully, but not this time.

I’ll be deleting this one. Even though review have been pretty positive… I can’t see it getting hugely better as I go on.

I’ve persevered with this one a bit longer. I’ve got used to the pacing, the responses of enemies, so it doesn’t feel so slow now. I’m also noticing that in some battles, the board is refreshed on eah turn, which keeps things interesting and hampers your planning. The quests in the tavern actually have beneficial effects on your character, and the Game Centre achievements (of which there are a shock EIGHTY) are becoming quite motivating. I think I am changing my mind a little.


Crumble Zone



In short: A shooting game, a little like Asteroids but without the ability to move.

Instead, you are a stationary creature who is required to protect a small planet (or maybe it is an egg), from incoming planetoids/asteroids. If you let the egg/planet get destroyed, it is game over. As you shoot the space rocks, they will break down into smaller and smaller chunks, until finally they become colourful gems that you can collect. As well as a fire button, there are left/right movement buttons which allow you to move your little guy around the planet to aim or to collect gems. Said gems can be spend on power-ups, which I will discuss shortly. The game is basically endless, but you do progress through ‘levels’ of increasing difficulty, which means that there is an increasing in the size, speed and frequency of oncoming aggressor planets. From shooting larger planets, or ones with extra craters and even water on their surface, you may be rewarded with a power-up of some description. These power-ups seem to activate automatically and are usually a different weapon; one that is more powerful, fires faster, bullets that bounce, bullets that can orbit the planet for a few seconds destroying all it their path, or ones that creates a little gravity that pulls asteroids together for an easier shot. There is also a limited-time metal shield for your planet. Visually, the game has a very bloomy, hazy, and very green aesthetic. It looks nice but I’m not in love with it. I should mention though, that this game has excellent menus, with smooth animations and nice transition effects. (I’m a sucker for a good menu, remember). Overall though, this game does not really hold much appeal for me. But I recognise that what it does it does well.

Verdict: A smooth take on the 2D scrolling shooter thing, but not something that I would sink time into.

I’ll be deleting this shortly.


Bean’s Quest



In short: An adorable platformer that can be adapted to the abilities of most gamers.

Bean’s Quest starts like many platformers: A damsel is kidnapped! However, the game’s hero, some little Mexican, is also turned into a bean! This means that he cannot walk or run, only bounce through many perilous levels to save his lady. So players will be spending a lot of time jumping, and the mechanics are pretty floaty: You can easily make two noticeable changes of direction in a single bounce. But I soon adapted to this, and quickly focused my attention back on the platforming at hand. Each level has four goals, and this is where the game can either be straightforward tricky, depending on your ability and how you want to play. The obvious goal is to reach the goal in each level. Additionally, you will earn a badge for: a) collecting all gems, b) finding each level’s hidden axolotl, and c) completing the level without exceeding a prescribed number of bounces. Now, I’ve ordered these roughly in order of difficulty. Gems are easy to see, so you just need to make accurate jumps, and in places, take your time to make sure you collect them all. The placement of the axolotls varies, so they aren’t always easy to spot, and often take a really precise jump to reach. The limited-bounces thing is basically speed-running: Since you can’t actually run, completing the level in less bounces means you did it faster. Fulfilling this is a tough gig, as you will need to read Bean’s bounces like a book to fit into 1x1 gaps without using extra bounces. So there is a lot on offer in each level here, if you’re up for the task, and even if you’re not up for it, you’ll still have fun. The game rarely causes frustration, as there are checkpoints within levels that you will re-spawn at if you perish, though you will of course lose any gems you collected between the checkpoint and your demise. It is also hard to rebel against the bright and cute visuals/music, reminiscent of 16-bit era platformers. This is handy, because 50 levels would be a lot to work through if it wasn’t a fun experience. Speaking of levels, there is also a cute, zoomed out miniature level in the background of the stage select screens. How neat is that!

Verdict: A great platformer that is only as challenging as you want it to be. Highly recommended to all.

I’ll be playing through every level at least, and maybe testing myself on completing the additional challenges.


Run’n’Gun



In short: Another portrait-orientation runner, but with more shooting than usual.

That’s how it sounds anyway. Which is all I have to go on for this one, because it’s a crasher for me. A bit of loading screen is all I get before it goes. Apparently support for devices older than the iPhone5 was only added to the most recent update, so maybe kinks are still being ironed out. Or many I just got unlucky. Either way, it’s all up to you folks. It’s a free game, and only weighs in at 40 odd megabytes, so go check it out for yourself if you’re a fan of runners.

Verdict: null.

I’ll be deleting this, unless an update rolls in the the next few seconds.


Ghost Racer



In short: A fairly average top down racer.

I have enjoyed the odd top-down racer, but this one just feels very flat. You just race against the clock and against ghosts. The graphics too, are very flat: There doesn’t feel like there is much depth to the world, and everything looks pretty simplistic. Everything is here though, you get all the buttons, lap times, speedometer, and a map all packed onto a small screen, which is pretty good. I read somewhere that the car physics were actually quite deep, and so on, but I’m not really feeling it myself. It just feels to me that an unnecessary level of precision is required to race competently. I’ve never been a fan of sim-racing games, and I think top-down style races are better as more casual affairs myself.

Verdict: I would pass on this one unless you really have a thing for top-down and simulation racing games.

I’ll be deleting this.


The Blockheads



In short: Another open-ended world builder in the vein of Terraria/Minecraft.

This is much like last week’s Growtopia, however this game can be almost totally described as ‘Minecraft on a 2D pane.’ The 3D models scream Minecraft, as do the blocky characters and their movements. One of the things that differentiates The Blockheads is it’s perspective. The word around you exists on a 2D pane, however it is actually a globe, so you can keep walking in one direction and eventually wind up back where you started. It seems silly to offer 3D Minecraft visuals in a 2D pane when part of MC’s appeal is creating awe-inspiring creations that can be traversed and explored. I haven’t played enough Minecraft to comment on the crafting system, so I’m not sure how it compares, but here it is all about creating workbenches: A woodwork bench, a tool bench etcetera, that let you create their namesakes from resources like wood, dirt, fruit, flint, rock and so forth. Making tools will help you to harvest or mine resources more quickly and efficiently, but they will break in time. Everything in this game is controlled by tapping various spots. Tap above the earth to move to that spot, tap on a block of earth to dig, tap on a tree to cut it down. I don’t like this system personally; I’d much rather have the use of standard run/jump platformer controls. However, one cool feature of the control system is that it allows you to queue tasks. So you can instruct your dude to mine five squares, and then way over to the left, go and chop a tree. The downside of this is that there is a lot of waiting around. This isn’t an online MMO, so there’s nobody to talk to while you wait, and besides, your iDevice is likely to turn off the screen and lock itself in the time it takes you to get through a batch of tasks, so it can be a counter-intuitive system. There is a two player mode on offer here. I haven’t investigated it, but I presume two devices are used, as I can’t see this working on a shared device. Frankly, this game is a little slow for my liking. The movement and crafting all take a lot of time and leave the user with a progress bar to watch, and as I said, there is nothing else to do in the meantime. At least with Growtopia, you could leave the world, talk to someone, or just exit the game while you waited for things to grow.

Verdict: A decently looking crafting game, but might slow and nothing revolutionary. It is however, free, so go for it if you want.

I’ll be removing The Blockheads.


Cute Kill



In short: An fairly unexciting auto-shooting, shooting game.

The main idea here, is to outrun zombie hoards, and kill them while doing so. Yet, the core two aims; run and shoot are handled automatically. So there honestly isn’t a lot of fun to be had here. All you to is tilt your device to make the girl run in that direction, and occasionally hit the melee button when the undead get too close. The baby on here back does all the attacking, which is why this is called “Cute Kill”. But this baby with a gun isn’t at all cute. Maybe it could be in some different context, but here it feels like it is in slightly poor taste. This sort of thing doesn’t really bother me, but here there is just no context, so it seems highly unnecessary. The rest of the game if par for the course: Coins are earned, and used on upgrades, chiefly more and better guns. An extra negative mention has to be made of the controls, which, in both tilt and tap modes, are slow even on highest (default) sensitivity.

Verdict: A uninspired, largely boring shooter with unnecessary amounts of children.

I’ll be removing this.


Hyperwave



In short: A 2D space shoot-em-up.

This is a fairly standard shmup affair. Enemies come toward you on a scrolling pane that looks a little like the Guitar Hero fretboard thing. You shoot automatically, but you have the ability to move left and right, and also direct your fire in those directions, via two L/R d-pads on either side of the screen. there are also a variety of power-ups that will come your way that you must move toward to collect. Your health is shared with the line at the bottom of the screen, so letting an enemy touch you or the line will eventually spell game over. I don’t really understand why this game gives players the option to direct their fire, as most shmups just have you firing forwards only. As a result, the ship in Hyperwave feels much slower, and I find it hard to adjust to controlling the fire and the movement separately. On the graphical side of things, this is yet another game that uses the neon-outline style, albeit with different patterned backgrounds. (I think the pictured one is supposed to be circuitry?) Anywho, I don’t think it looks particularly attractive this time around. There are Game Centre achievements on offer, though they are few and basic; like pass word one, world two etcetera. There are seven worlds to work through, plus an endless mode to unlock. However I think it will become quite a repetitive affair to get through them all.

Verdict: A standard entry into the shmup genre. I think there are better things to drop two bucks on.

I’ll be removing this.


Car Jack Streets: Director’s Cut



In short: An top down, open-world game full of violence and crime.

The game starts off quite well. The story is actually quite clever: Your motivation to carry out missions is to earn enough dosh to pay off gambling debts. This also introduces an clever gameplay quirk that will keep you on your toes; payment is due in instalments. Missions seem to be varied, even in the early stages. Anything from carrying out hits to delivering stolen cars to a warehouse. The world city is open to you to explore, but thankfully there is also a well implemented GPS system that will point you to mission locales. Like the newer Grand Theft Auto games, you have a place to call your own. In the safe house you can escape the cops and also store your vehicle. There is a four-star wanted system that works just like GTA too: Blowing up cars and running down pedestrians will gradually increase it. If you die, you will wind up all better, but lighter in the hip-pocket, outside a hospital, again, just like GTA. Visually, the game features the top down, sprite based graphics reminiscent of (again) the Grand Theft Autos of old (I, II, London, Advance, etc.). Sadly, it is quite a dated look if you ask me, as they haven’t gone with a pixellated look or a crisp look, just some sort of blurry middle ground, and there is no real visual hook here to make things at all exciting for the eye. The game does have a few problems of its own that differentiate it from GTA. There are inconsistencies in AI behaviour; drivers rarely stop, and people can easily get stuck in corners trying to run away from you. When driving, you whiz through light posts as if they were transparent, but bushes and fire hydrants can be pulverised. Overall, the car physics feel a bit off, and this is not aided by the at times unresponsive controls. Even the confirm/advance-the-dialogue button during a scripted sequence is particularly finicky. The game just feels a little old and clunky, a fate shared by the old GTAs if you play them today.

