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Super Bit Dash – 0.99 (FakePup)

Endless Runners seem to be perfect for mobile gaming. They’re good for quick little spurts of playing, as well as long gaming sessions, and there’s an endless supply of them to top it off. Seems there’s a huge selection depending on what type of endless runner you’ve come to like, casual, hardcore, level based, hectic, relaxing, and within all of those styles, there’s always certain titles that stick out above all the others because of their controls, gameplay, and style. Super Bit Dash by FakePup seems to cover all of those preferences, as well as raising above the average title, and being a game that’s more addictive, more polished, and more entertaining than most.

In Super Bit Dash, you’ll guide your character through either a short 5 minute checkpoint based run with multiple lives, earned by collecting coins, with two difficulties, as well as an endless run with one life that also has two different difficulty settings. To control the character, you’ll need to collect coins which fill up a bar that gives you the ability to swipe on the screen, and dash up, down or forward, as well as being able to tap on the screen to do a regular jump, or swipe backwards to slow down, both of which do not require coins to do. The catch is that you’ll only be able to have 4 coins at a time in your dash gauge, meaning that if you pick a path that doesn’t have many coins, or none at all, you could get stuck without a dash when you really need one.
To make things more interesting, the whole game is randomized, but in a very neatly put together way. At the beginning Classic Mode, the game will pick 20 different “rooms” at random and put them together with checkpoints at the beginning of each room. There are two different settings within Classic Mode, Easy, which will present a little bit of a challenge, and Hard, which will take most people more than a couple plays to finish. At the beginning of Endless Mode, the game will put together an endless string of these rooms based on what speed you pick, slow, or fast, which doesn’t really effect what rooms you see, but, you guessed it, the speed at which you’ll need to make it through them.
The graphics, and sounds all resemble old-school NES/SNES era games, while the animations for dashing and breaking through some walls are done in a more stylish way. There are various obstacles and hazards you’ll need to avoid, like spikes, lasers, green walls that you can dash to break through, and some spots where you will need to dash into coins in order to not fall to your death because there is no platform to walk on at the bottom of the screen. All of this is put together randomly, so you could run into any of these things right when you start out the game, or almost at the end of a long run, you’ll just never know. Once you get to know some of the more popular rooms, you’ll be getting better at the game, and if you take on the endless mode, you’ll end up finally seeing rooms that you probably wouldn’t have while playing in the Classic Mode. This big mix of rooms adds quite a bit to the difficulty, as you never know what’s coming up next, or what hazards you’ll need to have enough coins in your dash gauge to be prepared for.
Super Bit Dash is supported by OpenFeint, with leader boards for each mode, as well as each difficulty setting in those two modes, and then leader boards for the best overall Classic and best overall Endless scores. There’s also 10 achievements, most of which should take even hardcore gamers a while to complete. Tough it would be nice to see GameCenter support in the future, as there are plenty of gamers that don’t use OpenFeint anymore. It would also be nice to see some power-ups in the future, like invincibility, or a speed up and slow down pick-ups, as well as a pick up that lets you have unlimited dashes for a short period of time would be a very welcome addition. But for an endless runner, it’s a great deal at $0.99, providing plenty of content, as well as endless replay ability, and even more on the way. Platformer and Endless Runner fans alike will both enjoy the gameplay that provides both casual and hardcore gamers plenty of challenge.
Super Bit Dash gets a score of 8 out of 10.
Links;
Version Reviewed; Version 1.0.0
Reviewed On; 4th Generation iPod Touch – iOS 4.3.3

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October 6, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

RGB Defense – 0.99 (Red Winter Software)

RGB Defense is a new arcade game from Red Winter Software, it is also their first release in the AppStore. In the game, you’ll need to drag cannons around the bottom of the screen, matching their color with the color of the enemies coming down at you in waves from the top of the screen. It might sound simple, and in the beginning it is, but at level 5, you’re not just moving around red, green, and blue cannons, purple and yellow come into the mix, and you’ll be shuffling around 5 different colored cannons while a mass invasion of quick enemies comes barreling down at you. Needless to say, it can get pretty hectic, and drive you crazy.

