Last month, I was lucky enough to get my hands on, and review, Blast Zone Mega, a retro styled arcade game where you maneuver a bomb through rings in the sky, upgrading the bomb with each ring you go through, and causing massive destruction when the bomb hits the ground. Unfortunately, the game, which is centered around blowing up as much as you can, and in turn, getting the highest score you can, was released without any online leaderboard support, leaving your hard earned scores trapped on your device, and your device only.
Thankfully, Maximilian Bode was paying close attention to what players wanted, and has just released an update that incorporates GameCenter leaderboards and achievements. Now, you can compete with your friends, and other players around the world, for top scores. This update adds quite a bit of replay value to the game, so get ready to sink quite a bit of time into this retro action title.
Another World is a re-release of the old Amiga game by Eric Chahi, released this time by Bulkypix. Bulkypix has put out a lot of great games over the last couple years, but with this release of Another World, their uber cool status pretty much just shot through the roof. Another World is a classic game from the 90’s where you guide a physicist, who has been sucked into a strange world, through various puzzles and action sequences.
Most gamers who are familiar with the game will probably, first off, want to know how it controls on the touch screen. We’re given two options for control, a d-pad with an action button, or swipe/tap controls. The swipe/tap controls seem to work the best, as they feel more natural for the game on a touch screen. You’ll tap on either side of the screen to move in that direction, while swiping up or down to jump and duck, and then have two action buttons, one in each bottom corner.
The graphics have also been updated to fit the current devices perfectly, getting a very nice make-over. The environments are now a lot more detailed, as well as all the enemies and cut-scenes. You can, however, drag two fingers down on the screen at any point in the game to switch back to the classic graphics. It’s interesting seeing how much they’ve improved in certain spots by switching back and forth between the graphics, a lot of the environments look totally re-done.
Now for the game. Those of you who have played through, and beat, Another World, know that it’s a very short game, but only if you know exactly what to do to get through all the puzzles. This is definitely one of those games that if you look up a play through on YouTube, it will take, pretty much, all the fun and discovery out of the game. For first timers, or people who have never played all the way through the game, it could take 5 or 6 hours, maybe even longer, depending on how much you die, to complete it.
The puzzles and gameplay are mixed in with cinematic elements, so it’s sometimes hard to know exactly when the gameplay starts. The first time I played I died in the first 10 seconds because I didn’t know you were supposed to make your character swim out from the water. I’ve also sat there wondering if I was controlling the characters, or if I was watching another cut scene. So it’s a real story based adventure game, with tons of puzzles, and platform elements. Most of the puzzles will require multiple deaths while checking out the “wrong ways” to accomplish something, while other times, you might just end up stumbling onto the solution without even knowing it. Luckily, there’s a nice checkpoint system, so you’ll only need to start back a couple of screens if you die. There’s also 3 different difficulty levels, one easier than the original, the original, and a harder difficulty, for those of you who have made it through the game already, and consider yourselves pros.
Another World was an amazing game when it was released back in 1991, and with the amount of old-school gamers that play games on iPods, I don’t think Buklypix will have any problem selling this masterpiece. It’s still as great now as it was then, but because it was so original and ground-breaking at the time of release, causing even old-school gamers to want to pull their hair out, a lot of younger gamers will probably not enjoy this one too much. But if you’re serious about playing a game that’s still like no other, and ready to experience a game rather than play it, Another World is a great choice. It will stick with you, possibly forever. I can still remember playing this on my neighbors Mac about 17 years ago, and still consider it to be one of the most interesting, and engrossing games of my childhood. I feel lucky to be able to play it all over again on my iPod with controls that fit the system very well, with re-done graphics and sounds, and at a fraction of the cost of the original. $4.99, and being Universal, Another World does have an AppStore “premium” price, but it’s a premium game, even with it’s low re-playability, high difficulty, and chances that you’ll get stuck on one or two screens of the game for a day or two at a time, it’s a game that will make it’s mark on you. If you remember the game from your childhood, love old-school games, or are looking for something to totally blow you away, this is definitely a game to snag.
Gyro13 is a physics based helicopter arcade game developed by Cinemax. Within the game, you’ll pilot a steam powered helicopter through South American gyroxide mines while picking up stranded miners, and avoiding hazards, obstacles, and navigating through wind-gusts and sometimes extremely narrow paths. Gyro13 builds on old-school gameplay while using extremely polished graphics, and top notch physics.
