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Number of Results: 46

‘Mage Gauntlet’ Review: Magic, Swords and an insane amount of hats.


We at the App Shack have always been huge fans of the developers over at Rocketcat Games company because of their previous hook-slingin’ games like Hook Champ, Super Quick Hook, and Hook Worlds.  Deciding to branch out from that genre of games they created Mage Gauntlet, an ARPG (Action Role Playing Game) that is built in the image of Secret of Mana.  Read our interview with them here to see what new direction this studio will turn next.
              The backstory of Mage Gauntlet is very deep and intriguing and had me rewatching the cut scenes to make sure I understood it. Basically a great evil known as Hurgoth descends over the land causing pain and suffering.  A wizard named Whitebeard conquers and sends the monster to the bleak Dark Realm.  He and some appointed wizard guardians have been keeping watch on the seal to make sure that it does not get broken open.  It appears that the seal is leaking out energy causing monsters to rise again in the land.  I’ll let you find out the rest of the story on your own as it is best experienced without already knowing what’s going to happen!
            Each section of the game world is split into levels which are seamlessly integrated together much like different areas in Zelda.  After you exit the level you immediately start walking through the next level without having to select it.  You can earn up to 3 stars in a level. If you defeat all the enemies and dont lose any lives you get the perfect three stars for that level.  You can earn a pet by doing so which is an awesome motivating factor.  Also able to be obtained by beating levels are hats. Hats have always been a recurring theme in Rocketcat Games and in Mage Gauntlet there are 110 hats to collect. These hats don’t actually boost your stats in any way but are certainly fun to wear and let you customize your character. Pets, Swords, and Robes though, do influence your stats and the possibility of spell drops.
     You control Lexi by using one of three control methods which are all very adaptable and easy to use for both iPod and iPad users.  To attack enemies you can quickly tap the attack button for a weak attack and by holding it you can initiate her power attack which stuns all enemies it touches.  Also available are spells which you can get by cracking open magic vases.  The battle system feels much like Secret of Mana’s and is quite fast paced as the enemies can get very cunning. Also there are no fetch quests at all so this really does hearken back to the 90’s era RPG’s.  For added replayability they included a separate mode called Master Mode that puts new secrets and overwhelming monster numbers in the same levels you played before.
        Overall this is refreshing take on the RPG genre and really adds something new to the App Store. With 84 levels, 110 hats, 19 pets, and 86 achievements you’ll be playing this gem for a long time.  A update has already been announced which includes a new mode and a new pet.  You really cant go wrong with this purchase and is in my opinion my absolute favorite RPG up to this point. Legit, get it now on launch day before it goes up in price permanently to 2.99. 10/10

Works on iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later


Worms Crazy Golf by Team 17 releasing tonight!


Worms Crazy Golf is going to be released tonight at some time depending where you live.  In the US it will be out at 11:00 p.m. and at 12:00 a.m. in the United Kingdom.  It is already out in New Zealand and costs $2.99. The weird thing is that in the press release we received they said the game would be released on Wednesday not Monday/Monday night. Ever since iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S it seems that all the app release dates have been fluctating randomly. Regardless we are all thrilled that the game is coming out tonight and hope to  have a review of it ready soon.
Requirements: It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.

Here are some screenshots and a gameplay trailer to hold you over till its release.

iTunes Description:Worms™ Crazy Golf for iPhone and iPod is a hilarious mixture of the explosive action of Worms™ and the puzzle-based challenges of crazy golf! All of the trademark Worms™ humour, comic violence, and cartoon visuals are present, combined with addictive yet accessible golf gameplay. With extensive and re-playable single-player options, and hot-seat multi-player for up to 4 players, this is not just a load of balls!

KEY FEATURES:

• EXTENSIVE SINGLE-PLAYER CONTENT:

Single-player career mode – x3 18-hole courses – Britannia, Pirate Cavern and Graveyard – with Trophy achievements.

Single-player challenge mode – x15 challenges with leaderboards.

• LOCAL MULTI-PLAYER ACTION:

Hot-seat multi-player for up to 4 players.

