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Car Toons! [FDG] – $0.99/$1.99

Sometimes it seems like physics puzzlers have taken over the AppStore. Ever since the success of Angry Birds, everyone realized the potential for hooking casual gamers. But FDG, a publication/development company that we here at TAS highly respect, and that has been on a roll lately, releasing quite a few titles over the last couple months, has jumped on the physics puzzler bandwagon, and is taking it in an entirely different direction. With Blosics, Expand It!, Cover Orange, Beyond Ynth and more under their belt, they’re continuously releasing new and unique physics puzzlers on the iOS. 
Their newest release, Car Toons!, is another great example of this. With simple gameplay that can also provide a nice little challenge, it’s another physics puzzler that doesn’t follow in the footsteps of any previous iOS releases. The goal of the game is to get your good cars (ie; cop cars, ambulances, fire trucks, ect) into the parking zones while knocking any bad cars (the black cars) off of the screen. Sounds simple enough, maybe even too simple. But when you take into account the level designs, as well as the hazards and other various puzzle elements, it actually offers up a decent challenge while still remaining casual and simple enough to just jump on into when you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare. 
With 100 levels, and possible 3 star rankings on each stage, with more levels coming soon, there’s quite a bit of content. The 100 levels is split up across 9 different worlds, each with different hazards and objects as well as mechanics to help keep the game fresh. When you start out, you’re only able to touch each good car to make them start, and then touch them again to stop them. Doing this, you’ll need to knock all of the bad cars off of the platforms, and stop the cars in the correct parking spots (each parking spot’s color matches the good cars lights). As you progress through the game, disappearing platforms, the ability to jump, nitro boosters, doors that open when you drive into buttons, exploding barrels and loads more are just some of the things that you’ll end up using in order to complete levels.
The graphics and animations are very well done, with each car having a set of eyes, making the graphics pretty cutesy. But the animations really bring it all together, with wheels turning, smoke flying up from breaks, the expressions of the cars’ eyes, explosions, and more showcasing the polish of the graphics, and making the gameplay fun and entertaining. The music sounds like your typical classic 80’s pop tunes, reminiscent of an underrated nerd winning over a jock jerk in a John Hughes flick. 
Rounding it all out is GameCenter support with a leaderboard for your overall time and 23 great achievements. However, the board for time could use some tweaking, as the longer you play, the further down the board you’ll go. This could be fixed by not submitting a time until the game is completed, or by doing that as well as having leaderboards for each world, but right now, it’s pretty pointless. However, priced at $0.99 for the SD build, and $1.99 for the HD version, it’s a pretty unique casual puzzler, and one that fans of puzzle games should definitely check out. With the support that FDG has given their previous releases, I have complete confidence that the leaderboard issue will be sorted out and know that more levels will definitely be included in the future. Another great release to throw on the list that FDG is quickly building up. 
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July 27, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

