Author Archive: app

Zombie games run wild on the App Store, but that’s not to say that they are growing old. Combat Arms: Zombies, by Nexon Mobile, is the newest addition to the zombie genre.  Expanding on the PC version of Combat Arms, Nexon Mobile comes close to rivaling the thrilling action of the CoD Zombies series but falls short in the end.
For those of you familiar with Combat Arms, the biggest thing to note is that this is built somewhat like a free-to-play game. The biggest difference is that it does not include all of the annoying aspects of a free-to-play game. No ads, no forced IAPs, none of that. Instead you get a wide arsenal of weapons to unlock/buy and various other equipment to help you survive against the horde. What do I mean by “wide arsenal”? I mean 300+ authentic weapons. BOOM.

Since this is a First Person Shooter with Zombies, it is a given that the gameplay is wave-based. Obviously, zombies like to play fair and give you a little break after you get done killing their friends. They would never mob you incessantly (sarcasm?). The wave-based gameplay that drives most zombie games is wonderful in practice, but in Combat Arms it can be a bit of a fun-block. The thing about the waves in Combat Arms: Zombies is that the early rounds are just plain boring. Even if you have never played a game before they are boring. To make matters worse, the difficulty settings don’t affect the number of zombies, only the toughness of the zombies and the number of waves. No matter how you look at it, every time you play the game you will have to play through the early rounds before you actually get to the good part. Fortunately, the good part is really GOOD. Access new areas, kill new zombies (the boss zombies look really freaky), and have a jolly good rampage.

Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer support at the moment, and we can only hope that this will be added in the future. As a game built on the Unreal Engine 3 (which is relatively new on iOS), Combat Arms: Zombies plays far better than several others of its kind. The graphics are amazing and the 5 control schemes allow for anyone to play comfortably. Of course, improvements are always welcome and in particular I would love to see more maps, more zombie types, more guns, multiplayer, and a way to skip right to the action. If you want to shoot some zombies, grab Combat Arms while it is still available at the Holiday Price ($4.99)

Action RPGs have flooded the AppStore over the last couple of years. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In my case, it’s driven me back towards Turn-Based RPGs, which I use to love as a young teen, but kind of feel out of until earlier this year. Anyway, with the insane amount of Action RPGs available to iOS gamers, it’s hard to think that any of them can really bring anything new to the table, or generally impress gamers to the point where they’re given hope for the genre again. Enter ANBSoft. Their title, CrimsonHeart, might just wind up being the game that changes your perspective.

CrimsonHeart puts you in a world where Humans and Demons have fought for control of the world, with Demons trying to control the Humans with force, and the Humans trying to fight them off with intelligence. Dragons act as judges, having both intelligence and strength beyond that of both races, they limit themselves from getting involved. Dragons are immortal, but fall into deep sleep every 200 years, which is when the fighting between Humans and Demons is in total chaos. You’ll play as Pochi, a young warrior who has all of this going on around him, and Ann, a young mage, who has no memory of who she is, or what is going on in the world around them.

The graphics and animations are also a huge selling point for the game. The graphics are some of the best I’ve seen within the genre, with loads of detail, and an insane amount of color. As you attack enemies, how much damage you’ve done shows up above their heads, a-la Borderlands, which I always thought was a very cool graphic addition for games. If the enemies hit you, the same thing happens, but the numbers are in red instead of a pale yellow. The environments are very well done, with great path layouts, and wonderful objects scattered around the worlds. The trees, water, grass, bushes, rocks, flowers, everything that’s in the game adds to the overall atmosphere somehow, which does help immensely when becoming immersed within the game. The world that ANBSoft has created is beautiful, and the creatures within it are all designed perfectly. On top of this, the animations for moving, walking, running, dashing, attacking, everything is so fantastically well done that after playing CrimsonHeart, pretty much all other Action RPGs are dull and boring by comparison.

With all of these great selling points, it’s easy to see why the regular price for CrimsonHeart is $4.99. But right now, it’s on sale for $0.99! Did I also mention that the game is UNIVERSAL? So if you’re a fan of the genre, or use to be a fan of the genre, and have been disappointed over the last year by the onslaught of Action RPGs released in the AppStore, CrimsonHeart is definitely a game that you NEED to check out. ANBSoft has become a development team that I will be keeping a very close eye on in the future. If their next games are even half as entertaining as CrimsonHeart, they’ll be worth buying. Also, a huge THANK YOU to the developers, for re-igniting my love of Action RPGs. I really can’t thank you guys enough. I hope those of you who end up checking this out will feel the same.

