If you like or liked Pacman but would like a little more of a puzzle aspect to it then EVAC for iPhone could be the game for you as this seemingly Pacman inspired action puzzler is exactly that.
The game includes a storyline where you have to escape the electronic maze that you are currently trapped in. You are helped in your endevor by Cratos, a mysterious character that hides in the corners of the maze and advices you on your task. On the other side of your challenge is Shadowbox, an equally mysterious character who appears to taunt you throughout the game.
The gameplay is just like Pacman, across 24 different maps you run your block around the mazes collecting lines of dots while being chased by ghosts, there are even power-ups that allow you to attack and kill the ghost blocks that chase you down. The game does continue to add additional features as you progress through the levels, you can stealthily hide is some areas, move blocks to open/block pathways, electrify yourself and electrocute your enemy, these additions keep things interesting.
The problem for me is the controls which initially I thought were going to work really well turn out to be the thing that let’s the game down as just when you need a quick move to avoid imminent capture the controls don’t react and you end up losing the last of your lives.
As I said, initially I thought the controls would work well. A virtual button is placed in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and pressing above, below, left or right of the button will move your character in that direction. You can even move the virtual button anywhere on the screen by holding it for a few seconds. So in effect you get a hybrid floating directional button, because it doesn’t move during normal game play though it’s to easy to miss it at the crucial moment.
If you continue to move your finger in a given direction your character continues to move in that direction but you may be way off the centre of the button by that point so when you attempt to move on the opposite direction you aren’t in the right spot. This makes the game very frustrating to the point of unplayable.
There are additional loose edges too, for example when clicking on the Scores page the page is actually titled Hall Of Fame and on that same page the Menu icon and Profile link overlap the leader board. These are small details but just show a lack of attention to detail.
It’s nice to see a global leader board available esp. in a 1.0 version of a game but the leader board appears to be configured strangely as it appears to be a combined score of all the times you’ve played, which rewards the frequent players rather than the best players.
At 99 cents this isn’t going to break the bank but there are definitely better ways to spend a dollar, that is at least the controls are sorted out.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released: Oct 30, 2010
Version: 1.0
1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
9.8 MB
Language: English
Seller: David Peroutka
© 2010 Hexage Ltd
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
There are many word games available in the app store at the moment and they seem to be becoming more popular each day. If you like a variety of word games then Wordity is certainly a great all in one word app.
Developed by Mindstormstudios Wordity is a game with several games to play within the app. The challenge game is the first one to try and is the main game for the app.
You are greeted with a square grid of letters. You can move letters up and down or left and right one move at a time. The idea is to move the letters and form a word. When you have your word you tap the first and last letter to clear it out and then carry on looking for the next until you score enough to reach the next level. Some tiles are blocked by stones and cannot be moved. You will have to work around it. If you look closely you will also see a tiny number at the bottom right of each letter. This number tells you how many times you are allowed to move the tile. Within the game you will come across bonus tiles and letters. These help you get double scores, tile swap, extra time and much more.
The next game is Anagram again you move the letters to find a word in the letters provided. Adjoining letters can not be moved. To clear them off you do the same as the challenge and tap the first and last letter. As with the classic game you are on a time limit so you have to keep moving and find the words fast
Another game to enjoy is Wordsearch. This is the same as you would do in a normal wordsearch where you have to find the words hidden within the grid. You have to try and find them all before the time runs out and work your way through the levels.
The game comes with OpenFeint integration. So you can post your highscores on the leader board and unlock many achievements.
The graphics are nice and colorful and very appealing. The music was at times a little annoying but that can be easily turned off. It is an easy game to pick up and play at any time. Whether it be a quick five minutes you have spare or settling down on your hour dinner break. There is an endless mode so it opens the game up to hours of playing.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released: Aug 26, 2010
Version: 1.0.0
1.0.0
27.3 MB
Language: English
Seller: Mindstorm Studios
© 2010 Mindstorm Studios
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Chillingo have come up with yet another unique game, this time it’s Wacky Lands Boss which puts you in the unique position of playing the end of level boss who we’ve all competed against in so many games across the years if not centuries.
The game is a sideways scrolling button basher where your characters task is to pummel wave upon wave of ‘good guys’ as they attempt to defend their princess. It’s a great twist on the classic genre and wonderfully implemented.
Your first task is to create your boss, this includes naming him and controlling some of his accessories. While you start with limited options in how you evolve and equip your boss as you progress through the levels you will unlock more clothes, armor, styles and weapons.
I’m not normally a huge fan of button bashing style controls but whether it’s the way they’ve been implemented or just the fun nature of the game the button bashing works great. The irony is there are no buttons! Instead holding either side of the screen will make your boss walk while tapping the screen will perform a quick punch, rendering the weaker opponents dead.
As you would expect things don’t stay easy and a single punch isn’t going to defeat an enemy. However help is at hand thanks to a large punch that is performed by a sideways swipe and power ups that wreck havoc on the mini enemy.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that you are playing a boss each level also contains its own boss that you will need to pit your wits against in order to proceed.
Each level ramps up the difficulty with new enemies that are stronger and have weapons that they can use against you from a distant. This is why it’s imperative that you return to your boss and continue to evolve and equip him with the latest items that you unlock by progressing through the game.
As mentioned previously there are a variety of weapons and power ups aiding you in your fight, these range from fire balls and foot stomps to rolling cows and eating princesses to recoup your energy.
For a game that is pretty repetitive in it’s game play I’ve found that I’ve not been able to put it down. There are 12 levels of fun to be had as you rampage through the kingdoms and while you are at it there are 3 mini games thrown in for good measure.
Leader boards and achievements a provided by the link through to the Crystal social gaming network and these add extra value even once you’ve completed the 12 levels.
If you are after some button bashing fun, at just 99 cents you can’t go wrong with Chillingo’s WackyLands Boss.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released: Oct 28, 2010
Version: 1.0
1.0
19.8 MB
Language: English
Seller: Chillingo Ltd
© 2010 Fair Play Labs, S.A. – All rights reserved
Rated 9+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Glu Mobile has been on a roll recently with many successful game launches on the App Store. After ngmoco, Glu seems to be the next established game publisher to take the freemium game model by storm.
Gun Bros is the latest 3D action shooter from Glu which is available for free for iPhone and iPod touch. The game is based on an interesting back story and integrates with Game Center.
You are a part of The Freakishly Rugged Advanced Genetics Galactic Enforcement Division (AKA F.R.A.G.G.E.D.) and your task is to protect the universe from the Tyrannical Oppressors of Life known as T.O.O.L.
