Search Results for: label/240.99

If you’ve been a reader of The App Shack for a while now, you probably already know that we LOVE Ayopa games here. Their nice releases, along with super support from the developers of the games they publish really makes them easy to support. Their most recent publication comes from developer Steven Pastro; an action puzzler, Light Byte. 

Light Byte has 3 different gameplay modes; Endless, Time Attack, and Full Byte. Each mode’s play is basically the same. You’ll need to match two blocks that are the same color, which will make them fall from the slowly descending wall of blocks, giving you access to the blocks behind them. The more blocks of the same color you match, the higher your score will be, and once you take out 8 blocks of the same color, you’ll enter frenzy mode, which turns all of the blocks into stars, and you can just tap away, knocking them all down. 

In Endless Mode, you start off with 3 colors of blocks, yellow, blue and red. As you knock down these blocks, they‘ll fill a level meter as well as color meters at the bottom of the screen. Once the level meter is filled up, you‘ll go up a level, and the speed of the descending blocks will slightly increase. Below the level meter are the color meters. Each meter is added to when you knock down blocks of the meter’s color. Once one of the meters is filled, it shoots stars up to the top of the screen, clearing all of the blocks on screen, and gives you a point bonus. And bonus points are a huge part of Light Byte.

As you knock down blocks, each block that’s the same color as the last is increased 100 points. Once you enter Frenzy Mode, each block knocked down gives you 500 points, and here, you can tap very quickly, and gain quite a few extra points, and if you’re lucky, you can clear the screen of every block, and get a clear bonus. With GameCenter support, and 14 leader boards, high-scores are a huge part of the replay value, and drive to keep playing. There’s also 33 achievements, helping to add to the replay value and challenge. 

Also a part of score chasing, unlocking modes requires you to collect a certain amount of total points. Normal Mode in Time Attack requires you get 5 million points to unlock it, Challenge Mode in Time Attack requires 10 million, and Extreme requires 50 million while Full Byte Mode needs 25 million. 

With the Modes being unlocked by cumulative points, and fairly large amounts, there’s a guarantee that even after playing for hours on end, you’ll still have a pretty big chance of unlocking something new, and having a whole new leader board to compete on. But if you’re impatient, you can unlock all of the modes for $1.99.

As we’ve said quite a few times in the past, Ayopa is one of our favorite publishers. The developers who release their games through them are very supportive, and have worked non-stop to make their games as user friendly as they can, and as entertaining as they can, based on gamer feedback. It’s pretty much a give-in that Light Byte will be the same. As it is now, I haven’t found any issues with the game, but as with almost every other game out there, the chances of someone finding some are fairly high, so it’s always great to have a team of developers+publishers that are devoted to customer satisfaction. Light Byte is $0.99, and Universal. And with the crazy amount of content and replay value, it’s a great game to get if you’re into action puzzlers or games that require quick thinking and reflexes. With Light Byte, you can chalk another one up to Ayopa, it’s definitely a game that’ll end up staying on my iDevice for a long, long time.

Score-chasing arcade games are a god-send for iOS gaming. They’re a perfect fit for the platform, with endless play, quick gaming sessions, and tons of drive that always keeps you coming back for more. In my opinion, the AppStore will never have too many score driven arcade titles. The most recent addition to my Score-Chasing folder on my iPad is Chillibite Entertainment’s Stunt Bunnies Circus. 

This tap based arcade game has you controlling an extremely quick and agile rabbit who’s trying to save all of the falling rabbits from smashing into the floor. It sounds pretty basic, and the main idea is, but once you add in the fireball tossing rabbit, fireballs around the falling rabbits, cannons shooting rabbits every which way, the different types of rabbits, the snarling lions, combos needed to gain coins, things can get pretty hectic pretty fast. 

