Even in this electronic age board games have never gone out of fashion, the only difference being that where as many of these games were once played on literal boards they are now often being played on virtual boards on iPhones, iPads and other such devices.
And that is certainly the case of the award winning Whoowasit? HD which is now available on the iPad for $4.99 from the App Store.
Whoowasit? HD is like a cross between the classic board games of Clue and Guess Who and is a team based where instead of players competing against each the players are encouraged to work together to solve the puzzles and find the thief who has stolen the ring.
Set in medieval times the game is set in the rooms of a castle and by rolling the dice players take it in turns to move their character from room to room looking for clues to who could have stolen the ring.
The board is beautifully drawn with lots of detail and small animations. Each room contains a different animal and they will have clues to help you finger the thief. However, they won’t give up they’re information for nothing and need to be encouraged to spill the beans by giving them food which can also be found in the rooms.
As it’s a team game everyone gets to see the clues that are presented and can use them themselves. You may think that as everyone is working together that catching the thief would be easy. However, you are up against the clock and failure to find the thief in the allotted time will result in the game being over.
You will also have to avoid the ghost that moves from room to room as being in the same room will see you banished back to the nursery to start your hunt again.
The thief, clues and food that the animals require are changed each time that you play the game too ensuring that no too games are ever the same which makes repeat plays of the game more attractive.
The game also provides additional features for those players that own the board game version of Whoowasit? HD as it includes an interactive chest that becomes part of the board game.
Whoowasit? HD provides is an enjoyable experience and provides a more relaxed gaming experience compared to some of the other titles that are available on the iPad. While some people may be put off by the $4.99 price tag they should remember that this is a game that the whole family can play together and is considerably cheaper than purchasing a board game in a store.
[rating: 4.5/5]What we like
What to know
VS. Racing for iPhone is the first game from Maciek Drejak Labs and is a top down racer which reminds me of the old school classic Super Sprint.
The game gives you a top down view of the racing track with you and your opponents taking up just a handful of pixels as you race around a variety of tracks that twist and turn around the screen.
The tracks are to scale with the miniature cars but despite their size they provide lots of detail, tricky corners, fast straights and various surfaces that affect the handling of the cars.
The game has a narrative in the single player mode where you play the role of Ryan, a rookie racing driver who you have to bring up through the ranks of five championships on your way to the World Championship Finals.
While the narrative is fun it’s pretty irrelevant to the racing and luckily it doesn’t get in the way of it either. In fact you can move from race to race pretty quickly which means the action keeps coming thick and fast.
You have a choice of controls for your car which includes both touch and accelerometer controls. My weapon of choice was the touch controls which I found very responsive. You only need to worry about steering as acceleration is automatic.
Included with the auto-acceleration is a speed boost which helps you catch up if you are running behind the leader, however this is a double edge sword as this speed boost also applies to your opponents so large leads can be eaten into pretty quickly.
This is no bad thing though as it keeps all of the races exciting right up until the last corner and while this may be a little frustration the speed in which you can replay the race means that you can get your revenge very quickly.
The multi-player options are local bluetooth & wifi and Facebook leaderboards which includes a Ghost Mode so that you can races against your friends ghost cars. These are fun alternatives to the single player mode but GameCenter integration and online multi-player would be nice additions.
If you enjoy racing games of all descriptions you won’t be disappointed with VS. Racing especially if you can grab it while it’s still free. With future free updates also promised this could be a real bargain.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
Back in 1961 Mad Magazine published the first in a hugely popular cartoon strip going by the title Spy vs Spy. 23 years later after they were used in a variety of media and advertisements the Spy vs Spy video game was released to much critical acclaim. And now First Star Software have brought it to iOS for a whole new generation to enjoy the classic title.
The aim in Spy vs Spy is to hunt down the 4 special objects in the form of your passport, money, a key and the secret plans place them all in your suitcase and escape to your plane before you adversary does the same, it’s just that simple, get to the plane before your opponent will win you the level.
There are 24 levels in total, with many of them new to this version of the game, and each of the levels are based in progressively larger embassy’s that eventually become a rabbit warren of rooms and countless doors for you to hunt through.
