Until now, the only moral dilemma in relation to pinball took place in California’s Bay Area, where the popular arcade staple was inexplicably banned by Oakland authorities, who believed it to be a youth-corrupting force of gambling evil. But that eighty-year old ban was recently lifted, and now we have this mind-blowing new virtual table based on the first season of Telltale’s Walking Dead, that gem of branching moral choices and harrowing zombie heartbreak.

Whether you have played the source material or not, the claustrophobia and cloying sense of fear and desperation are obvious in The Walking Dead. You undertake missions based on key moments from the original game, each of them involving a crushing decision to make – involving such doozies as choosing whether or not to reveal that infected bite, or deciding which person to leave behind. In pinball terms, these “missions” of course translate to the table by setting targets to hit, combos to rack up, or locking down balls – but there are also some other cool touches like an excellent sniper section that employs use of the flippers, face buttons and touch screen to pick off “walkers” in the distance.

The table is beautifully designed, too. There are some wonderful, wonderful moments – like the crushingly poignant minigame that sees the ball transformed into a football (of the soccer variety) and a task that involves Lee breaking up the continuous undead horror by having a kickabout with the kids. Sound effects and music are ripped straight out of the original game, with some new voice acting thrown into the mix to boot. The music is eerie, atmospheric and perfectly measured, and sounds particularly ace when played on your Vita through a set of half decent headphones. Yet again the physics, the wealth of options, the cross-platform play, everything is just sickeningly spot-on.

Never the most obvious inspiration for some flipper-on-ball action, the dark and sombre world of Clementine and Lee is nonetheless transferred effortlessly into the realms of Zen Pinball. Fans of the game Godisageek nominated as our GOTY will love this clever companion piece and be hoping for a similar treatment for Season 2. Everyone else will love this fine table for what it is, and probably get a craving for sampling the inspiration, the same way our zombie buddies crave braaaaaains.

VERDICT: We are starting to sound like a broken record here, but Zen’s mastery and understanding of both table design and expert use of a license put them right up there with the best that gaming 2014 has to offer. There are so many more gaming worlds for Zen to conquer, and we look forward to pinging a shiny silver ball through as many of them as possible.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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Picking up immediately where episode four left off, No Going Back starts at a rate of knots, and never really lets up for the two hours it takes to get through. It’s full of emotion, showing humanity at its worst and, surprisingly, its most fragile, too. For all the talk that season two has been weaker, Telltale Games have saved the best for last, and created a triumphant finale.

The following review assumes you have played the previous episodes, though spoilers are (as always) kept to a minimum. Due to the cliffhanger ending of episode four, we’ve used screenshots from previous episodes so as not to risk spoilers.

Something that The Walking Dead universe revolves around (be it the book, TV show, or the game) is humanity. After a while, you realise the walkers themselves aren’t the real threat, but the ego, needs and wants of the people are the most dangerous. We’ve all struggled, transitioning from Lee to Clem – but finally, exhaustingly, episode five gets it right. Now, more than ever, this is your Clementine.

There is so much sadness here, such tremendous bleakness, that it’s painful to endure for the most part, but there are moments in No Going Back that, shockingly, made me smile. The gruesome action of previous episodes (though not gone completely) takes a back seat to the true brilliance: the characters. One particular scene early on is so out of character for the series, that it stands out – and that reminder of human vulnerability comes through; it’s the centre of it all. We’re all different; we’re all the same. A better writer might compare it allegorically to something else going on in the world right now. So much pain, so much trauma. But what if we just took a break and all got along, just for a moment?

Sentimentality be damned, there’s a little girl at my control, and her choices, my choices have the most real impact on the series that we’ve ever seen. Playing through this finale multiple times, it’s apparent that although some decisions don’t change the real outcome, they do change how Clementine is perceived.

One such choice dictates a stark shift in how a character feels toward our girl, and the larger decisions are incredibly bold on Telltale’s part, and will prove to be either a complete masterstroke, or something that’s almost impossible to please people with. Mark my words: by the time you finish with season two, you’ll feel more attached to Clem than ever. Her world has been shaped by you, forever.

Of course, there’s a moment where it all goes to shit, because there always is. Sure, Zombies will pop up here and there to permeate the world with the dreaded reminder that everything is dangerous and nobody is safe. Yeah, there are fight scenes, but the way it all comes together is like a delivery on a promise.

But let’s not pretend otherwise, often the choice in The Walking Dead has been illusionary. For the first time I can recall, this time, they’ve nailed it. The closing moments are drastically altered by how you play, by who you are. There are five different ways to end the season, three of which behold outcomes completely different to one another. What this means is that season three might just be the most ambitious project Telltale have ever set themselves up for.

VERDICT: Looking back over season two, there’s something odd about how we as players have endured a rollercoaster ride, just as our Clementine has. The swinging emotions have beaten us around the head, like we’re a boxer just waiting for the knockout blow to come, to release us. But we can’t close our eyes, because there’s work to be done.

It started nervously, almost scared of what it was, but at the end of season two, you’ll go to whomever you hold dear, and you’ll squeeze them just that little bit harder than usual. They’ll ask you why, and you won’t answer. There’s a little girl to be saved.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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To the uninitiated, Games Workshop board games can be a baffling affair. With rule books as thick as school textbooks and more different dice than you even knew existed, there are definitely a few mental barriers that prevent certain people from ever trying out Warhammer or Blood Bowl. But for those who are willing to invest the time and learn the ins and outs of these titles, they are deep, tactical games where players can engage in epic back and forth encounters.

Video game adaptations of Games Workshop properties seem to go one of two ways: they either simplify the game to make it more appealing to the masses (such as was the case with third-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine), or stay loyal and accurate to the tabletop games like the Dawn of War series. Blood Bowl falls firmly into the second category and, although it is the Games Workshop equivalent of American Football, Blood Bowl isn’t an action-packed sports game, but a tactical, turn-based strategy.

You have to arrange your team formation and line-ups, and purchase any special power-ups before you get down to business. The sport takes place in turns, with each player allowed to move as many of their players as they wish. Each character has their own movement range, strength and speed based on their speciality position. Therefore you will want to pass with throwers, tackle with Blitzers and so on. The only problem is that if you fail a pass, or a catch, or a tackle – for instance – your turn is over. And when each of these encounters is decided by a dice roll anything can, and will, go wrong, meaning your whole turn could be over and lost in the blink of an eye.

Strangely, the developers decided not to show some virtual dice on-screen, so all these calculations are performed out of view. This results in each movement coming across as a bit confusing. If I saw that I had rolled a 2 and my opponent a 6, I would be far less surprised when my burly Blitzer is knocked out by a weakling Goblin, but by keeping the dice off-screen the whole process is a bit unclear. You can switch on a log to see the dice results, but it’s still a far cry from actually seeing the action unfold before you. This takes any suspense and feeling of excitement out of the game, as every event happens so secretively.

There is a tutorial that tries to help you get to grips with how the game works, but more often than not it refers to these invisible dice rolls (which only frustrates you further) or just tells you to go and read the full rule book, which is a pretty weighty tome. If you know how the tabletop game works, you will have a clear advantage in picking things up, but the tutorials aren’t deep enough to teach you all that you need to know, nor are they accessible enough to encourage novices.

Players get to take control of teams made up of either Humans or Orcs – six species exist within the game, including Dwarves, Skaven, Chaos and Wood Elves, but these are only AI controlled unless you want to splash out on some in-app purchases. This will disappoint some gamers, especially as Blood Bowl is a paid App and not a freemium one. There are exhibition and tournament modes, which are both pretty self-explanatory, as well as both online and hot-seat multiplayer modes to take part in – which is at least one welcome feature, as Games Workshop tabletop titles are always better played with mates.

If you aren’t happy with the selection of teams in the basic modes, you can choose to create your own team in campaign mode and you can name them, pick squad members and level up as you progress – trying to work your way up from small-time competitions all the way to the biggest prize of all. This mode adds longevity to proceedings, as watching your team slowly improve as you move from game to game can feel quite rewarding. However the whole package isn’t helped by commentary that quickly becomes repetitive and irritating, and some pretty average visuals.

VERDICT: Sadly, while Blood Bowl tries to stay loyal to its strategic roots rather than turn the game into just another sports title, the gameplay isn’t implemented in a clear and logical way. The basic elements are here, but being unable to see the mechanics of why a pass fails or a catch succeeds makes each game too mystifying. It is hard to see why the decision was made to make the dice invisible, as this could have helped massively. Without it, newcomers are left floundering and even long-time Games Workshop fans may question the design choice.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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Gameloft make no attempt to disguise the fact that their Modern Combat series for mobile devices is inspired by the Call of Duty franchise. The Call of Duty series has never managed to make a mark on mobile devices, but Gameloft have tried to adapt the fast-paced, action-packed gameplay of Activision’s flagship title and condense it down for mobile phones and tablets, and perhaps piggy-back off the success of the Modern Warfare series a little at the same time.

You are thrown straight into the action, with a tutorial flashback mission set in Venice. Characters aren’t properly introduced and the game constantly references past events in the series – which isn’t great for players looking to pick up a Modern Combat title for the first time, although story is rarely the most important feature of an FPS. We see straightaway that Modern Combat 5 is going to be a linear affair, but this seems intentional to reduce the difficulty of touchscreen controls, and to enable the scripting of dramatic action set-pieces. That is what the title does well: it takes the over-the-top explosions and collapsing buildings that punctuate the Call of Duty series, and squeezes them successfully onto the smaller screen.

Each single-player mission is fairly brief – mostly delivered in five minute chunks – making it perfect for jumping in and out of and playing in short bursts. Gameloft have obviously attempted to tailor the missions to suit the platform – most gamers on mobile devices are looking for a short, quick fix, and that is what Blackout delivers. You won’t be stuck doing the same thing over and over for too long, either: there are a selection of vehicle-based missions, sniper sections and more that add some variety to proceedings.

There is little freedom in the missions, though, with most guiding you along a set path almost automatically – although this makes sense when there are obvious limitations in the virtual joystick controls. Moving around feels slow and unresponsive, and swiping to turn and look around is also tricky. Just facing yourself in the right direction can be tough at times, and you will often find yourself firing your gun when you just wanted to turn your head.

There are a variety of control set-ups to try – but these only change minor details, such as moving the location of the second virtual analog stick, or removing the fire button, making the whole screen the active area for tapping to fire your gun. These all end up feeling more or less the same, and don’t really help matters. A gyro option for looking around might have been useful, to allow for quicker re-positioning of your aim. Thankfully there are aim, sprint and crouch assists to help take the pain out of navigating, while letting you concentrate on the action. This makes the gameplay seem even more automated, but Blackout is at its best when it’s closer to an on-rails shooter, holding your hand as it shows you exactly what the developer wants you to see. And what you see is fairly impressive, looking and sounding very polished for a mobile title.

Aside from the short campaign missions, there are also Spec Ops missions and Breach mode. Breach mode is a mix of Terrorist Hunt from Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Virtual Cop. You and an AI partner travel through a series of rooms, clearing them of bad guys. Each has a different colour above their head, signifying that you can only kill them with a specific tactic – i.e. a headshot. Spec Ops is a series of micro-missions, tasking you with completing certain challenges within an allotted timeframe. These are even more bite size, taking no more than a minute each.

The final option is online multiplayer – which can be played individually or as part of a squad of friends. The fast-paced action found in single-player doesn’t work quite as well in multiplayer, as the levels lack any of the set-pieces or tight focus that make it work. The multiplayer feels like it was developed quite separately from the main game, and is a far slower and relatively basic affair. Lag didn’t present itself as much of an issue however, and gameplay was always fairly smooth for the short amount of time that I actually managed to stay alive.

VERDICT: Modern Combat 5: Blackout works best when it is allowed to be an on-rails shooter – providing a highly polished, action-packed campaign that’s easy to dip in and out of. The multiplayer mode does feel tacked-on, though, and slightly disconnected from the rest of the game. A few more stages of the main campaign would have been preferable over a multiplayer mode that doesn’t fully deliver. Blackout is as linear as first-person shooters get, and the control method is poor to say the least, but as a casual title it provides surprisingly epic shooting action.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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Many gamers of a certain age will remember top-down racing classic Micro Machines, an ingenious little speed demon that saw you racing bite-sized cars around tracks built on bedroom floors, DIY workshops and kitchen counters. It was a novel take on an idea which, at the time, sorely needed it.

It was a similar ethos of fun rather than finicky simulation that led Playrise Digital – a company assembled from a good few genre veterans – to create Table Top Racing, a game that seems to share many of Micro Machines’ original elements, at least on paper. In it you control a vehicle selected from a roster of apparently randomly-chosen automobiles and race around, well, table tops, dodging cartons of juice, tins of woodstain and giant kitchen utensils.

For a game originally developed on mobile decices, TTR handles fairly well. Starting you off with a Winnebago and an ice cream truck, Playrise soon give you Jeeps and muscle cars to go nuts with, ramping up the speed and manoeuvrability. To begin with it can be quite difficult to maximise drift, but before long you’ll be cornering like you were born behind the wheel.

There is a decent variety of gameplay modes, from the standard career mode through to the challenges, which see you tackling the various race types to earn stars and more money. These include elimination events, drift contests, battles and straight races, and are an ideal place to grind for cash.

A major addition to the Vita version is the battle race, in which you pick up Mario Kart-style weapons with which to slow down your opponents. They aren’t the most imaginative of tools – a homing rocket, an area-of-effect EMP, a speed boost and a mine – but they help mix up the action nicely. Table Top Racing isn’t the fastest paced racer around, so the added danger of weapons makes it a little more exciting. The pick-ups themselves are handy, but only really offer an advantage if used tactically as they don’t slow your target for very long.

In-app purchases are still a thing, sadly, but as TTR isn’t free on Vita Playrise have halved the cost of purchasable bundles and made it easier to grind for them. Although it will take a while to earn enough money to unlock all the cars and all the upgrades, it is possible, and the pay-to-win factor is greatly muted.

Obviously, Table Top Racing on the Vita is a graphical improvement over the mobile original, but it’s not particularly stunning. That said, the environments are well detailed and there’s a certain charm to be found in racing around the over-sized household landmarks.

Yet despite the amount of content and the addition of tactical pick-ups, there’s something not quite there about Table Top Racing. It might be the lack of music during races, or the way the game rights you instantly if you crash or get momentarily stuck on a wall – it might even be that we’ve kind of seen it all before from a different angle in Micro Machines – but something is missing from TTR that can leave you feeling hollow after prolonged periods. It’s alleviated somewhat by the ad-hoc multiplayer, which enables a little local co-op with friends or strangers.

VERDICT: Table Top Racing is a charming little racer with a good selection of modes and race types. Sadly the better vehicles and upgrades will require either a monetary contribution or some serious grinding to unlock, but as it stands you have a solid, full game without having to pay an extra penny. Not the most thrilling racing sim available on the Vita, but certainly the best for its price.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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Being a relative newcomer to the Magic series – having only briefly dabbled in the last two iterations of the Online version – the prospect of diving into Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 was a daunting one. Even with the comprehensive, hand-holding tutorial, it’s a lot to get your head around purely to cultivate a basic understanding of what’s required to win a match. The instinctual knowledge and mental conditioning needed to truly read the decks and stay a step ahead of an opponent can only really come from extensive experience.

That being said, the tutorial does a good job of guiding a newcomer through the initial stages of Stainless Games’ much-beloved tactical card game, explaining the different gameplay dynamics such as the mana tap (whereby you use up mana sourced by playing “Land” cards to summon creatures and cast spells), instants (instant-use effect cards) and the stack (where you queue any cards that will trigger due to certain conditions). The tutorial can only teach you so much, and before long you have to bite the bullet and jump into a match, either in the solo campaign, online multiplayer or practice mode.

The first few matches are a baptism of fire. It took me six attempts to defeat the first enemy mage, a charming little “corpsecaller” who seemed to have a psychic ability to kick my newbie ass. I started to wonder if it was my deck that was the problem. In Magic 2015, you can assemble your own deck from the ground up from five colour-coded archetypes – but your initial selection following the tutorial is permanent, so if it doesn’t work very well you’re going to struggle like crazy in the early stages.

The narrative behind this iteration is the Planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker, now a headhunter bewitched by an ancient artefact and forced to hunt and kill his peers – including you. You spend the campaign trying to avoid him by killing everyone else you come across and growing steadily stronger until you’re ready to face him. Unfortunately, the character development is weak and there’s very little sense of you growing and evolving into a badass Planeswalker – something previous games in the series did quite well.

The campaign feels somewhat shallow in Magic 2015, and the uneven difficulty artificially extends the lifespan. At times it can feel as though you’re plodding through the motions, when all of a sudden you’re up against an opponent who seems to be unbeatable – and even seems able to draw cards you will never have access to.

The card collection aspect is horribly hit and miss, in fact. On the one hand you can earn cards and booster packs through playing, but in an apparent hangover from this iteration’s iPad and Android “Free to Play” model, the really good cards are locked behind a premium paywall. Essentially this means that unless you’ve got god-like Magic skills, you’re never going to have an even chance against someone who is prepared to pay premium price to unlock the best creatures and spells. If the premium cards were purely for the sake of collection or completion, perhaps merely containing rare designs, it might not seem so unfair, yet they’re not. On console you will have to pay to buy the vanilla game, and then pay again if you want to stand a fair chance of winning. It’s indicative of the industry’s direction, and a blatant slap in the face of seasoned fans whose loyalty will be exploited for the sake of making a few extra dollars.

It might be more excusable if the boxed content (so to speak) were more robust, but it seems Wizards of the Coast have opted to go the other way, removing far more than they have added. The biggest bone of contention upon which the community will no doubt gnaw for weeks is the removal of all the multiplayer modes other than Free for All. You can play it with 2 or 4 players, so there is still scope for some decent online competition, but the omission of the hugely popular Two-Headed Giant mode is a genuine head-scratcher. Being able to play together as a unified team added a whole new dimension and level of tactical nous to the multiplayer, and its removal in Magic 2015 is as bizarre as it is infuriating.

If you can put those gripes aside, however, Magic 2015 presents a shiny – if slightly bare-bones – package. The UI is simple and elegant to look at (though for some reason is ponderous and not as smooth as you’d expect), and the cards themselves are uniformly excellent, designed by members of the community as well as professional artists. The sound direction is decent, too, mixing spartan voice-work with a rousing score to evoke as much atmosphere as you can reasonably expect from a game that – essentially – is about laying cards on a table.

VERDICT: Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 is a solid enough game if you’re new to the series. The daunting difficulty is always going to be a problem to a newcomer taking their first steps into such a popular, community-driven landscape, but Magic 2015 offers an in-depth tutorial that doesn’t skimp on the information. Sadly, though, the main game will disappoint established fans. The campaign feels stripped back and shallow, and the undulating difficulty is not off-set enough by the fully customisable deck – itself hamstrung by an intrusive, cynical paywall. It’s a shame Stainless Games have seen fit to tinker with a format that didn’t really need to be tinkered with, because as a result, Magic 2015 squanders a little of the good feeling built up by the series so far.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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Civilization Revolution was just that: a revolution. It brought the venerable strategy series to consoles and mobiles with a slim-line, stripped down iteration that still carried the series’ signature gameplay. But is it a trick that can be pulled off twice?

Things don’t start off well for this mobile-only sequel. There isn’t a story to follow, instead you pick from a selection of leaders – each of which provide a unique bonus – and you’re off. Winston Churchill, Napoleon and Cleopatra are all present, and their respective nation determines the name choices for your cities – London is your starting city if you pick the British Bulldog – but not much else. No matter who you pick, the technology tree is exactly the same, including the building of wonders – pyramids in New York anyone? – and the look of your units and cities depends on what age you’ve reached, not any cultural differences. It’s a shame because it means from the off that two matches are likely to look and feel the same at the start.

Surely, though, the series signature gameplay will mean that matches evolve in different ways as you progress; sometimes chasing scientific goals, other times military domination? Well, yes and no. The former because you can pursue avenues other than military, the latter because you won’t want to. You can pursue the building of wonders, or the foundation of the United Nations, and win a bloodless victory. But you won’t because it takes so long compared to a military conquest. No matter which goal you strive for, you will always need a military to protect yourself, and if it needs to be large enough to fend off the opposition, chances are it’s big enough to steamroll them.

In a fully sized Civ title this is normally balanced by the intricate diplomacy available; treaties to placate a more powerful nation, or tithes to prevent them. Revolution 2, on the other hand, is hamstrung by their exclusion. Sure, there are the occasional pop-up messages from other nations demanding gold and technology or they’ll declare war, but there is no negotiation, only four responses – conceding, offering another piece of tech, consulting your advisors or going to war. Even when you open the dialogue you only get a handful of choices. It undermines the whole system, and I found every game came down to rocketing to the second age, unlocking a slightly more powerful unit than my neighbours and then pinning them in place by spamming it as I researched the next level to finish them off.

At least it all works well on the screen. The controls are intuitive: holding on to a unit for a few seconds to select it, then double tapping where you want it to go. That double tap is a godsend, as you will forget what unit you’re currently controlling and almost send it halfway across the map. An icon on the bottom left of the screen shows how many units are left to move, and tapping it takes you to the next idle one, while production and resource rates span the top. On a small screen it may be a little fiddly, but on an iPad it’s perfect.

But all of these are things I remember the original Revolution getting right first time around. Firaxis haven’t built upon the systems of the original, and have instead just transplanted them directly into this sequel. The same accusation can be levelled at the graphics. It looks exactly like the first game – which came out in 2008 – to the extent that I’m certain some of the assets are identical. It isn’t that they don’t look good – Rev 2 looks great – but six years on you would be forgiven for expecting more.

VERDICT: And here we come to the main problem of Civilization Revolution 2: it’s a sequel. If the original didn’t exist, then I’d be praising Rev 2 for bringing the Civilization series to mobile. Instead, this is a game that doesn’t need to exist. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great in its own right, but Firaxis wants you to pay for almost exactly the same game as last time, half a decade on – and that just isn’t good enough.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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You have to hand it to Wales Interactive for their genius in coming up with a game featuring badgers in space, then giving it a radical theme tune for its title screen that wouldn’t feel out of place in an 80s Saturday morning cartoon.

You can imagine my disappointment and horror to find that once I got past this impressive opening, I then had to play a disappointing physics-based puzzler that looks and plays like an unpolished ripoff of Angry Birds Space, mixed with a very similar game I reviewed earlier this year for iOS, Interplanetary Drift.

Before I stick the boot in, here’s the simple premise. Playing as the eponymous Badgers of Gravity, or rather the leader, Captain T. Bayback, you are in charge of rescuing your squad and the universe itself from the dreaded Evil Honey Badgers (who may, or may not, give a toss). Each chapter in the game is preceded by a beautifully painted piece of artwork, which is static and unfortunately doesn’t really explain what’s going on, not that it really matters. Every now and then, there’ll be some non-animated in-game cutscenes with poor dialogue between the various members of the team, including some awful puns, but that’s your lot as far as narrative goes.

In any case, this sets up over 100 single-screen puzzles where you need to catapult your badger through space and into a wormhole, using the gravitational pull of planets to guide you where you need to go. In true Angry Birds style, you drag your badger back before letting go and seeing if the aim and power are correct to get to the end of the level. Repetitive trial and error is the key here, as well as luck, it seems, as it often feels like you’re pulling your badger the exact same way only to catapult him/her in different directions. All too often, your badger decides to fly off while you’re trying to drag, which is also an annoyance, as is the camera automatically zooming out when you’re trying to line up a shot. As a result, each time you start a level, it’s best to manually zoom out with the right analog stick, just to make sure the view doesn’t zoom out when you least expect it (usually a millisecond before you let go).

Each level has three glowing orbs to collect in order to unlock achievement-style rankings that don’t really do anything. There are also a few environmental hazards and helpers such as a static enemy that occasionally floats around to get in your way, portals, laser grids that open the wormhole when tripped, and blocks of ice that stop you and allow you to change direction.

A boss “fight” also occurs at the end of each chapter, which basically involves you continually moving to dodge their laser attacks until they get bored and blow up. It’s as dull as you can imagine, especially when, like the rest of the game, there’s barely any challenge whatsoever. While a game like Angry Birds relies on the nuance of its physics to create challenge and keep you playing, here each level just seems like more of the same. I rarely spent more than a couple of minutes on a level, and most of the time I was just finishing them all in one turn.