Verdict: A game that just feels outdated. It also seems a little rich to slap ‘Director’s Cut’ on a title like this. But it is free (presumably to promote the the 3D sequel), so give it a look if you still enjoy the 2D GTAs and would like a decent story to go with it.

I’ll be removing this from my device.


Polyroll



In short: A retro styled platformer that borrows more from Sonic than Mario.

Indeed, many platformers see Mario as the franchise to borrow from, but Polyroll, borrows from Sonic, emphasising the “roll”. Just as Sonic spins lethally, so does the thing in Polyroll. You spin when you jump (B), and also on the ground when you press A. A more powerful ‘rocket roll’ can also be performed by holding A. The enemies that suffer the wrath of your rolls are fairly typical of all 2D platformers; creepy crawlies, and flying things along with environmental hazards like spikes. Mostly, enemies feel easier to defeat than in the standard Mario-derived pound-to-kill platformers, because you can just jump straight at enemies without needing to read their movements to get on top of them. Along the way, each level also has a few flowers, and jumping on these will you grant you a power of some sort, like limited time invincibility, deployable bombs, or the ability walk on spikes. Usually these are strategically place, are necessary to find the big gem from each level. So you will need to tread carefully and avoid losing any health, as this will also cancel the power-up. Unlike a lot of other platformers I’ve gone through so far, Polyroll does not reward speed, but rather exploration. Levels are big and open, with a multitude of paths to choose. Usually you will have to backtrack a little to find some gems or hidden collectibles. The game encourages you to seek these gems in a rather self-fulfilling way: Collecting ten gems will net you an extra hearth in your health bar, thus allowing you to take greater adventurous risks. There are 28 levels, but I am guessing that they will only get larger, and judging from the stage-selection screen, may potentially have multiple exits. The game’s retro art is also very nice to look at, offering bright worlds, and old school sprite animations.

Verdict: A solid retro platformer that definitely offers some fun. Despite getting it free, I think it looks to be worth it’s $2 price at the moment.

I’ll be playing through this one.


Cubed Rally Redline



In short: A cute isometric endless racer.

I only call this a racer because it features cars. But there isn’t any racing; this game revolves around survival, and chasing high scores. You control a car as it zooms along and isometric roadway. The game’s modes though, are 3D, so the game looks very smooth in motion. The car and track will rotate at corners, but the camera stays in a fixed position. There are five lanes for the car to travel in, and it is up to you to move the car between these lanes to stay safe. Game-ending enemies include moles (in the dirt), trees (anywhere), rocks (anywhere), barriers (anywhere), cows (anywhere and on the move), and lakes (which can sometimes be jumped if there is a ramp). Game-aiding collectibles include blue drift tokens, which allow the car to drift around corners and earn points, gold coins to use in the store, and fuel to sustain your drive. Ever so often, there will be a chequered strip across the road, and this indicates a checkpoint, which will ‘bank’ any coins that you have earned. As said, the coins can be used in shop to buy new cars. Cars have a rating from one to three stars, but I imagine that the differences are largely cosmetic, given the gameplay on offer. There is also an ‘emergency time brake’ at the bottom of the screen, which will allow you to slow down briefly when you need a bit longer to dodge an obstacle. Though the brake overheats and needs to be used sparingly. As you would expect with this being endless, there are objectives to complete as you play, though these, for better or worse, are tied to Game Centre achievements. So the game has a whopping 55 of them. Kudos are in order for the music here; bright catchy chiptunes abound. Sadly, this game is leaning toward being labelled ‘freemium’: There is a dollar IAP that will unlock a mode that features 20 time trials, and also remove ads. Granted, the adverts are pretty infrequent anyway, but it is always a little annoying to feel like you’re missing out on some of the action.

Verdict: A undeniable cute little endless driving game. Not overly deep, but it offers a little fun.

I’ll be deleting this soon though.


Rail Rush



In short: A 3D endless runner in a mine setting.

This is another typical into-the-screen 3D endless affair. The mine cart barrels along, but to keep it doing so, players will need to avoid various hazards by; leaning (left/right tilt), jumping (swipe up), ducking (swipe down) and jumping between different rails (swipe left/right). There are also gold nuggets and gems to collect to use in the (wait for it) SHOP, which offers a plethora of the regular power-ups that you would expect. The game is free, so it has a few ads. But that doesn’t really excuse the outrageously expensive in-app purchases. Like seriously; $5.49 for a new character that you will mostly only see the back of… Totally crazy. I’d hate to be a parent with a kid that liked this game… The game does look pretty good: But it must be lovely for Miniclip to be able to re-energise and re-monetise flash games on iOS. Overall, Rail Rush lacks the adrenaline of Temple Run, the undisputed king of these runners. It takes longer to speed up, and there are no no giant killer monkeys chasing you so, always feel like it is your own fault when you die. This game also uses any excuse to sent push notifications, so if you do decide to give this a try, I’d recommend denying push notification privileges.

Verdict: A competent game, but one that doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. Pass.

I’ll be deleting this.


Munch Time



In short: A physics puzzle game starring a hungry chameleon.

Quite simply, all the chameleon wants is food: The pink grub in each level. To reach it, you will have to grab onto flowers with his tongue. If you time your grabs and swings well, you will be able to collect three stars in each level, and this makes up the typical scoring system, although you are also scored in points based on your collecting abilities and your speed. The chameleon can obviously change colours too, so sometimes levels will feature different coloured flowers, and you will need to grab an orb of that colour before you can hope to grab onto a flower of that colour. Each flower is a single-swing only, adding to the strategy required, but some special flowers (i.e. pink) will swing you around forcefully and can be grabbed many times. The chameleon can also walk to a point by touching that point, but this is slower, and he will be stopped by the slightest edge, so swinging on the flowers is preferable if you want a decent score. Once you get close (maybe 1.5cm) to the grub, the chameleon will automatically grab it with his tongue, so again, it is best to utilise your swings to the fullest extent so that you can finish fastest. I expect that as the game goes on, more types of flowers, and perhaps different environmental factors will influence the gameplay, so I think this will be come quite the puzzler. As you can see, the game features the cartoon artwork that we have come to expect from many iOS games. But it looks nice and crisp and inoffensive. There are also twenty-one Game Centre achievements to display in your virtual cabinet as you progress through the game.

Verdict: While it is in a similar vein to plenty of other titles, Munch Time is a polished and fun experience. I’d go for it.

I’ll be playing through this one.
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See you next week.

Facebook app tried to redirect to the mobile web app, and then asked me to log in. No thanks.

Fooling around in Growtopia…

Late again, but it has been a busy week and all that.

Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD



In short: Another ‘too-big-for-iOS’ RPG.

Like ORC a few weeks back, this is another big game, with 3D environments and fairly complex gameplay; one of those titles that demonstrates how iOS is becoming a legitimate gaming platform and all that hoo-har. Now this is a big RPG experience, so I can’t really comment on the game’s variety, or difficulty at this stage. But all the expected features seem to be present: At the outset you can choose a race (human, elf, troll), a sex, and a class (warrior, paladin, rogue, ranger, mage) and also make a few facial feature alterations if you desire. Then in game, you have weapons and items to equip, stats to upgrade, things to craft, clothes/armour to wear and of course, quests to complete. The story is fairly generic at the moment: A dead father revealed to be more than a simple farmer, and a son setting out to follow his legacy as a mad-dog warrior and save a kingdom and such. The controls work as most 3D (graphics and perspective) iOS games do: There is a thumb-stick for movement, sliding motions anywhere for camera control, context sensitive buttons (for attacking or opening a door or talking) and and a quick access area to draw different weapons and the like from your pack. Visually the game looks pretty good. Models are a little simplistic, (hello N64 hands), but the game makes up for this with a pretty impressive draw distance. It also runs comfortable on an 4th generation iPod, even with about eight apps in the multi-tasking pane. Another really neat aspect of the game is it’s five save slots. This means that a whole family could all play on a single iPad if they wished, and all be different races and class, which is great!

I chose to be a ranger, so I am getting used to both close quarters and distance attacking. I’m not sure if the game will be intricate enough going forward to offer arrows with a greater range, but I imagine it will be, as better swords and shields are a given. Attacks automatically direct to what is targeted, but I am yet to test this mechanic is a truly heated battle where I am outnumbered. Apparently there is 30+ hours of game here, and I’ve seen screenshots that show horses, so fun times ahead hopefully! It is fairly hefty in size though, at 311MB, and it also is $3. But it is universal and it had cloud support.

Verdict: A full-blown, and good looking RPG that shows promise even in the early stages. I need more time to give a definitive verdict, but all is well at present.

I’ll be adventuring onward!


Guide The Light



In short: A puzzle game of mirror moving and light directing.

This one follows a tried and true formula. I’m sure most people will have seen these kinds of games and know how they work. Basically, there is a light source, and a goal for the light to reach. The play must move 45 degree mirrors around a grib based level so that the light can reach it’s destination. Once this is done, the little cave explorer, who is usually somewhere on screen, will be able to progress to previously unaccessibile treasures. As the game goes along, things become more complex. Not just mirrors, but also boxes that switch incoming light sources, and other obstacles that will destroy the little wannabe Indiana Jones. In some levels too, there are enemies that chase the adventurer, so you are against the clock to finish the level, or perhaps trap the enemy. Visually, the game does seem a bit bland, but I guess that’s the price of exploring pyramid caves. For your dollar, you’ll get 50 levels and a raft of Game Centre achievements, so it is a fairly decent package.

Verdict: I’ve recently played quite a few of these types of puzzles in The Heist (of MacHeist fame), so I’m not particularly enthused. That said, I recognise that this is a well made game. Probably worth a look if you like this type of puzzler.

I’ll be deleting this one.


Freeze!



In short: A puzzler based on the rotation of mazes.

Many moons ago here, I had a look at a game called Cado. It was a simple tilt controlled maze game. Freeze! is much the same. There is a ball thing that you must escort safely to the exit in each level. This is done by rotating the level so that all obstacles; sharp edges, razor blades, spikes etcetera, are avoided. Freeze! also introduces an additional mechanic; it’s namesake. You have the ability to halt time by hitting ‘freeze’ button. You can then rotate the level freely with the ball held in place. This adds an extra level of strategy, as some levels have no freeze button, some have limited uses, and then there are also rewards (achievements) for challenging yourself by not using freezes. As you can see above, the game has a distinctive black and white noire-ish style. With a story driven game, it would be an atmospheric style, but since it is a puzzle game and light on narrative, it just looks nice. Thankfully, the game’s controls are entirely touch based, so you don’t have to look like you’re doing the hot potato if you’re playing on public transport. The only real downside is the amount of content. Despite costing a dollar, you only get 25 levels, and the next 25 will set you back another buck. This won’t aid it in competition with the almost infinitely generous games like Angry Birds.