People who know the Spy vs Spy cartoon strip will feel perfectly at home in the game, it’s perfectly recreated and whether you play it in the 8 bit retro version or the modern retina display the graphics look great. The style doesn’t lend itself to eye-popping graphics but they look great and sell the game expertly.
While you are hunting through the cabinets, cupboards, hat-stands, tv’s and other pieces of furniture you will often bump into your Spy opponent and when you do you have the option to fight him or to run away. If you beat the other spy you will get the opportunity to grab whatever he was carrying at the time. Choose your battles based on what you have to lose, and gain!
Hunting for the 4 artifacts is not just a game of hide-n-seek though, there are booby traps throughout the various embassy’s and unless you have the correct item to defeat the booby trap you will be killed, only to re-spawn later with any objects that you previously had, lost.
The single player game is fun in itself, it’s when you play the multi-player option though either locally via wi-fi/bluetooth or globally via the Game Center integration is where the real fun begins as defeating a ‘real’ spy is much more satisfying the defeating a cpu one.
The only flaw is the controls, while I like the idea of a floating d-pad to control your Spy, meaning that you can touch the screen anywhere to move your Spy, it’s not as responsive as I would like and sometimes getting the alignment of your character right so that you can search an item of furniture or get through a door can sometimes be a little frustrating.
Spy vs Spy is a universal app and is currently only 99 cents in the App Store, whether you are new to Spy vs Spy of want to revisit a classic game from yesterday year Spy vs Spy will be a dollar well spent.
[rating: 4.5/5]What we like
What to know
Brought to you by Manipal Digital Systems Hangman Hollywood is just like the classic game of Hangman. With this particular game you choose from a selection of genres from different Hollywood films.
When you first start the game if you want to choose a certain genre you will have to go to options first otherwise the game will randomly play all. Within the options you can choose from the nine available which one you want to play. Just tap to highlight them.
Once you have done that it will then take you to the game to start playing. Soon as the game is displayed you have 60 seconds to guess the word. Your time starts to decrease straight away. For anyone who has never played hangman before, how to play is easy. You must guess the word and in this case, something related to a hollywood film. You do this by guessing one letter at a time. If it is right it will place the letter in the word, if it is wrong you lose one of your nine lives. If you lose all your lives you will meet an early death. The same goes if you run out of time. So guess quickly and you will live.
The little hanging man makes happy little noises if you get it right. If you get it wrong he doesn’t sound happy at all. Which is to be expected when he’s got a noose tighting around his neck.
The game is free and is great for a quick pick up and play when you need to kill five minutes. It does have advertisements at the bottom which you do get used to. It would be nice though if there was an option to pay to go ad free.
At the moment the game does not have any Game Center integretion so there is therefore no challenge with other players. The game doesn’t even have a score board to keep record of the best scored time. At the moment you just play and have to remember how quick you did it. So while it is great to play on your own there is nothing there to keep the player interested and coming back for more. With this kind of feature added it could become a fun and challenging game.
What we like:
What to know:
[rating: 4/5]
Super Sheep Tap Review: The game has you counting sheep, but you certainly won’t be falling asleep while doing so!
Super Sheep Tap [$.99, App Store] is a simple rhythm game in the tradition of Tap Tap Revenge. The premise is to tap the screen when a sheep jumps over the fence. One finger for one sheep. Multiple fingers for multiple sheep. And don’t tap for black sheep. That’s about it. Simple enough, right? Ha!
The challenge in this game comes from the quantity and speed of sheep that need to be “tagged.” What starts out as a manageable number soon turns into a stampede that keeps your eyes focused and your finger(s) dancing.
There are two modes to this game: Classic and Arcade. Classic is the more laid-back of the two and operates by the “three strikes and your out” principle. Arcade gives you a set amount of time to rack up as many points as possible and gets pretty intense pretty quickly.
This game has fun, cartoonish graphics and nursery rhyme style music. It’s certainly simple enough for younger children. It’s got an enjoyable, light-hearted feel to it.
Super Sheep Tap would be a great option for when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep. But only if you have no intention of falling back asleep any time soon.