• HIGHLY REPLAYABLE PUZZLE-BASED GAMEPLAY:
Crazy golf! Navigate the hilarious, and increasingly challenging, holes in unique ways with interactive objects, utilities and ball spin.

• WORMS™ HUMOUR AND CHARACTERS:

Worms™ humour! Exploding sheep, teleports, ball-whacking Old Women, ball-stealing moles, mines, magnets and even new bats!

• CRAZY CUSTOMISATION:

Customise the name, hat, club, speech and balls of your worm, and earn in game cash to unlock even more customisation options.

APP STORE SPECIFIC FEATURES:

• Game Center integration.
• Retina Display support.
• Fast App switching.
• Low graphic option for optimizing frame-rate on older devices.


Idyllic – 1.99 (FatCow Games)


In a world of crime, genocide, and developers that integrate in app purchases there is little room to relax.  Even our gaming experiences are stressful like Gears of War 3 or RAGE. Idyllic by Fatcow Games fills that hole with relaxing tilt-based gameplay that is easy on the eye and aesthetically pleasing to boot.
First things first, this is by no means a vertical jumper like DoodleJump and its millions of clones. You jump horizontal in Idyllic which can be a bit trickier as more precision is needed but is a welcome change.  Similar to its predecessors the gameplay is in fact infinite so you are getting your moneys worth by investing 1.99 in it.  But where it differs is in the character upgrades, upgradeable powers, mini bosses and coin collecting.

When you first start off the gameplay is a little slow and it takes awhile to get to where you feel comfortably challenged by the gameplay. In fact, most of my main deaths occurred early in the game because I tend to over tilt.  The reason why I say early in the game is because there are checkpoints in the shape of houses placed randomly along the course of the game. The game saves your progress there and whenever you die or accidentally lose battery power you always restart at that particular part.  That means no drudging through the same platforms over and over again to get back to the point you were before. I haven’t got far enough to really test the infinite gameplay aspect of the game but rather than spending all of my life playing Idyllic I’m going to take the developers word on this one.  After you bounce on a platform it changes from evil to good. Apparently you are on a quest after you find your world in pain to restore your planet to the way it used to be.  Later in the game it of course speeds up and gets harder to be sure you’ll land your jumps successfully.

At each checkpoint you can buy upgrades with the coins you find randomly strewn about the level.  These upgrades vary between increasing the value of your coins and allowing you to double jump in the game.  This adds a extra element of replayability to the game as you will have a extra objective rather than just jumping around aimlessly.  Your two basic abilities are power smash and flap.  With Power Smash you can come crashing down on a platform or enemy to procure coins reminiscent of Mario.  Flap allows you to grow wings and float over to a platform in case you misjump.  These abilities recharge over time and one of the upgrades is in fact to reduce the time it takes to recharge.

The music is fantastic and has a deep relaxing melodic feel to it that draws you into the game.  The graphics are good particularly the backgrounds which feel like they had a lot of work put into them. Overall this is a great casual endless jumping game that really drew me in and had me playing for quite some time.  If you have some spare change on your account there is no better place to spend it than on Idyllic. I give it 9/10
Link:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idyllic!/id445869482


Hungribles FREE Now Available & Giveaway

Great news for everyone who’s been wanting to play Hungribles by Futuremark Games Studio! There’s now a free (lite) version avaible. The free version has 15 levels from the paid version that you can try out first before you decide to buy the game. The free version is also universal just like the paid version. Even though there’s a free version, I say skip it. Just go download the full version today! You definitely won’t regret it for just $1.99.

Hungribles FREE
Hungribles $1.99
If you read the title then you may have noticed that we’re having a giveaway! We have a couple of codes to giveaway for the full version. The first two codes are directly below this post. So if you’re lucky enough to snag a code then kudos to you! The rest of the codes will be given out on our Twitter account. So follow us @TheAppShack for your chance to win more codes if you missed out here! If you do get a code make sure to leave the developer a review on iTunes!
First two codes coming….NOW!
LXJKFXYKTHHH
XNWMXEEF4JJ3



Cowboy Guns- 0.99 (Chillingo) “Who doesn’t love the Wild Wild West?”