There are two modes of gameplay, Story, and Arcade (which is unlocked after completing Chapter 2 of Story Mode); Story Mode has you going through 8 level chapters, adding different mechanics as you go along, and slowly progressing in difficulty. Here, you need to try and save as many bunnies as you can from hitting the ground. Only being able to catch 5 rabbits in a row, you’ll need to keep making sure you drop them off before the next wave starts or else you could wind up missing quite a few of them. You’re able to earn coins if you catch more than one rabbit per tap, but you’re also able to align yourself mid-air. This does require more taps, and quickly, but once you get the hang of it, pulling it off is incredibly fun. As you catch bunnies, you’ll fill up a bar on the right side of the screen. Once this is full, you’ve completed the level. Arcade Mode is basically an endless mode. You’re able to miss 5 bunnies, and then it’s game over, but here, you’re able to earn quite a few coins which you can spend on power-ups which can help you get through Story Mode. 

With the coins that you collect in both gameplay modes, you’re able to purchase one time use power-ups. There’s Rocket Fuel, which doubles your jet pack speed for one round, Crash Mats, which gives you 3 mats which will each save one bunny from hitting the ground, and a Fire Jacket, which protects you from up to 10 fireballs in one round. Prices for these are fairly high, with Rocket Fuel priced at 100 coins, Crash Mats at 200, and the Fire Jacket at 500, they’re pretty much only there for Story levels that you’re having a very hard time beating, or when you’re ready to try and get a high-score in Arcade Mode. But you can pretty much count on either playing through the vast majority of the levels with no power-ups, or purchasing coins through IAP (1,000 coins for $0.99, 2,500 coins for $1.99 and 10,000 coins for $2.99). Now, I have nothing against IAPs in games, but having consumable items (and ONLY consumable items) in your game, with consumable IAP, and games that push you towards IAP with INSANE difficulty, or having to wait for 10+ hours before getting a couple gold pieces, kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, here, they aren’t required to play through the whole game, as you only need 1 star to move on from level to level, so you’re really pushed towards getting better at the game than purchasing coins, which I view as a positive addition to games. 

With Stunt Bunnies Circus priced at $0.99, being Universal, having pretty much endless replay value and GameCenter with a leaderboard and 26 achievements, it’s a nice score-chasing tap based arcade title. It’d be great to see even more bunnies added, some playable characters which could be unlocked, or more power-ups, but as it is now, it offers up some nice variety, a great challenge, especially if you’re going to go for 3 stars on every level, nice graphics and animations, and all-around entertaining gameplay. It’s very clear they know what it takes to make a fully rounded iOS title, and I’m hoping to see more from Jujubee Games in the future. 

Endless runners are a dime a dozen in the AppStore. However, it’s not too often you come across a runner that gives you a character and features that you’re already familiar with before hopping into the game. Bulkypix latest runner, used primarily as a promo for the sequel, is Babel Running. A runner where you’ll control a little guy just trying to get bricks from one place to another, while being ambushed by forces he doesn’t quite yet understand. 

As with most runners, the gameplay is simple. Tap once to jump, twice to double jump. Leave the rest up to the game. You’ll encounter tsunamis, snakes, spikes, lightning, fire, crocodiles, and more and you try to collect the rocks scattered throughout the world and take them to different stations, cashing in your points. Once you collect three of these rock pieces scattered all over the place, you’ll earn a stone, which you’ll need to try and carry to the next station. However, if you get hit, it’ll cost you one stone, and once you’re out of stones and get injured, it’s game over. 

Unfortunately, other than the GameCenter/OpenFeint leaderboards, Facebook posting and 23 trophies, there’s not much to the game, and with so many runners taking advantage of the platform, and going a little crazy with their gameplay, aside from the familiar settings and offerings of Babel Running, it doesn’t really stand a chance to stick out in the crowd. There is a Bonus Mode, which you can purchase for another $0.99, offering up bonus items throughout the gameplay, shields, and the like, but it still doesn’t do much to change the outcome of the game. There’s nothing really driving the gameplay, and nothing really keeping you coming back to it.

But if you’re looking for a familiar runner from a well known publisher that offers up a decent challenge; Babel Running is definitely one to check out. It’s $0.99, and Universal, and for all of you Babel fanatics out there, should hold you over until the sequel to Babel Rising comes out.

One of my favorite iOS games ever is Super Stickman Golf. It’s sucked hours upon hours of my life away one swing of the golf club at a time. So seeing Dynamo Games title, Golf Squared, which looked AMAZINGLY similar to SSG, the excitement hit me instantly. But along with that excitement came unease. Would Dynamo Games be able to match the amazingly addictive gameplay of Super Stickman Golf, or would it fizzle out, being a less than mediocre clone? Well… it’s time to find out.

Starting off, the graphics of Golf Squared look great. The boxy look of the characters coupled with the nice modern retro type inspired environments, minimal user interface and vibrant colors all come together to create a very appealing graphic styling. 

The animations and physics add a bunch to this, with your characters showing obvious disappointment when things don’t go their way, sand kicking up when you hit a bunker and grass and flowers popping up when you roll through the rough. The physics when hitting a ball in these areas is also effected, which is a great addition to the gameplay. Sadly, other areas of the game don’t stand out like the graphics, animations and physics.  

There’s only one Mode, no online features like multiplayer, and no GameCenter or OpenFeint support. Within the one mode of gameplay, you’ll be able to choose between a male or female character, and have only one environment (golf course) to pick, with a “More Levels Coming Soon” message when you click the misleading arrow, thinking there’s more than one area to play in. In this one area, there’s 18 holes, each having an available 3 star ranking. That’s it. 18 holes. 

Once you actually get into the game, you might notice right away that zooming in and out can become quite a hassle. Once you zoom out, and then hit the ball, the camera automatically zooms back in, and stays there until you zoom it out again. This can get pretty annoying, and winds up taking away from the immersion of the game quite a bit. 

You’ll also probably notice that there’s no in-game currency, no in-game store, no customization what-so-ever. Now, this does mean that there’s no extra IAP, which I guess is a good thing, but with every single golf game out there these days having in-game stores, with extra balls, clothing, clubs, characters, and more that you can purchase, it’s kind of a let down. No powered up balls to unlock, you can’t even change your characters colors. 

Now, with this being Dynamo Games first real game released in the AppStore, it’s not exactly bad. But once you get past the graphics, the game doesn’t stick out. At all. The levels are designed kind of like Stickman Golf’s courses, but each is very short, and with only 18 of them, there’s not much gameplay here. You can replay the holes until you get 3 stars (which is done by achieving a Birdy [2 hits under par]), but then that’s it, and there’s not much drive to even do that with no online leader boards, and no store to purchase items. Hopefully Dynamo Games will keep working on Golf Squared, because it does have a ton of potential. But right now, it really just feels like a bare bones, graphically enhanced, lite/demo version of Stickman Golf. 

Casual games are a kind of staple of AppStore gaming, especially games that have basically endless replay value and are easy to learn, hard to master. However, within this large group of casual titles lies games that are somewhat more ‘hardcore’, appealing more to veteran gamers than most of the casual games available. Michael Brough’s roguelike title, Zaga 33, happens to be one of these games. For those of you familiar with the latest PC or Mac versions of Zaga 33, you’ll be extremely happy to know that the iOS version is basically a direct port. Scoot the controls over to a touch screen, and viola. 

As for those of you who are not familiar with Zaga 33, the whole goal of the game is to get your character, the “@”, through 25 levels of alien filled dungeon rooms, finally winding up at the Alien Cortex, and then defeating it. Now, that might sound all well and good, but what makes the game appeal to more ‘hardcore’ gamers is that it’s the perfect example of a well thought-out, and perfectly executed roguelike title. Randomized room designs, turn-based movement, perma-death (no continues), and every power-up you grab is also randomized, meaning whenever you start a new game, you never really know what items do what until you try them out. 