The moment we have all been waiting for has arrived. The thrilling aspects of an Action RPG and the genius behind real-time strategies have been combined into one awesome game. Surely, you have heard of the massively popular free-to-play computer game, League of Legends.  With LoL, Riot Games not only championed the free-to-play structure but also built on the “battle arena” gameplay of DoTA.  In Legendary Heroes, Maya Games has brought this same gameplay and a somewhat similar monetary structure onto the iDevices. This game does not disappoint.
If you are not familiar with games like DoTA or League of Legends, here is what you need to know about the style of gameplay.  In Legendary Heroes you have 3 heroes on your team. You can control each of them (1 at a time) and the other 2 will be AI when not in your control.  The goal of the game is to protect your “source” or base, and destroy the other team’s source. Before you do this, you have to destroy all of the other team’s towers. To help you do this, these little guys called “minions” are automatically spawned and pretty much charge the other team and fight to the death. There is quite a bit of strategy involved if you actually want to do well. For example, you don’t want to sprint ahead of your minions and go tank one of the towers. More often than not you will be left with a minuscule amount of health and will be easy prey for the enemy.

If you have ever played a game like DoTA or LoL, you are probably thinking to yourself, ‘How the hell did they take into consideration the fact that you are constantly clicking your mouse to move your hero?’ Sure, you could just translate the mouse clicks into screen taps and tap-away at the screen to move your hero, but the controls let you drag your finger around to move your hero. This works very well and it gives you pretty solid maneuvering skills.  One thing to not is that screen space is very limited on the iDevices. In Legendary Heroes the on-screen UI is minimal so you won’t need to worry about having a cluttered screen. While playing a round, you have access to a mini-map that shows where you and your teammates are (fellow heroes and minions) along with where your enemies are, as well as a few skill boxes and your hero info.  The way this is all set up makes it very accessible and above all comfortable to play.

In terms of the Free-to-play structure, Maya Games has done an excellent job of keeping it balanced and reasonable. It’s always good to have options, especially when it comes to IAP’s on iOS.  It has become apparent from previous games that if there isn’t some alternative to the IAP’s many people will be infuriated beyond reason.  It’s safe to say that in Legendary Heroes the IAP’s are in no way necessary. Basically, there are two types of currency, gold and crystals. Gold is gained by completing a mission, and crystals are gained by accomplishing all of the tasks/goals withing a mission. The currency is used to unlock power-ups and heroes. In total, there are 32 power-ups and 8 heroes to unlock. Of course, time is the only thing standing between you and the unlocks, and if you want to speed things up you can choose to stock up on the currency through IAP’s.

An important thing to note is that power-ups and skills are not the same.  While you play the game, your heroes will level up. Killing enemies and enemy structures will give you experience. When you level up, you get points that can be used to upgrade your hero’s skills. Each hero has 4 unique skills ranging from leap-attacks to teleportation. These skills are one of the keys to success in a mission. On the other hand, power-ups have temporary effects like extra health, bonus attack power, or more speed. These must be purchased each time before a round and are one-time uses. If you are confused about the power-ups just think about them like health potions. When you use them once, they are gone.
Maya Studios has taken the successful gameplay and free-to-play structure of League of Legends and essentially “ported” it over to iOS. The fact that they were able to make it flow so well on the small touch screen is nothing short of amazing. Of course the game is not perfect, and the lack of a multi-player mode could make or break its success. Future updates are on the way with new heroes and hopefully new game modes. At the price of free, there is no reason not to pick Legendary Heroes up today and try it for yourself.

Get it on iTunes: Legendary Heroes

So, I’m sure all of you guys and girls are having a lovely time with the brand new Super Crate Box for iOS.  As you know, Vlambeer said that a content update would be on its way if the global crate count broke 5 million. Well, it has been a mere 2 days since the launch of Super Crate Box on the App Store, and despite the fact that SCB missed the Game of the Week feature, over 7 million crates have already been collected. Yes, over 7 MILLION. You don’t even need to know calculus, or math for that matter, to figure out that that is a LOT of crates. (And yes, it is over 9,000).
A picture is worth a thousand words. Don’t be ashamed if your asplodes when you see the number.

