Way back in September of 2009, Godzilab released iBlast Moki [Free/Universal], a game that quickly caught the attention of physics puzzle fans everywhere. iBlast Moki went on to earn accolades from just about every corner of the gaming world, including several Game of the Year awards as well as our own 4.5 star review and inclusion in our Best of 2009 Buyer’s Guide. With the success of the original iBlast Moki, a sequel was pretty much a given, and indeed we learned earlier this summer that one was in production.
Following up on that kind of breakout success isn’t always easy though, and I’ve been disappointed on more than one occasion with a sequel to a game that I absolutely loved. With iBlast Moki 2 [99¢/Universal], this is not the case, not even close. Godzilab has taken everything that made the first game special and made it bigger and better in every way. There’s also an improved social aspect which allows you to check your friends solutions to the single player levels as well as share levels created using the robust level editor. iBlast Moki 2 is truly the whole package, and is the epitome of what you'd want out of a sequel.
Retro visuals have become such a staple they're beginning to feel like they're modern again, but Shaun Inman's The Last Rocket [$1.99] proves it's not just about the look, it's about the entire aesthetic of the game, from the simple and easy to pick up gameplay to the sounds coming out it -- retro is a design principle, not just a pair of pixilated pants.
You play as a rocket -- the last one, actually, in case the title didn't clue you in -- as you attempt to help an onboard computer collect gears and escape a ship before it tumbles into a star. The story doesn't seem particularly important, but you'll get different endings depending on how you complete it, and although you're playing a mechanical rocket there is a whole lot of charm packed into that orange tube that will make you sympathize with its goal.
11 Bit Studios decision to make a tower defense game set in a bombed-out, alien-infested world otherwise full of sand, bullets, and bombs doesn’t seem like an inspired design direction for a downloadable game from a new studio, but it totally is. Despite its over-saturated genre and its dull name, Anomaly: Warzone Earth [$1.99 / HD] has something new to share and its fresh conceits are executed in some of the most graceful, simple, and visually striking ways I’ve seen in a long time. It nails its strategy component by providing unique constructs, it nails its controls, and it nails its look, which is really is a treat on touch devices.
The easiest way to express what Anomaly does is with the phrase “tower defense in reverse,” which sorta sounds cheesy, but it’s pretty good approximation. Basically, you control the creeps in an environment laced with enemy turrets. Anomaly takes this idea a step further by giving you control over what kind of creeps you can build, the order in which you place your creeps, and by also allowing you to plot out the course you’ll take dynamically during the mission. (more...)
There's no way to avoid this: Gesundheit! [$1.99 / $2.99 (HD)] is gross. It's a game about sneezing, and snot features heavily. But it's not a game defined by disgust. The gross-out factor stuck with me for the first level or two, and after that I only noticed how whimsical and well-formed it is.
You play a wee green pig whose allergies keep him apart from his fellows. But when monsters invade, it turns out his biggest weakness is also his biggest strength. The monsters just love to eat the one weapon at his disposal: his snot. Blech.
To save his city and his piggy friends, he'll need to use that advantage to lure the monsters into traps without getting eaten himself. If the pig is seen by the monsters they'll come straight for him, but they can always be distracted with a big, juicy sneeze. This means piggy needs to engage in guerrilla warfare, hiding behind buildings and bushes and leading monsters to their deaths. I love these stealth elements. When you know you'll have to leave the shadows, you'll have to strategize - make sure there's a snot-ball in just the right place to lure the monsters away, and then dart behind a building before they're done with it.
The puzzles are varied, and most can be approached in different ways. Throughout the game, you'll encounter several environmental features that you can use to get more out of your sneezes. Certain flowers give you super-powered snot balls, and grasses let you use your sneezes like a grappling hook. Sneezing across a teleporter has interesting results. And some of the monsters provide special challenges, requiring you to quietly rethink your strategy. All the puzzles are thoughtful affairs, though they occasionally require you to think on your feet as a monster chases you down.
Complicating the matter is the presence of three StarFruit in each level. The stars are crushed if monsters run over them, and you can destroy them with your snot ball. You can only collect them before all the monsters have been lured to their deaths, so they increase the challenge by quite a bit. You'll need to collect them all if you want to master the Game Center achievements, and you need to earn a certain number in each main area to progress to the next. This balances out the fact that you can skip levels freely, a decision that should make this game much friendlier for the younger crowd.