Pros:
Cons:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/super-sheep-tap-review/feed/ 0
[rating: 3/5]
Dragon’s Lair 2: Time Warp by Electronic Arts is the sequel to Dragon’s Lair. Just like the arcade classic, Dirk the Daring is on a mission to save Princess Daphne from the evil hands of Wizard Mordroc. Help Dirk race through the the different worlds in his old time machine to rescue her before she is lost in the time warp and made to marry Mordroc!
There are eight fantasy worlds for Dirk the Daring to explore. Each one bringing different characters and great animation. You may even recognise some of the places you visit and the people there; Sleeping Beauty and Alice In Wonderland to name a few. Each world is full of colourful characters and great animation all that will keep you entertained.
Controlling Dirk is easy, well actually you don’t really control him at all. There is no direct control over Dirk you can’t move him to where ever you want, just where the game chooses. On your screen there is a sword button and a directional pad showing arrow buttons in the four directions. To make Dirk move on screen to where he needs to go, you have to wait for the correct button to light up and then tap it. Miss the lit button and Dirk dies an early death. It is really a reflex game, you wait for the button, tap it and then wait for the next. You have to hit them very fast because if you don’t the light goes out and you miss it. Look away for a second and you will probably lose your life.
You can choose how many lives Dirk has 3, 5 or infinite depending how hard you want to make the game for yourself. I ended up using infinite as Dirk seems to die far too easily!
In the options section there is a choice to change the button size from small up to large. I used the medium ones to start with but found if the buttons are small all you seem to be doing is watching them and you miss all the on screen action later. You really can’t see what is going on. Where as if you have the large buttons they spread them out across the outside of the screen and in the middle you can still see what is going on in the animation. You can also turn the beep sounds of the buttons off but again if you do, it makes for a very hard game play.
‘Dragon’s Lair 2: Time Warp‘ features some great animation. If you have played the classic game before then this version is sure to be a hit with you. If you haven’t then you may just be a little disappointed. It seems a shame that you can’t actually control Dirk yourself and put him where ever you like. The game is more just a reflex game and all about tapping the lit buttons. After a while it did become a little tedious because that was all you was doing. Don’t get me wrong, the on screen animation and actions were really good but it would just have been nice to be a bit more involved in the game.
The cute animations make it seem like it would be suitable for any age but to be honest it is quite hard at times and I can easily see a young child struggle with it right from the start.
If you have still not tried Dragons Lair 2 it is on sale at the moment for Fathers Day so grab it while you can.
Pros
Cons
Radial 50 Gameplay
Radial 50 – Leaderboards and More
Objective
The primary objective of Radial 50 is to survive 50 rounds of increasingly difficult gameplay and over those rounds achieve the highest score possible. To pass each round, you will use the iPhone or iPod touch screen to control the paddle to project the ball towards the targets. Striking the targets will eventually unlock the center defense, allowing you to strike the inner most target and advance to the next round. If you miss the ball, allowing it to strike the outer playfield wall, you will lose paddle health. Letting the ball strike the wall too many times will eliminate all health. Health will regenerate over time, but once you lose all health the game is over.
Scoring
Scoring is the goal in Radial 50, and there are plenty of ways to do it. Major scoring areas include striking targets and target multipliers, collecting target particles, completing each round and doing so quickly, and special bonus point events.
Location Based Leaderboards
Each time you record a final score it will be recorded to the Radial 50 leaderboard. Your score will appear in the overall Radial leaderboard along with all other player’s scores, your phone’s individual leaderboard, and a number of additional leaderboards based on your location. Location leaderboards include your city, your state/province, and country geographical regions. Your scores on these leaderboards will be posted along with your unique profile information.
Achievements
Achievements can be earned and new achievements unlocked by accomplishing tasks in Radial 50. For example, reaching Level 50 is an achievement and earning this achievement unlocks additional achievements. Achievements do not earn you points towards the leaderboard during a game session, but trying to earn them is a good way to increase your skills and set yourself apart from other players.
Source: www.roundthird.com
Come back soon for more information! Tell us what you think about this game in the comments.
Help us spread the word: Retweet, Digg, Stumble
]]> https://touchreviews.net/preview-radial-50-iphone-atari-breakout/feed/ 3