There are different types of enemies, some that stay in one lane, and only need one hit to be taken out, others that change which lane their in pretty quickly, and others that require multiple hits, and change color after being hit. This mix up of enemies adds quite a bit of extra challenge to the already pretty challenging game. Though with the amount of enemies, how quickly they come at you, how long it takes for a cannon to fire once you get it where you want it, and the cannons sometimes getting stuck in the right corner because of un-responsive controls, it feels like getting past level/wave 7 and anything afterwards is pretty much only accomplished with luck instead of skill.
There are a couple of power-ups that you’ll be ableto get by killing enemies. Health drops, bombs that clear out the screen and hourglasses which slow down the enemies for a very short period of time. There’s also stars that the enemies sometimes drop, and these add to your score.
The graphics, animations, and sound is all nicely done, making it a good looking arcade shooter game. But the sometimes unresponsive controls, seemingly laggy cannon fire, and the very quick jump in difficulty throughout the game make it pretty frustrating. Also, if you do manage to get the controls and timing down, there is no online support, so your scores will end up stuck on your device, for your eyes only. Though with the game only being $0.99, I don’t really consider it a waste of money. It does have quite a bit of potential. Once the control issues are fixed, GameCenter or OpenFeint is added, and the amount of time it takes for a cannon to shoot once you get it into place is sped up a bit, the difficulty level might not need to be changed. Also, if more than one mode is added in the future, this could turn into a very well rounded game.
However, we really won’t know until the game is worked on a bit more, and with the release your game and disappear if it doesn’t sell well dealings of the AppStore, we might never know. Hopefully Red Winter Software won’t give up or get discouraged, because this could turn into an awesome hectic arcade game. We will definitely be keeping our eyes on this one with the hopes that Red Winter Software is in it for the long haul.
You can check out the game on the developers website in the Unity Player, but keep in mind that it responsiveness of controlling with your mouse does not transfer over to the touch screen just yet.
RGB Defense gets a score of 2 out of 5. But we will keep you updated if the game is updated, and could possibly end up re-scoring this one.
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October 5, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Symphony Of Eternity – 8.99 (Kotobuki Solution/Kemco)

I’m not personally a big fan of turn-based RPGs. Though there are a couple that have really had an impact on me, but only a handful. Turn-based RPGs just aren’t really my thing, though the ones that I have enjoyed, I enjoyed immensely. What does this have to do with anything? Well, when I first saw that a new RPG had been released for the iOS, I didn’t even think for a second about checking it out until I heard a friend at work talking about a new amazingly immersive game he just bought. Symphony Of Eternity, released by Kotobuki Solution, just so happened to be that game. I ended up checking out some information that night when I got home, and when I read that it was a lot like the older Final Fantasy games, I immediately became intrigued as the old FF games are some of the very few turn-based RPGs that I have enjoyed to no end.

So, first off, the graphics. Symphony Of Eternity looks the part of an old-school game. However, there’s a modern feeling to it as well. The text parts are accompanied by pictures of characters faces that look pretty detailed, and some of the enemies that you’ll encounter have some pretty nice animations and elaborate graphic styles, as do the environments you‘ll fight them in. The world map, within towns, exploring certain areas, and the menus are all old-school styled though. It’s a nice mesh of old-school and modern styles, and all fits together very well. Nothing feels out of place, and the animations are well done. The music is very fitting of a turn-based RPG game, and actually reminds me a lot of some of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, and just like it did with FF, it adds quite a bit to the atmosphere and feeling of the game.
There are three control schemes; you can tap where you want to move to, or use one of two d-pads. One stationary, and one that centers where you set your thumb down onto the screen. The joystick/d-pads can seem a little unresponsive at times, but really, they just don‘t leave room for error. You will need to constantly make sure that your finger is still within the circle of the joystick, as going out of it even just a little bit will make your character stop walking, and because of this, it can kind of feel out of place until you get use to it. You can change the control set-up at any time from the game’s option menu. There are also options to change the fighting speed, conversation speed, and set the BGM and sound effects volumes. Along with these options, there is a very nice and in-depth help section in the pause menu, telling you how to do everything and what everything does. Accompanied with 5 save slots, and an Auto-Save, it’s very well rounded out in the options aspect.
Now, in the game, you’ll control a party of 3 members, a young man named Kreist, a special golem named Dauturu and a princess who they decide to let join them in their quest, named Laishutia. You’re on a journey to find the weapon, Regratlute, which grants it’s holder any wish they desire. I don’t want to give away much more of the story, because as you might have guessed, it’s a huge part of the game. In fact, it’s very well written, and very immersive. The way the characters interact with one another and reveal their strengths and weaknesses draws you in, and makes you feel for them. The closest game I can compare it to is Final Fantasy 7. The way it’s written, and how the story is presented reminds me of the way I felt when I first played FF7 many years ago, and because of this, it’s looking like Symphony Of Eternity will make it’s mark on me.
The battle system is like your typical turn based game. You’ll be able to choose between using your basic weapon attack, an item (healing or mana potions), a special attack, or choose the characters stance. Once you decide what action you want a character to take, you’ll then either tap on the enemy you want to attack, or on the character you want to use the potion on. Since the characters are pretty close together on the iPod Touch screens, it’s nice that the developers made it so that you can also tap on the character’s stat section on the bottom of the screen. In the characters stat section you can see how much health and mana you have, as well as a bar with a percentage above it. This is your break bar. Like Final Fantasy, this bar is filled when you attack, and when you are attacked, and once it is full, a “Break” icon will appear in the top right corner, which you can tap, and have the character with a full break bar (or choose the character you want to use their break ability, if you have more than one character with a full break bar) attack no matter who’s turn to attack it is. As you can imagine, this comes in handy, and can change the tide of a battle in seconds with the break attack being very strong. Also, if you happen to attack with your characters one right after the other, you’ll get a combo increase on your attack power, which goes up with each successive attack. All of the enemies also have week points which you can see if you decide to use the Princess’s power to do so. Doing this, you can find out what their week points are, and what magic does the most amount of damage to them. This does come in handy when fighting some of the stronger enemies. Once you finish the battle you will be awarded with experience, gold, tablet points and any items that the enemies might have had.
As you gain experience, and level up, you are able to distribute Merit Points among each of the characters. These will increase the characters offense, defense, magic abilities, magic defense, speed, and more. There are also tablets that you can have your characters equip. Each of the tablets gains points after battle, and gives each character certain abilities and has special skills and effects, like increased defense, a special attack, and adding to the character’s HP, all of which grows as you gain tablet points. So, there is obviously a ton of customization to play around with in the game, and all of it, of course, has an effect on how you end up playing the game.
Kemco has done an amazing job with Symphony Of Eternity, and I feel like I owe Kotobuki Solution for bringing it to the platform. I have seriously not had this kind of gaming experience in a long, long time. Everything about the game is top notch, and so incredibly well done, it’s really not so hard to believe that the only other games like it in the AppStore are the re-releases of Secret Of Mana, and the Final Fantasy games, and Symphony Of Eternity fits extremely well within that small class of astounding turn-based RPGs, that are all well worth their premium price-tags, if not more. It is $8.99, and very much worth the purchase. If you’re a fan of RPGs, or really just exceedingly well written, very immersive adventure games with loads of customization, you’ve got to pick up Symphony Of Eternity. It will grab your imagination and suck you into one incredibly amazing world.
Symphony Of Eternity gets a perfect score of 10 out of 10.
Link;
Version Reviewed; V 1.0.0
Reviewed On; 4th Generation iPod Touch – iOS 4.3.3

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October 5, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Fling A Thing – 0.99 (Big Blue Bubble)

Ever since Angry Birds became one of the most popular casual arcade/puzzle games in the AppStore, many, many companies have been trying to duplicate that type of all ages, accessible to everyone while still being challenging type of gameplay. Big Blue Bubble, however, has pretty much got it down to a science. With their previous releases of Burn The Rope, BTR; World, and Paper Munchers, they have definitely figured out exactly what it takes to make an addictive casual arcade game with just enough puzzle elements to keep it challenging and fun for 5 minute gamer as well as the more serious gamer. Their latest release, Fling A Thing, is yet another display of those finely tuned gameplay mechanics that keep gamers of all sorts coming back for more.

You’ll be able to control one of 5 different “Things”, 4 of which need to be unlocked, by pulling back and flinging them upwards, collecting as many bubbles as you can. There are also 3 different environments for you to play in, and 2 of these need to be unlocked. So you’ll start out the game with 1 thing and 1 environment to play in. However, the unlockable characters do not have any special abilities, the different environments only really change the look of the game. As you play, you’ll earn stars which you can use to unlock the characters and levels, as well as upgrade some items in the shop.
You are given a certain amount of flings when you start off the game, and need to collect as many bubbles, which are shot out in waves, as you can. Each wave has more bubbles, and every 5 waves, you will be able to move up to the next section of glass. During these breaks every 5 waves, you are able to collect more flings which you can use in the next 5 waves. Also, in these breaks, the flings you use in order to get up to the next section of glass are not deducted from your fling count. There are also random fling pick-ups which if you’re skilled enough, you can grab during waves, increasing your total fling count. Once you reach 0 flings, it’s game over. So you’ll need to try and get as high as you can using the least amount of flings to collect the waves of bubbles.
At the beginning of each different section, you will face a special pattern of bubbles, which if not handled properly, can drain quite a few flings from your fling count. These different patterns change in each of the different environments, as do the bosses that will pop up in the later waves. If you hit these bosses, they will spit out more bubbles depending on how long you’re touching them.
Fling A Thing is a game that can be played quickly, snagging bubbles quickly, while using a couple flings for a couple bubbles, or you can wait, and be patient, as usually, the bubbles will eventually line up, making them easy to grab with one fling of your character. This is where the puzzle elements come in, because even though the game can be played by a pre-schooler, it can also become pretty difficult to get as high as you can even for the well rounded gamer. Moving up the GameCenter or OpenFeint leader boards will require lots of patience, and well timed flings. Also, the higher you make it in the game, the more often stars will appear on the screen, meaning you’ll be able to unlock everything in the game sooner. There is also a little mini-game where you can feed your Thing, but it only gets you 3 stars at a time, so there’s not really a lot of incentive to play it. If you don’t want to wait to unlock items, you can purchase more stars via IAP.
Some players have complained about the lack of directional flinging aloud when you end up landing in a corner. However, you can bounce yourself off of the sides of the screen, so if you treat the levels like a pool table, you’ll be able to bounce your character off of the walls, collecting more bubbles with a nicely positioned and timed fling. The graphics, animations, sounds, controls, gameplay, Big Blue Bubble has done an amazing job creating a game that’s accessible, fun, and as challenging as you want to make it, for every type of gamer. It would be nice to see more game modes added, or different abilities given to the different characters, but the price being only $0.99, it’s a great buy, especially considering how much content there is, as well as the endless replayabilty and online support. If you’re looking for a game that you can play in a little 5 minute session, or come back to and be rewarded for taking your time, Fling A Thing is highly recommended.
Fling A Thing gets a score of 9 out of 10.
Links;
Version Reviewed; V1.0
Reviewed Using; 4th GEN iPod Touch, iOS 4.3.3

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October 3, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

The Adventures Of Timmy: Run Kitty Run – 1.99 (CB Labs)

I’ve said many times that Metroidvania is my favorite genre of video games, that includes off-shots, like plat formers that have a lot of exploration involved, or plat formers that require you to collect certain items, and then go back and replay levels, being able to reach different sections of those levels because of your new items. In my mind, they all fall into the same category, Metroidvania. Now, there’s only a handful or two of these types of games made for the iOS, but luckily, we can now add one more to that very short list. The Adventures Of Timmy: Run Kitty Run, by CB Labs.

This happens to be CB Labs first iOS release, but for fans of the genre, this doesn’t really scare us off. In fact, probably half of the Metroidvania titles for iOS right now are first games by indie developers. But if you are a little hesitant, don’t worry, there’s no need to be. The Adventures Of Timmy is a very polished, professional, awesome game with great level design, tons to explore, plenty of enemies, and nice controls, which consist of a moving joystick that auto-centers whenever you place your finger down, and a jump button that responds to how long you press your finger down on it. It might sound a little funky, but it works extremely well.
You’ll play as Timmy, a shy kid who always wears a cat suit. One day, the prettiest girl in school, Kitty, tries to befriend Timmy. But a big bully gets jealous because he “saw her first”, and decides to kidnap Kitty. Fortunately, you’ve got the courage to go after them.
You’ll make your way through 36 levels spread out over 4 different chapters. Each chapter has a different environment, new enemies, bigger levels, and of course, goes up in difficulty as you progress. The graphics are a kind of mesh of silhouette and cartoon styles. Throughout the game, most of the levels floors, trees, and objects are all silhouetted, with the main character, enemies, coins, boxes and backgrounds being in color, and looking like something you’d see on cartoon network. The animations for the main character, enemies, bosses and hazards are all very well executed, and add a ton to the polished feel of it all. The music fit’s the game, however, there is only one music track for each chapter. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it would be nice if there were maybe two tracks per chapter, switching every level. The effects are all top notch though, from background field noise to blips and pops of goo, and creaking of rope bridges, it all sounds very professional, and adds a ton to the atmosphere.
Chapter One is pretty simple, and the levels are not very impressive. It’s almost a straight shot from start to end, and will probably leave you wanting more. But if you push through the first 9 levels, the game really starts to open up, giving you multiple pathways, loads to explore, and sections that will take some skill and wall jumping in order to reach.
Within each level, there are coins and enemies scattered throughout, as well as one picture that you’ll need to hunt down in order to find. Sometimes you might just happen to come across it while looking for the exit, and other times, it will take multiple plays of a level, seeing if what’s down a hole is another platform, or a quick death. This would give the game a trial and error sort of feeling, which could upset some people, but thankfully, the developers have made it so that Timmy can hold on to, slide down, and jump off of walls. So, you want to see if there’s anything down a hole? Run off of the side of the platform, and fall back into the wall, slowly sliding down. Nothing there? Wall jump back up to the top of the platform. Very nicely done.
Along with a picture to collect in each of the 36 levels, there’s also 3 stars to try and snag. To get these, you will need to usually collect all the coins and kill all the enemies in a level. There are no time limits, so you can feel free to thoroughly explore every little nook and cranny in every level. This does help add to the replay value, as getting all of the stars will take quite a few attempts. There’s also GameCenter leader boards for your High-Score, which is a total of your best score in every level of the game, as well as a Total-Score, which combines all your scores, including every score for one level you might end up playing 4 or 5 times. Combined with 30 achievements, there’s quite a lot of content to explore, and tons to try and achieve, along with plenty of challenge.
The game is $0.99 right now, but that is the launch price, and should go up to $1.99 very soon. Even at the full price, The Adventures Of Timmy is a game that all plat former fans should check out, especially fans of exploratory plat formers. The graphics, animations, controls, sounds, level design, and gameplay is all extremely professional and very polished. Right now, it’s easily one of my favorites of the genre on the iOS.
The Adventures Of Timmy: Run Kitty Run gets a score of 9 out of 10.
Links;
Version Reviewed; V1.0.3
Reviewed On; 4th GEN iPod Touch, iOS 4.3.3

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October 2, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Arcade Jumper – 1.99 (Black Hive Media)

I’ve said before that the platformer genre is one of my very top favorites, so when I heard of Black Hive Media’s Arcade Jumper, and saw a couple beta version screen shots, I was instantly intrigued. A “retro-inspired, endless, randomized side-scroller”? If done right, this could be one crazy great game. Considering the dev team is a husband and wife duo with a combined 10 years of experience, and numerous iOS releases under their belt, it was hard not to get excited. So after about 4 months of waiting for the game, it was finally released on September 26th.