The controls are fantastic and simple. You move around by tapping where you want piggy to go. To sneeze, you pull back like a slingshot and aim. The game gives you an aim guide to work with, so you'll never be fighting the controls. I ran into a few pathing issues while walking long distances, but they were never more than tiny frustrations.
The hand-drawn art is beautiful in action, and the music is lovely, happy stuff. The details show a great deal of care -- shadows move with the device's gyroscope, animations are adorable across the board, even the menu and maps have been created with obvious love. The interface isn't quite as good. You can't move between worlds without taking a slow walk across the map, and you can't quit out of a level without skipping it. There's no detriment to doing so, but it's still not ideal. I also had a couple achievements unlock at strange times, but that might have just been a one-off bug. There's already a patch in the works to add OpenFeint support and fix a few frustrations, so Gesundheit! should be an even smoother experience soon.
With 40 levels to play, each with StarFruit to collect and ranks to earn, you'll get hours of fun out of Gesundheit!. It's a real charmer, and our forum users agree. Grab the HD if you can -- this game deserves the big screen -- but don't miss it either way. It may not be completely revolutionary, but it's the sort of experience that shows off the wonderful things people can create for this platform as the tech, and the studios, mature.
Taito’s Groove Coaster [99¢] is an experiential music and rhythm game that mixes fun, upbeat, and jazzy tracks with a psychedelic and retro-informed visual aesthetic. At its truly mechanical core, it’s just a tap game that has you drum on your iPad whenever a bubble crops up on a neon rail, sorta like a one-note Rock Band. While that’s not necessarily entertaining in the year 2011, Groove Coaster’s constituent parts manage to overpower its simplicity, making for a game that’s a pleasure to pick up and thrum alongside, lack of depth and flaws be darned.
It’s easy to be wooed by Groove Coaster’s striking vector graphics presentation in the same way that it was hard to look beyond another Taito title’s visuals in Space Invaders: Infinity Gene [$4.99]. But even without the trains of retro baggage behind Groove Coaster, it manages to feel aged, yet refined and re-imagined in the same way. It’s a unique approach that really adds a certain flavor to the action and adds to the experiential edge of the project.
The thick wire-frame rail guiding all the action, by the way, isn’t static: it zigs, it zags, it ducks, and it circles alongside a given music track’s ebb and flow. Your cursor, which can be an assortment of objects including Taito-branded characters, helplessly runs along these tracks, speeding up and slowing down with the beat as thematic particle effects, ranging from flowery explosions to plain ol’ particle-vomit, crop up all over the place. Groove Coaster is a music game, sure, but it’s also a visual treat in addition to an audio one.
In this vein, the backgrounds and their respective effects are cool, too, especially as they morph and throb thematically as songs change tempo.
It’s not all great -- there’s an exceptionally fundamental flaw nestled within the visual design. Sometimes, instead of ratcheting up the intensity of a song and the beats you need to hit, Groove Coaster uses its presentation to conceal your cursor and thus hamper your ability to hit the glowing “beat” orbs. This comes off as a tactic to obscure its fairly rudimentary play, and a needless one at that. So, what? This game is easy to play. Who cares?
I’m not sure how to classify the music used in the game. There’s a mix of J-Pop, new wave, house, and other fast-paced highly electronic stuff. Most of it, actually, appears to be pulled from other Taito titles, but they all seem to fit with the visual stylings. In particular, Arkanoid DS’ “Happy Smiling - More Happy Mix” sticks out in my head as on of the best songs, as its thematic qualities and the music line up pretty well.
Most songs introduce some neat visual elements and mechanics to the fold. “Happy Smiling,” for example, is the first level to add a merry-go-round of beats that swirls and rotates as you hit (or miss) each one. As you move up in difficulty, new “beats” are added that make you do things like swipe and flick, or even hold and jiggle your finger. All of the songs seem to have a new mechanic, which makes for some compelling replay opportunities.
Oddly, but somehow fittingly, Groove Coaster features a fairly advanced “perks” system. As you beat levels in the game, you increase your own experience level. As you do, you unlock new avatars and upgrades that net you bigger bonuses or special in-game perks. It’s a pretty standard carrot-on-the-stick approach, but it’s effective. Additionally, you can purchase IAP items and avatars that do the same things these bonuses do, except they really push it to the max. I’ll stress that the IAP options feel entirely, well, optional.
