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.

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.

Bulkypix has become one of the bigger iOS developers/publishers over the last couple years or so, putting out numerous popular games, loads of which have hit Apple’s New & Noteworthy list. I only bring this up because it all makes their latest release, Tiny Token Empires, for the iPhone, a bit of a mystery.

First off, the iPad version of Tiny Token Empires is $8.99, and the iPhone version is $0.99. This should be a big clue that there’s going to be quite a bit of the game left out of the iPhone version, and sadly, it’s there, but only available through IAPs. To get the full Tiny Token Empires iPhone game, a total of $7.92 (+tax) will need to be spent. Now, I’m all for premium pricing in the AppStore, but generally, only when a developer comes out with a premium game that deserves that premium price.

It’s almost impossible not to compare Tiny Token Empires to Puzzle Quest, because they are the two big match-3 adventure turn-based RPG type games in the AppStore. Puzzle Quest, with 3 chapters, with the first chapter being free, and 2 and 3 being $0.99 each, with over 40 hours of very impressive quest filled turn-based match-3 gameplay, and Tiny Token Empires, a little under $8, 15 hours of not so quest filled turn-based match-3 gameplay, with a demo/lite verison that costs $0.99.

I don’t want to say that Tiny Token Empires is a bad game, because it’s not. It’s put together extremely well, has nice graphics, and decent music. It’s user interface is a little clunky, but not so much that it gets in the way of the game. It does have some smoother looking animations sequences than Puzzle Quest, and it has free mission and random battle modes to go along with the campaign. I don’t think the game feels like a premium priced game though. A lot of gamers do not like the “pay-as-you-go” pricing model, and here, Bulkypix is charging iPod gamers for what they’re giving away to PC gamers. It doesn’t rub players the right way, and I have no idea how Bulkypix is going to come out of this one on top.

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.

Kemco, developers of the amazing turn-based RPG, Symphony Of Eternity, have returned with an equally amazing addition to the genre, releasing Alphadia. The developers over at Kemco have proven that they know exactly how to make a turn-based RPG comparable to the likes of Final Fantasy, so when they came out of the gate so soon after SoE with their second iOS release, Alphadia, RPG fans knew they had to have it.

First off, the graphics. Alphadia doesn’t fully share the retro look of it’s sister title, SoE, but it does share the retro feeling. Even though the graphics have been redrawn to take advantage of the retina display on newer iPods, the game still feels like a retro title. This amazing mesh of modern and old-school graphics has created quite an awesome looking world for gamers to completely immerse themselves in, with amazing character models, wonderfully detailed environments, and cute character animations, it all comes together extremely well, sucking players into the world.

Now, if you’re a player who doesn’t really focus on the story, and is more into the turn-based battle systems, you’ll be glad to hear that you can tap repeatedly on the screen to skip through the story, then find out where you need to go using the map along with the quest icon in the pause menu. There are some areas where you’ll just need to explore a bit, randomly running into enemies that do not appear on the field, more like an older Final Fantasy game, until you enter the room with the character you’re needing to find in order to progress. There is a bit of exploration in the game, as you would expect if you’re familiar with Kemco, for instance, the map will only highlight your final destination, but in order to get there, you might need to find a tunnel that’s “somewhere north-east of this facility”, so you will come across plenty of battles to feed your battle system addiction. However, there’s also an Auto button if you’re more interested in the story and larger battles.

The only bad thing I can say about Alphadia is that the battle results screen sometimes feels like it’s getting in the way of the game. It doesn’t matter how quickly or how much you tap on the screen, the battle result screen has a set time that it’s shown.(PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ OUR CORRECTION OF THIS, THE BATTLE RESULTS SCREEN CAN BE TAPPED THROUGH!) This could be fixed in a future update, but right now, it can feel like it’s breaking up the game just a little bit too much. Aside from that, Kemco has given RPG fans another amazingly well done title to completely immerse themselves in. With the launch price of $2.99, it’s a steal, and must-buy for anyone remotely interested in playing a top notch turn-based RPG on their iDevice.