Each time you move your character, all of the enemies within the room will take their move as well. You are able to attack the various enemies, but with each attack, you have the chance of being attacked yourself, and with only 9 hit points, if you find yourself surrounded by 3 enemies, you could wind up dead in 3 moves. You do regain 1 hit point each time you move on to the next room, and there are healing pick ups which give you full health, but since it’s all random, there’s no telling when you’ll be able to find one of these pick ups, or how the enemies in the next room are going to be set up, so most of the time, it’s just best to avoid the enemies at all cost.

There are two control methods for Zaga 33, one lets you touch a spot on the map to move, while the other lets you swipe in the direction you’d like to go. The game also auto-orientates to however you’re holding your device, so portrait and landscape modes are supported. The graphics are done in a fantastic green/purple/red sci-fi retro scheme, and the music is wonderful, adding a ton to the atmospheric feeling of the game. 

Each game takes about 5-10 minutes, or even less, which makes Zaga 33 a perfect mobile title. Unfortunately, there is no GameCenter support, which means no leader boards, and no achievements. It would be great to have boards for how quickly you can defeat the Cortex, and even just a handful of achievements would have been a nice addition. But this doesn’t really take anything away from the game. It still gives players the drive to make it to the end, over and over again, trying to better their score by even just one point. 

With Zaga 33 being a faithful port of the PC/Mac title, and only priced at $0.99 while being Universal, and quite possibly being the best roguelike title in the AppStore, it’s a must buy for fans of the genre, casual gamers looking for a challenge and even the most hardcore gamers just looking for a quick fix. Michael Brough’s Zaga 33 is a classic, and the iOS gaming community is lucky to have it available for their devices. Hopefully it becomes as much of an iOS classic as it is on the PC+Mac. I’d love to see more from Mr. Brough. It’s easy to tell that tons of energy, work, thought, care and love has gone into both Zaga 33, and his other iOS title, Glitch Tank, and developers with that much passion deserve loads of support. Here’s hoping both titles get the attention that they most definitely deserve.

**Be sure and check out more games from Michael Brough at www.smestorp.com**

Back in April, when I first heard of, then named, Project Belle, I was ecstatic. The games graphics and presentation looked outstanding. The only thing I was really worried about, like almost all games that involve platforming, was the controls. It was the beginning of a short wait, unlike tons of other games that are basically forgotten between being announced and their release, it only took 2 months for Fabrication Games to get Project 81331 out onto the AppStore, and thankfully, the developers nailed the swiping gesture controls PERFECTLY. 

Like all of my favorite platformers, Project 83113 has a decent story pushing the gameplay along. You’re never caught wondering what you’re doing and why, or trying to guess where you are or who put you there, which, in my book, is a huge plus when it comes to platformers, and mainly because so many of them don’t include any information about these things what-so-ever.

Belle is part of a slave race, controlled and used by machines. Born out of the eyes of the machines, she was raised and trained to be The One who could free their kind from slavery. She is… Project 83113 (hehe). As you progress through the game, blasting your way to the hub of the machine’s haven, you’ll come across various weapons and robots which will help you defeat some of the more powerful machines. 

You’re able to collect upgrade coins throughout the game, but you can also buy them in the shop, which is accessible through both the level selection screen and the pause menu. Here, you can buy upgrade coins and bombs, as well as upgrade your weapons and take a look at all of the story fragments that you’ll be collecting throughout the game. There are IAPs, but you’re never driven towards purchasing them, and are really just there if you’d like to help support the developers, and completely max out your weapons. 

Right now, Project 81331 contains 33 levels; 27 regular levels spread across 3 worlds, with each world having one boss level, and one stealth level. There is a 4th world, and even though I haven’t gotten that far yet, it’s not included in the GameCenter scores, so I’m assuming that it’s coming in a future update. Either that, or it’s a very small world consisting of the center of the machine’s haven (here’s hoping). Each of the 27 standard levels has 3 different badges you can earn; one for finding the hidden object within the level, one for defeating all of the enemies in the level and one for completing the level without taking any damage. This last badge is what really adds to the replay value, and ups the difficulty quite a bit. Even by level 1-4, you’ll be going nuts trying to complete the stage without getting hit. 