The presentation is just dreadful, and it feels like the entire budget of money and effort was spent on the title screen and the painted cutscenes. The irritating in-game music constantly loops, along with the dull sound effects, while the visuals are worth, with absolutely no animation and the same art assets used throughout.

VERDICT: Lifeless, unpolished and uninspired. These are all words used to describe such a dull ripoff. This game gives badgers a bad name and, quite frankly, unlike the real creature, these badgers should be culled.

BAD. Ugly, lazy, and unpleasant, if we’ve scored a game so low then it has serious issues. A 3/10 game will suffer from a combination of uninspired, lacklustre design, unfixed bugs and poor presentation.

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“Smack upside the head.”

This was the point at which The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lost me. It happened fairly early on – and I wasn’t holding on particularly tight even then – but it lost me. It’s Spider-Man who delivers the line, and he isn’t being sarcastic, it isn’t a joke. No, he says it, straight faced, to a random goon in a cut-scene. We’re through the looking glass people.

With writing like that you won’t be surprised to hear that the plot is a shambles. It begins with a Russian gang – comprised of one dude copy and pasted X amount of times – starting a gang war in New York. A private military corporation is brought in, leading to tanks on the streets and drones in the sky. It’s exactly the plot of Saints Row the Third, except where that was satire, this is meant to be serious. Even then, the city officials in Saints Row realise it’s a terrible idea in the end, while here a post credit sequence shows a telephone conversation with the mayor on how good an idea it is to keep this “task force” around. If a deliberate piss-take can’t keep a straight face with this plot, how the hell can The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Of course, there’s more to it than that. Villains from the Spider-Man mythos are drafted in; every character that gets any detail at all you will eventually have to fight. Black Cat, Green Goblin (the one from the movie), they’re all here, with terribly written lines and hammy acting.

Oh God (whom art a geek), the cut-scenes. I don’t even know where to begin. Spider-Man fidgets and lunges like a junkie in need of a fix, with dialogue that barely makes sense at times. Same goes for the handful of random lines he’ll say during gameplay. I get that Spider-Man is meant to be an arrogant, cocky teenager – that’s his personality – but he even manages to be a patronising dick to the player – try and web swing without any buildings nearby and he’ll smirk: “Oops! I need something to swing off!” Silly player!

Ah, the swinging, the best part of being Spider-Man. Get that right and nothing else really matters. Well, they got it wrong. The triggers control the left and right arms respectively, which, while giving a bit more agency to you, makes getting into the rhythm of swinging a little difficult, particularly turning. One button was enough for Spider-Man 2, and that was a decade ago.

That’s when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lets you swing of course. There’s a mandatory reputation system in the game, to get you to do the random tasks scattered around the city; rescue people form a fire, catch a stolen car, etc… But neglect these things and your level drops, with the police and task force harassing you when all you want to do is explore a bit. It doesn’t help that the tasks are mind-numbingly dull, but after each main mission the game seems to set your reputation at a predetermined level – aka low – so you exit a mission and immediately have to do some tasks or you can’t just do what you want. The missions are no better: linear slogs through confined areas, beating up everyone you can see.

And all of this is a shame because there is potential here. The devs have clearly been inspired by Rocksteady’s Batman games, and that is only a positive thing. Spider-Man has an attack, a counterattack and a web-shoot button, although most fights, including boss-battles, devolve into hammering square until everybody’s dead. But the way Spiderman flits between targets – basically at random due to atrocious aiming – is almost seamless, bouncing off one, sliding behind another. It’s almost good. It could have been.

Also borrowed from the Dark Knight are cavernous rooms full of baddies to pick off. In theory, Spider-Man 2 is almost more suited to this that the Bat: he can stick to walls rather than relying on gargoyles being the must have decor feature of the season. Sadly, these bits are let down by poor controls on anything other than the ground, a lack of aiming and a stealth button that only works within a few feet of the enemy, even if you’re perched directly above him.

Despite this glimmer though, there’s worse to come. Bugs are everywhere, Spider-Man clipping through himself, enemies that can see through walls, and enemies that – if you perform a finishing move on them – can go through walls. Texture pop in levels are dreadful, too, and at times you could mistake it for a PS2 game, and overall there’s a lack of polish. For a game setting you back £50 on a next-gen console, you’d expect more.

VERDICT: There is potential here. I don’t know if it was time, money or the will, but it could have been special. The combat isn’t far off decent, it’s just a shame that it’s tied to the rest of the package.

Let me put it to you this way. I actually stopped playing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to do some other work. I’d play a mission, decide I couldn’t take any more and go do something else instead, just to get away from it. Quite frankly, that’s the opposite of what a game should be.

BAD. Ugly, lazy, and unpleasant, if we’ve scored a game so low then it has serious issues. A 3/10 game will suffer from a combination of uninspired, lacklustre design, unfixed bugs and poor presentation.

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In the same week that JJ Abrams gave the sci-fi fan-iverse a list of acting talent for his forthcoming Star Wars sequel, we here at Godisageek are transported back to a galaxy far, far away thanks to Zen Studios and their latest clutch of generally excellent themed tables, completing their promised ten-strong lineup. With added PS4 crossover action on offer, there has never been a better reason to chuck the very reasonable eight quid asking price into your PSN wallet, and pretend you are stood bow legged in front of a real table, looking cool as I-don’t-know-what.

Just as the last time I investigated a Zen Star Wars collection, the arsenal of tables in Heroes Within kicks off with a beloved denizen of the movie mythology, concentrating on everybody’s favourite badass: wise-cracking smuggler, Han Solo. Wisely basing the table around the Mos Eisley Cantina and the iconic Millennium Falcon, the Han Solo effort is terrific fun, from the Cantina Band theme that backs up the action, to the rotating cutouts of various ne’er-do-wells straight out of Tattooine’s most salubrious nightspot. Everything is present and correct: the freezing carbonite chamber, copious blaster fire, glorious banter between Anthony Edwards’ C-3PO and the space pirate himself (“Never tell me the odds!”), and of course his sidekick Chewbacca. With fun side games based around Solo’s legendary craft, including negotiating an asteroid field, and a well-designed table with multiple flippers situated around the field, this is a fine way to open up.

A second table based upon the Star Wars Droids is another corker, set inside a representation of a sandcrawler, complete with a smelter, molten lava, and naturally a bunch of everyone’s fave diminutive scrap metal merchants, the Jawas. Revolving around salvaging and repairing various robot buddies, and shenanigans involving the hooded little scavengers, the table is a well balanced mixture of ramps and mini-games.

Although symmetrical in its layout, not always the best choice for a pinball table, the New Hope set-up works surprisingly well, despite what is (on the surface, at least) a basic design. The longer you spend in the company of Luke Skywalker, the more subtle additions become apparent, like a cool upside-down area hidden below the main playing field. The missions in this most traditional entry in the quartet are great fun, including a crack at destroying the Death Star, shootouts with Storm Troopers, the ominous worm-infested trash compactor and an excellent trench-run showdown with TIE Fighters. Ripped straight from scenes in the movie, the seven missions are challenging and diverse, and will keep your interest for a good while, even if you consider yourself a bit of a wizard.

The final table rivals the magnificent Infinity Gauntlet as being perhaps Zen’s finest virtual pinball moment. Masters of the Force is a wonderful-looking piece of work, the table split in half to represent the Light and Dark side of the force, emblazoned with the likes of Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn and Emperor Palpatine. The top of the table features two diorama-like areas that can be opened up by hitting the required Holocron targets. Once this is achieved, you can enter flipper minigames set either in Yoda’s swampy homeland of Dagobah, or deep inside the belly of the Death Star.

Gameplay in the last table revolves around the constant struggle between the two sides of the Force, which is also true of the whole package – once you have downloaded it you can select which side of the fence you are on, and earn a Force Score based upon your efforts in the game both on or offline.

VERDICT: Heroes Within is a great way to round off Zen Studios’ work with the Star Wars franchise, which has given fans of both pinball and the long-running space opera a superb flipper-based treat, at a sensible and generous price point (especially given that most of the tables offer up hours of gameplay even as standalone one-shot deals). Whether you are a fan of the source material or not, the production values are excellent, there are plenty of options as to how you view and take part in the action, and the power of the modern game console allows Zen to do things that no traditional pinball cabinet could ever do. Excellent then, and well worth a look. May the force be with you.

 SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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Free-to-play is something that publishers are still trying to get their head around. It’s a method that very few have been able to crack and the secret sauce eludes the majority of those that try to get in on this relatively new phenomena. Ubisoft has adapted their widely successful dirtbike franchise for iOS with Trials Frontier, and admission is free. This will please the many that need a time-killer for various scenarios, but for fans of the sport, there’s a bit to sink your teeth into to. However, like so many before it, and no doubt a large number after, Trials Frontier suffers from the many problems that are associated with F2P.

Firstly, this is a Trials game with a bit of a twist as there’s a story playing out all the way through. As the nameless, faceless “Rider”, you inhabit a wild west town that is being plagued by a fellow motorbike aficionado in Butch. You must help the townsfolk get to the bottom of what the caricature baddie is plotting by upgrading your bike, doing a bit of busy work, and beating him in many different races. Rubbish is an apt adjective for this narrative and it appears to be in place in order to give the casual audience something to grasp onto. Not once did I ever that feel a previous game in the series warranted some sort of ham-fisted plot with forgettable characters, and Trials Frontier proves this in spades.

Now, if one was to put that to the back of their head and revel in the wonderful twitch-based gameplay that Trials is associated with, you’ll have a cracking time – until it becomes a bit repetitive. Unlike practically all console games that make the jump to mobile gaming, RedLynx has virtual buttons that are neither intrusive, nor unresponsive. On the bottom left-hand corner, there are two arrows indicating where you want to shift your weight and also two arrows on the bottom right-hand corner for acceleration and reversing. Not once do your thumbs ever get in the way of the screen when playing on iPad, and it’s just as fluid as using a controller, albeit without the tactile feel of actual buttons.

However, you’ll be experiencing that solid gameplay across a limited number of tracks, over and over again. A map of the area displays the stages available to you and within a short space of time, one of the NPCs will give you a certain task to complete – get a Silver medal, perform two backflips, etc. – on a previously completed level. While it is perfecting your skill, one would prefer to do so against some new, challenging backdrops. It becomes a grind, in every sense of the word.

When you race past the finish line, you’re presented with a wheel that contains bike upgrades, among other things. After spinning the wheel and landing on one of the many parts that will improve your bike, you’re given the option to head straight to the garage and pimp your ride. Early on, these upgrades won’t put too much stress on your accumulated coins, but in time, it’s evident that they’re eager for you to drop some real cash in order to bypass the waiting game. It usually takes somewhere between thirty to forty-five minutes for a bike to be upgraded, but thankfully, this doesn’t render that particular ride void. You can still use it, but it won’t have the increased acceleration stat, for example.

Of course, you can speed up this process through the use of gems. Another item of interest that is obtainable by spinning the wheel is a collection of said sparklies – nothing that will last a long time, but something that will most definitely help your cause. This is the game’s premium currency and the one thing that those in the fast lane will want. You only get one spin of the wheel after a race, but if you want to go again, you need to use gems. You don’t want to wait a bit for your mechanic to finish working on your bike: gems. At the beginning, this isn’t an issue as the levelling system will keep you stocked up, and those much sought after shiny diamonds will be flowing, but as the levelling slows down, it’s either grind to your heart’s content, or fork over some actual dough.

Your fuel is another resource that will halt your progress — and in a game like Trials that keeps you wanting more, this is obviously an annoyance — each race requires you to use 5 fuel points (which later increases). Upon gaining enough XP to level up, your tank is refilled and you can hop back on the bike for more weight shifting action. Alternatively, every three minutes, your bike will gain one fuel point, which once again, in something as addictive as Trials, doesn’t bode well. Although, if you aren’t happy with waiting you can…y’know…just fill your tank with real money. See a pattern here?

VERDICT: In many ways, Trials Frontier is another example of what can be done with tablet gaming. It’s an impressive-looking effort from RedLynx and plays nearly as well as it would with a controller, but the lack of available tracks and, most importantly, the progress-halting ideals are enough to hinder what could’ve been a title worthy of the much-respected Trials name. The true mark of a great F2P game is when you don’t feel like you’re being punished for not handing over some of the coin in your back pocket. A great F2P game Trials Frontier certainly is not.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

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Held on a pedestal for their storytelling, Telltale Games have become a main-event player in the past two years, according to most of the gaming public. However, one great game does not a five-star developer make. Looking at the much less interesting Season Two of The Walking Dead, a lot of people – including myself -were beginning to think that the studio was spreading itself a bit thin over their many upcoming/ongoing projects.

But, where The Walking Dead seems to be waning a tad, the turmoil of 1980s New York City is going from strength to strength. Currently on episode three of its first season – I can only assume there will be more if sales get anywhere close to the story of Lee and Clementine – The Wolf Among Us continues to use the lore of Bill Willingham’s Fables in interesting ways. It should also be noted that A Crooked Mile has had a very quick turn around in comparison to much of Telltale’s episodic history. With this type of model, it’s imperative to see a form of scheduled releases and two months is certainly an acceptable gap between installments.

A Crooked Mile’s strengths lie in developing the personalities of those that you’ve met previously. For instance, seeing a more compassionate side to the Trip Trap’s clientele like Gren and landlady Holly is a welcome change of pace and adds depth to their characters. Obviously, the tumultuous relationship between Snow and Bigby is still a centrepiece of the action and remains wonderful to watch unfold. Due to the player choice, Bigby can be cold to Ms. White’s suggestions, but retains a clear fondness for the beautiful secretary of Ichabod Crane. While acknowledging that their partnership is one of a strictly professional manner, Prince Charming’s divorcee (voiced by Erin Yvette) is evidently a warm-hearted soul and cares for The Big Bad Wolf.

Speaking of the Sheriff himself, Bigby Wolf is relentless in his gruff approach toward the scum of Fabletown. Adam Harrington’s performance is more and more believable as the series goes on. The Big Bad Wolf isn’t a terrible guy, but he doesn’t mind getting rough in order to obtain the truth, and Harrington’s delivery is pitch perfect in almost every way.

On the whole, more questions are asked than answered by the time the credits roll in A Crooked Mile. There are some little resolutions to grasp onto in this murder mystery and there is some busy work that doesn’t prove too fruitful at the end of the day, but at the very least, The Wolf Among Us still puts forth an intriguing story that is prepared to keep its cards close to its chest in order to keep you guessing. Intrigue is definitely an apt word too, as the final moments introduce a menacing adversary to the mix who will surely ruffle a few feathers in Episode Four.

Like other recent Telltale efforts, choice is seen as having a pivotal role and, whilst that is sometimes debatable, the developer has at least altered the way in which some of the more important player decisions occur. Yeah, there are those A or B moments which will have you questioning where your own moral compass lies, but the majority of those strategically sit in longer conversations with the Fables. There won’t be a big flag informing you that “this is important”, but come the end of your play through, you’ll see it appear as one of the “big five”.

One aspect that always lets Telltale down, however, is in the technical side of things. Up until the second half of my time with A Crooked Mile, I had experienced no glitches or bugs to speak of, but then loading times became a burden. On at least three occasions, they became almost unbearable and upon entering one area, The Wolf Among Us came to a screeching halt and stalled for a solid minute before regaining life. The studio appears to be getting better with these annoyances, but their presence is still noticeable and irritating.

If you’ve reached this point in the series, then you don’t need me to tell you that the twilight of an 80s NYC, with a pinch of neon, is just as pleasing and pretty as anything on the market. They’ve captured this moment in time superbly and the echoes of synth heard during a crime scene investigation compliment the aesthetic to the nth degree.

VERDICT: Bigby Wolf is a dangerous man who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of what’s tearing his community apart. A Crooked Mile brings out the best in his supporting cast, though. Having a strong lead is half the battle, but ensuring that the people around him can hold their own with their dialogue is just as important. Telltale are crafting an engrossing world with a plethora of deplorable and affable misfits, and Episode Three excels in showing this.

There’s still plenty to uncover, with two episodes to go, and things are setting up quite nicely for an explosive finale, but don’t enter A Crooked Mile expecting to get much in the way of answers. The conclusion will come soon enough but until then, enjoy the bloody, twisted ride.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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Review code provided by publisher.

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It’s a bold claim, but I’m going to make it here: Monument Valley is the iPad’s Journey. It doesn’t share similar mechanics, nor does it really share the same look, but it left with me the same level of fulfilment and contentment that Journey did, on a smaller screen, for a smaller price, by a smaller team.

What it does share is the length. Over within a few hours and offering little reason to play it again, it is affecting, strangely moving, has a beautiful aesthetic design and a glorious soundtrack that makes you want to rush out and buy it.

But what is it? Well, the closest comparison to make would be to a game nobody really remembers on PSP and PlayStation 3 called echochrome, but that’s mostly thanks to the level design and how it makes you sit back and actually think. The world itself is moveable in Monument Valley, and the only difficulty comes from solving the puzzles created by this nuanced view-changing mechanic.

From the very beginning it impresses, the opening level just begins without you having to do anything, and the mechanics are introduced in a natural way: you’ll see a tap-like object which, when turned, moves part of the geometry, allowing you to progress past a previously blocked path. Then you tap the screen and your character (Princess Ida) will move to the spot you touch. The objective is always clear: get to the end, progress the story.

At points, Ida will be upside down, or climbing a wall, and you’ll have to manipulate the camera by moving the environment itself to get a better view. It’s fascinating to explore and is enjoyable throughout. On the way you’ll meet the Crow People, who are the closest you come to an enemy. Essentially they are an obstacle in your path, as they won’t allow you to go by. Some later levels require you to make use of their set paths to step on switches, allowing Ida to pass elsewhere. In fact, a particular level that requires you to manipulate the Crow People (that reminded me of The Room) is a major highlight and a masterclass in level design, as well as a genuine “wow” moment.

As the levels progress (there are ten – it’s not a long game at all), new ways to interact with the architecture are introduced, and the difficulty slowly ramps up, though it never becomes horribly hard, and the only level that took a significant amount of time was the final one. The story also becomes more and more intriguing, sucking you in with gorgeous visuals that feel as though every inch has had oodles of love poured into it.

Matching the looks is a simple yet effective soundtrack, but the real excellence is in the moving geometry. Certain moveable parts have corresponding sounds. Perhaps as you turn that tap, a guitar will play in sync – it’s a game that rewards you for wearing headphones, but even more so for giving it your full attention.

There are smaller, additional hooks added to the package. You can take a picture of a level as you finish it (though some will be spoilery, so don’t be that guy), and you can tweet or post to Facebook from within the game. Nothing major, but a nice addition overall.

VERDICT: Monument Valley is the kind of game that reminds us why diversity is so important: colourful and magical in its presentation, and just exactly as long as it needs to be without outstaying its welcome. For less than the price of your lunch, you could spend an hour or two in the outstanding world that ustwo have created. If you own an iPad then there’s absolutely no reason not to be playing this. Buy it today.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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Collectable Card Games (CCGs) are nerdy and extremely popular. The Adventure Time cartoon series is also nerdy and extremely popular. Pairing the two together is an extremely shrewd move on Cartoon Networks’ part, and releasing it as both a physical card game and mobile game is sure to rake in a ton of cash.

Directly based on an episode of the series, Card Wars is part Lane Defence, part RPG, part CCG. Players engage in 1v1 combat, first laying down four environmental cards that are the paths you must defend, then laying down unit cards that are compatible with the various lanes that have been placed. Once both players have done this, the battle begins.

Players take turns to play unit or spell cards, or even activate each unit’s special ability by “Flooping” them, before attacking or defending. During this combat phase, a dial appears with a red portion for misses, a dark green area for successful attacks, and a light green area for those incredibly powerful critical hits. By tapping the screen, players stop the dial on the desired area, namely the critical area. Defending against the AI’s attacks works in a similar fashion, with players able to block (dark green), take damage (red) or counter attack (light green) – but watch out: if a lane is undefended by one of your units, your Hero will take damage. Should your main hero card run out of hit points, you lose.

As you can tell, Card Wars’ mechanics are simple, making this a great entry-level CCG for newcomers, although admittedly there isn’t too much depth. As you can imagine, in-app purchases are available for those who want to buy better cards, but the worst kind of IAP is present, where each card battle requires a certain number of “Heart Points” to play. If you run out of heart points, you must wait for them to be replenished or purchase them with real money. For an app you have to pay for in the first place, this is pretty unacceptable.

Thankfully, I managed to play for a very long time before I even needed to worry about Heart Points. Each battle can be replayed, and doing so will unlock different challenges that unlock better cards and items. These run along the lines of only using certain cards, or not using spells. It’s worth doing these challenges to unlock more powerful cards to make future battles a little easier.

Naturally, the main draw here is the license itself, and Card Wars does a fine job of bringing Finn & Jake’s world to life, even if it is only within the confines of their treehouse. Peppered with soundbites from Adventure Time and aesthetics that are as close to the show as polygonal models can be, fans will be more than happy with Card Wars’ faithfulness. A physical version of the game is also available, with the real cards also unlocking better cards in this app as well.

VERDICT: Possibly a little repetitive if played for too long, Card Wars is a decent card battler that is best if you are a fan of the Adventure Time series. It’s pretty damn cheeky to feature IAPs in a game that already costs £2.49, but at least these additional purchases are in no way essential to enjoying the game.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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Since the dawn of video games, shooting things in space has been a gigantic part of our chosen pastime. From the simple gameplay of Space Invaders to the bullet hell of Ikaruga, Do Don Pachi and it’s ilk; these games are built to test and challenge the reflexes of players everywhere. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that mobile devices are becoming a suitable home for shmup gamers to get their fix, and Arc War is Hunted Cow Studios’ take on mixing the age-old scrolling shmup with the trend in “endless” games.

As is customary in intergalactic space battles, Earth is under attack from a vicious fleet of alien nasties, and for some reason the planet’s governments are really short on resources, so it’s down to just one pilot to take down an entire army in a tiny little ship.

Unlike a typical scrolling shooter, Arc Wars isn’t split into levels. Instead, you tackle an uninterrupted flow of infinite waves until you either lose all your lives, or get bored. Unfortunately, boredom is probably the most likely reason for putting your device down, as things get very repetitive, very quickly. You quickly realise that you’ll be fighting in the exact same scrolling environment, occasionally picking up the same power-ups and using them against the same enemies and bosses. In fact, most of the enemy ships and bosses are mere palette-swaps of each other, that occasionally shoot different types of bullets at you.

Arc War’s biggest problem is that for an endless game to work, it really needs to consistently offer something new. In this case, you’ve seen everything in the first ten minutes and there is no real reason to keep playing. Getting further before dying will earn XP and increase your pilot level, but you don’t appear to actually unlock anything for reaching higher levels, so what’s the point?

But what it lacks in variety and thrills, it at least delivers somewhat in terms of mechanics. Thankfully, a variety of controls are available, from GamePad support to dragging your ship across the screen, complete with the option to change the sensitivity. Unfortunately, there’s no option for your ship to auto-fire, so you only seem to fire while your moving, which is a little irritating as there is no reason to not be firing constantly.

It just feels a bit like a proof of concept for a basic shmup game. Ship and enemy designs are pretty uninspired, and it’s dull to keep facing the same palette-swapped enemies over and over again, against the exact same background. It’s also very puzzling that in a vertically scrolling shooter, landscape screen orientation has been used. The few music tracks in the game sound like decently authentic early 90’s shmup fare, but could have done with a few more of them to keep things interesting.

VERDICT: With this particular genre being so old and established, just delivering the basic mechanics isn’t enough. Classic shooters need variety, excitement, excellent presentation, and more than a couple of power-ups. Arc War brings none of these things to the table. Fans of the genre are better off downloading the (admittedly) pricier iOS ports of Cave’s excellent shooters like DeathSmiles and DoDonPachi Resurrection, or Dotemu’s R-Type ports, for a look at how this type of game should be done.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

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Review code provided by publisher.

The post Arc War Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

On paper, it works like a dream. Vikings mixed with 70’s Funk and a cracking art style. Hell, your character is called Magnus Jones – how cool is that? And it does work, really – it’s just a bit of a shame that unless you’ve got an Ouya console, you won’t be able to play it, and even if you do, there’s just not enough here to blow minds.