The game features two characters to choose from (Percy Gun or Francis Gun) and then you are ready to eliminate the baddies using dual stick controls. It’s great to see that Glu Mobile has invested a lot of time in paying attention to details. The 3D graphics are outstanding and I really liked the level design as it stays true to the overall galactic theme.
You always enter the battlefield with two players, you control your chosen Bro and the other is controlled by the AI which helps you in clearing waves after waves of enemies. As you continue to annihilate the Tyrannical Oppressors of Life you can earn Xplodium (an unstable ore) which you must convert in the chambers to get coins which are used to buy weapons and power-ups. The game offers different chambers which increase the conversion rate of Xplodium so that you can earn more coins.
Gun Bros offers Game Center integration so you can fight with your friends character and take advantage of their upgraded Bro with powerful weapons.
The game offers a lot of content with many powerful upgrades and also allows you to buy coins and war bucks via in app purchase so that you can quickly upgrade and advance to new levels. You don’t necessarily need to buy any coins unless you are impatient to get the more powerful weapons or facing difficulty in clearing certain levels.
Overall, Gun Bros is one of the best freemium titles on the App Store (View in iTunes), get it today and be prepared to get addicted!
Gun Bros Gameplay Footage
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Sudoku’s are a lot like Marmite, you either love them or you hate them, that’s how decisive they are. For me I fell on the side of love ever since I first started playing them in my daily newspaper.
For those of you that missed the rise of the Sudoku puzzle throughout the western world a Sudoku is a cross between a Word Search and a Crossword Puzzle but with numbers. The challenge with a Sudoku is to complete an 8 x 8 grid of numbers where each number can only appear on each vertical or horizontal row once.
There are millions of puzzles and difficulties but Kuboku takes the game to a whole new level thanks to the extra dimension that the iPhone/iPad offers. For now, rather than completing an 8 x 8 grid your challenge is to complete an 8 x 8 x 8 cube instead!
This is not as difficult as it seems especially if you start out on the easiest of the three levels before moving up to the Medium and Hard puzzles.
The cube fills the majority of the screen and it can be rotated by simply dragging your finger across the screen allowing you to get an accurate look at the missing number and the corresponding cells that control the placement of the next number.
The three difficulty levels controls the number of missing numbers from the cube. The more numbers that are missing the more complex the puzzle will be. You are presented with finding the solution for one number at a time and if you can’t solve it right away you can use the arrow buttons to move to the next number or double tap the missing number that you want to solve next.
Only the relevant corresponding blocks to the number that you are attempting to solve are displayed by default. However if you wish to see the other numbers this can be done by holding down the appropriate button. This can help you, but can also sometimes hinder your solution!
Finding the right number quickly can earn you bonus points and completing a chain of correct numbers before the timer runs our grows the multiplier nicely. This adds additional pressure to playing Kuboku and takes it from being a sedate puzzle game to an edge of the seat challenge instead.
Games are selected randomly depending on the difficulty level you choose although if you find a particular puzzle enjoyable or wish to attempt to beat you previous score you can enter the number of the puzzle in to play that specific one.
Kuboku is a universal app too so for the $1.99 price tag you get to play Kaboku on both your iPhone and iPad should you have both. The game is the same on both devices and looks great on them both too.
The game is also Game Center enabled but only utilizes the leader boards to rank your scores against you, your friends and the world! Adding some achievements would certainly have been a nice addition.
Kuboku is a great twist on the classic sudoku puzzle and with 1000 challenging puzzles has enough to keep even the hardened puzzler entertained.
$1.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Updated:Oct 22, 2010
Current Version:1.0.1
1.0.1
28.8 MB
Languages:English, French, German, Japanese
Seller:Creaceed SPRL
© 2010 Creaceed SPRL
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
EA a renowned name for producing quality titles across all devices and no more so than the range of games they’ve produced for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Most of these games however are big named games ported from other game systems, Reckless Racing however breaks that mold as it debuts onto Apple’s handheld device.
There have been top down racers before but none on a held device that matches the quality of Reckless Racing especially in the graphics department. The tracks may be small but they are beautifully formed and as you race around them it’s difficult not to notice the attention to detail that has been put into this game.
From the dust and dirt being spun up by the spinning tires, the water bubbling over rocks in the stream that you have to drive through at times and the detail in the buildings that crowd the track the game just sparkles, especially on the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. The beauty doesn’t deminish either when playing online or suffer from slow down which is good to see.
The sound, the music at least, could be pretty decisive, with a banjo laden track being repeatidly played throughout the game. This can be turned off however so if it does get on your nerves it can be easily switched of. The sound effects are effective too with the cars sounding suitably throaty as they charge around the off tracks.
The single player game is split into three modes, Dirt Rally, Hot Lap and Delivery. The first two pretty much speak for themselves, in Dirty Lap you race against either 4 or 6 AI controlled cars to win a race over a set number of laps while in Hot Lap it’s just you against the clock, and your ghost, as you race around the 5 tracks on your own.
One of the down sides to Reckless Racing is the number of tracks especially considering how small they are. Individually the size of the tracks is just perfect for the racing but overall having only five tracks, 10 if you count the reverse of them, is rather limiting and I certainly hope that more tracks become avialable in a future update.
The final game type is Delivery, a unique addition which tasks you with collecting trailers of goods and delivery them as quickly as possible. This mode is played on a new unique track and can be played over 3, 5 or 8 minutes at a time. Deliver the goods fast and you will be rewarded with more money. I liked this addition to the game and if more tracks are added to this mode too and it gets added to the multi-player option then it will make a great game even better.
So that brings me on to the multi-player option. Playing certain games against your friends and other real people online an make or break a game and so it is great to see online multi-player added to Reckless Racing from the word go. As mentioned previously the two modes available to play online are Dirt Rally and Hot Lap and the host of the game gets to choose which type of race you’ll be playing.
When playing online you are taken into a Lobby where all the hosted games are listed. Considering this game has only just launched I was pleased to see the amount of games available to join. Listed in the Lobby is the name of the race, entered by the host, and the current number of players. What’s not included is the type of race being played or whether the race is in progress or not. It would be nice to see these options available in the Lobby before entering the race.
There’s also no overall ranking or leagues to compete in so while racing online is smooth and has little or no lag in my experience the fact that there is no lasting reward to it other than race itself left it feeling a little lacking. That being said the online racing is fun and adds extra value to the overall gaming experience.