The controls in Project 83113 are fairly simple. Swipe right to move right, swipe left to move left, swipe up to jump, and swipe down to slide. As you make your way through the game, more moves will be unlocked, like dashing in the air, double jumping, and gliding for short distances. Belle fires her weapon automatically whenever she’s in range of an enemy, and you’re also able to fire a special shot by tapping on an enemy. However, this drains a little bit of your energy, so you’ll have to watch how many times you use it. There’s also an icon of a bomb in the lower right corner, which clears the screen of all enemies and projectiles. 

Graphics-wise, Fabrication Games has done an outstanding job making a game centered around machines and corridors incredibly vibrant. Each of the character and machine sprites are fantastically done with the environments matching the high quality set by them. Animations are detailed and, well, just plain awesome. The explosions look great, and everything down to Belle crouching looks amazing. The game is also super smooth, especially on the iPad, but I didn’t encounter any slow-down or frame-rate issues while playing on my 4th generation iPod Touch either, which was a huge shock. 

With the price of Project 83113 set at $0.99, being Universal, including GameCenter leader boards for the total score of each separate world, and having 20 incredibly difficult to unlock achievements added on top of them, combined with the mind-blowing production values and amazing game-play, this is one game you do not want to miss out on. Project 81331 will definitely wind up on my top 10 games of the year list, and is one title that I’ll be recommending to all of my co-workers, and gifting to everyone in my family. It’s that good. With the insane amount of replay value, I’ll be hooked on Project 83113 for quite some time. But it’s safe to say that Fabrication Games has not only raised the bar for games in the platform runner genre, but completely blown everything else out of the water. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us in the future!

FDG Entertainment is responsible for bringing one of my favorite flash games, Clear Vision, to the iOS. Recently, they also brought Tentacle Wars, another popular flash game to the iPad. This week, they’re doing it again. Expand It, the popular flash game featured on Bored.com has hit the iOS world thanks to one of our favorite publishers, FDG. Expand It falls into the physics puzzler genre, but thankfully, it’s not your typical run of the mill physics title. You need to make your expandable blocks reach a certain height by making them bigger as well as using the interesting objects found throughout the stages. 

My first glance at the screen shots, I was kind of disappointed, thinking that it was another one of those ‘take out the blocks so that one block hit’s the platform’ type games. Boy was I WAY wrong. Expand It is an original and very unique type of physics puzzler, something the AppStore needs to see more often. To complete each of the levels, you need to tap on certain shapes that are in the levels to make them grow, and to activate various objects and hazards. Once you have the solution, all you need to do is make sure that one of your blocks winds up above the rainbow line towards the top of the screen for a couple of seconds, and voila, on to the next one.

It may sound surprisingly easy, but once you get past the first couple of levels, finding out the solutions could take multiple tries while finding out what each of the blocks and hazards do, and what actually moves within the levels and what size you need to have each of the shapes reach at what given times. After you think you’ve got a handle on the whole layout of the game, it ramps up the difficulty again, always seeming to add something new and unique as you progress.

Expand It has 4 different environments, each with 15 stages, offering up 60 separate levels to complete. Each of these levels has a 3 star rating, which can be achieved depending on how quickly you complete the levels. This does add a bit of replay value to the game if you’re interested in competing on the Game Center leaderboard, besting your own scores, or completing each of the 19 achievements. The game also has empty worlds showing that more levels are coming in future updates, which is always great to hear, especially when it comes to physics puzzlers. 

As for the graphics, animations, and physics; Expand It has perfected each of these. The graphics are incredibly cute, well still remaining very polished, and the animations for each of the blocks only adds to the great feeling of the game. Each of the moving objects in a level have been done perfectly, making sure that not one of them throws the flow of the game off. The physics are done to perfection as well, as each object has a certain weight to it, and does a very good job projecting that weight through the gameplay, especially on the stages where you need to have blocks be a certain size at certain times in order to complete the stage. 