MANOS – The Hands of Fate [FreakZone] – $1.99

Retro platformers have been making a real comeback. It seems like with every new generation of video games, players keep longing for the games that got them hooked in the first place. But it’s always great seeing a new and original title hit the scene, and newcomer FreakZone, has shown that he knows what it takes to create a true NES like experience with his last game, Awesome Land. Now, with that title under his belt, FreakZone has released another retro platformer, MANOS – The Hands of Fate, and this time around, he’s taken everything he’s learned since releasing Awesome Land and thrown it together in a great gaming package. 
Mike and his family have gotten lost while on vacation, and they couldn’t have picked a worse spot to get lost in. Now Mike, armed with a gun, needs to get his wife, daughter, and dog, safely home before the monsters wind up getting the best of them. Like many platformers, the game doesn’t really rely on the story to drive the game, but it does help explain why you’re fighting massive rats and avoiding floating skulls. It also opens up a fairly wide variety of environments and situations which you’ll be able to run, jump, and shoot your way out of. 
Like we’ve said numerous times before, a huge part of having solid platform gameplay relies heavily on the controls, physics, and inertia. With Manos, they’re all NES perfect. With the controls, you’re given left/right arrows, and jump/shoot buttons. They’re placed just right, and you don’t need to pick your finger up to change movement directions, which really helps the fluidity of the gameplay. The physics and inertia are what you would expect from a top-notch old-school title. Not too floaty, not too heavy, not stiff or loose, and landing on one block platforms is a piece of cake, and never winds up being something that you’ll need to struggle with throughout the game. With the game being Universal, the controls on the iPad are also very important. You’ll be happy to hear that the buttons are positioned closer to the edges, and in the corners so that you don’t need to reach inward towards the center of the screen in order to move. Though being able to position the buttons wherever you’d like to would be ideal, and is something I really hope is included in a future update, the current controls work well enough to enjoy the game. 
The level design is top notch, though there are some aspects of the design that I didn’t completely agree with in the beginning. For instance; There’s a lot of screen changing done with stairs. These stairs often go down. However, if you jump just a pixel beyond the stairs, you won’t land on the stairs on the screen beneath, you wind up dying. This is kind of frustrating, and hard to understand at first, but as you progress through the game, and see all of the areas that you can reach by not going down stairs, and by trying to jump, and maneuver around enemies and hazards in order to get there, you see why it was done that way. If you could just fall into a screen under where you were, there wouldn’t really be any consequences for missing a jump, or running into a rotating spike. Though since the game is also centered around speed-runs, falling down screen after screen could have been an even better deterrent from screwing up at those parts, it would also make it easy to fly through a couple screens. And now I completely understand why it is the way it is, and feel I should praise FreakZone for giving thought to every angle, and coming up with the best solution for things like this throughout the entire game. 
Now, as you manage to find your way through each level, you’ll come across many stone hands. When shot, they usually reveal either a health pick-up, extra life, or a gem. There are also special hands which increase the amount of hit points you have, however, most of these will require some searching. And here’s where the two GameCenter leaderboards and replay value come in. In GameCenter, there’s two boards, one for score, and one for how long it takes for you to complete the game. With the stone hands, you can either take your time, look around and explore, finding all of the hands you can, and racking up all the points you can find, collecting extra lives and increasing your available hit points, or you can avoid everything, and try and find the quickest route from point A to point B. Personally, I love when games offer up two or more possible ways of playing, and here, FreakZone nailed it. 
With no save spots, and having to start from Stage 1 every time you start up the game, it truly feels like an old-school plat former. Though being kind of short, with only 7 levels, they‘re fairly large, and will take a while to complete your first couple of times through. The graphics, sounds, as well as gameplay, level design and mechanics are all great as well, making it stand out as one of the better retro platformers available. Manos – The Hands of Fate provides a challenge, and is a game that, even after you complete it, has what it takes to keep you coming back time and time again, trying to better your score, or shave seconds off your time. If it was released back in the 80’s it would have easily been a huge hit. With the game being Universal, and priced at $1.99, it’s a must buy for fans of the genre. Since the release of Awesome Land, FreakZone has nailed everything it takes to produce a top-notch retro platformer, and I hope to see many more titles flow out of their studio.
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July 27, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