All of this however would amount to nothing if the controls weren’t up to the task. No worries there though either as there are five, yes five, sets of controls to choose from as well as the ability to choose auto accelerate and the sensitivity of your steering. Standard steering mode was my favorite, utilizing four separate buttons for left, right, accelerate and reverse seemed to offer the maximum level of control and dexterity, having id that though having tank, tilt, half wheel and whole wheel options will enable everyone the opportunity to find the right solution for them.
For some people used to paying no more than 99 cents for a game may see the $2.99 price tag two high, for me however it’s worth every cent and should further updates add more tracks and online rankings it while make this game easily my #1 game on the iPhone 4.
$2.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Oct 21, 2010
Version:1.1.5
1.1.5
39.3 MB
Languages:English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Seller:Electronic Arts
Reckless Racing (TM) © 2010 Pixelbite AB. All Rights Reserved.
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
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The irony of writing a review of an educational game about grammar, named Grammar Police is not lost on me. The chance of getting pulled up on my own grammatical error is extremely high so I must concentrate on my writing as much as the app itself.
Grammar Police is an educational game to help pre-intermediate and intermediate English learners with the details of grammar, something that can be a challenge for people who have English as their first language let alone if it’s your second language.
The game states that it’s suitable for all ages but the cartoon style graphics are certainly going to appeal to younger age groups, which for the most part will be the ones that benefit from the educational aspect of this game.
The game alternates between two types of games. The first challenges you to complete a sentence in the appropriate tense from a selection of words presented on the screen. This is where the story part of the game comes in as the words are being carried by the Tense Gang and getting the right words will ensure that the Tense Gang are caught and that innocent bystanders are captured instead.
Before each level starts you are given the tense of the sentence and the first couple of words at the beginning of the sentence and is your task to complete the sentence appropriately.
Selecting the words can be a little tricky at times as the words overlap each other and you’ll find yourself waiting for the words to untangle themselves. It would also be nice for the tense to appear while you are playing the game, instead if you have forgotten the tense that you are supposed to be playing, you have to pause the game to find out.
The other game requires you to fill in the missing word from a sentence from a range of similar looking and sounding words. You have 3 lives for each game and failure to complete the task will result in the game ending.
Throughout playing this game the level types have remained the same each time I’ve played it, however no two sentences or missing words have repeated themselves which goes to show the large variety of puzzles in this game.
What is disappointing is that you can only play the game by playing through the levels in a linear way, there is no way to select individual levels should you wish to concentrate on a certain type of puzzle.
What is also missing is the ability for multiple players to play the game via multiple profiles, however one reason for this may be the OpenFeint integration which enables a variety of achievements to be unlocked as you play the game.
Grammar Police is a great way for your children to polish up on their grammar in a fun way and certainly make it more of a game rather than homework.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Oct 18, 2010
Version:1.0
1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
12.5 MB
Language:English
Seller:Chamira Fernando
© Arzon
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Take a bunch of cute animals and start attempting to throw them into a recycling bin and you are either playing Burrow or about to get a visit from the local animal welfare organization. Let’s assume it’s the former!
Burrow is a physics based puzzle game where the task in each level is to launch a cute little animal into a recycling bin. The task is made all the more difficult with the various obstacles put in your way.
The cartoon style graphics and cute animals make it look like it’s a child’s game but the challenge of the puzzles ensure that it’s definitely not for people with child like brains!
You have an unlimited supply of animals to launch and the range of animals have various attributes that can either help or hinder the task at hand. The key to many of the levels though is the transporter, when the entrance and exit are placed it enables you to transport your little animals from one part of the screen to the other.
While there is no formal scoring system in Burrow each level keeps track of how many attempted throws it took you to complete the level so that you can revisit them again to see if you lower the number if you so wish.
The controls are all touch based and are simple to use and there are currently 50 tricky levels to transverse, 25 covering Spring, 25 covering Summer and another 50 levels covering Fall and Winter due to be released in a future free update.
There’s nothing new or ground-breaking in Burrow and playing through the game felt like I was playing a game from 12 months ago and with the speed of mobile gaming development, that’s a long time!
If you’re quick you may still be able to grab Burrow while it’s on offer for free and that’s the perfect price point for a game that needs a lot more polish to help it stand out.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Updated:Sep 29, 2010
Current Version:1.1
1.1
7.6 MB
Language:English
Seller:Shane Wighton
© 2010 Shane Wighton
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Tower (Castle) Defense games are pretty popular on touch screen devices and Robin Hood – Archer of the Woods is the latest addition to the genre, all be it with a little less strategy and more action.
Robin Hood is all alone in this game that takes his name, on his own that is other than a constant stream of the sherifs men who are armed to the teeth and on a mission to destroy the village that Robin is aiming to defend.
The game works across a horizontal scrolling playing area with Robin on the left of the screen behind the cottages that he must defend while the hordes of attackers start entering from the right.
The screen is split into two levels and so attackers will enter either on the bottom or top level as they walk towards you. And as you would expect Robin’s only weapon is his trusted bow and arrow.
To launch your arrow you simply touch the screen, pull back, direct the arrow and launch it. the direction and power of the arrow will dictate whether or not it takes out one of your enemy or falls aimlessly into the ground.
It would be nice if the prior arrows power and trajectory remained on the screen to help you with your next arrow but it doesn’t stop the controls from working well.
The enemies come think and fast, some on foot, some on armor and some on what appear to be ancient segways, and unless you kill them before they reach the cottages they will start to destroy them. When all the cottages are destroyed it’s game over.
As with most games in this genre the attackers come in waves and between waves you will face an end of level baddie that will require multiple accurate hits to destroy. There are also power-ups placed randomly on each level which when struck will enable a range of extra features to your arrows.
These power-ups become more and more important as not only do the number of enemies increase so do the number of cottages that you must defend.
The game looks good, plays well and is full of action. The only down side is that the gameplay doesn’t have much variety and can become a little tedious. Robin Hood – Archer of the Woods would certainly prove to be enjoyable for players who like this genre.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Oct 14, 2010
Version:1.0
1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
21.6 MB
Language:English
Seller:Clickgamer Technologies Ltd
© Mudloop Games
Rated 9+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Let’s Fire created by Corefan is a game based on a simple premise of fireworks exploding in the sky. Travel around the world and perfect your firework display and score points as you go.
The idea of the game is to control the firework display by controlling the fireworks explosion. You have to make it a perfect display. When you start the game the fireworks are fired up into the sky, you have to tap them to make them explode. You can tell when it is the perfect time to explode a firework as it will show a circle around it. If you tap it when the circle is there you will score a perfect explosion.