Groove Coaster is a good game with a fundamental flaw. It also has a few nit-picky problems, too, like it’s spectacularly abrupt ending and horrible “How To,” but the strength of its presentation, music, and RPG-lite systems make up for anything that could sour the experience. I’m generally not too into music games, and for what it’s worth, I’m suggesting this one to whoever will listen. It’s fun, it’s sharp, and it’s an experience.
Stray Robot Games is a New Zealand based studio, formed late in 2010 who have just released their first iOS game: Wooords [99¢], a minimalistic word game, which involves sliding fridge-magnets around the screen. You've probably seen puzzles in newspapers (or on the App Store) which involve forming as many words as possible from nine letters. One of the letters is the "key letter" and must appear in each word, and if you manage to put all the letters in the right order, you form an elusive "big word" and earn bonus points.
In Wooords, instead of typing words in (or writing them in a newspaper), you simply slide fridge-magnets around to form words, anywhere on the screen. The letters don't have to be perfectly lined up, just adjoining, as the game is clever enough to detect when a word is formed and you'll be rewarded with a burst of stars, a happy sound and some points. An awful lot of effort went into this design decision, too.
For instance, as you move the fridge-magnets, they make little clinking noises as they collide with each other. If you drag a letter between two other letters, they ease apart to make room. And if you form a larger word, the letters subtly decrease in size, so the word fits on the screen. If you shake your device the letters are randomly re-arranged. It's shocking how well this all works.
There's three game modes to choose from. In 'Classic' mode you have unlimited time to form words, which are rewarded by points and stars. Achieving one star unlocks the next puzzle (30 in total), but real satisfaction comes from obtaining the maximum three stars. This mode is about skill and persistence, rather than speed. The second mode is 'Daily Words', which is a daily competition to rank yourself against yourself, friends or the world. A fresh set of letters is released every 24 hours, which gives this game daily re-playability. And lastly, there's 'Word Jam' which places an emphasis on both speed and skill. The goal is to reach the target score within the word and time limit. This involves completing quick-fire rounds, so speed is definitely a factor here.
Wooords can be played casually for fun, but don't let the cute magnets fool you, this can also be a competitive game of speed, skill and strategy as you climb the Game Center leader-boards. The scoring in the old newspaper puzzles (and similar games) was based on the quantity of words found, with bonus points for nine-letter words. But in Wooords the scoring is far more advanced with multipliers for speed, and the number of syllables, which all contributes to the players score and overall "IQ level" rating.
This cute little game has already become a part of my daily routine. It's fun to fling the magnets into words as quickly as possible and as the developer points out, you're also exercising your brain, by testing your "vocabulary, speed and concentration". Wooords is even a universal game, which sweetens the deal even further.
Even though you might already have a ton of similar word games on your device, the clever refrigerator magnet-powered gameplay feels surprisingly fresh, and makes the UI used in previously released word games flat out seem archaic in comparison. Before downloading, be warned: Wooords will make your actual refrigerator magnets seem unresponsive and far less interesting!
Last year, Capcom raised the bar for traditional fighting games on the touch screen with Street Fighter IV [$4.99], and a couple of weeks ago they upped their game again by releasing Street Fighter IV Volt [$6.99] with online multiplayer. To a lesser degree, we’ve also seen Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [99¢/HD] on the App Store, and although quirky and rough around the edges it still offered up a decent portable experience for fans of that series. With SNK Playmore’s recently released The King of Fighters-i [$7.99], we now have all the major players of the mid-90s 2D arcade fighter rivalry once again battling it out with each other, this time on the App Store.
While SNK’s various fighting franchises all had a pretty dedicated following, it was always the Street Fighters and Mortal Kombats of the world that stole the mainstream spotlight. Now here, more than a decade later on iOS, SNK Playmore has brought their A-game for a shot at the iOS fighting crown. And true to its namesake, The King of Fighters-i takes that crown by elevating touch screen fighters to the next level. It’s missing the marquee feature of online multiplayer that Street Fighter IV Volt can boast about, but when it comes to control responsiveness, speed, performance, visuals, animations, and approachability, The King of Fighters-i tops the competition.
