Project “Thor” Rating: 
With over 140,000 applications in the App Store, it can be easy to overlook even a great one. Most application recommendation is based on popularity or downloads so if a great game is new or hasn’t attracted a lot of attention it can be easily overlooked. Project “Thor” for iPhone by Jury Shortki could easily fall into this trap but I’m here to tell you that I hope it doesn’t. Project “Thor” is a fun game with an original concept and great potential.
Project “Thor” takes place in a dystopian future. Humanity’s robot servants evolved and rebelled against their masters. After fighting a war, the few surviving members of the human race fled to a planet hidden deep in an asteroid field. While the asteroid field provides a certain amount of protection from the robots that hunt the remainder of humanity, it also places the outpost in constant danger. To protect the planet, a huge planetary defense system was put in place to keep the colony safe from the ever-present asteroids and from the robots should they ever find humanity’s hidden sanctuary. The defense system revolves around the planet in conjunction with a planetary shield and resembles Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor from Norse mythology. As commander of the planetary defense system, your job is to keep the colonists safe from asteroid strikes, improve the Thor system’s shields and weaponry, and prepare for the day you need to repel a robotic attack.
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Posted in: $0.99, 4 Stars, Action, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch Games.
Tagged: iPhone games · iPod touch Games · New iPhone Games · planetary defense system · Project Thor iPhone · Reviews
Flash or Flame Out?
It may have seemed like a typically hyperbolic Steve Jobs when he labelled Adobe “lazy” during an internal Apple town hall meeting. Yet, as people start to question whether Flash’s time has passed, more evidence mounts that Mr. Jobs may not have been suffering from a fit of pique after all. Case in point: a nasty little bug in Flash that crashes any browser without fail every time.
The bug was discovered by Matthew Dempsky in September 2008. Yes, that’s right, September 2008. And it remains unfixed to this very day. If you go to Matthew’s web site at http://flashcrash.dempsky.org/ there are links to all of the technical details of the bug. Be forewarned though, the site also contains a demonstration of the bug. Unless you’re running a browser that isolates crashed plug-ins like Chrome the site will probably crash your browser window if Flash is running in the background.
How ridiculous is it that Adobe allows a 16 month old bug that crashes any browser window without fail to continue to exist? That doesn’t sound like a leading edge development house that’s responsive to its installed user base. It’s situations like this that reinforce Steve Job’s one man crusade against Flash. It points a glaring spotlight at the shortcomings of the technology, and the company that backs it, and shines another on the technologies waiting to replace it.
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Posted in: Apple, News, iPad, iPhone.
Tagged: 16 Month Old Flash Bug · Adobe · HTML5 Canvas Experiment · HTML5 iPhone · iPad Flash · iPad Flash Support · iPhone OS · iPhoneOS · Steve Jobs Flash
Detonate! Rating: 
Most people enjoy watching people fall over, that’s why shows like American Funniest Home Video’s, and in a similar way watching a building be destroyed on purpose by explosives always draws a big crowd whether it be in person or on TV. And that’s what the game Detonate! is all about, blowing up the structure of a building so that it falls as required. I thought the premise sounded great and I could not wait to get it started.
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Posted in: $1.99, 2.5 Stars, Reviews, Simulation, iPhone games, iPod touch Games.
Tagged: AFHV · American Funniest Home Videos · bombs · Detonate iPhone · explosives · iPod touch Games · New iPhone Games · Reviews
Mainstream Gaming Coming To iPad?
Sega recently revealed a new cross-platform Sonic the Hedgehog coming to all of the major platforms this summer. It will be an episodic download that returns us to all of the Sonic fun and mayhem we remember from the early 90’s. What piqued TUAW’s interest was the screenshot at the end of the trailer for the new game. In the usual spot, all of the platforms are listed in addition to a blank square. TUAW conjectures this blank square will eventually be occupied by an App Store icon.
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Posted in: Games, Preview, Upcoming Games, iPad, iPhone games, iPod touch Games.
