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Spy Vs. Spy [Robots and Pencils] – $1.99

Remakes of old classics, as well as ports of old-school titles happen to be something I find very hard to resist, and in the AppStore, there’s more than just a few of these titles available. The most recent one to hit my device is Spy Vs. Spy, originally developed by First Star Software in 1984 for the Atari, Commodore 64, and Apple II computers and ported over to numerous platforms, this time around, has been remade by the fairly new Canadian development studio, Robots And Pencils. 
One thing that absolutely love about this version of Spy Vs. Spy is that it includes the original Atari version alongside the remake, and you can change to the retro version before starting any level simply by hitting ‘Retro’ on the level select screen! Now, Spy Vs. Spy is a blast to play, especially when you’ve got another player. I can still remember staying at a friends house when I was a kid, up all night playing this game. And you guessed it; this iOS version of Spy Vs. Spy includes both Local (through Bluetooth) as well as Online (through GameCenter) Multiplayer. 
If you’ve never had the pleasure of playing Spy Vs. Spy, it’s an old-school arcade type title that has you playing as one of the Spy characters trying to collect 4 different items that are hidden inside of different rooms. While you’re doing this, the other Spy character is also trying to find these 4 different items. Included, of course, are various traps which you can set up in order to spoil the other players progress. These include water buckets on top of doors, hidden bombs and guns attached to strings on doors and more. 
There’s a couple of ways you can play Spy Vs. Spy. As you make your way through each collection of rooms, you can either search for the briefcase, which lets you hold all of the items at once, or, you can search through all of the rooms, looking for each item one at a time, and then figure out where to hide it until you’ve found all 4 items, either way, you do need to find the briefcase before exiting the level, but this way, you’re able to trap wherever it is that you’re hiding your items, and you don’t run the risk of running into the other Spy with all of the items on you. Once you enter the room where the other Spy is, you drop all of the items that you’re holding and they go into the nearest hiding spot. Then you either need to get out of the room as quickly as possible, or fight, and beat up, the other Spy so that you can leave with all of the items that you‘ve both collected. There’s also a third option; you can sit in the room with the exit door, and wait for the other Spy to collect each of the 4 items, and then beat them up when they enter. Doing this is risky, and isn’t recommended unless you have no other choice. There’s also an added search going on along-side the search for the 4 items; looking for stars. Each level has a possible 3 star ranking, and however many stars you find in each level is what your ranking will be. All of the stars and items can be seen on your map, which is readily accessible in a slide-out menu with all of your traps. 
All of this sounds well and good, especially if you’re playing in a multiplayer mode. It can be hours and hours of fun. However, there is one big stand out issue with this version of the game; the controls. Instead of using a typical old-school type lay-out, with a d-pad and buttons, Spy Vs. Spy has a floating d-pad, which is very hard to control, and buttons that appear at the top of the screen when you’re face to face, fighting the other Spy. In order to look behind objects, a tap anywhere on the screen does it. It is usable, but unfortunately, the movement controls still need some tightening up, and the buttons at the top of the screen for fighting are kind of awkwardly placed. Hopefully this is quickly fixed in an update, because other than this, it’s fantastic having this old-school hide-and-seek game on our phones/tablets, especially with the online multiplayer. 
Specially priced at $0.99 for launch (originally $1.99), it’s a great buy, and is definitely worth picking up, if nothing else, for the nostalgia value. GameCenter is supported, with leaderboards for each of the 24 levels as well as a board for how many total wins for multiplayer mode, and 29 achievements. The developers are listening to player feedback, and I have a lot of faith that the controls will be handled, but at the moment, it’s kind of hit or miss. Some people can get use to the controls, while others have been rage-deleting the game after getting fed up with them. For $0.99, it’s definitely worth finding out which group you fit into, and if you’re the second, at least you’ll have the game, and be ready to play it once the control issues are dealt with. 