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JAZZ: Trumps Journey is an unusual game that strays from the accepted norm in the AppStore. JAZZ is a platformer with a strong emphasis on music. Namely the jazz that New Orleans is so well known for.
You play as Trump, a famous jazzman in the early 1920’s who is trying to create his own jazz band.  There are platforms, bosses, warpzones and all sorts of other platforming ingredients that can be found on your journey, including a beautiful lady whose heart you have to win.
But what really differentiates this game from the crowd is the way music is incorporated into the game.  In the beginning the background music consists only of percussion. When you find your first band member the music changes to incorporate the instrument each band member plays. The music gets richer as you find new members to add to your band and was composed by real musicians in a recording studio. Music also plays another part in the game, specifically as a tool used by Trump to stop time.
The graphics are inspired by old pictures of New Orleans in the 1920’s.  In the screenshots it is increasingly apparent that a lot of time was spent perfecting them and keeping the graphics true to their orgins.  The story is also rich as it is based off of the biography of Louis Armstrong, a very influential musician back then.
The game also delves into controversial topics such as racism and injustice. I applaud the developers efforts to be as realistic as possible and show the way things were back then, rather than sweeping those issues under the carpet. I am certainly looking forward to this game and will be available on January 19th for download.  It will be released for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and the Mac AppStore. I imagine it will be universal and work on most devices but we will have to see.  We plan to have a full review up for the game around the time it launches so stay tuned!

You’ve probably heard about the new platformer by Monsters vs Wizards and Crescent Moon Games.  Paper Monsters began as a simple, paper-style action platformer, but it has since grown into a full-blown future classic. The game sports cutesy artwork with 3D models but 2D gameplay.  The all around appeal aesthetic appeal of the game seems reminiscent of console hits like Little Big Planet and Paper Mario.

So far what we’ve heard about the game sets it into a world of its own as an iOS action platformer. Apart from the amazing artwork, there will be several power-ups including a dragon (fire-breathing of course), a flying bug suit, and a submarine. A submarine power-up can only mean one thing…underwater levels! And there is much more than just underwater levels. The themes that will be included on release are grass-world, snow-world, underwater, and some underground sections. On top of that there are 16 enemy types and awesome boss-battles (with funny cut-scenes to boot).

Paper Monsters has just about everything you can ask for in an iOS platformer. It even has hidden treasures and secrets, cloud saving, and iCade support!

When Paper Monsters gets closer to release, hopefully we will get some hands-on time.  Until then check out the new site that Robots vs Wizards set up, PaperMonsterLand. At the site you can find quite a few screens along with more than enough info about the world of Paper Monsters to get you as excited as we are. There isn’t an official trailer released yet, but check out the teaser for now.

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Super Crate Box for iOS is the lovechild of indie gaming studios Vlambeer and Halfbot.  Vlambeer, being new to the iOS crowd decided to collaborate with Halfbot, a studio that has already published their first game.  Though Super Crate Box or SCB for short was originally a PC game by Vlambeer, it translates well onto the smaller screen of iDevices.  The two studios spent countless hours perfecting the controls and cleaning up the code of the game.  The game was originally planned to be released in late December, but rather than rushing through the rest of their work they decided to postpone the launch and make it even better than it was before.
The new release date is five days from now on January 5th.

SCB is a game about speed, maneuverability and firepower. Your main goal is to collect as many crates as you can while dealing with the torrent of enemies flung at you over the course of your play session.  Every time you run over a crate you exchange your current weapon for another weapon you have already earned. This is both a blessing and a curse as you might get stuck in a situation with a gun that wont help you get out of it alive.  Crates are also important because they unlock new characters, weapons, levels and gameplay modes.
 The controls are as tight as possible and I have not had any problems with them excluding human error.  The music is retro themed and gets your blood pumping. SCB is also Universal so it can work on your iPad and iPhone and has iCade support.
Overall this is a brilliant port and full of insane jaw dropping action that will keep you on the edge of your seat. At a launch price of $0.99 you wont want to miss this bad boy. Plus if a overall total of 5 million crates are collected by iOS gamers all over the world the developers promise to add iOS exclusive content in a update.

Here are some screenshots of the game in action:
(rather hard to catch good screenshots since this is such
a fast paced game)

From what we have heard and seen so far, 2012 is going to be one hell of a year. Let’s just hope all of the great games we’ve been hearing about release before the world ends. Here’s our 10 most anticipated games for 2012 (that we know of now).

#1 Legendary Heroes (Legendary Heroes)

Haven’t heard much about this one other than that it plays like League of Legends or DoTA. Going of the video, this game is nothing short of awesome.  It will be releasing sometime in early 2012, and it will be free-to-play.  Don’t let this keep you away from the game though, just remember that League of Legends is free-to-play and is great.  We’ll have all the details on this one as they come.

#2 Paper Monsters (Crescent Moon Games/Robotsvswizards)

This is the platformer that I’ve been waiting for for the longest time. The quality of the artwork and the original garageband-made music seem to create a unique and lovable experience. And, it seems reminiscent of the Mario games, which is a huge plus. The video is some old footage and the game has evolved since then.  Paper Monsters will be launching early 2012.