Kairosoft’s Pocket Academy [$3.99 / Lite] takes the best and worst elements of its prior releases, Game Dev Story [$1.99 / Lite] and Hot Springs Story [$3.99 / Lite], blends them together, and then applies them to a school environment. It’s not remarkable on the surface. It has the same cutesy art direction used in these prior games. It also re-hashes a lot of mechanics, continues to shroud a lot of its crucial foundational and tycoon elements in mystery, and it controls like crap. But it does still deliver in the form of the studio’s should-be patented carrot-on-the-stick design approach and fleshes out a crucial, but oft-forgotten, driver in all simulation games: the people.
Provided the gun to my head wasn’t real, I’d argue until the moment the trigger is pulled that Pocket Academy isn’t as much of a school simulation as it is a over-the-top student simulation game because, at the end of the day, this game isn’t about how pretty your school is or about how many trees you’ve planted. It’s about what your kids are learning and how well they can prove that your system, either totalitarian or social-focused, works.
On the top end, this game puts you in the shoes of an administrator planning out the next greatest thing in education. You’re in charge of building classrooms, researching new facilities like restrooms, libraries, and nurses’ offices, and creating statistical bonus zones with bonus-laden objects like shrubbery, trees, or even rocks. Chaos is frowned upon, as the careful planner who puts like buildings together can string together dramatic bonuses to student-side factors like learning and school spirit.
This is where the one real rub rears its head: Pocket Academy isn’t good at telling you what is “good” versus “bad.” It hides a lot of bonuses and mechanics from viewing. The only solid way to find out what works well with something else is via experimentation, which is a costly and horribly slow, pace-chewing endeavor. Even buildings and research subjects have terrible descriptions that can lead to hair-pulling strategic misfires.
Like Game Dev Story understood, to some extent, the development process and let you lead it, Pocket Academy allows you to do the same with a school. The end product is a well-learned student body, and you get several years to turn kids’ mush into iron. Ample classrooms and activities are a necessity to do this, as well as teachers. Students come in once a year or through transfer if your school is attractive enough. Teachers, on the other hand, need to be hired and then leveled up. Satisfactorily, you are put in charge of what statistics receive boosts upon leveling up, which lets you mold a curriculum that feels... well, you. It's pretty redeeming building something in your own image.
Science, math, English, Spanish, and history are the subjects each student can learn. As they sit in classrooms, they’ll automatically receive points in these areas. As they roam and participate in other facilities, they’ll earn additional points that you can then, in turn, spend in classrooms to boost their core attributes or apply to research. This is the push and pull: do you spend these points in order to get more areas for interaction, or do you spend them to educate the students more?
I usually go with the latter since it’s the real meat of the game. In order to attract more kids, you need to compete in challenges based on those core subjects. The higher the IQ, the likelier they are to pass the challenge. Also, schools as a whole are rated and a lot of funding, as well as those ratings, depends on end-of-semester test scores. The goal is to be the best school in the world, so the students actually matter. But the other decision is a fundamental one, too. Without interaction, you don't get points for research or tests.
Weighing these two options, as dull as they sound, is entertaining. I think it helps that there's always something you could be doing in the process or, at least, building towards.
To its credit, Pocket Academy really fleshes out who these kids are. They’re all named and you deal with them over the course of several years. You’ll also see them make friends, attempt to date other students, get frustrated, succeed, and fail. Students all have certain disposition traits, too, which factor into how they learn and where they learn the best. As if that wasn’t enough, there are also activities they favor which you can cater to by building clubs or more facilities.
After spending years with these kids and using them in the right way, you do tend to bond with the character, as silly as that sounds. But it’s that connection, as flimsy as it is, that makes this simulation game much more satisfying than most. You have a stake in the systems, at least.
I could go on and on about the systems at play, what you can do, and the billions of little things that you’ll end up doing to improve the experience. There are tons of mechanics and little touches at play in Pocket Academy, all of which are satisfying to some extent to use, deal with, or think about. The game starts brutal, so be prepared.
I have a feeling that, like Game Dev Story, you’ll run out of meaningful things to do in Pocket Academy after an epic several-year run but I don’t think that hurts. As it is, there are plenty of things -- perhaps too much in places -- to do for several, several hours. For those of you who didn’t download sight unseen, no worries: this is a sharp little simulation game packed with depth and, oddly enough, a little emotion. It might be hard to penetrate at first, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with an awesome game.
Most of us here have been anticipating NimbleBit'sTiny Tower [Free] since the developers first announced it. Their last take on the freemium model was the extremely successful Pocket Frogs [Free], a game that I still pull out a few times a week.