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July 29, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Jewels With Buddies [Stofle Designs] – FREE

A couple of months ago, I wouldn’t have really called myself an online multiplayer fan. But with all of the great MP games being released lately, I’ve definitely been turned into one. Now, being a pretty big fan of Match-3 games, and with this new-found enjoyment of online gameplay, Stofle Designs Jewels with Buddies has wound up in my current rotation of games that I play every day. Battling it out against another player, trying to get the best combined score for 3 rounds of match-3 mayhem is a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
Once you register, or connect to your Facebook profile, you’re able to start games with friends from yoru contacts list, find a random buddy, have a rematch with someone you’ve already played, search for a username, or have a pass-n-play session with a friend on the same device. 
As you play, you’ll earn coins. These are used to pick power-up animals who are able to help you out throughout your game, and also to take spins on the slots. Each animal has a different ability, and is charged up by making certain types of matches while you play. For instance, the Panda Bear eats a whole row of gems and is charged up when you make white matches, while the Elephant destroys half of the board, and is recharged by matching purple gems, and so on. 

The scoring system is definitely a plus. With each match you make, you earn points, and if there’s a coin inside one of the gems, you’ll gain coins as well. But if you keep making matches quickly, the amount of points you’ll earn will keep rising. There are also multipliers randomly found on the gems which increase as time counts down. If you tap the gems with a multiplier before making a match with them, the multiplier will be applied to that match. 
You’re given 3 rounds, each being 60 seconds long, to earn as many points as you can. After each round, your score is sent to the other player, and then you wait for them to play a round and send it back. I haven’t ever had this much fun with a match-3 MP game. Witch Wars and Matching With Friends both seemed way too unbalanced, and pushed towards IAP, and Syntax Match, while decent, is a little too difficult when it comes to quickly finding matches because of the tiles used. Don’t get me wrong, there are IAPs included in Jewels with Friends, and if you want the best animal power-ups every time you play, you’ll probably need to purchase some coins, but with the coins earned at a decent rate, and being able to choose some of the better animals every 3 or so games, even without purchasing IAPs, it’s very well balanced, and doesn’t feel like you’re constantly being pushed towards the IAPs, which is becoming more and more rare with free games. 
So, if you’re looking for an online asynchronous match 3 title, you should definitely check out Jewels with Friends. Even though there’s no extra modes, and no single player gameplay, what is there is done very well, and priced at FREE, there’s really no reason not to give it a try. It’s definitely a title that’ll wind up staying on my device for quite some time. 

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July 22, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Super Ox Wars [Llamasoft] – $1.99

Jeff Minter is sort of a God in the gaming industry. Founder of Llamasoft, he’s been in the business for over 30 years, and has developed numerous games for the Sinclair XZ81, Commodore VIC-20, Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Atari 400/800, Pocket PC, XBLA, PC, and iDevice. Some classic games you might have heard of; Tempest 2000 – 3000 – X3, Traxx, Sheep in Space, Hover Bovver, Abductor, Trip-a-Tron, Virtual Light Machine and loads more. On the iOS, he’s ported over the classics, Minotron: 2112, Minotaur Rescue, Deflex, Caverns of Minos and Gridrunner. He’s best known for his inclusion of llamas, sheep, camels, oxen, and his psychedelic graphics. But his most recent release, Super Ox Wars, an Ikaruga influenced polarity shoot-em-up, could be considered one of his best iOS releases to date. On the distant planet, Parint, two oxen are revered by the people. With each ox representing a valuable characteristic of the society, each person chooses one ox to guide their spirit. Parint was invaded by the Marcab Empire, who enslaved the people. It’s up to you to save the people, and your planet by using the power of the oxen. 