The story isn’t particularly deep, but it serves its purpose in setting up the game. Surreptitiously refused entry by the bouncers of the hottest club, Magnus (or you, really) needs to fight through randomly generated dungeons full of colourful enemies and collectibles. Let’s face it, everyone will have played a dungeon crawler by now, so to grab you, a game has to offer something unique, which Soul Fjord actually does pretty well. Combat is played out as you’d expect, but with a twist: this is a rhythm game! As you wander around, a constant stream of circles will roll across the screen, and once you start a combo it will change to the next button required to maintain it. It sounds complicated, and it is to begin with.

The biggest problem here is that the very nature of the music makes it awkward to get into the rhythm. It often feels like you aren’t in time, so instead of playing to the music, you end up playing to the visual representation of the music.

It’s standard fare elsewhere, though, and grabbing experience through combat allows you to upgrade, but it’s the art-style and audio that keeps you going. In fact, perseverance with the combat system is achieved simply because of the desire to see more of this world. It’s difficult to get to grips with at first, I really can’t stress that enough. The soundtrack that you’ll be playing to is excellent, but given the repetitive nature of the gameplay, more variation would be welcome.

Magnus is fully customisable, thanks to all the loot you’ll be picking up on your travels. Thankfully, while the items you collect do offer cosmetic changes, they also actually change your stats and skills, too. Soul Fjord does have in-app purchases, but confusingly it seems that you can play it without ever needing to use them. It’s rare to see a developer choose to not nickel-and-dime the customer in this fashion, and that should be celebrated.

But the trouble is, even the art style can’t save Soul Fjord from ultimately being a bland experience. The unique ideas are initially welcome – it’s nice to play a game that you actually have to think about for a change, mechanically – but when they play out over only a few levels, with such a high degree of repetition, there’s a chance you’re going to have had your fill of things before ever considering playing it on a higher difficulty level, or shelling out money.

VERDICT: At worst, Soul Fjord can be a bit boring, but at best it’s a creative iteration on a well-trodden genre. If you’ve got an Ouya already, it’s a no brainer that you at least fire up the game to try it out – but it’s hard to recommend anyone go and buy a console to play it. The Ouya needs exclusives, and it needs inventive ideas like Soul Fjord, but it alone can’t sell the device.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

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If you’ve indulged in Halfbrick’s rather excellent endless runner, Jetpack Joyride, you’ll be familiar with the mildly sociopathic “hero” Barry Steakfries. Modelled on Duke Nukem and Serious Sam, and with a voice like a tweenage Sylvester Stallone, Steakfries seems to exist purely to shoot stuff in the face and spread destruction wherever he goes. In Jetpack Joyride, his misappropriation of an experimental personal jetpack leads to the deaths of several hundred random scientists, a faux pas he appears to be atoning for by saving the world in Age of Zombies.

This isometric twin-stick shooter begins with an evil scientist using a time machine to unleash a zombie plague throughout history. His reasoning, however, remains a mystery, when Steakfries cuts short his villainous expository monologue by unloading a shotgun into his face and leaping headlong into the time portal.

Barry Steakfries is a badass; this fact is never up for dispute, but he’s that special kind of dumb badass, like Ash in Army of Darkness or Matt Hazard, who equates said badassery with how many things he can explode in a given day. As a result, he translates perfectly into a twin-stick shooter where your only objective is to re-kill masses and masses of zombie scum while shouting one-liners.

Unfortunately, what should be a recipe for hilarity often leaves a bad taste as the writing is simply atrocious. The one-liners don’t work, the supposed jokes fall flat and most attempts at humour are thwarted by iffy context and occasional moments of borderline racist ignorance. As with Duke Nukem, Steakfries is over-written as a schmuck rather than a loose cannon, and his misfiring attempts at comedy serve no other purpose than to pull your eyes away from the action to read them – which usually gets you killed. There are a few moments here and there that will make you smile, usually when he slurs the odd exclamation in his Sly Stallone voice, but the “dialogue” would have been better left out.

Unlike Jetpack Joyride or even Halfbrick’s other recent successful venture, Fruit Ninja, Age of Zombies doesn’t offer much incentive to keep playing it. There are no collectibles, no costumes or upgrades for Barry and no store to purchase anything with either in-game credits or real-life wonga. Sadly, this fact severely hamstrings the lifespan, and gives you no reason to go back through levels other than to improve on your high score. If this were still a five-minutes-a-time mobile game, that would be fine, but porting it to the Vita should have encouraged Halfbrick to add some extra content and make it worthy of the platform.

While you’ll predominantly use a pistol, various weapon and equipment drops in each level mix up the action. You’ll find all sorts of goodies from hoverboards and flamethrowers to bazookas and heavy duty buzz-saws, all of which burn out pretty fast in the frantic, manic action. The minute-to-minute gameplay is exhilarating enough, as you’re constantly on the move to avoid being totally overwhelmed by the horde. The zombies themselves adapt to the time period you’re in (of which there are six), but there’s not much variety in their attacks or behaviour.

Graphically speaking, Age of Zombies is quite pretty. The compact environments follow their own rules, and each area is colourful and distinct. It’s never hard to follow the on-screen action, and the score multipliers and special kill announcements gel perfectly with the overall feel. The music is a tad irritating, but without it Age of Zombies seems eerily devoid of atmosphere.

VERDICT: With 18 levels to blast your way through, all set in different periods of history (the 1930s, ancient Egypt and the Old West, to name a few), there’s enough variety to keep the aesthetics feeling fresh, but not enough content to encourage replays. Barry Steakfries treads the fine line between professional badass and total knobhead, and veers too often into the latter territory, but he’s a perfect fit for the kind of bombastic, throwaway entertainment that Age of Zombies offers. Ultimately, Halfbrick’s latest isn’t bad for a few quid, but it’s hardly a triumph for the ages.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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Review code provided by publisher.

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Within minutes of starting Bad Hotel you know you’re into something new. Lucky Frame’s infuriating, addictive musical tower-defence game presents a wonderfully effective marriage of genres straight off the bat, even if it does get incredibly hard, incredibly fast.

The premise is uncomplicated despite its inherent weirdness: you are simply tasked with defending a hotel from its psychotic owner, Tadstock, who is intent on destroying it for the insurance money. He aims to accomplish this by hurling all sorts of oddness at it, from rubber hat-wearing swimmers to kamikaze seagulls, crazed yetis and killer storm clouds.

You must defend the central, core tower by placing hotel blocks in the path of oncoming assaults. The blocks come in several different flavours which change and upgrade as you progress. You’ve got bog-standard blocks that do nothing but soak up damage, healing blocks that repair any damage you do incur, cannons to lay down defensive fire and mine launchers that shoot explosive defences into the air.

The higher your tower gets, the more money you’ll earn to buy more blocks – and you’ll need to act very fast when you’re being bombarded by a screen-full of enemies all at once. If you slip up and your tower starts taking damage, it’s only seconds before it’s all over.

The gimmick that binds the creating and defending together is procedural music. Every block you add influences the musical score, changing the background harmonics based upon your actions. It’s brilliantly effective, encompassing a number of different musical genres and ensuring something feels unique every time you play.

Be warned, however: despite Bad Hotel’s friendly, psychedelic visuals and charming presentation, it’s an absolute monster. By the halfway point, keeping your hotel standing is exceptionally difficult. Tadstock throws so much at you, so thick and fast, that keeping up can feel nigh impossible. It becomes a highly tactical affair when you’re spending money on blocks as fast as you can earn it. Is it better to use weaker cannons or stronger plain blocks? Is it worth putting another mine launcher in, or a healing block instead? The crucial part is that you must decide fast – a moment’s hesitation can see you overwhelmed.

VERDICT: Bad Hotel is a very simple game to play, and a fiendish challenge for those bored of whipping through Android titles too easily. Colourful, cheerful, occasionally very funny and endlessly entertaining, the only real negative is that it will be too taxing for some, and it can become repetitive if played for longer sessions. The procedural music is a wonderful central gimmick, though, and marks Bad Hotel as one that’s definitely worth a look if you’re after something groovy to kill your morning commute.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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In every slither of news, every preview and in each impending review for Broken Age, the sixteen-year absence of Tim Schafer from the point and click adventure game will be mentioned. Once a heavyweight of the genre, having worked on such wildly successful titles as Monkey Island II, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, Schafer bowed out from both Lucasarts and adventure gaming with his magnum opus, Grim Fandango. Since that time the game has become universally recognised as not only the high water mark for the genre but also the Albatross around its neck, with its big-budget, low-return performance marking the end of a golden age.

So what chance did Broken Age stand when it finally saw its release. It was already burdened with over-whelming expectation. The first title from a returning past master, the biggest Kickstarter campaign in the history of the site – this game was set to be the greatest graphic adventure ever made, right? That kind of expectation was dangerous for a game that so many people had already invested their money in based on the pedigree alone. With that level of excitement around the project, it is therefore not entirely surprising that the end result isn’t as earth-shattering as some might have hoped.

That isn’t to say the game isn’t good, it is just a little under-whelming. The story concerns two young people, both coming of age and growing into the world they live in, looking for a purpose. You can choose to play either story from the start, and switch between the two whenever you wish. First there is Vella – a young girl from the city of Sugar Bunting (once known as Iron Bunting, home of fearsome warriors, it is now the home of excellent bakers). Once every fourteen years the monstrous Mog Chothra comes to claim a sacrifice from every city, or else leave it in ruins. It is a great honour to be chosen as the sacrifice, so when Vella is selected her family are so proud – but the spirited Vella isn’t about to let her young life be ended by a silly tradition.

In the other half of the story, we encounter Shay. He has lived his whole life aboard a spaceship, alone but for the ship’s computer who acts as an over-bearing Mother figure. All he has ever wanted is a bit of excitement and a break from the hum-drum, cotton wool-wrapped life that the computer confines him to. When Shay finally finds a like-minded soul onboard, his whole life is turned upside-down, and a host of new challenges and dangers lay before him. Both stories are perfect metaphors for the teenager in all of us, struggling to break free from our family and carve our own way through life, no matter how scary that may be.

The premises are both intriguing and will keep you wanting to learn more about both characters and their situations. There are twists along the way, and the two stories intertwine, but unfortunately because of the ability to switch between Shay and Vella whenever you please, the narrative control is lost somewhat and many of these surprising moments or the lines hinting at twists in the story are a little lost. True, it is nice to be able to switch at leisure, but the net result is less directorial control over the way the game plays out. The dialogue is very well-written and is both sad and funny in places, but perhaps most interestingly it is far more serious than previous Double Fine offerings, which will perhaps surprise many fans.

The other shock is that, coming from a designer who has worked on so many revolutionary and critically-acclaimed adventure games, the puzzle design throughout the game is actually incredibly simple. The puzzle design isn’t bad, as it all remains fairly logical (which can often be an issue in graphic adventures), and they all integrate well into the story and setting. The issue is that the puzzles are all pretty simple, to the point where you will never be truly stumped at a single one. There is no hint system at all, but none is needed as all puzzles are either simple straight off the bat, or you are given such a plethora of hints during conversations and through examining items, that you won’t need to resort to asking for help.

This leads to the first act feeling pretty short and a little unsatisfying. The game is only likely to last three to four hours for most gamers, and there’s little sense of satisfaction when you progress. The puzzles all hold the same level of challenge, meaning that the gameplay never manages to reach a crescendo – despite the story obviously building up to a mid-game cliff-hanger at the end of Act 1.

What will strike you as soon as you launch the game is the wonderful visual style. Broken Age literally looks like a painting come to life, with beautifully drawn backgrounds and character sprites, animated in a wonderfully smooth way. The characters drift through the series of fantastic locations, each more visually exciting than the last – even those set in usually-bland spaceship corridors. Both of the protagonists, as well as the other people you meet on your journeys, are full of character and even with a fairly simple style, they effectively portray emotion throughout the game. This firmly two-dimensional style certainly places design over technology, and is a welcome throwback to graphic adventures of the past.

The sound design in Broken Age is also immediately stunning. Both the musical score and the voice acting are top-notch, but again more under-played than that found in previous Double Fine titles. Even the ever-energetic Jack Black (albeit in a minor role) manages to tone down his usual brash style to fit with the overall mood of the game – which is more contemplative than action-packed. The two leads also do well to bring their respective characters to life as likeable and relatable protagonists.

VERDICT: Broken Age does a fine job of creating an outlandish world populated by interesting characters, but is let-down somewhat by its core gameplay. The style and story are both very strong and will draw you into the game; sadly however, adventure games are generally concerned with puzzle solving, and the puzzles found in Broken Age just don’t test your little grey cells as much as one would like. They are logical and integrated into the game very well, but there is very little challenge to them. Hopefully, this is down to the game looking to get progressively harder as it goes on and Act 2 will be more challenging. As it is, Act 1 feels a little light.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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Review code provided by publisher.

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Steam Greenlight has already helped a good number of games make their way onto the Steam marketplace, games which may otherwise have found it difficult to carve out a niche for themselves. The community-driven scheme lets gamers choose which titles in development they would like to see make it to retail via Steam, and that should in theory result in there being more of the games that people want, where they want them.

Violett is one of those games. An old-fashioned point and click adventure, Violett takes liberal dollops of inspiration from the the work of Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland, for example) in a story also concerning a curious young girl. Violett’s parents argue a lot, and upon moving to a creepy old house in the countryside, this only gets worse. Finding her room to be the only place for solitude, Violett whiles away the days there – that is until she spots a strange gleaming light coming from a mouse hole in her room. Upon sticking her hand into the hole she finds a mysterious amulet, which promptly whisks her off to another world full of danger and confusion.

The other world is a mixture of miniaturised elements from her own home, and a selection of weird creatures and contraptions. The Alice in Wonderland influences are clear to see throughout, what with talking Caterpillars, oversize Teapots and an Evil Queen to defeat – it is obvious what feel the developers wished to evoke. There are other recognisable elements, such as a room of distorted staircases in an M.C. Escher style, among others. The end result is a disorientating mix of unusual locations and items, which creates an uneasy feeling and a sense of foreboding.

Unfortunately, other than the exposition at the start of the gam, which you have to interpret yourself as there are no voices throughout the game (save for some Sim-like speech here and there), there is no other story progression or background to be gleaned. In fact, the only motivation for the whole game is the assumption of the player that Violett wants to go back home. There is no development of any of the characters – be they the protagonist or any of the enemies or other creatures that she encounters. This doesn’t help draw the player in at all, and each of the different scenes end up being a disparate collection of puzzles rather than a coherent adventure.

The graphics are more interesting however, with the 2.5D style of the game working quite well for the material. All characters are rendered as 3D models, whereas the backgrounds are all hand drawn. Although it doesn’t sound like a great mix, the style of the two meshes quite well, and the models certainly don’t look out of place against the backdrops. The visual style complements the subject matter, and is both otherworldly and creepy at the same time. It manages to possess that edge of menace that Lewis Carroll stories also show, while also maintaining a magical charm. The music is suitably unsettling and helps add to the atmosphere, but the tracks are all quite short and if you get stuck in one room they will loop infinitely and can become grating.

The gameplay is very basic point and click, but is let down by a series of poor design choices. There is a good variety of inventory-based puzzles, mazes and physical puzzles such as sliding tiles, which keeps each screen fresh. One particularly fun puzzle is a chain reaction that must be set-up correctly. There are some inventive ideas, but the whole thing just doesn’t inter-relate greatly or sit well together. In the first scene, Violett comes into contact with a Fairy, from whom she gains Telekinetic powers. This means that you don’t have to walk around every scene in order to grab or use objects, which seems like a design choice made purely to simplify the game and reduce the amount of animations that have to be performed, and could be considered a somewhat lazy choice.

When using any items in the environment an interaction glow will appear, but if you wish to use inventory items, there is no indication where they can or cannot be used, and no feedback if you attempt to use something that doesn’t work. The game claims to have a hint system but all it provides is a cursor telling you how to move your mouse over selected items which need to be wiggled – but this happens so infrequently that it is no real help at all.

The final nail in the coffin, as it were, is that Violett asks you to almost constantly back-track from one side of the game world to the other. The M.C. Escher staircase room acts as a central hub of sorts, from which most other scenes are accessible. This means if you pick up an item in one scene, you must work your way through the staircase maze across to another room. This gets very tedious after just a few tries and makes even simple navigation through the game more painful than it needs to be.

VERDICT: An intriguing premise and interesting art style aren’t enough to drag Violett up to the level of other more accomplished point and click adventures. The design choices – that may or may not have been made in an attempt to reduce HUD intrusion and disconnect within the game – simply lead to too much irritation and this scuppers all of the good groundwork which has been laid by the intelligent puzzle design. Players are bound to get some fun out of solving the challenging conundrums in Violett, which is a refreshing change from the often far too easy puzzlers we see nowadays, but it simply isn’t enough to strongly recommend a title that frustrates more often than not.

 DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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Review code provided by publisher.

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It’s probably safe to say that, as a series, Ridge Racer has seen better days. Once upon a time, it was one of the jewels in PlayStation’s crown, but those days have long passed. Sure, there are new entries every once in a while, but they never arrive with quite the fanfare that they used to.

But here’s the obligatory mobile device version, which, despite a few issues, is actually a rather close approximation of what a Ridge Racer game should be, albeit built from the ground up with a touch-screen device’s strengths and weaknesses in mind.

The basic elements of Ridge Racer are in in place here: the appearance of series mascot Reiko Nagase, a few references to classic Namco arcade cabinets here and there, and a pumping electronic soundtrack. Oh, and drifting. Lots of drifting. Joining these essential ingredients are ten classic Ridge Racer tracks and a hefty amount of unlockable cars to burn around in.

Playing in either a Career Mode championship or a straight single-race Arcade mode, you purchase a vehicle with the meagre funds you begin the game with, and from then on you can customise your machine both cosmetically and technically by purchasing upgrades for a small fee. You can also purchase up to three single-use perks to help your progress, such as reducing the amount of speed loss after a collision, or allowing you to instantly start the race with a tank of nitrous. All perks and upgrades are purchasable with in-game money, but this being a mobile game, currency can be purchased with real money. This isn’t a free to play game, but at least the game gives you enough in-game cash through race wins to negate the need to spend any more money.

When it’s finally time to start the race, it’s clear that a lot of work has been put into making Slipstream feel as close to the classic Ridge Racer arcade experience as possible. Multiple control schemes are available, allowing you to tilt or use on-screen buttons to steer, and even automatically accelerate so you only need to worry about breaking and drifting. Using the on-screen buttons and auto-accelerate, I found the controls to work far better than many other mobile driving games, and you’ll be effortlessly drifting around corners in no time.

Which is good, because drifting is the key to winning races here. A tap of the brake pad while steering is enough to slide you around corners, and while it sometimes feels that the game takes care of steering during drifting, the arcade feeling is successfully retained. As the title dictates, slipstreaming is also important when trailing the pack – when driving directly behind a rival driver, an icon will appear on-screen to let you know you’re successfully slipstreaming, and can expect an increase in speed – sometimes enough to push you in front.

You can’t fault Slipstream graphically. The visuals are pin-sharp and look absolutely gorgeous on a Retina device – more importantly, I didn’t notice a single frame of slowdown. The racing action is as silky smooth as it is gorgeous, a Ridge Racer hallmark that I’m glad to see has been carried over to this smaller version.

Ten tracks (and mirror modes of each) doesn’t sound like a lot of content, but with plenty of Career championships and multiple car ability classes, there’s plenty of classic arcade racing action to keep you going. Admittedly, this is more a game that you’ll want to play in short bursts, as lengthy sessions can cause the racing action to outstay it’s welcome somewhat.

VERDICT: With a lot of free to play racers out there, Ridge Racer Slipstream faces some fierce competition, especially as this is a paid app. But unlike some of the more popular mobile juggernauts on the App Store, Slipstream has completely non-essential in app purchases.

Oddities with drift handling aside, this is as classic as arcade racers get, and for track-based thrills and spills, you could do a lot worse. If Ridge Racer hasn’t gone stale for you yet, then this is one of the better mobile racers out there.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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Review code provided by publisher.

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The world of Terraria is deceptively inviting. When you first find yourself upon its pixellated hillside, beneath a beautiful, bright blue sky, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in a place of safety and tranquillity. Indeed, it all begins peacefully enough, giving little indication of the grand adventures that await.

After creating your little avatar and selecting a world size from small, medium or large, you are (usually, as it varies) transported into a sunny land full of trees and possibilities. On the Vita version, you’re initially armed with a rudimentary sword, a woodcutter’s axe and a pickaxe, then you’re quite simply left to yourself.

A tutorial comes in the form of a wandering NPC, but it’s meandering and text heavy, and you’re far better off learning by doing. You’ll begin by cutting down trees to harvest wood, and mining stone blocks hewn from the ground. Killing the green slimes that appear will yield gel, which can be combined with wood to make a torch. It’s all very twee, until you’re warned to build a shelter before nightfall.

Similarly to Minecraft, Terraria’s world is no picnic after dark. Zombies and demonic flying eyeballs emerge from the shadows to kill anything in their path, and so you must construct a house to stay safe. Once you have a frame, you’ll need a workbench to craft doors, then a furnace to forge weapons and armour. Said weapons and armour mean you’ll need to go and mine copper, iron, silver, gold, and mining means delving deep, deep underground – which is where you start to find the really good stuff.

The landscapes of Terraria are very vertical, and you can lose yourself for hours burrowing deep into the bowels of the earth. You can find gemstones, rare metals and lots of hideous monsters braying for your blood. As long as you’ve enough wooden platforms and torches, you’ll usually be able to find your way back out again, but it can be daunting when you check the map and see just how far you are from home.

Building and furnishing homes invites NPCs to move in, from shopkeepers to explosive experts, and although they aren’t always useful, a little company makes the night times more bearable. The best thing about Terraria, besides the ridiculous wealth of content, is the freedom it gives you. A double-edged sword for some, such free will isn’t always constructive but at least it never becomes boring. You could simply build a massive multi-floored fortress, or dig your name into the landscape, but sooner or later you’ll need to be prepared for the bosses.

Rather suddenly, these behemoths will appear, and I’m not sure what leads to their encroachment – but when they come you’ll be in for a real battle. The combat, melee or ranged, is very basic, but the bosses will test your patience. Luckily, there’s no real fail state, as death simply robs you of half your gold and resurrects you at home (unless you choose the Hardcore mode at the beginning). Still, the bosses feel genuinely menacing, and defeating them is very satisfying.

Multiplayer either opens up your world to others or allows you to join theirs for a while. You can team up to excavate a particularly large cavern, or do battle in some rather enjoyable PvP, but ultimately, alone or not, you only get out of Terraria what you put in. There’s no ‘Game Over’, no endgame: if you put the hours in, take the time to not only upgrade your tools, home base and gear but also to explore, learn and experiment, Terraria is a rich, satisfying experience absolutely brimming with things to see and destroy and build.

The touch screen controls make navigating the menus a cinch in the Vita version, and the colourful, old school art style is a great fit for the small screen. The variety of climates and landscapes is enough to stop you getting bored, but if grinding isn’t your thing you won’t find Terraria particularly compelling. In the end, all you’re really doing is grinding and farming. The combat is pretty uninspiring (though vanquishing bigger foes is its own reward) and the platforming is quite basic, but then that’s not really the point.

VERDICT: Terraria is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde game. On one hand it’s idling and almost relaxing as you delve into the shadowed heart of your little world, or cut down trees and build houses and workshops beneath the sun. On the other, it’s quite the adventure, as monsters pour into the world come nightfall and ancient treasures await the intrepid. You will forge armour, mix potions, fight to the death, dig too deep and take on enemies that are too powerful, but you’ll also build, create, discover and share in a world you’ve helped to shape. Probably the prettiest and most user-friendly version available, Terraria on Vita is a joy to play and just different enough from everything else to stand out.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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The post Terraria PS Vita Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It’s that time of year again, the time of year when you’re undoubtedly going to be getting together with friends or family and consuming untold amounts of alcohol. If you’re anything like us, here at GodisaGeek, then you’ll be attempting to coerce those various family members and friends into playing a few games. For some of you – those with the more gaming literate families – this will take the form of multiplayer games such as Injustice: Gods Among Us or Smash Brothers Brawl. However, for those of us not lucky enough to have grandparents who know what a controller is, never mind how to use it, we have to settle for party games; games with simple rules but which are no less fun (especially when drink is involved) and that’s exactly where the iPad, and games such as Wurdy, come in.