The timing will determine your score, you will be given, perfect, good, poor or bad. Perfect obviously being the best and bad the worst score. At top of the screen is your life bar. This will be continually reducing but if you can get a score of poor and above it will give you back some of your life line. You need to stop the bar from disappearing. When you miss or score bad it will make your life bar go down a lot quicker.
If you keep making explosions that are better than poor you start scoring what is called a chain. The more you can build up in your chain the higher you will score.
The game had some good sound effects. When the fireworks shoot up into the air they do sound like the real thing, even when they explode and light up the sky. The graphics are ok, there are some nice images in the background but the fireworks on exploding are not very exciting. There was nothing that stood out and made you think ‘wow’.
The game it does record your high score but there is no global leader board or any Game Center or Open Feint integration. I think if it had one of these it would make the game more appealing and a good reason to keep coming back and playing it.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Oct 06, 2010
Version:1.0.0
1.0.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
8.1 MB
Language:English
Seller:Corefan technologies Ltd
© Corefan
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
I often wonder how certain shows make it on TV. When Seinfeld was pitched to the TV execs as a show about nothing, why weren’t they thrown out of the TV execs office? The same applies to games.
Pitching a new car racing game with great handling and graphics is easy, however pitching a game where you have to cut a rope to drop dangling candy into the mouth of a waiting monster would potentially be very difficult.
Luckily for us most games don’t have to be pitched in that way otherwise the risk would be that you would never get to play Cut the Rope.
Across 100 challenging levels, with more to come in a future update, your task is to maneuver a piece of candy to the wide open mouth of Om Nom, a mysterious creature that has just been delivered to you.
The candy is suspended on a rope and a swift swipe across the rope cuts it in two allowing the candy to fall into the wide open mouth of the waiting Om Nom.
The physics of the the candy as it swings on the rope is your first challenge and then timing the cut at just the right time to ensure you get a direct hit.
Feeding Om Nom will get you past the level but the real challenge is picking up the three stars that are placed around the screen. Sometimes this will take multiple attempts but the replay option is so fast it’s never a problem.
Even before you get past the initial 25 levels the difficulty states to get cranked up. From the candy being attached to multiple ropes and bubbles that cause the candy to float until it’s popped, to candy hungry spiders that will try to steal the candy before you can get it to Om Nom.
The difficulty level is beautifully pitched, not so easy that you’ll complete the game in a few hours but difficult enough to keep things challenging and interesting. As with most games from Chillingo the game is connected to their social gaming network named Crystal and this allows you to earn multiple achievements and compare your scores globally on the leader boards.
The game plays so well that you almost don’t notice how great the game looks too. Sharp graphics and smooth animations are the icing on the cake in a game that is all about the great physics puzzles and simple touch controls.
While they wait for new levels to be added to Angry Birds many people have been looking for an alternative, in Cut The Rope they have the answer.
Pros
Cons
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Oct 05, 2010
Version:1.0
1.0
12.4 MB
Language:English
Seller:Chillingo Ltd
© ZeptoLab
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Sand Slides is a new puzzle game for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad where your task is to direct falling streams of sand into there corresponding colored buckets.
At first look the game looks good, however when you realize that there is just a single background and no variety in the color of the sand it’s a little disappointing.
Controlling the direction of the sand as it falls is done by drawing lines down the screen for it to slide down. The trick is though is you can only use three lines at a time and the sand just keeps on falling.
Unlike most puzzle games there are no levels to complete, instead the task is to last as long as you can. Survival is based on minimizing the number of sand granules that fall into the wrong colored containers. On the easy level you have 30,000 grains of sand to lose before the game is over while on the medium and hard levels there are 20,000 and 10,000 grains respectively.
To begin with you can simply draw lines direct from the chutes to the containers below. However, as you progress and the sand starts falling quicker you will need to draw containers to capture the sand before releasing when all is clear.
Getting two different colors of sand to land in the containers at the same time will earn you multipliers to boost you score but mix the sand up and you grain loss counter will start decreasing fast.
The game is also Game Center enabled with over 70 achievements which certainly offers extra value but there’s no online multi-player or leader boards.
The game is pretty much the same on both the iPhone and the iPad but I found that the iPad version is poorly ported, to the point where turning the iPad horizontally shrinks the game back down to the size of the iPhone.
To me the game feels like it’s still in beta mode with too many rough edges to earn much interest. The premise is a good one, just needs more polish to be a success.
$1.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Entertainment
Released:Sep 29, 2010
Version:1.0
1.0
16.0 MB
Language:English
Seller:Paul Carter
© 2010 Logik State
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1.2 or later
Sir Lovalot for iPhone has been developed by Hungry-Game the creators of Fly Kiwi, Fly! (View in iTunes) In this game your objective is to climb the infinite tower to rescue Sir Lovalot’s beloved princess. Avoid the traps as you climb and see how high you can go.
The game is similar to the popular jumping games like Doodle Jump (View in iTunes). Sir Lovalot needs to climb the vertical tower and rescue his princess. To do this you need to use the tilt controls on your device. Tap the screen to start and then he is off on his endless journey.
Where this differs to the rest is that this is a 3D tower and you have to jump around it as the tower spins round and round. Scattered around the tower are steps for you to jump on. Jump from one to the other and hope as you move further, there is another to jump on. If not and you only have a short fall he will be ok. If it is a big drop I’m afraid Sir Lovalot will fall to an untimely death and needless to say never reach his princess.
You have to also watch out for the many traps scattered around. Fires that will burn him and spikes that will give him a huge fright. Luckily you will get three lives to use if you do happen to sit on a spike or other trap so he won’t always die straight away.
As you climb higher and higher you should eventually meet a princess and rescue her. You collect your points and keep on going to rescue more that are trapped above.
When Sir Lovalot is climbing the tower he can also collect items along the journey. This is your loot, after each game you can see what loot you have collected in the ‘Ye Olde Collectibles’ and if you tap on it, it will give you a description of what it is. See how many you can collect!
The graphics are really nice and Sir Lovalot looks great climbing the tower and spinning his sword as he goes. The only thing that did become annoying was the sound that he made. Every time he jumped he would constantly repeat ‘up little buddy!’ I could only take it for so long and then had to turn the sound off. He really did say it far too many times.
The game is a good pick up and play game that can be played anytime and becomes very addictive. It is one of those games that you want to try over and over to beat your own score. To add to the challenge it is integrated with Open feint to compete with your friends.