RayStorm [TAITO] – $8.99

Shoot-em-ups are really thriving in the AppStore. But with Cave pretty much having a monopoly on the high-end, extremely polished side of things, it’s hard for others to really compare to the insanely high quality they bring to the table. Fortunately, there are some developers that can compete with this, Taito being one of them. The release of Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, and ports of DariusBurst and RayForce are considered to be some of the best non-Cave shmups available on the iOS, and with good reason. The gameplay, graphics, music and amount of polish are all top-notch. And now they’ve added one more game to the list of ports to hit the AppStore; RayStorm. Originally released for the PSX, SEGA Saturn, and for Arcades, it’s also been ported over to Windows, XBLA and the Playstation Network, it’s now available for your iDevice.
RayStorm is the only Taito Ray-title that’s not connected to the series. Released before RayForce and RayCrisis, what there is of a plot is not connected to the other two in any way. The game takes place between August 4th and 7th, starts on Earth, moves into space, and ends on the planet Secilia. Like RayForce on the iOS, RayStorm contains both an Arcade Mode as well as an iPhone Mode. The two play pretty much exactly the same, but with the iPhone Mode, the enemy placements, game music and color schemes are different, while the difficulty settings have been revised to make the gameplay a little easier. 
In the Options Menu, you’re able to set the difficulty for both modes to Very Easy, Easy, Normal and 5 different Hard Difficulties; Hard 1, Hard 2, Hard 3, Hard 4 and Very Hard. You can also change the movement ratio from 1:1 to 1:1.5, 1:2, 1:2.5, ect, up to 1:4, as well as change the button positioning from left to right. From the first time you start up the game, you’ll be able to start from any of the 7 stages in both modes and select between 2 different fighters. Both of these fighters have fairly different ways of playing and scoring; The R-Gray 1 uses a spread shot and can lock on to 8 enemies at once, while the R-Gray 2 uses a condensed laser shot, but can lock onto 16 enemies at once. The Gray1 is better for new-comers to the game/genre, while the Gray2 is built more for experienced players.
Graphically, RayStorm looks great on the small screen, but unfortunately, the game is only built for the iPod and iPhone, and does not contain retina graphics, so playing on the iPad requires 2X mode, and as a result, is pretty pixilated. But for fans of the genre, this shouldn’t really pose a problem, as there are very few HD/Retina shmups available in the AppStore, so it’s not really a deal breaker. The animations for shooting projectiles, movement and explosions are all fantastic, and with the movement of the backgrounds creating a 3D environment, even though some of the background images can look pretty ugly, coupled with the smooth controls, and great music, RayStorm turned out to be an incredibly immersive shooter.
Priced at $8.99, and including GameCenter integration with 4 leaderboards, one for each ship in each mode, along with 31 achievements, chances are, even though it’s one of the better previously released shmups ported over to the iOS, only hardcore fans of the genre will wind up purchasing it. If you’re new to the genre, you might want to check out some of the cheaper titles before diving right in, but for fans of the genre, RayStorm is a great game, and is really only out-done by Cave’s titles. Taito has shown, once again, why they have been around since 1953, are still highly respected, and have a very loyal fan following. 
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July 20, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

GOAL DEFENSE – [DYNAMIC PIXELS] – $0.99

Shucks; another skier got through my gauntlet of baseball players, bowlers, cheerleaders, and x-ray wielding boxers. Sounds crazy fun, and it is!
Goal Defense by Dyanmic Pixels is a new sports-themed Tower Defense title, that has loads of charm and all the challenge you could ever thirst. The environment has a light-hearted and fun-loving cartoon atmosphere that provides you with a feeling that ‘this shouldn’t be as hard as this’; but it is.

Goal Defense is not unlike other TD’s as the primary goal is to safeguard your ‘bowl’, but Dynamic Pixels is certainly the first to come up with the idea that centers around your fortifications on the sports field. The contest starts out dispensing you with a baseball player and ‘Hummer Thrower’ that you strategically, and I mean precision-ally strategically, place on the field to battle the onslaught of jump-roping jocks, football players, and other silly oppositions. The key flavor of this adventure is that the ‘tower/player’ locations are not pre-determined, and one placement can highly alter the rival’s intended route.The animations are downright hilarious; the Hummer thrower for one likes to eat a lot, and the cheerleader seems to drop her pom-poms all the time. Problem is, I often got sidetracked in such amusements and before I knew it, I had the foolhardy enemy’s players breathing down on the coveted bowl. The sound effects are fun as well with the cheerleaders chanting you along, and the sound of baseballs beaming your competitors.

You are allotted on average ten(10) players to reach your grail, at which point the level is over. The first few levels are great warm-ups for what is to come, but after that, this game means business. There are obstacles strewn across the field, some that look like equestrian hurdles, that you must use to your advantage to slow down the skiers, yes skiers, as well as foxy cheerleaders that will make any opponent slow down and gawk, allowing your baseball players and bowlers to pummel them when they are at their weakest. My favorite eccentric has to be the x-ray boxer who starts out with a simple one-two KO punch, but upon a few upgrades, draws his power from the almighty lightning gods and shocks the heck out of your rivals. You’ll just have to play it to understand, but it’s awesomely witty and hysterical.

The customary upgrade system exists, and is imperative to stand a chance at keeping your bowl intact, let alone passing the level. Currently, there are four worlds, 40 levels, including each world ending with a jocular, albeit difficult boss battle. Considering the bullet hard difficulty (in a good way!) you may find yourself replaying levels to figure out your best placements, such as how to reroute the skiers to slow them down, and where its best to place your batters in line with your pitchers to maximize effectiveness. The whole game seeps with allure, and you’ll be captivated from the get-go.

