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Dual-stick space shooters are fairly popular within the AppStore. It seems like every time I turn around, there’s another DSSS available. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, because since Meteor Blitz, one of the very first games I ever bought in the AppStore, I’ve been hooked on them. Lei Cao’s War on Geometry is the most recent title at the moment, but it’s not exactly what you would expect from a game that’s set-up like a dual-stick shooter. There are no joysticks.

The controls are set up so you’ll need to place your finger over your ship, and drag it all around the screen while using another finger to tap and hold where you want to shoot. It plays as frustrating as it sounds, leaving you to try and keep your hands and fingers out of your field of vision as much as possible while moving your ship all around the screen, and firing, usually banging your fingers together and wrapping them around one another quite a bit. That’s not to say that this is a bad game, because it’s not, and I’m sure that the controls are a lot easier to use on an iPad, with the HD build, but on a small screen, the controls do pose a very big issue. Especially once you find out how the game starts.

But if you can make it out of this first wave of enemies, the game starts to open up, but it’ll take a while to get use to the controls, because each following wave follows the same pattern. Enemies moving to the center of the screen from all sides of your device. But you’ll generally be able to face them with more firepower, as while you’re maneuvering out of the way of the first wave, or usually almost right after that, two optional power-ups appear on the screen, one a laser, and another a slightly powered up version of your original weapon.

There are no GameCenter leaderboards or achievements, but there is an in-game world leaderboard, which you are able to submit your highest score to, which means no hacked scores, but also no competing with GC friends, or replaying for achievements. For $0.99 (also $0.99 for the HD build), it’s not bad by any means, especially if you’re looking for a game with a real challenge, but hopefully in a future update, some joysticks will be added, making the game less frustrating for the majority of players out there. It would also be nice to see some added modes, as there are tons of dual-stick shooters available in the AppStore that almost all have loads of gameplay modes, and provide a more entertaining gaming experience for the same price, or even less (yes, that’s right, free – think PewPew).

The racing genre on the App Store has been dominated by games like Real Racing, Asphalt, and Need For Speed.  It’s time to welcome a new top dog, Mini Motor Racing. This masterpiece by the Binary Mill combines crazy arcade racing with visual glory and customization to create a truly amazing gaming experience.
If there is one thing that I would boast about Mini Motor Racing, it would have to be the aesthetics.  This game is a real treat for the eyes as well as the ears. Extremely detailed cars and tracks, along with beautifully fluid menus make MMR a joy to play. The upbeat music fits perfectly with the wacky vibe and the tune has been stuck in my head for the past few days.

Controls are a huge plus as well.  The gods over at the Binary Mill went all out with 4 different control methods ranging from a simple steering wheel, to a slider bar. The steering wheel has been perfect for me so far, but the other methods work just as well.  Also, you can turn auto-accelerate on or off to make the experience a little more realistic. With 4 control options, there is bound to be one that will work for just about everybody.
Moving on to the heart of Mini Motor Racing, there are multiple game modes including Championship, Quick Race, and Multiplayer. Championship mode consists of a whopping 120 race career which goes from normal events to feature cups like the “Fruit Ninja Cup” and the “Holiday Cup”.  Quick race works as it normally would.  You can “quickly” jump right into a race and practice your skills.  Multiplayer is limited to local WiFi and Bluetooth right now, but an online mode should be up and running soon.

To those who love customization, you will love Mini Motor Racing.  The game has over 20 tracks to choose from, all of which are absolutely gorgeous, and 13 cars to unlock.  The tracks are rather short, but they are designed to encourage rough play.  You will inevitably find yourself ramming your opponents out of the way and nitro-boosting your way to first place as you zip around corners.  The cars range in design, but they are all very detailed.  Some upgrades that are available are nitro boosts, top speed, handling, and acceleration. Upgrades are purchased with in-game cash that is earned by winning races. The wide variety of cars and tracks adds to MMR’s long list of awesome features.
Check out the launch trailer for Mini Motor Racing. If our review didn’t get you pumped up for the game, then the trailer definitely will.

I definitely recommend picking up Mini Motor Racing. The standard and HD versions are separate, weighing in at $1.99 and $3.99 respectively.

Sci-Fi Sim Adventure. The genre’s completely new to me, but I don’t think I could have picked a better game to introduce me to the genre than DigitalFrog’s Space Frontier. Starting off, it has a great interactive tutorial that’s very easy to understand and shows you exactly what you need to know in order to make it through the game. During the tutorial, you’ll notice how much work has obviously gone into creating a great looking universe to play in, with loads of details, great object and item designs, and a fantastic atmosphere.

So, the whole object of the game is to build houses and make money, out in space. There will be some competition, especially from a character named Felipe, and his android, Doomsday, both with egos larger than the solar system you’ll be competing in. There are a bunch of little things you’ll need to keep your eyes on while you’re in the process of trying to build and make money. The sector that you’re building on will have a safety meter, which slowly decreases as you progress through each level, you’ll need to spend money to constantly keep this meter as high as you can so that your sector is not hit my an asteroid, which could destroy or damage buildings. Also, building your different types of houses requires you to spend minerals, which you will need to buy to replenish, as well as requires you to have enough robots to build them. This means that if you have 4 robots, you can only build a couple houses at a time, sometimes only one building at a time, depending on how many robots it takes to build that specific object.

Now, I know this technical stuff sounds kind of boring, but if you’re into simulation games, I think you know where all of this is going. There are 40 missions, or stages, that you’ll need to complete in order to beat Felipe. Each mission gives you certain tasks which you must complete in a given amount of time. You aren’t necessarily required to beat this time, but Felipe’s time is marked on the timer, and if you want to beat him, you will need to beat his mission times. As you progress though the game, you will unlock more and more buildings which will help you gather income, raise money, and fund the sectors. You are able to build, buy, sell, and destruct buildings, each of which has different attributes, different amounts of income, and effects your sector differently. Each time you start a mission, you are given a certain amount of cash in the bank, a certain amount of robots, and a certain amount of minerals, once the minerals and original bank money is depleted, you will be required to refill these on your own.

It might take multiple tries to beat each of Felipe’s times, but once you get the hang of everything, and multitasking, constantly keeping your eyes on the sectors safety, income, bank, minerals, and task progression. One thing I would absolutely love to see added in the future would be GameCenter. DigitalFrog has provided an in-game leaderboard that connects to their servers, which does help with the cheaters on GameCenter, but it takes away from competing against your GameCenter friends. Thankfully, there are in-game achievements. 54 to be exact. Some gamers love it when developers have their own leaderboards and achievement systems. I happen to be someone who happens to like when developers do this, but do understand why people want GameCenter integration. Still, it’s hard to say that no GameCenter is an issue when the developers do such a great job with their own in-game leaderboard and achievements like DigitalFrog has done here. You are awarded scores based on how quickly you complete the missions, and you can replay each mission, so making your way up the leader board, as well as competing against Felipe’s times does add quite a bit of replay value to the game. There’s also a Casual Mode that’s unlocked once you complete all of the regular campaign missions. For my first Sci-fi Simulation Adventure game, you can color me extremely impressed, and be sure that I’ll be searching the AppStore (and Steam) for more games in this genre. $3.99 is really a great price for the amount and quality of the content provided here with Space Frontier, and better yet, it‘s Universal! If you’re a fan of the genre, it’s one title you definitely need to check out, and if you’ve never heard of the genre, Space Frontier is probably one of the best, if not the best, game that you could first get, as you’ll end up being hooked from the moment you complete the tutorial levels.

One of the best turn-based RPG titles I’ve had the pleasure of playing on my iPod has easily been Kemco’s Symphony of Eternity. Highly reminiscent of early Final Fantasy games, you’ll guide your group of heroes on their quest to find a magical weapon and fulfill their dreams and restore a broken kingdom. The story is fantastically executed, and fairly deep, and compliments the amazing upgrade/magic system which gives you books that you can equip and learn abilities from (by the end of the game, each of my characters had about 20 spells that they were able to cast). Aside from Square Enix’s Final Fantasy games on the iOS, Symphony of Eternity is my favorite turn-based RPG in the AppStore. In my humble opinion, it’s even better than FF 1 and 2. The characters will grow on you very quickly, there’s tons of exploration involved, hidden areas, great battles (if you have Alphadia, another Kemco TB-RPG for the iOS, it’s not as focused towards grinding by any means), and a very nice story with plenty of plot twists and some great English translation. For a dollar, it’s a no-brainer, Symphony of Eternity is one RPG you NEED to pick up. Even if you’re not a fan of the genre, Symphony of Eternity has all the aspects that could very well make you one. It’s also secured it’s spot in my top 10 of 2011 list. At it’s current sale price-point, it’s impossible to find another RPG of this caliber for this price. I don’t know how many other ways I can try and tell you to go and pick it up, but if you’re interested in finding out, you can check out The App Shack’s review, so go, GO NOW!! Throw down the dollar, and experience one of the best games of the year!

Symphony of Eternity