I don’t know about you, but all I can think about when I mow someone down or blow someone away in Payback² [$4.99 / $59.99] is Jesse Ventura as Blaine in the movie Predator throwing back the cover of his minigun, spitting out his chewing tobacco (real nasty habit he’s got there) and delivering that immortal one-liner, “Payback time!”

It makes you feel tough, big and clever, and it fits Payback²'s action like a boxing glove. I mean, this game’s got to be worth playing for that reason alone, right?

Clearly this is a GTA clone, and makes no real apology for that. Nor should it, given that the GTA franchise took off in a very different direction after the second installment. Payback² borrows – admittedly very heavily – from the original, and not the third-person 3D versions that came later. You decide whether that’s good or bad, but from my perspective it's a wise decision. The bird's-eye-view format clearly still has a lot of life left in it.

GTA chose to tweak the series when it went fully 3D by dropping you into the world of organized crime. But what was so great about the first two games is that they were all about disorganized crime, and that sweet, reckless, chaotic flavor also permeates Payback².

This certainly can’t be accused of being a slave to its inspiration, however. Instead, it makes use of somewhat randomized game modes, so each new mission – or level, or however you want to label the independent vignettes of action – throws you into quite a different arena. For example, you start out in a tank, surrounded by enemies in need of destruction.

Being a tank you don’t have to worry quite so much about self-sustained injury, crashing or enemy gunfire, and you’re free to trundle around blasting like crazy and blowing things up. It’s an intro that demonstrates the rampant destruction Payback² actively encourages, after which it’s time to head out on foot for a team-based death match.

And so it goes from there, with most any kind of shooting, driving or multiplayer-based game structure you can think of haphazardly piled on top of one another as you climb the criminal ranks. It’s true that this dog pile of unsystematic violence might feel rather unstructured as has been noted on the forums, and that’s because it is. Personally I’d appreciate more story and less cherry-picking of game styles, but it’s hard to criticize Payback² too much for committing to the chaos. Disorganized crime probably shouldn't be too constrained by a deliberate plot sequence, but it can also feel quite jarring how the game schizophrenically  flips between events. Mini-game fans will find this quite endearing, while GTA aficionados will feel like they're splashing around in the shallow end of the crime-game pool.

At least you’re never lonely when playing through these mentalist missions, as the city is a very busy place. The place is littered with pedestrians and motorists – who provide the vehicles you’ll make considerable use of as weapons and escape options – along with your own AI-controlled team members and a huge number of enemies. On top of this are the cops, who seem fairly oblivious to the carnage until you commit a crime right in front of their faces, when you suddenly find yourself fighting a gang war on two fronts. Escape is your best option when the filth are after you, and considering this robs you of valuable time needed to complete your objectives, you soon learn that it’s better to avoid their involvement by any means necessary.

This adds the same enjoyable aura of anarchy that GTA harnessed so expertly, and gives you something to care about when firing wildly into a crowd or jacking car after car. Keeping your eyes peeled for the peelers is an important obstacle that gives the game a bit of much-needed depth.

And if all these game modes still aren't enough, Payback² comes complete with extensive multiplayer options. The online gaming is quite simple, really; replacing the AI characters with other real-life players. They can be on your team, as members of another gang or every man for themselves, depending on the game mode – of which there are many.

Jump into the matchmaking option, pick your game and get into the blood-soaked action. It’s simple and effortless, once the initial matchmaking wait is over and the round is ready. The delay doesn’t seem to be because of an underpowered multiplayer system, so much as shoring up the number of players, but it’s worth it once the pandemonium is in full swing. Also, even this early on in the game’s life, there seems to be a lot of support for multiplayer games, so there’s usually a queue waiting that you can jump straight into. Custom games can be hosted by you that other players are then invited to join in with, but they're just a way to ensure you're playing the event you want without having to find someone already hosting it. A nice option, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if it wasn't included.