So the big day has come - does Tiny Tower live up to the hype? Yes, with one suitably tiny caveat: this isn't the second coming of Sim Tower. Let's just get that out of the way up front, because the early screenshots gave some people that impression. That aside, yes, Tiny Tower is a fantastic, adorable successor to the Pocket Frog empire and it's just as hard to put down.
Here's how it works. Upon starting the game, you're greeted by a fresh new tower and a simple lobby. Working through the tutorial, you build your first residential floor and your first production floor, move in your first Bitizen and give them a job. The Bitizen gets to work creating items to sell, bringing in coins. Spend those coins on building more floors and eventually your tower will reach up into the sky.
Each floor has three items to stock, and each one is on a different timer. When an item's stock sells out, its your job to tell your Bitizens to order more, a task that takes anywhere from a minute to a few hours depending on the item. When that timer fills up, you also need to order them to put the item up for sale again. When you're overseeing a few production floors, this means checking in occasionally. When you've got a 40 story tower, on the other hand, this production cycle will quickly take over your life—if you let it.
The game uses local notifications to let you know when the first item is available to restock after closing the app. This is a great way to stay on top of your towers' needs early on, but with enough production floors it might just make you crazy. I turned notifications off pretty quickly, and discovered something cool—unlike most of these "appointment gaming" types, I can peek into my tower at any time and find something to do. There's always something ready to stock, or someone waiting to ride the elevator. So Tiny Tower fits perfectly into any little gaps of time you have for it. And with no spoilage mechanic, the only thing to lose by ignoring it is the coins you could have been earning in the meantime.
If this all sounds like a lot of managing timers and pushing buttons, you'll be happy to know there's a bit more to it. The Bitizens are really the heart and soul of Tiny Tower. Their comings and goings will occupy a lot of your attention. For starters, they each have their own set of talents. There are five categories of production floor, and individual Bitizens are stronger working at some and weaker at others. They also have their own little dreams. Bitizens working in their dream jobs are better than their counterparts, and you get a tidy bonus for putting them there. Want to see what they're thinking? Hit up Bitbook, a virtual social network for your virtual workers that's filled with quips and little hints.
You're also in control of their literal comings and goings, because you control your tower's elevator. Ferrying Bitizens to their destination nets you tips, both in coins and Bux, the game's premium currency. Occasionally, VIPs show up to add a bit of strategy to the game. They have special abilities, and where you drop them off can make a big difference to your production.
For the creative types, you can customize your tower to the nines. You can't pick which floors are built, just which categories you're creating, but you can move your floors around and paint them to match any color scheme you can imagine. You can also dress up your Bitizens with a palette and outfit randomizer. It took a bit of persistence, but I've got all my employees dressed smartly in per-floor uniforms. The adorable pixel art makes this extra satisfying.
The premium aspects of the game are more than fair. You can buy Tower Bux with real money, but you can also earn them as tips or as bonuses for fully stocking a production floor. A Where's Waldo-style mini-game also awards them. You can exchange them for coins or as timesavers to build a floor faster, finish stocking it, upgrade your elevator or move in a Bitizen. If you're really keen to get ahead, purchasing Bux will help. But if you just play regularly you'll always have lots to do and plenty of chances to expand. Nothing is locked out for players who don't want to pay.
Other than a nitpick or two (it would be nice to toggle the elevator-style music off and keep the sound on, for instance), my only real concern is the lack of social integration. These games are always better with friends (many of whom you can find in our forums), but the only thing you can really do with your buddies in Tiny Tower is compete with them on the Game Center leaderboard and for achievements, and look at their towers. Maybe we'll see more social options in the future, like something to exchange with friends or something to do in their towers.
But enough talk. Tiny Tower is another great, free game from the guys at NimbleBit, and you should definitely check it out. Just try not to get too caught up in the lives of your little Bitizens - it's important to put the game down once in a while.
This review is going to get a little wordy. Not only am I telling you all about Great Little War Game, a fantastic turn-based strategy game from Rubicon, I also get to tell you all about the upcoming 1.4 update. So if you're short on time and you want the summary, let me just say that this is a game you need to own if you like turn-based strategy, and the update is going to make it better than ever.
I'll call Great Little War Game "great" without hesitation, but I'd hardly call it "little" - not with 20 campaign levels, a 10 level IAP expansion, and tons of maps for pass-and-play multiplayer and AI skirmishes. This isn't a game that's over quickly - the levels take time and multiplayer matches can turn into all-out war.