Cinemax used the Unreal Engine to develop Gyro13, and it quickly joins the ranks of Dungeon Defenders and Infinity Blade in terms of amazingly beautiful graphics right at first glance. The environments are awe-inspiring, making it hard to go through the levels quickly. But since the atmosphere is toxic, you must get the miners to the safe-zone before they run out of air, and die.
Each of the 24 levels are designed brilliantly. The amount of thought that has gone into the path you will take while making it through level after level is insane. The hazards and objects that will make it harder for you to make it quickly through the mines are also very intelligently, and thoughtfully added, being placed and positioned with immense care. Big active windmills, huge pendulums quickly swinging, mechanical hammers, doors that require you to open them, mines that follow you along with mindfields to navigate through and gusts of wind that can send you directly into the side of the mines are just some of the objects you’ll need to maneuver our helicopter through.
Luckily, Gyro13 has great controls that make flying through even the more narrow corridors a task that can be accomplished even while rushing to the end of the level. You’re given a boost button, which, of course, boosts the rotation of your blades, sending you in the direction that you’re angled at, a slider bar that controls left and right movement, and a gun that gets rid of pockets of toxic gas, and mines, that‘s activated by touching anywhere else on the screen. These controls are, by default, boost on the left, slider bar on the right, but you’re able to flip these in the options menu. This set-up works exceedingly well, and actually gives players more control than you would think. Rushing through levels, you’ll end up narrowly escaping death hundreds of times, most of the time by almost running into an un-seen object. With the control set-up, you’re able to graze the sides of the mine, along with other objects, by flying at a tilted angle, using the objects to push you in the other direction by using the air pushed off of the propellers. Summed up, the controls work exceedingly well because of the top notch physics.
To top it all off, the soundtrack is astounding. I actually paused the game on levels 15 and 16 this morning, plugged my iPod into my stereo, and listened to the tracks on repeat for about an hour. The music adds so much to the feel of the game, it’s a shame I know a couple of people that are going to turn it off while they play just because they refuse to listen to any game music while playing games, but this is yet another game that will be added to my “I seriously hope they release the soundtrack on bandcamp or iTunes” list. The effects fit in with the music as well, the sound of the helicopter and the sounds for running into walls, machines, or picking up miners all fits in with the atmosphere that the music brings.
So by now, you probably think that Cinemax has paid me to write up this review, and might have blown me off as another sold soul, but I assure you, that is not the case. This truly is one of the best iOS games I have ever had the pleasure of playing. It’s incredibly immersive, has amazing graphics, superb animations, intelligent level design, great music, top notch physics matched with outstanding controls, and, of course, awesome gameplay. It’s no surprise that the game is $5.99. I really hope that more developers start putting this amount of work into their games, and bring us more console-like experiences on our handheld devices. The pricing doesn’t bother me at all when the game could be sold on Steam for double the price. Gyro13 is also universal, so you’ll be able to see all the amazing graphics the way they were meant to be seen on your iPad as well. Cinemax has definitely raised the bar for immersive iOS arcade gaming with this release. I really can not recommend it enough.
Get ready to go back into the wild wild west in Chillingo’s latest adventure game Cowboy Guns [$0.99]. In Cowboy Guns you play as a lonely cowboy who has to fight his way through towns, deserts, and canyons with bandits in the way. Your main goal is to defeat The Crimson Jackals to bring peace to the land. There’s 3 exciting modes to play through: Adventure mode, Bounty Hunter mode, and Survival mode. In Adventure mode you play through a story line facing enemies. In the Bounty Hunter mode you get rewards for defeating the 20 wanted criminals. In Survival mode you erm… basically survive. There’ll be a bunch of enemies coming all over and your goal is to stay alive as long as possible. There’s two controls in the game. The left analog stick allows you to move around and the right analog stick allows you to shoot your current weapon. Between the two analog sticks, your current weapons can be found there. You can only hold up to 3 weapons at once. On the top left side of the screen you have your health meter which indicates the amount of health you still have left. On the top right side of the screen there’s a little icon that looks like a bag. Once you click on that you can find your map and travel to different lands. You can also read about your current mission
that you have going on and upgrade your cowboy. The following upgrades that you can currently purchase are handguns, shotguns, heavy guns, explosives, armors, boots, and new costumes. Items can be purchased by using money that you’ve earned from missions or from the stars that you can collect that are hidden around each area. I’m really digging the game’s graphics and the western style music. The adventure mode is extremely fun and has a great story line. Overall, Cowboy Guns provided a fun cowboy experience and is
perfect for people who are into dual-stick games. I’ve found no issues with the game at all, except it crashed about twice. My final rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars. You can pick up Cowboys Guns from Chillingo for a mere [$0.99]. There’s also a universal version that’ll run on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad that you can pick up for just $2.99 by clicking here.