The in-game currency is in the form of ‘crystals’ which are rewarded based on effectiveness, wins, and other enticing factors. There is an IAP system as well, and unless you are incredibly adapt at TD’s, and if you want to keep your bowl un-violated, this is a viable option. Also of note, is that you start out with only a few different players, but the others are unlocked as you progress; this is all detailed in the shop via a simple click on the respective sportsman to see when they will automatically appear for usage.
The sportsman and power-ups are available to be unlocked earlier so you desire as well, but I found it quite fun learning each athlete over a few levels and figuring out their ranges etc. The power-ups are also unique; rain down a barrage of tennis balls on your foes, throw up a ‘false bowl’ temporarily drawing the enemies to itself, and a bowl ‘mine’ where you can set up explosives to guard it from a limited number of adversaries.

I have been having a ton of fun with Goal Defense, and considering the freedom of placements, it really gives you a great feeling of accomplishment when you finish those super tough levels. Being Universal, and only a measly .99, it is hard to not recommend this all-around lively Tower Defense title. You will instantly tell the developers had a blast creating this, and right thereafter, you’ll have even more fun playing it. Just keep your eyes on the enemies, not those foxy cheerleaders, and try not to laugh at the animations as you’ll get carried away and have to start over! Well, that’s not a bad thing.

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July 19, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Hanger [A Small Game] – $1.99

One of my favorite iOS games has got to be Hook Champ. The amount of content, the gameplay, the mechanics, controls, items, everything is just fantastic. But since, there hasn’t really been a game that comes close to the type of gameplay without feeling dull, stiff, or just no fun. Sweden based A Small Game’s most recent iOS title, Hanger, has changed that all around, matching gameplay reminiscent of the Hook titles, with the feeling of Karoshi. 
Hanger is a game which has you controlling characters who are trying to use a rope to fling themselves through various environments, some seeming extremely strange, to get to the end of the stage while loosing the fewest amount of body parts they can. That’s right, legs, arms, torsos and loads of blood will go flying all over the stage while your characters are Tarzaning it through the levels. 
There are two gameplay modes in Hanger, Levels, which is kind of a Story Mode, with little clip scenes at the beginning of each world, and Endless Mode, which, you guessed it, has you flinging your character as far as you can before they’re nothing more than an arm and head, or fall to their doom. Right now, there are only two worlds and 30 levels in Level Mode, but each level has a possible 3 star rating, which depends on how many ropes you use, the number of body parts you loose, and how many gems you can collect while going through the level. The base score is 50,000, and for each rope you use, 500 points is deducted, while each body part you loose deducts 1,000 points. The gems that you collect give you 200 points each, so you can either try and make your way through the stage by using the least amount of ropes, going quick, and praying to god that you don’t smack into a wall or whatever other strange object the environment is made out of, or you can go slow, and collect all of the gems, giving you a bigger bonus score at the end of the stage, or you can do a little bit of both, it’s really up to you. 
The graphics are retro inspired, with stickman people, and very interesting backgrounds, all effecting the level’s names; for instance, in the level, ‘Party’, you’ll come across bottles of Champaign, laughing heads, fancy hands, and more, while the level titled ‘Forest’ will have you swinging from trees. Now, I’m not usually a fan of rag doll physics, but here, the physics in Hanger, are fantastic. Flinging your rag doll stick figure, always having a name, which is, by the way, a great addition to the game, through each of the levels looks and feels fantastic. A Small Game’s developers nailed the physics portion of Hanger. The controls are also spot on, with left/right arrows and a rope button, which you’ll press to detach your rope, and again to shoot your rope out. 
Right now, priced at $0.99, it’s a fantastic buy. The price will go up soon to $1.99, which is still, a great price for this game. More worlds for Level Mode are in the works, but with Endless Mode, there’s loads of gameplay, as well as replayability. Also adding to the replay value, GameCenter’s 15 achievements and 6 different leaderboards, one for each Level Mode World’s total score, as well as one for each of the 4 separate Endless Mode levels. A couple things I would love to see added is an HD build, or an update to make the iPhone version Universal, as well as an option to move the controls around to where you’d like them on the screen; especially if the game becomes Universal or HD, as on the iPad, the buttons are kind of far inward. But still, I’ve been having a blast with Hanger, and really, can not recommend it enough, especially for fans of Hook Champ, Karoshi, and score-chasing games. I can see Hanger easily becoming a classic iOS game. 
If you’re still interested, but on the fence, you can check out the Flash Version at NotDoppler.
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July 12, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Nihilumbra [Beautifun Games SL] – $2.99