The controls don’t ask too much of you, and switch depending on whether you’re on foot or in a vehicle. Running and shooting is easy from the top-down viewpoint, with one analog stick for movement, and the other for strafing. It’s a great system that means you can run in one direction and shoot in another, and since you’ll be dead in seconds if you stand still and take careful aim, you’ll make good use of it. Armored vehicles, such as tanks and choppers, also use this control method, while cars free up your fingers for accelerating and breaking by employing tilt-controlled steering.

We tested the Payback² HD version, by the way, which includes support for the iPad as well as iPhone and iPod touch. If you’re definitely only going to play this on an iPhone or iPod touch, the standard (and slightly cheaper) Payback² version is for you. It still supports small screen Retina, but isn’t iPad-native. However, both games are identical in every other way.

Admittedly I’m a little torn between the absolute absence of story– which leaves you feeling hungry even after wolfing down the rich feast of violence – and the guilty pleasure of random acts of destruction. Payback² would land itself an extra star if it had found some middle ground between the two, but there’s still a lot to enjoy and it requires very little commitment on your part to play. Load it up, go mental with a machine gun during your coffee break, turn it off and forget. Sounds like pretty good escapism to me.

The Fractal and Pulse: Volume One developer doesn't disappoint in its latest dazzling puzzler Splice: Tree of Life [$3.99 (HD)]. Cipher Prime once again sticks to an iPad-only experience, but it only takes one look at the gorgeously large, 70+ levels to understand why the team opted for the larger touch canvas.

Players have a limited number of moves (splices) to arrange cells in a way that matches the outlined structure. The game later introduce mutator genes which cause cells to duplicate, create or destroy lower level cells. Comprehending this may sound like it requires an advanced degree in science, but Splice's crisp and minimal interface makes observing and learning the different mutations' behavior simple.

(more...)

If you've played Hothead Games' Kard Combat [Free], it's a safe bet that Three Donkeys' Spectromancer [$1.99 / $3.99 (HD)] is going to seem familiar. Very familiar. It's not just that they're both card-battle games in the same vein as Magic, it's that they have exactly the same rules, play the same way, and while the cards have different names and art, their game stats and abilities are identical.

So is Spectromancer a clone of Kard Combat? Well, no. Then Kard Combat is a clone of Spectromancer? No, not really. The thing is is that Kard Combat is a licensed port of Spectromancer - the computer game that's been out for years. The new Spectromancer iOS game is also a port, but it's a direct port, keeping the title, card names, art and style of the computer game (which, apparently now exists in a free Flash version as well).

The crisis of origins doesn't stop there: Spectromancer is based on Apus Software's Astral Tournament (2001) a game heavily inspired by, you guessed it, Magic: the Gathering. Spectromancer is a joint project by Alexi Stankevich, the creator of Astral Tournament, and Richard Garfield himself (y'know, the guy who created Magic).

(more...)

Lost Cities [$3.99] is a game that's hard to quantify. It's built on Reiner Knizia's formidable game design talents, and made into an impressive asynchronous experience by The Coding Monkeys, developers of board game delight Carcassonne [$9.99]. It has a robust single-player campaign and most of the online tools one could hope for. It looks great, too. All of that sounds pretty glowing, but we're only a few days in and I'm already making excuses not to take my turns.

Lost Cities is, more or less, two-player Solitaire. Like Solitaire it's almost, but not entirely, mindless. You draw cards into your hand, and you put them in appropriately ordered and colored piles. You share the deck with an opponent, and ideally work against each other. Much like Solitaire, though, the game relies on luck as much as skill or strategy. It's also best played as a time-waster, without the brunt of your full attention. That zen-like state that comes from moving cards around towards a goal is kind of hard to achieve when you're only taking turns every hour or two.

That's not to say it's poorly designed—not at all. It's just a bit dull for an asynchronous multiplayer game. You take your turn, you place one card, you draw one card. Rinse and repeat. Normally I'd pad out the experience contemplating future moves or considering my opponent's strategy, but Lost Cities isn't really complex enough to make much of that necessary.

