We’ve been using the word “polished” a lot lately because there’s no better way to describe that extra attention to detail that some games have.
Cobra Mobile’s Mouse About [App Store] is one of those games.
At its core Mouse About is a simple puzzle game in which you control Marv the mouse. Your goal is to eat all food on the screen and not fall off. You set Marv in motion by swiping your finger on the screen, but he won’t stop unless he hits food, an obstacle or the edge of the screen. Each level is played against the timer. If you run out of time or fall off the screen, you lose a life.
The game features randomly generated levels of increasing difficulty, so should provide you with plenty of gameplay.
The graphics, animation and soundtrack to this $2.99 title make it worth a serious look. The screenshots really don’t do the game justice, so it’s best to watch the embedded video:
Imangi has released their latest word puzzle game called Imangi Word Squares [App Store].
The $0.99 game is a puzzle game that is based on “word squares”. A word square is a grid of letters where each row and column forms a valid word. In Imangi Word Squares, you start with a scrambled word square and your job is to unscramble the letters by dragging and ropping the letters to the correct place.
Features include:
Over 1000 hand-selected unique puzzles
4 difficulty levels consisting of 3×3 to 6×6 squares
Adjustable hint settings
History of game.
Imangi Word Squares is on sale for $0.99 for as a limited introductory offer. The developer is also responsible for the self-titled game Imangi, a cross between Scrabble and Rubik’s Cube, which has been a favorite amongst some of our readers. Imangi is also on sale for $0.99.
iPhone developer Moopf has released a free Lite version [App Store] of their peg puzzle jumping puzzle game Hiqup.
We previously reviewedHiqup and found it to be a highly polished and fun game.
The game is a fresh twist on the old peg-jump game in which you try to eliminate as many pegs as possible by jumping over other pegs to remove them..
Hiqup, however, takes this concept a step further and adds its own twist to the game with bombs, black holes, teleports, free jumps and special spaces that must be filled.
The full version of the game comes with 10 standard peg boards and 47 original levels. The lite version offers a reasonable sampling of these to give you an idea of the gameplay, and the full version is only $1.99.
Freeverse’s steampunk-themed, accelerometer-controlled puzzle game Plank [App Store] has appeared as a $1.99 download in the App Store. We posted a preview several days back.
Balance the marbles on the plank by tilting left and right and roll them to match falling marbles of the same color. Make lines of 3 or more to score points and remove the marbles. Clear the marbles quickly or the weight will be too much for the plank and it will explode.
Plank features three levels of difficulty (from “Normal” to “Nnnnaaaarghh!”) and various power-ups, including the “Shake” smart bomb that knocks out a whole line of marbles.
See the developer’s demo video of the game in action:
Freeverse let us know about an upcoming puzzle game that they are planning for release next week. Before you say you have enough puzzle games on your iPhone, this one may be different enough to be worth a look.
The game is called Plank and is almost exclusively accelerometer-based. It also comes with nice graphics and a steampunk theme. As in all alternative-puzzle-universes, the goal of the game is to match 3 or more.
Balance the marbles on the plank by tilting left and right and roll them to match falling marbles of the same color. Make lines of 3 or more to score points and remove the marbles. Clear the marbles quickly or the weight will be too much for the plank and it will explode.
Power-ups and specials, such as the “shake” smart bomb promise to keep the game exciting. The game also offers three levels of difficulty.
This brief teaser video provides a feel for the gameplay:
Indie developer Alisdair Mills wrote in to inform us that he is readying StuntBike, an accelerometer-controlled, physics-based iPhone game, for a November release in the App Store.
Similar to the multi-platform XMoto, StuntBike challenges the player to get a motor bike to the end of a track by negotiating various obstacles and hazards. The game will feature 16 single player levels and a two player “race to the flag” mode that can be played over WiFi.
Althought a final price has not yet been set, Alisdair indicates it likely won’t be over $0.99.
See a demo video of the game in its current state, posted by the developer.
Transgaming announced that they would be delivering Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for the iPhone and iPod Touch portable devices builds on an existing relationship between TransGaming and D3Publisher. “The iPhone and iPod Touch are natural extensions to TransGaming’s existing Mac business and we are focused on bringing only the highest quality content to these devices. Puzzle Quest is an outstanding franchise and we have no doubt this game will have incredible appeal to a broad range of gamers”, commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming. “We have established a leadership position in bringing top tier games to Mac and we are now setting our sights on the Apple mobile market opportunity.”
Puzzle Quest combines elements of a role-playing game with puzzle mechanics.
The game was originally published for the Nintendo DS and PSP in early 2007 and was well very well received.
Mark S. Morris recently released a Torus [App Store], a fun little accelerometer-controlled puzzle game that can be a bit frustrating. As the developer describes it,
Catch tori as they fall from the sky by tilting your device to slide the base hook around the play area. You take damage each time a torus hits your base or the floor, but you can replace health points by catching the glowing green tori that appear when you are in danger.
It’s a super-simple game, but is an amusing pick-up diverison set to a relaxing audio trackset.
Get your dramamine ready, Tag Games has released their spinning action puzzler to the App Store for $4.99. Rock’n’Roll [App Store] is an accelerometer and touchscreen based version of the developer’s highly rated mobile title:
The story behind Rock’n’Roll is a familiar concoction of friendship, music, kidnapping and blown fuses! You play as ‘Roll’, a rather well rounded character, who must enter the spinning mazes of Flint Island in an effort to recover the Evil Sky Spirits musical notes and save his best friend ‘Roll’ from imprisonment.