In the game, you’ll start off playing as Eddy, and be able to unlock 3 additional characters with tickets that you’ll earn in-game. Now, the game is randomized, but only to an extent. You’ll go through Zones made up on 3 levels, and each Zone has it’s own theme. Zone 1 is Noob Hill Zone, and is a nice introduction. There are no real hazards here, a couple moving platforms, it’s really an intro zone. Zone 2 is called The Tilts, and here all of the platforms move like seesaws, either automatically, or with your character’s weight, and the rest of the game follows this type of set-up. But within each of the Zones, you never know what type of level you’ll encounter, though there are 3 general types, a Space Invaders theme, a Mario mixed with Sonic type theme, and a City-scape, kind of like Double Dragon type theme. It is also only endless in the sense that you can never replay the same game twice, but there are only 10 zones.
You’ll start off running through the level, jumping from platform to platform, either jumping on or shooting enemies, and head-butting blocks, a-la Mario, until you get all the way to the right side of the level. Here, you’ll need to collect the token floating in the air, which opens up the warp machine, which is back at the beginning of the level, so you’ll make your way back to the beginning, going left. The enemies re-spawn, so you can’t just do a speed run back to the beginning, but once you know where they all are, it takes about half the time to reach the warp machine, which, go figure, is an arcade machine. As you progress through the game, each zone requires that you collect more tokens, so sometimes you’ll go all the way to the right of a level, collect the token, and then come back to the middle, and collect a token there, and then go back to the right, collecting another token, before you head back to the warping arcade machine. There is a pretty good variety of enemies, each zone introducing new ones, as well as mixing in enemies you’ve already encountered. In each level, you’re aloud to take 3 hits, but loose those, or fall off of a platform, and it’s game over, and you’ll need to start from scratch. You can, however, earn a continue every 25,000 points.
There are also 3 mini-games, a Plinko like game where you’ll drop balls and have them bounce off of pegs, trying to get them into the highest point slot at the bottom, a Skee-ball type game, and yes, a Wack-A-Mole game. All of these will help you earn tokens which you can use to buy the 3 unlockable characters, along with other items. In the shop, you can buy a different controller set-up, a permanent space ship that will rotate around your character, and help you take care of enemies, and a pinball flipper that will bounce you back up onto a platform if you fall off. You are able to purchase 2500 tickets for $0.99 via IAP, but you can, of course, take your time and earn the tickets in-game, so it’s not necessary.
I did run across some bugs and weird issues while I was playing, for instance, if you’re running, and run against a platform that came down to squish you, while you are waiting for it to rise up again, the screen will keep going right, like your character was still in the middle of the screen, leaving you all the way on the left side of the screen, and then disappearing, until the game over screen pops up. Also, when a platform is seesawing, the coins, tokens, fruits and enemies that are on that platform are not stationary, and are left to fall off of these moving platforms. There were some instances where I would shoot at an enemy, and my shot would go right through it, or I would accidentally run into an enemy, and he would crawl up and around my character without harming him. Lastly, there are some weird collision detection issues with the platforms, enemies, and especially the boxes you’ll need to head-butt. The boxes do not let you jump through them while you’re right under them, but if you go at them from an angle, you will be able to jump right through them. These issues, all but the collision detection and objects on seesawing platforms, are rare, and I only encountered once or twice. But they are still present, though nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick update, and I’m not even sure the free moving objects on seesaws is an issue, might just be something I consider a little weird.
Still, Arcade Jumper is a nice randomized plat former that does present quite the challenge, and does have decent controls, physics, graphics, and gameplay. For $1.99, and the game being Universal and supported by iCade, if you’re a plat former fan, as well as an old-school arcade buff, you should enjoy what Black Hive Media has produced here. There’s also GameCenter leader boards for highest score, furthest zone reached, and all of the mini-games. There are also 20 achievements, but an update is needed in order for them to work, right now none of them are unlocking. If you are bugged by issues, and are looking for a highly polished and top notch platformer, you might want to wait and come back to Arcade Jumper after it’s had an update or two.
Arcade Jumper gets a score of 6 out of 10.
Links;
Version Reviewed; V1.0
Reviewed on; 4th GEN iPod Touch – iOS 4.3.3

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October 2, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Commander Pixman – 1.99 (One Minute Games)




I’ve said many times before that Metroidvania games are my favorite types of games, but right under it is, of course, platformers. Before playing Super Meat Boy for the first time last year, I hadn’t come across any speed run platform game, and since, only a couple made for the iOS; League Of Evil and Mos Speedrun being the first two, and then the recent release of Stardash added to that little list of mine. Now I have yet another speed run plat former to drive me crazy and go nutzo over.

Commander Pixman is this new addition, developed by One Minute Games, and is their 2nd release in the AppStore (preceded by Quad Pong). First off, I should say that if you’re expecting another LoE, Mos, or Stardash type game, you will probably be disappointed once you start up Commander Pixman. The physics take a little getting use to, as do the controls, and the main character has a gun. However, once you get use to the controls, thinking of the jump button as more of a jetpack thruster button, the controls and physics come together nicely. If you completely avoid using the gun, you’ll make it harder on yourself to get through the levels, but you’ll be able to get through them quicker once you figure out the right path, which will take you numerous re-tries, which is to be expected in the genre. Though taking your time, and using your gun to destroy all the enemies in a level will earn you a badge for that level.
The graphics are 8-bit retro styled, which in itself has become more modern than old-school over the last couple years, though here, it fits. The difficulty and ‘learn the controls’ feeling you’ll see from the beginning of the game through to the end completely screams old-school inspired. The soundtrack is also done in chip-tune style, and helps add to the overall feeling of the game.
Each of the 80 levels (65 regular levels plus 15 unlockable ones) contains hazards and obstacles for you to jump over, through, or avoid while trying to make it to the end of the level as quick as you can. The faster you make it through each stage, the higher star rank you’ll get at the end, while a perfect run will give you 3 stars. There are 20 different hazards/obstacles, including spikes, laser doors, rotating chainsaw blades, mines, various monsters, moving platforms, disintegrating platforms, sections of the floor that boost your jump, and in the later levels, portals that transfer not only you, but your momentum, and more.
To unlock each of the 15 bonus levels, you’ll need to complete different objectives. To unlock the first bonus level, you’ll need to get reach level 20, and to unlock the second bonus level you need to kill all enemies in level 22 in less than 13 seconds.
Now, even with it centering around collecting badges and getting the quickest time you can, there is no online leader board or achievement support, which does kind of take away from the drive of getting 3 stars in a level, or getting the best time you can, and collecting all the badges. Also, you can not run off of a platform that has a spike sticking off the 90 degree edge of it without dying. I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but it does. The left and right directional arrows are kind of too far apart as well. But aside from these things, Commander Pixman is a very competent speed run plat former, with controls that work very well once you get use to them, and great physics. There’s also portals with the nice physics attached to them, and that does add a ton to the gameplay. Right now it’s on sale for $0.99, but only for a limited time, after that it’ll be $1.99, and with all the content within the game, even without online support, is well worth the price. There’s also more content promised in future updates, so if you’re a plat former fan, speed run fan, or old-school game fan, Commander Pixman is definitely worth picking up.
Commander Pixman gets a score of 8 out of 10.
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October 1, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Escape From Cyborgia – 2.99 (Manic Dreamers)

We mentioned in an earlier review that the iDevices, with their option for tilting controls, have opened up another little world for game development and genre expansion. Here we have another example of a genre expanded by these tilt controls, ball rollers. Escape From Cyborgia is a new addition the genre, developed by Maniac Dreamers.

First off, the graphics, like most other great ball rollers, are very immersive, drawing you into the dark world full of hazards and obstacles. The animations for all the moving objects, liquids, steams, and fires in throughout the game are also done very nicely. Coupled with the awesome music, great physics, and ability to tilt the camera by swiping on the screen you can see the levels from different angles, the developers have created an amazing atmosphere, making Escape From Cyborgia a game that you’ll experience just as much as you’ll play. There is also a story that is accessible from the main menu, which does add to the experience and feel of the game if you decide to take the time to read it. It’s pretty interesting finding out why you’re trying to “escape from Cyborgia.”
To make it through each of the 30 levels, you will need to guide your mechanical orb through the maze of paths, hitting switches that allow access to new areas, and collecting green, red, and blue orbs that give you points. These points can be used to slow down the timer or plant new checkpoints. You don’t need to plant checkpoints, but if you want to make it through the levels in a timely matter, it’s a good idea. Sometimes the orbs need to be collected by pushing crates or barrels over edges into the orbs, which counts towards your collected points as if you had run into the orb yourself. With this feature, the developers were able to make collecting all of the orbs a task that generally only the better players will be able to do, by placing some on the ground floor, which you are not able to touch without dying, in fire, at the bottom of holes in the floors, or behind other hazards, only accessible by finding the right switch, or moving a crate or barrel to the area, and dropping it on the orb.
You do not need to collect all of the orbs in order to finish the levels, but you will need to open up pathways by clicking on certain switches, which does require quite a bit of backtracking. The level design is extremely well thought out, giving players the opportunity to either spend more time in a level, and gain more points, but also run the risk of dying more, or let players try and speed roll through each of the levels, making it through as fast as they can, gaining a higher star ranking in the level.
The controls and UI in Escape From Cyborgia are very tight, and nicely laid out. You can adjust the calibration at any time in the main, or pause menus, as well as the tilt sensitivity. There are 3 buttons on the bottom right, and 3 on the bottom left corners of the screen. On the left, you can pause, go back to your last planted checkpoint, or reset your checkpoint to the beginning of the level. On the right, you can slow down the timer, requiring 1,500 points, set a new checkpoint, requiring 1,000 points, or enter the birds eye view of the level, which you are able to zoom in and out of as well as swipe and scroll around in. You can also swipe the screen at any point while playing the game to tilt the camera at a different angle, seeing if the pathways are slanted up or down, or maybe see if a path is accessible by seeing the set-up at a different angle.
For Maniac Dreamers first iOS release, Escape From Cyborgia is a very immersive addition to the ball roller genre. The only cons I can see is that there is no online integration, so there’s less drive to go back and replay levels with the hopes of bettering your score or ranking. Also, the level select screen always starts on level 0, so you will always need to scroll through the levels to find the one you last completed. There are also some sections on the paths, in the first couple levels, that have slight tilts on them. These slight tilts are almost impossible to see, even while tilting the camera. To make it over these slanted areas, players will need to tilt their devices to a pretty uncomfortable position. When you finally do make it past the slanted area, your ball will almost always go flying across the path. This isn’t too big of a deal, because the levels that do have these slants are only in the beginning, and there’s guard-rails on the path-ways, so you will not fling your ball onto the floor or into the green goo, but it is kind of strange that these sections only appear in the beginning of the game, and that more was not done to make them visible. Aside from that, which really isn’t anything to seriously complain about, and nothing that could not be fixed in an update, Escape From Cyborgia is a very well made, with skillfully thought out levels and textures. $2.99 for this Universal game is a solid price.
Escape From Cyborgia gets a score of 8 out of 10.
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September 30, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

Space Junk – 0.99 (Upside Down Games Limited)

Space Junk is a new retro styled shooter by Upside Down Games, a 2 man (Ned Langman, and Greg Michael) indie development studio based in the UK. Ned Langman worked on the 80’s Amiga game, Silkworm, as well as SWIV, and Super SWIV, as well as a favorite of mine, Forsaken for the N64, PSX, and PC, along with more games in between and after. Greg Michael worked on Double Dragon III for the Amiga and Atari in the late 80’s, as well as being the lead programmer for the PSX title, Alien Trilogy, and then also on the oh so memorable Forsaken on the PSX, and, also, many more games. Needless to say, these guys know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to making games.

In Space Junk, you’ll control a little space man through Asteroids type levels, using a joystick to rotate, a button to thrust, and a button to shoot, while clearing out all of the objects in each of the 25 levels. Each of the objects you destroy will break up into smaller objects, and each one of those will break into even smaller objects. After that, once destroyed, a tool will appear, and these are what you’ll need to collect in order to score big points.
The retro vector graphics work well here, and there are plenty of different objects that you will encounter while making your way through the levels. Satellites, moon cheese, dogs, asteroids, space ships, and other various objects and shapes will be the main objects in each level, destroying these while they are in their first appearance stages, gives you a multiplier that‘s connected to the amount of tools that you pickup. For instance, if you‘re thrown into a level with 15 objects, and you destroy 5 of them before they start disappearing, which happens faster if you don‘t thrust around the levels, the amount of tools that you pick up will be multiplied by 5 in the end of the level bonus. The scoring system can get a little confusing, but mainly, if you keep moving around, and destroy as much as you can as quick as you can, while collecting as many dropped tools as you can, your score will shoot up. You are also rewarded for being accurate, getting a bigger bonus score the more accurate you are. There are also UFOs thrown into the mix, and destroying these will release a power-up, which could be a shield, extra life, powered up weapon, or a magnet that collects all dropped tools in the level.
Every 4 levels, you’ll encounter a bonus or challenge stage, where you’ll need to destroy all toolboxes and pick up all the tools in a set amount of time, or avoid a bunch of asteroids for 30 seconds while only using your thruster. This does add a nice break into the frantic gameplay, and if you pull off each challenge or bonus perfectly, can add to your score quite a bit.
You are able to play in portrait or landscape mode, and there are no borders on any of the levels. If you fly to the right, you’ll end up running into objects that were on the left side of the screen, but you can keep flying right forever, and your character is always in the center of the screen. This can be a big help if used right, chasing after UFOs is a lot easier if you go away from them instead of follow them, you’ll run into them quicker, and the same with all the other objects that will be flying all around you.
There are no online leader boards in version 1.0, which is kind of upsetting, considering this is a game that revolves a lot around high-scores. But even without online support at the moment, and only one game mode, Space Junk really is a very nicely done old-style arcade shooter. If you grew up playing games in the 80’s and early 90’s, you’ll most likely really enjoy this one. It’s pretty much an expanded Asteroids, with great vector graphics, awesome music, a really nice scoring system, 3 different difficulties, and cool weapons and power-ups. Being $0.99, and Universal, with talk of iCade and GameCenter support coming in the near future, it’s well worth the price, and then some. The developers are also very responsive on the TA Forums, and their FaceBook page, so with the help of the gamers who are playing this one, I can see it turning into something really special over the next few updates.
Space Junk gets a score of 8 out of 10.
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September 30, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >

FlipShip – 1.99 (ByteSize Games)

With Apple bringing gamers a device that can utilize tilting controls, developers have pretty much been able to invent new genres of games based around that device function. Tilt To Live is one of these types of games, making gamers tilt their iPods to maneuver their triangle through dots/enemies on the screen, using power-ups to defeat them. Since then, there’s been quite a few games that have built on this type of gameplay, and created a whole “Tilt To Live” genre of games for the iOS. The newest addition to the TTL genre is FlipShip, by ByteSize Games, which is their first iOS release. And what a great first release it is.

Expanding on the Tilt To Live idea, you’ll maneuver one of three types of ships around your screen, dodging two different colors of enemy ships, shooting, and using power-ups to take as many of them out as you can. Here’s the catch; to shoot an enemy, your ship must be the same color as that enemy, and to change colors, you simply tap the screen. Also, the longer you stay one color, the bigger your combo gets, and the more points you get per destroyed ship – but that combo score is banked, and only added to your total score once you change the color of your ship again. This can lead to the loss of millions of points if you’re not careful, but also gives gamers a very nice risk/reward gameplay mechanic.
The controls for FlipShip are, like you’d hope for in a game like this, very nice and tight, making weaving in-between groups of enemies doable, if you’re careful. One tap on the screen changes the color of your ship, and resets your combo score, saving the score you’ve built up, and tapping on the icon in the lower right corner (this can also be changed to go into the left corner) will activate your special ability, which is different with each ship. There are quite a few calibration options, but by default, the game will automatically calibrate at the beginning of every game, and every time you resume the game from the pause menu. You can also adjust the sensitivity of the vertical and horizontal tilting aspects.
The graphics are retro/vector styled, and really feel quite nice. There is more detail than most vector styled iOS games within the different ships and enemies. The backgrounds are all pretty much the same, but each time you play, the background and enemies will all be different colors. There’s red, blue, green and yellow, and each time you play, two of these colors are chosen. The music is your typical pumping electronica music, but, like most games, it fits in very well with the action.
Now, with the power-ups, they are all the same for each of the 3 ships, there’s two types of bombs, once regular, and one electrical. The regular bomb blows up everything within it’s radius, and can cause a chain reaction, but generally not a big one. The electrical bomb shocks everything in it’s radius, and jumps from ship to ship if they’re close enough, so you could, in theory, clear out an entire screen of enemies if you time running into this electrical bomb just right. The clock power-up slows down all the enemies on the screen for a short period of time, making it easier to escape large groups of enemies that are the opposite color of your ship, helping you build your combo score even higher. There’s also a power up that boosts your ship in the tilted direction, flying through, and destroying, any ships in it’s way, a seeker bomb, which sends out 6 different missiles, seeking out any enemies on the screen. Then, of course, there’s a shield power-up, and a power-up that refills your ability icon.
As for the abilities; they are different for each ship. There is a slow, average, and fast ship, each also having different firing attributes. The slow ship, called the “Steinway”, fires long projectiles out of a narrow section of the front of the ship, and it’s special ability is sending out 4 drones, 2 of each color. These drones don’t last long, but they can clear out quite a large group of enemies if used right. The average ship, called “Deadeye” shoots a short projectile out of a wide area of the front of the ship, and it’s special ability is called “Starburst”, which sends out a burst of colorless material in 8 directions, destroying everything in it’s path. The 3rd ship is the fast ship, and it’s called the “Preacher”. It’s able to shot in all directions, but it only shoots enemies that are close to it. It’s special ability is being able to change every ship on screen into the current color of the ship, making it pretty easy to build up a huge combo pretty quickly.
There is only one mode within FlipShip, but you are given 6 different difficulties; Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard and Insane. All of the different difficulties are on the same difficulty scale, but starting on the harder difficulties starts the game off harder, stays harder, and increases the difficulty quicker. Each different difficulty effects the enemy spawning rate, their speed, what enemy patterns you will see, and how difficult those patterns will be. So really, if you start a game on Very Easy, and you’re good enough, you can make it to the Insane difficulty gameplay. It will just take you longer than if you start out on any difficulty above Very Easy. Insane difficulty throws you right into the hardest difficulty the game will be. This growth of difficulty makes the game accessible to all gamers, and also gives hardcore gamers quite the challenge. However, making it so that less power-ups were present in harder difficulties, and the players abilities charged slower the harder you started the game off at, would be a nice addition to really separate the difficulty modes a bit more. It would also be great to see more gameplay modes in the future. There’s also the feeling that one death is enough to re-start the whole game. If you’re playing, and rack up a score of 1 million points with your first life, and end up loosing it before changing colors and banking that score, it really makes more sense to restart the game than to play through your last 2 lives. Some gamers might also find that 6 difficulties is just too many, especially when they’re all basically the same. There are also some color combinations that don’t mix together too well. For instance, Green and Yellow are a little too much alike, and do not have much contrast. However, Red and Blue, or Blue and Yellow, go together very well, and being able to choose these colors would be great, and would also be a good idea for our color-blind gamers out there.
But FlipShip, as it is now, with GameCenter support, leader boards for each of the difficulties, 50 achievements, 3 ships, accessibility to casual and hardcore gamers, and an exceedingly well done addictive risk/reward combo scoring system, $1.99 for the game is a great price, made even better because right now it‘s on sale for $0.99. It’s got tons of style, and some very intense action. ByteSize Games have proven that the Tilt To Live genre is still alive and thriving, and can still be expanded on. If you’re a fan of the genre, want a challenge, or are a high-score monger, like myself, FlipShip is a no-brainer must buy. I’m definitely looking forward to future updates, and seeing what ByteSize brings to the table with future games.
FlipShip gets a score of 8 out of 10.
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September 28, 2011 Uncategorized 0 Read more >