Verdict: A well polished puzzler. Definitely worth trying if it is free, but I wouldn’t pay for the game and IAPs just to get a few levels to go on with.

I’ll be playing through the first 25 levels, but then removing this one.


Luxor Evolved



In short: A non-linear, ball shooting, matching game.

That was a confusing description. I’m not sure if there is a name for this type of game, but I’ve played things like this before. Basically, there is a snakelike track of coloured orbs, that travels slowly along, and you need to shoot orbs into the chain to match three or more of the same coloured orb. When colours are matched, those orbs vanish, allowing the chain to be replenished. If you can’t, or are slow to match colours, then the chain will reach the end of the track and it will be game over. This being “evolved”, the gameplay is mixed up across levels: Sometimes the tracks are more intricate, sometimes levels are balls-to-the-wall hard but only ask you to survive for a minute. There are also a variety of power-ups awarded for mammoth combos: A slowing of time, a stopping of time, or a beam that destroys all things. As a further extension to the gameplay, you will also sometimes have to catch these power-ups as the fall by sliding your shooter left and right. The game features that all to common geometric neon-outline look, but it holds up pretty well. The controls are a little too simple at times: Aiming is a slide-anywhere-on-the-screen affair, and shooting is tap-anywhere, so sometimes you can undo your own precision aiming just by trying to shoot.

Verdict: A surprisingly variety filled take on this type of matching-shooting game. It is fun but not thrilling. Might be worth a look.

I’ll be playing a little more I guess.


ORBITAL



In short: Another neon shooter thing.

But this time, it is uses a portrait perspective, and calls for angular strategy rather than matching. The cannon at the bottom of the screen moves back and forth on its own. When you touch, it will fire an orb that will bounce of the edges of the playing field, and eventually come to a halt with a number 3 inside of it. Hitting that orb with another will cause it to become a 2, and so forth until it becomes a 0 and vanishes. So as you keep firing, the number of orbs increase, and it becomes harder to navigate the angles required to make the hit you intend. Once an orb crosses the ‘death line’ (pictured: just above the cannon) it is game over. There are three modes of play: Firstly there is ‘Gravity’ (pictured) where each shot will curve around other orbs. Secondly, ‘Pure’, where orbs have no gravitational pull and shots travel in a straight line. Third, there is ‘Supernova’ where movement is straight, but you control the movement of the cannon, and as a result of your extra power, the orbs count down from 5 instead of 3. This is a unique take on the orb shooting puzzler. It is nice to see something other than the Frozen Bubble type of colour matching. It also requires a bit of strategy and planning of your shots. However it is really annoying that the size of an orb is totally random. I could be huge or tiny. I think the game would work far better if it introduced a mechanic that, say, increased the size of an orb for each second that you wait to fire the cannon. Then the scoring could be adjusted to also reward the destruction of larger orbs. This would force players to think faster, but wouldn’t leave them at the mercy of randomness. Classic risk/reward no? If you did really like this game, there is plenty to keep you playing, as there is an online leader-board and also a PvP challenge system, though it isn’t affiliated with Game Centre at all.

Verdict: A neat little game, but not overly addictive. The randomness of orbs sizing is also a bit of a deal-breaker for me.

I’ll be removing this.


Another Dream



In short: A visually deranged matching game.

Despite being labelled as a game featuring dream like elements, this is far more unrealistic and demonic than any of my own dreams. I hope nobody has dreams like this! Anyway, the visuals are certainly unique and the whole game maintains a magic-infused-steampunk feeling throughout. Art aside though, this is just a matching game. Chains of two or more of the same falling object need to be matched, and longer chains with more objects will net a greater score. The chains however will be broken by any object hitting the chain or an object in the chain, so you are rewarded for speed as well as size. More matches will charge the blue meter on the near-bottom right, while any object that falls out of sight unmatched, will fill the red meter in the new-bottom left. The falling objects include lots of weird things like fireflies, teddies, eyeballs, skulls, clocks and masks. Sometimes there are special objects like dandelion puffs, which must be tapped and not matched, and demonic-grim-reaper things which should be avoided at all costs. Each level uses these items differently to mix up the gameplay. So one level might be littered with falling reapers, and you just need to survive for a minute, while another level might ask you to match 100 fireflies. As you progress through the levels of the ‘story’ mode, you will unlock other free play and endless modes. You will also earn dosh to spend on spells, (which are pictured at the bottom the screen), and these enable you to do things like slow time or rewind a few seconds. Although the gameplay is mixed up in each level, I think I would find it repetitive after a while. It is after all a well worn formula. Sadly this game has no Game Centre presence, so you won’t be challenging your friends any time soon.

Verdict: Another Dream is pretty atmospheric, and deranged art is great. But at the full price of $2, it’s fairly standard gameplay mechanics are a bit of a let down.

I’ll be deleting this soon methinks.


Asension: Chronicle of the Godslayer



In short: A deck (of cards) building strategy game.

I’ve played a couple of these things before, but they’ve never really appealed to me. In the real world too, I’ve only ever collected Pokemon cards, and then battled on only a few occasions. I am just trying to flag in advance that this genre really isn’t my cup of tea. Ascension is exceedingly complex to my mind. I won’t try to explain the rule in depth, so it will suffice to say that there are three sorts of powers; attack power, capture power and honour. Honour is earned by defeating other cards and from oher special moves, and it the main governer of the score ar the close of a match. The other powers are largely self explanitiory; attack power will defeat opposition cards while capture power will let you posess cards form the deck for use in play later. Matches are rather long and even the tutorial had me a little befuddled. The cards that appear in each match are also random, so there is no collection or sense of connection that might come from collecting cards in the real world. There is also rather a lot happening on the screen, and the game also requires a lot of dragging to move cards, so I think that this game is better suited to an iPad. The dragging thing is actually a bit of a design flaw in itself: Often it is clear that there is only one move applicable, and yet you still have to drag card x from point a to point b.

Verdict: A deep, to the point of confusing, card game that requires a keener mind than mine, and an iPad. In searching for an image, I’ve discovered this is an actual card game! So I’m sure it makes a lot more sense in real life, and with a nice big playing surface. The app is six bucks anyway, so the physical thing is probably better in the long run for potential fans.

I’ll be removing this.


Age of Zombies Anniversary



In short: A humorous twin-stick shooter.

The controls and the gameplay don’t really need explaining. This controls like a standard twin-shick shooter and the only additional button is a grenade-throw button. There are random crates that appear in each level, and these offer better weapons like SMGs, shotguns and buzzsaws for a limited time. Players are scored based on how much they kill, how little they die, and by racking up zombie blasting combos. As in many of Halfbrick’s games, you you play as Barry Steakfries, who is out to defeat the hordes of undead that have been unleashed across time by an evil professor genius. The story is funny, not really laugh-out-loud stuff, but it makes fun of time travel, zombie, and evil genius clichés. As well as the straight up story mode, there is a survival mode, and plenty of Game Centre achievements to conquer and leader-boards to climb. This being the “Anniversary” edition, it is upgraded for retina displays, so 2D zombie stomping looks about as as pretty as it can.

Verdict: I think that sadly, this game is a victim of it’s developer’s own hight standards. After playing Halfbrick’s other classics like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, this older title doesn’t quite feel as good. But it is a competent and fun shooter in it’s own right.

I’ll be playing this through, as I haven’t played a twin-stick shoter in a while.


nozoku



In short: A number-based puzzle game.

At a quick glance, this looks a bit like Sudoku, however the mechanics are fairly different. The aim of each level is to reach zero. When two touching numbers are pressed, the smaller of the two will be subtracted from the larger, and the remaining number will take the place of the bigger integer. The only way a tile can be moved a space without a subtraction taking place, is if it is swapped with a zero tile. By nutting it out, you should only be left with a few greyed-out “0” tiles, and thus will have complete the level. It is a little difficult to explain, but that is the gist of how it works. As you go on, the levels have their numbers placed in more widespread and difficult positions, and from what I gather from screenshots, there are also other types of tiles that may result in addition or different movement. Though I haven’t reached that stage myself. I’m perfectly fine with mathematical games, but this one didn’t really grab me.

Verdict: Sudoku is pure maths, and I think I would prefer the raw numbers to the added gameplay that nozoku introduces. Real maths buffs might like this though.

I’ll be removing this one.


Pizza Vs. Skeletons



In short: A stylish and variety packed action/brawler/platformer.

It is rare that I worry about spoiling a game in my weekly opinion-giving, but with this title I will be wary. Put simply, after the first few levels, you could not forsee the crazy variety (tweaks to gameplay, enemy types, level goals), that will come your way in latter levels. PvS is a hard game to describe. The name only really describes two things; the protagonist (the giant pizza) and the enemies (spear-wielding skeletons, and other skeletal foes). It is basically a platformer; you move and stomp enemies. But as it has a very close camera perspective, it uses gyro controls for movement, it doesn’t always ask you to move from left to right, and it sometimes requires you destroy enemies to even progress to an new area within a level. By tapping at various junctures, you can have your pizza jump, slam enemies, and also double jump. So there; it incorporates a lot of elements. It truly is your pizza as well, because you can spent the money earned in each level on different accessories for your pizza: Different crusts and toppings, and then facial features like moustaches, glasses and hats, with varying levels of hilarity. As the words “pizza with a top hat” would suggest, this game has a very wacky style. But it looks gorgeous (see above!!). The art all has a hand-draw look, and remains stylistically consistent throughout the game, even though the environments and enemies change. The tilt controls take a bit of getting used to, but eventually you will realise that they are perfectly tuned to the game, and the floaty jumping of your pizza. Judging by the Game Centre achievements, there are one hundred levels here, and as I said at the outset, these are sure to be packed with tons of variety.

Verdict: I got this during a free, which was a huge boon, because the game is normally $5. I’d say it is worth it, but I suppose it stops it quite reaching the must-have status of Angry Birds or Cut the Rope.

I’ll be playing through this for sure.


Super Knights



In short: An endless game of swinging and gem collecting.

You could question “why” about many things in this game; why knights, why gems, why giant thieving birds. But it seems to be the norm for many iOS games to just pick weird shit and run with it. I guess if the game is fun it doesn’t matter. Thankfully, Super Knights is quite fun, though I have no idea why. It is a pretty simple game; just press the grapple button to grab on to a swing point, and press another button to reverse the swing direction. Otherwise, the knight will happily bounce off the floor and walls. The only other aims are to collect gems, and avoid enemies. You will get bonuses for collecting a group of same-coloured gems, and also for rescuing trapped princess that sometimes appear. Toward the end of each ‘level’ (there are levels, but this is an endless game), the aforementioned giant birds will appear and nick all the gems left on screen. By hitting them you will add to your score. Then a really big bird will appear, and carry you to the next level where you start all over again. For your efforts in each game, you receive coins… [insert usual description of in-game store] so yeah, other characters, boosts and so forth. Like your typical endless game, there are also objectives to complete; score X, do X, buy X. This will level you up and earn you a new knightly title, as well as grant you access to stuff in the shop. Visually, this is again fairly; typical, bright, colourful. The same adjectives can be used to describe the music.