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Oct 01, 2010
Version:1.00
1.00 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
16.6 MB
Language:English
Seller:Hungry Game S.A.
© (c) Hungry Game 2010
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later
Moonsters is a cute physics based puzzle game created by Ars Thanea. The little Moonsters are hungry and lonely. Help your new found friends to find all the tofu and fix their spaceship.
The game is very easy to pick up. You have a Moonster at the bottom of your screen. It is in a little bubble and if you touch the bubble you can move him left or right. You might also notice if you pull down on him it will show an arrow that you can move from side to side to aim.
Now you may want to know why on earth you need to shoot this cute little moonster up, well it is simple. It wants to go home and exchange tofu for parts to his spaceship. Floating above your moonster in the sky are pieces of said tofu that it needs to collect. They are egg shaped might I add, not sure why! He must collect these by you firing him up and doing so by using the controls I mentioned.
On some occasions you will have to make your moonster bounce off the edges and back just to make sure you hit all the tofu pieces. It is a great physics puzzler where you have to plan ahead.
As you go through each level you collect stars as well depending on your score, to unlock further chapters you need to collect a set amount of stars first. So while it may be tempting to just quickly collect the amount of tofu you need to move on you do also need to score high to unlock the next part.
In each level there is a large tofu piece with wings and if you collect that first you earn more points. On each level you have to collect a certain amount of tofu before you can move on to the next.
There are three characters within three chapters with 90 levels to complete in total. The first few I would say are very easy and at first I thought I was going to fly through them all but I am glad to say that they improved and became quite a challenge.
I did notice after each completed level it takes a little more time than it should to confirm you have completed the level and that you were able to move on to the next level. This part could do with speeding up abit.
One of the first things you’ll notice about the game are the cute and colourful graphics. Very eye-catching and appealing to all ages. It is full of great catchy music and some cute sound effects too.
The game is integrated with facebook and you can also compete with other players on an online leader board. It would be nice to see this game integrate with Game Center to play against your friends as well.
Moonsters is an addictive puzzle game that is also complimented with very nice graphics. It offers hours of fun as you can replay levels to improve your score and collect more stars.
$1.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Sep 23, 2010
Version:1.0
1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
35.0 MB
Language:English
Seller:Ars Thanea
© 2010 Ars Thanea
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1.2 or later
The Expendables Game is the official game of “the action film of the year”, so is the game actually full of action too?
You take the role of the Sylvester Stallone character from the movie and it’s your task to defend the island of Vilena from then troops of General Garza. Of course if you have watched the film then you probably know all this already!
The controls work surprisingly well, your character will automatically move forward but pressing the stop button will stop your character allowing you to move your character around on the spot via the accelerometer. The shoot button is in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and you can reload via the button in the top right. The only frustration with the controls is that there is no vertical movement meaning that you can only look left and right, not up and down.
Once the game starts the countdown begins to the first wave of enemies and so for 20 seconds you have to wait for the action to begin. The enemy will appear from a variety of locations and this changes on each wave.
As the enemy appear you can unload your weapon and kill them. They will shoot back but as you can endlessly upgrade your health and weapons from a variety of locations (which automatically regenerate) it’s pretty easy to ensure that you don’t die.
You are pre-warned of all impending waves of enemy attack by a large block of text in the centre of the screen that stays there for about 5 seconds. Therefore, if you are near to the enemy it completely blocks your view of shooting them.
The single location looks OK but ultimately as there is only one location it does get boring pretty quickly and even though there are doorways, stairs, platforms and other items that you would expect to be interactive, they aren’t and you will simply bounce off them.
The game does have OpenFeint integration which would usually be a plus point to any game, however they only feature that has been enabled is a single leader board. There are no achievements to attain and no additional leader boards based on other aspects of the game other than the total survival time.
It appears that this game has been rushed out to cash in on the release of the movie and even at just 99 cents it’s not a game that I can recommend until additional features are added as you are likely to get bored before the 99 cents has even reached the developers bank account!
Reviewed on an iPhone 4
$2.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Sep 13, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0
Size: 44.7 MB
Language:English
Seller:Nurogames GmbH
© 2010 Nurogames GmbH
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
It’s easy to pigeon hole most games as they are just version of established game styles. It’s therefore always refreshing when a new game is released that doesn’t fit into those pre-conceived categories.
So that brings us to Blind World a game that is certainly like no other I have played up to this point. Blind World is a puzzle game where the aim of the game is to make initially invisible surfaces visible by maneuvering a colorful disk around the screen.
The game looks surprisingly good despite it’s simple graphics and soft color scheme but it’s this simplicity that makes Blind World what it is. The music is very atmospheric too and while the game is nothing like Zen Bound the atmospheric style certainly is.
Each of the 40 levels split over 2 episodes start with the disk that you control in the center of the screen resting on one or two of the surface you need to completely reveal. Your task is to then move the disk around the screen to reveal all of the surfaces in the level.
This can be done by either by using the accelerometer or dragging the screen around by dragging your finger around the screen. While it’s good to have multiple control options I found the accelerometer option to work best but I’m sure it’s simply personal choice.
The game plays very well on both the iPhone and iPad, this is a game that will work on both with a single purchase, and you’ll soon find yourself throwing your device around allowing your disk to complete the various shapes and designs of each level.
Each level has a minimum score that needs to be achieved but you can continue after achieving the minimum to achieve high scores that can be synchronised with the OpenFeint social gaming network to compare with other players and unlock the 8 achievements that are available. You can also use OpenFeint to challenge other players to beat scores on individual levels.
It’s currently available on promotion at just 99 cents and I can certainly recommend this game as it offers a unique challenge that will keep you entertained. While the current 40 levels will be completed relatively quickly the developers look like they are planning to update the game with extra content.
Reviewed on an Apple iPad and an iPhone 4
Blind World Trailer
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Games
Released:Sep 18, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0.0
Size: 11.5 MB
Language:English
Seller:Dmitriy Kuzmenko
© Dgut
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 2.0 or later.
Earlier this year we reviewed the full version of Trainyard and it scored 4.5/5 thanks to its unique puzzles, simple controls and 100+ levels. Well now, or actually on September 30th 2010, a free version of the game is being released in the form of Trainyard Express.
It’s got the same smooth controls, stylish graphics and 60 brand new devilish puzzles. That’s right, 60 brand new never seen before puzzles and so this new game is going to appeal to 2 groups of people.
Firstly players of the original game will love the 60 new challenging puzzles while gamers who had previously sat on the edge can now take the plunge and try Trainyard Express for free before splashing the cash on the full version with 140 tricky levels.
Imagine Doodle Jump in reverse but instead of how far you fall it’s how quickly you fall and you’ll have a pretty good idea about what Monster Falls is all about.
Monster Falls is 19 levels of monster falling fun where the idea of the game is to steer you circular monster down through the caves as fast as you can. Hitting the walls of the caves and various other obstacles will slow you down while avoiding crashing into things and picking up the glowing bonuses spread throughout the level will earn you the points you need to progress.
The game is fun but needs some polish around the edges. The graphics while detailed in places are a little retro looking in style and while the check points that show you how you are doing compared to the high score is nice the fact that I was never able to view my score on the global leader boards was frustrating.
If the developers continue to work on Monster Falls, add new levels and polish the edges they could have a real winner on their hands here. (View in iTunes)
While playing TotemHeadz HD it reminded me of playing the game Worms as the game play is very similar with a couple of changes namely it’s not turn based and the controls are as intuitive.
You take control of Bork, a small creature with death on his mind and he his loaded with a variety of weapons to destroy his enemies which are similar little creatures with equally unique names.
There are 20 maps to work through and each one will contain an increasing amount of enemies that you need to destroy to move onto the next level.
There are two virtual sticks one to control your movement, the other to control the power and direction of your weapons which include a pistol, mortar, grenade and landmine which all have there own level of damage.
Moving Bork around is not as intuitive as it should be be the weapon use is easily controlled and seeing your enemies blow up is as satisfying as always!
There are 20 levels to work through in campaign mode and completing them makes them playable in Skirmish mode too.
The game plays well on the iPad and if it is priced competitively it could be worth grabbing hold of. The game will be available on October 1st.
I guess if you use the scatter-gun approach you are bound to hit something eventually and that’s certainly the case with 71 in 1 GameUtilities which actually breaks down to 66 utilities and 5 games, which at just 99 is pretty good value for money.
None of the games or apps are going to win awards but many of them are usable and playable making the 99 cent cost worth the money.
The 5 games are pretty simple games that while not particularly challenging do provide a distraction and most young children will specifically enjoy Hungry Animals where you have to feed the animals the right food.
As for the utilities I cannot deny that I could defiantly find myself using many of them from time to time and having them all bundled up into a single app saves a lot of space on the springboard. The apps I could see using the most include the spirit level, converter, coin flip, dice roll and zip code finder which all offer good functionality even if they would be used rarely.
At 99c it’s difficult so see a bargain in this multi-app. (View in iTunes)
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The award winning marble board game Pentago, is now available on your iPhone and iPod Touch. If you have never played the game before, the game rules are simple. The game consists of 6×6 square board, this is divided into four and these fours squares are 3×3. All you have to do is get a row of 5 with your colored marbles. This can be in any direction you want.
There are two moves to the game though. Every time you place a marble on a peg then you also have to move a 3×3 game block. To do this you must move it either clockwise or anti-clockwise by one notch. Then it is the next players turn. You do this until one of you gets a row of 5 colored marbles.
If you manage to fill the board with out either playing winning it counts as a draw. There are different ways to play the game, the first is Quick Play where you play one game at a time. This mode is great if you just want to improve on your skills and practice your tactic moves before you move on to the career mode.
With Career mode, you start off as a beginner and work your way up to becoming a champion. When you become higher in the ranks the game gets harder and a lot more challenging.You can unlock different themes as you go. You can also play what is called Pass and Play, a mode that you can use to play with your friends.
It is all about tactics anfd figuring out where you can place a marble and turn a block to your benefit. The game is very challenging, infact it is quite hard at times to beat it! I did do a few times but it took quite a many games to just win one. The game is easy to pick up and play, you just tap on the hole where you want your marble to go and then swipe you finger over the square you want to move and in the direction you want it to go. It is all a good size on your screen.
I had never played this game before so I was new to the game play. I therefore relied on the game help section to fill me in. I have to say though that part needs a little tweaking. I tried to read the ‘how to play’ but it just wouldn’t scroll correctly, it either showed the top or the bottom of the details. It got me fustrated before I had even started the game!
There is music playing, along with the sounds from placing marbles, within the game that can be turned off. I liked the graphics and color choice and the all touch controls make it an easy game to play. Pentago for iPhone is a very challenging game and one that will keep you busy. With the option to play with your friends via pass and play it opens the game up to offering lots of replay value.
Price: $1.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Released:Sep 08, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.1.38
Size: 6.2 MB
Language:English
Seller:IGFUN LLC
© (c) 2010 Indiagames Ltd. (c) 2010 MindTwister Games
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 2.2 or later.
During Apple’s annual music event yesterday, Steve Jobs finally unveiled the new iPod touch 4G which features the new A4 chip, retina display, gyroscope and two cameras. The processor upgrade and high resolution display will certainly make the “#1 portable game player” even better.
iPhone and iPod touch gamers are now demanding games with the best 3D graphics and sound effects however, the classic board and puzzle games still remain one of the most popular genres in the App Store.
Indiagames recently sent us an update about their upcoming strategy based board game called “Pentago” The game has a very simple gameplay where you place marbles on a 6×6 board which is divided into four 3×3 sub-boards in order to get five marbles in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. After placing your marble you need to rotate the sub-board which adds an element of complexity and strategy.
Pentago is an award winning board game and it will be available in the App Store in the coming week.
With smooth and easy to play touch controls which will make your gameplay immersive and one awesome challenging experience. Play to beat the AI or throw a challenge to a friend on the same device with the ‘Pass n Play’ mode. Track your progress, flip themes, change board styles, and unlock medals.
Game Features:
It is interesting to note that an iPhone developer had developed a version of Pentago for iPhone called Pentissimo which was taken down due to copyright infringement.
Pentago for iPhone has been officially licensed by Indiagames from Mindtwister Games and if you have been waiting for this award wining title then you will be able to purchase the new strategy based board game from the App Store very soon.
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There was a time that if you liked to play music you would get together with a few friends and start your own band in your parents garage. While I’m sure that still happens to a lessor extent it also seems perfectly acceptable to hone your skills playing virtual instruments via a range of rhythm games across multiple platforms.
For developers launching these type of games on the App Store have at least a couple of huge titles to compete with, namely Guitar Hero and the Tap Tap Revenge series. So how does Sudden Tap by Sudden Creations fit into the genre?
Sudden Tap contains just four tracks with each one having four difficulty levels making 16 levels to complete the game. Unlike most rhythm games that have the notes flowing down virtual strings the notes on Sudden Tap appear anywhere on the screen and rather than tapping the note as it passes over a line each note has a wide glow around it which narrows until tight around the note, it’s at this point that you have to tap it. All in time with the song of course.
Unlike the more well known rhythm games that use real tracks for you to play along too Sudden Tap have created their own songs which while they don’t have the same hook as the songs you know and love still work well as rhythm game backing tracks.
The notes are numbered as they appear on screen so that you can see the order in which they need to be pressed. In addition to the standard notes there are also notes that need to be dragged across the screen after you’ve touched them and skull notes which must be avoided at all costs.
Some songs have bonus sections in them that act as a bonus round where you can boost your score as a grid of notes take up the centre of the screen. Most of these notes are of the skull variety though and need to be avoided too.
The cartoon style graphics are solid enough but at the same time not outstanding. The navigation is simple enough though and you won’t have any difficulty navigating the game. There is also a tutorial to show you to play the game and you can also watch the songs before playing them to give you a heads up on the beats.
Unfortunately the notes don’t seem to meet the beats as you would expect all of the time and therefore hitting them in a timely manner can be tricky at times. Having said that the scoring is pretty generous and I found it easy to pick up points, earn stars and move through the tracks and difficulty levels without any problems.
The game is fun to play while it lasts and at just 99c it’s not going to break the bank. Though Tap Tap Revenge 3 is free a better alternative in my opinion offering more tracks, better graphics and more variety.
Price: $0.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Updated:20 August 2010
Reviewed Version:1.2.11
Size: 26.3 MB
Languages:English, Italian, Spanish
Developer:Alex Tinti
© 2008 Alex Tinti, Gabriella Frongia
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
It appears that the demand for Match 3 type puzzle games is not going away despite the App Store being flooded with them. The latest one to pass my way is the first from developers Mind Crew and it’s called Mayan Puzzle.
The game is inspired by the ancient Mayans and the whole game looks and sounds wonderful with it’s animated themes, ancient sound track and jungle sound effects you could almost imagine that you are back in those times.
Luckily for you though you aren’t as you wouldn’t be reading this article or be able to play the game on your iPhone or iPod Touch if you were. While the game is a traditional Match 3 game there are 4 modes in total and it adds a freshness to the genre that is much needed.
Each of the 4 modes are executed in a similar way, you drag the the beautifully illustrated blocks from side to side and when 3 or more of them line up either vertically or horizontally they will disappear with a crescendo of fireworks, bangs and sparkles. However the challenge of each of the four modes is different, here’s a summary of them all:
Challenge Mode – Choose from 1 of 4 difficulty levels and and clear the screen of blocks. The harder the level the larger the range of blocks is to work with.As with most match 3 type games the more blocks you clear at any one time the more points you earn and with the OpenFeint integration you can easily compare your scores with players all around the would across all games modes and difficulties.
The OpenFeint integration also has 35 achievements for you to claim which adds an additional challenge to the game, not that any was specifically needed as the game is a challenge in it’s own right.
Before you play each of the four game modes you are given a brief overview of the requirements of the mode, however the text is very brief and it’s not possible to read it again should you so wish.
The word addictive is thrown around too easily these days but Mayan Puzzle certainly deserves that accolade as once picked up it is difficult to put down.
Reviewed on an iPhone 4
Price: $0.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Released:Aug 08, 2010
Version:1.0
Size: 16.6 MB
Language:English
Seller:Tomasz Baran
© 2010 Mind Crew
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
When I first received Plates! to review I assumed from the logo that it was a homage to the Greek tradition of smashing plates during a meal. However, it was soon clear that it was it was nothing of the sort, instead you find yourself at the pass attempting to add the appropriate dressing to all the meals that pass by you on an conveyor belt.
The game-play, design and execution of this game are very simple, the game is all played on a single screen with four sauces in the four corners of the screen. Steak sauce, blueberry syrup, ketchup and salad oil are your weapons of choice and activating them is as easy as tapping on them.
With your sauce selected you can then add your selected sauce to the plate as it travels by. There are 6 types of dish that pass by waiting to be dressed and they are steak, salad, pancakes, hot dogs, steak & salad and hot dog & salad. Each sauce has a corresponding dish and the two combo plates will require a splash of each of their sauces to be completed.
The dishes flow by quickly so you’ll need speed and excellent eye to hand coordination if you want to avoid breaking any of the plates. This is pretty inevitable though as they speed by faster and faster. You do have five lives though so all is not lost immediately.
A few extras are added to the mix to keep things interesting such as combo’s where you sauce three of the same dishes in a row and dynamite dogs which which instantly end the game. The game is also OpenFeint enabled although with only score based achievements in addition to the leader boards this needs a little more work to completely take advantage of it.
Additional achievements and game modes are on their way though according to the developer so it will be interesting to see what they have up their sleeves.
The only downside to Plates! was the lack of appropriate sound effects, for example when selecting a sauce bottle while it does stand out, a little appropriate sound effect would be nice to confirm that you have actually selected it and the is no sound effect at all when the hot dogs blow up!
At just 99c Plates! is a fun and addictive addition to the app store and with the future updates this should be a good addition to your iPhone gaming arsenal.
Reviewed on an iPhone 4
Price: $0.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Updated:Aug 19, 2010
Current Version:1.1
Size: 12.9 MB
Language:English
Seller:Kyle T. Webster Inc.
© 2010 Big Mouse Media and Peer Assembly
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
It seems that there is one genre of entertainment that you cannot get away from at the moment and that is Zombies. From books and movies to games across all the gaming platforms it appears that you cannot escape the undead, even if they only move slightly faster than a snail on Prozac!
Game developers have taken the successful flick part from their initial App Store game Deadball Specialists and added a zombie effect to it to come up with Flick Zombie for iPhone, a game where you have to flick a range of objects at the zombies that are heading towards you in order to kill them.
The game places you in the crossroads of two passages which ultimately results in you being attacked from the north, south, east and west. You play the game from a 1st person perspective and yet you can easily navigate the four directions by tapping on the left and right hand sides of the screen. You are also notified of the any pending attack from a blind spot by a soft blue glow on the side of the screen that the attack is coming from.
The game is simple to play, as the zombie’s head your way you simply flick the screen in the direction of the un-dead in an attempt to kill them, (is that possible as they are already dead?), by any means possible, preferably by decapitation!
Bonuses are scored by scoring death combo’s which are made easier by flicking your weapons off of the sides of the passages. Weapons that are randomly presented to you to throw at the rotting flesh headed your way include bricks, soccer balls, bananas and even an Etch-a-sketch but regardless of the weapon the effect is the same, cut flesh, severed limbs and ultimately decapitation.
If things get a little to frantic for you then you can enable movie mode which slows everything down for a few moments giving you time to get in some killer moves. Not only is this extremely helpful in giving you a fighting chance it is vitally important as the zombies aren’t just slow moving piles of roting flesh, some of them run and others will fight back by throwing things back at you.
You do have some defence, however you must ensure that it is kept at 100% by repairing it as you go and remember you have to do this on all four of the sides that you are being attacked from.
The whole game is set in 1970’s America and this is beautifully recreated with great graphics, atmospheric music and sound effects which gives the whole game a scary edge that keeps you on the edge of your seat both in terms of game play and fear!
On top of all the gory fun Zombie Flick is OpenFeint enabled with 19 achievements and global leader boards so that you can compare your best scores across all 4 modes with ease.
It appears that the developers of Zombie Flick have taken the adage of quality not quantity to heart as while they only have two games in the App Store they are both winners that deserve to be on everybody’s iPhone.
If you like Zombies, buy this game, if you like games, buy this game, it’s that simple!
Reviewed on an iPhone 4
Price: $1.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Released:Aug 20, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0
Size: 38.4 MB
Language:English
Seller:Full Fat Productions Ltd
© 2010 Full Fat
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later
Zombie Escape
The zombie pandemic has hit all reaches of the city and it is up to you to guide the last survivors out of the area and take down those zombies! Bomb zombies to bits or distract them from your survivors as you coordinate in this top-down game, unlocking explosive new weapons and fantastic new levels to avert the zombie apocalypse!
Highly anticipated this summer, get the game for an incredible price of 99 cents! (U.S.)
Unique gameplay: a mix of line drawing and usable weapons together with a Zombie theme
Hours of action: 2 game modes: an endless Survival mode and a Campaign mode with 28 “days” (levels) to play through. 3 different locations: Airport, Downtown and Park
Get on the offensive: 7 unique weapons (helper items) with multiple upgrades each including
Varietal undead: 4 different zombie types including
Crystal SDK integration: gain achievements and post to leaderboards to see how you match up
Trailer
[iTunes]
AlienCab is a Chillingo Clickgamer title where line drawing meets time management in an out of this world experience! Control a fleet of Space Cabs in this quirky line drawing game where you shuttle aliens from planet to planet during the busy interstellar rush hour!
Features
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Osmos has received a wealth of critical acclaim, and has been around for a while on desktop computers. I actually only heard of it myself though when it hit the iPad. Osmos could very easily be pigeon holed with the likes of the Playstion 3 game, flOw. But whilst that is partially true, Osmos also brings a wealth of innovation, and touch screen goodness along for the ride.
At its very core Osmos has a simple principal throughout. You are a small blue organism, and anything bigger than you is generally reddish. If it’s bigger than you it eats, or absorbs you. Otherwise you absorb it. Absorbing is done so beautifully that you can even become fascinated by your own demise! As organisms consume each other they glow where they are touching and slowly inflate or deflate.. until its curtains for one.
Movement costs you energy, which is taken from your mass. So the more, and the faster you move, the smaller you get.
Mostly, you need to get big to win. And whilst you are trying to get big, so are the myriad other organisms in your world.
Geeks amongst us will recognise Osmos as a kind of game of life.
In many ways I feel that Osmos has found its true home on the iPhone. The way you control your organism feels best suited to a touch interface, over and above that of the mouse. And actually touching the creature you are trying to keep alive, as well as its environment serves to draw you into the world all the more.
Pinch zooming your environment to reveal just how small you are in a living microcosm of cells, all striving slowly to absorb one another, is quite humbling on some levels. And you seem to go on a journey each time you play a different one of Osmos’ variety of levels and game-types. Each time trying to advance from pin prick to world dominating doughnut that devours all around it. But each time in a level with a new and interesting twist.
Each “journey” is helped by the trance like zen state you enter as you listen to the level specific ambient tracks that come with the game, and watch your organism’s life trajectory slide towards “bigness” or disaster.
This is not a game played against the clock. Although sometimes inaction will cost you. Gravity can be a factor. As can patience. Inertia certainly comes into play. What is really refreshing, though, is the way the game changes up the level types you play as you progress though its Odyssey levels – which are kind of an extended tutorial.
After that you have a range of arcade levels, which are all variants on levels from the Odyssey. If you’ll forgive another analogy, Osmos is a bit like a box of chocolates. You will certainly have favourites in the box of levels. And some that you are not so keen on too. But you’ll enjoy all of them to some degree. Luckily you also do get to choose to play your favourite levels as much as you like.
My personal favourites are the levels where you start as the smallest organism in the world, with literally hundreds of different sized organisms all around you, crammed together like commuters in a tube train at rush hour. Some are initially the size of buildings, when compared to you. Zooming into the tiny dot that is you is like one of those shots from a movie where we descend towards the surface of a planet from space. Once you have pinch-zoomed down to a level where you can see some smaller cells around you to go after, you are all of a sudden in the thick of the action. And sometimes it’s not long before you seem to have descended into the screen of your iPhone yourself. Particularly if it’s your iPhone 4’s Retina Display!
I have not played Osmos on the iPad. But by all accounts it is superb on that too. For me though, Osmos is a game that I want to dip into often, and over a long period of time. So having it on your iPhone with you all of the time serves that usage pattern much better for me then on a desktop machine, or even my iPad.
Osmos is not a 5 minute snack. However, it can be played that way. But what I mean is that even if you eventually go back and redo levels, there are unique solutions each time. And solving them for the first time, or over again is uniquely satisfying each time, like completing a Rubics Cube. So it is a game that has fantastic replay longevity, and you can either pick up for 5 minutes every now and then, once you’ve got the gameplay. Or can descend into a hedonistic waste of an entire day with!
I have to confess to having several multi hour sessions when I first learned to play Osmos. All at home. On my sofa. All when I had work to do! Only finally putting the game down reluctantly when I realised that it was almost time to get up for the next day…
If you don’t buy games for your iPhone. But would like one, Osmos is it. If you like games generally then Osmos is one of those unique ones that you should own.
So go buy it!
Price: $2.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Released: Aug 05, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.6.2
Size: 18.8 MB
Language: English
Seller: Hemisphere Games Inc
© 2008 Hemisphere Games, Inc.
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later.