Rock’n’Roll is an incredibly simple game to pick up and play, just rotate the maze left and right using either motion sensing or touch controls and Roll magically falls through it by the power of gravity! Collect all the musical notes in a maze to escape. Complete them all and the Evil Sky Spirit just might release Roll.
The game features 30 mazes across three different environments and offers two modes of play: quest and race against the clock.
Both of these titles are highly polished and provide a rather lavish Breakout experience. We thought readers might appreciate a look at both to help determine where to spend their dollars. We’ve prepared a back-and-forth video comparison that should convey the overall feel of both games.
Before looking at each title, a quick word about “Breakout clones.” These games and any such games made in the last 20 years are actually Arkanoid clones. Arkanoid, released by Taito in 1986, took the Breakout formula to the next level by including various powerups and penalty items which dropped from the occasional destroyed brick as well as hugely improved graphics and more varied level layout.
Atari’s Super Breakout
Straight away, Atari’s Super Breakout wins the battle for the truly retro inclined, as it features a Classic mode which looks and plays like the 1976 original. The core of the game, however, is the much more widely appealing Super mode.
Super mode offers two play scenarios: Normal and Progressive. Both start the player off in an underwater world and move the player, via unlocked areas, through other environments such as wood, mountain, flame, etc., each with its own set of backdrops and ball effects. In Progressive mode, the bricks advance downward toward the player’s paddle, Space Invaders style, while Normal mode features stationary bricks.
Gameplay is straightforward and very Arkanoid-like. Destroy bricks by deflecting a ball with the paddle which is controlled by sliding a finger left / right along the bottom of the screen. Powerups drop from certain brick eliminations and some bricks are indestructible. In a bit of a twist, certain portions of the background scenery will deflect the ball when hit right. Players can choose between the game’s own soundtrack (a relaxing “new age” collection) or tracks from his or her own music library.
Super Breakout allows a photo from the iPhone’s photo library to be used as the playfield backdrop.
Gameloft’s Block Breaker Deluxe 2
Block Breaker Deluxe 2 is Gameloft’s iPhone port of its mobile title which is available for a wide variety of platforms. Block Breaker veers much farther afield from the basic Arkanoid formula than does Atari’s offering. All of the standard components are present–a player controlled paddle at the bottom of the screen, powerups dropping from eliminated bricks, etc.–but Block Breaker offers much more, as well.
The game is divided into eight different locales on a paradise island. Each locale contains eight levels, the completion of which unlocks the next locale, each with its own look. Block Breaker’s onscreen action is frantic. Once the ball starts knocking out bricks, it’s basically a hail of powerups, stars, and cash sliding down the screen. Stars and cash can be used in the island’s Shop to upgrade the paddle. A finger tap on any of these falling items as they descend adds them to your arsenal. Some powerups are quite unusual, such as “yoyo,” which tethers the ball to the paddle with an elastic string, a shield powerup that temporarily prevents the loss of a missed ball, and a finger-controller guided missile. The entire layout of bricks can transform based on certain prize eliminations. It’s actually hard at times to keep one’s eye on the ball. Certain “boss” levels don’t involve bricks at all, but require the elimination of various moving objects as can be seen in the comparison video.
The default paddle control method is a left / right swipe at the bottom of the screen, as with Super Breakout. A Gravity Mode, accessed in the game’s options, allows tilt control of the paddle. In this mode, bricks can be arranged to a certain degree with a tilt, and when only a few bricks are left onscreen, a quick upward jab with the iPhone will “throw” the ball at the bricks.
A nice feature of Block Breaker is the support for multiplayer games. In this mode, the one-player paddle is mirrored at the top of the screen and two opponents can battle their way through the levels on the same device. This can also be a fun challenge for a single player engaging in a two-handed game.
Block Breaker is set to a high quality, pounding techno-esque soundtrack.
And the winner is…
Both of these titles are high quality takes on a popular formula and offer attractive visuals and enjoyable gameplay. But Block Breaker Deluxe 2 is much “more” of a game than Super Breakout, offering more lively onscreen action, more varied and interesting powerups, and allowing for multiplayer game sessions. That said, Block Breaker’s gameplay may veer too far from the standard Arkanoid formula for some people’s liking; Super Breakout is definitely the more “traditional” title. We hope our comparison video will help in your decision making.
Fans of this genre should not overlook the various other Arkanoid clones in the App Store. We posted a roundup of these games back in July, the best of which was Ikanoid [$0.99 App Store].
Super Breakout from Atari offers a polished take on the Arkanoid formula, taking players through multiple environments with an element theme. True retro fans may enjoy the Classic mode that brings true 1976 Breakout gameplay.
Block Breaker Deluxe 2 takes the Arkanoid formula to the next level with a wide array of powerups and a cash system for purchasing paddle upgrades. Its onscreen action is more frantic than the typical brick breaker. Multiplayer support allows two people to compete on the same device.
We’ve been using the word “polished” a lot lately because there’s no better way to describe that extra attention to detail that some games have.
Freeverse’s steampunk-themed, accelerometer-controlled puzzle game Plank [
Atari’s Super Breakout
Gameloft’s Block Breaker Deluxe 2