#3 League of Evil 2 (Ravenous Games)

It’s pretty obvious that I like League of Evil. Not only was it our Game of the Year, but it is still my favorite game, hands down.  From what I’ve seen, the second installment looks like it will be just as good as the first, if not better. The pixel art is out, and all of the artwork is now being done by hand. Can’t say much about gameplay yet, but judging from the screens this is going to be one hell of a game.

#4 Kids vs. Goblins (Crescent Moon Games/Stolen Couch Games)

The line drawing control mechanism was really brought to life by the Mika Mobile masterpiece, Battleheart.  In Kids vs. Goblins, this tactic is taken to another dimension. Literally. This game looks really good, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

#5 Infinity Of God (CalviGames/Chillingo)

This God of War inspired game looks like another step up in terms of iOS graphic quality. It’s being made with the Unreal Engine, so lets hope it doesn’t fall victim to the bugs that are associated with the engine.

#6 Oceanhorn (Cornfox & Brothers)

**Bullshot**

This adventure game is brings back memories of the old days of classic, Zelda-style RPGs. Explore the world, solve puzzles, and kill the ancient sea monster named Oceanhorn.  Forget grinding, I’m on a boat.

#7 Raid Leader (Crescent Moon Games/Red Zebra Games)

Raid Leader seems to have somewhat similar gameplay to Kids vs. Goblins but has an entirely different appeal. From what we can tell so far, this game will be one awesome real-time strategy game (if that’s what they call them). The info we have so far is that there will be EPIC BOSS BATTLES and unique perks and abilities. Early 2012 launch for this one.

#8 Last Knight (Crescent Moon Games/Toco Games)

Looks like 2012 is the year of Crescent Moon Games.  Last Knight is being developed by Toco Games, and judging from the screens it looks plain amazing.  In terms of gameplay, this will be an endless “rider” with some jousting and ragdoll physics along the way. Count me in!

#9 Lightopus (Appxplore)

I recently finished beta testing this game, and it really was a pleasure to play. The atmosphere created by the game’s music (headphones help) and artwork is amazing. The video somewhat shows how the controls work, and also what kind of gameplay you will expect. No matter what you will have a blast playing this game, and that is why it’s on our list.

#10 2013: Infected Wars (Action Mobile Games)

This zombie shooter is shaping up to be quite the killer. The game will sport third-person shooter action with both single player and online co-op play. Online co-op is very rare on iOS especially in a game like this. Not much solid info on 2013: Infected Wars yet, but we’ll be back when there’s more.

These 10 games certainly aren’t the only ones that we are looking forward to, but there needs to be a cut-off to the list somewhere. Either way, we’ll try to review all of the great games in 2012.  I hope you enjoyed the read.

For the past week or so developers on Steam have been drastically cutting the prices on their games to just a few measly dollars. Once every 24 hours the new sales are revealed for people to peruse.  Today two iOS game developers have cut down their prices to the lowest they have ever been.  Those developers are Vlambeer and Trendy Entertainment.  Vlambeer recently submitted Super Crate Box to the Appstore and it is due out on January 5th of 2012.  Trendy Entertainment ported Dungeon Defenders onto mobile devices like iOS and Android.

In case you are out of the loop, Steam is a storefront for computer games that you can download onto your computer.  Once you have Steam downloaded you can buy a variety of games, granted that you have the proper computing requirements.  It’s free and you can get it here: http://store.steampowered.com/

The two games that are on sale are Dungeon Defenders for PC and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter.

Dungeon Defenders by Trendy Entertainment

Dungeon Defenders is a tower defense/ action roleplaying game.  Your goal is to protect the Eternia crystals from the swarms of monsters that arrive in each of the areas.  Towers are a main focal point of the game and you place them strategically around the area in order to best defend your crystal. You can choose from 4 characters all of which have different skills and towers available.  The game is multiplayer enabled so you can play with people around the world. Though the iOS version cant sync back and forth to the PC version but in my opinion the game plays smoother on the PC.

Price: $3.74 http://store.steampowered.com/app/65800/

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter by Vlambeer

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a turn-based RPG that lives up to its name, it’s extremely random. From aliens to insanely crazy weapons this is definitely a interesting game. It is definitely worth a shot for a dollar and you would have to be insane to pass up this offer.

Price: $1.24 http://store.steampowered.com/app/201480/

Total for both games: 4.98 or 5 dollars after tax