(more...)

By now management sim fans should be familiar with the drill - out of the blue a new Kairosoft game is launched, bringing its distinct gameplay style to a new theme. In this case, Cafeteria Nipponica [$3.99] takes a turn at giving players the opportunity to become masters of food service management. The theme is a welcome addition and works well with the management tools it offers. In fact, it may work a little too well, as Nipponica ends up being one of the deepest Kairosoft games on the platform, sacrificing some accessibility for depth.

Cafeteria Nipponica puts you in the role of a manager of a restaurant. You hire cooks and servers, set the dishes, and watch as patrons start flocking to your café. Soon after, you unlock the ability to initiate plans for your restaurant, that range from publicity moves (such as running a mobile phone campaign) that encourage business to expanding your restaurant to even being able to move it to a bigger town (bigger population means more possible customers).

(more...)

In late February, on Leap Day no less, developer Fluttermind released Incoboto [$3.99 (HD)] for the iPad. Fitting, too, as Incoboto is the type of experience that only comes around every so often. It's technically a platform-puzzler, but all the running, jumping, and puzzle solving you end up doing is just a means to experience the dark and moody story of a strange universe where the sun no longer shines. Incoboto is a visual treat and its story and characters are deep and interesting, something many games have trouble implementing on a mobile platform.

We really liked Incoboto in our review, but since it is so heavily reliant on its visuals and style it was one of those games that suffered when Apple released the new iPad a few weeks following the game's release. It has never looked bad, per se, but that high resolution screen was just screaming for support from a game like Incoboto. And over the weekend, that's what we got. A brand new update has added Retina Display support to the game, and it's straight up gorgeous.

(more...)

iOS has always been a fantastic fit for pinball games, what with its elongated screens and tilt functionality, and plenty of fantastic pinball games have graced the platform in the last several years. In 2009, Cowboy Rodeo delivered fantastic iOS renditions of the Amiga classics Pinball Dreams [$1.99 / Free] and its sequel Pinball Fantasies [$2.99]. They were decidedly retro, but the gameplay definitely stood the test of time and each game still holds a place amongst my very favorites on the App Store.

One bummer though was that when the iPad finally came along in 2010 there was no elegant way to bring either of the games to the larger screen without drastically tweaking the original artwork, which the developers verified looked totally ugly. However, in July of last year Cowboy Rodeo found the solution to this by retaining the exact same gameplay but recreating all of the visuals in 3D, resulting in the Universal Pinball Dreams HD [$3.99].

(more...)

It’s been nearly three years since we checked out Boom Brigade [$1.99] and even back then we appreciated its ability to offer a decent action experience with strategy elements and an incredibly simple control scheme. With Boom Brigade 2 [$2.99], 10ton seems to have upped the ante with more levels, units and weapons. It all leads to an improved title and a great addition to the iOS strategy lineup.

For those unfamiliar with its predecessor, Boom Brigade 2 is a mission-based tactical title that’s best described as a combination of tower defense and real-time action. Each mission charges you with defending a structure with a predetermined number of units from five possible classes, each with their own weapons (Sniper, Flamethrower, Machine Gunner, Shotgunner and Bazooka). You’ll be defending against waves of enemies with various attributes and weapons of their own. At the end of each mission, you’re scored and assigned a rating based on how well you defended your structure and kept your troops alive.

You control your troops almost exclusively via a line-drawing mechanic. A simple touch and drag from your soldier to the location you want them to be at directs them to move. Each unit also has a shooting range and will automatically attack any units within it (you can also tap on specific enemies to focus fire, if you wish). Thus, the majority of the gameplay in Boom Brigade 2 focuses on micromanaging each unit by moving them within shooting range while simultaneously keeping track of their health ammo. While this sounds simple enough, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that make each mission engaging and fun.

One of my most favorite aspects of Boom Brigade 2 is how deceptively deep the gameplay seems to be. A lot of the upgrades for each unit are actually viable, and it’s quite fun discovering what combinations work on which missions. Upgrades affect everything from power to range to even reload speed (weapons are automatically reloaded when empty). There are also a lot of different strategies that can be utilized for taking out the opposition, with turtling working well on some levels while others force you to balance protecting your base with charging forward and taking out enemies that cause more damage from afar. When you add in the random elements of power-ups there’s certainly a lot to take into consideration.

I place so much emphasis on Boom Brigade’s strategic elements because you’ll find a need to embrace them in order to succeed – especially at later levels. The campaign does a pretty decent job with its difficulty curve and introducing new weapon upgrades, but eventually the challenge ramps up and you’ll find yourself actually needing to pay attention to enemy types and matching up weapon upgrades to  your opposition and tactics. The survival modes, meanwhile, significantly ramp up the difficulty and are a nice change of pace to the somewhat slower, more structured enemy waves found in the campaign.

One of the few issues we noted in the original Boom Brigade was the potential for issues on the small iPhone screen. Unfortunately, those still persist somewhat, but the inclusion of tactical mode, which pauses the game when you’re directing your troops, is a good inclusion that attempts to alleviate the problem. Of course, this issue is moot while playing on an iPad (by far my preferred device for this game). There’s also not much in terms of replayability once you complete the campaign (survival leaderboard chasers notwithstanding).

You won’t be blown away by any of the auditory or visual elements in Boom Brigade 2, but in all honesty that’s not what this game is about. Rather, Boom Brigade 2 focuses on a real-time strategy experience with loads of weapons and explosions. On this front, few people will end up unsatisfied. Fans of the original, and really anyone that wants to engage in a little alien annihilation, need to check this game out.

You're wandering through a rural town with only a few buildings, and it's obviously been here for a long time. There's the weapons shop, the armory, the inn which costs you 19 gold for an evening's stay, and a quick bath in an oversized washbasin that hasn't seen a cleaning since last century.

A few simple flowers dot the edges of the town's path, dots of color bobbing in your vision as you look out towards a wide open field. Smiling slimes crawl happily through the grass outside the city limits, waiting for you to stab them and gain a few paltry coins from their gelatinous bodies. Soon, you'll save up enough gold to make your town bigger and better, and the adventurers will learn of its name.

If this all sounds eerily familiar, it could be for two reasons: You've already played Dragon Quest, or you're hitting that same point with Kairosoft games that I am: complete and total oversaturation. I really tried to judge Dungeon Village [$3.99] on its quality and ease of gameplay, but let's face it, there's only so much city building one can do before you need to go get up and do something else. Anything else.

(more...)

Awesome! The simulation game gurus at Kairosoft have stealthily released another game on the App Store. Dungeon Village [$3.99], as its called, builds on what we've seen in its previous titles, as it blends traditional city simulation with RPG mechanics and systems. Dungeon specifically tasks you with creating a town that can support adventurers. You'll build armories and item shops, buy weapons and armor for visiting heroes, and persuade people to stay in your village forever through clever planning.

We've spent a few moments with Dungeon Village so far and can report that it's as cheery and deep as any other Kairosoft release. It's definitely not doing anything functionally different from its other games, though, so you might want to hold off until you see a review if you don't gobble up every Kairosoft release.

(more...)

This past December PopCap gave their iOS version of Bejeweled 2, which had been around since the early days of the App Store, the heave-ho in favor of a new version of the game simply titled Bejeweled [$0.99] and a second separate app for its spinoff mode Bejeweled Blitz [Free].

Both new games were arguably better than their original unified iteration, but for some strange reason Bejeweled Blitz was Universal while Bejeweled proper got left out in the cold in regards to iPad support.

Today PopCap addressed this by releasing Bejeweled HD [$3.99 (HD)], an iPad-native version of the world’s most popular match-3. While it’s sort of a bummer to not see a Universal version, Bejeweled HD does support the new iPad’s Retina Display and looks simply fantastic in that high of a resolution. It also comes equipped with the very same modes as its smaller iOS counterpart, which you can read all about in our review.

It’s crazy just how much fun Bejeweled still is after all these years. It proves that just utilizing the same mechanics in a game isn’t enough to emulate its success, it’s all about execution. There are a ton of great match-3s in the world (and even more really terrible ones) but there’s really only one Bejeweled, and now iPad owners have a version to call their own.

As much as we may not want to admit it, a game’s style goes a long way—especially in a market as crowded as the App Store. With so many games from so many developers, the right icon and the right visual presentation are often the be all and end all of standing out from the pack. And while those of us who love games know that graphics don’t make for a good game, it’s hard to ignore the allure of stylish games.

That’s why I jumped on Brandnew Boy [$3.99], the latest action RPG from Oozoo. Sporting the Unreal Engine and a beautiful cel-shaded art style rich in color, the game is instantly stunning—especially in motion, where the smooth framerate and fast action prove to make an already-attractive game even more gorgeous. Much of the attention the game has received is because of its presentation.

Thankfully, unlike some pretty-yet-disappointing games out there, Brandnew Boy manages to delight in terms of gameplay, as well. It’s certainly not the best action RPG on the platform, but its unique combat controls and hearty adventure make it worth a spot on your home screen.

(more...)

Like the bad boy that every girl finds impossible to resist, Frontier Developments' sequel to their platform-adventure LostWinds [$3.99] from last year isn't always easy to control. Precision is not LostWinds2: Winter of the Melodias' [$3.99] best feature. With the sheer amount of things that LostWinds2 can occasionally demand of its players, this would normally be almost unforgivable but much like the hypothetical rapscallion, LostWinds2 is just too charming to give up.

Set shortly after the events of the first game, LostWinds2 follows the continuing adventures of the chubby-cheeked Toku, a brave and impossibly adorable young boy, and his companion Enril The Wind Spirit. After a brief introductory sequence, one that features a number of piscine-looking critters, you find yourself in control of Toku. His mother Magdi has somehow gone absent and it is your duty to go look for her. This eventually segues into an exploration of some phenomenally gorgeous places, the acquaintanceship of some new friends and an encounter with old evils.

(more...)

Ah. Werewolves. One of the three components in the holy Hollywood trinity of monsters. They ordinarily come in two flavors: loud, ravenous and incapable of anything but wanton violence… or dark-eyed eye candy. The transmogrification-happy lupine of MacGuffin's Curse [$4.99 / Free], however, is neither of those.

Indie development studio Brawsome has MacGuffin's Curse billed as a 'comedy puzzle-adventure', an appropriate description if there ever was one. Operating from a top-down perspective, MacGuffin's Curse is rife with all the switch-flipping, block-moving, barrier-removing goodness that is standard of the genre and the silliness of a Terry Pratchett novel. Here, you play as the charming Lucas MacGuffin, a red-haired thief who dwells in a considerable destitution with his young child and elderly mother. He has something to say about pretty much anything and everyone, a peculiarity that may either have you rolling your eyes within the first ten minutes or chuckling away in appreciation. Take your pick. Either is applicable.

(more...)

Kairosoft really got gamers fired up when they released Game Dev Story in Fall of 2010, a sim where you took the reins over building your own game company from the ground up. Then, they realized we liked the formula, and a flurry of other "stories" followed. Pocket League Story. Venture Towns. Grand Prix Story. Mega Mall Story. It was fair to say that most of these games had a lot in common: build a business or town from the ground up. And while I admit I was a major fan, I don't know that I would have sprung for another title in this series if there wasn't a little spice thrown in to change things up a bit.

Luckily, Kairosoft also realized we felt that way, and Epic Astro Story [$3.99] is the result. If you take the building sim thing and mix it with some Star Trek and a dash of Phantasy Star for good measure, you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect here. Just in case you've never played a Kairosoft title before, they give you the reins on building something and managing its growth, much like SimCity.

(more...)