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Evertales is the newest game from Crescent Moon Games, an influential gaming studio that emphasizes collaboration, innovation and unique ideas. They have had several previous forays into the RPG market such as Aralon: Sword and Shadow, Pocket RPG, Ravensword and many others. But in this new mix of the typical formula they have toned down the rpg aspect and turned Evertales into more of a sidescrolling platformer.

As mentioned before you are constantly moving right trying to get to the end of each chapter. Enemies are of course trying to kill you and have various ways of trying to do so. You can pick and choose from three different characters to handle each scenario while in the level.  This can be very useful because it allows you to approach each situation differently. Say you have a drunken dwarf throwing bottles of alchol at you.  You could choose to rush him with the Knight character and potentially risk losing some life or you could use the Archer or the Wizard, both long range specialists to pick em off from a distance.  These different characters allow many different puzzle elements to be worked into the game. For example the knight can barely jump because of his armor, the elf can double jump to reach high areas and the wizard can glide to hard to reach places with his cloak. Combined with the enemies different strengths and attack patterns you will have to be alert to pass through the level safely. Plus there is a gigantic boss fight at the end of each chapter which is always worth looking forward to.

  Once you finish a chapter, you can change your characters armor, buy new weapons or choose to upgrade them instead with “Evercoins”  These “Evercoins” are usually spread across the level in hard to reach places and can be a challenge to collect all of them. You can also choose to buy them through IAP. Though it doesnt feel necessary to buy the IAP the minimal amount of coins you get per level are hardly enough to upgrade a weapon or two. This can be solved by replaying the levels a few times to rack up enough Evercoins.  The graphics are as usual, superbly done and the sounds are just as good.  Controls can feel a bit spotty sometimes but they get the job done.

With only 9 chapters I managed to blow through the game in about two hours.  Even though the actual experience felt great I feel they should have spent more time working on the gameplay and adding new and intruiging puzzle aspects.  Its definitely not a bad game and I recommend you pick it up but to me it feels like something is missing that would make this a truly outstanding game.  I give it a 4/5. (Currently on a intro sale for 0.99)

Exploritory Metroidvania-type games are a pretty big rarity in the AppStore, but those that can be found are extremely well made. Glowfish, by MumboJumbo (Luxor, 7 Wonders), is no exception to this. You’ll guide Glowfish through 50+ levels, finding all the little glowing fish you can use as your shield, defeating interesting enemies, exploring the depths for hidden areas, collecting coins, and gaining friends that you can take along with you, lending their abilities.

You’ll control your Glowfish with a virtual joystick, a shield button, which either brings the fish you’ve collected into a shield circle around you, or lets them trail behind you, letting you access areas joined by a small pathway, along with tapping on the screen to dash in the direction you are facing.

The graphics are top notch, and look exceptionally good. The neon type color scheme works very well for the under water atmosphere, and along with the backdrops, everything stands out significantly. The animations are extremely well done, with everything flowing, adding immensely to the underwater feel of the game. Everything on the screen, aside from the rocks, moves and sways back and forth, and every character in the game has their own little quirky movements. Something else I feel like I need to bring up is the level design. It’s incredibly well done. There’s also a very good mix of small, medium, and large levels. The hidden areas are fairly well hidden, but are also pretty easily found with your map, which comes together as you progress in each level, ala Metroid. The music and effects help build on the atmosphere and feeling of it all, bringing the entire package to completion.

Glowfish is $2.99 for the iPhone, and $4.99 for the iPad, and worth every single penny, and then some. It is supported by GameCenter with a highscore leader board and 25 achievements, which, combined with the 4 star ratings available on each level, adds to the replay value a bit, though you probably won’t play through Glowfish more than one time in a row, it is a game that will call you back after a month or two. It certainly is a game that everyone who owns an iDevice should check out, and will easily end up on quite a few top games of 2011 lists.

Glowfish gets a score of 5 out of 5.

