[rating: 4.5/5]
Evertales Review: A great fantasy based game that seems to have found a sweet spot suited to the small screen.
Evertales {$1.99} is the story of heros battling enemies. Whether warrior, archer, or wizard you have a choice of characters, and their weapons, available to thwart attacks. What makes Evertales distinct is that you can switch your hero at any time. You will need to understand the strengths of each character and call upon their special talents at appropriate times to clear the obstacles in your path.
It’s part of the opening narration, but your overall mission really isn’t that clear. But if you’re familiar with fantasy games you’ll be comfortable setting out to do quests and battle bosses. The game starts out with a few short instructions on how to control your character and moves quickly from the tutorial mode. Your controls consist of your attack, a jump, and switching characters. Simple enough, but the challenge is to deploy them at the right time.
A notable feature of the game is that it allows you to choose between action buttons and swipe controls as a control method. You may find you prefer one or the other depending on what you are used to. It is nice to have the choice as controls can make or break a game experience. Some iOS-based games try to have identical copies of the game interface from other platforms, which sometimes doesn’t work so well. Evertales has stripped out all the unnecessary interface components but left the right amount to make it feel clean and simple.
One of the best parts of the game is the sound effects. The soundbed is mostly natural sounds, but the utterances of the characters and the tone of the narrator is distinctly humorous. The environments you find yourself in are beautiful and intriguing. The visuals are detailed and compelling, but not overwhelming.
Evertales is a fantasy game. As a fantasy game it is implied that it should let you escape into its world. Evertales manages to do this with its touch of humor and simple controls that allow you to focus on the characters and their opponents. It’s going to be a place to lose yourself time and time again.
What we like:
What to know:
It is all mainly tap and drag controls. Once you have purchased a building for example you tap to start constructing it. Then you wait until it completes or hurry it along if you can. All this is done by tapping the icons around or above it. When you first place a creature or building you can choose where it goes in your park. Then you wait for it to earn your coins. If you tap it, it will tell you how long it will be until the coins are ready for collection. All this is done in real time, so if it says you have eight minutes to go, you have that long to wait.
You then start building up your land by placing different attractions and creatures for people to visit. The more you build you earn coins and you can then use it to decorate your safari park with more and more magical things. You can also pet your animals to earn extra gifts and abilities and to do this you just do a small swipe of the screen over your creature. They even make noises to show you they are enjoying it!
You will have to place wardens in your park as they are there just to keep the safari park running smoothly. Just like how you would need them in a real park. There are more than 40 creatures to place so you can build a huge magical place. You can also go visiting your neighbours to see what their park looks like and get a few ideas.
The animals are bright and colourful and all giving a great magical feel to the game. It is certainly nothing different to the usual FarmVille style games but the beautiful scenary certainly make up for that. The game would definitely appeal to a younger player but there are enough things to do and play to be suitable for any age. The music is a little repetitive after a while but that can be turned off. The sound effects are magical and very suited to the game.
There are also in-app purchases should you wish to speed the game up instead of waiting for jewels and coins but it is possible to play without any of these. You will just have to wait it out and keep coming back into the game.
At the moment there is no Game Center integretion which is a shame as this is what most users seem to prefer now to manage their achievements and high scores. If you do want to share with neighbours, see what other games they are playing and find more games you can do a quick sign up to Crystal for all that information.
What we like:
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[rating: 4/5]
Fara Review: A beautiful, and beautifully done, fantasy role-playing game for iPhone. It is well suited to the small screen and brings all the best features of the genre without overdoing it.
Fara {$2.99} is a fantasy tale of finding yourself on an island stuck in medieval times. You are washed up on a shore to be greeted by a Viking-esque famous swordsman. You get no answers as to what has happened, but do get some instructions on how to proceed. Not having a lot of options, you follow the instructions and set off on your first quest.
RPGs involve large maps to explore and Fara handles this motion quite well. You move to the edge of the screen, and the screen slides to reveal what is beyond. There’s no interruption in play to wait for a new screen to be rendered as in some other games. For the iOS environment, this is quite good, and makes for natural movement through the environment.
Like all good RPG titles, quests introduce you to new environments, new dangers, new skills, and new characters. There is variety in these adventures and a certain amount of choice, so completing the quests and moving on to the next one is compelling.
Fara isn’t the most polished game as far as visual quality is concerned. But it is adequate for the task and doesn’t detract from the game play. The music is unique and has that epic feel that is expected from fantasy titles. The sound effects add to the game as feedback and just general environmental noise. They help with the illusion that you are really in the role.
If you like RPG games, Fara is one to try. It strikes a nice balance between not pushing the iOS platform too far, yet including all the best features of the genre to make for great game play.
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Games with movie tie-ins have not really been massively successful on any platform and the same applies to the iPhone/iPod Touch. If anyone is going to buck that trend though you would expect it to be Glu who have just released How to Train Your Dragon: Flight of the Night Fury from the movie of the same name which will be released on March 26th. If you want to get a jump on the movie read on to find out whether it’s worth your hard earned cash.
You take the role of Hiccup, yes you heard me Hiccup, a Viking warrior in training and after befriending dragon, and in the game your task is to fly your dragon around the 3 worlds collecting everything in your site. If this sounds familiar to you then you’ve probably played either Glyder or Glyder 2 also by Glu as this is pretty much the same title with a new skin. The new skin does look good however and the cut scenes are all pulled directly from the movie itself including the characters and backdrops.
In game though the graphics are very similar just with a new coat of paint and while the islands are relatively simple by design, some may say even boring, they do look good as you fly around them and the simplicity of the design helps you pick out the collectable items as they don’t become blended in with details backdrops.
If you’ve played Glyder or Glyder 2 before you will be perfectly at home with both the controls and the game play of How to Train Your Dragon. The aim of the game is to fly your dragon around the 3 islands collecting items. You do this via the use of the accelerometer, tilting left and right will steer your dragon in those directions while tilting back or toward you will control your dragons height. This is one major difference between How to Train Your Dragon and the Glyder games in that you don’t have to be worried about thermals to gain height or worry about stalling and therefore makes this game more accessible to younger players.
At first I found that controlling the dragons flight was a little tricky and he was not as responsive as I’d hoped. However on completion of the first task, flying from point a to point b through a variety of hoop check-points all was to be revealed as you can enhance your ride by collecting different artefacts around the island. That being said the controls are simple enough that you can even fly your beast single handedly if required.
Before setting off any of your flights you can survey the island by dragging your finger across the screen, this is helpful in planning your journey and should prevent too much pointless flying around as you search for any of the 190 Collectables that are situated across the 3 worlds.
While there is still a need to fly around looking for the various collectables the game offers including Blaze Beetles and Fire Moths there is also a storyline to follow to that will take you all around the islands helping you build your dragon into the ultimate flying & fighting machine. Although it has to be said that if you are expecting battles as in the movie you will be disappointed.
How to Train Your Dragon is a sedate game, easy to control and somewhat relaxing too. If you are looking for a challenge with lots of action and adventure you’ve come to the wrong place but that’s no bad thing. As you travel seamlessly between the 3 islands completing your challenges and unlocking the 27 achievements you’ll we be surprised as to where the time goes.
You’ll find plenty to do across the three islands and while the game comprises of flying to check points or collecting various objects I found that it never became boring and was a nice distractions from the frantic action of some of the other games I’ve been playing recently.
If you’re looking for something a little bit different then How to Train Your Dragon may be just the game for you and if you liked Glyder and Glyder 2 the additional features in How to Train Your Dragon should keep you going until Glyder 3 comes out!
The Good
The Not So Good
Gameplay
Price: $2.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Released: Mar 10, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.0
1.0.0 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
Size: 21.9 MB
Languages: English
Seller: Glu Games Inc
© 2010 Glu mobile.
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 2.2 or later.