One of the most eagerly anticipated games has finally made its way to the iPhone and iPad. But while the wait is finally over it may not be what some players of the massively successful franchise want.
Burnouts first journey onto iOS is in the from of the mini game, Burnout Crash, that has already made it onto the PlayStation and XBox Arcade. So instead of a full-on 3D crash-fest of mangled metal, you have the pleasure of playing God, (or should that be the Devil), in a crashtastic onslaught of exploding cars, trucks and every other type of vehicle you can think of.
The 2D top-down view looks great, across a massive 18 different junctions the detail pops of the screen and the whole environment is interactive so not only can you destroy the vehicles but also blow up the surrounding buildings, parked cars and pretty much anything that burns.
Each of the 18 junctions have three different game modes so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to hone your skills and have plenty to keep coming back for as each of the have 5 stars to be collected based on high scores and other side-goals such as performing special moves or destroying certain items.
The 3 modes are Rush Hour, Pile Up and Road Block and while they all take place on the same junctions they require slightly different techniques to succeed. Rush Hour puts you up against the clock to destroy as much as you can while Pile Up tasks you to crash as many vehicles as possible and then keep them blazing. Road Block meanwhile is as simple as blocking any vehicles from driving off the screen, lose 5 and it’s game over.
All of the modes provide special vehicles too that offer a variety of challenges. Stop a Pizza delivery truck and you get to spin the lotto wheel a win a bonus item while stopping the bank truck will rain down bags of money on you.
Like all great games Burnout Crash is easy to learn but difficult to master. Controls aid this as all that’s required is a swipe to move your car or truck while a tap of your vehicle will cause it to explode once the burnout bar is maximized of course.
There are 7 cars and trucks to unlock and each one offer a slightly different balance of power and control, switching between these vehicles can offer different opportunities to grab all 5 stars on each level and you will often find yourself heading back to earlier levels with better cars to grab all the available stars.
While causing all of this mayhem you are blasted with a cacophony sound and a great set of songs from the 80’s. I certainly recommend playing this game with headphones in to get the best sound experience and so that you don’t annoy anyone sitting around you!
Unfortunately the multi-player option that they provide in the form of Autolog, is a little disappointing. It certainly works and you can send challenges to your friends but no ability to play against other players in real time is a real disappointment. And while GameCenter integration is included there are no leaderboards, just 20 achievements to be unlocked.
That being said, I do keep coming back to Burnout Crash to unlock more levels and to go back and gain more stars, it could just be so much better if the social aspects of the game worked better.
Burnout Crash is a universal game and is available in the App Store, despite its shortcomings it’s still a recommended purchase.
[rating: 4.5/5]What we like
What to know
1. Players must play the New Asteroids mini-game and compete for the highest score.
2. Players must take a snapshot of their highest score and submit it to ‘press@chillingo.com’
3. The contest starts TODAY and ENDS on August 19.
4. The top 3 scoring players will win prizes.
Grand Prize: A snazzy, one-of-a-kind action figure of The Hero himself along with branded button and coffee mug + an official certificate touting you as the best player ever along with a Chillingo prize pack of games.
First and Second Prizes: Winners receive The Hero branded coffee mugs, buttons, official participant certificate along with a Chillingo prize pack of games.
*Chillingo prize pack contain games at company’s discretion
The Hero for iPhone, iPod touch is available on App Store.
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The Sims 3 World Adventures [rating: 3/5]
If you are a huge Sims fan or you just throughly enjoyed The Sims 3, then no doubt you were very excited to hear of the new Sims 3 World Adventures game by EA Mobile. With the promise of new goals, new options to change your Sim and exotic destinations to travel the game offered great potential to be another winner in the app store.
If you have played The Sims 3 the game is very similar to that and infact it doesn’t matter if you have never played it you can still play this edition with no problems. At the beginning you first customize and create your virtual character by choosing all the different styles or simply transfer one from The Sims 3 if you had played it previously. The game play is exactly the same, you have to keep your sim happy. You need to feed it, groom it, sort all its biological needs and get it to meet other people to keep it perfectly content.