Kudos are lost here for another annoying tutorial that when introducing the store, gives you bonus coins, but then forces you to buy something you may not want in the store. (This is an ongoing bitch I have with games.)

Verdict: A fairly typical casual/time-waster/high-score-chasing game. At the moment I am finding it quite fun for some reason.

I’ll be playing it a bit, until I get over it.


Bitter Sam



In short: “A vertical action-puzzler that’s all about physics-based descending.” - from it’s website. Just about as convoluted as my own descriptions!

Sam is attached to a rope for whatever reason, and as he descends through each level, you dear player, must tilt the device to keep him unharmed. In each level there are three gems to collect. Sometimes there is a cute pig that Sam can grab, and this will give him a one-off shield, allowing him to bust through rock obstacles unharmed. Sometimes this is a simple second chance, and other times you must sacrifice the pig to reach a gem. There are also razor sharp obstacles (pictured) that threaten not only Sam, but his rope too. If the rope is cut, Sam also perishes, so this adds an extra level of strategy as the levels increase in difficulty. There is also a rope protector power-up (pictured) that will shield the rope for a limited time, and again, this is sometimes just a safety blanket, and other times it must by collected to get through a tough spot. No doubt there are other powers for me to discover in latter levels, but to be honest I don’t feel much drive to discover them. I think it is supposed to be a parody of some of iOS’ tropes: So the game features cartoon graphics, but unlike the happy vibe of many other casual games, Sam’s expression remains miserable, as he descends downward. The game has Game Centre leader-boards, but no achievements, which I think is a huge oversight, as some ironic parodies (if that is indeed the game’s intent) would be fitting for achievements.

Verdict: Sam eponymous doesn’t really give a damn, so its hard for me to be enthusiastic either. An average title really.

I’ll be deleting this.


Growtopia



In short: A 2D platforming MMO with Minecraftian/Terrarian elements.

There are now plenty of games that feature lo-fi graphic in either 2D or 3D, and emphasise creativity, crafting and craziness. Growtopia is another of these, but it differentiates itself by being tailored for mobile platforms, and also by it’s unique crafting mechanics. In the same way you use an axe in Terraria, you can punch stuff to break it in Growtopia. By breaking dirt, you many be rewarded with dirt, a dirt seed, a gem, or nothing and the same goes for nearly every other type of object. Seeds can be planted to create trees that will flower with that item. Though there is no guarantee of exactly what a tree will provide; some may grow the seed, some the object, some gems, or some a mixture. This randomness makes it more important that you make good choices about how and what you plant or use, so that you get the maximum output. Seeds can also be combined (“spliced”) to make new trees; for example a dirt seed and a rock seed will create grass tree. This chain continues upward from bare-bone materials like dirt and lava to bathtubs, bricks and toilets as well as wearable garments like pants and hats. There are also signs you can create to leave messages for others, and you can also make doors to provide access to spaces within worlds and between worlds. The gems, mentioned earlier, are the game’s currency, and can be used to buy more inventory space, rare seeds or locks.

Why would you need a lock? Well, this is an MMO after all! There are plenty of people running around in busier worlds, interrupting your farming, pushing you into lava, or smashing the platform you are standing on. Few people are as friendly as in the screenshot. But thankfully you can create your own world, and eventually, you will be able to secure with a lock, from all but your list of allowed buddies. I’ve managed to buy a 10sq lock and with a system of doors, I have secured my own world. This means I can craft, farm and mine in peace. However it does feel lonely without others, so I think it is better to try and play this as a social game.

The game, admittedly, has a cluttered interface. There are movement buttons, and attack button, a jump button, plus speech and menu buttons, as well as inventory shortcuts, the full inventory, and also little notifications of server announcements, player speech and a slow network warning indicator. This is a lot for an iPhone/iPod/Android phone screen to cram in! Thankfully different panels can be dragged in and out of view, once you figure out how it all works, so it becomes far less intimidating over time. Alternatively, you can play on a tablet since the app is universal. It also features its own (optional) GrowID account that allows you to sync your progress across devices and platforms. Neat!

The game is still in development stages, so servers are frequently down, and updates are rolling in daily, and usually, there are under 1000 people online. So if you you’re interested in this, I’d say jump right in while it is still growing. It is impossible to remember what seeds should be spliced, so I recommend a guide/wiki for anyone interested in jumping in.

Verdict: Growtopia is not easy to get a handle on. It takes a while to get used to the game’s mechanics, and requires some grinding to get set up. But for those who enjoy sandbox building games, it is a winner.

I’ll be playing this, and trying to drum up interest on the forums.
_ _ _ _ _ _

Adios!

Week the tenth:

Wimp: Who Stole My Pants?



In short: A platformer that uses just about every mechanic know to the genre.

Like most platformers, there is a nonsensical story and one or two McGuffins: In Wimp, a green blobby thing needs to find his undies in each level to open the exit, and there are three toilet rolls to collect in each level too. Each level contains hazards, which include, but are not limited to, pools of acid, other blobby things, moving and/or spiked platforms. Wimp travels around in a little bubble, and you can use this to stick on to almost any surface, allowing you to work through in the physics/puzzle elements of the game: Tipping platforms, moving and stacking boxes, and swinging on ropes. In other levels, Wimp can receive powers, like the ability to become a flying fireball (a-la Human Torch in Fantastic Four).  By collecting the aforementioned toilet rolls, you are then rated from 0-3 rolls (just like the three star system), but you are also awarded a scored based on your pace and the number of times you perish. There are no ‘lives’ here, nor is there a health system. Death is instant and total, but Wimp will re-spawn a few paces back. This means frustration is minimal, and I’m sure this will be beneficial going forward into harder levels. Despite the fact that this game uses so many different mechanics; the physics elements, power-ups as well as encouraging both speed running and collection in each level, it feels totally coherent. The physics are tight, and the controls work without a hitch. There are over fifty levels, forty-four Game Centre achievements, (well balanced between specific and long-term goals), and leader boards, so content is not an issue. Nor is price: At just a buck, this is a very competent, visually appealing, and fun title.

Verdict: A platformer that uses just about every mechanic know to the genre: And successfully crafts a truly winning game. Hop to it!

I’ll be adding this to my list of excellent platformers; Mos Speedrun, League of Evil, etcetera, and playing it to completion.


I Love Squares



In short: A slower more precise take on the falling-blocks puzzler genre.

Like any game that features geometric shapes and falling rectangles, I <3 Squares will be compared to Tetris. The rules of engagement here are a little more complex though. Here you create square shapes from border pieces to clear the rows/columns/cells, rather than preformed blocks. Levels start out with universal while edges to build on, with more complex random pieces and coloured ones in Hardcore mode. Once you form a square, or another shape will either all red, or all blue pieces (and the universal white pieces if necessary) that area will clear, and everything above will drop down. To begin with, you have 20 moves before a new random row of white pieces is added, but this number decreases steadily as you progress in each game. It takes more planning than Tetris,  because while obviously nothing moves diagonally, each of the pieces needs to fit between other to slot in where you need it to. So you might need two columns width to slot in a specific piece. It is tough to explain, but after the tutorial, you quickly come to grips with how it works. To me, It feels like less skill is required here than in Tetris. Of course, there is planning required here, but since there is no urgency (you direct the blocks from the outset, they do not fall), it feels like chance plays a greater role than skill. Although there are only four possible pieces, there is no forewarning of incoming pieces as there is in Tetris. There are Game Centre achievement here too, but the game is largely fuelled by a desire to beat high scores.

Verdict: A challenging puzzler that offers something a little different, though it won’t suit all comers.

I’ll be playing a bit more to see if I can get a better, but I doubt I’ll last long.


101 Airborne



In short: A  old school top down shooter with modern paint.

The graphics are pretty good, but sadly you appreciate the 3D models more in the menu (hangar) than you do in the game itself. Does offer quite a challenge. Need to get close to enemies to collect money and health they might drop after you shoot them.

Verdict: A nice gesture, but not really a nice game. I’d avoid unless you think you’ll be skiing a slope of nostalgia.

I’ll be removing this.


Call of Snakes



In short: A vague, 2D squad-based action game.

Visually, this game looks like one of those 2D turn based strategy game set on a grid, with anime-styled sprites to boot. It is not, however, one of these games. It is basically an action game. You have a party of six little anime styled guys, one is a healer, another is a melee expert, another has ranged attacks and so forth. You pick one of these to lead your party, while the others will appear during the game as hostages in need of rescue. Once in the game, all you do is swipe in the direction you want to move, and your party will make ninety degree turns in that direction. That’s it: They all fire automatically, but you need to be facing the right direction, roughly. Roughly being the key word here, because characters don’t move in a grid, and some fire diagonally while others don’t. There is a highlighted area around your character showing their range of attack, but there are other squares around the place, so it is not always clear. Plus, hit an enemy or a wall, and you’re dead. Your whole party. So this is where the “snakes” part comes in to play: The game is governed by the same rules as the classic Snake! Yes, it took me a while to realise this, but I still don’t think it helps the game much. I doesn’t follow the strict grid movement that Snake does, and sprites do not always take up a square as would expect.

Verdict: By being limited to Snake controls despite my character’s abilities to attack, I felt I had little control over the game. I would pass on this one.

I’ll be removing this.


Surveillant



In short: A first-person, 3D stealth action game.

This game gives players a simple goal: Reach the CCTV camera in each level, by navigating a course of block. However, one must avoid being in the line of sight of the camera, lest it’s deadly laser tear you a veritable new one! That is all there is to it. If the laser comes your way, you try and run behind a block. (I think red blocks indicate that the camera has line-of-sight to that spot.) To walk to a spot, you simply tap there, and camera movement is hadled with the gyroscope. Sadly, those gyro controls are exceedingly finicky, and I see no option to choose an alternative control method, nor adjust sensitivity, which is a deal breaker for me. The graphics are pretty bland, even though it is deliberately low-fi. I gather this is developed by a one man team, so I shouldn’t be to scathing.

Verdict: Surveillant feels a bit loose for my liking, but if you can get past the controls, I think there is plenty of content.

I’ll be removing this.


Pocket Trucks



In short: A 2D action racing game with all the bells and whistles.