Wurdy, as you could probably deduce from the title, is a word game with a simple task; the player has to describe a word they’re given from a pretty huge selection, and they get points when the other person correctly guesses the word. For example, the word you get may be “Presents”, the phrase you could say to the other person, in order to help them guess it, could be “what’s left under the tree on Christmas morning”. Hopefully, if they’re not too drunk, they should be able to guess the word, you can press the big green button, and award yourself some points.

As you may have already guessed, there’s a certain amount of trust involved in Wurdy. You’re being trusted to give yourself points if the other person manages to guess the word based on your clues, so it’s easy just to keep giving yourself points even if they guessed wrong. This is where a little bit of personal judgement comes into play, and you’ll just have to make sure that you’re playing with people who can take the game a little bit seriously, otherwise the gameplay gets spoiled and it’s not the game’s fault at all.

You can add as many people as you want to the game too, simply by tapping on a ‘plus’ button once a round ends, so you don’t have to worry about people being left out, and you can keep going for as long as you want as long as you don’t keep getting the same words over and over again. As you can expect from a word game, there is a limited amount of words in the game’s vocabulary (more words, from different themes, can be bought using the in-app purchasing options) so once you’ve exhausted them, you may want to stop playing for a bit or pass the game over to someone who hasn’t played it yet.

One of the most original features of Wurdy, and the feature which makes it more than just a simple party game, is the fact that it records each round of every game. At the end of each round you’ll be given the option to review the video that was recorded, and then upload that video to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube should you wish. If you choose to upload the video to the social media websites, the video will also get added to Everplay, a built-in social media-esque service which collects everybody’s videos into a single place. It’s a great move that makes a game which could be fun to play from time to time an absolutely essential purchase for anyone throwing a party. Just imagine all those Facebook/Twitter videos of your drunken friends trying to explain words. It’s worth the price of admission for that alone!

VERDICT: If you’re going to be getting a few people around for some drinks over Christmas, and you’re looking for something to play, you couldn’t do much better than Wurdy. The gameplay is tried and tested, and people that haven’t played this type of game before won’t take long to learn the rules. The addition of recording the rounds and being able to upload them to all of the usual social media channels means that you can share the fun with people that weren’t able to make it to the occasion and is a stroke of genius from the developer.

Having a couple more categories on offer after buying the app in the first place would have been nice, but the selection that is available isn’t terrible. Just make sure you’re not playing with the same people over and over, or you may find the same words cropping up again and again.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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Review code provided by publisher.

The post Wurdy Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

If you own a smartphone or tablet of any kind, and partake of the odd free mobile game to pass the time on the bus or the ivory throne, you will probably have played a “Marble Shooter” game before, or some variant thereof. The premise is very simple: you’ll be presented with some kind of grid arrangement, into which coloured objects (gems, more often than not) will tumble or slide. Combining three or more by shooting new similar objects at them will see them disappear, increasing your points and upping your chances of beating the timer. It’s very straightforward, and very addictive when done right.

Sparkle, from 10tons, is a new take on a well-used concept. Each level takes the form of a carved channel, and coloured orbs flow into the channel in random patterns, pushed inexorably towards the black hole at the centre. You control an orb launcher that can rotate 360 degrees and is constantly loaded up with orbs to be matched with those in the channel. If too many orbs fall into the black hole, you will use a life, represented by glowing runes carved into the outer ring of the launcher.

Hitting combos or forming particularly long chains will reward you with power-ups that you must shoot to activate. These power-ups may speed up your launcher’s rate of fire, reverse the flow of the orbs, turn you launcher into a freeze ray or nuke everything on the channel – they’re always useful and can make all the difference when the channel is filling up and you’re panic-shooting all over the place. In addition to this, you can unlock amulets that impart a special ability when “worn”, such as increasing your launcher’s speed or the amount of power-ups that spawn.

Between stages, you’ll be taken to a rudimentary world map that offers pointless forks in the road on your way to various landmarks such as a massive obelisk or a windmill. Each is a milestone and rewards you with an extra life or a new amulet, but Sparkle wouldn’t lose much by removing the map altogether and just jumping from level to level minus the fanfare.

The minute-to-minute gameplay is actually quite tense, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed. The Vita controls are as you’d find them on a mobile device or a tablet, only you can opt to use the left stick and X to launch your orbs instead of simply tapping on the screen, which is much easier and more accurate.

Graphically, Sparkle on the Vita is very nice-looking. The stages vary impressively, and the colours are vivid and appealing – although outside the stages the artwork on the landmarks is fairly low-rent. The sound effects have a few moments of flare, like the sadistic chuckle when you hit certain power-ups, and the music is excellent throughout.

VERDICT: Sparkle is very much a mobile game, and calling it a puzzle-adventure doesn’t disguise the fact that, in all honesty, it’s a marble shooter with a very basic, almost superfluous attempt at a narrative – which isn’t to say it’s not a good game. Best enjoyed for ten minutes at a time, it looks nice and has all the addictiveness you’d expect from the genre. Sadly, you can find plenty of games that offer almost the exact same challenge for free if you check your phone’s marketplace.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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If you’ve listened to any episodes of Truly, Madly, Geekly, then you’ll already know that I’m a pretty big fan of Doctor Who, so it’s no surprise that I’d jump on the chance to take a look at anything relating to the series. If it’s a video game, a book, or anything in between, it will almost certainly find its way into my greedy hands. So when it was announced that the BBC would be making a mobile game based on the hit series, and that it wasn’t a simple cash-grab because of the 50th anniversary celebrations, but rather the definitive jumping on point for any potential future Whovians, I was in there on the ground floor.

Doctor Who: Legacy is essentially a Match-3 type game with a Doctor Who theme and story; however, things are a little bit more complex than just matching the colours and winning. Your party is made up of a selection of characters from the Doctor Who universe, who are found and added to your collection through the progression of the story, and are then assigned a colour that relates to the Match-3 aspect of the puzzle.

The aim of the game is to face-off against various Doctor Who villains from the TV show, and in order to attack you have to match at least three of the board’s gems together based on which character you want to attack. For example, if The Doctor is the character assigned to blue (which is usually the case) then you’ll have to match at least three blue gems together in order to attack the enemy using him. Tapping on the various enemies brings up details about them, as well as which attacks they’re protected against and which they’re vulnerable to. This can be useful for finding out which of the gems you should be matching together in order to come out with the best result.

Once all the enemies are dead, you’ll complete the level and continue through the story to do it all over again. This normally would be seen as rather repetitive – and on a gameplay level, it is – but because you’re essentially interacting aspects of the TV show, collecting characters for your party and learning facts and trivia about Doctor Who along the way, it takes a lot longer than normal to start to feel like a grind. Learning about each of the characters in your party is a doddle too. Tap on the companion you wish to know more about, and you’ll instantly be taken to the “Companion” screen, where there’s a wealth of information about that character, complete with first appearance, affiliations and more. It’s a treat for anyone who knows nothing about the Doctor Who universe, but it’s even interesting for the Whovian who thinks they know everything.

While the story in Doctor Who: Legacy is new, it’s something that will appeal more to Doctor Who fans than people new to the universe. The Doctor and his companions have to travel backwards through time in order to stop the Sontarens from taking over the Earth. It’s a story that’s been crafted more so that the player can experience characters from popular episodes of the TV show. It’s not the greatest story in the Doctor Who cannon, but it’s not terrible either. The story is told through a series of comic book style static pictures, using the likenesses of each character but with an anime style twist. It’s a little bit jarring to see the characters illustrated like this to begin with, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it, and once you do it’s actually rather appealing.

VERDICT: Doctor Who: Legacy is an interesting addition to any casual gamer’s mobile library, but it will only really appeal to hardcore Whovians or people interested in getting into it. Still, it’s a fully featured match-3 game with enough of a twist to keep you invested for a while. BBC have created a game that’s worthy of the Doctor Who brand and have once again proven that they have the 50th anniversary celebrations well and truly under control. Roll on December 25th and the Doctor Who special – who cares about anything else happening that day?

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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The power of phenomenon cannot be overrated. The very idea of combining hugely popular mobile physics game Angry Birds with the Star Wars uber-franchise must have actually spawned fresh, crisp bank notes out of thin air – so the fact that it was free to play on Android devices when it first launched was pretty staggering. I don’t know anyone with an Android device (or indeed any smart device, as the asking price stayed fairly low) who hasn’t had a dabble with Angry Birds: Star Wars.

Problems arise, however, when indie devs Rovio decide to bring the same game to home consoles. Angry Birds: Star Wars on PlayStation 4 is the same exact game (plus about twenty bonus levels) as you played on Android devices for free, except it now costs 35 quid. There’s really no way Rovio can justify this price, and it makes this version of the game incredibly hard to heartily recommend, despite its inherent quality.

Conceptually nothing has really changed. The ordinary Angry Birds “characters” have been replaced with Star Wars versions, and so are equipped with cool force powers and such. There’s a Skywalker bird who can slice through scenery with a lightsaber, a Han Solo fella who can blast pigs Greedo-style, Obi-Wan and his force push, etc… Levels that mess with gravity fields and orbital rotations borrow ideas from Angry Birds: Space but put them to better use here.

Unlike some license crossovers, however, nothing about Angry Birds: Star Wars feels half-arsed. George Lucas’ sci-fi fantasy universe is absolutely core to the game, from the sound effects and music to the little static comic-pane cutscenes that lampoon moments from the trilogy. It’s wonderfully tributary and the utter respect that Rovio have for the legendary franchise is always apparent.

You can use the Dual Shock 4’s central touchpad to launch your poultry missiles should you choose, but it lacks the precision of an actual touchscreen and tends to be slightly too sensitive. It’s nice to have the touchpad option, especially for purists, but for more precise shots you’re best of using the left stick and X button to kick things off.

Graphically it looks pretty on the big screen, clear, crisp and vibrant – and, of course, it’s beautifully smooth – but it’s no great visual leap from the smartphone version. That said, we never expected it to tax the PS4, and the colours are striking and attractive in every stage.

VERDICT: The great gameplay we all know and love is present and correct, the graphics are sharp and appealing, the extra levels are a welcome addition and, of course, Star Wars. But I can’t help but get hung up on the insane price of the PlayStation 4 version. There’s just no real way to justify the purchase unless it’s your only possible way to play this game – and even then, despite its appeal and addictiveness, it’s still not a truly essential experience, particularly if you’ve played an Angry Birds game before. Angry Birds: Star Wars is good-looking and great fun to play, but simply not worth the best part of forty quid just for the sake of playing it on a next-gen console.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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There was a time when I thought that Rovio would have released their famous Angry Birds game with yet another license on top of it and have done with it. We’ve seen Angry Birds: Rio, Angry Birds: Star Wars, and probably a plethora of other games that I’m forgetting. Something I would have never thought I’d have seen is an Angry Birds game in a totally different genre, with a totally different look, but that’s exactly what we’ve got with Angry Birds Go!, and the addictive quality of Angry Birds is well and truly back.

Angry Birds Go! is a free-to-play racing title that gives you a quite a lot to do before you start hitting those dreaded pay walls. There are four different levels to race through, and each of those levels has a number of different tracks within, and the completion of each of them will see another well-known Angry Birds character unlocked and added to your team. Each character you have access to can race five times before you have to either wait for their counters to regenerate (which takes about 30 minutes per single race – so two and a half hours for the full five to regenerate) or you can pay to refill it using gems. All this means you can race five times if you have one character, ten times if you have two characters, and so on. So you can start to see the drive (pun partially intended) in collecting more and more characters to add to your team; the more characters you have, the longer you can play without having to pay for anything.

Each kart is fully upgradable, which costs coins that you’ll gain during the race. This is where the grinding element of Angry Birds Go! comes into play. You can either play races over and over again in order to gain enough coins to upgrade your kart and be able to play more races, or you can spend your own hard-earned cash to buy the gems, which can in turn be used to buy coins. It’s important to remember though, where Plants Vs. Zombies 2 made it almost impossible to progress past a certain point without dropping the cash to buy plants, Angry Birds Go! seems to go out of its way to make sure that you never have to spend a single penny unless you want to. Not in-game anyway – they want you to buy the new Telepods.

Telepods are similar to Skylanders in the sense that they’re physical toys that have an effect in game. These small toys karts are available to buy from most toy retailers and contain a small QR code on the bottom of them. When used in conjunction with the trophy stand (which acts as a magnifying glass for the QR code) and placed on the device’s camera – which, from experience, works much better if you’re using an iPad – you’ll suddenly find the kart that you’ve physically purchased within the game and ready to be used in the races. It’s an interesting way of making money and one that absolutely works, even I – at 27 years old – have considered buying more karts just to be able to use them in the game. In-app purchases are a second thought, Telepods are the way that Angry Birds Go! will make its money, without a doubt.

There’s plenty of gameplay to keep you entertained too, with each track containing a few different game modes – VS, Race, Time Trial, Fruit Splat and the races against each of the different characters in order to unlock them – and each of the different modes have multiple races before you’ve completed them (usually five, but sometimes three). So there’s plenty to do within each track before you even have to start thinking about grinding them over and over again to upgrade your karts. Once you have completed all of the races for a track, and you’re onto the dreaded grinding, challenges will start to appear for each mode to keep you interested while you’re trying to earn more coins. Challenges take the form of three tasks which, when completed, will give you bonus coins and gems. These challenges are usually simple tasks based on the mode you’re currently playing; for example, if you’re doing the Fruit Splat challenge, the task may be to get to the end of the race while only smashing five or less fruits. If you’re playing a race, the task may simply to finish in first place. Each of these tasks gives you something to aim for while you’re grinding for coins; something that the developer didn’t have to do – they could have made it feel more like you have to spend some real-world cash in order to progress – but they did it anyway in order to make you want to continue playing the game. A good move in my books.

VERDICT: As a free-to-play game, Angry Birds Go! does a lot of things right. It never makes you feel like you have to spend money, it gives you plenty of things to do and, while there’s a point where it would seem that you can’t play any more unless you spend some cash, all you have to do is wait a little while and you’ll be able to play more without any problems. The visuals are gorgeous, the gameplay is addictive and with the little physical karts that you can add to the game, I can see a lot of Telepods making their way under Christmas trees this year (I certainly hope there’s one or two under mine). Angry Birds Go! is addictive, funny and fun – exactly what you want from a game with the Angry Birds name – and it’s very nice to see Rovio make an attempt at a totally different genre. About time.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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Minecraft clones are all the range on the App Store – there must be hundreds of them, and while some are reasonably good, most are poor. There are plenty of apps related to Minecraft, too. Some are guides, others offer the lure of skins or custom maps and some offer very little at all. If you were to quickly glance at the Createrria page on the App Store you might think it just another Minecraft related app, as the icon is very reminiscent of Steve and the first few screenshots seem to show a 2D Minecraft that you can share with friends. But Createrria is actually more than that, and it’s a shame it has to hide its potential behind the similarities it bears to Mojang’s mega-hit.

Createrria’s main focus is on creating your own games, but really it’s just a simple level editor with a few preset options. The editor itself is insanely easy to use: items can be dragged into position and easily re-sized, while terrain can simply be drawn by dragging your finger around the screen; it certainly isn’t a difficult system to learn.

Included in the editor are a number of items that can be used in your “games”, such as portals, lifts, crates and a whole load of other things that you would expect to see in even the most generic platformer. Along with traditional platformer items there are a lot of items that look to have come straight out of Angry Birds, like a catapult that fires monkeys, glass pillars and wooden planks (to name a few). Also included are four art styles to choose form, which is where a lot of the comparisons to Minecraft come in – although one of them does look like it would fit into a level from FEZ.

The option to copy Angry Birds is made clear in the customisable preset layouts; two of the eight available layouts are slingshot levels, which basically turns the app into an Angry Birds level creator. The other layouts are more useful, even though they are all platformer based, as they give you a basic framework to edit as you please – but creating a game from scratch is the most rewarding way to go.

Unfortunately as the preset layouts suggest, it is nigh on impossible to create anything other than a platformer or an Angry Birds clone, or maybe if you’re feeling really adventurous you could combine the two. In my entire time with the app I only saw one level that wasn’t either of these and that was a level where someone had made a vehicle (read: a square with wheels) that went in a straight line and crushed some monsters.

To the new player the creation part of the app can be quite daunting, so starting with the creation challenges is the best option. These challenges give you a pre-created level that is missing a few key items; it is up to you to place these items in the correct position in order to figure out the route to the end of the level. Some of the challenges, mainly the latter ones, are quite taxing, and it becomes quite an entertaining puzzle game while it teaches the basics of level creation. Personally, I found trying to solve some the creation challenges more enjoyable than many of the featured player-created levels.

Once you’ve created your masterpiece you can publish it for others to play, and then you can play the creations of others. Many of the most popular levels are recreations of Mario stages, or ones that have massively detailed images, such as giant robots. The majority of the levels are not difficult but this is perhaps down to the simple controls, which allow you to move your character to the left and right and jump, and that’s it. The recreated classic levels are definately the most challenging but none are too difficult.

VERDICT: The creation options are somewhat limited, but that doesn’t mean some interesting things can’t be done, and I’m sure the community will figure out some new ways to use the tools available. For anyone who isn’t the creative type the creation challenges will be the highlight, as the player-created levels so far aren’t a real challenge.

Createrria ultimately fails in its attempt to allow you to create games; instead it is at best a glorified level editor for retro platformers and Angry Birds clones. Those who stick with it may eventually build something great, but the majority will drop out after a few hours at most.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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When it comes to mobile gaming, imitation is clearly the sincerest form of flattery, especially if you’re mobile developer/publisher King. Known for games such as Bubble Witch Saga (AKA Puzzle Bobble/Bust A Move) and Candy Crush Saga (AKA Bejeweled), the latest game to receive the Saga treatment is Popcap’s massively popular Peggle.

Much like Peggle, Papa Pear Saga is a playful take on games like Pachinko or Bagatelle. You must drop balls down a play area filled with pins/pegs to achieve various tasks, such as reaching a certain score or destroying certain items (in this case, specific fruit and veg).

The titular Papa Pear is your ball, launched towards a variety of fruit, nuts, vegetables and other plants; all acting as barriers to reaching your goal. Each level has a certain number of Papa Pears you can launch, and using all your projectiles without fulfulling that level’s objectives results in a Game Over – unless you’re willing to stump up a little real-world cash to carry on.

Yes, it’s one of those games, the kind that constantly scratch at your wallet for money like a Pomeranian scratching your leg for attention/food/cuddles. Finding particular levels a little difficult and need some power-ups? While the game initially gives you a few free Boosts that can be used to begin a level with, and a few more power-ups that can be used to power up Papa Pear (try saying “power up Papa Pear” quickly 20 times), if you use them up you’ll need to spend some cold hard cash for more. If you run out of lives, you can either wait a certain amount of real time for your lives to replenish, or grovel to your Papa Pear-playing Facebook friends for more. You will need those power-ups, I guarantee it; there comes a point in the game where levels just become so hard that you’ll either give up in frustration, or stump up the cash (which is clearly what King are hoping for).

But before the game reaches that point of frustration, there’s a little bit of fun to be had. Like similar games, there is a level of satisfaction to be had from performing a particularly tricky shot. But it’s the type of game that’s only going to offer limited enjoyment. While there are a ton of levels, your elation will likely taper off relatively quickly. Also, can mobile developers stop using three-star rankings to gauge success within a level, especially when these rankings don’t particularly have any effect on the game? If you’re trying to encourage a player to get three stars on each level, at least reward them for it.

While the graphics are extremely bright and colourful, they won’t exactly wow you, but considering this is a game about shooting balls into holes, it doesn’t really need to be flashy. The audio, however, could be a whole lot better, as Papa Pear Saga blasts out some of the most irritating sounds possible. The music is limited to a 30 second track that is so badly looped that it’s jarring to the ears, while the sound effects amount to nothing more than sped up and slowed down samples of people saying “DOINK”. You’ll reach for the decrease volume button so quickly, you’ll probably break it.

VERDICT: This is a simple game that’s going to be incredibly popular with the casual mobile gaming/Facebook crowd. However, it’s also a pale imitation of the six-year-old Peggle, that doesn’t offer enough to differentiate itself from PopCap’s classic. Gameplay-wise, it’s solid – but the frustrating approach to difficulty and the clear focus on getting your money through in-app purchases doesn’t make for a particularly compelling game.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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Devolver Digital is a name that carries a certain weight when one considers their back catalogue. With releases like Hotline Miami, Serious Sam, Shadow Warrior – all great games – the company is establishing itself as a quality publisher with quality titles. So when their latest release, Defense Technica, dropped into my hands I had high hopes, even though it is yet another tower defence game. I was excited to see what new ideas it might offer to refresh the genre, but unfortunately it’s the same old ding dong that brings nothing new to the table, and instead of trying to innovate it opts to play it safe.

Made by South Korean indie developers, Kuno Interactive, the game takes place in a future where Earth’s reach has expanded far beyond our solar system and discovered alien life. An alliance is made with two of these species, the Cluff and the Hergus, and for a time things are good. But the Hergus turn out to be nasties and invade Earth while the Cluff ignore calls for support. Worst. Alliance. Ever. And that’s pretty much it, which is perfectly fine for something like this, and the game makes no further attempt to force the story down your throat with lengthy cutscenes or scripted events. Just 3-4 screens of text at the beginning to set the scene.

What isn’t perfectly fine is the fact that Kuno thinks you might have Alzheimer’s, so it shows you those same screens every time you boot up the game. Although at least you can skip them. If you’ve ever played a tower defence game, then you’ve played this. Various upgradable towers? Check. Enemies with varying attributes? Check. Multiple waves/spawn-points? Check. Standard tower defence gameplay? Check.

Ok, so it’s not all completely textbook, there are a few features that are… not exactly unique, but we’ll say less-common. Weather patterns such as rain and lightning storms, which can occur at any time, can have adverse affects on your towers such as diminishing their range or slowing fire-rates. It’s an attempt at something new but I never found it to have a great impact in any situation. Besides the weather, the altering of enemy paths by erecting barricades is the only other slight deviation from the norm, but that’s only relevant when beginning a level as you plan your defences.

A favourite technique of tower defence lovers is “mazing”, where you create a winding path of towers that force the enemies on a longer route, thereby subjecting them to more damage. Defense Technica sadly does away with this, only allowing you to place towers in certain locations on the map. There is limited scope to maze but mostly there are a set number of strict paths the enemy must follow. Consolidating these paths into one main route using barricades is one of the few actual strategic decisions you can make. New towers, and upgrades for each, are unlocked using medals earned in completing missions, but they are very slow to come. It’s a bit frustrating, but it’s one of the few thing that will keep you playing.

The control scheme of Mouse + WASD is not very pleasant and doesn’t feel comfortable. The keys handle the camera movement around the map but that task could have easily been assigned to the mouse. In fact the whole control scheme could consist solely of the mouse. When selecting a place to build, the keys switch to choosing which tower to build which is not good when you’re zipping around the map bolstering defences. You get used to it after a while, but in a game a simple as this, getting used to controls shouldn’t be necessary.

Visually, it’s up to scratch, with everything nicely modelled in 3D, including backgrounds, all tipping along at a nice frame-rate without noticeable drops even with a large volume of enemies on screen. The music however is deceptively irritating, mainly because it consists of one score that repeats over, and over, and over, on every level.

VERDICT: Defense Technica is a bland, run-of-the-mill affair. It brings almost nothing new to the genre and relies on tried and tested mechanics. What makes it sub-par is it’s shunning of the favoured tower defence elements such as mazing, its overcomplicated control scheme and its lazy approach to sound. I’m struggling to see why Devolver got involved with such an unambitious project, but here’s hoping it was just one that slipped past their defences.

POOR. Games tagged 4/10 will be playable, perhaps even enjoyable, but will be let down by a slew of negative elements that undermine their quality and value. Best avoided by any but hardcore genre fans.

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New point and click puzzle game Morphopolis already comes with a lot of critical acclaim behind it. Before its release it has already won a Design Award from the Association of Illustrators, as well as being part of the special selection at Rezzed. Arriving with such high praise, gamers should expect big things from this hidden object title from first-time developers Micro Macro.

Morphopolis is concerned with an Aphid who wishes to re-unite with its lost companion – but in practice, there is no exposition or set-up to explain this. When playing, you are thrown straight into the first scene and in no way is any sort of narrative conveyed. This is disappointing, as the developers have mooted the title as being story-driven, but it most certainly isn’t. The only way I knew about the fact that there was even a narrative at all was from reading the developer’s blurb.

Action takes place from the point of view of an insect, in a micro-world where twigs form bridges and flower stems ladders. The gamer begins as a tiny Aphid, and through the five playable levels must upgrade to larger, more mobile insects in order to progress. By solving puzzles, and collecting objects hidden in the scenery, you build up parts of these larger insects and, when complete, perform a somewhat disgusting move where your character burrows into the head of the new insect, thus taking control of their body. Lovely.

The majority of Morphopolis is a very simple hidden object search. You move between three or four scenes per stage (only one in the first stage, but levels get progressively longer as play goes on), tapping or clicking on objects on-screen, trying to find a pre-determined number of different items. Your “shopping list”, of sorts, is displayed on the left-hand side of the screen, keeping track of how many items are left for you to collect before you can complete the stage. This is adventure gaming at its simplest, and is far from demanding. Hidden object games seem a product of point and click games becoming more casual, so if you like your adventures light and non-taxing, this may be right up your street.

An in-game hint system is present, which takes a few minutes to charge each time, but will highlight objects to pick up so you won’t be left searching blindly for long if you are stuck. There are some more complex puzzles hidden within the levels, such as a game of pairs where you have to match up the number of spots on the back of beetles, or a kind of Lights-Out game that involves switching glowing gems. These aren’t especially difficult and can mainly be solved by trial and error, and a little patience.

Seeing as the story and gameplay aren’t exactly revolutionary, it is left down to the much-touted design to carry the game, and it is quite a good-looking title. The insect world created is familiar to us, but alien in its own way – what with the action all being shown from a viewpoint we aren’t used to. The sprawling levels created by tiny organic items are quite clever, using environmental elements in interesting ways. The colour palette has been played with, so rather than muted browns and greens that one might expect from an organic environment, everything is bright and bold. The visuals are certainly eye-catching, but if you are scared of insects beware – the level of realism may make you squeamish.

The whole package is rounded off by a suite of relaxed music, which obviously is meant to complement the slow-paced and non-taxing gameplay. The music has a hint of jungle drums or tribal music to it, playing on the idea that the mini-world created in Morphpopolis is like a dangerous jungle – but mostly the soundtrack fades into simple background ambiance and is never used to accentuate what is happening on-screen.

VERDICT: Whilst the design of Morphopolis may have won it many fans already, this does seem to be very much a case of style over substance. The story is non-existent and the gameplay itself is woefully simple, meaning that the five levels are only likely to take even fairly casual puzzle-gamers more than twenty minutes or so each to complete. The only thing likely to slow you down is the lack of a save system – meaning you cannot leave a level part-way through and come back to it later. This is infuriating, and quite frankly a terrible design choice for a casual game – harking back to much less forgiving times. Marry that with the fact that level loading times are ridiculously long, and you soon realise that the majority of your time with Morphopoils won’t actually be occupied with playing. This is more an art experiment than a game.

POOR. Games tagged 4/10 will be playable, perhaps even enjoyable, but will be let down by a slew of negative elements that undermine their quality and value. Best avoided by any but hardcore genre fans.

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It’s safe to say that both Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends are great games that have deservedly achieved critical praise and financial success for Ubisoft. It’s also safe to say that the original Rayman Jungle Run was a clever way to bring the frantic platform gameplay of the bigger console games to mobile devices. In stripping Rayman Origins down to an auto-running platformer with simple controls, Ubisoft managed to provide a challenging and exciting platform game that suited mobile devices perfectly.

Rayman Fiesta Run is more of the same, which is in no way a bad thing. There are new features, but the core gameplay remains unchanged. Approximately 80 levels of fast-paced platforming requires both quick thinking and level memorisation in order to collect a maximum of 100 Lums. The more Lums you find, the more Electoons you receive at the end of the stage and the faster new levels unlock – plus, on your travels you’ll also unlock new characters, artwork and more of Rayman’s abilities, which are regularly introduced to keep the gameplay fresh.

The controls are still simple, starting you off with just a jump button and later giving you another button for attacking. Other abilities also use these same buttons, so you can concentrate less on where your thumbs are, and more about finding the perfect platform racing line in order to collect every Lum in sight. Rayman controls exactly as he does in Origins/Legends, so those of you who are familiar with Rayman’s physics should be right at home here.

Keeping with the simplicity and accessibility of this Rayman adventure, you’re never more than a few seconds from gameplay. At all times, an on-screen button allows you to quickly restart a level should you make a mistake, and even death results in no more than a moment’s pause before restarting the level for you. Everything is immediate, just as it should be in a mobile game.

Should you get every Lum in a level (earning a Perfect rating in the process), you’ll also unlock a harder “Invaded” version of that stage, which adds more enemies and hazards to avoid. These harder levels almost feel like entirely new levels themselves, adding more longevity to an already lengthy game. You’ve also got Facebook leaderboards so you can see how your friends are doing as well.

For those who struggle a little with the challenges placed before you, the same does allow you to purchase some helpful upgrades with your collected Lums. Items such as limited or unlimited projectile attacks, hearts to protect you from damage and even an upgrade the shows you the best route through a level. While there are in-app purchases for buying extra Lums, there are enough littered around each level to be able to buy these upgrades without opening your wallet.

Of course, as this game shares the same UbiArt engine as the console versions of recent Rayman games, it also shares the exact same assets. Just as in Jungle Run, the graphics are exactly like their full-sized counterparts and nothing is cut from the artwork that is still full of character and fun. The same goes for the music and sound effects, which are taken directly from Rayman Legends. Yes, the high-pitched singing remains intact.

VERDICT: Fiesta Run is very similar to Rayman Legends. Much like that game, it’s an elaboration on what has come before (as Jungle Run was to Rayman Origins) and offers the same amount of fun and challenge as before. While the impact isn’t as great this time around, there’s plenty to enjoy with the second helping of mobile platforming goodness.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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It’s very rare that I load up a mobile game that really impresses me from the start. Well, Anomaly 2 is that elusive mobile game; a near AAA-quality strategy game that is unique, polished and, above all, entertaining.

Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth in 2018 where the light of humanity is quickly being extinguished by alien machines, you play as the Commander of a resistance convoy unit that has been charged with fighting back against the alien invasion.

Unlike other strategy games that are based on the tower defence design, this is a game that’s based on tower offence. The aliens have set up structures in each environment and it is up to you to take them down and reach each objective. However, before your units can roll out and take the fight to the aliens, you are in charge of planning your approach to battle.

Each level starts with a map of the environment, detailing locations of enemies, objectives and other items of note. You pick the exact paths and roads your convoy will take, as well as the units you’ll be taking with you. Once you roll out, you’ll need to use quick thinking to change your path if necessary, as well as several deployable power-ups to ensure your units don’t become heaps of junk littering the frozen tundra.

Different units have unique strengths to take advantage of and weaknesses to avoid, much like the enemy you’ll be facing. New player and enemy units are regularly introduced, with useful tutorials on how they are best used/avoided, while each unit of your convoy also has the ability to morph into another form that is better suited for different situations such as short or long-ranged combat.

Anomaly 2’s approach to strategy is a satisfying one, well suited to the confines of a mobile device. Whether your’re playing on a smartphone or a tablet, the UI is simple enough to use without running into any issues. What’s more, it looks absolutely gorgeous – it’s easily one of the best looking mobile games I’ve had the pleasure to play. Environments are beautifully lit and detailed, while the audio is suitably atmospheric. There’s plenty of spoken dialogue to accompany the narrative as well and, while it errs on the side of schlocky, the voice acting is a cut above that found in similar games. There’s a polish to Anomaly 2 that shows how much care has been put into the game, and it’ll push your mobile device to the limit.

With 14 chapters of strategic gameplay, set over four difficulties, you’ll easily get your money’s worth in Anomaly 2 – and there are no in-app purchases to blight the experience. There is, however, a multiplayer mode which is a nice added bonus that unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to experience.

VERDICT: Easily one of the best mobile games I’ve played this year, Anomaly 2 is a tour de force of impressive visuals and exciting gameplay that raises the bar for mobile strategy games. It’s a refreshing take on a genre that clearly has some new ideas left in it.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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It is a good time to be a gamer. Technological advances have made our gaming experiences more immersive and more full of potential than ever before. One of the best advances in recent years is the ability to play games between multiple devices, allowing us to play comparable versions of some of our favourite PC and console games on our mobiles and tablets, and having them all tie together. Dragon Eternity began life as a browser-based MMORPG, but now you can take your progress to your Android or iOS device for role-playing on the go.

This is a game that adopts a familiar fantasy setting, one of swords, sorcery and dragons. Two warring factions, Sadar and Vaalor, reside in the world of Adan, battling over ownership of the Empire of Tartu. Meanwhile, the Dark Gods of Shaab regularly send their deadly armies from the Abyss to assault Adan. As a warrior of either Sadar or Vaalor, you must take your character from trainee to fearless Dragon Knight – a shining beacon of hope in Adan’s darkest times.

There’s a lot of lore here. While the game itself doesn’t explain the setting particularly well (that information can be cleaned from the rather expansive website), there is an absolute ton of text to read. While I never found it to be the most enthralling of narrative strands, it’s well written and serves the game well.

One thing to note is that, as an MMORPG, Dragon Eternity requires a constant data connection. If you lose connection for even a few seconds, you’ll be unable to play the game, making it unsuitable for the morning/evening commute. It’s an understandable requirement, given that the game features multiplayer interactions such as Player vs. Player combat and group raids. As per any MMORPG, expect some hefty upgrade installations upon starting the game, and be prepared for it to try to load a massive intro movie the first time you play. Luckily, you are given the option to skip these updates and intros and just play, but it might have made more sense to facilitate these upgrades via the device’s own application upgrade functions.

Once those formalities are over, you are taken into the game proper. The actual game-view takes up the middle of the screen, and is bordered on all sides by a ton of menus and stats. Played on a smaller device (an iPhone 5, for instance), everything is a little small and crunched together, but the game is still playable. All things considered, if you have an iPad, Dragon Eternity would be best enjoyed on a larger screen.

From the very start, you’re given a massively helpful guiding hand. Early quests do a thorough job of explaining every aspect of the mechanics, from navigation and classes to combat and item usage. Gameplay is mainly quest-driven, as you’ll meet people who require you to partake in various tasks, most of which revolve around travelling to one area, killing some enemies, then travelling to another area. Combat is a simple turn-based affair; at times you’ll be joined by others, while eventually you’ll be able to fight alongside a dragon. Ultimately, though, Dragon Eternity is an utter grind-fest.

What you’ll experience in the initial tutorial stages is exactly what you’ll experience in later levels: flicking between environments through menus, touching enemies to engage in combat, occasionally buying and selling items and reading a whole bunch of text. It’s all so monotonous. At times, it feels like you’re playing an inferior version of the game if you use a mobile, as there are many times where you’ll be given a quest, only to be told that you can’t complete it on the mobile version and you are given the option to skip it – which counts as completing it. Maybe the developers intend to eventually expand upon the mobile version to bring it up to par with the browser version but, at the time of writing, it’s odd to say the least.

Which is a shame, because this is an incredibly polished game. It’s filled with beautiful 2D artwork for the environments and during NPC dialogue, while the combat visuals look good – although, when you first start a battle, it takes far too long for characters to be drawn on screen. It’s certainly one of the better looking mobile games out there, even if the fantasy is a little too generic. The same can be said for the audio, which uses typical orchestral tracks to set the scene. Presentation is certainly one of Dragon Eternity’s stronger points, and it’s clear that a lot of effort went into creating its world.

VERDICT: The game itself is free (with in-app purchases for in-game money), but that said – and as beautiful as the world of Adan is – it counts for naught when the tasks you are given as a Level 1 character barely differ from those of Level 30. If you can handle the grind, there is a lot of RPG content here; at the very least, it certainly feels like this mobile version would be a nice accompaniment to the browser version. Dragon Eternity is a solidly built game that’s just lacking the variety required to make it worth putting the time in.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

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In the animal kingdom, no rivalry has ever been as fierce or as famous as that of mankind’s two favourite pets: cats and dogs. So what happens when you arm these furry factions with an arsenal of Japanese weaponry? You get Ninja Cats Vs Samurai Dogs, a take on the popular Plants Vs Zombies, albeit with a little more depth.

As hinted by the name, you’re given the opportunity to play as the stealthy Ninja Cats, or the fearsome Samurai Dogs – both factions feature the same classes of unit, the only differences are purely aesthetic. Once you’ve picked what side you want to command, you’re taken to a world map. In the initial free download, nine missions are available, but an in-App purchase (currently 69p) adds the rest of the game’s missions. The initial couple of missions will take you through the basics of the game. Essentially, you have five horizontal lanes on screen, your army starts on the left-hand side, with your foes on the right. You must erect buildings at the beginning of each lane to be able to create cards that act as your units and power-ups, as well as other buildings that provide you with resources. These structures are protected by a fence, which you must defend while trying to attack your opponent.

When a unit card is deployed, your warrior will travel from left to right, attacking any enemy that’s on their path. Your aim is to get to the end of each path, destroy your opponents walls and buildings to occupy their lane – capture three lanes and the win is yours. Meanwhile, the AI is trying to do the same to you. Several units are at your disposal, ranging from the close-quarter infantry, the ranged attacks of the archers and the speed of the cavalry. In a Rock-Paper-Scissors fashion, all units have an opposing unit they’re stronger than, and another they’re weaker than (for example, cavalry units are great against archers, but rubbish against infantry).

Winning battles will earn Experience to gain levels, plus various coloured orbs (red, green and blue). Levels and orbs will allow you to purchase new abilities and units. These abilities are split into three branches on a skill tree: Might (Red), which are your offensive units; Martial (Green), which offer buffs; and Magic (Blue), which gives you various offensive and defensive spells. While the in-game tutorial explains the initial stages quite well, it doesn’t really try to explain some of the Martial and Magic abilities very well – I was never sure how to best use these abilities to their full potential. In battle, you can press and hold over any building, unit, or card to see what they do, but it would have been nice to have this information outside of battle. Luckily, on the map screen there is a button that takes you to this game’s forums that offer some great advice and guides for those who are struggling.

And you will struggle, because some of the battles in this game are pretty darn tough, especially when the game doesn’t really tell you how to deal with some of the advanced abilities that the enemy will throw at you. It can be incredibly frustrating when the AI starts throwing magic spells at you that instantly kill your units, while the game gives you no indication on how to avoid or even defend against these attacks. Luckily, your path on the world map branches off, giving you multiple missions to work on even if you’re stuck. There were times when I really struggled with all of the available missions though, and I really needed some more advice on what to do next.

In addition to normal battles, there are also Skirmishes that give you a set number of cards which you must use effectively to defeat every wave of enemy that attacks. There are also side missions that involve performing various tasks such as collecting a certain number of orbs, or finishing certain levels. Completion will allow you to take part in a battle to earn Artifacts that give you new abilities. For instance, the first Artifact (Memory Crystal) will allow you to re-spec your skills, which is essential for when you’re truly stuck and need to come up with a new strategy.

The battles themselves are pretty intense at times; lots of plate-spinning while you defend multiple lanes trying to mount some sort of offensive. You’re able to pick the cards that your buildings create, but it can still take a while for units to arrive – a lot of the time it feels too long, especially when the enemy is attacking your wall from multiple lanes. But there is a great sense of achievement when you begin to find the best ways of deploying your units, and coming up with new strategies. It would have been nice if the two factions had units that acted differently, instead of just looking different, but there’s still plenty of depth and content here, regardless.

With a game that features Ninjas and Samurai, it makes sense for the presentation to have a distinct Japanese influence, which this game provides in spades. You’ve got your ink-drawn characters (think Okami) that also retain a certain cartoony style that’s very effective, along with a very authentic sounding soundtrack which sets the scene very well. It’s always nice to see a game that eschews the usual trends (if I see another mobile game with zombies, I’ll go mad), and here the presentation is well thought out and complements the gameplay incredibly well.

VERDICT: Challenging yet rewarding, this is a game that is at its best when the player is experimental with their strategies. While I could have done with the tutorial being a little bit more helpful in regard to some of the abilities and opponent attacks, this is a very enjoyable strategy game. The free download gives you nine levels to play, which is more than enough to decide if you like this game enough to splash out on the currently minimal IAP fees.

Maybe a Haiku would be apt to finish thie review off:

Solid strategy.
Brilliant presentation.
Well Worth Checking Out.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

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Real Boxing is yet another example of a popular indie title making the transition from mobile devices to a “grown-up” console, with Vivid taking the decision to port its popular iOS and Android fight-fest to the PS Vita. The original made impressive use of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 to deliver some extremely slick visuals and a highly competent take on the sweet science. This PSN download is considerably pricier than its forebear, but comes with the benefit of some additional control options.

The pugilistic art of boxing in videogame form usually goes one of three ways. Licensed simulations like Fight Night go the whole hog in trying to deliver a valid, serious, all-round representation of the sport. Titles of yore like the excellent Victorious Boxers or Dreamcast fave Ready 2 Rumble combined an approximation of the sport with arcade elements. Then you have your Punch-Outs, or Wade Hixtons, which are essentially boxing-themed rhythm action fests, a genre that does lend itself well to the dodging, counter-punching and focus on timing that is crucial to the sport. Real Boxing eschews any arcade sensibilities and is best described as a combination of the former and latter styles.

Once you ‘ve created yourself a boxer from the reasonably comprehensive palette of options available, a wonderfully Rocky-esque tutorial eases you into the action. Where those playing on mobile devices previously had just the touchscreen to play with, Vita owners have the benefit of either the ultra responsive analogue sticks, or a combination of the face buttons and D-pad to control the fighter. On the analogue side, the left stick looks after movement, with the right used to generate the plethora of different hooks, jabs and uppercuts. The D-pad and face buttons have the same function, but the game allows you to use a combination of all of these controls however you wish, giving you a great deal of flexibility. The right shoulder button handles your guard, but is also used to trigger a dodge manoeuvre that gives you a brief window in which you can deliver a counter-punch that Floyd Mayweather would be proud of.

Grinding down your opponent’s stamina bar whilst protecting your own is the order of the day. If you do end up on your arse, then you are presented with a button mashing mini-game of sorts, where hammering the shoulder buttons will allow you to regain your footing and re-enter the action with a health boost. You can also regain your stamina – and composure – by engaging in a manly clinch with your opponent. When this happens, an on-screen bar pops up which asks you to balance a pointer in the central green zone, using the motion sensor capabilities of the handheld like a spirit level. Successfully using this spoiling tactic can result in your life bar being replenished – but cock it up and you leave yourself open for a further good hiding.

In between gunning for one of the three championship belts on offer, you can improve your avatar by hitting the gym and taking on some bag work or boxing staples like skipping rope, here represented as rhythm action-style trials, where you have to time button presses and flicks of the sticks in order to earn handy boosts, such as shortening your recovery time when you get knocked down. Successfully improving your fighter is key to beating the higher difficulty levels as well as venturing online to fight other human beings, and you are awarded RPG-style improvement points after winning each bout, which you can assign to jack up either your speed, stamina or punching power. You take your main created boxer into the online arena, therefore it is important that you are equipped to deal with other players who would have levelled up significantly, to ensure that you come off more like Lennox Lewis than Audley Harrison.

There isn’t a huge amount of variety on offer. All of the boxing takes place in a solitary weight class, which is understandable for a game that began life on mobile platforms, but means that it pales next to other simulations available elsewhere. Lack of licensing isn’t a fair criticism but there is a certain po-faced, gritty realism and the glistening, often heavily tattooed gladiators lack personality and pizazz.

Statistically boosting your fighters does not seem to have a huge amount of bearing on how you approach fights, which is where a game-changing element would come in handy – such as the inclusion of a flashy signature move, for example, which could have been implemented without tripping over into the realms of fantasy.

VERDICT: Those who already have access to alternative platforms on which to enjoy Real Boxing may wish to consider whether the extra expenditure is cost-effective when balanced out against the superior controls. It isn’t a perfect encapsulation of the sport, but it is the best one to have appeared on any handheld in recent memory, and one which makes fine use of the Unreal Engine to generate some high-fidelity looks on the Vita’s OLED screen.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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In the late nineteen-eighties, graphic adventures were in their infancy, having recently taken the place of popular text-based adventures such as Zork. PC gaming in general wasn’t as inclusive as we see it nowadays, and the market was generally comprised of older office workers – often passing around a pirated copy of a game from workmate to workmate. As such, there were several slightly risqué text adventures that had been released over the years – none so notorious as Sierra’s 1981 title, Softporn Adventure, by Chuck Benton.

But as PC gaming advanced, and graphical adventures became the new buzz genre, it stood to reason that developers would want to visualise the sexual themes of these raunchy titles. This was illustrated perfectly by the 1987 release of Leisure Suit Larry: In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards – an almost direct remake of Softporn Adventure by Sierra themselves. Only this time, a new designer named Al Lowe wanted to turn the horribly dated Softporn Adventure into a real parody of itself, and the game found a huge following.

And so the Leisure Suit Larry series was born, and since then it has gone on to become synonymous with sleaze, perversion and bad taste – despite the fact that whilst the games were under the control of Lowe, most of the sexual activity was only ever implied, and Larry was somewhat loveable, being more often quickly brushed-off by the many unimpressed ladies in the series. The games were in fact more about Larry’s failed exploits than their explicit content. It was only after Sierra farmed out the license that the series became little more than a teen sex romp. Now, through the magic of Kickstarter, Al Lowe has once again got control of the character he created – and the result is a remake of the first game in the series.

If you don’t already know the premise of the game, players take on the role of seventies throwback Larry Laffer, who is always decked out in his titular Polyester Leisure Suit. Larry is past his prime – although it is likely he never had one – and certainly not a hit with the ladies. And yet he has made his way to casino-town Lost Wages (points for originality) to – somewhat naively – find true love. The game sees players solving puzzles and having conversations in traditional point and click fashion, whilst moving from one ill-fated romantic liaison to the next. What makes him a likeable protagonist is that he himself is somewhat innocent, and tries to woo all the ladies with romantic gestures.

The interface is simple – but you can choose the technique that suits you best. The makers have squeezed three different point and click mechanics into the game, allowing users to pick their favourite – be it an icon wheel, scrolling through interactions with the right mouse button or simply selecting icons from a static on-screen menu. This is good, as it will allow players to feel at home instantly, no matter what they are used to. The game doesn’t have obvious hotspots or a hint system to make things easier, but this largely seems because the team have gone all-out to make almost everything on-screen a hotspot. Whatever you click on will most likely elicit a response – more often a joke than something useful, but a response nonetheless. This means that there is a lot to keep you busy in each scene and lots of hidden jokes to uncover.

The remake is very faithful to the original game – which you would expect when both series creator Lowe and long-time writing partner Josh Mandell returned to work on the project. But that is perhaps its biggest failing. Maybe the designers didn’t want to alienate gamers who loved the original game, but at times Reloaded seems like it is simply going through the motions. They have tried to add in a few extra puzzles – even one entirely new girl for Larry to chase – and new Easter eggs, but for some reason they don’t resonate or have the same charm that the original game had. If you are a long-time Larry fan this isn’t terrible, as your nostalgia will carry you through the weaker moments. However, if you come to this as a new player, things probably seem even worse – the comedy does feel dated and it all comes across as a little lifeless. The new jokes just aren’t as pithy as the old ones.

The new puzzles do help to stretch out the game a little – as the original is terribly short – but most players will find that earning money will take up most of their time. Perhaps unwisely the designers left in the feature that you can run out of cash – and considering you have to pay a taxi to move from location to location and you have to buy most of your items from shops, this can cause quite a bit of frustration. Unlike the old game when running out of money resulted in a game over, you do get pity change in this title – but due to the fact that the only way to make money is the luck-based gambling, this whole process becomes long-winded, random and irritating.

It must be said that the high definition makeover is nice, but not without its flaws. The backgrounds are both fitting tributes to the old locations from the original game and impressive works of art in themselves. They are detailed and multi-layered – creating interesting places to be stuck in. There is a bit of a disconnect between the art style of the environments and the characters, however, and even the characters don’t all sit together well. You see, those sprites that have been based on character designs from the old title are very cartoony, possessing a lot of personality. The rest of the game, though, is filled with a supporting cast of bland, quasi-realistic characters and extras who are modelled on high-level Kickstarter backers. This does result in an uneven look to the game, and one that holds very little charm below its high gloss exterior.

The music in the game is a definite step up though, and there are some really nice jazz saxophone pieces, of course led by the recognisable Leisure Suit Larry theme tune. The music overall does a good job of setting the sleazy Vegas atmosphere that the game is going for. The sound design is a little let-down by the patchy voice -over work. The vocal choices for Larry and the girls have obviously had quite some thought put into them (although Larry lacks the same simpering likeable voice that he had in earlier games), but again the supporting cast lets the whole thing down, with too many of the incidental characters having poorly delivered, bland lines.

VERDICT: Leisure Suit Larry was never a masterpiece as such. Al Lowe created a character who wasn’t your typical hero, someone who your average Joe could relate to, in situations that were recognisable (well, some of them at least). Its cult following was gained by the charm and humour that Lowe injected into the early games. This remake – whilst cleaning up the rough edges and adding new content – just doesn’t quite tick all the boxes. The jokes in the first Larry game made it memorable – but the updated punch lines just don’t connect with the same success rate.

Even if you are a die-hard Larry fan (or a massive adventure game nut for that matter), it is unlikely that Reloaded will rekindle those old feelings inside of you. It is more likely to make players want to go back and play the old version. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition showed us that you can completely re-tread an old classic, provided that you update it with some real care and affection. Unfortunately Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded just doesn’t feel like it has had this same care applied to it.

POOR. Games tagged 4/10 will be playable, perhaps even enjoyable, but will be let down by a slew of negative elements that undermine their quality and value. Best avoided by any but hardcore genre fans.

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Dinosaurs are freaking great. Is there anyone out there who couldn’t be charmed by these prehistoric behemoths, these gigantic beasts who were in their prime before time truly began? Plus, the raptors in Jurassic Park were scary bastards, weren’t they?

Happy Dinos is more Denver The Last Dinosaur  than “terrible lizard”. Actually, Barney the Dinosaur isn’t too far off, either.

In a tropical paradise, you are charged with looking after the day-to-day care of some dinosaurs. It is down to you to feed, tame and then breed your stock of dinos. Why? No-one knows. There are three species of dinosaur (T-Rex, Brontosaurus and Triceratops), and there are tons of colour variations for each species. It appears that the aim of the game is to keep breeding various dinos, to create every colour possible (1000 possibilities from each species, making 3000 in total). All of this is done in usual freemium style, with a real-time wait required for dinosaurs to hatch and mature.

So you oversee your prehistoric pets in a small section of their island paradise. Here, you are free to improve the surroundings, adding items and structures which increase the happiness of your beastiies. With enough money and gems (gained through the completion of in-game tasks and, of course, the dreaded in-app purchases), you will eventually be able to expand your operation across more of the island, allowing you to take care of more dinosaurs.

Some of your collection will need to be tamed; this is achieved by engaging in one of four very dull and simplistic minigames: Rocket Ride (collect fruit along a path while avoiding mushrooms), Twin Finder (pick out a dinosaur that’s identical from another dinosaur), Flying Dinos (tap on dinosaurs and avoid crates) and Dinosaur Hurdle (collect fruit and tap to jump over hurdles). These short, 30 second-long minigames are also used to teach your dinosaurs some pointless tricks that don’t seem to serve a purpose. You’ll also be playing these repetitive minigames a lot, to earn XP to level up and unlock more purchasable items in the Market.

You’ll also be given various tasks to earn more money, gems and XP and they all boil down to breeding or collecting a certain number or type of dinosaur; this is in addition to some Achievements, which all involve the same dino-wrangling tasks.

That’s Happy Dino’s in a nutshell, really: the endless pursuit of using different coloured mates to hopefully get whatever coloured baby you’re looking for – and it’s mind-numbingly dull for it. It’s just the endless repetition of feeding, taming and mating, and after you’ve done it once, will you really want to do it another 2999 times, minimum?

Rather annoyingly, you can only play Happy Dinos when you have a valid data connection – I honestly can’t think why. Then there are in-app purchases to make the process of training, breeding and raising dinosaurs a bit quicker, and Happy Dinos is really eager to get you to go down that route, with massive buttons on-screen telling you of sales on IAPs. Considering this game is obviously geared towards kids, this is something I find utterly irresponsible. Parents, make sure IAPs are blocked on your iDevice if you’re putting your kids in front of this.

To make matters worse, the whole game is backed by one really irritating piece of tropical-themed music, looped over and over again. I want to imagine that’s how the dinosaurs really died out: a group of them starting playing irritating calypso music, and nature decided to punish the whole species for it. Then there are all the annoying bouncy sound effects that you’ve heard a million times over. Mobile developers, take note: your games don’t need to play an irritating “bounce” sound effect every time I jump. Stop it. Thankfully, at least the visuals are bright, colourful and full of character. If only the dinosaurs actually did more.

VERDICT: This is just another freemium game among many other freemium games out there. Happy Dinos is just about endless repetition with no sense of reward or purpose other than to make you part with your money through IAPs. The fact that you can practically see everything the game has to offer in its tutorial should speak volumes about how dull this is.

POOR. Games tagged 4/10 will be playable, perhaps even enjoyable, but will be let down by a slew of negative elements that undermine their quality and value. Best avoided by any but hardcore genre fans.

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Ever since smartphones found their way into the lives of everyone and their Nan, pocket puzzlers have been ten-a-penny. Not all of them can be Candy Crush or Bejewelled though, so for every hit there are dozens of pretenders, imitators and those simply out to make a quick buck.

Einstein Enigma sees players rotating interlocking wheels to align coloured circles. Each selection of six levels ups the ante in some way from overlapping said circles to throwing in gears that cause multiple wheels to turn at once. As you might expect, the latter stages get truly maddening as the characteristics of past stages start to pile up. Before the end you’ll be praying for the simple logic puzzles of earlier stages as you’re presented with a predicament not unlike untangling 200ft of neglected Christmas tree lights.

Each level has within it four tiers of difficulty that reward stars for their completion. Earn enough stars and you’ll unlock new stages, yadda yadda yadda. It’s a simple idea nicely built upon and executed in a perfectly functional way that balances well the frustration it presents with a sense of progress. The presentation of that core idea, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

Einstein Enigma doesn’t get off to a good start with an opening screen that acts as a simple but unnecessary puzzle in itself. You’re presented with a background of coloured shapes, the game’s title and a cartoon Einstein. There’s no start button or a menu of any kind, just a pulsating purple piece of the background that must be pushed to start the game. It takes no time at all to realise what you need to do, but why bother making such an obtuse opening screen? It’s just going to put people off.

Similarly, there are only three sounds that the game makes. There’s the noise that tells you a stage is completed (which sounds like a lift reaching its floor), there’s the light ding of rotating wheels, and, most common of all, a foreboding clunk that accompanies everything else that you do. It sounds like a large metal door being shut behind you, leaving you in a small windowless room with nothing but a single Rubiks Cube at its centre. That is Einstein Enigma.

VERDICT: Angry Birds isn’t a continuing success because of its core mechanics, it’s because of the ways in which those mechanics are presented time and time again. Einstein Enigma lacks that fundamental appeal. There’s a good puzzle game in here somewhere, but the way in which it’s presented is simply too cold and uninviting.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

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It’s been a long time since the heyday of the isometric viewpoint in videogames. Back when I was a wee lad, classics like Batman, Head Over Heels and Solstice were everywhere. So when I loaded up Dungeon of Legends, the memories flooded back. Unfortunately, after my time with Dungeon of Legends, I wish I was playing those 8-bit classics again.

Apparently the aim of the game is to “complete” the Tower of Eternity, to earn entry into Magic School. Through over 75 levels of isometric platforming and puzzle solving, there is not even a hint of a narrative – which isn’t always a bad thing when it comes to games. However, in a game of this type, you at least expect some sort of story to add a little motivation and depth to your actions. As it stands, you start the game without any reason to keep playing, a theme that continues through all of Dungeon of Legends’ 75-plus rooms.

In this adventure, you simple have to navigate past some sort of trap to get to the next room. Sadly, each room is pretty much the same in terms of “puzzles”: Hit a lever, avoid floor spikes, jump across moving platforms, avoid touching enemies and traps. Repeat that for every room in the game. It’s far removed from what you’d call a puzzler and more of an uninspired isometric platformer. I would have killed for something other to do; like maybe killing someone (or something?). There are enemies there, but you just have to walk past them as they patrol their path, completely ignoring you.

For a game that features so much jumping between moving platforms, it’s incredibly frustrating that DoL’s on-screen controls are so fiddly, with its isometric viewpoint not helping matters either. 90% of your deaths will be due to the controls; although it doesn’t really matter as dying goes unpunished. While the game keeps track of how many times you’ve died (and hearts found in chests will reduce this “score”), a death will just plonk you back where you entered the room. It’s just not challenging in the slightest, with bad game design being the only obstacle in your way.

To add insult to injury, the game is unfinished or terribly glitchy. After about an hour of playtime, I entered a building only to be taken back to the game’s title screen. I resumed the game, only to experience the same thing upon re-entering the building. There was no indication from the game that I had finished it, or that there was still something to do. It simply ended, without any sort of payback for the hour of dull platforming I had put myself through.

The only positive words I can say about this game is that the graphics and audio are actually pretty good. The polygonal models and environments look decent (although lacking variety), while the music is surprisingly good, providing a real sense of atmosphere to an otherwise utterly uninspiring game.

VERDICT: At first glance, Dungeon of Legends looks like a throwback to the classic isometric adventures of yesterday. Decent sound and visuals at least indicate there was some thought put into its development, but it doesn’t make up for the complete lack of substance in terms of gameplay.

Sadly, this is just a deathly-dull isometric platformer that promises more than it delivers and isn’t worth the hour it took me to “finish” the game, let around the £1.99 it’ll cost you for the privilege. One to avoid.

POOR. Games tagged 4/10 will be playable, perhaps even enjoyable, but will be let down by a slew of negative elements that undermine their quality and value. Best avoided by any but hardcore genre fans.

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Released in 1991, Sonic The Hedgehog is possibly one of the most influential games ever made, and stars one of the few characters in gaming that ever gave Mario any sort of challenge to his platforming crown. Sonic Team’s Mega Drive classic has found it’s way to practically every major console since SEGA’s withdrawal from hardware development back in 2001.

The first game in the series has already made an appearance on iOS devices, and this newly remastered version is a free update for those who already own that version of the game (plus, this version is now on Android). Similar to last year’s repackaging of Sonic CD on console and mobile devices, this version was rewritten from scratch by Christian Whitehead, using his own Retro Engine, meaning this version has been coded with modern systems in mind.

In this first chapter of Sonic’s adventures, he must rescue his woodland friends from being turned into evil robots, courtesy of one Dr. Ivo Robotnik (the egg-obsessed scientist who would later be known worldwide as his Japanese moniker, Eggman). Sonic starts in the iconic Green Hill Zone, making his way to Robotnik’s base in the Scrap Brain Zone.

This game is Sonic in its purest form; that is to say, without the intervention of his irritating friends (that would find their way into later games) and while maintaining the sublime balance of speed and exploration that set SEGA’s hero apart from other platformers of the 16-bit era.

A range of memorable locales await Sonic, from the Green Hill Zone to the pinball-like neon wonderland of Spring Yard Zone. There are areas that offer the chance to reach exhilarating speeds and others that require a bit of care to navigate. Multiple boss-fights occur, against Robotnik and his many contraptions that require memorisation of attack patterns, and can still trip up even the most experienced players. Even over two decades later, this game hasn’t aged one bit and is still a must-play title for any gamer, young or old.

While the game itself won’t take that long to finish, especially when you consider that this version allows you to save progress after every stage, there are unlockable characters in the form of two-tailed fox, Miles “Tails” Prower and the unnaturally-magenta Knuckles The Echidna. Tails has his ability to fly over short distances, while Knuckles can glide and climb up walls. These additional characters don’t add to much to the game, but they’re nice bonuses considering this facility wasn’t even made available through the Lock-On functionality provided by the 1994 release of Sonic & Knuckles. All three characters are also able to use the Spin Dash move, which wasn’t available in the previous game.

This version also includes Time Trials, Leaderboards and Achievements that add a fair amount of replay value for the expert Sonic The Hedgehog player, something that was never available for the original game and is always a welcome addition.

Now, the big question with this version of the game is whether or not the on-screen touch controls work. While it’s true that touch controls never feel as responsive or as accurate as physical controls, this version does give you the option to choose how large you want the on-screen D-Pad and jump button to be, which makes the controls a little more effective. It’s not perfect, of course, and isn’t always up to the responsiveness you need for a game as quick as this, but it’s an improvement over similar ports of retro games.

The presentation of this game is impeccable, with a clean menu system and even the option to choose which box and cartridge art appears (the Japanese, European or American). It’s a little thing that doesn’t impact anything, but it’s a nice touch.

But the biggest change this Retro Engine-improved version of the game brings is an all-new widescreen presentation. On iOS it supports the full aspect ratio of the iPhone 5’s Retina screen, and everything is redrawn to fit the new screen proportions, without stretching or losing clarity. Everything is pixel perfect and running at a full 60 frames per second without a dropped frame in sight, as it should be. It’s simply the best that the original game has ever looked (I haven’t seen the upcoming 3D-enabled 3DS port of Sonic yet, so I can’t comment on how it compares).

The audio is also perfect. The biggest challenge in emulating the Mega Drive is it’s Yamaha-developed YM2612 sound chip that outputs a distinctive FM synthesised sound. Sound quality differs even between the different modes of original hardware, which is why it’s great to hear that this remastered version sounds even better than on an original console. With no buzzing, and with instruments that sound like they did on the Mega Drive, it just sounds right.

VERDICT: This version of a classic game is absolutely brilliant. Once again, Christian Whitehead’s Retro Engine goes beyond mere emulation to provide an unparalleled retro experience. While the biggest stumbling block is whether or not you can live with on-screen virtual controls, this is the definitive version of Sonic The Hedgehog, and like the previously released Sonic CD, I’d love to see a console version of this. You may already own Sonic for a number of consoles, but if for some reason you don’t or you would like a more mobile version, this could be right up your street.

I hope that SEGA and other publishers look into using the Retro Engine for future re-releases of retro games (not just Sonic), as the results are far more impressive than any emulation.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

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House Of The Dead is one of those franchises that seems to stick around and be re-released time and again on almost every platform imaginable. It isn’t immediately obvious whether this is a testament to the simple, arcade-style gameplay that lends itself to many different control styles and hardware, or  simple laziness on the side of the developers. But the fact that it keeps on happening must mean that SEGA is doing something right and that fans still want to play the game.

House Of The Dead: Overkill was somewhat of a re-imagining for the series. The games had always possessed a cheesy, over-the-top style, but Overkill was the first in the franchise to abandon any attempts at real horror, and to openly embrace its B-Movie characteristics. The game went balls-out, with F-Bombs left, right and centre, and played the entire thing for laughs – which was a largely successful endeavour. The title breathed some new life into the series, which was beginning to get a little over-burdened by its po-faced seriousness.

It’s no surprise, then, that the game should come to mobile devices – now that it has been made more accessible to the casual market via the Wii and PlayStation Move.? Touch controls seem like the next logical step for the game, and so here we have The Lost Reels. Whilst the game is basically an adaptation of the original – with the subtitle suggesting a Director’s Cut of sorts – the game actually equates to a cut-back and shortened version of the Overkill. Sadly, it has actually been rather butchered.

The swear-heavy banter and over-the-top cutscenes that made Overkill stand out – and that gave the game its new personality – have unfortunately all been sacrificed, both for the sake of keeping it smaller, and presumably to allow the game to be played by a broad range of gamers and not limited by its mature humour. This is, however, a big loss for the title, and without it The Lost Reels slips back into old habits and all comes across a bit too cliché and humourless.

Thankfully, the control method has been handled very well, and the translation to handheld devices does seem like a natural one – that is, assuming you realise you can switch control styles. The default method is a bog-standard virtual joystick control scheme, where players drag a crosshair around the screen with one finger and tap to shoot and reload with another. This method affords great accuracy, but sacrifices speed and an element of fun. It feels like it would if you were using a mouse to play Time Crisis on your PC.

It is the second control method that is the real winner though, and it seems like a perfect fit for the touchscreen interface – even if you don’t have to actually touch the screen as much! This method makes use of the accelerometer built into your phone, whereby players tilt their device around in order to aim their crosshair on-screen. You still need to tap the screen to shoot, reload and change weapons, but the idea that you actually physically move your phone around in order to aim feels very intuitive. You aim your device in order to aim – a control scheme that anyone could figure out, and one that feels natural.

The game also looks and sounds pretty good for a mobile game – it won’t blow you away, but the sound effects and art style are effective. You will actually have quite a lot of fun blasting your way through the blood-soaked levels (swearing may be bad, but gore apparently isn’t), and the way in which the game works is very similar to its bigger brother – but this leads us onto the other major downfall of the game. As well as cutting out cutscenes and speech to limit the size of the App, Overkill also only manages to provide you with three stages to play through – and even one of those can only be accessed if you pay for an in-game upgrade of £1.49.

Although the levels can seem fairly lengthy – with five mini-chapters within each – the gameplay is more or less unchanged from one to the next. There is no real variation with the Zombies – you will have met all three varieties on multiple occasions by the end of level one, chapter one. A fourth Zombie class does exist – but again, that is only accessible if you stump up the cash for the third level. They do all attack in different ways, and this is mixed up a fair bit, but things do get a bit stale after a few chapters. Boss battles are included, but aren’t likely to blow you away either, as everything is scaled back a bit from what those who played the console version may remember.

You do earn in-game money for your performances throughout levels – which can then be used to upgrade your weapons, for example – but you would have to play through the game a lot in order to buy all of the later guns. This won’t stop you from getting through the game though – once you’ve gotten the hang of the control method, the difficulty never really gets too high. You can of course pay for more virtual currency, and we begin to see the in-app purchase policy that SEGA has opted for really come to the fore. The Lost Reels’ longevity is severely hampered by content being held behind price tags – which is ok for a free App, but you have to pay £2.99 for this game initially.

VERDICT: House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels manages to take an innovative and fun control system – and some truly funny and stylish source material – and chop it all up to hide it behind wall after wall of in-app purchases. The strong personality of the original is all but lost in this trimmed-down form, making the game seem more like one of the somewhat emotionless earlier entries in the House of the Dead series. Despite the fun that can be had with the title, The Lost Reels is just too short to warrant a full price purchase and SEGA have made the wrong decision in withholding so much content. It all takes away from the really great accelerometer control system – but we can only hope that it sees the light of day in another mobile shooter.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned from DreamWorks, it’s that animals doing martial arts is cool (I’ve also learned that big green ogre women can be oddly attractive if they sound like Cameron Diaz, but that’s another story). Well, developers cTools Studio have seen the magic at work and decided to sprinkle the same sparkly dust over their latest platformer, presumably in the hope that by putting “Kung Fu” in the title alongside a random furry animal will spell success. It kind of works, even if it is a little misleading.

That may sound as though I’m hung up on the perceived lack of actual kung fu perpetrated by our leporine protagonist, and in fact I am a bit. I wanted a kick-ass bunny in a gi, running up walls and awesomising fools. While I didn’t get what I want (and really, when do we ever?), Kung Fu Rabbit is at least an enjoyable platformer.

In so far as I can tell, the backstory – told in animated frames at the beginning – involves lots of little rabbits being taken away by aliens and locked up. As a heroic hare with spiritual training, Kung Fu Rabbit takes it upon himself to rescue them all. Although there isn’t actually much kung fu involved, the carrot-loving burrower is a dab hand at scaling walls and leaping gaps, which is handy as every one of the tiny levels is a well-designed physical puzzle tasking you to find four hidden carrots (optional) and the trapped bunnies (compulsory).

The levels begin very easy, with a simple moving platform / oil pit set-up that’s hardly taxing. It escalates quickly however, soon filling the levels with enemies made of black sludge, platforms that fade in and out of existence, projectiles to dodge, and surfaces covered in deadly oil. Being a kung fu master, Rabbit can only kill enemies by stealthily hitting them in their light blue weak spot (usually on their back), so the tactic with every new enemy is to watch what it does and position yourself accordingly for attack. You can spring from most vertical surfaces, and the venerable lettuce-botherer can clear a fair distance in a single bound. As a result, levels are compact, focused affairs – even finding all the carrots is usually only a case of working out how to reach them as they’re rarely hidden.

Carrots are stored as currency, though only one of the four (the big, golden carrot) is re-collectible when you replay a level. They can unlock a variety of one-use tricks, such as a smartbomb to remove all on-screen enemies or a placeable checkpoint, and collecting all four will unlock a level in the extra-curricular bonus stage (which are the same as the standard stages, really). Spending 50 in a single lump will also unlock a higher difficulty setting that fills all the stages with extra enemies, traps, projectiles and hazards. In this mode it becomes incredibly difficult, even frustrating, but that’s the whole point.

What begins as a very straightforward platformer soon becomes an exercise in mild rage, and if you choose to play in hard mode you must be very brave indeed. It’s not in the same league as, say, Super Meat Boy (which it references on occasion), but it offers a decent challenge of its own nonetheless. When you’re dodging projectiles, trying to get behind enemies, running across crumbling platforms, hopping over bricks that only stay solid for three seconds and attempting to avoid the entire floor of the level, it ain’t no day in the cabbage fields.

In line with its uncluttered ethos, Kung Fu Rabbit is minimalist in its level design and art style, and there’s an obvious and expected Eastern influence in the graphics. Rabbit himself is a funny little square-headed dude, only identifiable as a hunter and slayer of carrots by his big floppy ears. The sound is even more low-key, barely noticeable besides the “diddle-iddle-ing-ding-dingdingding” of the title music. It’s a design choice that may well have been made due to its indie origins, but it suits Kung Fu Rabbit perfectly, adding a dose of charm to proceedings that blunts the odd bout of frustration.

VERDICT: Kung Fu Rabbit is a very simple little game that did very well on mobile devices but doesn’t bring anything new to the Wii U version. It does nothing special with the GamePad (actually it does nothing with the GamePad at all) and besides the steadily increasing level of challenge and subsequent appeal to indie-game masochists there’s not a lot to get excited about. Which doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, just that it doesn’t quite do enough to stand out from the crowd.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

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You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at Wake the Cat from Halfpixel Games, Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden from Artifex Mundi, Pac-Man + Tournaments from Namco Bandai Games and Art Mogul from Funzai!.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

WAKE THE CAT by Martin Baker:

When it comes to iOS games there are a couple or genres that we tend to see over and over again, and the most common appears to be physical puzzle games. These are titles where each of the levels is a puzzle, and in order to complete the puzzle and get to the end, the player must overcome that game’s laws of physics and complete the goal. Wake the Cat, developed by Halfpixel Games, is a perfect example of this type of game, simply asking you to get the ball of yarn to the cat in each of the levels, but presenting it in a way that actually makes it a rather difficult physical puzzler at times.

When the player starts a level they will be presented with the ball of yarn and the titular cat who must be woken up by getting the ball to them. The player has to do this through a variety of means such as bouncing it off of trains, being blown by fans and even going through portals that are inexplicably found inside pairs of slippers. Some of these elements may sound strange but they lend themselves rather well to the overall aesthetic of the title, making it a game that many people will find themselves coming back to again and again.

As with pretty much all games, the further you get in Wake the Cat, the more difficult it becomes. It’s not long before you’ll find yourself manipulating multiple interactive aspects of the environment in an effort to get that ball of yarn to the cat. Once that happens, and the game gets harder, you’ll start find yourself slightly addicted. You’ll be obsessed with completing things on the first attempt, getting those three gold stars, and if you don’t, you’ll be restarting the level from scratch just to try it all over again.

The controls in Wake the Cat are some of the simplest I’ve ever seen in a game of this ilk, but that doesn’t mean that the whole game is easy. Not by a long shot. In order to make a move, the player must place their finger in the ball of yarn, then move it in the direction that they want it to go. The further away from the starting position the player moves their finger, the more power will be applied to the ball when it finally starts moving. This allows for a level of tactics that players will no doubt be pleased to see, as well as being something that directly contrasts with the cute and cuddly aesthetic of the game. Wake the Cat comes firmly under the heading of “easy to play, difficult to master” but that adds to the enjoyment of the title on the whole. Rest assured, even if you’re not a regular gamer, you’ll be able to sit down and get started without much of an issue. Getting to the end? Well, that’s a different matter entirely.

Wake the Cat is one of the most highly addictive games of this type that I’ve played in a while. Something to do with the combination of cutesy visuals and addictive gameplay makes a game that’s easy to come back to time and time again. Wake the Cat is certainly one of those games that you’ll find yourself coming back to, and with plenty of levels to play, as well as hopefully more to come, you’ll be doing so for a very long time indeed.

ABYSS: THE WRAITHS OF EDEN by Martin Baker:

If you’re a regular reader of Mobile Monday then you’ll know the name G5 Entertainment. You’ll also probably know that they publish quite a lot of iOS adventure games, games which require the player to find certain objects and solve puzzles before they can move on with the story. However, what you may not know is that they publish these games from a selection of different developers and, as you would expect, some of these developers are clearly better than others. One of the better developers is Artifex Mundi, the developer behind the Dark Arcana series – which we’ve looked at one of the games from here on Mobile Monday – and the Nightmares from the Deep series – we had a look at one of those games on Mac Medley too. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to take a look at another one of their iOS adventure game series’. This time it’s Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden.

If you’ve played a G5 Entertainment adventure game before then you know exactly what you’re in for. Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is full of instances where you’ll have to collect a certain number of specific keys to enter a particular door, puzzles that make you think outside of the box as well as the G5 adventure staple of the “Can You Find This Object in the Scene” games. Thankfully, if you’re not great at these searching mini-games – which is quite probable if you’re on the smaller screen of an iPhone or iPod Touch – then you can choose to play a game of Mahjong instead, so you’re not going to be stuck for very long.

As with most adventure games Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden will live or die on its ability to draw players into the story. The story follows a deep sea diver who has mysteriously disappeared while on a dive, the last thing his camera saw being some mysterious shapes in the distance. It’s your job to figure out what happened without succumbing to the same fate yourself. I personally didn’t find the story as compelling as Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart but I’ve seen much worse when it comes to iOS adventure games – even ones from G5 Entertainment – so it’s still worth a player’s time. I just can see people playing for hours on end without finding the story a little bit predictable. Still, the transitions between the scenes is something that Artifex Mundi are particularly good at, and they don’t disappoint in that department here.

The controls are exactly as you’d expect from an adventure game on an iOS device, consisting mainly of tapping the screen when you see something you want to interact with (usually because it’s shining). The biggest problem will probably come down to the device you’re playing the game on and the fact that the hit boxes for the objects you’re tapping on can be rather small at times, making them difficult to tap on if you’re playing on an iPhone or iPod Touch. However, that’s not the game’s fault and it’s unfair to criticise it for it, just something I think players should be aware of.

Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden isn’t Artifex Mundi’s best adventure game on the iOS – that’s still The Cursed Heart for me – but it’s another solid entry into their library. The story could do with a little bit of work, and the animations feel a little more rigid than some of their other games, but it’s absolutely an enjoyable game if you’re a fan of adventure games, just don’t expect it to turn anyone onto the genre who doesn’t already have a passing interest.

PAC-MAN + TOURNAMENTS by Jonny Lewis:

Ah, PAC-MAN. The videogame icon from yesteryear that just won’t go away. The greedy yellow pill popper has appeared on pretty much every format since the late 80’s, with this latest port, PAC-MAN + Tournaments seeking to bring a slice of that competitive arcade magic to your pocket. Oh, did we mention that it’s also free-to-play? Yeah, now you’re interested.

The game comes packing two play modes, the first of which is the always free to play PAC-MAN mode, which is old-school PAC-MAN just the way you remember it. Like other touch screen adaptations of PAC-MAN in the past, a swipe of the finger will get PAC-MAN moving in the desired direction. It’ll never be as good as using an arcade stick, or even a D-Pad, but it works well enough, particularly on the bigger screen on my Nexus 7. Here’s what you need to know about PAC-MAN: There is a maze. You eat dots. Eat all the dots to win. Avoid the ghosts. That’s it. If that all sounds new to you, well, welcome to video game land, we hope you enjoy your stay.

The other game mode, Tournaments, is where the game comes into its own. You can purchase tokens (with real money), that you can use to enter tournaments and compete with players around the world. Namco Bandai tell us they plan to release new stages every week, so don’t worry about it all getting old too soon. I had a stab at a couple of Tournaments (you get one free entry per day, which is a nice touch), and I had a good time trying to assail the lofty leaderboards. What did I learn? I suck at PAC-MAN. My video game ego has come crashing down around me. Those of you willing to put in the time (and a little bit of money) will have a chance to win real-world prizes, or SWAG, as we like to call it, so there is plenty of incentive for you to reach the top of the pile.

To sum up, it’d be difficult for me not to recommend PAC-MAN + Tournaments, since its free. It is PAC-MAN with none of the added frills and excitement of the modern Championship editions, so expect a sedate ride through early gaming history rather than a PAC-MAN revolution.

ART MOGUL by Martin Baker:

A lot of you may think that you have a good eye for art – we are passionate players of video games after all, one of the greatest forms of modern art there is. So, with that in mind you may think that you know which pieces of art would sell well, netting you a nice profit, and which ones you should probably avoid in order to maintain your dignity. This is the question that Art Mogul poses to the player. Can you start the game with a certain amount of money and, through bargaining with art dealers, making intelligent purchases and buying and selling in different locations, come out on top with a pocket full of cash? You may think you can, but what’s the reality?

The game starts, as you would expect, with a handy tutorial that every player should take the time to go through. Not only does it inform the player about some of the intricacies of what can end up being a rather complex game, but it also gives some interesting tips about how to maximise your profit margin when buying and selling these fine works of art, which is something your going to want to do seeing as the main way of scoring is to simply have as much money as possible. Once you’ve gone through the tutorial it’s time to let yourself loose on the art world, buying from galleries and – if you’re feeling risky – the cafés, and then selling the works of art at auction in an attempt to make a profit. Sometimes a gallery will ask for a specific painting too, which, if you can find it somewhere across the globe, will net you some money without the uncertainty of the auction environment.

One of the nice things about Art Mogul, apart from the opportunity to look closely at some rather impressive works of art, is the bargaining system. In order to knock a small amount off the asking price, the player is asked to find a number of items across three paintings. These items can appear in any of the current selection of painting and, because there’s no description of what you’re looking for, just a small partial image, they can be rather difficult to find. Thankfully, however, this never quite feels tedious – although it often hangs over the edge of being so – and as such feels quite rewarding when you can a piece of art that you know will sell well in a certain location for much less than the dealer wanted to sell it for. There’s nothing more appealing to a Northerner than a hefty discount.

The controls in Art Mogul are very simple, only really consisting of tapping the screen in various locations and to perform certain actions. These actions are all rather intuitive too, so you’ll hardly ever find yourself confused as to what you should be doing next. The screen itself can get a little cluttered at time, making the game slightly hard to read – especially to new players – but the tutorial at the start of the game does a good job at explaining everything so just make sure you don’t skip it.

Art Mogul is a game that can be confusing to play at first but if you take the time to learn the game’s mechanics you’ll soon have everything down to a fine art (pun intended). The biggest downside to the title is that, after extended periods of play, things can get a little bit repetitive, doing the same buying and selling techniques over and over again just to get more and more money. However, if you’ve always fancied yourself as an art mogul, but never had the opportunity to put those skills you think you have to the test, Art Mogul is one of the best opportunities you’re going to get without actually spending any of your hard-earned cash.

The post Mobile Monday – Wake the Cat, Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden, Pac-Man + Tournaments, Art Mogul appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at Snowboard Hero from Fish Labs, Year Walk from Simogo, Mahjong Artifacts from G5 Entertainment and Sonic Dash from SEGA.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

SNOWBOARD HERO by Martin Baker:

When I was growing up, with my trusty PlayStation controller in my hand, there were only two games that people could consider “sports games” that I’d spend any time playing. One of those was the original Tony Hawks Pro Skateboarder, and the other was Coolboarders 2. There’s nothing I can really do to recapture that love for the original Tony Hawks game (don’t even mention the HD “demake”) but when it comes to recapturing that love of simplistic snowboarding action, Snowboard Hero, developed by Fish Labs, don’t seem to be too far off of the mark. But does it recapture all of those feelings or is it lacking in some areas?

The gameplay is pretty similar to the main mode in Coolboarders 2, in that you’ll be asked to get from the top of a slope to the bottom while trying to attain as many points as you possibly can. Gaining points can be as simple as passing through the slalom points – something which can be rather difficult in its own right – or, if you’re feeling a little bit more adventurous, you can perform a variety of tricks and stunts while you’re flying through the air, which is where you’ll find yourself quite regularly. You’ll have to be careful not to do too many tricks though, as not managing to land properly will see all of those lovely points you’ve accumulated quickly draining away as fast as you earned them.

There are plenty of ways to accumulate points as you’re hurtling down the slope, but the most impressive – and the one you’re going to use most often – are the various tricks. A quick flick on either side of the iOS device’s screen will perform tricks using the left or right hand, while other actions will perform spins and flips (amongst other things). Chaining these moves together will also ensure a high score when you cross the finish line too. The most difficult of all the tricks, in my opinion at least, are the grinds. Jumping onto the pipe in the first place can be difficult but keeping your balance by instantly straightening your device (because you had it tilted to steer) is difficult to do at speed.

The controls in Snowboard Hero are nice and intuitive too, something which could easily have been overlooked during development. The left and right movement of the character is controlled through the tilting of the iOS device, with all of the tricks and stunts performed via various methods of swiping the touch screen, either up, down, left or right. It does all take some getting used to, especially when you’re attempting to perform all these actions at speed, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be racking up the high scores with the pros.

If you were a fan of Coolboarders back in the day, then you’ll probably find Snowboard Hero a decent enough game, as most of the gameplay elements are identical. That being said, even people who have never played the game before would probably get a kick out of speeding down a slope while performing tricks and racking up points. Snowboard Hero isn’t the most impressive game on the iOS App Store but it tries hard to be what it is – a fun way to spend a few minutes – and, in that, it succeeds valiantly.

YEAR WALK by Colm Ahern:

Bleak, dark and depressing are all apt words when describing the harrowing tale of Year Walk, based on Swedish folklore, wherein men would embark on journeys through wooded areas at the stroke of midnight in order to see an apparition of their future. To go into any more detail would ruin an expertly crafted story that will leave players haunted for days afterward.

Via a series of directional swipes, players amble around the eerie forest, seeing through the eyes of the Year Walker and solving a series of puzzles along the way. Like a finely designed maze, there is the option to go left and right, or forwards and backwards (at points) in order to go deeper in to the unknown. From the same team that brought you Bumpy Road and Beat Sneak Bandit, Year Walk’s a big change of pace for Simogo. Effectively a horror game, a true testament to Year Walk is the fact that some of the most unsettling moments are not in the jump-scares the game presents you, but in the anticipation created using glorious art and sound design.

From the sound of the player walking through the snow, to the beautifully creepy soundtrack, Simogo’s latest effort has the ability to suck the player into this world and lap up anything that’s presented to them, mainly because of what they’re hearing. The game doesn’t really encourage you to experience Year Walk with headphones, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t pop on some cans while playing.

With no hud, no screen prompts and no tutorial to speak of, Year Walk certainly throws players in at the deep end. Developer Simogo asks the person holding the iOS device to almost forget how they would traditionally approach puzzle games and think outside the box. Year Walk is one of those special iOS games that doesn’t allow itself to be limited because of the platform that it’s on. This game will make you feel utterly useless, right up until you crack the conundrum in front of you, simply because of clever game design and masterfully-made puzzles. The only caveat is that the cryptic nature of these puzzles can, at a few rare points, get a little infuriating. It doesn’t happen too often, but there are one or two instances where Simogo have probably taken the difficulty a bit too far.

However, in saying that, Year Walk has the ability to trump most games you’ve played on Apple devices. For all of the putrid applications available for iPhone and iPad, there are a lot of gems out there and Year Walk’s innovation means it sits near the top. This isn’t just one of the best handheld games of this year, this is, quite frankly, one of the best games of this year full-stop.

MAHJONG ARTEFACTS by Martin Baker:

Mahjong is one of those games that’s  been around almost as long as written history, and in that time it’s barely changed. It’s still a game that tasks the player with matching sets of tiles together in order to remove all of them from the board and it’s still a game that players can sit back with, relax, and not worry about any additional gameplay mechanics or anything else. Shape Games, the developers of Mahjong Artefacts  have taken the age-old gameplay of Mahjong and added a story to it, a reason to play, but have they messed around with the formula too much? Does the addition of a story element take too much away from the relaxing nature of Mahjong?

The gameplay is much like a typical Mahjong game: you’re given a board with a selection of tiles the you have to match together in order to win the stage. You do have to be careful about which order you match them in however, as matching them in the wrong order could leave you without any moves to make – but that’s not really a problem with this updated version of Mahjong, as a quick tap of the ‘Shuffle’ button will usually see you right. There are also special powers hidden within some of the tiles, and certain tiles can be matched with more than just their identical twin. It’s these small changes to the basic formula that add something new to the game while keeping the base mechanics exactly the same. As the changes are minor and don’t effect the actual gameplay too much, you never really feel like things have been changed, only added.

The story element also adds a nice touch to the overall aesthetic of the game. You play as an adventurer looking for ancient artefacts to add to his collection and, in order to attain these artefacts  he needs to beat various people at their favourite game; Mahjong. Beating them will get their artefact off of them and the player moves on to the next encounter. The story is a nice touch that didn’t really need to be added as the game is fun enough as it is, but its addition shows that the developers actually take a small amount of pride in their work.

The controls of Mahjong Artefacts are easy enough to get to grips with; just tap the two tiles that you want to remove and, providing it’s a valid move, they will be removed from play with a swanky little animation. Those that have never played Mahjong before won’t be phased either, as each time you tap on a tile, if there are any tiles it can be matched with, they will light up and let the player know. Pretty nifty.

Mahjong Artefacts takes the tried and tested formula of classic Mahjong and adds new features to it, such as power-ups and a story, that keep the millennia-old game feeling fresh and exciting. If you enjoy curling up and relaxing while playing Mahjong, then you may want to skip this game in favour of something with more traditional gameplay mechanics; however, if you want something interesting, new, but still good old Mahjong, then you should definitely add Mahjong Artefacts to your download queue.

SONIC DASH by Colm Ahern:

For every fantastic, original idea on the mobile platform, there are hundreds of examples that ape that particular idea for all its worth. The endless runner is just one example. Whilst Temple Run is definitely not the originator of the 3D runner, it was one of those iOS titles that broke the mould and infiltrated the psyche of the casual.

Sonic Dash is Sega’s attempt to capitalise on the format with their ever present mascot and, even though it’s not essentially a bad game, the constant push to get the user to purchase in-game currency is, quite frankly, revolting. The ever-present gold rings and red rings are said currency, with red rings being far more important and far less frequent.

Sure, the things the game wants you to buy can be earned through extensive play, but Sonic Dash practically takes the player’s wallet out of their back pocket and thieves a 20 for one of its ring bundles . At every Game Over screen, it’s a bombardment of enticing microtransactions that enforce the pay-to-win ethos. Also, this is not a free-to-play game, making it all the more disgusting.

It’s sad really, simply because there are a few things that Sonic Dash has going for it such as how stunning it looks on a retina display and how the sound captures that child-like glee we’ve all had playing numerous Sonic games in our youth. The controls are ok and quite responsive at times, but in the long run, the game is unfairly punishing. Enemies tend to be placed just after obstacles you’ve hopped over, so there isn’t ample time to perform lightning quick jump-slide-jump sequences and insta-death with collisions is aggravating.

Sonic The Hedgehog was bestowed the nickname “The Blue Blur” because he is the Usain Bolt of video game characters, making him an ideal fit for Sega’s interpretation of this ever-growing genre. However, the decent game inside Sonic Dash is shackled by intrusive in-app purchase notifications and infuriatingly cheap deaths. The Hedgehog’s return prominence is delayed once again.

The post Mobile Monday – Snowboard Hero, Year Walk, Mahjong Artefacts, Sonic Dash appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened from Big Fish Games, Guide the Light from AppyNation, Word Soup from Fuzzy Bug Interactive and The Great Jitters: Pudding Panic from Kunst-Stoff.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE AWAKENED:

Released back in 2006 on PC, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened was well received for its original take on the Baker St. detective. The vast intellect of United Kingdom’s most celebrated investigator is put to the test in a plot that includes a bloodthirsty cult that worship H.P Lovecraft’s most famous creation, Cthulhu.

The savage following are on a murderous hunt around Europe and only one man can put an end to it – London’s favourite PI.

Big Fish Games have brought what is arguably Frogwares most heralded Sherlock Holmes game to iOS and, even though flaws are evident, this version remains very faithful to the original. Based upon the remastered edition, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened on Apple’s platform includes the option to play the adventure title in a third person or first person perspective. This is where some of the flaws present themselves. In third person view, Holmes is controlled by tapping anywhere on-screen to move, or double-tapping to run. NPCs and specific objects can be interacted with, however a fixed camera angle makes it difficult to really take in the environment and figure out where items and desired locations are. When played in first person, virtual buttons are used to control the character, yet on iPad they’re not too intrusive due to the large screen.

Visually, The Awakened feels like it has been scaled back for the tablet device. Admittedly, back in 2008 the game wasn’t packing overly impressive graphics, however on iPad it is nowhere near the standard that we now see with games such as Infinity Blade and many others.

Vocally, the characters all have that Victorian era twang which gives the acting a certain sense of authenticity for its time period. However the character of Sherlock Holmes can sometimes be unintentionally humourous with, endless monologues where he seems to decipher cases with minimal information. The game does suffer from some of those point-and-click adventure mainstays where clues are abstract and therefore difficult to interpret. There is a built-in strategy guide to help those who find decoding the information presented too demanding, which is a genuine help because of the often perplexing case evidence.

Whilst there are numerous holes to pick, revisiting this old PC title will be joyous for many. Big Fish Games have done a good job with this port and fans of old school adventure games will certainly get a kick out of a rare Holmes outing on iOS.

GUIDE THE LIGHT:

We all love a good iOS puzzle game, whether it’s skill-based, memory-based or uses some other ability; there’s nothing that makes the tedious wait for that bus or train to work go that little bit faster than an enjoyable little puzzler. The developers of Guide the Light, AppyNation, know this all too well and have created one of the most addictive and downright difficult puzzle games I’ve had the pleasure to play in all my time writing Mobile Monday (for which, to date, I’ve written around 300 iOS reviews). It’s essentially Indiana Jones with lasers, and if that doesn’t get you downloading the game instantly, then maybe I can convince you a little more if you just keep reading – which, I’m sure, you were all going to do anyway.

The gameplay revolves around (as you’d probably guess with a game called Guide the Light) guiding beams of coloured light into their respective gems. Once you’ve guided all the light into the correct gems, the door will open and our Indiana Jones wannabe will be able to collect his reward and move on to the next level to do it all over again. Each of the levels are broken up into blocks, with each of the mirrors you use to guide the light taking up a single block, so it’s very easy to move them into specific spots without the need for precision movements. Guide the Light is all about whether you can solve the puzzle, not if you can move objects using the touch screen in the most precise manner.

It’s not long before the game starts throwing curveballs at you though, and just when you think you’ve gotten the gameplay down to a fine art, there’s another difficulty level added on top to keep things fresh and interesting, whether that’s a block that only generates a required light colour when other lights are fed into it, blocks that fall from the ceiling with every move we make, threatening to crush our would-be hero, or even giant spiders appearing in the level ready to devour him. Whatever it is, you can be sure that just when you think you’ve worked out Guide the Light, there’s something new to contend with which will not only keep you playing the game, but keep you enjoying it too.

The controls are extremely simple to use too, thanks to the grid system that’s in place. Everything in the game fits on a single grid space and when you want to move it, you drag it along the individual grids. This makes, for example, assigning a mirror to a specific point on the map an absolute cakewalk. Things can get a little bit difficult if you’re playing on devices with a smaller screen, such as the iPhone or iPod Touch, but if you’re lucky enough to be using an iPad then you should have no problems whatsoever (and I envy you just a little bit).

Guide the Light is, without a doubt, some of the most fun I’ve had while reviewing a game for Mobile Monday. Its visuals could do with a little bit of a brush up, to bring it in line with the quality of the gameplay, and there are times when the levels themselves can be absolutely brutal, but the game itself is pure gold. If you’re in the market for a new game to play during the tedious commute then give Guide the Light a go, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Just don’t miss your transport.

WORD SOUP:

Word games on iOS devices are some of the easiest titles to sit down and play when you’ve got a spare couple of minutes to hand. Their drop-in, drop-out structure often means that you don’t have to dedicate a specific amount of time to them. The main difficulty lies in actually finding a decent example of a game in this genre in the proverbial sea of mediocrity. Word Soup, developed by Fuzzy Bug Interactive, is a word puzzle title that hopes to grab your attention with bright visuals, quirky game mechanics and an even simpler drop-in, drop-out mechanic – but have they created a decent enough game in the process? That’s what we’re all here to find out, isn’t it?

The basic gameplay in Word Soup plays just like any other game in its genre: the player is tasked with making words out of the letters that are provided on the game’s grid. The bigger the word the player creates, the more points they get, and what do points mean? Well, not prizes – not here, anyway. In the main mode, “Relaxed Game”, there’s no time limit to contend with and you’re able to sit back, relax and just attempt to clear the board of letters by creating words whenever you happen to feel like it. For the more competitively minded among you, however, there are two more game modes to choose from, should they take your fancy.

“Timed Game” is the game mode of choice for the quick-thinking among you, the people that can find words in a mass of letters quicker than anyone else – you’re probably a dab hand at the Countdown Conundrum too (I envy you). “Brain Game” is the most challenging of all the game modes, tasking players with finding the longest words possible in order to continue playing. Needless to say, I pretty much locked myself into the “Relaxed Game” mode, cowering in fear of the others like the smallest kid in the playground. Another interesting aspect of Word Soup, and something that makes it a bit different, is the ability to tilt your iOS device to the left or right and shift the letters that aren’t trapped into position to the other side of the board. It’s a nice little feature that means that you always have a couple of options open to you to discover words if you’re finding it overly difficult.

As you would no doubt expect, the controls in Word Soup are as simple as tapping the letters to add them to the word you’re currently trying to form. Once you’ve created the word, simply tap on the last letter again to submit it. Things get a little bit difficult on the smaller screens of the iPod Touch and iPhone, due to the letters themselves being rather small, but if you’re playing on an iPad then you’re likely to have zero problems at all in the control department.

Word Soup is an interesting title with some nice features that set it apart from a lot of other games in its genre. The bright and colourful aesthetic will keep people coming back for more and the fact that even after shutting down a game, you can come back to it any time you want is a stroke of genius on the part of the developer. Ultimately, however, it doesn’t do enough to warrant uninstalling your current favourite word game to install this one. That said, if you’re on the lookout for something new to play, and you’re partial to a word puzzle or two, then I think Word Soup should be the Soup of the Day.

THE GREAT JITTERS: PUDDING PANIC:

A couple of months ago,we took a look at the previous game in The Great Jitters, called Panic Ride. That game was an infinite runner where the players had to get the main character as far as they could on a ghost train while avoiding and defeating the objects in their path. The latest game, Pudding Panic, is a puzzle game that tasks players with swapping out sections of the track in order to guide the characterised blob of jelly towards his goal at the end of each level. It’s a different game to its predecessor, but it’s very similar too. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your feelings about that first title.