The campaign gives you a thorough introduction to the game's many units, from the humble Engineer to mighty tanks, warships and aircraft. Early on, you learn the simple controls - tap to select and move, hold to see range and movement - and then then you'll learn to capture the enemy's resources and base. You'll also need to pick up vital strategies like holding high terrain, defending your resources and picking the right spot to lay an ambush.
You're set against enemy forces controlled by an AI that poses a challenge without becoming frustrating. In each level, you're facing ongoing assaults by the enemy while you try to achieve a goal. Sometimes you need to capture the enemy base. Other times you're left to hold out against a superior foe or to struggle to build up your resources before being overwhelmed. Your performance is ranked on how quickly you succeed.
Great Little War Game isn't just an impressive strategy game; it's also pretty darn funny. The cut scenes between levels feature your army's Generalissimo and his terribly courageous approach to warmongering. I've never seen someone lead so bravely from the (distant) rear. Unit voices, animations and descriptions also offer up some laughs.
I've had a chance to go hands-on with the upcoming 1.4 update. It's going to be submitted Friday, so hopefully we'll see it soon. The biggest change is the addition of difficulty modes. You'll start on Basic difficulty, and there are three higher modes to unlock by beating the campaign with each. Damage increases for both sides as you play on higher difficulties, so you'll need to be very careful about keeping your army safely out of range while picking off the enemy. The AI also gets more cash to spend, and it's a little smarter in all modes, so skilled players are going to be challenged.
Great Little War Game is also getting a cosmetic bump, with improvements to lighting and water, multisampling and bump maps. It looks very nice - still cartoony, but much more polished. Despite the nice new look, 1.4 feels snappier than ever on my 3GS. As for the one thing some of you have been holding out for - the game's 16 achievements now sync to Game Center. Three new skirmish maps have been added (including a sweet little nod to this site). On top of all that, there's a new 15 level campaign, Holiday from Hell, available for in-app purchase.
Rubicon's always been very responsive to their fans, adding fixes and updates based on feedback. They've adopted a lot of ideas from users on our forums, so if you've got any suggestions, make sure to stop in.
One technical note: the game only supports third-generation devices and newer. Also, be sure to grab the right version. With an HD version, a standard version, and a lite version for each, things can get a little confusing. The HD is Universal with Retina graphics, while the standard version has neither feature. I do like the recent trend of releasing a second version that's a Universal HD, but restricting Retina graphics to that version is less awesome.
Great Little War Game is the kind of game you can really sink your teeth into, which is rare enough. So I'm delighted to discover that it's also rich in features, good looking and full of humor. With the 1.4 update, it's going to be even more of a must-buy. I've got my fingers crossed for asynchronous multiplayer, a feature Rubicon hopes to include some time in the future, but in the meantime there's quite the bounty to enjoy.
When I first saw the trailer for Simogo’s Bumpy Road [$2.99], I immediately knew it was something that I wanted to play. The graphics, music, and unique controls appealed to me on so many levels. I was given an early version of the game for our hands-on preview, and despite being unfinished and limited to just one mode, I absolutely loved it. Really, though, it just made me even more eager for the final version to hit the App Store. That day has finally come, as Bumpy Road is now available, and it’s easily one of the most beautiful and fun games I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.
The biggest standout in Bumpy Road is its innovative control mechanic. A car carrying a cute married couple drives automatically to the right, but you don’t actually control the car itself. Instead, touching anywhere on the screen raises the elevation of the ground and creates a bump in the road. Using this, you can create a sort of wave to push the car back and forth or quickly tap under it to pop it into the air. This mechanic is dead simple to understand, but definitely takes some practice for it to click. Once it does, however, you’ll be bouncing the little car all over the screen like an old pro, and it truly feels great.
What happens when you combine a skateboard, a bucket, two tennis balls and a balloon? If Casey's Contraptions [$2.99] is any indication, you make a surprisingly deep physics puzzler.
Of course, a lot more than that went into this first team up by Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut Games. 30 different items introduced over 72 levels, a level editor and a creative solution sharing mechanic are all part of what makes Casey's Contraptions so much fun. But to get the most out of it, you'll need to bring something more to the table as well - a child-like desire to play and experiment.