It’s always upsetting when an independent developer’s amazing game doesn’t sell well enough to even recoup the money that was put into the making of the game. Even worse when it’s a solo developer, and their first game, making them think it’s not worth-while to continue making iOS games. The first time I ever really cared about this happening was with an amazing platformer that goes by the name of Miss Claire Garden, developed in 14 months by the amazingly talented Chris Neveu.

Released in January of this year, a lot of people were put off by the speed of movement for the character, Claire. This initially cause a lot of people to look the other way, figuring it wasn’t worth getting. Other gamers have said that the childish name didn’t help either. For me, I held off the first couple of days because the developer, Chris N., said that there were not going to be any updates for the game. But after watching the video up on YouTube, and sleeping on it, I couldn’t stop thinking about the game. Having a Mario 2 like platformer on my iDevice was something I just couldn’t pass up, future updates or not.

The graphics, gameplay, music, story, animations, the slight metroidvania type setup of the game, with players needing to grab specific power-ups in levels to go back to previously beaten levels and reach areas that were previously unreachable, the Mario 2 influenced gameplay, being able to pick up enemies, and throw them at other enemies, or carry them across the screen, placing them in a spot that gave you the opportunity to reach an unreachable area, being able to use blocks with the same reach unreachable areas effect, the insanely great level design. Miss Claire Garden went above and beyond the typical iOS platformer gameplay that iPod gamers were use to, and is still considered to be one of the very best platform games by the very few gamers that own the title.

And yet, the game is still a hidden gem, almost a full year after it’s release, the game still only has 9 ratings in the US AppStore, and Chris Neveu still has yet to make back the money that went into making the game. With it being $0.99, having 24 levels, 72 available flowers to collect, 3 in each level, collected by finishing the level, grabbing the (usually) hidden bird, and collecting 50 or more flowers in the level, adding an insanely addictive challenge to the game, and still, with all the platformers released since Miss Claire Garden’s release in mid-January, 2011, in my top 3 favorite iOS platform games, it’s an amazing deal that every fan of old-school, Mario, platform, adventure, or just amazingly great games should check out. A version 1.3 trailer was just uploaded to YouTube last month (and can be viewed below), and Chris Neveu is currently working on another game, though it’s not been said what platform it will be released for, and no info other than Mr. Neveu saying that he’s working on something in his freetime has been given out, but rest assured, after playing Miss Claire Garden, just knowing that Chris Neveu is working on another game will bring a big smile to your face.

Miss Claire Garden gets a score of 10 our of 10, and is HIGHLY recommended.

Developers have been trying to integrate music into their games since the birth of the AppStore. Not many have been able to successfully do this, but those that have found a way generally provide a very entertaining gameplay experience. Cravemob’s latest title, Blowup!!, a puzzle game based on match-3 type gameplay and integrating music, is a very good example of how to add music to gameplay smoothly and professionally.

You’ll start off with a screen full of mixed up different colored blocks. These blocks can be removed from the play area by double tapping on them. You’ll have a certain number of “Nibble” taps, which let you remove one single block, while removing groups of 13 or more adds to your number of Nibbles. If you remove a grouping of 8 or more, you’ll add energy to your energy bar, adding time to your gameplay. Once your energy bar runs out, it’ll be game over. Where does the music come in to this, you ask? Well, as you remove the groups of blocks from the gameplay area, you’ll be able to level up. Each time you level up, a section of music is added to the track playing, which also makes it so that you’ll earn more points with each group of blocks you remove, adds more energy to your energy bar when you do remove them, and causes your energy bar to drain quicker. The amount of music you have added to the song playing is shown at the top of the screen with a percentage. Once you hit 100%, you’ll be hearing the full music track. Sounds complicated? It kind of is. But all you really need to know is, pick a color to not remove from the blocks, try and remove every color but that one color, while groups of 8 or more blocks will be given robot faces so that you can tell them apart from the other blocks, and watch your energy bar, not letting it go too low unless you have a huge group of blocks you can remove from the gameplay area to fill it up again.

