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Hyper Crush: The 8-Bit Adventure is the official platformer game of the musical group, Hyper Crush, made by Voxel Software. In it, you’ll play as all 3 band members, Holly, Preston and Donny, as you try to recover your special items and make it to The Moxy Theatre before your rival group, Slow Expand makes it there before you, stealing your time slot.

There are only 8 levels in Hyper Crush, and you’ll be forced to re-play each of the levels many, many times in order to get enough coins to buy Preston’s gun, which lets you break bricks. You MUST get this item in order to beat the game, because in level 5, you’ll start the level with a huge brick wall blocking your way. Once you get the brick breaking weapon, the game does become even more about collecting coins, and you’ll need to buy a pair of shoes in the shop as well that will let you make a huge jump in level 6. This amount of grinding can get pretty boring, and really take away from the gameplay experience.

The controls in Hyper Crush are pretty good, tight and responsive, but jumping feels a bit floaty. These floaty physics don’t really work well in conjunction with the tight controls, but it’s not enough to make you quit playing. Graphics-wise, the game is nice, and the environments look a lot like the original Super Mario Brothers, while the backgrounds kind of stand out against the platforms and bricks with their clear and polished looking cityscapes, but the mesh of the two goes together quite well, while the level select screen is set up exactly like World 1 of Super Mario Brothers 3. This tribute to Super Mario does bring back a lot of childhood memories, until you realize that you only have 8 levels and will be playing each of them at least 5 times in order to get enough coins to buy the items you need to complete the game.

All-n-all, Hyper Crush is a solid platformer that was executed poorly. The inclusion of a shop and the drive to collect coins along with the retro graphics don’t really make up for the lack of content and forced grinding. But then again, it’s really made as a game for the fans of Hyper Crush, so what do you expect? For $0.99 there’s plenty of great platformers in the AppStore that will give you more than 10 times the content.

Hyper Crush: The 8-Bit Adventure gets a score of 3/10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hyper-crush-the-8-bit-adventure/id448003049?mt=8

Space Trooper USA is a new dual-stick shooter from Bento Studio. From the start menu, after a loading screen which gives you a little bit of background, you’re thrown right into the action where you fight off wave after wave of enemies that get increasingly more difficult as you progress. Meteors crash down onto the asteroid that you’re on in random areas, releasing enemies and one big mother enemy that will keep spitting out a certain number of enemies until you kill it. The further you get into the game, the harder the enemies, and the more meteors crash into the asteroid.

This game is a high-scoring affair from the start, and the scoring system is pretty decent. You can get combos for killing enemies in quick succession, and there’s also power-ups, some of which give you a faster firing rate, or more points for each kill. There is only one mode, and that’s the endless wave mode. There’s also no options available, making this a bare-bones kind of game.

But what is here in Space Trooper USA is an action filled dual-stick gunning rampage with great looking visuals. The game is not supported by retina display, which is pretty upsetting, because the dark and atmospheric asteroid is constantly being destructed by your plasma shots, meteors, and exploding enemies, and reconstructed with a power-up that makes you invincible and restores the asteroid to it’s normal state, and these destruction and reconstruction physics look great, even without HD graphics. The music and effects also add quite a bit to the atmosphere of the game, making it even more intense and dark.

The enemies increase in difficulty as you progress from wave to wave, and there’s a lot of variation with them as well. The artificial intelligence for them isn‘t really anything special, they really just follow you around and go to the point where you‘re standing, but with the rate at which you can kill them, and they‘re spit out of the mother enemies, you will constantly be backed into a pack of enemies by another pack coming right at you. It gives the impression that the aliens are working in packs against you.

The power-ups in ST USA are great, and have quite a bit of variety. There’s 7 different power-ups, each of which are permanent, except for the invincibility/asteroid regeneration upgrade. There’s health, plasma shots, fire rate and speed increases, shot power increases, and score increase power-ups. Each of which effects how you play pretty significantly. Each time you kill a mother enemy, a power-up is dropped, and it will be one of 3 groups of power-ups, which change every couple seconds to a different power-up. Getting to the power-ups before they disappear can prove to be very dangerous later in the game, and grabbing the power-up you want can be even more difficult because you might have to wait until it changes into the power-up you’re trying to get. Bento Studio did a great job with this, as it does add quite a bit of strategy and tactical gameplay to Space Trooper USA.

Controls are your typical dual-stick controls, they are very responsive, and work extremely well. To use a plasma shot, you double tap your right stick, charging the shot, and then aim with the stick, and release to fire, and regeneration of the asteroid is done by holding down on the right stick as well. This lets the game flow really well, and you really don’t need to think about what your fingers are doing while in the heat of battle.

All-n-all, Space Trooper USA is a solid dual-stick shooter that could use some options, more info on the story, and maybe another mode or two, along with an HD graphics update. Though none of this really hurts the game much, they are things which would be great additions for future updates. With the game only being $0.99, it’s well worth the purchase, as a pretty hectic high-score battle has already started on the GameCenter leaderboards. If you’re looking for an intense, dual-stick, action-arcade game, Space Trooper USA will get your heart pounding, and give you hours of great high-scoring entertainment.

I’m giving Space Trooper USA a score of 8/10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-trooper-usa/id439890015?mt=8

SuperJumpBall: Basketball [$0.99] by Bengger Applications is a neat new game where your mission is to guide the basketball out of harms way into the basketball hoop. There’s 15 levels to play through with more coming in future updates. Your ball is always moving, so the only control in the game is tap to jump. If you land in the various obstacles such as the spikes or garbage bags then it’s game over. To finish the level you have to make the basketball in the hoop. There’s no time limit, but in various locations throughout the level there is points hanging around that you can collect to earn a higher score. If points are going to be awarded for each level then Game Center definitely needs to

be added in a future update, because right now I don’t really see a point in try to get a bigger score. I’m also not a big fan of the control. I find it a bit hard to get use to and the jumping is laggy at times. I also hate that if you get caught on an object then you have to restart the entire level because there’s no way to move the basketball back or forth. That’s where a left and right button would be extremely useful. There is extras that you can earn in the game after completing a certain level. So far the only extras are changing the color of your ball to green for example. My favorite part of this game has to be the simple style graphics and the levels in my opinion we’re very well done. Overall, the game is pretty challenging so you’ll find yourself restarting levels over and over either trying to finish the level or get a higher score. My final rating is 3 out of 5 stars. It definitely needs a little more work and features, but it’s a nice little game to fill in empty time during your day. If it weren’t for the controls then this game would be much better. Hopefully the controls get a little tweaking. You can go download SuperJumpBall: Basketball by Bengger Applications for your iPhone & iPod Touch for just $0.99 here.

Tero is a platform game from Studio Yomi. Instead of the typical virtual controls, Tero is one of few platform games that has tilt controls. Normally I despise tilt controls in platformers, but Studio Yomi has done a decent job in making it work. In the game you’ll play as Tero, who is trying to help rescue the Spirit Flowers using a special orange orb that shoots projectiles at enemies by pressing on the screen. To move, you tilt your device left or right, attacking is done by swiping down, jumping by swiping up, and strong attacking by jumping up and then swiping down over your enemy while in the air. The physics are nice and don’t feel floaty or weighed down, though sometimes tilting feels a little funny because the levels tilt, staying horizontal, instead of moving with the screen.

There’s 24 levels in Tero, spread across 6 different environments, with boss battles every 4 stages. The graphics are very smooth and polished, and the environments are vibrant and nicely varied. There’s plenty of enemies to keep you on your toes, some needing only to be attacked by a spin move, others needing to be pounced on, or attacked twice. There’s also some enemies that you can’t touch without loosing health. Hearts are collected while going through the levels by finding Spirit Flowers and collecting the flowers scattered throughout the levels. Checkpoints are also found in stages, but when you die, instead of going back to the checkpoint, you go back to the level select screen, then to start the level again at the last checkpoint, you need to re-enter the level, making it an un-necessary mechanic that really takes away from the flow of the game. However, once you loose all your hearts, you’re able to re-start the level from the beginning with 3, so there are no game-over screens in Tero, which is always nice.

Power-ups include your orb, bombs, and shields, but nothing else. Power-ups that let you shoot fire at the enemies, let you kill un-killable enemies, gave you super jumping abilities, let you run faster, or made you invincible for a couple seconds would fit in very well with the game. No online services are added, so going for a high-score is sort of a mute point. This also takes away from the replay value. Once you finish Tero, you won’t have much desire to go back and re-play it, but if you do decide to, you’re given the option of choosing Easy, Normal or Hard difficulties. You’re also given 3 save slots just in case you’d like to start at the beginning with a different difficulty, or share the device with a friend or family member.

Sensitivity options for tilting would have been a good addition as well, and really, all platformers with tilt controls should have the option for virtual buttons. It’s what fans of the genre are use to, and love, and the fact that they’re not seen here is probably why this game isn’t selling very well. It is a highly polished and really good platformer, it just happens to be missing some pretty major features. It would also be nice to have seen some more story added to the game. With every boss battle you only get a little picture with the boss saying something like “I will crush you”. You don’t actually know why they kidnapped the Spirit Flowers, or why each monster has decided to help out the main evil behind the abductions. Including a story with the game would have made it well worth the download, regardless of the lack of virtual buttons.

