The original Bug Heroes is one of my all-time favorites. It blended dual-stick shooting, tower defense, and RPG leveling into one slick little package. But that was way back in January of 2011, and now nearly three years later a sequel is upon us. Bug Heroes 2 was first announced back in mid-October, with the first actual screenshots coming a month later. Today Foursaken Media has released a few more screens, and although it’s still a work in progress, Bug Heroes 2 continues to look really impressive.
I’ve always been a fan of “tiny things in the regular world" games ever since playing Micro Machines on the NES way back when. The first Bug Heroes captured that incredibly well with its environments, but this sequel takes it to a whole new level. You really get the sense from these screens that you’re a bunch of little bugs having epic battles in a massive kitchen world. It’s so cool. Don’t forget that Foursaken continues to post new information and character profiles in our forums, so be sure to check that out, and look for Bug Heroes 2 to hit sometime in 2014.
I would call it a clone.
I just picked up LvLn, and I gotta say, this is a clone. An inferior, slow-paced clone at that. Actually, the word "ripoff" comes to mind. Based on first impressions I'd have rather saved a buck. I'm disappointed Touch Arcade. Call a spade a spade.
This is more a clone then "inspired"
Did you seriously call Slayin' a "take on Tiny ARPG"? Tiny ARPG was a total clone of a Flash game... called Slayin'...
True but at this point, it would become tedious to trace the lineage of influence on all these games. The comparison is just there to give you a point of reference, and it works for that.
Not really. Anyone who calls Slayin' one of their favorite games of the year should know. And anyone familiar with the site he is writing for should know. It's mentioned in the Tiny ARPG thread (only 2 pages of discussion so hard to miss), discussed quite a bit in the Slayin' thread, and mentioned in the comments of the Slayin review, just for starters. I just think if you're going to state something as a fact, you should do your research. It's not exactly arcane knowledge. Tiny ARPG was a very poor clone of the original Slayin'. LvLn at least tries to throw some new elements into the mix.
While it may be 'tedious', these apps are so similar that it bears mentioning that, if these were larger companies getting cloned, the law suits would be flying -- AND to give people a chance to support the earlier (& better?) game.
It should be noted this game has no GameCenter functionality. No achievements, no leaderboards.
This is obviously a Dwarf Fortress clone.
/raises single eyebrow