ThingSOUP is a climber/distance game developed by Sherpa Reynolds. When it first came out, there was a lot of great feedback on the pretty basic game in the Touch Arcade Forums, and since then, Sherpa has released the 1.0.1 update, giving the game more content, and more polish.
In the game, you’ll control the “thing”. A mysterious little creature that has been captured and taken down a large hole while he was out looking for food. Now he must try and make his way back up to the top, or else be trapped in the “soup” forever. To control “thing”, you’ll need to tap on the screen and hold down to stretch out his tongue, which he can attach to the mysterious balls floating in the air, then use them to fling himself up, then tilt your device to move him left and right. The longer his tongue gets before hooking onto an orb, the higher he will fling himself.
There are bits of orange putty throughout the environment, and when you pick up 5 of them, you activate a power up that lets you fly a good distance upward. There are also little orange putty flies that when eaten will let you use your arms to fly up about 3 or 4 times by pressing on the screen. Along the way there are also lizards on the sides of the hole’s wall that stick out their tongues. If you land on them, they give you a big boost upward. But there are also exploding orbs that leave pieces of themselves behind. If you get these pieces on you, it will slow you down, and make it so that you can not fling yourself up as high. Once you get about 3 or 4 of these pieces on you, you’re pretty screwed, especially after about a distance of 10,000, when the orbs are more spread out, and you need bigger flicks to keep progressing.
The graphics in thingSOUP are pretty nice. They look more like clay than anything else. You can tell that it’s not made by a big name developer, but it’s got loads of personality. I really like the graphics quite a bit. The animations, as well, don’t look like they’re done by a big name company, but they fit the graphical style. They’re not choppy, or poor in any way, and they do add life to the game, but this whole “armature” style of graphics might turn some people off. It is, however, something I’m pretty drawn to.
The music and effects play a bigger part in the game than you would think. Aside from adding loads of feeling to the atmosphere, they give you hints as to when enemies and helpers are coming up. Listening to the music can help you get further in the game. This addition, and use, of music, is awesome. I really do wish that more developers would do things like this.
GameCenter has also been added, giving players 2 different leader boards, one for Distance, and another for how much Orange Putty you’ve collected. There are also 16 achievements, most of which will give you a decent challenge. This addition of GameCenter has added quite a bit of replay value to the game. ThingSOUP is only $0.99, and has more content coming in future updates. The developer has said that more levels, along with more characters will be coming soon. This addition of new characters and levels will add a lot to the aesthetic, and gameplay, and I’m pretty excited about it. This is definitely one game that has left it’s mark on me, and I can’t wait for more content to be added, and am also very excited to see what Sherpa Reynolds will come up with for future games.
Sherpa Reynolds was also kind enough to give us 4 promo codes to post with this review – so we hope that you guys who do redeem these codes after reading the review enjoy the game!
Invasion Earth: 1953 is an endless shoot-em-up developed by 285 Digital. This is their first real game that’s been released for the iOS, and boy is it a great one. The AppStore has desperately needed a quality endless shmup for a long time now. We do have Gunrazor, but really, after about Wave 5, it’s just not very interesting. Invasion Earth: 1953 has filled a void on our devices, and really, we couldn’t be more grateful for it.
The game takes place in 1953, after World War 2, when tensions were still high, and the threat of invasion, both from other countries, and from space, were on the minds of everyone in the world. You’ll take the reigns of a UFO going up against the military, blasting them all to pieces. And better yet, it’s endless, so the difficulty just increases as you progress. This makes it a great game for casual and hardcore shmup gamers.
The game’s upgrade system is given to us in the Tiny Wings style. You will need to complete 3 different objectives in order to gain a power-up that will help you go further in the game, and get higher and higher scores. There are 31 objectives, and 12 different power-ups. Sometimes giving you a stronger magnet that will pull items to you from further away, other times giving you stronger abilities, or a permanent additional life to sacrifice in-game.