The game is fairly new; it was only released a little over 3 weeks ago, so the developers do have plenty of time to fix these issues and add some features before calling it a bust, and I really hope they decide to keep working on Tero. The graphics and level design are really very good, and the environments and enemies are varied enough to keep any gamers attention. Just a little more work, and this could be a gem that gets a pretty decent fan following. Right now, for $0.99, it’s still very much worth the purchase, and is recommended to any fan of platformers that can forgive the tilt controls.

I’m giving Tero a score of 6.5/10

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tero/id453105446?mt=8

Snorbies is a new bubble popper game from indie developer, Nepik. It’s your typical match 3 or more bubble popper, with some added items to make the gameplay kind of interesting. In the game, you’ll touch the screen to shoot awakened Snorbies at the sleeping Snorbies, making groups of 3, or in hard mode, 4, or more, to make them drop off of the screen. If you don’t make matches with enough of the shot Snorbies, more Snorbies come down from the top of the screen, pushing the big pile closer and closer to the bottom of the screen. If the sleeping Snorbies touch the bottom of the screen, it’s a game over. There are 4 items thrown in randomly with the sleeping Snorbies, grumpy rocks, happy rocks, cups of coffee, and roosters. Rocks fall when you wake up the Snorbie above it, and will wake up more Snorbies as it falls. Happy rocks do the same, but wake up more Snorbies than grumpy rocks. Cups of coffee and roosters fall down when the Snorbie above it is woken up, and are kept in the lower right corner to use whenever you see fit, cups of coffee wake up one snorbie, while roosters wake up a bunch.

However, these added items are only found in Advanced Mode. In Classic Mode, you are faced with clearing out the screen as fast as possible without any help from items. There’s also a Level Mode, which is more like a challenge mode, in which you are given 4 different worlds each with pre-made levels that you need to clear out, and try to get 3 star ratings in. These levels are initially very easy to clear out, but once you get in the later levels, and worlds, the shots that you need to make become increasingly difficult, and almost border on impossible. The items, rocks, coffee, and roosters are added as you progress throughout the worlds. It adds a nice challenge to the game, and is where most gamers who are already familiar and maybe worn out on typical bubble popper gameplay will spend their time.

The graphics in Snorbies are alright, a little fuzzy, but there are some cute yawning animations in the game for sleeping Snoribes. The Snorbies that are awake just sit there and smile with big eyes looking right at you. More could be done here, as the graphics don’t really stand out as a highlight of the game. They aren’t a deal-breaker, but as we all know, graphics are not something you can ignore for long. The scoring system is done exceptionally well though, growing with combos, and multiple hits. But it kind of gets lost in the game, as there’s no OpenFeint or GameCenter leaderboards. There’s also no music in Snorbies, and the constant ‘bing’ effect can get pretty annoying very quickly.

Snorbies is a decent bubble popper game, with just a few things missing. Polish on the graphics, some animations, online compatibility, and music, but at it’s core, it’s a bubble popper worth getting. For a dollar, and being Universal, it’s worth buying, as it has enough content to stay on your device for quite a long time. The challenge it brings with the pre-made levels/challenges is alone enough to make me want it. I do hope to see more done with it in the future though.

Snorbies gets a rating of 3/5 from me.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snorbies-full-version/id455972992?mt=8

Super Meat Boy is one of my favorite platformers of all time, so with the clones hitting the AppStore lately, you’d think I’d be a pretty happy camper. But not really. For the most part, there’s filled with horrible controls and floaty physics. But when I first saw ChocoRun, I couldn’t help but get excited. The original build of the game was awesome, and the one touch control to jump worked perfectly. Now, ChocoRun has been totally re-vamped in a new graphical style, has more levels, and an added Easy Mode, as well as unlockable characters. So what better time to review it then now?

This platformer from Alejandro Jimenez Vilarroya hit the AppStore about two months ago, and proved that it was the SMB clone for the iOS that everyone needed to get. Top notch level design, along with great physics, easy, but precise one touch charge and jump controls, and clean graphics helped spur an instant fan following. Over the last two months Alejandro teamed up with a new graphics designer, and the flashy new update has hit iOS devices around the world, and the graphics in the updated version of ChocoRun are awesome. There has been increased detail in the objects and platforms that were already in the game, and the backgrounds were completely enhanced to fit the new graphical style. Also, being retina supported and Universal gives us the opportunity to see all these graphical updates in HD, the way they were meant to be seen. The animations are outstanding, each and every razor blade looks amazing while it’s spinning or flying through the air right at your cute little head. Choco now spins while jumping in the air as well, which also adds to the great look and feel of the game.

The controls work like they always did, press anywhere on the screen to charge your jump, and let go to perform the jump, hold on the screen while in the air, and let go when you touch a wall in order to wall jump, but now we’ve been given a charge meter that circles Choco while you’re pressing on the screen, letting you know how high and far he’ll go when you let go. This addition helps immensely with being able to pull off those tougher jumps and more tricky areas. The game is still just as frustrating as it ever was though. The death counter at the main menu keeps track of how many times you’ve died while playing the game. Right now, my counter is at 3,342, so you can expect to see your character explode from hitting spikes or razor blades quite a bit. But with unlimited lives, you can also expect to always want to play just one more life, and then realize that an hour has passed.

Level designs in the new update are just as great as the previous build’s levels, maybe even better, and more thought out. It’s very clear that loads of beta testing has gone on, and that each level was tweaked and edited to make them all just right. The game now has 50 great levels, which will keep you busy for weeks. Another great addition to the update is the new Easy Mode. Choco is given 3 lives to waste in each level before re-starting here, along with a cute little pink bow. If you’re having a hard time unlocking the next set of levels, Easy Mode is always there to help out.

So, with all this said, ChocoRun is definitely one of my favorite iOS platformers, and very easily the best Super Meat Boy clone in the AppStore. With The original SMB developers saying that they wouldn’t port SMB to the iOS device because the virtual controls wouldn’t work, Alejandro Vilarroya has given us a Super Meat Boy clone, not with virtual controls, but with controls that work extremely well on a touch screen. It’s highly recommended to all platformer fans, as well as fans of very frustrating and difficult games. This one will keep you glued to your iPod screen, as well as screaming and banging your head against the wall. For $0.99, it’s a great deal.

I’m giving ChocoRun a score of 5 out of 5, with a strong recommendation that everyone gets it.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chocorun/id435292025?mt=8

Treemaker is a new casual puzzle game from Mikrotie Ltd that isn’t set up like a traditional puzzle game. In it, you will swing your character from platform to platform, using it’s long rope-like arms, collecting all of the yellow orbs in each level that let you grow trees. Getting from point A to point B, but always requiring you to use your head to get to the last orb using the least amount of rope moves you can.

There’s no time-limit in Treemaker, which of course, makes it more casual. But the difficulty is still pretty high. You are given unlimited rope connections, shown in the top left corner, but in order to progress though the game, you will need to get 2 out of 3 stars on every level. To do this, you need to have 2 rope connections left, giving you an end result of 2 stars. If you make it to the end of the level, collecting each of the yellow orbs, with 3 possible rope connections left, you’ll get 3 stars. So you’ll always be trying to find out which platforms are the best to connect to in order to get to the end of the level.

The controls are simple, touch where you want to fling your rope-arm to, having it automatically connect to the platform, then tap again to let go, either using your momentum to fling yourself forward, or waiting until you stop swinging to drop directly down. In conjunction with the physics of the game, these controls work very, very well. Where most rope-connecting/swing-to-get-to-the-end-of-the-level games fail in this aspect, Treemaker executes it flawlessly. The physics are done amazingly well, and the controls are perfect, making it easy to land exactly where you want to. You can also pinch the screen to zoom in or out, in order to see more or less of the levels.

Graphics-wise, Treemaker is beautiful. Available in HD, and Universal, we’re lucky enough to experience the game in all of it’s amazing graphical glory. However, the environments are not varied at all. You’re given the same basic background image, just colored differently in each world. Doing more with the background images would have made Treemaker absolutely stunning. As for the level design, it is very well thought out, and will test your reflexes and mind, but the platforms could have also used some more variation other than just some color change for the areas you can’t touch without dying. These circles that are under the platforms you’ll be trying to land on change colors as you change worlds, but other than that, there’s 4 types of platforms you’ll see in the game. Regular platforms, spring platforms, spinning platforms, and half-pipes, and these half-pipes only appear in two of the levels. More variation with the platforms would have been a welcome addition to the game as well. But with all of this, Treemaker still stands out as very polished and professional graphical eye-candy. It’s worth mentioning the music and effects as well, as it really helps fill out the calming atmosphere and feel of the game.

In the end, Treemaker is a casual puzzle game, that can be very challenging if you decide to go for 3 stars in each level. But there are only 18, very short, levels, and most players will be done with the game in an hour, maybe two if you decide to take your time. There is no GameCenter or OpenFeint integration, and no scoring system aside from the star rankings, so replay value and drive to get better star rankings for each level is kind of lost. Playing through the game once, you might not open the game again but once or twice. There’s also no in-game achievements, which is surprising, because Treemaker is a game that could possibly be full of achievements and challenges. It is only $0.99, and still well worth purchasing. Hopefully the developers will add some more mechanics, levels, online features, a scoring system, really, I’d just be happy if they added to it period. Mikrotie Ltd is obviously a very talented developing team. What they have given us shows their immense creativity, loads of potential, and anything they decide to add to it would only improve the game. I will definitely be keeping my eyes on Mikrotie Ltd, as they have earned a fan for as long as they keep making games.

I’m giving Treemaker a score of 7.5 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/treemaker/id451930892?mt=8