Puzzle platformers are pretty hit n miss on the iOS. There’s not too many that really nail the platforming gameplay with a good mix of the puzzling mechanics. Beautifun Games SL first AppStore release, Nihilumbra, definitely does a good job of mixing the two, as you guide Born, a strange creature, unfamiliar with the world around him, while he tries to escape The Void. A darkness that is chasing him, as well as sending out weird and complex creatures after him. 
The first thing that really caught my attention with Nihilumbra were the graphics. Surprisingly beautiful, the developers have managed to make the hand-drawn environments fit in with the artificial graphics, while keeping everything incredibly life-like. As you begin your journey, you find out that Nihilumbra isn’t you’re typical puzzle platformer. Not only do the levels run consecutively, but it also focuses on telling a story as well. Actually, a major part of the game is the story telling. Some screens have nothing but a flat path and text instead of platforms and enemies. 
There are two control options, virtual controls with left/right and jump buttons, and tilt controls, which have you flip your device upwards in order to jump, leaving no buttons on the screen. The physics and inertia, like all platformers, are also incredibly important, though with Nihilumbra, the game focuses on using these two mechanics to drive the gameplay. 
As you progress through the game, you’ll come across areas where you’ll unlock new colors, with a total of 5. You’re able to choose these by touching the icon in the top right corner, and then can color the platforms of the environment. Each of these has a different property, for example, blue; Blue is like ice. If you make the ground blue, you’ll go a lot quicker while sliding on it. Green is bouncy, and carries the inertia that you have when you hit it on forward, so if you jump from a high platform onto green ground, you’ll bounce back up to that same height. Brown is sticky, and lets you stick to surfaces. You also have a certain amount of these colors which you are able to use between checkpoints. At every checkpoint, the colors will be returned to your orbs. You can also use the ‘void’ color to erase any colors that you put down. 
However, all of the colors don’t only effect you, they also effect every moving object within the game. The enemies, boxes, projectiles… everything, and Beautifun Games has done an outstanding job creating puzzles centered around enemies, their projectiles, boxes, as well as the environment. 
The game’s description in the AppStore says that it has 10 hours of gameplay. But chances are, you’ll be able to complete the game in about 2-3 hours. Where the real challenge and 10 hours of gameplay comes in is after you complete the game, and unlock Void Mode. Here, you have less amounts of the colors, and the puzzles become incredibly difficult.
Nihilumbra is priced at $2.99, and is Universal. The controls are re-sized on the iPad, so you won’t have to worry about dealing with controls that are out of reach. There is no GameCenter support, but this isn’t really a game that needs it. With the game focused around the story, and just completing the game, there is no score, and no time limit. It would have been nice to see some achievements, but the feeling you get when completing Void Mode is definitely worth more than 50 GC points. Beautifun Games has definitely made their mark on the genre with Nihilumbra. It’s fantastic graphics, and great gameplay make it a puzzler unlike anything else in the AppStore. It may come off a bit preachy at times, but it does an incredible job of creating an immersive gameplay experience, one that all fans of puzzle and platform games should not miss out on.
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July 8, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Astronaut Spacewalk [Jorge Hernandez] – $3.99