Tagged: App Store · iPad Games · John Koller · New iPad Games · Nintendo · ps 3 · Satoru Iwata · Sega · Sonic · Sonic 4 iPad · Sonic 4 iPhone · Sonic the Hedgehog · Sonic the Hedgehog 4 · Sonic the Hedgehog 4 iPhone · Sony · Upcoming iPad Games · Upcoming iPhone Games · wii · xbox 360
There are a number of iPhone games that use music as a backdrop for game play. Tapulous’ popular Tap Tap Revenge series immediately comes to mind. The thing about games like Tap Tap Revenge is that they require you to buy content to play with which, on an iPhone full of music, might seem like a needless expense. The upcoming game Tune Runner from Appy Entertainment takes a more revolutionary path, using your existing music library as the in-game content.
In Tune Runner, the player must make their way through various environments by drawing the shapes that move from right to left on the screen. Successfully draw the shape through touch on the screen and your robot Grov-ee continues on his journey, unsuccessfully draw the shape and your robot loses a little bit of his life. If you miss enough shapes your life meter drains and your mission is over. As I alluded to in the beginning though, Tune Runner’s revolutionary aspect is in the creation of the game environment. Tune Runner scans the music on your iPhone and for each level played you select a song. The game then generates the level dynamically based on that song. Every level is different, no two plays are ever the same. Even two plays on the same song are different.
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Posted in: Music, Preview, Upcoming Games, iPhone games, iPod touch Games.
Tagged: Apple Inc. · Appy Entertainment · iPhone Game News · iPhone Game Previews · iPod touch Games · Music Games · Music video games · New Games · social gaming · Tap Tap Revenge · Tune Runner iPhone · upcoming game Tune Runner · Upcoming iPhone Games
One of the first things things that was shown off during the razzle and dazzle of the Apple iPad launch (all you need to know) were the games. Many of the successful developers of the the App Store were there showing off how their games looked and played on the iPhone’s big brother. The fact that the iPad will be able to run the vast majority of the existing App Store games is a huge boost to potential iPad purchasers because as soon as the un-box their sparkling new iPad they’ll be able to fill their new toy with their favorite apps and games from the App Store, and more importantly for free!
But while many of the existing games will continue to be a success on the iPad it will be the games that are built specifically for the larger interface of the iPad that will push handheld gaming forward. But will these games just be re-workings of the same old games or can we expect a plethora of new and unique titles?
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Posted in: Apple, Games, News, iPad.
Tagged: App Store · Apple Inc. · Handheld game console · Handheld Games · iPad · iPad App Store · iPad Game Reviews · iPad Games · iPad Keynote · MMORPG · New iPad Games · sports management game · sports sims · Tap Tap Revenge · Upcoming iPad Games
Mortal Skies Rating:
Back in November we reviewed Roswell Fighter and scored it a decent 4/5 and commented that it had a great atmosphere, simple accurate controls and adrenalin pumping fun. Well now a similar game in the form of Mortal Skies is available in the App Store so how does it compare?
Your craft is similar in the form of an old style fighter jet and similarly your task is to fly your jet up the screen over the the desolate landscape shooting down the never ending onslaught of army planes and helicopters. The game has a distinct military theme to it and not only will you come under attack from the air but you will also find tanks and rocket launchers attempting to take you down from the ground too.
As is normal in these style of games you’ll find yourself being able to upgrade your basic weapon and pick up other power-ups to aid you on your journey. These bonus weapons can be activated by double taping the screen and as you do you invincibility, megabomb and wingman will swing into action.
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Posted in: $1.99, 3.5 Stars, Reviews, Shooter, iPhone games, iPod touch Games.
Tagged: iPhone game review · iPod touch Games · Mortal Skies - Modern War Air Combat Shooter iPhone · Mortal Skies iPhone · Shooter Games
Apocalyptos Rating:
There are some games you’re proud to play and some that are guilty pleasures; like a secret chocolate bar when you’re on a diet. In some ways, Apocalyptos from I-play is just such a guilty pleasure. The theme and elements of the game may initially put you off or make you think twice about it but once you get past that initial hesitancy, you’ll find it to be a fun and engaging game.
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Posted in: $0.99, 4 Stars, Puzzle, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch Games.
Tagged: Apocalyptos iPhone · App Store · aztec times · guilty pleasure · iPhone games · iPod touch Games · puzzle game · Reviews · sacrificial victims