Like most Minter releases, Super Ox Wars is filled with psychedelic graphics and animations, fast moving enemies, a great scoring system, smooth controls and a fantastic challenge. There is only one mode in SOW, but like Gridrunner, you’re able to start from each level that you’ve reached, with your highest score, and lives in-tact. 
As you play through each of the 7 levels, you’ll be able to collect either blue/star or red/heart colors and items. In order to go for a high score, you’ll need to decide which color you want to stick with while going through the stages. As you collect more items from one of the two colors, your firepower will increase, as well as defensive powers; Hearts push back enemy projectiles around your ship, while Stars cause your own shots to push back enemy projectiles. As you collect more items of one color, more power-ups and extra lives will drop more often, but once you collect an item of the opposite color, the polarity is automatically shifted. 

 You’re given 3 different scores at the top of the screen, one for blue, one for red, and one for a combined score. Each of the scores increase depending on your current polarity, so if you’re using blue, your blue score will rise, and if you’re using red, your red score will rise. Both of these are combined together for your total score. Shooting down entire groups of enemies gives you bonuses, and destroying all of the flying enemies in each stage will give you an end of level bonus. 

The graphics and animations are typical of Minter’s past releases, but are not as incredibly crazy. You’re able to very clearly make out enemy ships, and background objects, but there is a psychedelic level to the images, with loads of stars or hearts flying out of your ship when your ship is fully powered up, or explodes, and the animations are reminiscent of Gridrunner. The controls, however, are a very tight and smooth relative touch control scheme at a 1:1 ratio. GameCenter is supported, and with 4 separate leader boards, one for each color, one for a pure run (starting on stage 1), and one for your combined score, as well as 10 achievements, it definitely adds to the already high replay value of the game. Priced at $1.99, and being a Universal build, Super Ox Wars is a fantastic, as well as cheap, polarity based shmup. Fans of the genre, and especially fans of Minter titles, should pick this one up. Though not as psychedelic graphically, and only containing one gameplay mode, it’s one of the most challenging Llamasoft games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, will definitely get loads of gameplay out of me and will wind up staying on my device for a long time.

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July 20, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

SHOOT THE ZOMBIRDS – [INFINITE DREAMS] – $0.99

High score chasers are always a huge hit or miss venture with me. When I saw Shoot the Zombirds come out in May of this year, I never thought it would be the type of game that would remain on my iPad for as long as it has. If you have played Infinite Dreams’ previous title, Shoot the Birds, you were probably inclined to pass this one by as, for me, it was not one that really embraced that gaming nerve that we all love to caress. Not so for me with Shoot the Zombirds as something about it looked interesting, I thought I would give it a try, and have been gratified ever since.

Like its predecessor, Shoot the Zombirds has you controlling a pumpkin-man type entity whose sole purpose is flinging arrows at pum-kid (you see what they did there!) stealing Zombirds with his trusted bow and arrow. The mechanic is pretty simple, pull back anywhere on the screen, aim, and let er’ rip. The environment is top-notch and set against a Tim-Burton-esque blood-soaked haunted house/graveyard; probably the pumpkin man’s sanctuary. It sounds simple, and it is, but the game becomes quite addictive with enticing Game Center achievements, tantalizing Grave Store power-ups and clothing, and just plain regalement when you ‘Sausage’ two to three Zombirds on your armaments. It can get pretty addictive when acknowledging all of these factors.

The Zombirds vary quite extensively from fat, big, and slow to small and very quick. And the small suckers don’t show up several waves in, as you will have to be combating with them as early as the second wave. And yep, they are pretty tough to hit. The Zombirds make one initial pass and let them fly by, they are going to kidnap one of your pum-kids. You are only allotted a certain amount of pum-kids, another Grave-store item upgrade as well, so taking out any of the fowl with your kin is certainly your primary objective. The participant is also only provided with a certain amount of arrows; the only way you can retain or increase your quiver is to make those shots!

The Grave store items are super cool with power ups like ‘Rain of Pain’ where you can summon a swarm of target-seeking day-saving burning arrows, and the ‘Quiver of Plenty’ where you get infinite arrows for a certain amount of time. Coins are gained via achievements and by shooting these little skulls that traverse the screen from right to left. Power-ups exist to increase their frequency as well. The GC achievements are really well integrated to bait the user to that ‘one more round’ feeling. There is the standard IAP, but I have never remotely felt pulled in that somewhat adverse direction.

If you are looking for a casual pick up and play, laugh out loud a little, make some Game Center achievements score chaser, you may just find what you want in Shoot The Zombirds. It really triumphs in what it sets out to do, and it reminds me alot of something like Temple Run as far as it’s addictive qualities, and for its’ shear pick up and play nature.

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July 16, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Bounty Racer [The Quadsphere] – $1.99

The Quadsphere has been one of my favorite development teams since I got a 2nd gen Touch. Their awesome shmup, Icarus-X has always been one of my favorites, and FMX Riders is a great Motocross Racer. But after not really hearing anything from them for a while, I was surprised when their newest release, Bounty Racer, hit the AppStore. 
For those of you who have FMX Riders, you’ll be familiar with the menu setup and UI. It’s almost exactly the same. You have the option to flip the screen, which is great considering the game starts up-side-down, but unfortunately, this still leaves everything like pop-up notifications and GameCenter pop-ups at the bottom of the screen, which means that they wind up covering the controls, and can result in accidental game exits. 
The control set-up is also exactly the same, you can choose between auto and manual acceleration, as well as tilt, stick and button control schemes, with a tilt sensitivity option thrown in for good measure. The tilt controls work very well, as does the stick, though I prefer the button set-up, especially when playing on the iPad. Drifting is done easily by pressing the brake button while you’re turning. This, along with getting air from jumps and by using the environment, fills up your nitro gauge. Once it’s filled, you’re able to press the nitro button, and boost ahead. You’re also able to stack your boosts, which is fantastic. 
There are 3 gameplay modes to choose from; Single Player, Bounties and Multiplayer. The Single Player Mode gives you 4 separate leagues which you can choose from, Rookie, Pro, Master and Elite, though Rookie is the only league which is unlocked at first, and as you progress through the game, earning stars in each race, you’ll unlock the harder leagues. In each league, there are 6 tracks with 3 different types of races in each; Race, which is your typical race against 5 other AI characters, Collect, which gives you 60 seconds to collect as many stars on the track as you can. This is the only mode which you do not need to follow the typical track layout, and do not need to cross the finish line. Your only goal is to find and collect all the stars you can in 1 minute. Elimination is the last type of race, and this is your typical elimination mode. You’ll need to race the other AI characters, and try to never be in last place when you cross the finish line, or else the race is over. Each track has 9 available stars, with 3 for each type of race. 
In Bounty Mode, you’ll be able to race against other GameCenter players, trying to get the best time you can in each league’s track. Multiplayer is handled with GameCenter, and has auto-matching as well as the option to match up through your GC friend’s list. It allows up to 4 players to race each-other, and is probably where most of your time will be spent, after playing enough of the Single Player Mode to buy one bad-ass car in each league. Each race lets you save a replay, and you can also upload these replays directly to YouTube from inside the app, which is a great feature. I actually wish more games would allow for this to be done.
Every race has the potential to give you quite a few coins, and you can use these coins to purchase more karts. However, you’re only able to purchase karts which are available for that league, but this also means that as you progress through the game, better karts with better stats will become available to you. There are IAPs available for extra coins, but the pricing for the karts is great, needing to only go through about 5 races to get the best racer available in that league, but you can also buy a better-than-your-default-kart after the first race, so long as you come in first place. So basically, the IAP coins are there to help support the developers, if you so choose to. 
There are some additions which would have made the game a bit better, being able to hold it’s head high next to the top Kart Racers in the AppStore; Having a mini-map, or progression bar in the HUD would have been a fantastic addition. There have been so many times while playing when I wanted to know where the other racers were, or how close they were to me. I know there’s nitro boosters, but also having some sort of power-up or special item system would have made the game awesome, though it probably would have made it seem a little too kart racer-ish, I guess you could say, this is a Kart Racer, and without it, the gameplay just doesn’t seem as action-packed. 
Now, even though the player UI and menus are basically recycled from FMX Riders, there are quite a few iOS developers which do this, and it doesn’t really bother me. However, if it does bother you, you might want to keep that in mind when thinking about purchasing Bounty Racer. Being Universal and priced at $1.99, it’s a fantastic deal. There’s endless replay value, a wide array of karts, some great level design, very polished graphics, though not many animations or extra effects, like dirt, snow or water flying up, it’s still a very well made Kart Racer, with some great gameplay. If you liked FMX Riders, Bounty Racer is a game you’ll enjoy just as much, if not more so. The Bounty Mode does add some pretty competitive gameplay, and being able to upload your replays directly to YouTube is awesome, but if you’re looking for another Sonic type Racer, this isn’t really going to appease you. But if you’re a fan of the genre, this is definitely a great game to have in your collection. 
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July 13, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Gluddle [Creative Heroes] – $1.99

Out of all the types of games for the iOS, nothing is really pushing the boundaries and expanding like the puzzle genre. And with so many creative indie developers hitting the mobile gaming scene, it’s really no surprise. Gluddle, the fantastic, strangely addictive title from Creative Heroes, is definitely one of those genre expanding titles.
In the game’s description, it’s described as being ‘pinball meets trampoline’ and ‘Peggle meets Angry Birds’. That right there is the best description for the game the developers could have come up with. Your goal is to use bouncy balls to create pathways which you can bounce more balls off of in order to collide them with the game’s ‘bad guys’, surveillance eyes that don’t want you bouncing anywhere. Yeah, it’s a little strange when put into words, but in action, it’s one of the best iOS puzzlers I’ve ever played. There’s only one mode, but with 89 levels, there’s plenty of content, and with the difficulty set just right for an iOS puzzle game, and updates with more levels, it has the potential to stay on your device for quite some time. 
The controls are very easy to get comfortable with. Once you start a level, you’re given a jumping off point. This is where all of your bouncy balls will spawn from. From here, you just need to drag around the screen, and point the ball in the direction you want to fling it, and then tap to let it go. Once it’s in the air, tapping again will freeze it. You’ll need to keep freezing balls until you have built up a path, or have made a sort of Peggle-like jumping board for your balls to bounce off of, trying to get them to come into contact with the surveillance balls. Once you hit a surveillance ball, it’s knocked off it’s axis, and explodes. 
With most of the levels, you’ll need to use the environment to help you reach this objective, with rocks, platforms, gravity holes, teleportation holes and more, which definitely adds more strategy as well as difficulty to the gameplay. 
The graphics, animations, sounds and music are all fantastic, helping to create a world of surveillance and uprising. Though the game isn’t particularly immersive, it’s definitely well-polished, smooth playing, and responsive. Not to mention addictive. Once you start understanding out how bounce the balls off of other balls, and make your way into unlocking the minimum time and gluggle amount medals in each level, the more you’ll constantly be thinking of ways to figure out levels while you’re doing monotonous tasks at work, in the shower or while laying in bed trying to get to sleep. 
Universal and normally priced at $1.99, Gluddle is on sale at the moment for $0.99. For a buck, it’s one of the most interesting puzzle games you’ll be able to pick up, and carry around in your pocket. Unfortunately, the game suffers from the lack of any real replay value, as well as the lack of GameCenter. Leaderboards and achievements would have been a fantastic addition to the game, and it does suffer a bit without GC integration. There is a bit of replay value with the level medals, but as for perfecting each stage, and that drive to do so, it kind of slips under the bar. However, Gluddle is a fantastic, creative game that doesn’t just copy the mechanics of other puzzle titles, it takes them, mashes them together, and pushes them farther than they have been previously, and has had some great support through updates from the developers. For that, it’s definitely worth checking out. 
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July 13, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Chicken Doom [Bulkypix] – $2.99