It’s always great seeing something new and unique hit the AppStore. With so many new developers that have hit the AppStore over the last 4 or so years, it’s incredible that there are developers out there that have ideas that haven’t been done or taken advantage of yet. That’s the case with Jorge Hernandez’s Astronaut Spacewalk, an astronaut simulation title that has you move and control an astronaut around a spaceship right above the earth’s atmosphere. 
The first thing you might notice when starting up the game is the detailed controls. Going through the operation manual is something you really should do before you start playing. The controls are unlike anything I’ve experienced on the iOS as of yet. You’re given buttons which will move you up, down, forward, back, left, right, rotate you right, left, strife right, left, rotate you forward and back, and controls that will move the camera around you, however, they aren’t your typical virtual controls. On the left side of the screen, you’re given your basic movement buttons, and on the right you have your rotating, and the center of the screen controls your camera. It does take a little fidgeting around before you get comfortable with them, but once you do, the controls are perfect for the game. 
Starting off, you’ll need to guide the astronaut to various spots around the shuttle. You have a certain amount of boosters, and re-aligning energy, as well as a set amount of oxygen. If you can’t make it to all of the checkpoints around the ship with the given amount of energy and oxygen, you’ll need to start from scratch. There are also set boundaries around the shuttle, and if you leave them, you’ll need to restart as well, so no making your way from the shuttle to the moon, or re-entering the atmosphere in your suit. There are some glitches that occur if you manage to collide with the ship, and keep going forward, you can wind up getting stuck inside of the ship, unable to make your way out, but this really only happens if you’re trying to make it happen.
After the first mission, you’ll be faced with objectives that generally have you moving from one area to another, and staying there while something is fixed, attached, or checked out. You will need to align the astronaut in the correct positioning in order for this to happen, which can get quite challenging. Even further on, you’ll be making your way to satellites, space stations, and more. 
The graphics are definitely a highlight within the game, with the Earth, Shuttle, Astronaut, and space debris very detailed. Combined with the controls, physics, inertia, and basic gameplay, Astronaut Spacewalk becomes a very immersive experience. Something that also helps is the music and effects, as well as the constant background NASA chatter. Astronaut Spacewalk is really less of a game, and more of a challenging experience. Each of the 20 Missions provides unique tasks which you must complete before you run out of air and power. 
Having a launching price of $3.99, it’s a fantastic simulation title to pick up if you’re interested in something new and unique, and are up for a challenge. I can’t really see the gameplay appealing to a wide audience, but hopefully it does. With more and more people becoming interested in space and NASA, now seems like a perfect time for a game like this to hit the AppStore, but with so many casual gamers, it’ll be a hard sell. Being made only for the iPhone is another thing that will most likely keep people from purchasing it, but if you’re willing to play in 2X mode, with a little bit of pixilation, or just have an iPod/iPhone, it’s definitely a game you should check out. I can’t wait to see what Mr. Hernandez has in store for future games on the platform. Here’s hoping this is only the beginning. 
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July 6, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Bio Crisis [Sphinx Entertainment] – $2.99

Sphinx Entertainment has released some awesome games in the past; Carrot War, VR Mission, Mole Dash, League of Extraordinary Birds, and more. Their newest title, however, is easily their best yet. Bio Crisis, a title that’s won numerous Indie Game Design Awards, has been polished up and released for the iOS, and takes it’s place next to the small, but growing list, of cover based shooters. 
Bio Crisis throws you into the roll of Night Hawk, a marine who’s guided by Claire, the operator of the Missions, who is pretty much your tutorial master. It’s 2035, and Earth’s resources are depleted. Thankfully, a meteor that wound up landing somewhere near the jungle that use to be the South Pole has been found. It’s said to contain a mysterious crystal which could be a source of great power. Your mission is to find Bull Dog, another operative who hasn’t been able to be reached since finding Crystal Samples. 
Like other cover-based shooters, you’re outfitted with various weapons, and will need to fight your way through loads of enemies in order to complete your objective. But with Bio Crisis being a top-down type shooter, it allows for some great strategic additions. This is amplified by the great level design, and positioning of barriers which you’re able to take cover behind.
All of this would be pretty much meaningless if it weren’t for the great control system. You’re given a virtual joystick, roll, fire and reload buttons. Once you get close to a barrier, Night Hawk automatically takes cover behind it, blocking all of the projectiles coming your way, and in order to make it through the game without running out of ammo, you’ll need to figure out what weapon best serves the situation. You’re outfitted with an auto riffle, shotgun, missile launcher, grenades, and a laser gun, and switching between all of them throughout each level is basically mandatory. Your shotgun is great for taking out enemies close-by, while your riffle is better for enemies further away. If you’ve got enemies back to back, the laser is able to shoot through them, hitting all of them at once, and the missile launcher and grenades take care of bigger enemies or groups of enemies. You’re also equipped with a knife, which you’ll be able to use when you’re close to an enemy. You automatically use it by pressing the ‘fire’ button, no matter what weapon is equipped. 
There are 24 Missions, and every 6th Mission you’ll come across a boss battle. Here, you’ll need to figure out how to use the environment and your heavy weapons to best serve you. The first boss battle is fairly easy, requiring you to roll out of the way when the boss comes charging at you, and then shoot missiles and throw grenades at him once he hit’s the wall and is dazed. However, the second boss has some great armor, and in order to take him out you’ll need to figure out where to stand in order to make him damage himself. 
There are goals which you’ll need to complete in order to unlock the other gameplay modes; Brutal, Insane and Hell. To unlock Brutal Mode, you need to kill 100 enemies with grenades, for Insane, you need to kill 999 enemies, and for Hell Mode, you’ll need to kill 500 enemies with your knife. 
There is a shop, with IAPs included in the game. In the shop, you can upgrade your weapons, as well as purchase ammo if you happen to run out. The IAP is for coins. You also earn these coins by playing through the game. With each enemy you kill, you’re given coins, and are given lump sums after completing boss stages. While progressing through the game, you’ll also come across ammo containers which help out with the ammo. You will run out of ammunition if you blast away emptying clip after clip into an enemy after their dead, or just decide to only use one gun the entire time you’re playing. But the game is centered around strategically figuring out what weapon best suit’s the situation, and carefully planning out your attacks. It isn’t a blast everything to smithereens while not keeping an eye on your ammo type of game. Your health is also pretty limited, but does regenerate. 
You can automatically refill your health for 300 coins if you don’t want to wait, but again, you will be dying and loosing a lot of health if you just decide to run into a group of enemies and start blasting away. Players that don’t use some strategy and don’t use each weapon as it’s meant to be used will probably wind up feeling like they’re being pushed towards buying coins through the in-app-purchases. However, you can also go back and replay missions that you’ve already beat if you wound up loosing all of your ammo by being careless. You’ll earn the same amount of coins as you did the first time you played through the level, so this can help out a lot. 
With Bio Crisis priced at $2.99, and being Universal, it’s a great buy for gamers looking for another cover-based shooter, or a shooter that requires thought rather than mindless killing. Sphinx Entertainment has definitely raised their own bar, as well as created a fantastic cover-based shooter that can hold it’s own within the genre. The game could use GameCenter support, with achievements, and possibly leader boards, but with the amount of content, there’s already quite a bit that’ll keep you coming back to the game, even after you beat the Campaign Mode. Bio Crisis is highly recommended for fans of the genre, especially if you’re sick of the mindless shooters found throughout the AppStore. 
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July 6, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Boom Brigade 2 [10Tons] – $3.99

10tons has brought out some fantastic titles for the iOS gaming scene. Azkend, Joining Hands, Grim Joggers, Sparkle, and more. Boom Brigade, a tower defense/line-drawing strategy arcade title, is definitely one of my favorites from 10tons, which is kind of funny, because line-drawing games and I don’t really get along. But there’s something about Boom Brigade which just hit’s the right nerve with me. Now, I get to experience it all again. Boom Brigade 2 is finally here, and it’s everything you would expect in a sequel. The same great gameplay mechanics and type of gameplay as the original, with more of everything.
Boom Brigade is a real time strategy line drawing defense title. You might not think it, but all of those genres mashed together really seems to work out well, especially since 10tons has done such a great job with the design of the game. You’ll guide army men around the map by drawing lines for them to follow. Enemies come at you from all sides of the screen, and you need to defend your base through wave after wave. 
There are two modes contained in the game, the 30 level Campaign, and a Survival Mission Mode. In the campaign mode, before each mission, you’re able to select your load outs for the givin units, and then go into battle. While you’re in battle, you’re able to pause the action with the icon in the lower left corner, and draw the lines for your men to follow along. This really helps out when the action gets hectic, and it does get very hectic. Throughout the stage, various power-ups and health containers are dropped from the sky, helping you to fend off the onslaught of aliens. 
Boom Brigade’s line drawing controls are some of the best I’ve ever experienced on the touch screen. One of the things that really turns me off of line drawing games are the clumsy controls, never really drawing the line exactly where I want it to be, or not responding and cutting off halfway through a path. Here, 10tons has done an excellent job making the controls precise as well as responsive. 
Graphics-wise, Boom Brigade 2 has a top/down view of the battlefield, but that doesn’t effect the gameplay like you might think. Your units are very clear, and it’s easy to tell if you’re moving your machine gunner or shot gunner, and the environments have plenty of detail. The animations also help add to the gameplay, with great death scenes and sounds, blasting the enemy away becomes very satisfying.
With 30 missions spread across 3 environments, unlockable upgrades for every character, and loads of line drawing strategy, Boom Brigade 2 is a game that’s definitely worth picking up if you’re even remotely interested in the genres. Priced at $3.99 (on sale ATM for $2.99), and Universal, as well as including GameCenter support with a whopping 11 leader boards, and 16 achievements, and a whole set of Survival Missions, there’s loads of replay value to be had. 
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July 1, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Dynamite Jack [Hassey Enterprises] – $2.99

