Back in October of 2011, Rocketcat Games blew our collective minds when they released Mage Gauntlet (Free) on the iPhone. No but really, Mage Gauntlet was a fantastic homage to 16-bit era action RPGs and we enjoyed it tremendously in our review. In the few months following release, several updates were released for Mage Gauntlet that tweaked things, fixed things, added some new things, and most significantly updated the game with Universal iPad support. But that was really the last time Mage Gauntlet got any serious update love, and ever since the iPhone 5 debuted in September of 2012, it’s felt like it’s sorely missing support for 4-inch widescreens.
For a small studio like Rocketcat, it’s tough to spend time, money and resources going back and working on an older title, especially with how much time they’ve put into finishing and releasing, and then updating and maintaining their Mage Gauntlet spinoff Wayward Souls ($7.99). But fans of Mage Gauntlet have been clamoring for widescreen support for what feels like forever, so finally Rocketcat decided to just hire an outside studio to tackle the work involved in making the game widescreen, and over the weekend the widescreen update went live in the App Store.
Now, there’s a small caveat that goes with this widescreen update. Not everything in the game has been given the 4-inch treatment, namely the title screen and overworld map are still the same aspect ratio they’ve always been. But when you’re actually playing the game, where it really counts, it’s totally widescreen, and it’s glorious. I actually fired up Mage Gauntlet not too long ago to play through it again gearing up for the release of Wayward Souls, but I found the black borders on my iPhone to be a total turnoff. Now that it has widescreen support, I’m really stoked to start from scratch and play through the whole amazing experience once again.
Not arcades enough. 1/5! Shameful display!
Fancy meeting you here.
Go to a different review website if you don't like it, instead of chucking a tantrum in every thread.
Lol I can't believe people are so ignorant and up right that you can't see that I'm poking fun at my self for being so quick to judge in the first thread.
This game is as appealing as eating Tuna Helper in a hot car.
This game is a shame... I would have paid a buck to play the game without IAP and had fun, but now im just deleting it and they arent getting my money... The game is NOT worth any more then a dollar. With IAP its worth far less IMO
This game sucks.
Another Classic acquisition from Chillngo. These clowns are becoming so irrelevant it's great.
every body just please chill off ... and please a bit of respect, 1. im sure the guys at playflame worked hard to build this game! 2. any game that includes decapitating zombies should get at least 3 stars ...
it's pronounced "Chill Out" my dude
So do any games receive 1 star on this site?
I ask that as a serious question, because 2 is the lowest I've seen in my time here.
You might just be onto something here: The Angry IOS Game Nerd! Come on Touch Arcade get on that. :)
Thanks for the question Scott! I can't speak for any of the other reviewers, but a 1 star review is probably pretty rare just because most games have some sort of evidence of effort of some sort. I reserve the mighty 1 star for a game that shows no redeeming quality whatsoever in any aspect whether it's gameplay, aesthetic, story, humor or accessibility. Sorry if that doesn't give enough of an answer for you.
OK that's what I needed to know. Now I can better assess what 2.5 stars means (pretty bad vs average).
This game has great graphics and fun gameplay. My main complaint would be that they have pushed the "freemium" concept way too much. It is crippled by endless Ads that interrupt the gameplay. It would be far better retailing for 99c with optional upgrades rather than pay for everything or be blasted by commercials left right and centre. The other thing is that the diving is relatively "one dimensional" in its appeal, so it would be fun if you could rack up points for creative crashing on your way down, rather than compete to dive in the prescribed manner all the time.
I own over 90% of Chillingo published games. I used to be a huge fan. Freemium and premium does not make a difference to me personally, while it does to the majority. I highly respect that. My issue is that the gameplay is very inconsistent and repetitive. I was looking forward to Zombie Dive for awhile. I wanted to like this game so badly. I really did, but I was let down, beautiful graphics aside.