Most would have played a game like this before; a combination of platforming and racing. The player has four essential controls; accelerate, brake/reverse, rotate left, rotate right. In addition to this, there is also power-up button, used to perform jumps or briefly fly, with the spring and wing powers respectively. The requirement of each level, is to finish in under X time to reach a one, two or three star ranking. Overall speed, the collecting of bolts and the performing of tricks will also net you experience points. Bolts can be spent on new cars or upgrades in the store, and levelling up with XP will let you access new items. The default car is a jacked up taxi, and the second unlock is a forklift, and the customisation options are equally zany. So there is plenty of light-hearted variety in the cars, and this is also found in the tracks. The 3D environments are all bright and bubbly. Some levels are set in forests, some in deserts, and others indoors, with everyday objects in the background that remind you why these are “pocket” trucks. The biggest issue with this game is the lack of an instant restart feature; games like this really cry out for it. The physics also don’t feel overly fluid, a issue not aided by the fact that each course is angular: Loops are clearly made out of diagonal parts. The level and bolts requirements to buy upgrades feel a little excessive. Though there are twenty levels in the first cup alone, so there could be something like eighty levels in total, which means there are plenty of opportunities to accrue bolts and XP without getting too bored.

Verdict: I find myself comparing this to RedLynx Motoheroz, a game I unashamedly love. And overall Pocket Trucks is just not as tight or as focussed. If you don’t have MH on the brain like I do, then this would be a worthier investment.

I’ll be removing this soon, but I will give it a chance, because it is a great package overall.


Texting of the Bread



In short: A shooter controlled by frenzied texting.

Like those online flash tutorials, this game asks you to be precise and fast with your typing, though through the texting interface of iOS. Gingerbread men are overrunning the world, and in order to shoot them all down, you will need to be quick with your fingers. Your avatar will fire his/her gun each time you press a (correct) letter, so the first gingerbread man will be killed after you type “h-a-n-d”, then the next will fall after “s-o-l-o” and so forth. Failing to defeat an enemy before it reaches you will result in loss of health. After a while the game started play tricks on me. I found myself with two competing urges: One, to type the word quickly and correctly, and two, to have the words in order to make a coherent dialogue. See, there often is a dialogue like; “how am I supposed to even shoot this…” and so forth. But because some enemy types move faster than others, and I may make errors, the order of the words becomes skewed. So while I know that I need to type green highlighted-word, I may want to type the word that came next in the dialogue, or the word that is closest to me. So somehow, a simple typing fest becomes a strange action/puzzle game. It really is a very clever and very original concept, even if the visuals, both technically and artistically, are a little lacking. There are also a few random bugs that cause the game to crash.

Verdict: Not the sort of game I think would stick with, but it deserves huge kudos for originality and is certainly worth looking at.

I’ll be playing a little more.


War of Eclipse



In short: A strange turn based strategy, driven by one core gameplay mechanic.

That core mechanic, is the classic ‘power gauge’. You know the one; often used in sports games to determine the power of a shot or swing or attack. In your spacecraft, you face off against enemies using this same mechanic, over and over. The gauge moves back and forth at various speeds depending on the situation, and you must tap at the right time to unleash the most powerful attack; or any attack at all. Each bar features an larger (therefore easier) grey ‘hit’ zone, as well as a smaller (ergo harder), dark grey ‘critical hit’. The game is sort of turn based; you get two chances with the power gauge before the enemy ship attacks you, although, if you take to long, the enemy can sneak in another blow. As a reward for consecutive hits, you might get a chance to unleash your mega weapon, which transforms the power gauge into a percentage marker, and challenges you to ‘charge’ it as much as you can (max 200%), without overheating it. After each battle you will earn money and experience, which allows you to level up, and also repair and upgrade your ship. As you would expect from the gameplay, the story is fairly light on; you just need to take on all these enemies. But at least they are pretty cool; often looking like aircraft with demon parts attached. Each battle is also presented somewhat like a card collecting game; grading the enemy’s type and rarity. As you can see above, the game is also visually striking, with eight bit graphics and an old Gameboy-esque colour palette. This developer, Game Stew, has a habit of making these sorts of games. There is one called Tower of Fortune which features a knight scaling a castle, rather than spaceships, and it relies on a random gambling system (a-la pokies) instead of the power gauge.

Verdict: A very quirky title, that is probably worth looking at just for simple but unique game mechanics. It appears to be free still, so have a stab at it.

I’ll be fiddling with this a little more I think, but I’m not sure that my attention will be sustained in the long term.


Super Snack Time



In short: A fairly basic slingshot shooter.

This is another in a list of many games that have iDevices held in the portrait position, and ask for objects to be pulled back with a finger, and released toward enemies of some description. The enemies here are different fruits, although they are so heavily personified with cartoon eyeballs and the like, that they hardly look like fruit. Unlike some other games, you only have a single projectile to shoot, (a little hedgehog?) but this is returned after every shot. So you have infinite chances to take out all the fruit, provided you don’t let more than three escape the screen, as you only have three hearths in your health metre. This also dictates your rating at the end of each level (1-3 stars), though you also earn a score and currency for your efforts. Enemies move in both directions across your field of vision, and some require multiple hits to defeat. You are also encouraged to hit more enemies with a single shot, and a five-hit combo will result in a huge explosion. There are bombs to hit which take out many fruits at once, or ice that freezes fruit, and there are also limited-time power-ups like a cannon ability. As you would expect, there is a store where coins can be spent to upgrade the aforementioned power-ups. In conjunction with this, there are a plethora of the typical offers and incentives; free coins for FB/Tweets, free coins for watching ads, daily rewards for opening the app, and IAPs. It also costs energy to play. You only have limited energy, so if you fail to beat a level, you’ll eventually run out of puff, and have to have a break or pay up. This isn’t a bad game considering it is free: There are 60+ levels, plus an arcade mode, and there really isn’t a pay-wall. So I guess the plugs for social sharing and the like are acceptable. I just didn’t really dig the gameplay, as it is fairly derivative. And while it is the perfect game to jump in-and-out of, multitasking is inconsistent at best, which is a pain in the arse.

Verdict: Perhaps it is appropriate that Under the game’s icon it says ‘Snack Time’, because there really isn’t anything super about this game. But it is popular and free, so maybe give it a crack if you are in need of something to play.

I’ll be removing this I think.


A Cloudy Adventure



In short: A puzzle game that has you harnessing the winds.

The aim of the game, is to cause the name of the game. The eponymous cloud himself is incapable of having an adventure, or in fact, moving at all. Your job is to use other characters to blow Cloudy to his goal; a red ball in each level. Characters can be dragged around freely at any time, but can only blow in certain directions, left, up etcetera, and you must use them wisely to navigate the various platforms that hinder your movement. Each level also has hidden cheese to collect. (Why cheese I have no idea). These are placed randomly in the air and only appear for a second every so often, so you have to try and remember their position. Often times too, levels do not allow you to move Cloudy left at all, so a very deft touch is required, lest you wish to restart the level. If Cloudy is close to a source of air he will move much faster, so the game requires a lot of trial and error, and patience. I have just played through a similar quirky puzzler, with an equally stupid protagonist, on Steam called Eets. I enjoyed the game, and I played it to completion, but I don’t think I want something this fiddly on my iPod.

Verdict: A game that requires time and patience. A little to finicky for me.

I’ll be removing this.


Snowjinks



In short: A pretty, 3D, Christmas themed gallery shooter.

This game is a lot like Uppercut’s other gallery shooting game, Epoch. In fact, it is almost just a reskin! But at least it is an attractive one: Since it is also running on the Unreal engine, there are some very nice models as well as smooth animations and effects. It is only 41MB in size, but I think the engine does ask a bit from older devices like mine, (read: lag), so be aware of that. The game play here is fairly simple. Directional swipes will have you taking cover (down), (pictured), emerging from cover (up) and also dodging left and right. A tap on an enemies will have you hurling a snowball in their direction, but you will need to move quickly before they return fire. Some enemies are one-hit-KOs, while others take a little more perseverance. There are also coins that appear randomly and after an enemy is defeated, and these can also be collected with a tap, and used later in the store to buy cosmetic upgrades (hats) and also various booster items like fireballs. Sometimes presents or treasure chests will also appear, and hitting these with a snowball will reward you will a boost of some description, like extra coins or stronger snowballs. After defeating all the enemies in one area, you will move onto another snow laden cottage or hillside, so the game is essentially endless. There is health meter at the top of the screen, but despite appearances, it is very much a ‘bar’, rather than four lives. In other words, you can get half hit or grazed by a snowball, so this really encourages you to keep on dodging, even at the very last second.

Verdict: An attractive game, that offers a fun diversion. Since the festive season has passed, the game is free, so I’d recommend checking it out. For previous players of Epoch though, (like myself), don’t expect anything new.

I’ll be removing this shortly.


Dragon Island



In short: iOS’ answer to Pokemon(?)

You travel between villages, towns, and areas of wilderness. Along the way, you can capture creatures, and train them to battle against other creatures using a variety of attacks. On paper then, Dragon Island sounds a lot like Pokemon. When you play it though, it does feel similar, but also different. Rather than aiming to beat loads of other trainers, you have smaller quests to fulfil. Some do involve defeating others in duels, but there are also other types of quests, like clearing monsters from an area, or simply capturing monsters for the sake of it. Unlike Pokemon, there is no free movement in over-world, you simply select an area on the map to teleport there. Battles also work a little differently. It is still turn based, but each of your monsters has a chance to attack. So it is much easier to win in a random encounter, because it could be three against one. Capturing works as expected; though rather than Pokeballs, you can use more expensive ‘cards’ that will guarantee capture, or you can just work down the enemy’s health bar. As for the creatures you catch, they seem fairly well designed; though they have a massive range from dragons to tigers to birds to fairy-things to goblins to bugs. (They do, as far as I can tell, also evolve at some juncture.) They are perhaps a little inconsistent in their visual style when compared to Nintendo’s efforts, but that is being picky. The interface is a little different, perhaps slightly more clunky, than PKMN. Attacks work in the manner expected; some deal damage, others will raise your statistics, and some are hypnotic or paralytic. The music is perhaps where the greatest individual similarity lies; it is remarkably similar in tone and style to that of the Pocket Monsters games.

Verdict: A game that looks like it can deliver a solid Pokemon fix on Apple’s platform. Outside of the comparisons, this is a turn-based strategy come RPG game. It is the kind of thing you can play without paying too much attention, yet I think if you want to go deep, you can.

I’ll be keeping this. I think it will take a little time to form a complete judgement: There are things I don’t fully understand yet. It also takes balls to tread in Pokemon’s territory, so this deserves a little attention.


Sonic Jump



In short: Sonic takes on the ‘jump’ genre.