Not because this game is childish or easy - it's just presented through a child's point of view. Eight-year-old Casey guides you through each level, and it's his toys you'll be playing with. You'll need to build contraptions out of these toys, like magnets, slingshots and darts, to help him through play time and chores. Things start out simple and get more and more complicated as you progress. If you're willing to experiment, you'll have a ton of fun. If you just want to get through each level as quickly as possible, however, you won't be nearly as well rewarded.
Nearly every level in Casey's Contraptions can be solved in many different ways. There is no "right" way, although you'll probably want to collect all three stars each time. Other than that, you're welcome to use the toolbox presented to you in each level however you want, as long as it gets you to that level's goal. If you come up with a solution you think is cool, you can share it with your Game Center friends with a single click.
You can also see your friends' published solutions, including Casey's three-star solution. If you want to check them out mid-level, you can. This keeps things from becoming too frustrating if you just can't find a workable answer, but I'd recommend you keep yourself from peeking when you can avoid it. Trying to copy a solution turns Casey's Contraptions from a game of experimentation into a frustrating game of pixel hunting as you try to find someone's precise positioning. It's much more fun to do it yourself and then check out all the crazy solutions your friends found. You shouldn't get completely stuck, anyways, since the game only requires you to complete three out of every four levels to progress.
Technically and visually, Casey's Contraptions is superb. Though the physics are a bit cartoony, things always behave how you'd expect them to once you see them in action. If you drop a ball onto a spring and it bounces a quarter-inch away from your goal, moving the ball and spring that quarter inch will work every time. This is super important, because in later levels you'll be pulling out a lot of trial-and-error solutions. "But what if I did this?" was a common refrain while I played.
As you progress through the game, you unlock the items you work with for use in the game's level editor. I haven't had a chance to play with many friends yet, but I can't wait to create some crazy contraptions for people to solve. In a particularly smart touch, you're required to solve each level you create with all three stars before you can send it out. My only disappointment is that you can't share your creations with the world at large - just with your Game Center friends. A rating system and some public curation would be a fantastic addition to Casey's Contraptions. A few achievements wouldn't hurt, either.
It sounds like there are a lot more levels in the works, and an iPhone release coming down the road. The developers are taking feedback in their thread on our forums, so let them know what you think. And just to head off one question I know is coming: I don't know exactly how similar it is to The Incredible Machine, and its various sequels, because I missed out on those PC classics as a kid. Coming into it fresh, though, I can tell you this - Casey's Contraptions is a joy to play.
It was back in October of last year that we first learned of Gears, a new ball rolling game from Mobile Game Garage that was set to get the extreme graphical makeover treatment from fellow iOS developer Crescent Moon Games. Not surprisingly, the before and after screens were quite astonishing, and Gears was shaping up to be quite a beautiful game. After a longer than anticipated development time, we finally got a trailer for Gears in early February followed by a hands-on gameplay video a couple of weeks later. And at long last, Gears [99¢] is finally available for download in the App Store.
First things first: Gears is gorgeous. Crescent Moon has worked some serious mojo on the graphics here, which are entirely rendered in 3D and utilize a fantasy/steampunk theme that suits the game well. Retina Display equipped devices will be treated to high resolution visuals, and there are additional special enhancements for the extra power of the iPad 2. Also, owners of older devices can choose from different levels of graphical quality to increase performance if need be. No matter which device you're playing on, Gears looks spectacular with a ton of detail and impressive effects throughout.
The campaign in Gears consists of 27 levels spread across 3 different themed worlds with 9 levels apiece. Each level has a set number of power gears to collect on your way to the finish. It’s not necessary to collect them all, though higher scores and thus better medals are awarded based on how many you do manage to pick up. The levels are all really well designed, and the type of terrain you must traverse is what really sets Gears apart from other ball rolling games. Levels are rife with moving gears (naturally), stairs, narrow bridges, trampolines, gates, exploding boxes, and various other obstacles that can impede your progress.
The first set of 9 levels won’t prove too much of a challenge, and in fact serve as a perfect introduction to playing the game without being a total cakewalk. In world 2 and beyond, however, the difficulty ramps up quite a bit. Thankfully this is handled beautifully with the ability to choose from 4 difficulty levels at any time during the campaign.
Easy is where I suggest starting from, as there is no time limit and you’re free to take as long as you need to reach the finish. Normal gives a generous time limit that allows for making some mistakes while still being able to complete it, and Hard gives you a stricter time limit that requires a fairly flawless run. All 3 of these difficulties give you unlimited lives and take advantage of the many checkpoints spread throughout every level, transporting you back to the last one that was triggered should you see your demise (which you will, a lot).