As with other FDG games, Expand It is very reasonably priced, with both the SD and HD versions costing $0.99. A Universal version would be ideal so that people could compete on the same leaderboard, but with the inclusion of HD Retina graphics, I’m actually wishing more and more games would resort to this method of sales, lowering the price for each version making a $2 game $0.99, but keeping the SD and HD versions separate, as all of that extra space for heightened graphics isn’t’ needed on the small screen devices, and usually winds up being seen as a giant waste of space. If you’re a fan of the physics puzzler genre, and are looking for something new and unique, Expand It is definitely a game to check out. And since it’s released by FDG, you know the production qualities, and updates for the game are going to be top-notch, making it very easy to recommend and support. 

It’s not too often you see a completely unique and original Strategy title, even on a platform that’s full of hundreds of incredibly talented developing teams. It’s even more rare for a Strategy title to end up taking the #1 spot on the iTunes Paid Game’s list away from Angry Birds. Plague Inc., developed by Ndemic Creations is just that. Plague Inc. has you evolving and spreading a disease, while trying to infect and kill everyone in the world before a cure can be found. Sound evil? It is. But it’s also one of the most interesting and addictive strategy games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.

When you start your first game, you’ll only be able to start with a Bacteria and will be able to choose between Casual (no one washes their hands, research doctors don‘t work and sick people are given hugs), Normal (67% of people wash their hands, doctors work 3 days a week and sick people are ignored), and Brutal (compulsive hand washing, doctors never go home and sick people are locked in prisons) Difficulties. Once you complete a Bacteria game on Normal or Brutal difficulty, you’ll be able to unlock the Virus. Completing a Virus game on Normal or Brutal unlocks Fungus, then Parasite, Prion, Nono-Virus and then Bio-Weapon. Once you complete all disease types on Brutal Difficulty, you’ll be able to unlock special cheats, with no cure being able to be found, humans never taking action against you, and the unlimited DNA cheat, which lets you evolve your plague like you were God. 

Once you start your game, you’re able to choose which country you want to infect first. Once your plague starts spreading, you start earning DNA points. These are used to evolve your plague by choosing from literally hundreds of different attributes, all split up into 3 different types of evolutions; Transmission, which lets you decide what animals can be infected, and how your plague can travel, Symptoms, which lets you choose what symptoms occur, and how bad these symptoms can get, and Abilities, which give your plague the strength to survive in different climates, and how resistant it is to cure research. 

As the game progresses, little bubbles will pop up across the world, letting you infect more countries, gain more DNA points, and disrupt scientists research. 

You’re also able to check out the world news, which lets you know what’s going on in the world you’re trying to infect. You’ll be alerted when and where Olympics, as well as other National events are going to start, when certain countries are noticing infection, when they close down airports and seaports, block boarders, notice infection, start researching a cure, as well as some very sobering events, like when bodies are piling up so bad that they’re being buried in massive holes, when the dead are being burned, and more. There are also graphs which let you know which countries are and are not infected, how the cure is coming along, and how your infected to dead ratio is coming along. The background music adds to this very serious sort of feeling you’ll get while playing. And it will hit you, eventually. When starting a game, you might be rooting for complete world destruction, but once you read about the events and see the death toll hit the billions, watch your plague spread, see where the evolutions branch out to, and hear when governments fall, as well as the creepy ‘ring around the posies’ chant in the background, it all starts to get pretty intense. 

With Plague Inc. being made Universal with their first Update, as well as being priced at $0.99, it’s one game that strategy fans should not miss. Considering it’s hit #1 on the paid app charts, and judging from the iTunes ratings, as well as explosion of posts throughout iOS forums, it’s pretty clear that casual gamers are jumping in, and are becoming obsessed with the game as well. Considering it’s 2012, and the popularity of movies like 28 Days Later, Contagion, Quarantine, and a whole catalogue of virus related films, it’s not surprising that Plague Inc. has climbed up the leader boards so quickly. But it is pretty surprising seeing a strategy/simulation game hit the #1 spot. It’s definitely a game every iDevice user should check out, and is one game that I will be recommending to everyone I know. 

Puzzler games have really been expanding and growing when it comes to new and unique ideas spawned by past games. It’s no secret that Angry Birds (or Boom Blox, depending on how you want to look at it) has, itself, pushed the physics puzzler genre into many different directions, and has had its fair share of clones. But it’s always nice seeing a developer take the flinging mechanic and do something new and interesting with it. Nano Titans, developers of Foodies, an arcade puzzler, has just released their newest title, another arcade puzzler, Webbies. This time around, instead of bouncing your main character around to collect food, you’ll be flinging bundles of food at your characters. 

Seems that a grumpy old retired wizard doesn’t like the little woodland creatures hanging out around the forest all the time, and has come up with a formula that makes his arachnoid  friends webs ultra strong. Because of this, the food that the creatures always munch on is getting stuck in the webs. It’s up to you to fling it into their mouths so that they don’t starve. 

At first, the game seems really easy, and almost boring. But after you get past the intro levels, the game really seems to pick up, and gets some interesting mechanics thrown into the mix. Having more than one critter on the screen will give you different types of food, which are all mixed together in the webs, and you need to get certain types of food into specific animals mouths. This means you need to group the food together, shooting acorns into acorns, moving one piece of food out of the way of another so that you can get it to your critter, or in line with another piece of the same food and then to your critter. This gets ever more difficult as you progress, and moving platforms, sticky grabbers, logs, rotating cannons, moving critters and more all comes into play. 

Now, the scoring mechanics are really what push the game forward, and make it more difficult. Getting three stars in each of the levels will require you to combine the same type of food multiple times, getting a combo bonus score. Matching two pieces of the same type of food will give you 5 extra points, while connecting 4 pieces of the same type of food, without connecting a different type of food while in the process, will give you 25 bonus points. If you have two bunches of food, say one bunch of 2 and one bunch of 3, then the smaller bunch is multiplied by 5, and you’re given that many points, in this case, it would be 10 extra bonus points. Once the platforms come into play, bouncing food of them will also give you bonus points. There’s also bonuses for feeding a critter until it’s full, giving you 30 points, and feeding a critter til it’s full in one shot, which gives you 50 points. All of these different types of scoring bonuses will need to be used in order to get 3 stars in each of the levels throughout the game, and to compete on the GameCenter scoreboard. 

It’s great how a scoring system like this can really change how you play a game. If there were no bonuses for bouncing food off of platforms, bundling them together, or for other actions throughout the game, Webbies would be played very differently, and you have that option if you’re not into high-scores, which also makes this a great game for the younger iOS gamer audience as well. This is always a great thing to hear for those of us with children who are into gaming. 

The graphics, animations, sounds and effects, all come together to create a very polished looking and sounding package. With Webbies being Universal, $0.99, and containing over 100 levels, it’s a great buy, especially if you’re into arcade puzzlers, or games with great scoring mechanics and score chasing. There are no extra IAPs in the game, so it’s a flat out purchase. Nano Titans has already submitted their first update to Apple which adds an undo button. I’m a little worried that this might make the game a bit too easy, but I guess we’ll see when it hit’s the AppStore later on in the week. As it is, right now, Webbies is very easy to recommend to fans of the genre, even if you’ve gotten a little sick of the whole flinging puzzler type of gameplay like I have over the last year or so. Webbies might not bypass all of the typical used mechanics within the genre, but the way it’s presented, along with the scoring system adding to the way you’ll wind up playing the game, it really stands out inside of a genre that’s been flooded with titles over the last couple years. 

Crescent Moon Games have definitely established themselves as one of the top developing and publishing teams in the AppStore. Aralon, Rimelands, Gears, Deadlock, Pocket RPG, and loads more have all gained a serious gamer following. Their constant support is also something that needs to be mentioned. Whenever there’s an issue, they’re on top of it, fixing it as soon as possible. Over the last year or so, they’ve turned their sights more towards publishing and working with other development teams, which has expanded their reach throughout various genres. RPGs, Platformers, Ball Rollers, Multiplayer, and now, with the latest release of Slingshot Racing, developed by Snowbolt Interactive, they’ve ventured into the Racing Genre. 

Over the last couple years, iOS developers have really started trying out new things with racing games. Draw Race, Jet Car Stunts, QuBIT, jAggy Race, FishMoto and others have utilized the iDevice, and tried to reach out beyond the typical racing formula that most racers stick with. Slingshot Racing is definitely a game that can be added to the list of games striving to push the boundaries of the genre.  

The controls are as simple as they can be; One Touch. Touching the screen makes your car fling out a grappling hook which attaches to rotating poles. Doing this lets you slingshot your car around corners. There is no gas or break, and your car drives on it’s own. The only thing you need to worry about is when to attach to these poles, and when to let go. Staying attached too long will result in you mashing your car into the side rails, while letting go too soon will cause the car to take the outer most part of the track, both causing the car to slow down dramatically. But once you get the timing down, you’ll be flying through the races, flinging your car around corners, and earning the 3 possible bolts (stars) for each stage. 

The campaign contains 64 races across 8 tracks, split up into different sections, each with an interesting name (like Winding Roads, Slingshot Mastery, Twist And Shoot, Wrap And Roll, and more) and containing 4 races each. Each of the races contain different objectives and hazards, also racing clockwise and counter clockwise during the day and night, which always keeps things fresh. There are 4 main different types of races. Racing against other racers, trying to place in 1st. Racing against other racers while a car eating machine trails behind you in an elimination type race. Solo racing while trying to collect bolts which are left on the track as quickly as you can, and solo time trials which push you to your limits trying to get the best time you can. 

There’s also a multiplayer mode which lets you play with up to 3 other people on the same device. Of course this is more comfortable while playing on the iPad, but playing with 1 other person on the iPhone/iPod Touch is also easy enough, and doesn’t hit the frustrating factor at all. Within this mode, you’re able to choose which track to race on, how many tracks to race on, the order of the tracks, the number of laps, forward or reverse, and day or night. Each of the other players will have their own corner of the device to control their car, and when you really get into a racing battle, this multiplayer mode can end up being loads of fun. 

Since each of the races are pretty short, usually just 8 laps, or anywhere from 20 to 60 seconds, the frustration you might usually come across in other racers when screwing up with one little mistake towards the end of a race isn’t really found here. You don’t need to be perfect in order to get a 3 bolt score, except for on the time trial stages. For these, it’s pretty difficult to grab a perfect rating. 

But if you are a fan of perfecting your laps, you’ll be very glad to hear that Slingshot Racing is supported by GameCenter, and has 18 separate leaderboards. That’s right, 18! One for your Total Bolts Earned, and boards for various stages throughout the game, ie; Shoot The Breeze Race 3, Sliding By Race 2, Slingshot Mastery Race 4, Melting Away Race 2, and so on. There are also 32 Achievements for you achievement hunters out there, all of which adds a TON to the already insanely high replay value. 

Right now, Slingshot Racing is priced at $0.99. Like most Crescent Moon games, it’s on sale for launch, and will go up to $2.99 after a limited time. With the game being Universal, and with the current price, Slingshot Racing is a MUST BUY! The steam punk influenced graphics, and great music and effects combined with the simple controls, challenging gameplay and basically endless replay value make Slingshot Racing the best casual racer I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, and even one of the best racers on the iDevice. Hopefully online Multiplayer through GameCenter or through isolated servers will be added in the future. Slingshot Racing is just begging for online MP. Something else that would be great to see is some unlockable vehicles or cosmetic customization. Each of the cars is equal in terms of speed, acceleration, and all other aspects, but being able to choose the color, shape, and other cosmetic attributes would be a nice little addition as well. As it stands now, Slingshot Racing is still a game that everyone with an iDevice should own. Be sure and check it out, and get your race on!