Get ready to go back into the wild wild west in Chillingo’s latest adventure game Cowboy Guns [$0.99]. In Cowboy Guns you play as a lonely cowboy who has to fight his way through towns, deserts, and canyons with bandits in the way. Your main goal is to defeat The Crimson Jackals to bring peace to the land. There’s 3 exciting modes to play through: Adventure mode, Bounty Hunter mode, and Survival mode. In Adventure mode you play through a story line facing enemies. In the Bounty Hunter mode you get rewards for defeating the 20 wanted criminals. In Survival mode you erm… basically survive. There’ll be a bunch of enemies coming all over and your goal is to stay alive as long as possible. There’s two controls in the game. The left analog stick allows you to move around and the right analog stick allows you to shoot your current weapon. Between the two analog sticks, your current weapons can be found there. You can only hold up to 3 weapons at once. On the top left side of the screen you have your health meter which indicates the amount of health you still have left. On the top right side of the screen there’s a little icon that looks like a bag. Once you click on that you can find your map and travel to different lands. You can also read about your current mission

that you have going on and upgrade your cowboy. The following upgrades that you can currently purchase are handguns, shotguns, heavy guns, explosives, armors, boots, and new costumes. Items can be purchased by using money that you’ve earned from missions or from the stars that you can collect that are hidden around each area. I’m really digging the game’s graphics and the western style music. The adventure mode is extremely fun and has a great story line. Overall, Cowboy Guns provided a fun cowboy experience and is

perfect for people who are into dual-stick games. I’ve found no issues with the game at all, except it crashed about twice. My final rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars. You can pick up Cowboys Guns from Chillingo for a mere [$0.99]. There’s also a universal version that’ll run on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad that you can pick up for just $2.99 by clicking here.

Trailer: 


Hypership out of Control, $0.99 (by Fun Infused Games) (Universal)

   Hello everyone, in back from a hiatus with a game that has been released not long ago called Hypership Out of Control, from developer Fun Infused Games.
   The game is presented in a retro old school pixel art style, both visuals and sound. Its fits the game pretty well, and I heard the icon is going to change to a Retina Display one, and they are investigating about the possibility of upgrading the whole game to be Retina Display. Its perfect and if you like pixel art, it cant get better than this… for now?

  The game is a hybrid of two genres perfectly blended together, it is half arcade and half avoidance game. Your ship has had a fatal error and cant stop so you are constantly moving and have to avoid several obstacles and enemies, and to make things worse (or more fun, depending on how you look at this) your ship is accelerating at a steady pace, and again, all this while collecting coins for a better high score. Luckily for you, your autofire is also broken and your ship is always firing, helping you to clear enemies and some obstacles along the way. And to help you out even more, there are power ups to collect. They slow down your speed (which is good), make you go faster, a better weapon and more. They are fun and useful.

   Controls are almost perfect and you control the game using a very easy method: your finger. That’s all. One touch gameplay is what works best. So your own ability and reflexes are what works here, as I said earlier this game has a big avoidance part in it, your ship will travel really fast and some barriers arent destructible, so the game will put you to the test. But it has one fault, and its no other than not being able to see part of the screen due to your finger… this isnt a big fault, since you can press anywhere in the screen to move your ship and many other games have this issue also, so its not a big deal after all.

   Replayability is good, you have four modes to explore. There is Normal, Hardcore, Coindown and Superspeed mode and you can play all of them in reverse mode. From all these modes, my favorite is Coindown. In it, there is a coin meter that depletes as the time goes on so you have to pick up as many as you can to stay alive.  All modes are actually great, except hardcore, but only because I didnt find it hardcore enough. There are 19 achievements to collect, and of course leaderboards, one for each mode, to compete with friends and the world. Features both GameCenter and OpenFeint.

