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Running With Ninjas [Justin Hogie] – $0.99

Shoot-em-ups. They’ve grown in popularity quite a bit since the introduction of the AppStore and iDevice. The touch controls make pin-point accuracy and quick movements that would otherwise be impossible as easy as dragging your thumb across a 3.5 inch glass screen. However, the 3D, 3rd Person/On-Rails shooter genre has been basically left out of this Shmup Revolution, with only a couple of titles available for the platform; Wizard Ops, Denizen, Dark Break, ExZeus, TheMars, Battle 3D 2: Iron Punch, and the more open-world type game, Battle 3D: Robots Sky. These titles have provided iOS gamers with countless Space Harrier type entertainment. But sadly, aside from these titles, there’s not others for fans of the genre to sink their teeth into. One-man, Australia-based Justin Hogie obviously knows this, but has still taken a wild chance with his first original iOS title, and created another game we can all add to that extremely short list; Running With Ninjas. 

Running With Ninjas is an Endless 3rd Person On-Rails Shooter that puts you in control of a ninja running through the jungle and mountains while being attacked by, and attacking, other ninjas who are bound and determined to take you out. RWN contains one gameplay mode which has you defeating as many ninjas as you can before your health completely runs out. When you start out, you’ll only see 2 different enemies; Red and Green. Red enemies will throw Shurikens straight forward and once defeated, add to your special meter; displayed as writing under your health bar. Green enemies do not attack you, instead, once defeated, they will slightly refill your health bar. As you progress through the world, you’ll soon realize that these are not the only types of enemies. Bosses with strange turtle like shields on their backs, purple enemies that throw Shurikens directly at you, yellow enemies that toss bombs and more will all be after your head, and when all of these different types of enemies are on the screen at the same time, things can get a little hairy. 

Once you defeat a boss, a scroll appears. These scrolls, once collected, give your ninja special powers, and this is where the special meter comes into play. After you collect a scroll, a special power is unlocked. To use this special power, you’ll need to draw a shape in the middle of the screen. This does take some getting use to, and I still think that buttons up the sides of the screen, or easier swipe gestures, like just swiping left to right, or up and down would have been a better fit, especially since the gestures are a little hard to remember, and can take more than a second or two to pull off, that is, if you can pull it off correctly. Each special power requires a certain amount of power from your special gauge. Once you have enough power, you can draw a certain symbol on the screen, and POW, enemies are in for some trouble. 

The controls are fairly simple; you’re given a button for jumping, and a button for throwing your own Shuriken. Moving left and right is controlled by tilting your device. Normally, I don’t think I would have checked out a 3rd Person On-Rails Shooter that was tilt controlled, but the controls in Running With Ninjas fit the game extremely well. Also making it feel even better is the great camera control. When you tilt your device, your character moves, but so does the environment. This makes it a lot easier to focus on the gameplay, and not worry so much about where your character is located in the gameplay area. However, if you’re not comfortable with the tilting environment, you can always turn this option off in the settings menu, making the environment stay level as you tilt. I have experienced some issues with the controls, like an occasionally unresponsive jump button, some jitteriness while moving in the air, sometimes resulting in taking damage when I should have avoided a bomb, and some slight sticking of the character while on the edges of the gameplay area. However, these were all occasional, and not game-breaking by any means. 
The graphics are pretty minimal, with very little details in the environments and characters, however, this does help to make the bright enemies stick out like a sore thumb, making it easier to focus on them while running at full speed through the environments. The animations are well done, with nice enemy appearance and death animations, cool looking special powers, and nice running animations also add to the feel and polish of the game. 

With only one gameplay mode, and some needed tweaks that could make the gameplay a little smoother, not everyone is going to jump on the Running With Ninjas bandwagon. However, if you’re a fan of the genre, and willing to take a chance on a game that has some very solid core gameplay mechanics, for $0.99, you just might be very surprised. In the near future, Justin Hogie has said that GameCenter leaderboards and achievements, as well as possibly another gameplay mode that would revolve around preset challenges and levels, along with some additions to the enemies, stages, and special power scrolls. Hopefully RWN sells well and gets enough attention that these things can be added, because right now, Running With Ninjas shows an extreme amount of promise, and provides some great endless gameplay.