The first stealth game I played on my first iOS device was Silent Swords. Since then, the stealth genre hasn’t really gained much ground in the AppStore. It’s not something fans of the genre aren’t use to, good stealth-based games don’t come along too often, and on the iDevice, we’ve only got a couple available to us. But  thanks to Hassey Enterprises, developers of the iOS version of Galcon, we can add one more title to the list of so few; Dynamite Jack, a new iPad only stealth game where you control Jack, a captured space marine who was forced to work in the mines can only use bombs and a flashlight to escape. 
Don’t get me wrong, there are many more items that Jack can use during his escape, but your two main resources are your flashlight, and an endless supply of bombs which you can use to break through walls, and destroy enemies. You’ll also need to find and collect keycards, data chips, crystals, and more while figuring out how to move through each section of the mines without being spotted. 
There are two control setups in Dynamite Jack, a virtual joystick which can be fixed or float, and a line drawing option. If you’re more comfortable with the Spy Mouse or The Nightworld setup, you might want to use the line drawing controls, but for those of you who prefer it, the virtual joystick is a great option, even though it can be kind of finicky with movement, especially if you choose the floating joystick option. This can sometimes get frustrating when trying to quickly hide from guards or quickly place a bomb. With both control schemes, you’re also given icons for turning your flashlight on/off and placing + exploding your bombs. 
You’ll have to be careful as to when you have your flashlight on, as it can draw the attention of the mine supervisors, and their only job? Shoot on sight. Not only do you need to be very cautious with your flashlight, but also your bomb placement. Since bombs also draw the attention of the supervisors/enemies, and you’re only able to place one bomb at a time, not being able to place another one until you set off the one you’ve already set, placing a bomb in the wrong spot can get you killed. You’ll need to figure out where exactly to place a bomb so that you can be far enough away, but also not be in the line of sight of the guards as they come over to inspect the loud boom they just heard, and maybe be able to place a bomb between them and their designated lookout area so that you can kill them on their way back to patrol. 
What really stands out, aside from the fact that this is quite possibly the best stealth based game I’ve played on the iOS yet, is the fantastic level design. Needing to explore, and being forced to use your flashlight, even in the most inconvenient of times in order to figure out where to go, or how to reach a certain item is fantastic, and adds a ton of challenge and difficulty to the game. 
With 28 levels, the game may seem short, but there’s plenty to do even after you’ve completed the game. Each stage has 3 objectives which are optional, but which add to the replay value, or, if you’re determined to snag them all the first time through, add a crazy challenge to the game. These objectives include beating levels in a certain amount of time, getting through levels without using your flashlight, collecting all of the crystals, leaving all of the guards unharmed, collecting all of the data cartridges, beating a level without dying, detonating a certain amount of bombs, and loads more. 
Also adding to the replay value is GameCenter integration which includes 13 hard to unlock achievements. There’s also leader boards for speed run times on every level within the game. Here, you can go against your GameCenter friends times, as well as compete with players around the world. If that isn’t enough, there’s also a level editor, which lets you create levels, and community area, where you can share your levels as well as download maps from other players. 
With Dynamite Jack priced at $2.99, and definitely standing out as one of the best stealth games available for the iOS, it’s a must buy for fans of the genre. I’d consider it the best if the controls were tightened up a bit. But even if you’re not into stealth games, Dynamite Jack provides a great challenge for casual and hardcore gamers alike, and is definitely recommended.
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June 29, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >