Seems like every week, more and more high-quality apps are getting price drops. It’s a shame the developers are basically forced into doing so, but it’s also something that makes the AppStore that much more special. If you’ve yet to pick these titles up, make sure you do!!
Seems like a lot of FANTASTIC games have been going free lately , and here are 4 more that you can add to your device at no charge to you. If you don’t have these already, they’re great games to check out, especially Project 83113, which is sitting comfortably at #2 on my favorite games of 2012 list right now. If you’re a platformer fan, Blobster is a nice one to check out, and Avenger is heavily influenced by Castlevania. Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels is a great dual stick shooter that feels like a cheat version if you’re familiar and use to playing the freemium version of Monster Shooter. So go ahead, spend some of your bandwidth, because these games are all worthy of snagging. =o)
Recently, a whole bunch of fantastic games have gone free. If you don’t yet have any of these, now would be the best time to snag em up! So pull our your iDevice, and get ready to download. =oD
Platformers. Whenever a new one hit’s the AppStore, I get extremely excited. There’s always so much potential and possibility within the genre, even on mobile devices. The most recent one to find a spot on my iPod is Mike & Milkbox, developed by SangWoon Yi. You are a bird spy named Mike who’s been recruited to save the world. Evildoer ‘Melanie’ is trying to design her own world government, and you need to traverse through the 4 worlds/24 stages taking out her minions, collecting coins, and saving little baby chicks.
First off, Mike & Milkbox currently only has an iPhone version, which means that playing on the iPad will be in 2X mode, and the controls really aren’t designed for the big screen at the moment. The developer has said that an HD version is coming, so there is hope that they will be customizable on the iPad, and maybe the iPhone version will get some control tweaks in a future update as well. As it is now, the controls work well enough, but the jump button could be a little more responsive. You are able to choose between big buttons and smaller arrows in the pause menu, which is a nice addition, especially since the bigger buttons sometimes block enemies or objects. The dead zone for both control schemes is perfect, but it’s always nice to have buttons which you can place wherever you like, and with so many iOS platformers including that option, it is kind of a bummer when you come across a title that only has fixed buttons.
Other important aspects of a platformer? Inertia, physics, and movement speed. Mike does move a little bit slower than what I’d like, but it’s easy to get comfortable with, and isn’t distracting at all. As for inertia, there isn’t any. Once you let up off of a directional button, your character comes to a complete stop, even when in mid-air, which is a huge plus. No need to try and adjust when you let up off of buttons while trying to land on a box, or edge of a platform, and the physics in Mike & Milkbox feel great, making most of the gameplay very comfortable.
The graphics are great, with beautifully detailed backdrops, retro inspired platforms and wonderfully designed character and enemy sprites. The animations are decent, with enemies falling down into the bottom of the screen when killed, and Mike’s death animation being pretty cute (a bandage, bruises, and ‘x’ed out eyes appear as Mike falls down into the bottom of the screen).
The level designs in Mike & Milkbox are also a highlight of the game. At the beginning, in the Barnyard levels, the stages do seem pretty simple, but as you progress into the Jungle, Lab and Cave environments, the levels become pretty complex, with great warp mechanics, and areas hidden behind fake walls making exploration a part of the gameplay.
Each of the 24 stages has a 3 star ranking, one for completing the level in under 100 seconds, another for collecting each of the 3 little chicks, and the last for taking no damage throughout the level. Since the game does not include any online support, no leaderboards or any achievements, this does help add to the replay value, but only so much. Along with some control options, GameCenter boards and achievements would add a ton to the game.
Mike & Milkbox is FREE right now, but is regularly priced at $1.99, so make sure you grab it, and tell all your platform addicted buddies about it. SangWoon Yi has definitely made a platformer that fits very nicely in an iPod folder full of Miss Claire Garden, Wawa Land, Supercow, Kale, and loads more… if you’re a fan of the genre you definitely need to check it out.
Last year, a new-comer to the iOS gaming world, Pavel Tsarev gave gamers one of the best Asteroid-Crawler-Dual-Stick-Action-Adventure games to ever grace the iDevice. I was lucky enough to help out with spreading the word early on, but sadly, the game did not get noticed by too many people. Even with a freebie give-away late last year, iDaTank is still pretty unknown in the iOS gaming world.
And now you are lucky enough to be able to snag this amazing hidden gem of a game for free. If you’re interested in knowing more about the game, you can check out The App Shack’s iDaTank Review (it also happens to be the very first game I ever reviewed for TAS, woohoo!), and watch the trailer below. Hopefully iDaTank will grab you like it grabbed me, and make you want to tell everyone you know about the game.