While you’re flying through the city, destroying helicopters, planes, and various aircraft bosses, each of the enemies will give you stars when destroyed. These stars add to your score multiplier, and fill up your ability gauge. There’s also random enemies that will drop weapon upgrades, and these are always highlighted by a little arrow that says “pickup” hovering next to it. When they’re destroyed, they’ll drop a hexagon shaped orb, when picked up, your weapon will get stronger.
You will always have 3 abilities that you can use when your ability gauge fills up. You’ll be able to choose between Magnet Power, which automatically draws all stars straight to you when enemies are destroyed, Shield, which absorbs enemies projectiles, and Laser, which lets you drag your finger on the right side of the screen to control a large powerful laser, each lasting a short period of time.
While you’re traveling through the city, you’ll be able to go through bonus rounds. These sort of signify the end of a wave, and start the next one when completed. Each bonus round has a certain amount of stars that you’ll need to try and collect. There’s also a health pick-up somewhere in the bonus level, which will take some quick maneuvering in order to snag. Collecting all the stars in a bonus round will give you a special perfect bonus round bonus score, which also helps with climbing the leader boards.
The graphics in Invasion Earth are extremely polished, and presented very well. The planes are graphically made to look the time period, and the animations are awesome, especially the animations for enemies blowing up, and the UFO being shot down. The music also adds quite a bit to the edge of your seat feeling you’ll have when playing through the game. The controls are also done extremely well, giving a 1:1 relative touch control that works perfectly, along with a little hit box on the UFO that’s easy to see, and great to use while dodging through enemy fire. However, your ship does cover up enemies projectiles when going over them, so perfectly maneuvering through enemy fire can be difficult, though not impossible.
285 Digital has presented an extremely well made, and very polished, professional shmup. One that is endless, with the difficulty rising perfectly. Casual gamers, as well as hardcore players will find Invasion Earth: 1953 extremely entertaining, and very easy to pick up and play. Right now, later in the game, there is some slowdown. After you hit around 200,000 points, you’ll notice that the frame-rate gets a little out of hand, and there’s some noticeable lag and jitteriness. The developers have commented on this, and have said that they are working on a solution to the problem by staying in contact with the #1 score holder on GameCenter, so hopefully this issue will be addressed soon. Aside from that one issue, and the UFO covering up enemies projectiles when going over them, I can not find anything else wrong with the game. It’s got loads of style, an awesome scoring system, fantastic gameplay, 3 GameCenter leader boards, endless replayabilty, and personality out the kazoo. Being $1.99, it’s an awesome buy, and one that every shmup fan should get as soon as possible.
Dodo Fly is a new arcade game from Silver Delta. In the game, you play as Dodo, a toy dolphin who has big dreams of reaching the real ocean, and becoming a real dolphin. Along the way, he’ll encounter loads of different toy enemies, along with a deadly shark that is hell-bent on making sure Dodo doesn’t get to become a real dolphin.
There are 8 levels in Dodo Fly, but each of them will take numerous play-throughs in order to beat. Each of the levels has a different environment, different enemies, and is set up so that you can memorize the level, and make it through getting the best score you can. It’s set up as a one-touch game, very accessible to casual players, but has enough challenge to keep even hardcore gamers interested and glued to the game til the end.
You’ll go through each level, slightly bouncing on top of the water, tapping the screen to jump and avoid enemies. There’s stars that are spread out through each level, and collecting these add to your score, and skill gauge. There’s also rockets, shields, and skill gauge booster pick-ups. There are 3 different skills that you can unlock and choose from in the main menu. One is a booster that lets you boost forward a little bit, knocking out enemies that are in the way. This skill is given to you at the beginning of the game. The second skill that you’ll unlock, when you reach 50,000 total points, is a submarine type power-up. When activated, you’ll end up in a large mechanical fish, able to plow through enemies, and jump in the air. The last skill you’ll unlock is given to you at 100,000 total points, and is an airplane. This sends you to the top of the level for a short period of time, making sure you will not come in contact will any enemies while it’s active.
The rockets are the most important items in the levels. They are set up and spread out so that you can stay on them, going from one to the next, with very well timed jumps. If you can manage to make it from one to the next without going back to the water, it will give you a score multiplier. The longer you stay jumping from one rocket to the next, the larger your multiplier will get. This is essential for scoring big. Once you’ve stayed in the air for a certain amount of time, hitting one or two rockets, you’ll get a burning type shield in front of you, which makes it so that you’ll knock out any enemies you come in contact with when hitting the water again. This is a very nice addition, because most of your deaths will be from coming back down after jumps, and hitting un-seen enemies.
Right now, the game is not supported by GameCenter or OpenFeint, and there are no in-game achievements. However, this doesn’t take away much from the replay value. The sheer amount of challenge in memorizing the levels well enough to beat all 8 of them will keep you going for quite some time. With the game being $0.99, it’s a great buy, and has a lot of potential. I really think an endless mode would add quite a bit to the game, as would online support, but as it is now, it’s definitely worth buying. Silver Delta has proven that they know exactly what it takes to make a casual game that will drive hardcore gamers crazy.
The really excellent and entertaining and addicting and awesome game Monsters Ate My Condo has been updated with the Lord Ferocious update, and this are the new features:
· Lord Ferocious’ Points Boost power increased to 100x
· Each achievement gained adds 1 to your starting multiplier
· 10 brand-new achievements
· Stability fixes on all platforms
· Miscellaneous other bug fixes.
Take my advice and buy it now. Very few games are this good and addicting. It completely reinvented the match-3 formula.
Hello everyone, in back from a hiatus with a game that has been released not long ago called Hypership Out of Control, from developer Fun Infused Games.
The game is presented in a retro old school pixel art style, both visuals and sound. Its fits the game pretty well, and I heard the icon is going to change to a Retina Display one, and they are investigating about the possibility of upgrading the whole game to be Retina Display. Its perfect and if you like pixel art, it cant get better than this… for now?
The game is a hybrid of two genres perfectly blended together, it is half arcade and half avoidance game. Your ship has had a fatal error and cant stop so you are constantly moving and have to avoid several obstacles and enemies, and to make things worse (or more fun, depending on how you look at this) your ship is accelerating at a steady pace, and again, all this while collecting coins for a better high score. Luckily for you, your autofire is also broken and your ship is always firing, helping you to clear enemies and some obstacles along the way. And to help you out even more, there are power ups to collect. They slow down your speed (which is good), make you go faster, a better weapon and more. They are fun and useful.
Controls are almost perfect and you control the game using a very easy method: your finger. That’s all. One touch gameplay is what works best. So your own ability and reflexes are what works here, as I said earlier this game has a big avoidance part in it, your ship will travel really fast and some barriers arent destructible, so the game will put you to the test. But it has one fault, and its no other than not being able to see part of the screen due to your finger… this isnt a big fault, since you can press anywhere in the screen to move your ship and many other games have this issue also, so its not a big deal after all.
Replayability is good, you have four modes to explore. There is Normal, Hardcore, Coindown and Superspeed mode and you can play all of them in reverse mode. From all these modes, my favorite is Coindown. In it, there is a coin meter that depletes as the time goes on so you have to pick up as many as you can to stay alive. All modes are actually great, except hardcore, but only because I didnt find it hardcore enough. There are 19 achievements to collect, and of course leaderboards, one for each mode, to compete with friends and the world. Features both GameCenter and OpenFeint.
There are multiple sections you have to survive through, its a nice thing as it is constanly throwing new things for you to do, all being brilliant… but after a while, its endless soul appears and eventually you start to memorize paths as they are always the same, so a nice thing to do would be to randomize the levels so you have a fresh experience every time you play.
This game has also been released for Xbox Live and WP7 if you happen to have one of those… and on Xbox Live features 4 players at the same time, which I think would be awesome to have that on the iPhone version as well.
So i am having a lot of fun with this game, and so should you. Pick it up if you happen to like avoidance games, love pixel art or are just looking for a casual arcade snack.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd gen and 4th gen), and both iPads. iOS 4.2 o better
Mobigame is celebrating Edge’s latest update with a Super Sale! Some of our favorite apps like EDGE and Perfect Cell have dropped from 2.99 to 0.99 and others like Cross Fingers and Truckers Delight have dropped to the low price of FREE!
This is the lowest these awesome games will get so I highly recommend you check these out before they go back up to their original price! The only question now is which ones your going to get!