   There are multiple sections you have to survive through, its a nice thing as it is constanly throwing new things for you to do, all being brilliant… but after a while, its endless soul appears and eventually you start to memorize paths as they are always the same, so a nice thing to do would be to randomize the levels so you have a fresh experience every time you play.

   This game has also been released for Xbox Live and WP7 if you happen to have one of those… and on Xbox Live features 4 players at the same time, which I think would be awesome to have that on the iPhone version as well.

   So i am having a lot of fun with this game, and so should you. Pick it up if you happen to like avoidance games, love pixel art or are just looking for a casual arcade snack.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd gen and 4th gen), and both iPads. iOS 4.2 o better
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Size: 8.7 MB




A video to see it in action:

Buy this app:

Check out their website for more info:


“Minions App Review” Destruction, Evil and Minions?

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


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


HECTOR: Ep2 – Senseless Acts of Justice – 4.99 (Telltale Inc)

The long awaited sequel to HECTOR: Badge of Carnage Ep1 [$3.99] is finally upon us! HECTOR: Ep2 – Senseless Acts of Justice [$4.99] is the second episode of the humorous trilogy. I’ve actually never gotten the chance to play the first episode, shocker right! Since I haven’t played the first episode I can’t really compare them to which one’s the best. If you’re new to the series like me then you ought to know who the main characters are. The game follows Detective Hector and his assistant Lambert throughout the series. The Hector: Badge of Carnage series is a point-and-click adventure game where you have to interact with people and objects to complete your tasks. There’s a lot of silly crude humor, so this game isn’t for the young. It’s also not for people who don’t have a sense of humor. So, if you were born without that then you should probably stay far away from this game. I mean it. Even though this is a funny game it’ll require you

to use your brain every now and then to complete the task on hand. The controls are very simple. Just tap anywhere to move around. To interact with objects and people just tap once to do so. If you need to use an item then just double tap to use it. You can gather objects and store them into your inventory. Sometimes you’ll have to combine objects that you’re carrying to get the job done. Throughout the game you can switch back and forth between Hector and Lambert to perform the various duties. If you’re ever stuck, then you can use the hint menu, but I’m afraid to use it… it makes me feel dumb, because of how easy some of the tasks are. There’s not much more I can say about the game without spoiling the story. After playing HECTOR: Ep2 – Senseless Acts of Justice, I’ve found myself to truly love the series. I definitely need to go pick up the first game ASAP! If you’re new to the Badge of Carnage series like me then I suggest you go play the first one 
before you play this one. You don’t really have to though. You’ll be fine by just hopping into episode 2, but if you would like to know the main plot then you should just start of at #1. Also, if you’ve played the first one before then there’s no way in the world that you can’t pick up this one. Come on for Pete’s sake! It’s Hector!!!! Overall, the dialogue in this game is fantastic and it’s hilarious. The graphics are nicely done and everything seems to flow very well. HECTOR: Ep2 – Senseless Acts of Justice is definitely worth $5… probably more! My final rating is 5 out of 5 stars. If your looking for a great puzzle adventure game and a nice long game then HECTOR: Ep2 – Senseless Acts of Justice for [$4.99] is definitely worth your time and hard earned money. Have an iPad? Well don’t worry! You can pick up the HD version for iPad for just $6.99 by clicking here
Trailer:


“Reckless Getaway” Review- Guilt-Free, High-Speed, Car-Wrecking Fun!

Reckless behavior will get you many undesirable places in life like the bottom of a toilet, top of a building, and being chased by twenty cop cars.  In this game being reckless is your main goal and destroying tons of cars with a awesome maneuver will certainly put a smile on any ones face.  With lots of content including 17 levels, 2 game modes, and 2 different cars the fun wont be coming to a halt anytime soon.
The main catching point that got me hooked on this game is the floaty physics.  Sure some people like down-to-earth physics that make games play like a rock but the physics in this game let it have that extra element of unpredictability.  The two modes I mentioned before are Getaway and Wreckless.  Getaway is basically the main campaign of the game.  There are 4 different sets of levels each consisting of 4 levels each.
These sets of levels have their own backstory and their own environmental theme like the dessert for instance.  You unlock new levels and modes by earning stars in the previous levels. A star meter fills up depending on how many coins you pick up along the route and how much destruction you caused while driving….recklessly.  Hidden along the level are little sub routes that deviate from the main course of the level.  Often you will find way more coins and quickly elevate your star total if you can find them.
The second game mode, Wreckless is designed for the more destructive type.  You are outfitted with a big rig and in order to gain the stars mentioned previously you have to destroy as many cars as you can which as you can imagine is amazingly fun.  In both modes there are various power ups located randomly around the track.
It’s the star rating system that really gives the game good replay value but after you complete everything  there is little else substantial to work your way up to besides the GameCenter achievements.  Fortunately the overall fun of the game makes up for that discrepancy and works this game to the top of my favorite games list.  I highly recommend you check out this awesome and action packed game.

Overall Rating
Price: 2.99
Replayability: 8/10
Content: 8/10
Difficulty: Ranges per each level but is by no means a difficult game.
Overall Awesomeness Factor: 9/10
Percent Chance you will enjoy it: 90%
Ratio of Explosions to Overall crashes: 34/12
Chance we didn’t make up these statistics:  1000 to 1


To-Fu 2- 0.99 (HotGen Ltd.) “To-Fu is back and badder than ever!”

                           There’s no way that I can start the review until I say something about that icon. Now that icon is EPIC! Alright I’m glad I was able to get that out of my system. Now what is To-Fu 2? To-Fu 2 [0.99] by HotGen Ltd. is the sequel to their wildly popular first game called To-Fu: The Trials of Chi which you can actually pick up for free right now in celebration of the release of the sequel! So, just in case you’ve never heard of this game (if that’s even possible) you can go pick up the first one for free on your iPhone/iPod Touch and or iPad. If you’re not familiar with how the game works then I’ll give you a little recap.  In the game you control To-Fu who can stretch. You have to ping, stretch, rebound, and stick him throughout the levels. There’s 3 emblems that you can earn in each level. The first one is completing the entire level in a certain amount of moves or less. The next one is collecting all the Chi in the level. To get the last one all you have to do is finish the entire level by hitting the Fortune Kitty (this is the easiest one to achieve). You don’t actually have to collect all the emblems in one try. You can always go back to each level and try to get a certain one. Now, that I’ve been able to bring you up to speed if you haven’t played To-Fu before or haven’t played it in a while, I think it’s a great time to tell you about all the

 new features and goodies! The first new feature is the Time Trial mode. You’re given a certain amount of time to try to collect as much Chi as possible, with the ability to hit extra time bonuses to give yourself more time. I’m just gonna say that this is a great new feature, it definitely adds to the replay value of this game. There’s also new game features such as the rotating rebounding platforms and the “Super Ping”. The “Super Ping” allows you to break through obstacles. To activate it, all you have to do is hold down where you want it to go for a few extra seconds and it charges into the “Super Ping”! Another new feature is the store, where you can spend real cha-ching (money) if you’d like to. You can purchase new costumes, themes, and you can unlock all the levels in the game. The coolest IAP that I would not mind purchasing at all is the Golden To-Fu. The Golden To-Fu sort of works like the Angry Birds Mighty Eagle. The Mighty Eagle allows you to complete the level, but can only be used once every so hours. The Golden To-Fu works in the same way. It takes you right to the Fortune Kitty and collects all Chi en route. Just like the Mighty Eagle this also has a time limit of once every 8 hours. So if you purchase it, use it wisely! Overall, I found this game to be magnificent. It keeps what made the first one so successful and it builds off of it! The difficulty level is definitely higher than the original, but who wouldn’t like a challenge? The first 15 levels will re-introduce you into the game, with the next 85 levels to be challenging and a blast at the same time! If you’re a fan of the original then there’s no way in the world that you can pass this up. Also, if you’re new to the game I’d advise you to go pick up the original first and play a little bit of that before you play this one. My final rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars. You can go pick up this amazing sequel for just $0.99 (universal app for your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) from HotGen Ltd.

Trailer: