Coming up with just one word to describe Hasta La Muerte [$1.99] is easy, it's different. Different in that it doesn't play much like any other games on iOS these days, and has a crazy visual style to go along with it.
Hasta La Muerte has you moving around levels collecting souls and finding the exit before being killed by giant mustaches. You're encouraged to do this as quickly as possible, with the incentive being a higher score to impress your friends. Each level has a certain amount of souls to collect, and each level is harder than the last. Fortunately, the controls in the game work great making each level seem possible to master.
Hot off the recently released Dungeon Crawlers [$3.99], the folks over at Ayopa Games are back with Mailmen [$1.99], an enjoyable stealth-based tale showcasing the eternal battle between mail carriers and the canines that chase them. Featuring a crazy story, good team-based gameplay, and well done level design, Mailmen is well worth checking out.
Mailmen follows the tale of three postal employees as they try to deliver letters and packages to the public while thwarting the plans of the nefarious Newman, a former member of the team that turned to evil. Standing in their way are packs and packs of dogs eager to catch, chase and bite our heroes. The story is off-beat, ridiculous, and completely appropriate for the style of game Mailmen offers. This is also echoed in the development of the team itself, which does a great job imparting personality into each of the characters in every little thing they do.
I have a little confession to make: I'm directionally challenged. I know exactly where everything is, but ask me whether you turn right or left to get there and I'll give you the correct answer about half the time. Not bad for a 50/50 chance, right? Because of this deficiency, Aetherium II [$0.99] has become my new nemesis. I know where I'm going, and I just need to tap one side of the screen or the other to get there, but somehow I still end up smashing into a wall most of the time.
I'll not hold that against the game. My failings aren't its failings, though it has several of its own. But man, if you like Snake, there are 100 levels here that will light up all the same bits of your brain, and four modes on top of that to boot.
Although every mode in Aetherium II plays with direction, there are three very different ways to play. You've got the main mode (and by far the best), Avoid the Edges, three different Maze modes and First Person, which is quirkier than it is successful.
Wizardry is a series with a pretty long history, and the older you are, the more of it you're likely to recall. Thirty years after its original release, gamers still think of the same thing when they hear the word: a long dungeon crawl in the dark, careful stat management, and a pen and graph paper by your side. In fact, Wizardry was really the first graphical incarnation of the Dungeons & Dragons model, and gamers familiar with it would feel right at home on those subterranean treks through poorly lit mazes.
Fast forward to 2011, however, and you may see a game like Wizardry as nothing but an exercise in punishment. Or would a clean-up and polish of the interface make for a more modern experience? This version of Wizardry, called Labyrinth of Lost Souls [Free] ($9.99 IAP unlocks full game), is not exclusive to iOS -- it's already seen its original debut on the PS3 earlier this year.
Who would've thought there was room for a new endless runner in the App Store? Imangi Studios, apparently. They surprised us in early August with Temple Run [link], an excellent new take on the formula that scored 4.5 stars in our review and was among the titles in our Best iOS Games of August 2011 roundup. I think our own Nissa best summed it up as, "the endless runner that makes you feel like an archaeologist with a penchant for deadly situations."
The only complaint I've had with the game is its lack of native iPad support. Well, I'm happy to report that the game's third update, which landed last night, takes Temple Run universal.
The v1.3 update brings the following enhancements, as listed by Imangi:
Universal iPad Support! Run for your life on the big screen!
Two new characters to unlock! Barry Bones, a city cop with an attitude, and Karma Lee, the fastest legs in the Far East. To unlock new characters, just go to the Store and scroll down.
More objectives to increase your score multiplier!
You can now Tweet your score at the end of a game! That way all your friends will know you're the Temple Run champ!
More ways to get free coins! Go to Store > Get More Coins to check it out!
Lots of performance enhancements and bug fixes! Temple Run should run smoother than ever!
I've been running this latest version of Temple Run for a while now and it's definitely more fun than ever. It's surprising how much richer an experience the game is on the iPad with its 10-inch screen. But, entrenched leaderboard kings watch out -- I quickly found that playing on the iPad is conducive to much higher scoring.
A couple of weeks back, at the release of their v1.2 update, Imangi made Temple Run a free download, which is something iOS gamers seem to have appreciated. I recently managed to pull some stats from developer Keith Shepherd regarding the game's activity across its life-so-far in the App Store. As a paid app, in its first month, Imangi saw 10 million games played. Three days after going free, Temple Run hit 20 million games played, and after a week as a free app, it hit the 100 million games mark. All told, right now 350 million games of Temple Run have been played. Not a bad run...so to speak.
Imangi is working on iCade support for Temple Run and hopes to bring it in the next update.
A few days back we posted word that John Calhoun would soon be launching an iOS version of his classic early Macintosh game, Glider, in the App Store. Glider Classic [link] is now available for download and I've had a chance to put it through its paces. Let me share my impressions.
The good news is that Glider Classic for iOS is just what Glider was for the early Macs: quaint casual gaming with nicely frustrating puzzle elements and a simple visual aesthetic.
That simple assessment should be enough to let those familiar with the original title know that it's definitely worth a grab. For the uninitiated, let me explain the magic of the formula. (But I'll go ahead and toss out a spoiler: you want this game, too.) (more...)
It takes a special kind of game to pull off surviving exclusively through tilt controls. That goes double for games that attempt to do it and are only available on the iPad. Sure, the iPad’s accelerometer has got to be used for something, but some folks (and rightfully so) find the idea of having to tilt your tablet every which way just to play a game to be a bit daunting. Pod Odyssey [$2.99] is the latest attempt at a tilt-controlled iPad exclusive. While its controls aren’t perfect, there’s certainly enough here for an enjoyable experience with some caveats.
Pod Odyssey isn’t a game with a particularly engrossing story. In fact, all you know is that you’re piloting a ship (that looks strangely like a squid) that is exploring various alien planets in labyrinth-like levels. The game gives off an abstract Lunar Lander sort of vibe. Each level has a primary and secondary objective, and your goal is to successfully complete both without dying (i.e. running out of energy for your ship). Standing in your way is a variety of structures that shoot projectiles at your ship. Those projectiles are anything from dumb missiles to land (space?) mines to heat seeking bombs that attempt to follow you.
Here's one I'm so anxious to share that I'm fumbling over my fingers here at the keyboard. Brandon Williamson over at Nyarlu Labs just sent me the heads-up on some major updates to one of the very best games I have ever played in my entire life, on any platform. The game in question is the modern retro title Forget-Me-Not [App Store] that easily got a five-star rating in my March review (which I urge the unacquainted to read, to get an idea of what the game is all about).
Brandon, yesterday, made a post to his blog announcing the release of a Mac OS X and Windows version of Forget-Me-Not that can be downloaded from his website. And it's freeware! It's not just some dumbed-down, redheaded stepchild build of the game, either -- no, no. The free Mac and PC versions of the game are, in fact, the latest, most full-featured versions of the game, bringing many enhancements over the current iOS version.
Let’s face it, SnakeRace [$0.99] isn’t going to impress you with any graphical flair or with particularly astonishing production values. However, it doesn’t need to. SnakeRace takes a classic premise, tunes it to its own personality, and then attempts to create a simple game with enough content to pull you back in. While I don’t think that every gamer is going to be particularly impressed with what it has to offer, it certainly does succeed for those looking to take a chance.
At its heart, SnakeRace is a simple vertical scroller that has you navigating a snake on a diagonal pathway through a variety of mazes and barriers in order to get to the eventual finish line, all while collecting various gems to improve your score. Your snake can only move up diagonally, and a quick tap on the screen switches direction. Your snake’s length indicates its life, which goes down every time you hit a barrier (typically rocks of varying strengths).
Interestingly, hitting a blockade does not mean instant death – if you expend enough life hitting it you can actually plow through, possibly opening up a new path. However, don’t expect to live long smashing into barriers without picking up some yellow gems, which increase your snake’s length (and thus its life).
Long-time hirsute, psychedelic game writer Jeff Minter of Llamasoft has released two iOS games, and they're two of the best games in the App Store: Minotron: 2112 [link] and Minotaur Rescue [link]. His third iOS game, a Universal (iPhone and iPad) release called Deflex, is on the way, and I've been frustrating myself having fun with a pre-release he recently sent over, for the past couple of days.
Deflex is a dexterity puzzle game, of sorts. It is an iOS adaptation of a 1982 Llamasoft release for the Sinclair machines, VIC-20, and Atari 8-bits, itself inspired by an earlier, simpler Commodore PET title. Gameplay is tricky to describe, and trickier to master. Or so it seems -- I'm rather a ways from mastering it, myself.
The game takes you through level after level (52 in all) of different characters -- oxen, bulls, smileys, telephones -- arrayed about various wall configurations. You control a ball that appears at level's start, bouncing slowly back and forth along a linear path. The object of the game is to absorb the on-screen characters with your ball. It's the manner in which you get your ball over to all the characters that's the thing about this game.
At the bottom of the screen sit two buttons, one in each corner. These are your only controls. Each button drops a "bat" onto the screen at the exact position of your ball. These bats are mirrors, deflectors. The left button drops a " / " bat, while the right drops a horizontally opposed " \ " one. You can drop as many bats as you like, but I'd caution towards judicious deployment, and you'll see why.
The instant the bat is dropped, two things happen. First, the ball hits it and its course deflects 90-degrees, heading off in a direction dependent upon the direction of its path prior to impact. Second, the bat flips to the opposite type (" / " turns to " \ " and vice versa), adding a sort of mind-bending, deeper complexity to the challenge of strategically clearing the levels. And it's definitely an exercise in strategy, here -- the hurried sort. Because, in order to get the ball to each item on the screen, a clever arrangement of bats must be laid down. Too many bats can lead to chaos, and some levels reward you for lean placement. But you can't take too long about it, because time spent zipping through empty space is time where your score multiplier is dwindling. If it gets too low...your ball disintegrates.
There is some behavioral variety to the on-screen character objects. Many just sit there. Some move towards you. Some (like jiggly bananas) dart away from you. It's a bit chaotic. And the elimination of each character triggers the next note in a haunting piano melody. The whole things delivers a tangible, very bizarre game mood. Standard Minter fare, really.
The first few times I played the game I was utterly lost at sea. After a while, I began to understand what was happening. And now, I feel I have some degree of skill at the game, but I've got a ways to go before I'm at the top of the leaderboards. Well, there are no leaderboards at the moment, but they're on the way. OpenFeint and Game Center integration will be worked in before release, and there'll be 53 score tables in all.
Minter is known for putting out titles that are distinctly "different." (Have a look at Space Giraffe.) Deflex is no exception. The game gets huge points for challenge, uniqueness, and also drippy visual eye-candy. The psychedelia is, as expected, in full effect here.
We'll let you know when Deflex hits the app store. In the mean time I'll be honing my skills in an effort to rule the leaderboards. Well, here's hoping, anyway....
While out at WWDC 2011, I sat down with Limbic Software and Hidden Elephant to have a look at an upcoming game developed in conjunction with Digital Cavemen. Zombie Gunship is, I believe, the most promising title of the aerial zombie shooter genre. Ok, and maybe also the only member of that genre. But, I'm happy it will soon be out there, because sniping zombies from on high is a pretty sweet experience.
The game puts you in control of the turrets of a Lockheed AC-130 heavily-armored ground attack gunship. But, it's not merely enemy troops you're trying to wipe out. It's zombies. Hordes of zombies. And gigantic, hard-to-kill boss zombies. (It's grizzly.)
Your mission is to defend an allied army bunker at Cheyenne Mountain from the encroaching armies of the dead while, at the same time, keeping the unholy beasts from ravenously consuming a number of scattered and highly unfortunate ground troops caught outside said bunker -- all from the belly of a soaring death machine. You have several types of ordnance with which to rain destruction upon the zombies, and the ability to zoom in for a surgical shot that can save a troop from an in-progress zombie attack.
It's an endless experience -- the zombies just won't stop. The longer you fend off the horde, the higher your score. But, eventually, a zombie is going to get into the bunker or you'll inadvertently kill more than two humans with your fire, and that's when the story ends.
Zombie Gunship features Game Center integration, and an update to come will bring more types of zombies, more weapons, and more locales. Limbic recently partnered with a new art studio and a new sounds team that was responsible for the Gears of War audio effects. Zombie Gunship showcases these new talents nicely. The game should be available for download within the next two weeks. Price has not been announced.
I wanted to share a related anecdote that underscores the value of WWDC to iOS and Mac OS X developers everywhere. On my first night at WWDC Arash Keshmirian, CEO of Limbic, gave me a quick demo of the game, which definitely piqued my interest. Our actual sit-down with the AC-130 crew took place late in the week, on Thursday. Between my first glimpse of the game and our scheduled meeting, the developers were able to implement code optimizations with help from Apple engineers that allowed for three times as many zombies to wander the battlefield as before. And this is just one of many such WWDC success stories I've heard from developers we're close to. A valuable week, indeed.
While we were gathered, we also spent some time with Nuts! [App Store], Limbic's new climb-and-dodge title that launched on May 23rd and jumped high in the paid rankings shortly thereafter. The game challenges you, a squirrel, to make it as high as possible up a frustratingly branchy tree in an effort to gain ranking on the leaderboards. There are several different tree environments or stats (normal, icy, ashy, etc.). It's a fun little title that kept me well entertained on the late-night flight back home.
A Nuts! update coming this month will bring additional story and characters, with more environments coming later.
As I sit down to write this review, I can't help but notice that it's rather late in the day -- evening, in fact. The plan was to get this post up and out hours ago. The problem here is the fact that I've been playing the game that is the focus of this review, Forget-Me-Not [App Store] from Nyarlu Labs, this entire day -- from initial download in the wee morning hours to moments ago. Whenever I managed to set it down, just minutes later I felt that a little bit more "research" was needed. And, I have no doubt that before this post is through, yet more research will be called for. That is how excellent this retrolicious lovechild of PAC-MAN and Rogue truly is.
This game is just awesome. It drops your blocky little onscreen avatar into the top level of the ever-changing, pixellated NEON DUNJUN on a mission to collect flowers, shoot monsters, gather fruit, grab the key, and get to the next floor -- and fast, lest the waving ghost of motivation appear! When you collect all the flowers on the floor, the doorway to the next floor appears, and from there you just need the key (which the monsters are fond of running off with). Collect as many flowers as you can in an unbroken sequence to see some real score multipliers kick in.
During GDC, EA Mobile held a press event to display a number of coming titles under their label as well as from Chillingo. In fact, Chillingo co-founder Chris Byatte was on hand, chatting with folks and spreading a bit of wit during demos of the various games.
At the event, I took part in demonstrations of several iOS titles that will shortly be landing in the App Store, from both studios. The following is a brief run-down of the various games from EA Mobile that I spent time with.
Without further ado...
Battleship for iPad
In late 2009, EA Mobile released an iPhone version of the classic naval strategy game Battleship [link] for the iPhone. Next month, a native iPad version of the game will set sail, bringing with it enhanced visuals, detailed cutscene animations, iPhone to iPad WiFi / Bluetooth multiplayer and an exclusive (to iPad) two-player side by side game mode.
Shortly after the April release of Battleship for iPad, an update to the iPhone version will be hitting the App Store.
Max & The Magic Marker
EA Mobile's Max & The Magic Marker, winner of the IGF 2010 D2D Division Award, Â is a line-drawing puzzle platformer due later this month for both the iPhone and iPad. The game puts you in control of Max, who must avoid obstacles, contend with enemies, and solve puzzles in an effort to get through 58 levels across three different game worlds to defeat the evil monster bent on wiping out Max's drawings.
The core mechanic of the game is Max's magic marker, which allows you to draw objects on the screen that come to life and fully interact with the game world. From simple single-line bridges to more complex shapes used to crush enemies, the marker's drawings take on full physics properties and allow Max to avoid various roadblocks and get to the collectible golden spheres spread throughout the levels. Ink can be collected along the way to keep the marker flowing, and shapes drawn, once having served their purpose, can be reclaimed for the reuse of their ink.
Max & The Magic Marker was originally a 15-level WiiWare title. The iOS release has split these levels into a larger number of shorter levels that are better suited to gaming on the go.
Liqua Pop
A game that looks quite lickable (well, aside from the bugs...), EA Mobile's upcoming Liqua Pop is a color-matching puzzle game with lovely, fluid graphics and animation. Your task is to match like-color droplets by dragging and merging them together to form a large enough droplet to kick off its elimination timer. A shake to the iPhone will get that done earlier, but sometimes it's best to wait, as the larger a droplet the more points are awarded as it blinks out. Don't clear the droplets fast enough and the screen fills up and it's game over.
The real object of the game is to get your friend Toadie, who lives on the left side of the screen, to the top of his leaf by releasing bugs (seven types in all) from within certain of the aforementioned droplets. With the release of most bugs, Toadie inches upwards, but certain bugs leave behind obstacles that slow down your progress. When Toadie reaches the top, it's on to the next level.
Liqua Pop is certainly one of the most polished color-matching titles I've seen, with its colorful Retina-supporting visuals and convincing animation. Facebook integration allows scores to be shared with friends.
Liqua Pop is set to land in the App Store sometime later this month.
Draw Jump
Draw Jump is a sketch-stylized game of how-high-can-you-go, where you keep little rocket man Cosmo bouncing upward by drawing strategically placed trampolines below him. Cosmo starts out on Earth but, with a bit of savvy sketching, it's out into the cosmos with him, moving upwards through six different environments across 11 levels. There are trees, planets, stars and suns to be seen along the way, as well as sunflower fuel cells to be collected for an energy boost.
The game's visuals are based on Japanese "pop" inspired artwork. Leaderboards along with Facebook and Twitter integration keep you striving for the highest altitude.
Draw Jump will bounce into the App Store in late March or early April for both the iPhone and iPad.
Coconut Dodge
Coming in late March or early April for both iPhone and iPad, the aptly titled Coconut Dodge for iOS is a conversion of the popular PSP / PS3 game to which PSNstores gave a 10/10 rating. The game puts you in touch control of Clawrence the crab who must meander his way through 30 levels of tropical-themed airborne coconut mazes, bouts of beach ball bouncing, and treasure grabbing.
The game features an Arcade mode where score is king, as well as a Maze Master mode that challenges you to intricately maneuver a gauntlet of oncoming obstacles. Leaderboards and Facebook integration are rolled in.
Yesterday, Fun Guy Media released Entombed for the iPhone [App Store], an exploration puzzler set in the labyrinthine underground tombs of ancient civilizations. The game is something of a grave-robber scenario, but the other way around.
You play the role of Blake (indeed), whose father, a heroic archeologist in his time, has recently died in a freak accident, leaving you with a dread family legacy. During his life, your father explored the ancient tombs of long lost civilizations -- the Egyptians, the Incas, the Aztecs, the Persians, and the like. He stripped them of their treasures for display in museums around the world, but, known only to his closest family members, he secretly kept a number of precious items for his own, personal collection. Over the years, your family has seen many a dark and tragic event befall them, your father's recent demise among them. Upon consulting an Egyptian mystic, you learn that the only way to avoid the same unfortunate end as your father is to return the artifacts in the secret collection to their rightful resting place.
And, so the adventure begins. As you move through the levels of this game, your goal is to return the artifacts in question, which requires solving various puzzles that riddle these subterranean labyrinths to get to your final destination. Along the way you will find various objects and obstacles that must be collected, moved, or crumbled in order to gain access to closed off areas of the tomb. There are pits, dart traps, sliding walls, and sketching challenges that test your observation skills as an archeologist.
You negotiate the many twists and turns of these catacombs by tapping where you'd like to move. Certain objects can be tapped to trigger interactions and a pinch / spread mechanic is used to zoom in and out of the play area. The angled top-down 3D graphics are simple but nice, with great, moody lighting accompanied by a similarly atmospheric audio track.
See our demo video that shows bits of early gameplay.
I, along with several forum readers, encountered a few glitches here and there in the game which required a level restart. It's an unfortunate blemish on a clever and enjoyable game, but I expect the developer to address these in a near-term update. Despite the glitches, our forum members are rather enjoying this one.
Very rarely, an absolute gem flies under our radar, as seems to be the case with Jagex Games Studio's Miner Disturbance [App Store]. Based on a PC game by the same name, Miner Disturbance is an alternate take on the classic Dig Dug formula.
In Miner Disturbance, you take control of a very Mario-esque miner, whose job it is to pick a rather hazardous mountain clean of all its precious metals. Part platformer, part puzzle game, Miner Disturbance has you haphazardly negotiating a series of deteriorating, volcanic, gassy and waterlogged mine-shafts...filled with nasty critters no less.
Your miner is directed via a virtual thumbstick and on-screen buttons. One button enables you to dig through rock and the other is your life-saving jump button. Though the controls are simple, Jagex Games Studios (of Runescape fame) have put effort into making your mining life as easy as possible. Pressing in a direction while pressing your dig button will stop your miner from tumbling down precarious drops, enabling you to easily pick at rock on the other side of the gap.
Once learned this becomes an essential tool, as in order to successfully complete each of the 25 levels' objectives and achieve a gold rating, you will need to dig yourself an elaborate maze to avoid or negotiate the pitfalls you encounter. These stem from simple water-logged areas, where digging around submerged areas realistically spreads the water, to dangerous lava-filled caverns, or areas where poisonous mushrooms emit a toxic gas when disturbed. Add to this the necessary rats, moles, spiders and bats that naturally inhabit these areas, and you're never short an obstacle or three.
Completing each of the level's objectives has the added boon of rewarding you with coins, which can be spent upgrading your miner's abilities. These are essential to reaching the lowest depths and returning alive (the latter a requisite of each and every level) as they improve things such as jumping height, health and water and gas breathing time. Equipment can also assist you to walk over lava, climb sheer rock faces, and locate enemies and artefacts.
To complement the core missions, Miner Disturbance uses these artefacts in a meta-game of sorts, displaying the artefact pieces you've collected in a museum accessible via your overworld map. A volcano is also unlocked after the inital few missions that is essentially a randomly-generated survival mission that records your highscores to compare with your friends.
The volcano is peppered with the same dangers as the standard levels, with the added peril of triggering a volcano if your digging makes the volcano unstable. This commences a mad back-track as you attempt to out-run the forthcoming eruption; some of the best fun to be had with the game. And your results are all recorded in OpenFeint or able to be shared with your friends via Twitter or Facebook.
Jagex Game Studios have already released 5 free levels featuring an entirely new arctic world; complete with new icy obstacles to overcome and a new artefact to discover. Even without the added sweetener, Miner Disturbance is a terrific action-packed puzzle platformer that should keep you entertained for hours as you pick your way through devilishly concocted mineshafts. The iOS version also benefits from a faithful but more detailed and glossy re-imagination of the original artwork.
For those still on the fence, or if you're simply interested in sampling the gameplay first, have a go at the free online Java version.
Coming up with just one word to describe Hasta La Muerte [$1.99] is easy, it's different. Different in that it doesn't play much like any other games on iOS these days, and has a crazy visual style to go along with it.
