At first glance it appears that despite his name Captain Antarctica is not your usual game hero. However, it’s soon apparent that with a plethora of upgrades and gadgets Captain Antarctica is no ordinary penguin and is ready to take on the task of rescuing his family and friends.
You responsibility in this task is to steer Captain Antarctica though underwater caverns to defeat the multiple bosses across 6 initial chapters, (chapter 7 is listed as “Coming Soon”). While 6 chapters may not seem like a lot of value for the $1.99 price tag each chapter is full of challenges.
The ultimate objective of each chapter is to negotiate your way through the dangerous underwater caverns and all the dangers they hold. From a variety of dangerous sea creatures to more volatile dangers such as mines and torpedoes there are dangers around every corner to hinder your progress.
Controlling Captain Antarctica through these dangers is done either via the accelerometer or via the touch screen, personally the most successful control system is the accelerometer but it’s nice to have the choice.
Each of the chapters include multiple Experiments (challenges), this means that you’ll need to repeat the chapters multiple times to complete them, the early chapters contain single digit challenges, however by the time you reach the final chapters will be double digit experiments for you to complete.
You are aided in these challenges by the option to purchase power-ups and upgrades to your existing skills. You have magnets, shields and jets and of course extra lives at your disposal and they can be purchased by coins.
You earn coins by completing the experiments in each level, but you can also purchase coins via in-app purchase. The balance between gaining coins in game and having to buy them to progress is fairly balanced so if you don’t want to buy them you don’t have to.
GameCenter integration is hit and miss, sure there are 32 achievements to unlock but rather than having leaderboards for each chapter there are just two for total coins and total distance traveled.
The game is great looking game to with bright, colorful two dimensional graphics which despite their 2 dimensionality provide great depth to the game and the jaunty music is well pitch to the game.
Captain Antarctica HD is a fun arcade game which has that vital ingredient of convincing you to need just one more try before you put it down and will appeal to players young and old alike.
[rating: 4.5/5]What we like
What to know
[rating: 4/5]
Island Wars Review: The game is brought to you by Movisol and it is their first game on the app store. The Penguin and the Tortoise are at war. The North Pole penguin wants to take over the beautiful island and build his dream seaside resort. The tortoise who currently happily lives there is now having to defend is home from the pesky penguin.
If you have ever tried Angry Birds then you will be familiar with this style of slingshot game play. The idea is you must sink the opponents island. To do this you need to destroy the cork that is used to stop it from sinking. The cork will be protected by stones, cubes and logs and it is your job to destroy them to get to it.
There are several modes to play in Islands Wars for iPhone. Story mode which is the one player classic game. There is a story to begin with to explain what is happening and then you just aim your tortoise at the penguin and try destroying the cork to sink the island and win. You keep doing this and work your way through the levels.
The next mode is Online challenge. Within this mode you can play turn-based with your friends. You can challenge any of your Game Center friends for a match. The online mode is different to the story mode. Both parties will have a slingshot to fire and aim and the idea is you must sink the island faster than your opponent sinks yours. There is also a chat section within the app to talk to the person you are playing, maybe even brag a little when doing well.
The final mode is using the same device and pass and play playing the same way you do in the online mode by seeing who can destroy the island the fastest.
It is very easy to control and play just use your finger to pull back the sling and then let go when you have your aim correct. If you need to see where the penguin is you can swipe the screen first. The game has some super cute sound effects. The little tortoise getting flung in the air screeches like tarzan in the jungle. There is also some catchy music playing to set the island scene. It is all very bright and colourful and the characters are sure to appeal to all ages.
What we like
What to know
Air Penguin Review: A happy game of bouncing and sliding your way through a frozen, watery landscape to save your family from the melting ice.
You are a bouncy, pouncy penguin that must navigate ice floes to reach your destination. You were born bouncing, so tilting your iOS device is the only control you need for this game. Your mission is to jump from ice floe to ice floe without falling into the water, and picking up as many goldfish along the way as you can. Occasionally, you can hitch a ride on a sea turtle, as long as you avoid the ice floes, sharks and other obstacles. And every now and then, you get to play on a long stretch of ice and slide around holes and otters to get to the goal.
Air Penguin {$.99} is a lot of fun. Each stage is short enough to keep you saying “just one more.” And each stage is different than the others even though there are similar elements. About the time the game is getting routine, there’s a new or different way of playing tossed in. For instance, about the time you’ve got bouncing between ice floes figured out, you now have to ride a sea turtle to get to the goal.
There is also a survival mode where you have continuous play and can compete to win achievements on the Game Center leader boards. The best part is that you don’t always have to start over from the beginning when you slip up.
The watery landscape is bright and cheerful, perfectly suited to a bouncing penguin. The music is also light hearted but with enough natural sound effects interspersed to give it a wilderness feel. It’s easy to become immersed in the game.
Air Penguin has some in-app purchases available, ranging from $0.99 to $9.99, if you want to buy more fish. There’s also a free version available, but it’s limited to 25 stages and it limits survival mode. The complete game has 125 stages and is well worth the purchase price.
This addictive little game is great fun and a good challenge. And given its simple controls, anyone can pick it up and enjoy it.
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Arctic Escape is a simple yet unique puzzle game for the iPhone. You use commands to help corral penguins into a helicopter. Penguins into a helicopter you ask? Yes, the penguins have been abducted from Antarctica by an evil scientist and guess who gets to help get them back home: YOU! You will use commands to guide the penguins through levels and avoid obstacles. The goal is to get all of the penguins to the helicopter in a timely fashion.
As I mentioned earlier, the control system in Arctic Escape is incredibly easy to wrap your head around. You see a list of controls at the bottom of the screen that tell your penguins to go up, down, left, right and jump. You also have the option to erase something you put down by accident which I must say happens quite often with the screen size of the iPhone. You use the controls I mentioned to guide the penguins past traps that try to keep them from getting to the helicopter. Traps like breaking ice, holes, collapsing bridges and cages. If you plan out your routes carefully, these obstacles can be avoided but the maps always seem to find a way to throw your curveballs.
A word to the wise, try to space out your penguins so that they do not run into one another. This will help make them do what you intend to do. If they run into one another sometimes they will change directions unexpectedly and cause you to lose a penguin. As you progress through the game, other obstacles rear their ugly heads. These obstacles such as a hungry wolf and gates that have switches to open them can throw a kink in your plans so be careful.
This gameplay is very simple as you can tell but it is extremely addictive. This is a great thing because there are over one hundred levels that will challenge you along the way. There are 8 separate worlds with thirteen levels each. This may seem like too many at first but I can tell you as I progressed it was awesome to know that there was plenty more fun to be had and that the game would not be ending soon. The replay value due to this fact alone is awesome. I also love the fact that with 8 icy worlds the settings seem to continually change. This along with the continually changing challenges that you see along the way, the game is never dull and is always testing your wits. On top of the difficulty is the fact that being able to get 
through the levels quickly is how you get the best score. However, attempting to speed through the levels quickly is what gave me trouble so remain cautious when you increase the pace.
The visual and audio presentation of this app is nothing over the top but is ample for the extremely addictive puzzler gameplay. The type of game plays a large role in what you can do visually and how you should approach it audibly and they do a great job of both in this game. Too much focus in these areas would most certainly have taken away from level design and gameplay and those two things take the cake. The audio is great and the adorable penguins were well received by my wife. I would highly recommend this game to puzzlers who are looking for a nice long play that is extremely addictive.
Pros
Cons
$0.99
Category: Games
Released: Mar 30, 2011
Version: 1.0.0
1.0.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
Size: 30.9 MB
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Seller: Teyon
© 2011 Teyon. All rights reserved.
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
It was looking for a while as if the European, and UK pickings in Apple’s iBookstore might have been a bit lean. Apple was said to be having some problems getting parters to come into the iBookstore fold. Part of the reason for this was apparently to do with differing regulations for book agencies in the UK particularly.
As of this morning in the UK, Hachette UK, Penguin, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan have all opened their doors, metaphorically, in Apple’s new virtual book emporium, iBookstore, on the iPad.
The good news is that there seems to be a lot of content to choose from, and Apple are offering sample portions of books. The bad news is that prices are not as competitive as some had hoped.
Unfortunately prices seem to be a little higher than through other online eBook services, some people are reporting. Hopefully Apple can iron that out moving forwards.
Have you picked up an iPad in the UK today? Are you planning on using iBookstore for your reading material shopping?
Let us know in the comments.