It’s awesome when a game you’ve been looking forward to forever comes out and it’s even better than you were hoping it’d be. That was the case with Legend of Grimrock, anyway. It’s a supremely awesome game that you need to check out, but this week also had loads of rad stuff get released so next week’s best games roundup is likely going to be even crazier.
Legend of Grimrock, $4.99 [Review] – Legend of Grimrock($4.99) just landed on the app store. Almost Human decided it was time, and I couldn’t agree more. For those of you who are familiar, this port doesn’t disappoint. I never got the chance to play the PC version, but I am convinced I have lost nothing in the translation. If you only play one dungeon delving game this summer, I feel bad for you, but it had better be Grimrock.
The Enchanted Cave 2, $5.99 [Review] – Enter the dungeon, go as far as you can, gather some loot, get some experience, and get out before you get killed. Go back in, get a little farther, grab a bit more loot, get a bit stronger, and escape again. Almost every great dungeon crawler has a pretty similar hook to it, and it works time and time again. It’s fun to build a character, something that sits at the heart of almost all RPGs and, these days, plenty of non-RPGs. There’s a certain thrill in finding a special piece of equipment we haven’t seen before, too. But the biggest thing I think the sub-genre has going for it is its near-perfect realization of risk vs. reward. Oh, every game uses this to some extent, or at least the decent ones do, but the reward is usually something relatively meaningless. A little more progress, a nice power-up, a cool new gun, or something like that. The Enchanted Cave 2 ($5.99), like most of its dungeon-crawling brethren, puts an extra ante on the table, something more precious than any piece of loot: your time.
Kindo, $1.99 [Review] – Kindo ($1.99) is the kind of game I feel somewhat conflicted about. It’s a game that I like and respect. I appreciate it for what it is and everything that it does. I think the concept of the game is strong, easy enough to pick up on, while allowing for high level play. It does almost everything it needs to in terms of features. But it’s the kind of game that I personally won’t be playing long-term because it doesn’t give me the kind of satisfaction I like from games.
Seek: Find Your Friends, Free [Review] – Constantine Cavafy, one of my favorite early-20th Century Greek poets, once wrote that when you set out for a destination, you should hope that your journey is a long one. Why? Because once you arrive, you’ll realize that the destination’s only value was that it spurred you to undertake your journey. I’ve often found that unlike Cavafy, most game designers often privilege the destination over the journey by positing level- or game-ending bosses as the moment when the hours a player has spent with the game acquire meaning. More often than not, the journey to the game’s end credits is a blur with all elements of game design pushing with single-minded purpose towards that enemy waiting for you at the end. Yet, there are often exceptions to every rule, and Five Pixels‘ Seek: Find your Friends (Free) is precisely such an exception. Seek provides a literal window into a lovely, mysterious island and allows the players to blissfully meander inside the game world without inorexably pushing them towards a singular, rigid goal (despite the fact that the game does have an ending). This is definitely an island worth exploring if you, like me, enjoy savoring the journey and not just the destination.
Fearless Fantasy, $3.99 [Review] – When tinyBuild’s turn-based RPG was released on Steam almost a year ago, players flocked to the game’s highly unique visuals and interesting take on RPG turn-based battle mechanics. Some even pointed out that the game would fit well on iOS devices. Indeed, we’ve been keeping tabs on a potential release even before an open beta was held on our forums earlier this year. Well, after a complete overhaul of the game’s art assets, as well as an extensive period of fine-tuning its mechanics, Fearless Fantasy ($3.99) is finally out on iOS and is well worth the wait.
Additionally, we reviewed a few other games this week. As always, you can dig into all of our reviews by clicking here. Alternatively, you can hit up specific scores by using these links:
