Fans of both video games and music are likely familiar with the work of fantasy landscape artist Roger Dean. Since the late 1960s he's been creating album artwork for countless bands, most notably for the bands Yes and Asia, and that continues to this day. In the mid-80s he also became involved with video game illustrations, and created the iconic box art for Shadow of the Beast by Psygnosis as well as numerous others.
Roger Dean is an incredible artist and a legend in the field, and now he has another feather to stick in his cap with his own iOS game called Dragons Dream [$4.99]. It's a fairly simplistic cave flyer, and if we're talking strictly in terms of back-of-the-box features it won't set any benchmarks. It's got two modes – a 2:00 minute timed mode where you collect as many orbs as possible and an endless mode where you try to get as far as possible while nabbing the occasional wisp for extra points.
However, a feature list is not the reason you get a game like Roger Dean's Dragons Dream. You get it for the overall visual and aural experience; for the immersion into incredible fantasy worlds. And Dragons Dream totally nails that. From the tiny details like the animation of the dragon and menu sound effects to the collection of unlockable artwork (which you can save straight to your Camera Roll), Dragons Dream is a fantasy enthusiast's dream.
That's not to say that the core mechanics are bad though, even if a bit basic. The physics and weight of your dragon feel incredibly well-tuned, kind of a mixture between the smooth rise-and-fall movement of Jetpack Joyride [Free] and a more "tap-to-flap" style control. Once I spent a few minutes getting the hang of it, I found myself playing over and over again, hooked on beating my previous best scores and rising up the Game Center leaderboards. There's also a number of achievements to earn, which are tied into unlocking the game's artwork bonuses.
In the timed Arcade mode, scoring is based both on distance and how many orbs you can collect. Collecting orbs consecutively will increase a multiplier which can really send your scores sky high, though it feels like there's a ceiling given that it's a timed mode. The level terrain and orb placement is random each time you play, but even still there's only so many orbs you can collect in two minutes. The endless Free Fly mode is a much better test of your endurance and skill, with a nice risk vs. reward factor that has you deciding if trying to collect wisps for bonus points in your final score tally is worth taking your focus off the safest path.
Oh, one other neat thing I almost forgot to mention is that orb collection in Arcade mode is actually tied to the music. Collecting orbs keeps the main melodies going, and missing them gives you an eerie quietness that's a good reminder that you're screwing up, kind of like missing notes in Guitar Hero. It's just another subtle way that Dragons Dream sucks you into its immersive world, which is pretty cool. Check out the official trailer for an idea of what the game is like, but keep in mind that whatever capture software was used for it doesn't do justice to the game in person, which runs incredibly smoothly.
It might not be the most full-featured game out there, but the gorgeous environments, hypnotic music and sound effects, and attention to detail all make Dragons Dream a compelling offering, especially for fans of Dean's work. Similar to the recent God of Blades [$2.99], Dragons Dream is greater than the sum of its parts thanks to excellent artistic direction and style, and something about it is just plain fun in that minimalist Canabalt [$2.99] kind of way.
I'm hoping the game's developer Appshen Limited will see fit to continue adding new levels and unlockable artwork, but even as is the two included environments which have been created by Dean are a joy to soar through. Players in our forums have been digging it too, and if you have even the slightest love for fantasy artwork or Roger Dean's work, then Dragons Dream needs to be on your radar.
We've been keepingtabs on Foursaken Media's zombie sequel since we heard that one was in the works earlier this year. Considering the large cult following that N.Y.Zombies [$0.99]Â garnered in our own community, there was certainly some excitement to see if Foursaken could repeat and expand upon its successes. N.Y.Zombies 2 [$0.99] certainly accomplishes those goals. With great visuals, an expanded skill set, online co-op and well done presentation and theatrics N.Y.Zombies 2 is a great sequel and worth the wait.
Following the journey of a survivor of the zombie apocalypse, N.Y.Zombies 2 charges you with trying to stay alive in a world now ravaged with the undead. Story missions are separated by location, with the narrative being driven via journal pages that act as the story progression between levels. While a decent story isn't a particularly pressing prerequisite for a good survival based horror game on iOS, I still enjoyed the narrative techniques used by Foursaken in setting the tone for the rest of the game.
Take Canabalt [$2.99], flip its camera 90 degrees and replace jumping with shoving and that, ladies and germs, is Shove Pro [$4.99]. Sorta. That's it on the most basic element. Shove Pro is perhaps actually engineering a new genre, the parody-action title, and the fact that it also has an airtight plot makes it all the more ludicrious/amazing/shoving.
In Rad Dragon's latest, you play as Lars Speedwagon, a stunt actor from a bygone Hollywood era when those chase scenes where the good guy jets down a crowded road and shoves innocent bystanders onto boxes, food trucks, or cars to slow down the authorities. It's Speedwagon's calling. He lives to shove. And he'll stop shoving if the cops get their shove-hating hands on him. Your job is to put off the inevitable for as long as possible.
This is done by intentionally colliding head-on with people on the street, which triggers a bullet-time-like sequence where you can select and drag the innocent sucker's limbs and indicate what direction and with how much force you'd like to send them careening into the stratosphere with.
Down for a little mindless self-indulgence? Want it on the cheap? If so, you might want to take a look at Chillingo's Storm the Train [Free]. It has everything an endless action fan could want: guns, trains, gorey deaths, trains, and a huge list of upgrades. Also: trains. And, oddly enough, the ability to go left. Your ultimate goal is to go from train to train murdering everything that moves, but there's nothing wrong with taking the occasional short detour backwards. Crazy idea, eh?
Even better, it's one of those free games that arrives without hand firmly in wallet. I'm still digging through the first of three extremely long lists of upgrades, but I've never felt like putting cash down on the procedure. Everything comes in time, be it health upgrades, fancy new clothes or drones that can take off an enemy's head at a dozen paces. The trains, at least, don't require upgrading. The trains are great right from the start.
Reflec Beat + [Free] feels like the Tron equivalent to a one- or two-player rhythm battle game. You're not zooming on bikes, but all the flashing neon, the flinging of note-pucks, and high-energy music makes each round feel like the stakes are high and that the winner painfully earned their survival. This is how you do touch-based rhythm games, on the iPad, anyway.
The goal is to get the highest score by tapping, holding, or flinging notes when they line up on your bar or the two hi-hat-like green cymbals above the bar. Players earn 1-3 points based on their timing, double that for hold notes, and 10 points for flinging notes.
This last, fast technique is referred to as a "just reflec," and has various conditions players must meet. It requires a golden note and perfect timing while sliding your finger. Players must build their Just Reflec Gauge to use this powerful slide attack. This gauge fills in proportion to how well you time each tap, too. For a music game, this is very intensity in ten cities!
In true Konami fashion, score rating is both intense and bizarre: a 90% achievement rate equals a AAA and 95% is AAA+. Getting a C is the lowest form of failure. Yes, this is grad school gaming.
I've been doing the pen and paper role-playing thing for over a decade now, and there's one problem I've seen over and over with new players: they're often uncomfortable committing to the absurdity. It's hard to take yourself seriously and pretend to be a half-elf assassin with a bounty on your head or the best damn wizard your wizarding school has ever produced. Behold Studios'Knights of Pen & Paper [$1.99] doesn't have this problem. It jumps into the absurdity with both feet, bringing players along whether they like it or not.
That's not to say it's a game I'd sit down to play every week, pulling out my dice bag and my character sheet and settling in for the long haul. It has a shallow story, an uninspired cast of characters and far, far too many collection quests for any pen-and-paper experience I'd enjoy. Good thing it's on my phone, where I don't mind a little grinding in my RPGs. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the constant stream of nerdy references: Knights of Pen & Paper is a game that knows its audience and it doesn't shy away from indulging us.
The game occupies an odd space in the gamers' pantheon. It inhabits the world of tabletop role-playing, with all the d20s and Doritos that entails. Structurally, though, it's an RPG, with the party, leveling and questing all in your control. Then there's the stuff that feels uncomfortably mobile-specific, like its unending focus on money—earning, spending and, yes, buying it.
The two easiest ways for folks on the iOS store to make money as quickly as possible: 1) Exploit people's profound love of nudity. 2) Exploit people's profound love of retro-style games. Polyroll [$1.99 / Free] only excels at one of these, which is terrible news for people who love nudity. (Sorry. Fortunately, I hear there are plenty of places online to see it for free, unless you count the sizable toll it takes on your soul and budding sexuality.)
"Exploit" isn't quite the right word, but we've become conditioned to feel that retro-style graphics are basically a marketing gimmick in 2012. I mean, really, there is no real reason to make games look like old NES or SNES games today unless it's an aesthetic choice of some sort: You either are trying to evoke the feel those old games had or are simply trying to wrest a fistful of nickles and dimes from players because you know that they'll think, "Hey this looks like an old game ZOMG!"
All of this is to say: Until you play it, Polyroll might seem like another gold-rushing game trying to horn in on the 8-bit "revolution," but it isn't. It's doing something more deft: Actually filling in some gaps and introducing some new ideas to the classic platformers it's drawing inspiration from.
You'd expect Airtight Games to put together a quality puzzle game. This is the studio responsible for Quantum Conundrum, after all, headed up by Kim Swift of Narbacular Drop and Portal fame. Given that pedigree, you won't be surprised when I tell you that the studio's first iOS release, Pixld [$0.99], is a great little puzzle game.
You might be more surprised to discover that it's not a particularly ambitious one. Pixld has one idea: tap one tile to flip it and every tile surrounding it, then match those tiles in squarish groups. Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea—one that sets up some seriously fun game modes. But I can't tell you that there are surprising depths beneath this simple surface. I can't go on about the set dressing. I can't even pull out the tired old "easy to learn, hard to master." Pixld is straightforward, and you know what? I'm totally okay with that, because it's straightforwardly excellent.
I've got to admit, it's getting pretty hard to be enthused about zombie games these days. Not that there's anything inherently bad about undead annihilation, but the market does seem to be getting over-saturated. Zombiewood [Free] tries to make a name for itself by combining familiar zombie killing mechanisms (in the sense of dual-stick shooting) with thematic settings and freemium elements. While most would rightfully be leery about any free-to-play elements, Zombiewood does a good job incorporating a dual-currency system into an otherwise solid game, making it well worth checking out.
Zombiewood puts you in the role of a stuntman turned hero after a zombie invasion overtakes Hollywood. After figuring out that the mass slaughtering of undead makes good film, your director decides to put you in a variety of flicks all centered around zombie killing. Each movie is divided into scenes with each featuring a variety of objectives to accomplish. Hit enough objectives and you'll unlock a new movie to play in, with additional objectives to take on. It's a standard story system, but I still enjoyed the way levels were divided into movies and scenes. The use of multiple objectives per scene is also a nice way to encourage replayability.
It's reductive to communicate what a game is like by using the shorthand of what other game(s) it most resembles, but it's true: Monotaur [Free] meshes the obscuro super-toughness of Ikaruga (the infamous 2001 Japanese arcade hit) with the pellet-munching mania of Pac-Man (the arcade game you already know about).
There's a bit more to it than that, but first let's delve into the logistics of how this wonderful Frankenstein lurches about.
It's a tilt-to-win game, only you never really will win. The action goes until your reflexes can't keep up: You control a little single-colored horned dot (a monotaur!) and tilt your device around to navigate the screen. Why do you want to move around the screen? Because you want to gobble up the other dots that match your color and float about freely.
Totem Runner [$0.99] is the rock-paper-scissors of runners. Rock: your warrior form, good for running and drawing grasses up from the earth. Paper: bird form, which can soar and dodge. And scissors, boar form, which can smash through any obstacle and most enemies. Deciding which one to pull out isn't luck or psychology, though—it's one part foreknowledge and one part quick reflexes.
In its earliest levels, the game is forgiving. You run a little, smash a briar patch or two as a boar, and fly over a few big gaps. Before long the challenge spikes, and you need to swap between bird and boar mid-flight or on the trailing edge of an attack. Obstacles phase in a few at a time, playing tricks with timing. Though enemies always telegraph their attacks, you'll need to pay attention to spot the moment one solidifies while another slips away. Thankfully death costs you nothing but a trip back to the most recent checkpoint, so when the only way to get through a tight spot is memorization you'll have opportunities to memorize.
Running ties the game together. You might want to fly or smash through everything—who wouldn't?—but that's not meant to be. You can only draw up grass while you're in your human form, and that's how you earn points. Score goes beyond the leaderboard, too—your ranking unlocks levels for you. It's not generally all that difficult to earn two stars, but three takes skill and incredibly careful timing.
When we first heard that Zeboyd Games would be bringing the long-awaited third title in Penny Arcade's RPG series to iOS, suffice to say we were pretty stoked that we'd finally be able to play an episode of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness on Apple's touch screen devices. Now that we've had a chance to check out Episode 3 [$2.99], it's obvious that Zeboyd has a winner both in the RPG fundamentals as well as the outrageous tale weaved throughout the game. While Episode 3 does have a few annoyances, the majority stemming from the move from controller to touch-based inputs, there's a lot to love and enjoy in this outing.
If you've never played a Penny Arcade RPG (and if iOS is your primary platform, you probably haven't), On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness follows the adventures of ethereal detectives Tycho Brahe and Jonathan Gabriel as they investigate the supernatural happenings of New Arcadia. While Episode 3 continues the story of the previous games, familiarity with the rest of the series is thankfully not required in order to enjoy the narrative of this sequel.
It's not as though I need another word game. I mean, just look at the embarrassment of riches we've had in that genre over the past year or so. But Kieffer Bros. keeps making these little games that don't seem like much on first look and then sink in their hooks and never let go, so it was a pleasant surprise when Spell Rift [$5.99 (HD)] landed on my desk.
When the game wrapped up 21 levels later, I was still thoroughly pleased. Spell Rift might not look like much—a small grid, a bunch of letter tiles, and a thoroughly standard scoring mechanic—but it's what it's missing that casts the hook. There's no space to move in Spell Rift's grid. It lacks the relief of wide open spaces. There are just 35 tiles, and every one that's wasted is one less opportunity to spell something worthwhile.
Claustrophobia might be the name of the game, but it doesn't count for much until the stakes are raised. Spell Rift's first few levels are as typical as it gets, and that's just not much fun when you have so little to work with. The game pushes you to do your best, but it still starts out too slowly.
That transitory period between the '80s and the '90s was a special one for me, a time frame defined by early crushes on big-haired celebrities, permanent damage from exposure to the Alien trilogy and MC Hammer, and game books. Lots and lots of game books. Like a lot of bibliophilic kids my age, I was enamored of them, so much so that I never really had much of an allowance because of how many 'choose-your-own-adventure' books I'd buy. Eesh.
So, you can imagine my delight when Ian Livingstone returned after a seven-year interlude with Blood of the Zombies [$5.99], a not-so-gory yet satisfying romp through the labyrinthine depths of 'insane megalomaniac' Gingrich Yurr's suitably gothic-seeming castle.
Here, you'll play as a mythology student who finds himself locked in a dungeon under the surveillance of the grotesque 'Otto'. After realizing that survival in captivity is impossible, your character eventually endeavors to escape and, depending on whether you succeed (it's entirely possible to go splat by the second page) or not, that's where the whole thing begins.
We've been keeping an eye on Forest Moon Games ever since it was spun off from Crescent Moon Games with a goal of publishing casual and experimental titles. Hairy Tales [$2.99]Â is the latest such title to come from Forest Moon Games and certainly fits the bill in both the casual and experimental classifications. In addition to that, Hairy Tales is just a fun and interesting puzzler, particularly with its emphasis on world manipulation and its eccentric style.
Hairy Tales tasks you with guiding a lemming-like character (aptly named a 'Hairy') on a world cleansing mission from its starting location to a portal situated elsewhere in the world. Each world is composed of tiled pieces of land, with most pieces being movable, thus allowing you to move the world around to your liking.
It's not as simple as just guiding your lemming, as the portal requires a crystal to unlock. In addition, picking up the crystal also allows your Hairy to cleanse the surrounding world, which is tracked and necessary in order to fully clear the level. Finally, each level has optional mushrooms littered across the map which should be collected for completion's sake.
Fans of both video games and music are likely familiar with the work of fantasy landscape artist Roger Dean. Since the late 1960s he's been creating album artwork for countless bands, most notably for the bands Yes and Asia, and that continues to this day. In the mid-80s he also became involved with video game illustrations, and created the iconic box art for Shadow of the Beast by Psygnosis as well as numerous others.