You can do all this by wandering around your town, visiting your friends and getting yourself a well paid job. To sort your hunger pangs you can go to the local supermarket to buy your food requirements and then pop back home to rustle up something tasty. When you do cook a meal there is a small mini-game to help you cook the food. Although its not that hard to do and not really a game at all. If your pan gets hot you give your device a little shake, it cools down and you carry on, theres nothing fun in it really.
Now so far before I had really done anything with the game I found I was constantly servicing the needs of my sim. If she wasn’t eating she needed the toilet, if she wasn’t showering she needed some fun. My sim never seemed to be happy for a good amount of time this causing me to never actual get anything done. I found I was sleeping, eating, working on one big loop over and over.
Where this game differs from Sims 3 is that in the World Adventures edition you get the chance to travel to three different destinations. There is ‘Al Simhara’ in Egypt, ‘Champs Les Sims’ in France and ‘Shang SimLa’ in China. Now you can travel for different lengths of time all depending on how much you can afford. You might want to note as well that if you have a job you need to make sure you are back in time to go to work. So when you start out more or less it will be just quick weekend visits to the different destinations.
If you have been told a wish from your sim, for example to make someone laugh in China then you might want to make your first visit there to try and do just that. You purchase your plane ticket and off you go. On the way there you play an air sickness mini-game. You look out of the window and you have to keep the picture in focus to try and stop your sim turning green. Its very easy to make them feel unwell though so no doubt as soon as you get to your new destination you will need a shower, sleep, food and the toilet. All wasting your precious day or two you have there. When you have finally sorted your Sim out to being just about happy you can start wondering and exploring. Take a tour of the Eiffel Tower or Sphinx or simply talk to the locals, each destination has its own different activities to do.
When you visit each country there are popular buildings you can tour. For example the Eiffel Tower. When you are in tour mode you are shown a few clips of the site along with a few snippets of information about it. Whilst these were very interesting it was ruined by the strange poses your sim made flashing before you on the screen. As much as I tried it couldn’t be stopped either so you just had to sit and watch it and remember not to do it again in a hurry! I think at this point they could have done a lot more. They could have put more factual information in with more images, something to keep the audience interested instead of seeing half of an image of your sim floating around pulling wierd facial expressions.
Each time I visited a destination I struggled to fit everything in in the short space of time I had. My sim was still needing a lot of attention before we could even get going on our travels. Infact a few times I was deported back home as I had out stayed my welcome and I hadn’t even achieved what I had gone there for. So once I was home I had to go back in my daily routine and earn some more money at work until I had enough to go visit for the weekend again.
Another thing I did notice was my appliances were always breaking down and required fixing. I couldn’t seem to get out of the cycle of fixing things up and keeping my sim happy. The offer of travelling afar seemed exciting at first but having to do so much to actually get there and then to do nothing was really off putting.
The game had great potential to offer a unique game play by going in to more details within each destination. The little snippets of information they offered on the different tours was actually interesting and good. If they could have expanded on that and filled the game with interesting facts and pictures I think it would keep people a lot more interested and wanting it to explore more. Maybe more sights to see and the chance to visit for longer without the mundane tasks. I think the basics of the game are there it just needs tweaking to offer a great replay value because at the moment I feel it hasn’t any.
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $6.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Released: Apr 02, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.0
1.0.0 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
Size: 97.8 MB
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
Seller: Electronic Arts
© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Rated 12+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later.
Rabid Gophers [rating: 4/5]
Rabid Gophers is a well designed reaction puzzle game. It is a game that is a lot similar to whack- a-mole and Smack it that are already available in the app store. The type where you have animals popping up out of holes and you have to hit them on their heads in some shape or form. The game itself is easy to follow and understand, you are a farmer protecting your farm from the eerie rabid gophers terrorising it, you have to kill the gophers to protect the farm.You do this through the different levels.
There are three mini-games within the actual game. The first is Gopher Blast, an ugly gophers head pops up out of the ground and you have to tap it with your finger to shoot it. This kills the gopher dead and you will know if you aimed well because you see the blood splatter everywhere and hear the squelching sound effects. You have a minute to keep this up without missing any. If you do miss one, the game is up and you start the level again.
There are three levels to each mini-game. The first level is very easy and at that point I was beginning to think maybe its more for a child rather than an adult game. The next two levels though did get a lot harder and by level three they were popping up fast but I still managed to complete it first attempt.
The next mini-game is Gopher Bombs. It is the same layout with holes in the ground but now there are bombs attached to the holes that you need to detonate. To do this there are six coloured buttons and they will light up in a particular sequence and you have to copy that sequence before the time runs out. If you manage to copy the sequence then the bombs will detonate and kill the gophers, if you don’t then you fail and have to restart the level. Again there are three levels to the game each a minute long and each gets harder. By the time it came to the third level it was a lot harder and it took me a good few attempts to do it and at one point I thought I was never going to do it!
The final mini-game is Gopher Sniper and the gophers pop up out of the holes and you shoot them with the sniper gun. To do this you drag the target button to the hole then tap the screen and it fires, again with three levels each getting harder. The target button is the same size as your finger tip and the controls for this I found a bit hard to enable you to aim and shoot. You have to be quite exact with your aim but it was hard to see if you had it correctly lined up because your finger was covering most of it. By the final level and many many attempts at completing it I figured out if you press the target button at the bottom it made it slightly easier to aim.
After the three mini games I was getting into the game so was quite disappointed that I had completed all the levels and completed the game. So basically you have only 9 levels of games to do and that is it! There are two modes to the game. Campaign mode which is 1 player and you do the 3 mini-games and achieve awards for your high scores and Survival mode which is powered by OpenFeint and you attempt a particular mini-game and achieve awards for high scores and best times with other online players.
The game is far too short otherwise it was beginning to be quite enjoyable and a fun game. Once you have played the campaign mode and got all your rewards there isnt much left for you to do and probably not a game I would replay. I would say the game isn’t for kids firstly because the levels do get quite hard but if you fail the level, each time you do a huge gophers face with snarling teeth jumps out and fills your screen and makes a very loud scream. This I felt was maybe a bit scary for a younger child. I was playing next to my eight year old and she really didnt like the game once she had seen this.I feel because of how short the campaign mode was that the developers are aiming for it to be more popular towards gamers that use openfeint and play the survival mode.
There are some good points about the game, before each mini-game starts in the campaign mode you have a little animation showing the farmer and the gophers which I thought was a great unique idea. Although it can not be skipped so once you have seen it I imagine it would get annoying that you have to watch it every time you restarted the game. It is not a long lengthy clip but an eager player doesn’t like to wait!
The graphics for the game are very good and clear and the instructions to play are easily explained although there is not much to do on screen except hit the holes. The sound effects fit in well with the eerie and gory graphics. There are lots of squelching, blood splattering noises and haunting screams through out the game.
Mini games themselves are also very good but I just think the developer could have done alot more with this. If they increased the number of levels and add more puzzles it would make this game well worth playing. It has a lot of potential to be a unique and popular game.
The Good
The Not So Good
Rabid Gophers – Gopher Sniper (gameplay)
Price: $1.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Mar 04, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.1
1.1 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
Size: 51.0 MB
Language: English
Seller: QuantumSquid Interactive, Inc.
© 2009 QuantumSquid Interactive, Inc.
Rated 9+ for the following:
Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 2.0 or later.
While I may not be a native of the USA I have quickly come to be a huge fan of the American Football and from the College games on a Saturday to the NFL games on a Sunday, (and Monday nights), I am a fully paid up member of the the football game with a rugby ball! The iPhone/iPod touch has has a plethora of quality American Football games, Backbreaker and Madden 10 to name but two, but an officially licensed game from the NFL has to scream quality and more importantly fun, but does NFL Quaterback Challenge for iPhone live up to that impression?
The first thing to say about NFL Quarterback Challenge is that it’s not a full on American Football sim in the style of Madden 10 or NFL 2010, in fact, as the name would suggest it’s more of a mini game focusing on the skills of the Quarterback, specifically the power and accuracy of throwing.
Starting a new game presents you with you chance to customize your game to your favorite NFL Team, the scrolling method to choose your team can be a little frustrating but as you should only have to do that once it’s not too much trouble. You are then presented with a tutorial which will take you through the basics of controlling your QB’s arm to throw the ball via the simple method of pulling your finger down the screen screen from your QB’s head down his back before releasing your finger to launch the ball. Changing the direction of your finger as you drag your finger will ultimately change the direction of the throw too.
The controls are really that simple as is the game play. Spread across 9 different environments form the football field, golf course, airport, beach and high street to name but a few the aim of the game is to simply hit the NFL team logos that are strategically placed around the screen. Initially the targets are static and will be easily hit even the ones that are way down field. However, as you progress through the levels the the logo’s are placed on moving targets which increases the difficulty accordingly.
High scores can be uploaded to the ProAPPSports website although they do ask for both your email address and cell phone number, it remains to be seen what they do with those, and you can even enter a competition to win various NFL prizes including tickets to the Pro Bowl.
For an application that is officially endorsed by the NFL I was certainly hoping for a lot more. It does have a certain can’t put down addictive quality to it which will add some value to the game but considering that this is a $2 game some people may feel a little short changed.
Price: $2.99
The Good
The Not So Good
Reviewed By: @CraigWillis
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Last year, FISHLABS received nothing but top marks for their mobile game Rally Master Pro™. Starting in mid October, every iPhone and iPod touch owner will be able to put the pedal to the metal and test their rally skills in sun, rain, and snow on 27 varied and detailed extreme courses. FISHLABS has elaborately revised the graphics, including vertex colouring and dynamic lighting (OpenGL ES 1.1) and once again improved the weather simulation for the iPhone and its enormous computing power. Dynamic 3D sound effects (OpenAL) and the individual, customisable controls with manual or automatic acceleration for left- and right-handed players add the finishing touches to the hardcore rally fun. You can get first hands on at gamescom, Cologne, in Hall 4.2 booth L41/M40.
In Rally Master Pro™, three classes tear across courses of asphalt, gravel, sand, or snow. The direction of the course is announced optically and acoustically by the co-pilot, so that players can ease off of the gas at the right moment to drift cleanly through the curves and hit the tough time targets without totalling their vehicles. The weather, course, and damage-dependent driving physics provide an individual and realistic driving feel and supply players with increasing challenges, especially on uneven track surfaces. With the unique, interactive replay, the last stage can be studied with numerous vehicle and TV cameras and individual sequences can be fast forwarded and rewound. That way, drivers can memorise every curve and perfect their driving style. The 3D damage model always allows an overview of the condition of the car – the repair options can be used as a mini-game between the stages to get the car fit again for the next test.
‘With Rally Master Pro™, we will put another top title in the running for the iPhone,’ says Michael Schade, CEO of FISHLABS Entertainment GmbH. ‘Rally Master Pro™ has already set standards on Java phones. With the completely revised version for the iPhone, we have really got the most out of the hardware to roar into the top 10 of the download charts with Rally Master Pro™.
Features:
FISHLABS is known for their excellent graphics and adding that natural feel to the gaming environment like the sun glare in Powerboat Challenge which takes gaming on iPhone and iPod touch to the next level. The beta screenshots of Rally Master Pro™ sure look very impressive with detailed graphics and different weather conditions to race in. It will be interesting to note the performance differences on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G.
Watch the gameplay video of Rally Master Pro™ for other mobile platforms to know what to expect from this game!
Rally Master Pro™ Beta Screenshots
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