The minimal integration of music into the gameplay is pretty much the best way to mix music into games that are not tap based Guitar Hero type titles. Have the gameplay revolve around the music too much, and your game suffers, and generally, will get a lot of “the music has no effect on the actual gameplay” comments and reviews, and it’ll usually be the same with games that don’t have the music integrated enough into the gameplay, for instance, WAVE Against Every Beat’s Free Play Mode, which a lot of people thought would have the gameplay go with their own music, when in actuality, it was just a gimmicky promotion of “listen to your own music while playing the game”.

Cravemob has done an extremely good job of meshing music with gameplay, and having it be more than just a gimmick to sell more copies. The matching gameplay is great for casual and hardcore players, and can be very addicting, with the difficulty going up as your skill level rises. At $0.99, it provides smooth, entertaining gameplay with a high replay value. Different Modes would have added quite a bit to the game, but as it is, it’s still very much worth checking out, and as Cravemob’s first iOS game, it’s definitely a title that will catch the attention of gamers, and hopefully provide a solid fan-base of players eagerly awaiting to see what these talented developers will come up with next.

Blowup!! gets a score of 4 out of 5.

Endless Runner based level games are starting to grab a group of fans. Fatcat Rush, Mirror’s Edge, Run Fox Run, Brain In Jar, Bouncing Penguin, DoDo Fly, 1-Bit Ninja, these titles will usually upset platformer fans because, well, they’re not platformers, and cause endless runner fans to scream “those are not endless runners!”, but whether you love or hate these types of games, you can’t deny that there are gamers that thoroughly enjoy games like these, and that there are more and more of them popping up as more and more gamers get hooked by their gameplay. I, for one, and a big fan of these types of games. Maybe it’s because my favorite genre of games is platformers, and I enjoy endless runners quite a bit. Maybe it’s because they’re perfect for playing while sitting in the bathroom, who knows? Whatever the case may be, a new title has emerged, and is ready to be conquered by gamers everywhere. Zombie Parkour Runner, developed by Break Media, is the newest addition to the endless runner/platformer mesh genre.

You’ll control Kara while she jumps, zips, climbs, swings, wall-runs, and kicks some zombie butt trying to get her stolen cat back. There’s 24 levels of smooth playing parkour running that you’ll control simply by tapping on the screen. A quick tap will give you a short jump, while holding your finger on the screen will give you a long jump, then timely taps on the screen when a white silhouette of your character appears will cause you to do specific parkour tricks and spiffy zombie attacks while running through each level.

Making it through all 24 levels won’t take a lot of gamers too long, but making it through all 24 levels with a 3 star ranking and grabbing the special item in each level should take more than a little while, as should finding all the hidden areas and unlockable levels. There’s also a GameCenter leaderboard for each level, along with a board for the best score in a level, and 39 achievements, all adding immensely to the high replay-value. It would be nice to see a shop where we could unlock more characters, or different outfits, maybe give all those coins another purpose besides adding to the high-scores of players, and give those gamers out there that are not obsessed with high-scores something to aim for.

If you’re a fan of the genre, Zombie Parkour Runner is a game that’s definitely worth checking out. The addition of the Parkour moves, running on billboards, swinging off of poles, going down ziplines, and more adds quite a bit to the gameplay, as do the different zombies and zombie attacks. Priced at $0.99 for the iPhone version, and $2.99 for the iPad version, it’s a great buy, and a great game that will give you hours upon hours of entertainment.

Zombie Parkour Runner gets a score of 4 out of 5.

Platformers for the iOS have really started booming since the extremely successful release of League Of Evil. However, as much as I love platformers, it’s not too often fans of the genre can find a game that brings something new to the table, as the AppStore is getting over-run with “retro” platforming games. Thankfully, there are a couple developers out there that know that it’ll take more than a platform game with retro graphics to really stand out, and Ablemagic’s SpinTrip, published by Clickgamer/Chillingo just so happens to be one of those stand out titles.

You’ll guide a little ‘tisu, male or female (though your choice doesn’t effect the gameplay), through the magical world of Canoo. The evil Gnats have stolen a wise sage’s Shims, and you’ll need to use the power of the Chibs to get them all back. What does that mean in an understandable language? You’ll roll your character around the levels, collecting other characters that lend you their powers so that you can reach previously un-reachable areas to collect as many items as you can while trying to make it to the end of each level.

As for the controls, graphics, physics, and on a more forgiving note, the animations, everything is top notch. The physics do take some getting use to, but once you become comfortable with the idea that you’re rolling your character through the levels, not making them run through each level, it gets very easy to become accustomed to. The controls, set up like your typical virtual controlled iOS platformer, left and right buttons, along with a jump button, work extremely well. Each Chib that you pick up highlights an icon at the top of the screen, and on an iPad, are found around your basic left/right and jump/ability controls. When you want to use that Chib, you click on the icon, which makes them available for use, then tap the icon next to your jump button to activate that Chib. There are three different environments that you’ll progress through, each with it’s own distinctive look, and environmental feel, and along with the perfect animations, helps add to a very smooth, and highly enjoyable gaming experience.

SpinTrip is supported by Crystal for online leaderboards, which Chillingo seems to be using more and more, but it’s also supported by GameCenter, having 2 different boards, one for your Highscore and one for your Awesomeness score, along with 4 basic “find this many” achievements, and one hidden achievement. Each of the 16 levels has a 3 star ranking you can try and snag, but sadly, your star ranking is not shown on the level select screen, so finding those one or two levels that you only got 2 stars on is almost impossible. As always with new gameplay mechanics, there will always be people that wish the game just played like a regular old platformer game, so SpinTrip will not be favored by everyone, especially if you don’t like the idea of only being able to use one ability at a time, and having to collect that ability while going through levels, while having the number of times you can use that ability re-set with each level. But if you’re looking for something new a platform game, and either sick of, or have enough run/jump/goal platformers, SpinTrip is definitely a game worth your time. The game is only $0.99, and Universal, so if you’re still not sure, it’s not going to break the bank if you decide to check it out. It certainly has the potential to become one of your favorite iOS platformers.

SpinTrip gets a score of 4 out of 5.

MTV Networks is not really known for releasing quality gaming titles. Potty Racers, Ski Runner, Bigby: L.A.P.D., these games are not exactly going to end up on any “Top” lists. But with their latest release of Oscura, a platformer developed by Viacom+Chocolate Liberation Front, they might just be thinking of jumping into the high quality iOS gaming ring. And hopefully, they make a big enough roar that they’re pushed to keep going.

The game takes place on an island where dark creatures are tucked away by a magical light held in a lighthouse outpost. Inevitably, the power crystal that harnessed this magical light exploded, scattering shards of the crystal all over the island, and covering the land in darkness. Oscura, as the light keeper, now has to embark on the dangerous task of collecting all of these shards, and restoring the light.

There are presently 7 levels, each taking about 1 to 3 minutes to beat, meaning that you will probably finish the game in about 15 to 20 minutes. This is where a lot of gamers will get turned off, and probably end up passing up this great game. Thankfully, as I mentioned, there are star ratings that you can try and grab once you complete the game, and grabbing all of them is a pretty nice challenge. There are 5 more levels that are said to be coming in the future, and hopefully the onslaught of very low ratings in the AppStore will not discourage the developers, and cause the game to never get updated, because even though there’s an ending for the game after you beat the 7th level, it’ll drive you crazy knowing that the developers had more in mind. There’s obviously more to the game, and Oscura is an adventure that deserves to be complete.

For $1.99, Oscura being Universal, and the amazing look and gameplay in this title, it’s definitely a game that platformer fans should check out. Chocolate Liberation Front has created an incredibly beautiful and well rounded game that is sure to grab quite a few extremely loyal fans. But, if you are not a gamer that goes after star ratings for levels, and is done with a game after they beat the last level, then you will probably feel like your $1.99 was not spent very well. Hopefully there are enough gamers out there that do play certain games to completion, and will try and step up to the challenge of getting every star filled in every level, because it would be a shame if Oscura faded into the pile of thousands of monotonous games floating around the AppStore.

Oscura gets a score of 4.5 out of 5.

Earlier this year, developer Photics released an exploratory adventure game with RPG elements called Bot. It was made with GameSalad, and really did change my impressions of the engine. With a talented enough developer, GameSalad can really make something that people will want to play. Since then, there have been more talented GS developers coming out of the woodwork, to the point where GameSalad is no longer being laughed at when brought up. Anyway, back again, with another GameSalad game, Photics has just released an interesting plat former type game called Arch Fiery.

Sadly, one of the most interesting parts of the game, it’s story, is not found within the game it-self; only in the game’s description on iTunes. You’ll control a futuristic military weapon, a miniature star, designed to protect humanity from an artificial intelligence threat. However, during a systems test, the star ended up crashing in the middle of a forest damaging it’s propulsion systems. Now it can only jump. Having this actually put into the game would have made it quite a bit better. We’re suckers for cyberpunk type stories like this, and if Photics decided to reveal more story-line as the game progressed, it could have made for one hell of a game.

Aside from that, this game enjoyable enough, but chances are you‘ll see more of what the game doesn‘t have than what it does. Each level is set up like a small obstacle course, giving you objects to bounce off of once you jump off of the ground, platforms to rotate, opening up paths, and giving you 3 stars to collect, as well as fire orbs which make you larger, and in turn, gives you more opportunities to bounce off of harmful objects throughout the levels, and gives you more points at the end of each level. End of level points are determined by how many stars you collect, how many orbs of fire you collect, and how quickly you complete the level, while the ratings for each level depend on how many stars you collected. You can use either tilt or virtual controls, while tapping on the screen to jump. The physics are surprisingly well done, but it would be great if the star’s jumping height depended on how long you held your finger on the screen. Having only one jumping height never seems to add to a game.

Photics last game, Bot, changed some gamers perceptions of what GameSalad can do. This latest game, Arch Fiery, is done with the same sort of graphic style, and has the same sort of ominous feeling to it, but it’s screaming for more. Power-ups, larger levels, jumping height based on tap length, more exploration. For $0.99, it’s still worth checking out, as it is an interesting game that has it’s moments. But it needs more before it really stands out as something special in the AppStore.

Arch Fiery gets a score of 6 out of 10.

Tapping arcade games have become pretty popular within the iOS gaming community, especially ones where you fire missiles at asteroids to save a space station or planet. Eve Of Impact, by Rik Schennink is another game you can add to that list of tap firing action filled high-score chasing titles.

In Eve Of Impact, the goal of the game is to hold off the bombardment of asteroids so that as many people as possible can escape Earth, and survive. Your score is dependant on how many survivors there are, and your survivors score goes up faster the less missiles you use. You do have an unlimited number of missiles, so you can hit the asteroids with a barrage of missiles, but doing so will slow down your score. The way to score big is to figure out exactly when and where to tap depending on the incoming asteroids.

The graphics, animations, physics, and sounds all come together to create one hell of an immersive experience, especially for an arcade tapping game. The physics are top notch, and along with the simple controls, and beautiful graphics, you can really get sucked into the game. Then coupled with the animations for explosions, and trails, it all makes it a very smooth gameplay experience.

Rik Schennink has done an amazing job with his first iOS game. Eve Of Impact will give you hours and hours of strategic high-score chasing arcade gameplay. Right now, version 1.0 does not include GameCenter, so there’s no leader boards or achievements at the moment, but they are said to be included in version 1.1, along with a color tweak and music/sound settings, so the future looks bright for Eve Of Impact. Once GameCenter is added, and players are no longer chasing only their own local high-scores, the replay value and desire to play the game will go up quite a bit, but as it is now, $0.99 is a great price for this wonderfully made title.

Eve Of Impact gets a score of 8 out of 10.

When booting up a game and hearing those couple of notes, and seeing the splash screen, it’s hard not to cringe. GameSalad. There’s so many reasons people usually don’t like games done with GameSalad, lots of long loading screens, unresponsive controls, frame-rate issues, lag, poor collision detection, weird physics. Every once in a while there would be a game that ran decently, and was good enough to put up with all the loading screens, and it’s happening more often now that GameSalad has undergone a pretty heafty update. Games made with the “new” GameSalad, while still suffering from lots of loading screens, don’t take as long to load, have pretty decent controls, and don’t generally have any bad frame-rate issues. Thankfully, Monster Robot Studios new game, GravCat, is made with the new GameSalad engine. The collision detection is still a little funky, and the physics can take a little getting use to, but really, it’s one of the few GameSalad games we’ve enjoyed lately.

You’ll control a cat with some pretty nifty gear in space. The trick is, he falls in whatever direction the wheels on the bottom of his gear are facing. It’s kind of a plat former, but mainly a physics based action arcade game. To progress through the game, you’ll need to guide the cat around each of the levels, collecting all 10 of the green gems scattered throughout. There are enemies that you can land on, but only with your wheels, along with other hazards, like mines, mini-suns, rocks with orbs trapped in them, spinning fan-like blades, water, and more, including bosses, and some power-ups to help you deal with everything.

The graphics are done surprisingly well, and everything is pretty vibrant, considering it’s done with GS. The physics, like the controls, take a bit of getting use to, and the animations are done pretty well. The enemies do sometimes look a little funky walking around, and the animation for destroying them is kind of weird, but, I hate to keep saying this, considering it’s done with GameSalad, I’m pretty impressed. The collision detection, like most GameSalad made games, does need quite a bit of work. There’s countless times I’ve bounced off of air surrounding a block, and then gone back to the same block and ended up actually colliding with it before bouncing off, and some spots that needed pinpoint precision to get through two rocks that were kind of close together, but that I should have obviously been able to easily fit through, because of the “bouncy air” surrounding those rocks. The collision detection did get to be pretty frustrating.

In the end, GravCat is a decent enough game. The fact that it’s made with GameSalad can sometimes be surprising, but at other times, will make you say “figures”. There are quite a bit of mid-level loading screens telling you what certain objects can do, or how to deal with those objects, which really does take away from the flow of the gameplay. A tutorial level or two might have been a better idea than having mid-level loading to get to an info screen, though I can kind of understand why it wasn’t done in tutorial levels, as there’s quite a bit of different game mechanics, and seeing everything right off the bat would have made the first couple levels pretty boring, but a middle ground, like tutorial levels every 5 levels or something could help with the whole flow of the game. Being $0.99, and having 40+ levels, with more content on the way, and some pretty interesting gameplay makes it worth checking out if you’re into arcade type physics based anti-gravity action games. It does lack online support, and with no leader boards, there’s no real reason to replay levels. Once you’re done with the game, chances are you’ll either delete it, or keep it somewhere on your device with other games that are waiting for content updates. I guess what I’m getting at is that if you can put up with the loading screens, and are willing to get use to a games controls and physics, and don’t mind not having replay value, GravCat is a game worth checking out. It’s clear that Monster Robot Studios is talented and willing to put time and effort into their games, but I can’t stop wondering what they could do if using Unity or Corona, and I hope we get the chance to find out.

GravCat gets a score of 6 out of 10.