Then there’s Brutal difficulty, which is reserved for masochists only. Brutal gives you the same time limit as Hard but you only get 1 life, and rolling your ball off the path will result in having to start over from the beginning of the level. It certainly earns the title of Brutal difficulty, but playing on the harder difficulty settings will earn you additional bonus points at the end of a level which is key to earning high scores and competing on the Game Center leaderboards.
The number one thing that really stands out about Gears to me is the excellent touch controls. There are many ball rolling games in the App Store, most of them meant to be played with tilt controls. This makes sense due to the accelerometer and gyroscope capabilities of iOS devices, and Gears too has a completely competent tilt control system should you prefer using that. But touch controls are totally where it’s at. There’s never been a ball roller with touch controls this good, and once you’re comfortable with the nuance of them you’ll feel like you have solid control over your little shiny ball.
Gears is everything you would expect from a Crescent Moon release. It has fantastic production values, amazing graphics, brilliant controls, and a solid set of well designed levels to play through. What’s crazy is that they took something as simple as a ball rolling game and made it feel like something more. The difficulty might be a little much for your average gamer, but thanks to the Easy setting, it’s at least possible to complete the entire game with a little perseverance rather than limiting it to only the most hardcore and dedicated players.
Even if you’re not a fan of the ball rolling genre (which aside from the classic Marble Madness, I’m not) Gears is totally worth a look as it feels much different from what’s already out there. Players in our forums have been loving this one as well, and for the introductory price of 99¢ Gears is highly recommended.
Last week a little gem of a game was released into the App Store called Tactical Soldier - Undead Rising [$4.99]. Now, I know what you must be thinking, and yes the whole zombie thing has totally been done to death (undeath?). But the highly tactical turn-based gameplay in Tactical Soldier will have you forgetting all about that, and the zombie theme is actually used to great effect in telling an interesting story and creating tension in the game.
You play as a soldier in a military base where an experiment has gone awfully wrong. Scientists have developed a chemical in an effort to create super soldiers, but instead it ends up turning them into bloodthirsty zombies. Yeah, it’s a bit cliché, but it fits the game well. The graphics are entirely rendered in 3D, and although the character models aren’t the most detailed, the environments have a wonderfully creepy mood to them. The story unfolds with comic book-style cutscenes which do a good job of telling the gritty tale.
Back in January we learned that Remedy Entertainment, developers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, would be resurrecting their first ever PC game Death Rally for an iOS remake. Today, that new version of Death Rally [$4.99] went live in the App Store. I never played Death Rally when it came out in 1996, so my opinion of this remade version won’t be colored with knowledge of the original. Approaching it as strictly a new iOS title, Death Rally is one of the finest top-down racers in the App Store. Death Rally isn’t perfect mind you, but it’s an absolutely gorgeous title with satisfying combat-heavy racing and an engaging upgrade system.
The thing that sets Death Rally apart from most racers is its focus on combat. Each vehicle is equipped with a standard machine gun and a second stronger weapon of your choosing. These weapons, along with the vehicles beyond the first one, are unlocked by collecting items spread along the track while you’re racing. Money is earned with every race you enter, with more money awarded based on what place you finish, how many cars you destroy, and other performance factors. Your winnings go towards upgrading the 5 available vehicles in the game in the areas of speed, handling, armor, and weapons.
Upgrading your cars and equipment is the real hook of Death Rally, and I was constantly wanting to play just one more race so I could fill up some more of my upgrade bars. The combat is also very satisfying, and there’s nothing better than blowing the snot out of the car ahead of you in order to surpass them and win a race at the last moment. Controlling your vehicle is slightly awkward at first. A virtual control stick is used for both acceleration and turning, and there is no brake button. This isn’t really necessary due to the arcade nature of the gameplay, but it caught me off guard at first. After just a few minutes though, I quickly warmed up to the controls and actually grew to really like them.
Way back in September of 2009, Godzilab released iBlast Moki [Free/Universal], a game that quickly caught the attention of physics puzzle fans everywhere. iBlast Moki went on to earn accolades from just about every corner of the gaming world, including several Game of the Year awards as well as our own 4.5 star review and inclusion in our Best of 2009 Buyer’s Guide. With the success of the original iBlast Moki, a sequel was pretty much a given, and indeed we learned earlier this summer that one was in production.
