If there’s one thing I think we’ve all learned after 4 years of gaming with a touch screen, it’s that the simpler you can make the controls on a device that’s devoid of buttons the better. Sure, virtual buttons that mimic a traditional game controller have come a long way, and are certainly adequate for many situations. But there’s really nothing like a control scheme that feels tailor-made for a touch screen device and gaming on the go.

The simplest control scheme out there is the single touch. You know, games like Tiny Wings [ $0.99 ], Canabalt [ $0.99 ], or Jetpack Joyride [ Free ], to name just a few, only really require you to touch the screen anywhere and are built around simple game mechanics to support this. That’s the same approach that Snowbolt Interactive and Crescent Moon Games have taken with their new game Slingshot Racing [ $0.99 ], and in turn they’ve created one of the most enjoyable racing games on the platform that feels perfectly suited to both touch screens and mobile gaming.

(more...)

When Recettear hit the scene, RPGs had their stand-out shop-keeping simulator. When Dungeon Raid [$2.99 / Free ] arrived, we learned that gem-matching games make excellent roguelikes. From there it follows that we need a gem-matching RPG shop-keeping sim, like, say, Adventurer Workshop [ $0.99 ], right? It isn't quite a Dungeon Raid or a Recettear, but if that's a mash-up that excites you then you'll be well-served by this game.

You play an artisan with customers that are, all things considered, extremely patient. An adventurer comes in with an order for a helm, and waits three turns while you ineffectually make a sword, some boots and finally her hat. The whole process eats away at your profit margin, but what are you going to do? As a crafter in a gem-matching world, you have to work with the tools you're given.

If you're familiar with Dungeon Raid, you'll know how to play this game. If not, it's pretty simple: just draw lines through adjacent gems with matching colors. But if you come in with your Dungeon Raid skills and guns a-blazin', you won't last long. Adventurer Workshop is a game of scarcity and tight profit margins, and each move you make eats in to your bottom line.

To keep your little shop afloat, you'll need to keep customers happy while keeping your costs as low as possible. When customers drop into the field of play, they bring with them orders that specify an item, a level, and a turn limit. Fulfilling the order can be tricky; it requires making a line of matching gems that includes the customer, for one thing. So if a customer wants a sword but is surrounded by boots, you'll have to clear a path within that turn limit. Not only that—the order's level dictates the length of the chain you'll need to make.

So, fine, you figure out how to make the order happen, but maybe it involves making a pretty big chain that won't net you a sale. Whoops, every item you make comes out of your limited budget. If you go bankrupt, you lose, so you need to keep customers happy and paying well. The payment depends on the level of the item you give them (higher is better, even if it exceeds their request) and how quickly you put it together.

Juggling everything can get a bit demanding, but you can't afford to fail. If the customer leaves unsatisfied, your shop will take a hit to its reputation, something it really can't afford. This is a three strikes, you're out kinda world. The game has a few fall-backs built in, though. For starters, you can file an item you don't use into your stock to pull out for a later customer, which offsets your expenses a bit. You also earn experience as you progress, and every time you level you can choose a skill from a random list of three. These can lower your costs, increase your profit, remove gems or turn back the clock, among other things.

So where most matching games fall on the frantic side of things, Adventurer Workshop is a slower, more thoughtful experience. You're still subject to the whims of good fortune, but you can use the forces of capitalism to your advantage. That's the good news. The bad news is that the game is more than a little rough around the edges. The text reads like it's been translated awkwardly. The skills aren't explained until after you choose them. And the game crashes far more often than I'm comfortable with.

If you're particularly sensitive to these things, you might want to wait an update or two to see the kinks worked out. But Adventurer Workshop is a game worth playing. It may wear its inspirations on its sleeve, but it's something new, something fun and challenging. You can let out your inner adventurer in other games; Adventurer Workshop gives your inner artisan a chance to shine.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a bit tired of killing zombies. Sure, we’ve had tons of fun blowing the brains out of the living undead in the past, but there’s only so many ways you can portray it until it starts to get a bit old. Alive4ever mini [ $0.99 ] from Meridian Digital Entertainment looks to capture the allure of zombie hunting once more, but in the end you’re left with a somewhat generic zombie shooter.

Like its predecessors Alive 4-ever [ $2.99 ] and Alive 4-ever RETURNS [$2.99 / Free ], mini is a dual stick shooter that focuses on the complete eradication of a wide variety of zombies. Players move from level to level with simple objectives like killing zombies (duh), surviving for a set time, escorting civilians, and collecting various vaccines. At the end of each mission, you’re scored by objection completion, zombie kills and how many total souls collected (each slain zombie drops a soul, which can be collected towards soul stones, the premium currency). There’s also a leveling system that lets you upgrade stats like health and ammo.

I didn’t find anything particularly innovative about mini, but what it does offer is implemented well. There are plenty of missions (along with a survival mode), the action is fast and frenetic with tons of enemies on screen, and later levels offer a decent amount of challenge. There’s also a good selection of weapons with the normal versions being mostly accessible through a standard playthrough (you’ll probably find yourself replaying levels a bit to earn enough standard cash for the big guns).

Also, while you may notice a lot of characters and superweapons only available for purchase with premium currency, you can actually earn it in-game at a decent clip. You can also use the premium currency in a game of chance in the hope of finding a refined soul stone which can supercharge your regular weapons. Also, you can always purchase the currency via IAP, which was relatively fair in its price distribution.

Alive4ever mini differs a bit from the earlier titles in its drastic shift in visuals. Gone are the pseudo-realistic dark undertones from the previous titles and in their place are bright, chibi-esque portrayals of zombies. It’s certainly a change from most zombie shooters and contributes to the light hearted affair of the overall game. However, I’m not entirely sure if it adds anything to the experience other than the fact that it’s a cute zombie game.

My biggest complaint with Alive4ever mini is the constant suspicion that I’ve done this all before. True, the cutesy graphics differentiate it somewhat from other titles but the gameplay basically plays the same as any other zombie dual stick shooter. Later levels inevitably lead to a standard cat-and-mouse chase of you against throngs of enemies on screen. There are boss battles to mix up the gameplay, but I found most of them somewhat bland. Also, the absence of multiplayer at launch cuts down on the potential replayability (although the developers have stated that a multiplayer update is coming soon). The lack of any kind of serious narrative doesn’t help distinguish it as well.

That’s not to say that Alive4ever mini isn’t enjoyable. In fact, if you’re looking for a new dual stick shooter and you aren’t tired of zombie hunting, you could do a lot worse than mini. Just don’t expect much in terms of innovation either in the gameplay or zombie front.

Crashing into things and making them explode almost never gets old, and that’s exactly what Bravo Games was banking on when it released Crash Mayhem [ Free ]. Luckily, this game lives up to its name and is just as fun as it may sound.

The thing about Crash Mayhem that immediately sucks you in is the lure of making as big of a crash as possible, racking up repair bills just as high as you can in the process. If this concept sounds familiar, that’s because the Burnout series was basically built on this same premise, even up to the iOS release of Burnout Crash [ $0.99 ].

Let’s preface this by saying that Burnout Crash is a pretty good addition to the Burnout series, and only debuted about a month ago on the App Store. The control style in Crash Mayhem is similar, the camera view is similar, the drivers are still incredibly stupid, and the scoring system is basically the same, too. Now that you know that, you should also know that Mayhem might even improve on Burnout’s formula a bit.

(more...)

Honestly, there’s not much a rhythm game has to do in order to make me happy. A nice selection of tap-friendly tunes, decent UI, and adequate replayability features are the extent of my wishlist. For its part, O2Jam U [ Free ] manages to satisfy two of those three criteria, making it a satisfactory addition to the genre in my book. More importantly, O2Jam U manages to unveil a new wrinkle with the inclusion of freemium elements, a somewhat unique addition to song-based rhythm games.

If you’ve ever played a rhythm/music title on iOS you should be familiar with the gameplay in O2Jam U. Simply put, select one of the 16 currently available songs and earn the highest score possible by tapping out notes coming down the screen. Play results are scored on a grading scale and gems are awarded which can be used to purchase different tile patterns for each song. The tile patterns are a nice way to extend the life of each song, but I didn’t like the fact that patterns weren’t one-time purchases for songs.

(more...)

I admit without shame that I was a huge Poké-nerd back in Pikachu's heyday. The explosion of Pokémon's popularity coincided with my sophomore year of high school, and being nerdy enough to know my cool-kid rep was in the negatives even before I started lugging around a Pokédex with my textbooks, I wore Pokémon t-shirts and evangelized the games and cartoon without a care. I also saw new Pokémon movies on opening night and, surrounded by squirmy kiddles and their irritated parents, broke out in wild applause and cheers when the Nintendo logo appeared on the screen, which prompted all the kids to whoop and holler along with me (and the parents to stare at me with such loathing that I wanted to crawl into the nearest Poke-ball).

There is, however, one immediately noticeable difference between MonTowers ~Legend of Summoners'~ [ Free ] critters and Nintendo's kid-friendly goldmine. Amid the fantasy- and horror-themed creatures you will amass, you'll also accumulate anime girls so scantily clad and busty they make Lara Croft look like a teenie bopper who has only just started to blossom. Fortunately, unlike the milky-white flesh of your personal monster-hunting assistant (and what soft, creamy, heaving flesh it is), there is much more to MonTowers than meets the eye.

(more...)

The success of the digital version of a physical board game hinges on three things: the quality of the base game, the accuracy of the representation of said game and if both of these things are pulled off well enough to sustain a community long after you’ve tired of getting beaten by friends and family. With that in mind, is Scotland Yard [ $4.99 ] a successful iOS port of a classic board game? No, but it could be.

It’s not as if Ravensburger’s Scotland Yard, the 1983 Spiel des Jahres recipient, isn’t fundamentally sound. One player is Mr. X, terribly creative criminal mastermind, stealthily darting about London in an attempt to avoid the grasp of five Scotland Yard investigators, represented by the other players. Players move about via ticket cards allowing access to modes of transportation around the game map: taxis, buses, boats or the London Underground.

(more...)

It would be easy to write Witch Wars [ Free ] off for its, shall we say, intensely aggressive IAP implementation. It would be hard to argue that Com2Us hasn't reached new heights on that score. But let me play devil's advocate for a minute. Sure, there are characters that can be unlocked for ten dollars. That's a thing that happens in this game. But it's also a solid competitive match-3 in a market that doesn't have many of those to choose from. If, say, you've been waiting for a successor to Puzzle Quest 2 [ $4.99 ] all this time, that might not be something you can afford to ignore.

The IAP breaks down a bit like League of Legends. You start with Athena, the default witch. She's a bit middle-of-the-road as far as abilities go. You can unlock six other characters, half with coins and half with (far too much) cash. If you do, you can use them online or solo any time. Otherwise, be patient. Every day, a new witch unlocks temporarily for everyone to try out online. In the course of a given week, you'll be able to play each and every character Witch Wars has to offer.

(more...)

There are great mysteries buried beneath the surface of the alien world of Gene Effect [ $4.99 ], mysteries your small team has been sent to uncover. As you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of those distant tunnels, you'll encounter alien life, hostile and beautiful, and the remnants of a civilization both ancient and powerful.

You pilot the exploration ship Triton. It's almost ludicrously vulnerable, destroyed with equal ease by careless piloting, aggressive plant life and man-made defenses. But that doesn't change the facts: you're the only one who can unlock the secrets of this cavern and its alien masters. Unarmed but for your repulsors, you travel ever deeper.

This journey isn't one of lengthy maze-like exploration. Gene Effect is broken up into levels, and most of those levels are fairly straightforward. There will be a task or for the Triton to complete, maybe collecting a certain amount of koronite resources from the environment, finding DNA samples or powering up ancient reactors. You might need to use your repulsors to clear away loose rocks in your path, or locate and use the occasional drone to clear a path. Once those things are done, it's just a matter of finding the warp gate and moving on.

(more...)

It seems as if ever since the iOS remake of Death Rally [ $0.99 ] hit the scene over a year ago, we’ve had a resurgence of weapons-based racing titles gracing the platform. Deadmans Run [ $0.99 ] from Nightfall Interactive is another entry into the genre and attempts to model itself somewhat closely to Death Rally. While Deadmans Run does try to differentiate itself from the pack in some ways, you’re mostly left with a fairly average racer with controls that leave a bit to be desired.

Deadmans Run offers a somewhat comprehensive campaign that has you racing across nine different levels across three “difficulty” levels, earning both cash and notoriety (essentially experience points). The cash is used to purchase permanent (engine, weapons, and armor) and temporary upgrades for your vehicles while the notoriety acts as a level-wall that restricts upgrades and car purchases until you've hit a certain level. Overall, the system works well enough for replayability, although the strict level requirements for each purchase take away any sense of freedom, which is a bit disappointing.

(more...)

How do you feel about endangered species? Does your heart ache for the poor creatures that, through no fault of their own, are being driven to extinction? If so, you might want to join up with Adult Swim and PikPok's Extinction Squad [ $0.99 ], the bloodiest game about conservation I've ever seen.

As the story goes, the surprisingly well-preserved Chuck Darwin, father of evolution, has found a lost colony of dodos. Seems like a miracle, but then the terrible truth is revealed: the scent of dodos causes other animals to jump to their deaths. Animals are killing themselves by the thousands, so Chuck pulls together his extinction squad to save 'em. Running back and forth with a jump net, the squad bounces the suicidal animals to safety, earning points, coins and the occasional surprise in the process.

(more...)

Wings of Valor [ $1.99 ], the “Wings of Fury” spiritual remake by Idea Spoon, is a rare gem in the app store - a game that might not sell you on its screenshots alone, but is an automatic purchase for gamers “in the know.”  Based on a classic game for the Amiga/PC/Apple II, Wings of Valor has a familiar, nostalgic feel to it, with all the best parts of an arcade shooter and a surprisingly complex strategy sim.

The base gameplay is straightforward and simplistic, as illustrated by the image-only help file.  Take off from your carrier, and destroy your targets. Targets range from islands, to other planes, to ships, and you’re given an entire (unlockable) arsenal for dealing with the threats. For people such as myself, who never played the original, it may take you a few tries to even get off the ground. For instance: mashing the engine button over and over to get it started (just like a real old plane!), or trying to fly off the right side of the carrier and taking a bath instead. Missions are relatively quick, and can easily be squeezed into a bus ride, a work break, or any spare 5-10 minute period of time.

Once you get in the air, the game plays like a dream. Lovingly handcrafted visuals and spot on controls make you wonder why the side-scrolling fighter pilot genre died off so long ago. Aerial combat is a joy, pure and simple: the banks, the arcs, the turns, it all manages to feel “simulationy” and “arcadey” at the same time. Touch controls suffer somewhat from the usual lack of physical feedback, but not as much as you would think with this sort of game.

Dogfighting lacks a bit of challenge, as the enemy AI seems all too easily confused when you turn around directly behind them and light up their tail. Strafing runs are exciting, and can prove to be a test on resources - are you more of a T-16 piloting, womp-rat bullseyeing sharpshooter, or a light-up-the-jungle, empty the plane sort of carpet-bomber? The game plays into both strategies, but the latter sort will have to get very used to landings/takeoffs while they return to their ships to replenish their arsenal.

The camera work is spot on, zooming in as you approach the ground, adding to the feeling of speed. The music is old-timey, “Welcome to the world of tomorrow!” radio static fanfare, and adds to the retro feel. Sound effects are sufficiently explodey and ratatatty, and the particle effects are excellent, whether it's planes smoking and plummeting to the earth or water kicking up as you bring death to dozens of unseen ocean critters. It is incredibly difficult to believe that the entire game was put together by a single person.

With plenty of challenges, unlockables, an upcoming iPad version, and promised updates to the visuals and AI, Wings of Valor makes for a very attractive package at $1.99. For people who have boldly proclaimed the death of classic gaming at the hands of iOS, I can only gesture wildly in this direction - here is a game with no IAP, no freemium model, just classic, old-school gameplay at its finest.  Whether you’re a fan of the genre or completely new to this style of game, here is a something that is very worth your time.

The first time you have a bogey on your six, you tear off straight upward at top speed, and see the stars for just a second before stalling out, turning back towards your prey, spitting hot death, you'll get it. Get it?

Usually when we call a game a sandbox, we're referring to some kind of open world game where you can wander, free of restraints, and do anything you can think of. The Sandbox [ Free ] isn't quite that kind of game. Instead it straddles the border between game and art project, rewarding players for creativity while giving them near-infinite possibilities.

You don't play a character in The Sandbox, you play a god. You can paint with pixels of stone, draw towers of earth and set them to grow. You can draw just about any non-living thing you can imagine, paint it into a scene, and then bring it to life with the forces at your command. You have electricity at your fingertips, steam and oil in your grasp, and much more. It's less a sandbox than a blank canvas, waiting to be filled.

(more...)

I love the App Store. On a single platform, I can draw from a well of my favorite classics like Doom [ $4.99 ], and try out thousands games like N.O.V.A. 3 [ $6.99 ] that take their inspiration from popular console and PC games but offer an experience tailor-made for tablets and smartphones. But what I enjoy most about the App Store is the chance to drop a buck or two on quirky titles you don't see on any other platform. Take Rocket Fox [ Free ], for example, a new puzzle/platformer game starring a fox named Guy who loves fireworks. He loves them so much that he's not content to admire them from afar like your average Fourth-of-July party-goer. No, Guy likes to hop aboard rockets before they blast off and ride them skyward. Of course, what goes up must come down, and that's where you come in.

Each level begins with Guy slipping inside a large flower while a counter ticks down from three. Once the clock strikes zero, the camera flips to an overhead view, the flower bursts open, and Guy, mounted on a rocket, shoots up to the clouds. Seconds later, his rocket blows apart in a torrent of colors, and Guy begins to freefall. From here, you tilt your iPhone to guide Guy away from the hard earth and watery depths, and toward trampoline-like flower pads. Flower pads come in different colors and designs that denote their functions. Red flowers give you a slight boost, blue ones throw you up even higher, and yellow pads give a breathtaking view of surrounding topography. Flowers can only be used once before withering away, leaving you to find the next one by the time Guy starts hurtling back down once again.

(more...)

Punch Hero's [ Free ] moment of brilliance occurs when it has you against the ropes. You’ll come to a point during the game’s eighteen-bout arcade mode where progression seems well-nigh impossible. Down to a trickle of health, you will think about throwing the towel in, taking an uppercut to the chin so you can earn some gold and turn the thing off.

But you won’t. Instead, you weave under a vicious right hook and in cinematic slow motion land your own devastating punch. Your opponent is dazed. Jab, jab, jab. Right in his big, stupid face. He comes to, and, mad as hell, throws an uppercut. You weave under it and this time, in similarly cinematic slow motion you throw a left hook. The knockout punch. “Oh my God,” you’ll probably say while your cats look on in shame.

(more...)