Like all games in of this ilk, you must navigate the protagonist (in this case SEGA’s famous blue hedgehog) upward through a maze of enemies and bounce on platforms of varying stability. Sonic can be guided left and right by tilting your device, and if he vanishes on the right, he will slide back in on the left of the screen. Touching the screen will make him double jump, or if pressed on a power-up icon, unleash said power-up. If you fail to guide Sonic to a platform, he will fall to his death, and you will have to start the level again. Like in the side-scrolling games, Sonic attacks when he jumps, so this is how you defeat enemies, like giant wasps (pictured) and crabs and caterpillars. Again like the normal Sonic games, you also need to collect rings. If you land on an enemy, you will lose all the rings you have, and if you have no rings, you will die. As well as providing life, the rings can be spent in the game’s store, on the typical boost items like a head start, a safety net, or ring magnet. There are two modes of play; story and arcade. It is a bit rich to call any mode of a jumping game ‘story’, but it seems that you end up freeing cats and other animals when you defeat Eggman at the halfway and end level of each area. There are twelve ‘acts’ (levels) in each area, two of which (6 & 12) are boss battles against Eggman. There are four different areas, (Green Hill Zone, Mountain Zone etc.), with another promised, so there are plenty of levels to work through. If you get tired of these, you can jump into endless mode, which is randomly generated from the themes of each story zone, and try to reach greater heights than your Game Centre friends. Speaking of Game Centre, the game does have a few achievements, though these are secondary to the objectives that the game challenges you to complete. These are fairly typical, like ‘use X power X times’ or ‘defeat X enemies’, but it keeps the game ticking, and allows you to level up; allowing access to more boosts in the store, and also extra characters like Shadow and Tails. There also appears to be some sort of global goal system that also offers bonuses to all players, however this seems a little buggy at the moment, and doesn’t properly connect with the SEGA website or whatever, so hopefully that gets fixed soon. Visually, the game has a crisp vibrant style, which you would expect. But it finds a happy medium between the older Sonic games and the new Sonic 4+ games.

Verdict: I don’t know why Sonic is jumping instead of running, but f*ck it. This really is a step above in this genre, so give it a shot

I’ll be playing through the story and completing as many objectives as I can.
_  _  _  _  _

So week ten… That means I’ve gone through 130 apps! Wowee!

I pick games totally at random, but I made sure I had really positive experiences to start and then end this tenth week with. Thank you to those still reading.

Roll on:

Captain America: The Sentinel Of Liberty



In short: An side-scrolling action platformer featuring the first avenger.

This title shares a lot in common with Mirror’s Edge on iOS. You swipe left or right to run in that direction, and use further swipes to jump (up), slide (down) and also attack enemies, either with fistycuffs or a thrown the Captain’s shield.  Unlike ME though, you aren’t encouraged to take enemies down with one blow. Instead, you are awarded with combos for performing more attacks. This means you have to stop running, and really break the flow of the game. Like Thor: Son of Asgard a few weeks ago, there is plenty of fan service here: An original story, told through 2D comic-cutscenes, and the ability to unlock some Marvel mementos, like different costumes and also covers of CA comics. Though to get these extras, you will need to collect five hidden and not-so-hidden dossiers from each level. The graphics looks pretty decent, and animations are smooth and varied. However the menus are very slow in my opinion.

Verdict: I’d get Mirror’s Edge over this, unless you’re mad keen for Marvel.

I’ll be removing this.


Bit-1



In short: A small scale retro platformer.

Like Mos Speedrun and League of Evil that have featured in previous weeks, this is another eight bit platforming offering. Bit-1 however, is nowhere near as tight as those games. The left/right buttons are far to close together (pictured) and the protagonist’s jump is unbelievably floaty, more like a glide. The levels are small, a fact accentuated by the extremely zoomed-out perspective. A lot of the enemies and levels are also uninspired; for example, a clear clone Hammer Bro enemy. The AI is also pretty stupid: You can often shoot your enemies before they see you, and line of sight is indicated by a [!] a-la Pokemon trainers. If you can deal with those things, there is only a generic stolen girl story to follow. I guess there are positives here too though, to be fare. The visuals are quite nice, excluding the blurry fonts, and the gun power-ups, more akin to a SHMUP, are not often seen in a platformer. There are a suite of Game Centre features if you feel the urge to rack up some points.

Verdict: A platformer that shows signs of promise, but needs a bit of tightening to match up to the best, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

I’ll be deleting this one and sticking tothe other platformers I mentioned.


Find the Way



In short: A minimalist game that encourages exploration.

This is a hard game to pin down to a genre, though it is pretty simple to explain. There are maze-like levels and players are required to guide an hexagon/eyeball thing to the level’s exit within a time limit. Each level contains an optional “artefact” (actually just a glowing gold orb) to collect, and there are blue and red glowing items, the former of which adds a few seconds to the time limit, while the latter subtracts time. As well as normal ‘01, 02, 03…’ levels, there are time trial challenges that require you to accrue as much time as possible before the end. Other than that, there isn’t really anything else to do in each level, which makes the game a little boring if I’m honest. I guess there is some judgement involved in balancing fast movements with the possibility of careering into an evil red item, but it really isn’t all that demanding or exciting. The camera is also very close, and since the games protagonist orb is controlled by swiping and flicking the screen, it is often hard to see where you are going, and navigation become confusing. I think it would be more enjoyable to play if I could see more of the level or at least access a map. Overall the gameplay is lacking here, which is a shame, because the game has a nice relaxed vibe and moves smoothly.

Verdict: A game that has a visual mood, but doesn’t offer much motivation. It is free though, so have a look even if you think the game has visual appeal.

I’ll be removing this game.


Tilt to Live



In short: A minimilastic top down shooter with tilt controls.

Like Spirit last week, this is another top down 2D shooter that eschews normal shooting in favour of survival tactics. The name says it all here really. Enemies, like the whole game, are minimalistic in design, and you need to avoid them by tilting your device to direct your little arrow. By collecting certain coloured orbs, you will unleash a variety of attacks to take out your foes and live a little longer. Combos are created by destroying enemies constantly. As well as the described classic mode, there are four others: Code Red (harder), Gauntlet (time trial), Frostbite (enemies are frozen but will unfreeze if you don’t eliminate them) and the in-app-purchase mode, Viva La Turret. As mentioned many a time, I am not a fan of games that restrict their players to only tilt controls, but it is very well executed here, with extensive customisation options that offer a flat, angled or custom setting for screen orientation, as well as adjustable X and Y axis sensitivity. I do enjoy the bright and funky look of the game, and this light-hearted vibe is carried on by the Spanish(?) sounding tunes and the whistles that blare when you die. There are Game Centre achievements for getting massive combos and the like, and these are also linked to in game rewards, such as new power-ups like shields and lightning strikes. Chaining huge combos and bowling over previous high-scores soon becomes addictive, and although the game isn’t frustrating in any way, you’ll still be cursing when you fall victim to the killer touch of the little red dots.

Verdict: A stylish and funky shooter that is worth every one of it’s 99c, and features the best use of tilt controls I’ve found.

I’ll be keeping this.


Neo Mech



In short: A 2D shooter with retro aesthetics.

From the long-time purveyors of Flash gaming, Miniclip, comes this iOS port. Neo Mech has a simple look, and a simple goal. Pixellated little armies are shiiting at your mech, so take them out! The mech walks automatically, so you just need to take care of the shooting. The highlight of the gameplay is a very clever little aiming system that offsets the reticule slight on the left side of the screen, so that the battlefield is not obscured by the right thumb. The left thumb then, navigates the four different weapon types, (the fancy ones of which, like lasers and flamethrowers, will run out of power quickly) as well as a bunch of powers like air-strikes and health kits. lots of upgrades, weapon types. More of these powers can be bought in the store, using the coins that enemies drop. Annoyingly, said coin needs to be collected by touch, which distracts you from the game, and may also result in wasted shots. Since there is no multi-touch support, you cannot avoid this issue, so auto-collection of currency would be far more appropriate. While the sprite-y visuals are pretty good, the sounds are annoying at best. This includes both the bland music and the gun sounds.

Verdict: A solid but ultimately uninspired 2D shooter. I think you could do better.

I’ll be deleting this one.


Grand Prix Builder



In short: A tough indie strategy game.

This is as simple as it sounds; you need to build Formula 1 tracks! In Championship mode, you progress through a season, in races all over the globe, but rather than controlling the car, you build the track. The track must match the the random predetermined statistics of your car; (acceleration, braking, cornering, speed). Each track also has a set number of corners (i.e. one hairpin), that you must adhere to. Once the track is drawn, you will race against three opponents. At the moment, I am yet to win a single race. The AI is pretty ruthless, and I also am obviously not building tracks that suit the stats of my car well enough. This leads me to the conclusion that; despite it’s simplistic graphical exterior, this game is quite deep and technical under the hood.

Verdict: Grand Prix Builder is a clever idea, but needs a few alterations to get up to speed.

I’ll be deleting this one but I’ll keep an ear to the wind in case big updates come.


ORC: Vengeance



In short: A well oiled action RPG.

This is one of the “biggest” games I’ve looked at in a while. “Big” because it is a fully fledged RPG on iOS, “big” because the game is longer and deeper than typical throwaway time-wasters, and “big” because it weighs in at 507MB. But the point is to hopefully not have a 8GB iPod/iPhone/iPad, and get playing!

The game opens with a better than average story about how men unleashed the undead, and ruined life for orcs and other races, in a Middle-Earth-eaque fantasy world. From then on, you take control of Rok, the orc warlord who needs to reclaim his power and people. Controlling Rok is easy from the game’s raised centred camera position, and both virtual stick and gestures can be used to move him around. (I’d stick with the former). There is also an attack button and some special moves that you can perform buy performing normal attacks. You will automatically attack the closest enemy, and thankfully this works properly, and doesn’t leave you too vulnerable. There are two health gauges, one for armour and one for health. The former depletes/replenishes, while the latter is slower. Defeated enemies will offer loot drops like coins, potions and weapons. These can be equipped and upgraded at any time in the menu, and at the end of each level you can also buy and sell these goods at the merchant. Levelling up, by defeating enemies, will net you skill points which can be fed into attack, defence, greed (better loot) and vengeance (better special attacks). Moving through each dungeon and bludgeoning enemies with blades, axes and hammers is a lot of fun, even if this often happens through a similar chain of events: Gates lock, enemies appear, defeat enemies, gates unlock. If I’m honest, this formulaic gameplay may become a little repetitive, but until that point and maybe beyond, I will keep playing.

Graphically this game is very well polished: There are excellent fire and lighting effects, models are well detailed, and animation is smooth. Artistically though, it is a little drab. The dungeon vibe is constant, as is the brown, green and grey colour palette. There are full load of Game Centre features to accompany this, including 27 achievements. I’m not sure how many levels there are, but I think it might be around 25, divided into acts. The game automatically continues from the last level or checkpoint (of which there will be at least one mid-level) though there are four game save slots hidden in the options menu. This is a great option if you have a whole house of willing gamers and only one iDevice, and something more games should do to retaliate against the restrictions that the Apple ID system usually imposes.  

Verdict: An exceeding well made game that is fun even if a little derivative. Worth $3, but I’d suggest waiting for a sale, as Chillingo are often generous.