Last year, we were fortunate enough to be able to review a fantastic tap-arcade game, Explodables. It was the first release from iOS new-comer, Mark Peach. Even though it’s one of the best tap based arcade games available in the AppStore, it didn’t get much attention. Sadly, like so many great games, it was pushed down under a slew of sales and high-profile games. But since it’s release, Mr. Peach has given the game quite a bit of attention with updates, fixes and additions, sticking with it, even though sales were pretty much non-existent. It’s hard to not respect that kind of commitment these days with quite a few developers either abandoning, removing so that they can re-release as a freemium game, throwing ads into their paid game, or just pulling a game all together if sales aren’t where they want them to be.
Well, now, with Mark awaiting the birth of his son, who was due to see this miraculous world on the 29th of February, he has decided to make Explodables FREE, either until the most recent update goes live in the AppStore, or his son is born, whichever happens first.
So make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to snag one of the few games to get a perfect 5 out of 5 stars here on The App Shack. It’s definitely a game that’s worth checking out. Maybe let your friends know, and help out a developer with an amazing game, both deserving of loads of support from the iOS community.
Already, this month has been a great one in terms of paid games going free, and today is no different than the last 4. Here’s what you can snag for free today, that is, if you don’t already have these titles.
Keeping up with the whole spirit of the season, here’s even more freebies. Finger Gravity and Finger Gravity HD, by Wode Mobile, after just having an improved control update, which also added ads, which people who got the game for free as well as customers who already bought the game can get rid of for $0.99 – thanks for the Christmas gift! I guess if you’re going to try and make money, throwing ads into a paid app, screwing over your customers is one way to do it, though we believe it makes it harder for indie developers to sell games when gamers are constantly worried that once they buy a game, ads will be thrown into it.
Also going free is Black Hive Media’s Universal arcade platformer, Arcade Jumper. There are some issues with this one, and it’s definitely not the best platformer in the AppStore, but for free, it is worth checking out. The developers are also fairly supportive, and are listening to everyone’s feedback on the Touch Arcade Thread, and through their contact page. So if you’re looking for another platformer to eat up some time, Arcade Jumper is a worthy download.
Since the turn-based RPG, Squids, by The Game Bakers, was released, gamers have been begging for a HD iPad version of the beautiful game. Now, instead of releasing a separate build for the iPad, The Game Bakers decided to update the iPhone version, and make it UNIVERSAL. That’s right, now, you can install that original iPhone copy that you bought onto your iPad, and view the game in all of it’s amazing graphical glory, and it’s not going to cost you one penny extra! Adding to this already HUGE update, a new mission for the Halloween map has been added, Localization in Japanese, Chinese and Russian, Pearls are now won wether you win or loose a stage, you can now listen to your own music while playing, the screen rotation has been fixed, and a couple of bugs have been squashed! Now THAT, my friends, is what you can call a MASSIVE update! If you haven’t picked this one up yet, we HIGHLY recommend that you do. It’s an awesome gameplay experience that you won’t soon forget.
Quarter Circle Punch’s recent shoot-em-up, Wonton 51, had quite a few mixed reviews. On one hand, simply put, the game is friggin awesome. On the other hand, the controls didn’t really let you experience the game how you’d want to experience it. A new game type with Auto-fire has been added, with rebalanced gameplay, and a totally separate leaderboard! Also added to the game; a new boss type with a new attack, showing up in both modes, and some fixes for iOS5 and Twitter compatibility, along with some bug fixes. So if you ended up throwing your iPod against a wall while playing Wonton 51 the first time around, now would be a great time to take a crack at it again. With the Auto-Fire mode, the game feels a lot more like a shmup, and a lot less like a game that’s being hidden under your fingers.
OrangePixel’s GameBoy inspired platformer, Stardash, has also received an update, this time bringing gamers a whole new world with 10 great levels, a few bug fixes, and a device rotation fix! Stardash is easily one of our favorite platformers of the year, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should, especially if you grew up with an original GameBoy.
December is a great time for deals in the AppStore, and to start it off right, loads of companies have thrown some awesome titles our way for free. That’s right, free. So get ready to clear up some space on your device, and check out some incredibly fun games;
Each one of these titles is worth picking up, though some more than others, they all have their moments, and are definitely worth checking out, especially while free. A huge thank you to all of the developers and publishers who are letting these titles go for $0.00! Can’t wait to see what else December has in store for us!