Tower+Base Defense games are everywhere in the AppStore. It’s definitely a genre that has been overwhelmed with releases. With the growing capabilities of the iOS hardware as well as it’s software, this genre is finally expanding after a sort of dead period where nothing really new was hitting the gaming scene, and 3D Tower Defense titles seem to be gaining ground. The most recent TD release from the very prominent publishers over at Bulkypix is Chicken Doom. A tap-based 3D Base Defense title that has you defending a chicken in a lookout tower armed with a Gatling gun. 
Chicken Doom has you playing through various environments on Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties. Your chicken sits at the top of the screen, back in the stage a bit, while enemies come at you, appearing from the bottom of the screen. The controls are simple; Tap on an enemy to fire at them. You can also hold down on the screen to constantly fire, but this knocks out any chance of building up a combo multiplier, seriously effecting your score. 
So long as you can hit enemies consecutively, without missing one or having too long of a break between hits, you’ll build up your combo, which, in-turn, seriously helps build up your score. The higher your score, the more currency, labeled as ‘Corn’, you’ll earn. Helping out with this is certain power-ups. You’ll be able to use these to increase your combo by picking up an individual enemy, and hitting them about 10 times. During this period, the action freezes, and the one enemy is the only enemy on the screen. 
You’re also able to purchase and upgrade power-ups in the store. Here, you can equip up to 4 power-ups, from a TNT Barrel, which rolls down the hill, flattening all the chickens in it’s path, a Bugger power-up, which covers the chickens in goo, and slows them down, a Chicken Bomb, which burns all surrounding chickens, and more. You are able to upgrade these as well, making them stronger and stronger as you progress through the game. Items will also be unlocked as you reach achievements within the game. A huge plus here is that there are no IAPs, so the game isn’t incredibly difficult just to push you towards throwing more money at the developers. Not to say that the game is easy. It’s not.
With each of the 6 stages having 3 difficulties, Medium and Hard will offer up quite a battle. You should definitely expect to spend quite a bit of time on these, and be ready to play them more than just a couple times before you complete them, especially in the later environments, which are unlocked after you complete the beginning levels. 
What really makes the game stand out is the Co-op Mode. You’re able to play every level with another player on the same device. Unfortunately, it does not support online co-op gameplay, which definitely would have made this one of the best base defense titles available in the AppStore. But it does add an extra level of fun as well as strategy to the game, which is fantastic to see within the genre. 
With Chicken Doom priced at $2.99, and on sale at the moment for $0.99, it’s definitely a game that base defense fans should check out. Yet again, Bulkypix doesn’t disappoint. The tap controls could use some tightening up, and more content would be great, as right now, even though the levels offer up plenty of replay value, especially when you take into account the 12 GameCenter Leaderboards, one for each stage, as well as co-op boards, and 24 Achievements. It could use some improvements, but it’s a huge step in the right direction for the 3D Base Defense genre. 
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July 7, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Tameuchi [2dgames.jp] – $0.99

Shmups have really seemed to expand outwards and spawn some new and interesting genres, especially since the introduction of the AppStore. Dodging games like FlipShip, Tilt To Live and Silverfish; Dual-Stick exploration like Isotope and Inferno; Survival games like ElectroMaster, even the endless genre has been touched resulting in games like Hypership Out Of Control and the wave-based Enborn-X. 
Taking a page out of ElectroMaster’s book, and expanding even more on it, 2dgames.jp has recently released their bullet hell survival/dodger, Tameuchi. 

Tameuchi is a bit strange, well, it’s not very surprising that it’s a bit strange, it’s created by Japanese developers who obviously have a taste for the cute and out of the box thinking. You control a little girl up against wave after wave of purple jelly looking creatures, milkboxes, pudding, and more who all seem to have a wide array of bullets and projectiles all ready to take you out. The good news is, you’ve got an endless supply of bullets, can fly, have proper shielding, can level up, and are able to regain health by collecting bananas. 

The controls, like most iOS games, are fairly simple. To move, you just need to touch down anywhere on the screen, and drag your finger in the direction you’d like to move. While you’re doing this, you’ll be charging up your bullets. Once you let your finger off of the screen, your bullets will be released, and the carnage will begin. 
As you collect green and yellow bananas, your projectile charge bar, and health will be regenerated, you’ll also be able to level up as you progress throughout the game, killing everything in sight. Once you level up, your charge gauge will get bigger, and your projectiles will get stronger, being able to take out more and more of the ever increasing onslaught of enemies. As your rank goes up, the enemies will get stronger, and more of them will attack you all at once. Their bullet patterns will also get more complex. What really helps out, is that while you’re charging your bullets, you’re able to suck up some of the smaller bullets with your charge shield. However, you can only absorb a certain amount before you wind up taking damage. Also working in your favor, once you defeat the milk carton, or pudding, all of the bullets on the screen turn into collectible bananas. 

Priced at $0.99, it’s a fantastic game to pick up if you’re a fan of the slightly weird Japanese gaming culture, or are into dodging/bullet hell titles. The only bad things I can say about the game is that there is only one game mode, it’s not Universal, though, the game still looks great in 2X mode, and there’s absolutely no leaderboards. That’s right, not even local boards, it does save your highest score, which is a plus, but nothing else. GameCenter integration, as well as more modes would make Tameuchi one hell of a game. But for 2dgames.jp first at bat within the AppStore, they’ve hit, at the very least, an inside-the-park homerun. 
If you’re interested in the game, but don’t know whether or not to take the plunge, check out Tameuchi Lite. 
****After writing this review, I contacted the developer and asked if GameCenter would be added in a future update, they said that yes, it would be, and asked us to be patient. =o)
So those of you holding off on the game because the lack of it, it will be implemented in the future. *****

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July 7, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

HUMAN DEFENSE [HELICEUM] – $1.99

All Tower Defense titles are not created equal; or so I came to realize only two levels in while playing the curiously unique and highly complex new Tower Defense game, Human Defense, by Heliceum. For the most part, I love all flavors of TD’s and have also come to realize that they usually all bear a similar formula; decide which tower to place where, start the onslaught, sit back, and for the most part (save tower upgrades of course) let the game do the rest. Not with Human Defense.

The newest cub to the genre has you defending the body’s organs, (heart, muscle, lungs, kidneys) against, well, what else, viruses! The domain for the frolic is done via astounding graphics of preset veins and unalterable tower locations, as well as an even deeper backdrop of the entertainments’ hosts lining up to get ready for the next wave.  The overall atmosphere and music is somewhat cartoonish which only adds to the novelty of the game, allowing the user to focus on the objective at hand concretely. The presentation was done really well on every aspect.
This Universal game is played in portrait mode with the latter levels providing a scroll bar for ease of navigation, without zoom capabilities. The adventure includes the customary three-star rating system; something I struggled with on nearly every level.

Unlike other TD’s, to build and upgrade towers, your resources (carbohydrates and proteins of course!) travel down the same paths as the enemy and are supplied in parallel with the attackers.
Yes, this makes the game very fast-paced. Want more? Try throwing in path switches and alternate routes, as you must not only build and upgrade your towers, but also administer the same asset’s to the body and constantly monitor it’s health via on screen watchdogs. Even on the final waves of most every TD game I have played, I have never felt the same sense of urgency as I have with Human Defense from the very first wave; imagine how I felt with the final wave! When upgrading your towers, you have to manage your resources precisely as immediately upon upgrade selection, the tower is rendered useless until all supplies have entered the tower.

Considering the pre-determined, and somewhat limited tower placements, there is quite a high puzzle factor with HD, something I have never experienced to such an extent with other Tower Defense titles. It really requires the enthusiast to examine and strategize even before hitting ‘Play’. Upon level completion, you will receive coins which are used to purchase one-time use artillery items (tower power, organs energy needs.)

There are IAP options as well, but I did not feel the need to purchase any (although, I also contended with each level tooth and nail to just finish them, let alone get three stars!) The entertainment doesn’t stop there as included within the diversion is a ‘Lab’ section with quick write-ups on the organs and their functions; kind of a mini encyclopedia with a Human Defense spin; pretty cool. There is also a secondary game mode, Emergency mode, which is similar to Endless.

Human Defense is definitely the most engaging Tower Defense title I have come across with each level requiring you to highly strategize and during every minute of gameplay, not let your guard down, not even for a split second. It is not for the casual, relaxing, watch the towers do their stuff consumer. Although, if you want one of the more complex and engaging Tower Defense titles on the AppStore, you may just find what you’re looking for here.

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July 4, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Rainbow Tissue Cat [Sunny Tam] – $0.99

Sunny Tam, developer of two of my favorite shmups on the iOS, Danmaku Unlimited and Storm Strikers, has just come out with another title. This time around, it’s not a bullet hell, but it’s still seemingly influenced by Japanese culture. Rainbow Tissue Cat, a Super Crate Box type title where you try and hit birds and collect stars while avoiding bullets and samurai stars was released a couple weeks ago, and if you’re a fan of the SCB genre, or just love cats, Rainbow Tissue Cat is for you.
Starting it up, you’re able to choose to play the Morning Stage. Afternoon and Evening are unlocked after you score a certain amount of points. Your castle is under attack from swarms of woodpeckers, and you need to take care of them by bouncing on your special roll of toilet paper. The controls are easy to use, and surprisingly accurate. Tilting your device moves the cat left and right, while bouncing is done automatically, ala Bean’s Quest. It would be great if virtual buttons were added to the game, since it is Universal, and tilting an iPad plays hell on your wrists. 
The graphics are great, and super cute, with the background colors changing depending on what time of day/stage you decide to play in. Each time you start up a new game, the layout of the platforms changes, which kind of makes it feel like you’re playing in a different stage each game. 
There are three types of blocks which you’ll be able to bounce on, big, small and blocks with arrows. The bigger blocks stay in place, while the smaller blocks drop down and disappear after you bounce on them, reappearing a short time later, adding to the challenge of the game, and the arrow blocks bounce you higher than you normally would. There are also two different types of birds. Your regular birds, and then pink birds, which, once you run into them, will give you either a 2X points multiplier, a power-up which slows down time, or a special ‘more birds’ star, which sets off a huge wave of birds.
Each time you hit a bird, they will drop a star. These don’t add to your total level score, but they can be collected and used to unlock different suits for your cat. There are IAPs, but these aren’t pushed on you at all, and are really just there if you want to support the developer, and get a couple of different looks for your cute little cat. You can also earn stars by getting promotions, this is done by hitting a certain number of birds as you play through the game. 
Like you might expect from a developer who’s done Bullet Hell titles in the past, the scoring system is a huge plus. For each bird that you knock down, you’re given 1 point, unless you can hit them in a special spot giving you a critical hit which is worth 10 points. Unfortunately, this spot isn‘t really clear. Sometimes you‘ll get it if you hit a bird on it‘s stomach, sometimes if you hit it on it‘s tail, sometimes directly in the face. If you manage to hit a bunch of birds in one jump, it’s a combo, and this is where the real points are. Collecting combos adds a bonus combo score at the end of your game, which can boost your score up quite a bit. 
Rainbow Tissue Cat is Universal and priced at $0.99. It’s supported by GameCenter with 13 achievements and 3 leader boards, one for each time of the day, adding a bunch to the replay value. Fans of the Super Crate Box genre should definitely check this one out. The only thing it really needs is a nice tutorial, explaining the scoring, power-ups, and what not to come into contact with (the first time I saw a samurai star, I thought it was a special power-up, and then died). 
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July 1, 2012 Uncategorized 0 Read more >