Tilt to Live, $2.99 (by One Man Left) (iPhone or iPad)

Hello again. Now its time to review an AppStore classic that havent been reviewed yet by TheAppShack, and its a true hidden gem that everyone should check: Tilt to Live.

Tilt to Live was released back in 2010 into the AppStore by OneManLeft (actually, theres two mans left), an indie developer based on Alabama, USA. And those two are called Alex Okafor, who is the Programmer and Adam Stewart, the Artist.

Tilt to Live is an arcade game where you have to tilt your iDevice to save your life, literally (and lucky for us, tilting works really good, being near perfect). Enemies are represented by red dots, they want you dead and they will follow you until the end of days, or better, their lives, because thats your purpose, kill them before they kill you, and believe me, its not as easy task. You will need all your reflexes to carefully avoid them while you try to reach the different weapons, and there are a lot of them, all being equally awesome. For example, theres black holes that sucks in near enemies, there is a purple energy blast, nuclear explosions, a spiked blue shield that when it activated, makes all enemies run away from you praying for their lives. Indeed this is fun. And there are many many different weapons.

One of the coolest things about Tilt to Live is that is has some of the best rewarding system with unlocking weapons there is, and you do that by earning achievements (also known as awards), and theres 60 in total so when you have like 4 or 5 achievements you unlock the first weapon with 25 points, the Ice Blast, for 120 the Spike Shield and so on, to a total of 7 awesome weapons. Worth mentioning is that One Man Left developer has the most brilliant Achievements names around.

Enemies will come at you individually or within larger groups (too many and different to mention), and will do everything they can (like trying to overwhelm you) to cease your existence. If you are good at tilting, you will have a great time with this game: when the screen is full of enemies and power pods is when this game shines. Avoiding an army by tilting (sometimes it gets wild) while activating weapons is one of the best casual arcade experiences i had with my iPhone. Its completely controlled mayhem that can be described with one word: fun.

Replayability is really huge, not only because it will take you some time to unlock all weapons, its because it has 4 completely different modes: Classic (which is the normal mode, perfect for beginners), Code Red (Classic mode in crack, be prepared to die, my favourite), Gauntlet (weave through diabolical dots formations, really fun to play) and Frostbite (Shatter frozen foes before they awake, for me the the most difficult of them all). And there is an InApp Purchase (IAP) that costs $0.99 and adds Viva la Turret (Mow down dots with a turret to multiply your score, -yes is as fun as it sounds), that brings -you probably already guessed- a turret. But it goes beyond that, this IAP also brings you MULTIPLAYER. In this co-op mode, one of you collect power pods and points while the other massacres red dots. Unfortunately, multiplayer is local only, no online (yet?), so you need a buddy with you to play it. From all IAPs i bought, this is the most used one, so i fully recommend it, specially if you have a buddy to play with.

Each mode has its own music, and its quite fitting and cool, and i often found myself humming it all day long. They sell it at their website, 4 songs for $2.00. http://onemanleft.bandcamp.com/

There is a LITE version for you to check out if your unconvinced, but i warn you that the LITE version doesnt do any justice to the full game. It the different weapons and unlock system, aside from the wonderful gameplay presented here that really separate Tilt to Live from the rest of game on iOS. Its a game hard to master but harder to put down once you get good at it. Tilt to Live is also one of the best casual gamers can play, its both excellent for a quick game and a for those looking for a long and entertaining session (if you can survive long enough). Actually, this is the first game i have on the first page of my games page, and will NEVER leave my iPhone.

Theres also an iPad HD version, but with a larger screen to manouver and more enemies. Which i heard is even more enjoyable than the iPhone/iPod Touch version… i need an iPad