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August 16, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Blade of Darkness [Zealm] – $1.99

With the recent release of Pocket Heroes re-igniting my love for D&D parties, and bringing back memories of playing Diablo back in the late 90’s, I’ve been on a sort of quest of my own. To find all the Diabloesque and Fantasy Card games for the iOS that I can. Low and behold, one of the first titles I came across, and just can’t get enough of; Blade of Darkness – an open-world 3D RPG/hack-n-slash game developed by Zealm (developers of Monster Fight, Zombies Runner and Angry Zombie Ninja Vs. Vegetables). 
Blade of Darkness starts out with a pretty impressive cutscene giving you a bit of backstory; seems darkness overtook the land after a meteor shower rained down from the skies. Zombies and other undead creatures started to appear everywhere, and the darkness slowly spread. This land is appropriately named ‘Shadowland’. On the edge of Shadowland lies ‘Sanctuary‘; a campsite set up where a small patch of sunlight hit’s the ground. It’s here that you’ll begin your journey. 
Actually, I guess I should say ‘it’s here where you’ll figure out what you’re supposed to be doing throughout the rest of the game.’ The tutorial is made up of 3 pop-ups. One telling you that the joystick in the lower left corner is for movement, another saying that the icon to the right is for jumping, and that to talk to people, you walk up to them and tap on them. Trust me, you won’t forget. Every time you come back to Sanctuary, you’ll need to go through the ‘tutorial’ before you get started again. From here on out, you’re on your own.
After figuring out that people in town with a “!” above their heads have a quest to send you on, you can try and figure out how to get out of Sanctuary. Turns out there’s a pathway right behind where you start from that leads out to two different warp areas, and from here, now you can start your journey. Your first task requires that you go to the East to find the wife of a wizard at camp. It seems they were separated, and he needs you to find her. Unfortunately, leaving the campsite will only take you South, through cemeteries, dungeons, and other dark lands which are full of undead creatures. Directions aren’t really accurate, and there will be quite a bit of exploring involved. 
The battle system is in real time, and is kind of reminiscent of CrimsonHeart. If you just run into a pack of enemies slinging your sword around, you’ll find yourself in trouble fairly quickly. Standing back and luring a couple of enemies towards you, and watching how they attack and block will be a valuable asset to learn early on in the game. Running around to the back of enemies helps you avoid their shields, and can give you some massive hits. Of course, not all of the enemies require this tactic. There are some that will just stand there while you walk right up to them and bash their heads in. It’s all part of the combat system dance. I guess. Once you start killing enemies, they’ll start dropping gold and other items, and you can get your loot on. Figuring out how to pick items up is another task that you’ll need to figure out on your own. I’ll help you out; Tapping on the item inside the window that pops up will put it in your equipment pack.
Don’t get me wrong. Once you figure everything in Blade of Darkness out, it’s really a fun game. But sticking with it through all of the figuring it out will be taxing, and currently priced at $0.99, there are going to be some people who just give up, and delete the game. But if you’re willing to stick it out, and not afraid to learn basically the whole UI on your own, the hack-n-slash, loot driven, Diablo reminiscent gameplay can be very rewarding. Finding those rare items, and beating the hell out of hundreds of enemies is great fun. You’re also able to play in CO-OP mode, which has the game controlling another hero along side you, Multiplayer Mode, where you can host or join another game, as well as an Arena Mode where you can battle other players online. Lets just hope that Zealm sells enough copies to be driven to keep the updates coming, because if they do, Blade of Darkness could turn into one hell of a Diabloesque title, and maybe even one of the top loot driven games on the iOS. 
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August 4, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

‘Crazy Hedgy’ Review


‘Crazy Hedgy’, developed by Cybertime Games, is the first great 3D platformer available on the App Store. In it, you play as the delightable hedgehog Crazy Hedgy, traveling through three well-crafted worlds. In each level your goal is to get to the end, but also to collect gems and the three hidden coins. Full of life and variety, Crazy Hedgy doesn’t disappoint as the first true 3D platformer for iOS.
iPhone Screenshot 1

Controls: 5/5
As far as platformers go, it’s essential to have great controls. On the app store, tilt controls hardly ever mesh well with a platformer, as accelerometer controls don’t provide the layer of precision required. Crazy Hedgy is just the opposite, giving you more intuitive controls than a virtual joystick or virtual buttons could ever work. I’ve found that, when required, you can roll along a tiny ledge, grab a coin, then flip around while on the very edge, and make it back safely. The rest of the controls along with this are very simple as well: touch the left side to punch and touch the right side to jump. When unlocked, you can also use special moves that allow you to do different attacks, like the ‘grab’ upgrade, which lets you pick up Spankos and throw them. The controls have yet to fail me once, proving to me that accelerometer controls can provide the incredible precision needed in a platformer.

iPhone Screenshot 2
Content and Variety: 5/5
In ‘Crazy Hedgy’ you fight through more than 35 very large levels, which takes a very long time to complete. Inside each level are a large amount of gems that need to be collected to purchase upgrades and gain a better score. Also hidden in each level are three coins, often found in the toughest parts of the level. These coins are the only way to unlock more worlds, and also the key to unlocking upgrades in the shop. These upgrades feature anything from unlocking new attacks to buying better bubble gum (which can actually be a lifesaver in the game).  There’s a total of seven items in the shop, each with four or so upgrades per item. For those that hate In App Purchases, have no fear: there are no iAPs anywhere near. The upgrades in the shop don’t feel like a grind to reach them either; each unlock feels like it was timed perfectly to coincide with in-game progress. Another interesting addition in the game shop is magnets, which grab collectable gems (the currency in the shop) and even increase the value of each gem. That means that even after playing through all the game’s levels, you can also replay levels for a higher gem score. One tiny gripe with the game is that the previous score on a given level isn’t easily accessible, though when you get a high score on a level it does let you know at the end of the level. The total score from all levels is compiled in a single Game Center leaderboard. There’s also a fun arena mode, which sticks you up against varying waves of enemies, giant mines, or other obstacles in a small arena.
The game also features a ton of variety. From level to level you’ll face different enemies, bosses, traps, trampolines and far more. Even getting near the end of the game, it still managed to throw new elements into it. The many upgrades in the shop also create more interest in playing, as each one gives you something fun and new. Each level is well designed as well, including wildly different elements in each level. Each world is also very unique, with a new look and more types of obstacles and ingenuities. There’s also numerous ways to kill enemies, from causing them to get in a fight with each other to hitting them into a trap. Often times the key to killing a tough enemy is either quickly downing a crazy potion or using the environment to you’re advantage. The whole game feels complete and full of life, without even a trace of it getting old.

iPhone Screenshot 3
Graphics and Animations: 5/5
Another item to consider about the games is how it looks. This can be a game changer, especially with a 3D game. However, Crazy Hedgy looks exceptional, especially sharp when Retina display is enabled. However, all the rest of the effects work on 3rd generation devices as well, meaning no matter what device you use it’s definitely a looker. The characters and environment all have a clean and polished feel, giving it a very likeable look. Everything is also very well detailed and gives the perfect look to represent how well it plays: amazing.
With graphics, animations also have to be taken into account. A game can look great in stills but look horrible in motion. However, Crazy Hedgy finds definitely finds its groove in animations, with it all moving cleanly and perfectly. The enemies also have distinct personalities, looking and moving differently than each other. The great animations of the game just help to build the game up, adding to its personality.

Overall: 5/5

All in all, it’s hard to find anything bad to say about Crazy Hedgy. Between it’s perfect controls, amazing level design, and great graphics, there’s almost nothing to fault. ‘Crazy Hedgy’ rolls itself along as one of the best games available on the app store. It’s an amazingly fun platformer, and one I can’t recommend enough.

‘Crazy Hedgy’ on the App Store
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February 2, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Blueprint 3D – 0.99/2.99 (FDG Entertainment)

3D Motion Picture Puzzler. Chances are you haven’t heard of the genre. Don’t feel bad, it’s relatively untouched within the AppStore, and aside from Flash games, finding a Motion Picture Puzzle game can be quite the task. On the iOS, Pictorial is available for free, and has been a very good example of a 3D Motion Picture Puzzler. What you might not know is that Pictorial is an unofficial iOS port of the Flash game, Starlight. The developers of Starlight are from FDG Entertainment (Blosics, Cover Orange, Beyond Ynth, Bobby Carrot, and more), who are also the developers of a wonderful new motion picture puzzler game; Blueprint 3D.

You’ll be given 240 different pictures to try and solve. When the picture first pops up, it looks like a bunch of broken lines, shapes, and really, just a jumbled mess. You’ll need to rotate the picture by dragging your finger across the screen until you see something that’s starting to resemble an actual object. Once you get the picture, you’ll need to use two fingers to rotate the image so that it’s right-side-up, and then move on to the next picture.
It might not sound too fun or entertaining, and about as challenging as making toast, but FDG Entertainment has done a great job making the game just right. Yes, there are 240 different pictures, and yes, you might just be able to solve every single one of them in about an hour. But here’s where the challenge comes in. See, the game keeps track of how long it takes you to solve each picture, but the clock keeps counting as you move from picture to picture, making it so that your total time is the time it takes for you to complete the level pack. The amount of time it takes also effects your scores.
GameCenter is supported with 8 different leader boards, one for each level pack, and one for your total score ranking, as well as having 27 achievements. As always, this helps bring the replay value up quite a bit, while competing with your friends and gamers around the world for a top score always helps add some challenge and replayabilty to the game.
There are 7 different level packs at the moment, each with different backgrounds, graphics, and atmospheres, giving them all a different sort of feel. Architecture, Electronics and Military are a few, with new and old architectural wonders, computer parts and electronic devices, along with weapons and armor images to rotate together. Each level pack has images that fit the theme, and with Blueprint having 7 different packs, there is quite a bit of variety while going through the game.
Like EPOCH, and couple other recent releases in the AppStore, Blueprint will not take long at all to complete, but what gameplay is there is done extremely well, and is loads of fun. I’m not too sure how many of you out there are hoping for more games that are short and sweet, but done so well that every second you spend playing them is just about, if not more, fun than going through 40 hours of an RPG, but we’d love to see more of them hit the AppStore. At the low price of $0.99 for the iPhone version, and $2.99 for the HD build, with all the leader boards, achievements, and new level packs that are on the way, it’s a great price for what you’re getting. Sure, there are more polished games, games that have more content, or more action packed into them, but if you’re looking for something that hasn’t been reproduced a hundred times, and carries with it loads of entertainment, Blueprint 3D will be a great game to check out. You can also check out Pictorial for free, and Pictorial HD has just gone free for a limited time if you’d like to check out what sort of gameplay you’ll be getting yourselves into.
Blueprint 3D gets a score of 4 out of 5.

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November 16, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

“Minions App Review” Destruction, Evil and Minions?

You know that
awkward moment when you are happily taking over the world with hundreds of
thousands minions that you created. Then they decide they should be in control
and try to overthrow you? Well the developers at Villain LLC have. AppStore
company Villain LLC  sprung onto the
market with their success of the highly acclaimed  iPhone and iPad app Archetype. Archetype an
Fps featuring things never featured on iOS shooters such as Capture the Flag
and downloadable content took hours upon hours of over 1.5 million players.
Villain has been silent ever since the release of Archetype and presto! We now
have our gaming fingers on Minions.
      Minions relies on it’s whimsical cartoon
characters, seemingly a breed between the minions in Despicable Me and Rayman’s
raving rabbids. These quirky creatures are equipped with much more than your
standard plunger. They support the whole arsenal of sound guns to wooden
hammers to bird launchers.    
     You play as a mad scientists trying to
destroy the minions that once served you. This game relies on a level based
system in which minions spawn from spawn points that can be destroyed. At the
end of the level you are judged by your time, score and amount of minions
killed. When you achieve a perfect 3 stars you will be able to boost the speed,
health and power of your character adding an rpg element to this Fps.
       If you are familiar with Archetypes
controls don’t expect anything to change. At all. A dual stick control system
is set along with an auto shoot feature in which you just aim and little tiny
robots in your Idevice fire away. On screen radar shows the minions while UI at
the top shows health, score and time remaining. While no changes to the
controls or UI are apparent, it’s simple, if it ain’t broke, use it in your
next iOS release.  
     As you blast through 8 levels and
increasing difficulties Villain delivers promises of new levels and guns to wet
your minion killing whistle. As this does not support online multiplayer the
developers focused on delivering a fun, unrealistic, quirky Fps for hardcore
and casual fans of the genre. At 99c this will not burn a hole in your wallet,
but these minions will try to burn a whole in your heart.  


Link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/minions/id444404817?mt=8
by Gabriel Ruiz

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September 22, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

LightGuardian – 1.99 (Lukas Penkava)

LightGuardian is a new 3D defense game, and the first iOS release, from Lukas Penkava. It’s definitely a different type of game, as I’ve never seen or played anything like it. You’ll control a light tower’s light while blimps come flying towards you. In order to take the blimps down, you’ll need to focus your light on them, heating them and blowing them up.The controls are kind of hard to get use to, but once you do, they work so well, and I really can’t think of a better way the game could be controlled. To move your light tower’s light, you place your finger on the section of the tower that’s right under the light, and drag it around. Up for down, down for up, right for left and left for right. This type of control, combined with the camera control that’s movable 360 degrees, and up and down, moving the camera in the direction you want it to move; ie, dragging up moves the camera up, dragging left moves the camera left, and so on – can get a little confusing at first. Dragging left to move the camera left, then needing to drag right to move the light left will take some getting use to, but after you do, it feels perfect and natural. This is another original aspect I haven’t seen before in any other game. Original controls, and original gameplay is risky for a developers first AppStore release, but Lukas Penkava has pulled it off flawlessly.

The game is set up as an endless arcade type game, where you’ll go through wave after wave of incoming blimps. There are different types of blimps, some taking longer to kill than others. With them coming at you in every direction, there’s a bit of strategy thrown in, as you’ll need to decide, quickly, which blimps are posing the biggest threat. You’re given a radar that helps you know when enemies are getting close to you. When it’s green, most enemies are far away, yellow means they’re getting close, and red means you’re in trouble, and need to deal with a blimp IMMEDIATELY.
One thing that might bother people when they first start is that the radar does not show dots, or where the blimps are. It just lets you know if a blimp is getting close. However, moving around, up, and down in the 360 degree play-field, constantly looking around trying to see where blimps are, what type they are, and trying to figure out how close they are, and how big of a threat they pose is a huge part of the gameplay. Having a radar that shows you exactly where every blimp is would take away a lot from the mechanics of the game, and really, take away a lot of the fun and challenge.
Taking down 4 blimps will get you a light bomb, which shows up as a tab in the lower left corner. This light bomb will take out any enemies that are in your radar’s red zone, so using it when you can’t find a blimp, or are overpowered with blimps is great. There’s also items that some enemies drop. A bolt, and a green gem. Bolts signify parts, and collecting a certain number will make your light house ray stronger. It might take a while to level up, as getting to level 2 takes 40 parts, and that number increases as the level goes up, but you can only reach level 4, so taking a while to level up is understandable. Collecting 3 gems will give you a charged light ray that lasts for a short period of time. When it’s available, a green icon appears in the lower right corner of the screen, and when activated, it turns your ray green. This is good for taking out some of the stronger blimps that you’ll encounter, and can do away with the weaker ones pretty easily. The bolts and green gems are automatically picked up when you hit them with your light ray.
The graphics in LightGuardian are very nice. The whole environment looks, and feels, great. It is a little weird, when looking straight down, to see your light house on a piece of rock floating in the sky, but the main menu gives you a great image of the light house on the floating rock, that looks exceptional, with vegetation growing up the sides of it, it really is very unique. Floating around in the sky, with you and the blimps, are more of these floating rocks with vegetation growing all over them, presenting a very nice atmosphere for the game. Beautifully made clouds are also surrounding the area, and with the shadowing from dark towards the bottom of the play-field, and light in the upper part, the blimps that appear out of nowhere are easy to pick out. You’ll never find yourself searching for a blimp against the backdrop of the game, which is great, especially when you’re spinning around trying to find the blimp that set off the yellow or red color on your radar. The animations of the moving blimps look great, making it look like the wind is actually blowing them towards you. One thing I would love to see is an actual explosion animation. I’m not sure what it could look like exactly, as explosions would not look very good within the setting of the game, but something more than the blimps just disappearing would be nice. Maybe a puff of smoke or something would go together good with the overall aesthetic of the game, but right now, that’s the only real nitpicky thing I can think of.
Lukas Penkava and team have done an amazing job putting this game together. I don’t know exactly how many people worked/are working on the game, but when I talked to Lukas, he used the term ’we’ more than once. He’s also mentioned a couple of mechanics that they’re thinking of implementing, but I’m not sure I should share them as they aren’t set in stone. What I will say is that they are still working on making LightGuardian even better than it already is. There is no GameCenter integration, but the developers do have an in-game online leader board, which is great, because players won’t need to worry about hacked GameCenter scores like with most other GC supported games. Some in-game achievements would be a wonderful addition to the game as well, as there’s quite a bit the developers could make achievements for; destroying # blimps, collecting # parts, reaching level #, ect. Universal support would be awesome too, as I’m sure gamers with iPads would love to see the graphics how they’re meant to be seen on their bigger screens, but for $1.99 (and currently on sale for $0.99), this is a must buy game. Endless replayabilty, updates that will make the game even better, and a beautiful and original gameplay experience. I really can not recommend LightGuardian enough. I’m also extremely hopeful of what the developing team will come up with in the future.
Light Guardian gets a score of 9 out of 10.
Links;
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September 10, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >