At first glance it appears that despite his name Captain Antarctica is not your usual game hero. However, it’s soon apparent that with a plethora of upgrades and gadgets Captain Antarctica is no ordinary penguin and is ready to take on the task of rescuing his family and friends.
You responsibility in this task is to steer Captain Antarctica though underwater caverns to defeat the multiple bosses across 6 initial chapters, (chapter 7 is listed as “Coming Soon”). While 6 chapters may not seem like a lot of value for the $1.99 price tag each chapter is full of challenges.
The ultimate objective of each chapter is to negotiate your way through the dangerous underwater caverns and all the dangers they hold. From a variety of dangerous sea creatures to more volatile dangers such as mines and torpedoes there are dangers around every corner to hinder your progress.
Controlling Captain Antarctica through these dangers is done either via the accelerometer or via the touch screen, personally the most successful control system is the accelerometer but it’s nice to have the choice.
Each of the chapters include multiple Experiments (challenges), this means that you’ll need to repeat the chapters multiple times to complete them, the early chapters contain single digit challenges, however by the time you reach the final chapters will be double digit experiments for you to complete.
You are aided in these challenges by the option to purchase power-ups and upgrades to your existing skills. You have magnets, shields and jets and of course extra lives at your disposal and they can be purchased by coins.
You earn coins by completing the experiments in each level, but you can also purchase coins via in-app purchase. The balance between gaining coins in game and having to buy them to progress is fairly balanced so if you don’t want to buy them you don’t have to.
GameCenter integration is hit and miss, sure there are 32 achievements to unlock but rather than having leaderboards for each chapter there are just two for total coins and total distance traveled.
The game is great looking game to with bright, colorful two dimensional graphics which despite their 2 dimensionality provide great depth to the game and the jaunty music is well pitch to the game.
Captain Antarctica HD is a fun arcade game which has that vital ingredient of convincing you to need just one more try before you put it down and will appeal to players young and old alike.
[rating: 4.5/5]What we like
What to know
Miniclip, most well known for the game Fragger, is adding a new game to their extensive iPhone / iPad game portfolio in the form of Rat Fishing where you are challenged with killing rats across over 100+ levels of challenging puzzles.
The cartoon graphics look cute and effective as the tiny hypnotized rats follow the smell of cheese to their impending death. You have a limited number of cheese pieces on each level and it requires careful planning of the location placement to kill all of the rats, especially if you want to get the maximum rating and coins.
Each level is graded on a bronze, silver and gold star rating based on the number of pieces of cheese that you use and how quickly you complete the level. You also earn coins for your endeavours and these can be used to unlock levels, get hints and also skip levels.
Of course you can also purchase coins via in-app purchase and this will probably be required as the levels get aggressively difficult and skipping some, or getting hints was certainly required by me at least!
The aggressive nature of the difficulty is based on the variety of tools and the timing of their use that is required to complete the levels. While the initial levels simply require luring the rats to their deaths onto mines and down holes later levels start to not only introduce multiple rats and additional tools but also require you to time the placement of items to create a daisy chain of destructions.
Putting all of these actions into practice is very easy with the simple touch controls and the ability to instantly restart the level when you realize that something has gone wrong is nice too, especially as these feature doesn’t cost you any coins.
Rat Fishing also includes leaderboards for all 6 levels and over 40 achievements that provide a good amount of replay value, although that being said the 144 levels and the inbuilt difficulty should keep you either entertained for a while or frustrated.
Rat Fishing should be available on the App Store soon and will be priced at 99 cents. It’s a fun challenging game for those that enjoy a challenge, although the more casual gamer or younger player may find it a little too difficult.
[rating: 3/5]What we like
What to know
If you are one of the millions of players who downloaded and lost hours of their lives playing Jetpack Joyride then I may have a new game to break that addiction.
Madcoaster from App Store dominators Chillingo is a new universal game where you control a roller coaster train on a never ending journey through multiple lands in order to collect as many coins and travel as far as you can with all your lives intact.
The game has a great cartoon look to it and the multiple lands look great as you speed through them. The game starts with just a few ‘themes’ enabled which you travel through for 1,000 meters at a time. Should you complete 1,000 meters you will continue on through another ‘theme’ until you run out of lives.
The themes are based on different events and locations, so one moment you may find yourself zooming past panda’s in a Japanese themed environment and the next past pumpkins in a Halloween inspired theme. Additional themes can also be unlocked via in app purchase or by reaching 10,000 meters in the game. The in-app purchases are nicely positioned meaning that you don’t have to keep on buying them.
Your roller coaster carts have no speed control but things get pretty crazy straight out of the traps and you’ll need fast fingers as you leap gaps, loop the loop, and move up and down tracks.
As you fly along the rails you can pick up coins and smash though a variety of animals, the only thing that can kill you is falling off the track though, in fact smashing through the animals that are standing on the tracks or hitting birds that are flying past the tracks earn you rewards rather than hinder you.
All these things contribute to the variety of objectives that are set for you on each run and clearing these objectives will provide upgraded carts for you to ride. Not that these carts have any additional features, instead they just look different to prior carts, it would be nice to have power ups to make your cart faster or jump higher.