I’ll be playing this one until the end hopefully, unless it really does become uber repetitive.


Coin Drop!



In short: A bright reverse-pinball game.

That is literally how the game works. You aim and drop coins from the top (as opposed to bottom) and they bounce around and score points. The only catch is that you need to hit all the bad pennies, of which there are four in every level, to progress to the next level. Like pinball, hitting more things with one ball coin will net more points, though you can drop five coins at the one time of you so choose. There are also five exit holes at the bottom of the level, and entering the highlighted ones in the correct order will score you more points and five bonus coins. In some levels, there are destructible elements like wood or bricks, and in others, you will need to also free lady coins. For each level, unsurprisingly, you are scored out of three stars, but as I said, you cannot progress without hitting the bad blue pennies, so there might just be one bastard you can’t get, and he will hold you up indefinitely. If you do get stuck though, at least it won’t be ugly. The game is very visually vibrant, and each group of levels has a theme; space, jungle, underwater etcetera, and these strike a balance of some cartoon elements and some very glowing light effects. There are high-scores to chase on Game Centre leader-boards, but no other objective/achievement system, so you could become stuck if you can’t.

Verdict: A shallow game, but not the worst time waster.

I’ll be deleting this one, as I don’t really feel much attraction to, or get much reward from, the simple mechanics.


Asteroid 2012 3D



In short: A modern take on the classic shooter.

Asteroid 2012 is in the same vein as the classic title: You roam around freely blasting asteroids. The main update to the classic formula is a complete graphical overhaul. The game is not from a 3rd person perspective, and the world is fully three dimensional. It all looks very impressive, with some nice shiny planetary atmospheres, well modelled ships, and nice weapon effects. There are also a few new things to shoot other than asteroids, such as enemy ships, and there is also now a health meter that dictates how long your game will last, rather than X number of lives. Controls are simply provided by a single analogue stick, as the ship fires straight in the line of it’s nose. Shooting is handled by a button press and there are additional missiles that replenish based on your shooting prowess, and there is also a teleport button to get you back to the action in case you stray to far away from enemies in the vast reaches of space. Now this teleport button is a sad but necessary inclusion: I think it is there because it is so easy to become lost. There is a 2D radar that attempts to show you where objects are, but it fails to easily convey up and down positioning, and because the ship rolls and spins when you turn, it is very hard to know where you are. Like old Asteroids, the game is also very directionless, so there is nothing to really motivate you to play, other than chasing highscores.

Verdict: A shooter that is frustrating open, and a little tough to control.

I’ll be deleting this one.


WOPR: WarGames



In short: A match-three puzzler based on the 1983 film Wargames.

I hadn’t heard of this movie, but apparently it is about a hacker (Matthew Broderick) who ends up hacking some super intelligent WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer thing, that in turn goes rogue and needs to be interacted with to convice it not to blow shit up. Anyway, the actual game here is a match three puzzler. You play against the AI, and try to defeat it by matching missiles, which cause damage. Other icons such as “$” earn you currency to upgrade your powers, and “+” regenerates your own health. Most of it is fairly standard match-three gameplay, offered in both an endless mode and a story mode, though there a variety of tweaks to gameplay formula in the story mode. These include timed missiles that need to be matched in a certain number of moves, otherwise they will cause you considerable damage. For a game that is a fairly simple puzzler, there is quite a lot of dialogue from avatars of film’s characers. No doubt this is great for fans of the film, but I found it annoying, as I like to feed my matching habit quickly. I guess this is pretty neat though, it isn’t often that a 30 year old sci-fi film lends itself to becoming an iOS puzzle game…

Verdict: I like the core game, but not the movie fluff. Probably one for the fans.

I’ll be deleting this one shortly, but I might play a few more endless rounds.


Shoot The Zombirds



In short: An endless Halloween themed slingshot shooter.

The player’s job in this game is to shoot down a variety of zombie birds with arrows, before they steal all of your pumpkins. The birds fly left-to-right across the landscape screen, but if you can’t take them out before they reach the right, they will return, flying right-to-left carrying a precious pumpkin. You’ve then got another window of opportunity to shoot them down, but if they make it back to the left, you will lose that pumpkin. Shooting is done via a simple pull-back-and-release control method. For each hit, you are awarded coins, and these can be spent, as you’d expect, in the store n power-ups and upgrades. Arrows are hard to come by (you start with three) so you need to be accurate, or kill two birds with one arrow to earn more arrows, and continue playing. The game is over when you either have all of your pumpkins stolen, or run out of arrows. There is an objective system to keep your attention, and this will test your speed and accuracy, in the name of attaining more coinage. In all honesty, the game didn’t really thrill me; there are plenty of other games out there that use the same mechanics. However, it is at least a little unique thematically.

Verdict: An old formula with a new coat of dark paint. I’d pass, but it isn’t a bad game by any means.

I’ll be deleting this.


Sky Hero



In short: A endless falling game.

This is another endless title that kicks all the genre-boxes. Objectives? Yep. In game currency? Yep. A store to buy upgrades? Yep… The boxes it doesn’t tick though, are the important ones, like fun or excitement or a quality gameplay hook. This sky hero guy just jumps off buildings, and I simply tap the left and right sides of the screen to avoid enemies. By reaching certain distances, I am rewarded with a new themed building to plummet from. Never mind why is there a flame monster chasing me, and why are there a strange variety of flying obstacles like a cannonball, a wooden barrel and a saw… At least other nonsensical runners make an effort; take a look at Jetpack Joyride with it’s overarching laboratory theme. And why on earth does this game demand to use location services on every launch?

Verdict: It is just a bit weird, simple and unexciting. Avoid.

I’ll be deleting this one immediately.


SkeeFree



In short: A port of the classic Microsoft DOS game.

Perhaps it is fitting that this old game from 1991, perhaps an ‘endless runner’, has been ported to iOS, the current home of the genre. I won’t make any bones about it though, this game feels old. I never played the original, so I have no nostalgic connections that could overcome father time’s effects. I guess the controls have been well adapted, as users can choose from analogue, d-pad or fullscreen controls. But the movement of the skier is very touchy (no pun intended), and the graphics are small and plain, and not in a cute retro way. I guess it is quite novel in the way that instead of navigating a menu to choose a mode of play, you simply ski in a certain direction on the mountain, be that the freestyle, slalom, tree slalom or ski free course. All differences between these are pretty self explanatory, but in reality, there isn’t much difference.

Verdict: A nice gesture, but not really a nice game. I’d avoid unless you think you’ll be skiing a slope of nostalgia.

I’ll be removing this.
_  _  _  _  _

Same time next week! Or not, your choice.

It has been a pretty hot week, even in the south eastern extremities of the country, so what better time to try out another thirteen apps:

Alien Hatchi



In short: A retro virtual pet with an modern look.

This one requires a bit of back story. Just under a year ago, Portable Pixels released a virtual pet app that was a lot like the Tamagotchis and Digimons of old, however it was perfectly adapted to iOS, and had a few little tricks of its own. Fast forward to now, and they’ve released a more modern take on the virtual pet with Alien Hatchi. Sadly, this version has no nostalgic value, and almost no charm like the retro Hatchi. Now that the visuals have been modernised, it looks bland. The animations also leave much to be desired; rather than reading a book as the pet did before, it just absorbs a lot of Matrix-esque digits. It is also much less fleshed out compared to the original. There are less interesting things to buy in the store, there are no mini-games to play and there are also no online battles; an awesome feature recently added to Hatchi. The only big introduction to the formula is ‘fuel’, which is the new currency, and is earned hourly and also by moving your hatchi (calculated via Location Services), which is a neat idea, but not one I’m interested in. There are also swags of out-of-context sci-fi movie titles used as as the names of various achievements, just because it is “Alien” Hatchi. How irksome.

Verdict: A unnecessary update to a formula that worked brilliantly already.

I’ll be deleting this one and sticking to regular Hatchi.


Super Monsters Ate My Condo



In short: A crazy, frantic vertical matching game.

You might remember back in week x, I reviewed the game Monsters Ate My Condo. Now here is its surprise sequel. Super MAMC retains all of the same gameplay elements; apartments of different colours are matched, from a basic colour to bronze, through gold, and diamond. Monsters pertaining to each colour still occupy the borders of the screen and offer you bonuses for feeding them their favourite colours. Rounds are still two minutes long, and there are still leader-board to climb and achievements to strive for. The biggest addition to the sequel is that is has been more iOS-ified, with a store, currency system, and a system of levelling up by completing objectives (a-la Jetpack Joyride). In the store there are obviously boosts, like extra time and score multipliers, and there are also hats to buy for the monsters that will increase the bonuses they offer. The actual gameplay has only been tweaked slightly, with the addition of new condos such as piggy banks that boost your coin collecting abilities. The same wacky visual style remains, though all the effects have been improved and everything looks a little nicer. The original game was a very pure experience, so at times this feels bloated. But once you start chasing down high scores, you’ll soon forget any issues you might have.

Verdict: Despite the alterations, this remains an unnecessary sequel. It obviously usurps the original, even if did not need to.

I’ll be keeping this as my matching game of choice.


Kunundrum



In short: A neon infused maze solving puzzle game.

In each level of Kunundrum, there are a number of coloured balls each with a correspondingly coloured goal. The player’s job is to navigate the mazes, and place each ball in the goal in the least moves possible. Controls are a simple matter of swiping balls in the desired direction. The balls will continue to move in their given direction until they hit a wall, an obstruction, another ball, or a booster tile (pictured). Despite this simple description, and the fairly minimalistic neon stylings of the game, it quickly ramps up. Levels become unforgiving; as one wrong move will trap a ball in an inescapable trap, and force you to restart and try to remember all the correct moves before you buggered it up. There are a whopping 180 levels to work through, and I am sure they will become unbareably complex. I must also mention that the menus are excellent, offering multiple ways to press or swipe to select something, so it really feels fluid; a little like you’re playing with Tony Stark’s or Minority Report’s computer interfaces. Yes, I do enjoy a good menu. To round out the package, there are 38 Game Centre achievements, though the defunct OpenFeint service is still supported in-game, which means Kunundrum might not have been updated for a while; so iPhone 5 users beware.

Verdict: A fun, challenging puzzler with plenty of value. Definitely worth a look.

I’ll be working my way through this title.


Spirit



In short: Another neon infused game, this time an action title.

This game looks and feels a lot like Geometry Wars; it is top down and takes place on a grid, and visually it echoes the neon styling also. But rather than a shooter, this is a game of survival. To destroy enemies, you must travel in a circle around them, which creates a sort of interdimensional portal or black hole, that sucks them away. It sounds simple enough, but you must of course avoid touching enemies which is not an easy task considering that they move in a variety of ways: Some follow you, some move in a pattern across the grid, and others simple float along. There are three modes of gameplay  here; classic (which I just outlined) as well as HECTIC (which adds more and faster enemies) and also pulse. Pulse changes things up, as it removes your ability to create portals, replacing it with random orbs that appear randomly, and touching these opens the portals instead. The controls are simple and work well; a virtual joystick appears wherever you touch.

Verdict: A fun game that is easy to play, and offers a nice distraction. Worth checking out.

I’ll be keeping around for a little while.


Spirits



In short: A smooth, relaxed puzzle platformer.

No, not a typo! Two similar names, but two very different games. This game is a 2D sidescrolling puzzler in which you control tree spirits. These spirits rise from a starting point, ansdfrom there you must direct them to then end goal. The little spirits will jump automatically from cliff edges but not over obstacles, so the player must sacrifice a few spirits to save the rest. this is done by selecting a spirit, and transforming it into something useful like a windy cloud to blow the spirits across a crevasse or a spinning boulder to smash a path down through the earth. There are plenty of these forms to choose from, but they vary from level to level. The aim is use as few spirits as possible, and ergo, save more of them, much like workd of goo. Controls are as you’d expect; just touch to select various options. Visually the game looks great with a very warm and glowy style that suits the game’s name and organic feeling.

Verdict: A very atmospheric little game. There is nothing remotely frustrating about it, so a good one to play on public transport perhaps.

I’ll be playing through this.


Tiny Troopers



In short: A 3D-down shooter that employs move-to-point controls.

In Tiny Troopers, you control various members of the armed forces in small groups or solo. They must be directed by your touch; to shoot enemies, collect health or dog-tags, and reach extraction points. There are many other games out there like this, such as the Call of Mini series, but this one thankfully sets itself apart with it’s method of control, and the missions, which are full of variety. Some levels are a race to the extraction point, others require you to destroy all enemies and/or buildings, some require you to survive waves of enemies, and some even require you to escort NPC characters like war journalists to safety. Performing well in each mission will net you currency (the name of which escapes me at the moment) and this can be used to buy new soldiers who have different weapon proficiencies. As well as the missions, there is a zombie mode, which simply challenges you to survive as many waves as you can. I know I said that this game is set apart by its controls, but I think I would have preferred dual stick controls that all the other elevated-perspective shooters use. It seems counter intuitive to have to drag objects like grenades onto the screen when I could just have my soldier face in a direction and push a button. It also makes it harder to move stealthily or retreat from the line of fire. There is also no way to pan the camera, so you are forced to take small movements forward and flick to a basic map. This also means that if your unit of soldiers splits on the way to a point, you cannot move between the groups, which really leaves you in the dark, and is a bit frustrating. Other than those gripes, the visuals are fine, but nothing over and above others of the same ilk.

Verdict: A solid game, but the controls may annoy some like myself. Regardless, give it a raz since it is free at the present time.

I’ll be removing this one I think.


Monstaaa!



In short: A game of precision tilting.

The aim of the game is pretty simple; to keep red bugs alive long enough to feed them to the purple monster. This means avoiding hazards like spikes (the red horn things pictured) and fires. This is done by simple tilting the device, and an (optional) handy gravity indication arrow will help you keep moving in the right direction. Other than that, some levels have partially hidden dinosaur bones to collect, but this appears to be simply for the sake of collection. Visually, the game has a very earthy vibe, with losts of caves and crevasses, but it is nothing awe inspiring. The control options are pretty thorough, allowing you to calibrate the device in flat or tilted positions, but I just really do not enjoy these types of games.

Verdict: If you don’t mind tilting your device around, you might enjoy this one.

I’ll be removing this.


KOTOMON



In short: A strange little 2D action game.

The idea here is, as a red Tellytubbly lookalike, to run around grabbing little spherical creatures and propelling them at enemies to kill them. Effectively, it is ten pin bowling from there on in, as you score combos for knocking down more enemies with one little fella. The world is full of hills, so you need to accommodate this topology as you navigate toward the end of the level. Apparently there is some rhythm stuff involved here, but I don’t really see anything beyond the slight intermingling sounds of the soundtrack and the defeated enemies. You move your character (called Kotomon) via a virtual analogue stick that appears anywhere in the lower half of the screen. Surprisingly, the 3D world can be easily explored even though the game uses a strictly portrait orientation. However I would prefer a fixed analogue stick, as I have a hard time telling whether I am moving at full speed or not, as the Kotomon is quite slow. Further problems arise from the controls too, as it is all purely touch-based, with a tap to shoot, hold to drop and pinch to zoom. It soon becomes tiresome and confusing. The graphics are also mighty bland and uninspired and furthermore, there is no retina display support, at least not on my device. There are also no leader-boards or achievements or anything of that nature. I also have an issue with the name of this game. Anything with “MON” at the end immediately makes me think of Pokemon, and it doesn’t help that there are little creatures that you can control in this game too… Now I just want to play Pokemon!

Verdict: A strange game that feels like it misses the mark, whatever that mark is… Steer clear.

I’ll be deleting this from my iPod.


Wordament



In short: A grid based word finding game.

It looks fairly innocuous, but there are a few very neat features that this came has that trumps many others in the genre. The biggest one is that this is a Microsoft game, and it links to Xbox Live! That’s right, just log on it and there are fifty points to add to you gamerscore from playing. Thankfully though, for those like myself, there is the option to simply play as a guest. It plays like any other grid based word game; just slide your finger around to make words. Letters all have a points value, so longer words with more uncommon letters will net you more points, just like Scrabble. There is also the occasional tile with two letters together, and not just Q/U but also more practical ones like N/E. Each game lasts for two minute, with an interval of 40 seconds between games. In the interval, you are instantly shown how you compare to everyone else in the world, who has also just played the same board. You are shown your average time/word ratio, how many words you found out of all the possibilities, how many points you scored, and a list of all your found and undiscovered words. You can also take a squiz at the leader-board and see how you fared. I’ve played a few of these games, and no other game is that thorough and that fast in it’s ability to compare you against the rest of the game’s players, so it is a brilliant feature. Since there is no menu to speak of, just an endless supply of games and intervals, this game is also highly addictive. Visually, it is all pretty clean and square, much like Windows Phone OS, and yes, it is on that platform too. There is one constant banner ad, but the game is designed around it so it is fairly unobtrusive. Plus, it is usually just a three-frame thing advertising Telstra, so it doesn’t offer much distraction.

Verdict: A great word finding game, that costs nothing and really makes you feel connected.

I’ll be keeping this as my word hunting game of choice.


Fishbowl Racer



In short: A auto-scrolling platformer that has you controlling two.

On paper, this sounds like it could be a unique and challenging platformer: You control a fishbowl on wheels, and also the fish that resides in said bowl, and you will need to balance the jumps of both. In practise however, it just doesn’t seem to work. It doesn’t feel like controlling two things at once is problematic, it feels like the mechanics are off. The cart jumps in a sluggish manner, and I found myself constantly crashing before I’d even amassed five points, let alone the combos (earned by keeping the fish out of the bowl for longer by jumping him separately) that the game suggested. This is also a totally barebones game; just a random endless level each time you play. Levels to beat, no daily challenges to speak of. My luck with Donut Games continues to go downhill.

Verdict: I’d avoid this one.

I’ll be deleting.


Santa Rockstar - Metal Xmas



In short: A Christmas-themed rhythm game.

Since it is still kinda the festive season, I thought I’d squeeze in this one. Santa Rockstar plays much music games Guitar Hero, Rockband, and also the iOS game TapTap. Notes of four different colours scroll down the screen toward you, and you need to press and hold them for the correct amount of time. There is also even a rock power mechanic where every note turns electric blue - just like Guitar Hero. Since the game is played with the iDevice in portrait orientation, there isn’t a hell of a lot of room for my thumbs on the fret buttons, but that will differ for everybody. There are three levels of difficulty depending on how well you can keep time to the rocking carols. And yes, the songs are actually pretty cool. Hearing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and ‘Silent Night’ as a squealing guitar solo is pretty cool, even if the fact that these are carols means that this game can only really hope to be a brief amusement. There are probably about twenty tracks to play through, and you can upgrade Santa’s guitar with score increasing boosts, or even pay to play as a gingerbread man. The only real downside to the game is that the menus are a little messy, and Facebook sharing is pushed a little too hard.

Verdict: A fun and well made laugh, but a laugh all the same.

I’ll be playing a few more songs, but ultimately deleting this.


ARDefender 2



In short: An fluid and action packed take on the tower defence genre.

I was worried that this would be another of my ‘crasher’ apps, but after one day of crashing after about a minute, it decided to magically start working properly. Now, the original ARDefender was pretty basic: Apart from the hook of augmented reality, it was a fairly basic. This time around, all the bells and whistles are included. There are proper levels to progress through, rather than just waves, and there is a great variety in the types of defensive towers you can build, and these are easily upgraded mid-battle, thanks to the coins dropped by dead enemies. Like all TD games, there is a central point to defend, and here it is your generator. Unlike other TD games though, you are not restricted to a grid, you are merely alerted to where enemies will appear, and it is then up to you to decide how best to defend yourself. The actual AR feature is entirely optional this time around. With it turned off, you have the ability to pan, zoom, and rotate your viewpoint with one or two fingers. With AR on, your generator is placed on the tag (a series of dots that you can draw anywhere or print), and have to move your device around. So AR play is best suited to flat surfaces that you can get at least 180 degrees around; i.e. a table. From the look of it, there are at least fifty levels in the game, which is more than enough, since this is a a free app. There are plenty of IAPs, but I’m not sure if there is a strict pay-wall, and from what I’ve experienced so far, the game is not at all pushy in that regard, which is a plus.

Verdict: A decent TD game that is worth a look for free, even if it remains fairly basic, with wave-based enemies etcetera. Be aware of potential teething problems too.

I’ll be fiddling with this, but probably not following through with proper play.


ControlCraft




In short: A 2D point capturing game.

Each level of ControlCraft features multiple teams that vie for control of every point. (The player is always blue, and faces off against reds greens and yellows.) each team has at least one point to begin with, and from there must direct their footmen to seize the others. The value of the troops in each point automatically grows over time, so a soldier worth 3 might enter a point, and then leave later worth 18. He will then be able to capture enemy points worth 17 or less. Strategy comes into play when you realise that there are often multiple pathways to each point, and leaving a point to take an enemy one may leave you vulnerable. However you must attack eventually, otherwise the strength of enemy points will grow ad-nauseum. The concept here is pretty cool, and the games asks for thought as well as speed. However the controls annoyed me. Troops are moved by sliding from A to B, but the line indicating your proposed direction isn’t particularly clear against the silhouette-style graphics. This meant that I was doing far too much frantic swiping for my liking, considering the strategy I needed to employ.

Verdict: Not really my type of strategy game. I think I prefer them a bit slower.

I’ll be keeping this as my matching game of choice.
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Same time again next week!