The game has that addictive quality that makes you want to try one more time to beat your current high-score or complete one more of the 30 achievements that are available via Chillingo’s social gaming network Crystal, or the GameCenter integration.
Madcoaster is a Universal app and is available from the App Store for just 99c so grab it while you can.
[rating: 4/5]What to know:
Brought to you by Qubic Games My Little Garden is a fun garden simulator for your iPhone. Plant and grow flowers in your magical garden completing tasks and achievements along the way.
You are in control of the little garden fairy. Help her plant flowers and vegetables that she can sell or use in tasks to earn coins. To start with you are given a small piece of the garden. In this area start planting flowers to sell.
When you have a flower starting to grow then you have to start looking after it. You do this by giving it water, light and fertilizer. When you tap on the plant you are growing it will display icons for you to choose what action you want to do. Tap on the one you need and the little fairy will help.
You then look after the plant keeping it happy until it is fully grown. When it is ready you then have the option to sell the plant or if you have accepted a task, use it for that. You do not have to do tasks but they will earn you coins which you can use to expnad your garden and buy more items. So for example one of the tasks I had was from a visiting hamster who needed some carrots to be delivered. So once you have accepted this task you then need to start growing that product and be ready to give him his order. Once you do you will be rewarded for it and also unlock more plants.
The coins you earn can be used to buy from the range of 18 different plants. You can also choose to decorate your garden with stones and ornaments like gnomes and a magic bench. There are many to select and all costing different amounts. There are also pets that you can purchase. These are all very friendly and helpful in their own unique way. The cat helps increase the water, light and fertilizer a plant has and then there are other pets like frogs who will sprinkle the plants with water for you. You can also use magic on your plants which speeds up the growing process. Magic rain, Magic sun and Murky mist.
All the meus for each section are kept on a side bar to the right and it is very easy to use and follow. If you do need some help or forget a task then there is a diary. There you will find a help section and a reminder of the current task you are doing. You can also use this menu section to purchase more coins, gold or hearts via in-app purchases.
The game is suitable for all ages. The animals and plants are animated and make great cheery, happy noises. It would definitely appeal to a young person. You can design the garden as big or as small as you like. So how challenging you make it is up to you. It is a great game to play that is a refreshing change from the usual farmville type of games currently available. There is no need to be popping in and out of the game constantly to see if your plant is growing. You can play it at your own pace.
The only thing that I could see players requesting is the ability to visit friends and their gardens. This could be done by adding Game Center integration and then tasks and achievements could be added in there to compete with your friends.
Touch Reviews [rating: 4/5]
What we like:
What to know:
When I was a child I spent many a break time at school playing money marbles. This consisted of standing any distance away from a hole and attempting to throw a coin into it using as few throws as possible. It was a cheap and easy when to while away the hours but as I grew up not so many people were interested in playing the game any more. Then I discovered that people weren’t spending so much time in children’s playgrounds any more, instead they were at pubs playing the same thing but this time with pint pots, shot glasses and anything else that could be used to throw a coin into. I guess it was warming and the refreshments were more enjoyable!
Needless to say if a past-time is enjoyable it soon finds it’s way into the App Store with iQuarters this is no different. iQuarters is a universal app meaning that one purchase will work on your iPhone/iPod Touch and your iPad if you should have both and the game plays the same on both, all be it in a larger, brighter way on the later of course.
There are two modes to iQuarters, the first lets you play through the game with a limited amount of coins in an attempt to complete the 12 included levels while in practice mode you can play any of the unlocked levels.
The game starts pretty easily with a simple set of three glasses laid out on the bar in front of you and all you need to do is swipe your finger up the screen to flip the coin into either of the three glasses. This isn’t difficult and you’ll soon have the three completions that you need to move onto the next round. From here things start getting a little trickier though with and introduction of obstacles and different sized glasses placed further apart across the bar.
There are two ways that you can affect the trajectory of your flicked coin, first is the direction of your swipe while the second is the angle at which you set the coin to travel using the angle options at the top of the screen. This provides a degree of skill but you’ll soon find that you are able to complete the 12 levels routinely even with the limited coins that you have available. The skill will come with increasing your high score by using the multiplier options that you earn by bouncing the coin off of multiple surfaces and objects or completing successful flicks in a row.
There are different obstacles that you can bounce off on many of the 12 levels and while this adds more fun to the game more often than not as long as you hit the first obstacle correctly the others will follow without a hitch even if that means being flicked by a lighter followed by cell phone followed by a bottle!
The leader boards are only local and while practice mode can be played by multiple players it would have been nice to see these options expanded to see online leader boards, achievements and online multi-player options.
Having said that I have been surprised to how often I’ve been coming back to iQuarters again and again in an attempt to beat my previous scores and with that kind of addiction they must be doing something right! At just $1.99 for a multi-device app that is both fun and addictive you can’t go wrong and it beats the cold, wet play grounds of my childhood any time!
Pros
Cons
iQuarters: Official Game Trailer for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
Price: $1.99 (iTunes Store)
Category: Games
Released: Jun 03, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.0
Size: 23.5 MB
Language: English
Seller: Incredible Technologies
© Incredible Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.