If you’ve played the previous game in The Great Jitters series, then as soon as you start Pudding Panic you’ll probably think you’ve started that game by mistake – I know I did. The visuals are exactly the same and the viewing perspective is identical, as are the enemies. However, once you get into the gameplay, you’ll soon notice that things are a little bit different. Instead of getting as far as you can into a level, you’re tasked with just getting to the end, and you do that by swapping out bits of track for others that will allow you to move further into the level. You’ve got to be careful though, as some tracks will lead you directly into a collision course with enemies so you’ve got to be ready, at all times, to deal with that.

There a plenty of levels to keep people interested with, as well as plenty of enemies along the way that will keep even veteran gamers on their toes – especially if they’re playing on a smaller iOS device – but at the end if the day, there’s just nothing inherently interesting about the world of The Great Jitters. Ultimately it’s just a game that looks exactly like the game that came before it with a new gameplay mechanic tacked on top of it. If you really enjoyed Panic Ride, then you may enjoy Pudding Panic, but there won’t be much of a change for most people.

As I mentioned, the game is a little bit difficult to play on smaller devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, simply because of the precision needed to place some of the tracks. On top of that, there are times that placing a track into the game will force you to cover up an incoming enemy with your finger, obscuring the fact that you’re heading straight into the danger zone – something that you may not be ready for.

The Great Jitters: Pudding Panic has an interesting aesthetic and some genuinely interesting gameplay mechanics; however, the developers have chosen to implement them into a previous game and release something that looks so similar that I wouldn’t be surprised if people got the two mixed up. If you haven’t played Panic Ride, and this is your first foray into the world of The Great Jitters, then it’s a good enough place to start. However, if you have played the previous game then there’s not enough here to bring you running back to the crazy jelly blob.

The post Mobile Monday – Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, Guide the Light, Word Soup, The Great Jitters: Pudding Panic appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at Knights & Dragons from GREE, Underline from Albino Pixel, Jane’s Zoo from Realore Studios and Vampire from LivoBooks.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

KNIGHTS & DRAGONS:

As far as iOS games go, it’s difficult to go wrong with something that has Knights and Dragons in the title. You’d expect to be getting a game with some form of questing in it and, thanks to the people at GREE, that’s exactly what this is – complete with a good-sized helping of castle building just for good measure. Knights & Dragons seems to be a game with everything needed to be a popular title, but is it actually something worth playing or does it feel like nothing more than a dressed-up cash-grab? Unfortunately, it’s a little bit of both.

The main aspect of the gameplay in Knights & Dragons revolves around entering the different locations around your castle and either completing one of five difficulty levels, or completing quests within those areas – both of which will reward the player with various kinds of rewards. Mostly, the rewards that you’ll receive will take the form of experience points or materials that are used to craft the different armour types in the game, but sometimes you’ll be rewarded with something even better. The combat is, for the most part, automatic, with both sides taking turns to smack each other with whatever weapon you have handy. When the special ability meter in the bottom right fills up, however, you can manually trigger this and attempt to do some serious damage. If you kill the enemy with one of these special moves there’s a greater chance for the defeated enemy to drop something worth picking up, so it’s better to be tactical if possible.

As well as the ability to quest in Knights & Dragons, you can also build up the castle you’re running into something rather formidable that the Dark Prince will have trouble penetrating. You can do this by purchasing land inside the castle, and then purchasing the different buildings to go on that land. These buildings all serve their purposes in some way, whether it’s crafting new items or enchanting your armour, so it’s a good idea to build them when you’ve got the extra coin. Getting money and items to build things and perform tasks is one of the difficult aspects of Knights & Dragons, not because they’re hard to come by,  but because it’s difficult to attain them in the required quantities without dropping down your hard-earned, real-world money on them. The only major downside to Knights & Dragons is that if you want to get anywhere in the game, it’s not long before you’re almost required to spend money on it.

Knights & Dragons is a well-made and well-presented game with great visuals and appealing gameplay, however its reliance on in-app purchases limit the player to only playing for a short period of time unless they intend to spend money. The social aspects of the game are appealing if you have friends playing the game too; otherwise they’re mostly pointless. There’s no doubt that it’s entertaining to play, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that I’d enjoy it a little more if I could have played for a little longer without hitting the pay wall.

UNDERLINE:

There are a good number of Boggle-style games on the iOS store, games that give the player a selection of letters and task them with finding words out of the jumble by connecting adjoining letters together. One of the latest of these is Underline, developed by Albino Pixel, but things are slightly different here as you’re given weapons and special abilities with which to increase your score – and, as usual with these games, everything you’re doing is to get a slightly higher score than your friends and rivals. That’s all anything is ever about. However, does that small difference mean it’s worthier of your precious time? Is it even an enjoyable game?

If you’ve played any of these Boggle-esque games before, some of which we’ve even covered here on Mobile Monday, then you’ll feel right at home with Underline’s ‘Classic Mode’. The whole gameplay is a mix of Tetris and Boggle, the latter in the sense that you’re joining letters to make words, and the former because the letters will constantly be falling from the sky until they fill the entire grid and it’s game over. At that point your total will be tallied and you’ll be given a score based on how well you did. As you would expect, in order to get the highest scores you’re going to have to create longer words which, given the added element of letters falling down and causing you to rush, is no easy task.

Creating massive chains of letters is made slightly simpler by the fact that if you manage to create a word of four letters or more, you’ll be given a bronze, silver or gold letter. Including these letters in any word you happen to create will cause the letters around them to explode and give you their points, as well as lowering the height of the letters on the whole and giving you longer in the game to rack up those scores. You’ll also be given a selection of weapons and abilities at the start of the game to help with the collection of points. These abilities range from clearing the bottom row of letters (giving you the points in the process) to increasing your score and multiplayer. You don’t have to use these abilities but if you want to be at the top of that leaderboard, then you need to.

The controls in Underline are as simple as you would expect, with everything performed with the touch of a finger. The only real difficulty lies in the fact that once you place your finger on the screen, it can be tricky to see what letters you’re selecting. It doesn’t take long to get used to this though, and you’ll be entering letters like a pro in no time. Thanks to the easy rules of the game, and the simplistic user input method, almost anyone is able to play the game without much of a problem. It may take some people slightly longer to get used to the nuances but, for the most part, Underline is a game for everyone.

If you’ve already got a game of this style in your iOS gaming library, then Underline doesn’t do enough to cause you to abandon that in favour of it. The use of abilities and the element of speed are nice factors but, ultimately, it’s a bit too similar. However, if this is your first foray into this style of game then you could do much worse. Underline is ultimately fun to play, as are all games of its ilk, and there’s a good chance you’ll be playing for a fair amount of time to come.

JANE’S ZOO:

Casual games fill up quite a substantial amount of space on the iOS App Store, and for good reason: people love them. One of the most prolific publishers when it comes to casual games that almost anyone can pick up and play is G5 Entertainment. Normally they concentrate on adventure games – of which we’ve reviewed quite a few here on Mobile Monday – but today we’re taking a look at Jane’s Zoo, a management sim developed by Realore Studios. Is it as good as some of those adventure games, or should G5 stick to what they know?

Jane’s Zoo, at its base level, is a simple management sim with a level of progression. At the start of the game you’re given a basic zoo, with workers (including Jane herself) and just a couple of animals to look after – a monkey and an elephant. These animals will, over the course of the game’s day cycle, want for different things, such as feeding, cleaning-out, etc, and it’s your job to do what’s required to make sure they’re happy at all times. Happy animals make a happy zoo and that’s what you’re striving to achieve. The happier you’ve kept the animals by end of the day, the more points you’ll get. Whether to beat your friends or just improve on your own score, more points is the name of the game (not literally).

As the game progresses and you move on to different, more difficult zoos, you’ll have more and more animals to look after in a single day. Often, only one of the workers can perform certain tasks and if two animals want the same thing, or tasks that are different but performed by the same worker, then you’re going to have to decide which animal gets your attention first, often making one animal unhappy for the sake of another. Such is the life of a zookeeper. Some of the things you have to do during the course of the day will require the completion of small mini-games. These are very simplistic but rather fun to do, until you’ve done them a thousand times. They’re a nice addition to something that would otherwise seem a little bland in the world of management sims.

Controls in Jane’s Zoo are also easy to get to grips with, with almost everything requiring just a single tap to get things moving in the right direction. Things are made even easier on the larger screen of the iPad but people shouldn’t find much of a problem with the smaller-screened iOS devices either. Jane’s Zoo is absolutely a casual game and is easily played by people of all ages and gaming backgrounds. Nobody should have a problem playing the game and that’s nothing but a good thing.

Jane’s Zoo is a game that anyone can download and play without any issues. The gameplay is fun and addictive and the art style is passable. You’ll find yourself muttering “just one more level” more than once during your time with the game – I know I did – and most of the time you’ll succumb to that urge, too. G5 Entertainment are known for their adventure games but Jane’s Zoo is a great example of a casual game in a different genre, and something that the company should try to publish more of.

VAMPIRE:

A lot of games cross my desk here at Mobile Monday, some of them good, some of them not so good, but something that doesn’t really come my way all too often is something that can’t really be labelled a game. Vampire is an interactive story, based on an award-winning film from Buba Films, that asks the player to listen/read the story while also allowing them to interact with some of the environments that they’ll come across. The application, developed by LivoBooks, is a nice idea, especially given most developers’ leanings towards games instead of other forms of media, but does it actually work? Is it fun?

The application tells the story of Vladimir, a vampire who doesn’t have much to do around his massive house so he’s giving you a guided tour as a way to pass the time, as well as introduce you to his world. Almost all of the pages in Vampire will have some form of interactivity, whether that’s attempting to pet Vladimir’s Venus fly trap, restarting his heart-in-a-jar or just playing with his “screamophone” for hours on end. Whatever you’re doing you can almost guarantee that kids (the intended audience) are going to love it, most likely coming back again and again – which they’ll have to do anyway as the application and story is painfully short on its own (just look at the video, that’s pretty much all of it).

One of the more impressive features, given that it’s an application aimed squarely at children, is the fact that parents can record personalised audio for each of the slides. All that’s required is that you go into the relevant area of the application, record your narration, then make sure that ‘Personalised Narration’ is set to ‘On’ before the story is started and your child will have narration suited to themselves personally. The fact that the words light up as they’re being read aloud – in the default narration at least – is a nice touch that helps children learn to read certain words if there having difficulties – a nice touch that didn’t need to be included but was anyway shows that the developers have put some thought into the proceedings.

As Vampire is a storytelling application aimed at children, there’re really no controls to be mentioned. The interactive elements of the narrative are all activated with a simple tap of the screen and shouldn’t prove a problem for people of the intended age range. The simplicity of the controls also adds to the application’s accessibility and charm. If you think your child is old enough to experience the story, then they’re old enough to use the interactive elements. It’s further proof that LivoBooks have put thought and research into the development of Vampire, and that’s always great to see.

Vampire is an impressive application and one that will see a lot of use from some people; the ability to add personalised narration a particularly nice addition. However, the short length of the story is a little bit disappointing and leaves replaying it over and over again as the only real reason to keep it installed in your iOS device. It’s a good idea that’s been well-executed, but having more of it wouldn’t have gone amiss.

The post Mobile Monday – Knights & Dragons, Underline, Jane’s Zoo, Vampire appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at The Lumees from PreAnima, Green Jelly from MaxNick.com, Hell Yeah! Pocket Inferno from Pohlm Studio and Real Racing 3 from Firemonkeys.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

THE LUMEES:

The Lumees, developed by PreAnima, is another one of those games that give no indication as to what they are before you actually download them and start playing – something which is becoming more and more common. At its heart, The Lumees is a Match-3-style game – although the player has to match four this time around – with an interesting twist that attempts to make things a little bit more unpredictable. But does it work?

If you’ve ever sat at an arcade and put 2p coins in those bulldozer “games” that task you to push off more 2p’s than you put in, then you’ll be familiar with the first gameplay element in The Lumees. The titular characters will fall from the top of the screen, colliding with some of the many obstacles in their path on the way down, and finally landing in a section of the bottom area which, hopefully, has been carefully selected by the player. This process then repeats itself over and over again until the little readout in the top left corner of the screen is completely full, at which point you’ll move on to the next level.

The point of the game is to match four of the same kind of Lumee at the bottom of the screen, either horizontally or vertically (you don’t get anything for matching them diagonally) and attempting to clear the board of as many of them as possible. The more Lumees you clear, the faster you’ll complete the level and the more stars you’ll get out of a maximum of three, naturally. Due to the slightly unpredictable nature of the Lumees bouncing around on the scenery in each of the levels, getting them in exactly the position you want can be rather difficult and, while that adds to the appeal of the game, can get moderately frustrating as you progress.

The controls in The Lumees are easy to get your head around, simply requiring you to slide the bottom section of the level into various positions to catch the falling Lumees – but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. As mentioned before, the Lumees have a tendency to hit that one piece of scenery that you didn’t expect them to and go flying off at an unpredictable angle that you certainly weren’t prepared for. The Lumees sits firmly in the “easy to learn, difficult to master” category, and it sits there laughing at you attempting to three-star its levels.

The Lumees is a decent game with a cute art style, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy game, not by a long way. The levels are often painfully brutal and the art style seems to mock you. How can a game so colourful and bright be so dark and sadistic? The Lumees may look like a game for your typical everyman, but just beneath its surface is a challenging game that takes a lot of time and effort to truly get to grips with. Unless you were a master at those 2p bulldozer games, of course, in which case you might be ok.

GREEN JELLY:

What happens if you cross World of Goo with Cut the Rope and then sprinkle in a good helping of Angry Birds? Well, the game that you’d end up with wouldn’t be far from what we’ve got with the MaxNick.com developed Green Jelly. In Green Jelly you play as the title character and, not unlike Cut the Rope, all he wants is the sweets that are dotted around each of the levels. It’s your job to satiate that hunger and help him to get them. Are you up to the challenge?

The gameplay in Green Jelly involves using various methods to reach each of the three sweets in each level. You could, if you wanted, just get to the end of the level without collecting anything, but that negates the whole point of the game and, coupled with the fact that the sweets stand in for the three stars in just about every other puzzle game, you’re going to want to collect them all before you finish. The first of Green Jelly’s abilities that you’ll be introduced to is his knack of stretching himself from one point to another in order to reach far off destinations. If you’ve played World of Goo (and you really should) then you’ll already be familiar with this style of gameplay so you shouldn’t have any problems.

Throughout your time will Green Jelly, which will span quite a substantial amount of levels, you’ll be introduced to quite a few game mechanics. There’s one that’s not dissimilar to Angry Birds which allows you to pull back on the title character and fling him across the screen. Then there’s one that allows the player to cut the piece of jelly he’s dangling from and watch him fall. There aren’t many original gameplay mechanics on show here, but all those present are from games wherein the mechanic is the star of the show, and so having them all in one game, while not original, is still fun.

As the controls have been used in other popular games, there’s a good chance that you’re going to instantly be a dab hand at Green Jelly. The only exception to this rule being – possibly – the Cut the Rope bits. The jelly that you’re supposed to cut is much smaller than the “Rope” and can be a little bit tricky to interact with at times. It’s never too frustrating, just something to be aware of. Thanks to the easy-to-learn game mechanics of Green Jelly, it’s easy enough to pick up by anyone, young or old, and before long you’ll be collecting those sweets like a pro.

Green Jelly isn’t a very original game, but it never really claims to be either. What it is is a game that takes mechanics from some of the most well-loved titles on the app store and places them together in a single, fun game. From the moment you start the first level, to the moment you “three star” the final one, you’ll enjoy it, I have no doubt about that. Still, a little originality in some respects would have been nice. Maybe in the next game?

HELL YEAH! POCKET INFERNO:

Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit was a moderately successful XBLA/PSN game that was released a few months ago. It didn’t do too badly in the reviews but it probably didn’t do as well as the developer, Arkedo Studio, would have probably liked. In an effort to tap into the thriving infinite runner space that everyone seems to be into these days, the developers have released Hell Yeah! Pocket Inferno, a game of the infinite runner style but with a level system, instead of just running on forever. However, does copying what everyone else is doing and releasing an infinite runner, mean that it’s guaranteed the success it missed out on with the original release?

The gameplay in Hell Yeah! Pocket Inferno requires that you fulfil a number of requirements to beat the level with the maximum three stars. Ultimately, the only goal of each level is to reach the end, but if you want to attain those elusive stars then you’re going to have to work for it. These mini-missions can range from collecting a certain amount of coins or not hitting enemies all the way through to exiting the level through a specific door. They get a little bit more challenging as you progress through the game but most players will notice them repeating themselves not long after they’ve started the title.

As you progress, you’ll eventually come to one of many boss levels. These will involve chasing a character from the left side of the screen to the right while shooting them to get their health down and avoiding their incoming fire. These levels really feel like the bullet hell games we’re more used to getting when we’re allowed to use a controller, and they’re a little difficult when just using the touch interface – but they’re workable and actually rather a lot of fun to play, so it’s commendable that the developers have taken a gameplay mechanic that usually requires a controller and successfully managed to map it to touch controls. I was pleasantly surprised.

The controls in Hell Yeah! Pocket Inferno are also rather easy to get to grips with – which is just as well seeing as the game can get bloody hard at times – with the left hand side of the screen controlling the main character movement up and down and the right hand side of the screen controlling the firing of his weapons. This control scheme lends itself well to people that have never played games before too, as it’s so simple to learn, although I’d argue that Hell Yeah! shouldn’t be someone’s first mobile title. That would just be plain cruel.

Hell Yeah! Pocket Inferno is a fun game to play in short bursts. Having a level system instead of the standard infinite runner ‘just run as far as you can’ system means that it’s possible to pick it up, play a couple of levels and then put it down again while still feeling like you’ve progressed somewhat. There are a few areas where things could have been improved (a little bit of variety in the mini-missions is one aspect that immediately comes to mind), but the game on the whole is a solid entry into the Hell Yeah! franchise, and for the relatively cheap price of an iOS game, you can’t go far wrong.

REAL RACING 3:

The Real Racing series of games – previously developed by Firemint but, since EA bought the company and merged it with IronMonkey, is now developed by Firemonkeys – is a hugely popular series of games for the iOS devices, primarily thanks to its relatively deep gameplay and realistic graphics. We’re now getting onto the third game in the series and, as you would probably expect from a game that’s now published by EA, it has undergone a vast amount of changes (mostly centring around making EA more of that money they like so much). But does that mean that it’s no longer fun to play, or is it basically the same game we always knew and loved?

The simple answer is no.

From the moment you start your racing career in Real Racing 3, you’ll notice the heavy reliance on not one, but two forms of in-game currency. The first of the two are R$ and is the player’s way of purchasing new vehicles and upgrades. Certain races require the use of a specific car class, so expect to be buying quite a few cars if you want to compete in all the races. The downside to this is that the cars cost a decent amount of R$ and, while it’s possible to get the currency without paying a penny of real-world money, it will take you so long that it’s not really feasible. Each race will net you a couple of thousand R$, will another couple of thousand added on if you happen to unlock a race tier, but it’s not enough at all. Most players will find themselves grinding races over and over again just to continue playing – or fork up some real money – and neither option is very fun. The other in-game currency is gold, something that’s used less frequently than R$ but is still massively overused. This currency is primarily used to speed up the application of upgrades which, for some reason, take an arbitrary amount of time to apply once you’ve paid the R$ for them. The other main use for gold is to respray your car, which is just about the only understandable use as at least with this it’s not something you absolutely must do. The whole system stinks of money-grabbing on EA’s part, and detracts from the whole experience -which might have been excellent otherwise.

Forgetting about the abhorrent pay schemes present in Real Racing 3, the gameplay is still as fun as it’s ever been, with the graphics still there to back it up. There are plenty of races to sink your teeth into and, thanks to the Timeshifted Multiplayer system, if you’ve got Facebook or Game Center friends playing the game then you can take part in asynchronous multiplayer, which places your friends in your race with you and tasks you with beating them. Doing so will net you a bit more of a reward, but it’s so miniscule that it’s almost pointless. Still, you’re able to gloat about the fact that you beat them, so there’s always that.

There are plenty of control options in Real Racing 3, so many that almost everyone will find one that suits them perfectly. Whether it’s tilt steering will auto accelerate and assisted braking, or button steering with manual acceleration and braking, the options are there to make Real Racing 3 as personal as you want it to be. The game can be quite hard at times though, especially beating your friends if they’re particularly good, but the whole experience, including the built-in levelling system, is there to help you become a better driver – and competitor – so there’s always the drive (Ha! Get it? “Drive”?) to improve.

At its core, Real Racing 3 is still an enjoyable iOS racing experience but it’s something that only the hugely dedicated – or the rich – are going to get the full enjoyment from. If you’re the type of person who would usually play one or two races every other day then you may as well skip this one as you’re not going to be getting the full experience without paying. There’s no doubt that Firemonkeys have made a fun, gorgeous and well thought-out driving experience that fits into the player’s pocket, but the heavy-handedness of EA is so evident that it’s almost impossible to see the game for the money-growing trees.

The post Mobile Monday – The Lumees, Green Jelly, Hell Yeah! Pocket Inferno, Real Racing 3 appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at Jones on Fire from Glass Bottom Games, Pac-Man from Namco Bandai, Splash or Crash from Nintendo and Mini Ninjas from Square Enix.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

JONES ON FIRE by Martin Baker:

If you were to take the iOS App Store at face value, assuming that the most common game genre on there is what most people want to play, then you’d be forgiven for assuming that all anyone ever wants to play is an infinite runner game. Even big corporations are getting in on the action, releasing infinite runners based on their most popular licenses. Similarly, if the internet is to be believed, then cats are the bespoke gods that we all worship daily. So, how about an infinite runner style of game that tasks the player with saving as many cats as possible? Instant winner, right? That’s the question that Jones on Fire, developed by Glass Bottom Games, is asking and we’re here to find out the answer.

Just as with any other infinite game, the gameplay in Jones on Fire involves helping Jones as she gets from the left-hand side of the screen to the right, collecting as many cats as possible along the way. While you’re travelling from left to right, there will be many obstacles that you have to avoid, some which you’ll have to jump over and others which require you to slide under them. The whole point of the title, as well as collecting cats, is running away from the fire. You’re allowed to stumble once – by not jumping or sliding quickly enough – but do it a second time and you’ll be burned alive, losing one of your precious lives in the process.

While Jones on Fire is technically an infinite runner game, players will be offered a small respite every so often in the form of small safe houses. As you progress through the game, as long as you don’t lose all your lives, you’ll raise the difficulty through the increase of the hazard level. Lose all your lives, however, and you’ll have to start back all the way at hazard level one. It’s a cruel, cruel world, but one that will have you striving for perfection each time you play it. Getting further and further into the game allows you to collect more cats, and more cats means that you’ll climb further up the leaderboard – which is something that we all covertly (or even overtly) desire.

There are really only two controls in Jones on Fire: jump and slide. Jumping is as easy as tapping the left hand side of the screen and sliding the right. People that have played infinite runners before may be more used to controls that involve swiping the screen but the controls in Jones on Fire are easy to get used to and you’ll be jumping and sliding with the best of them in no time. Thanks to the simplicity of the controls, Jones on Fire is definitely a game that almost anyone can get to grips with rather quickly, even with the change in control method from other games of the genre. Being an infinite runner, you’re going to need sharp eyes and quick reflexes to get further into the game, but if you’ve got those then you’re not going to have a problem at all.

There’s no doubt that Jones on Fire is an amazingly addictive game; the art style is gorgeous, the game is genuinely funny at times and you’re saving cats from fire! You’re a hero! There’s masses of replayability too, with mini-missions to complete, abilities to unlock/purchase and leaderboards to try and reach the top of. Once you start playing Jones on Fire, you’re going to find it hard to put it down. If you’re a fan of infinite runners, or just want something a little bit different and amusing to fill your morning commute with, give Jones on Fire a shot.

PAC-MAN by Martin Baker:

Everybody knows who Pac-Man is. The pill-popping partial circle first entered our lives via the arcade, as all games did once, but once his success was known worldwide, it wasn’t long before the game was ported to the most popular home console of the time, the NES. It’s been a long time since that release on Nintendo’s early system but thanks to the wonders of the 3DS and the eShop, we’re getting the opportunity to experience the joy of gobbling those pac-dots all over again. But does our little yellow friend stand up to the test of time? I think we all know the answer to that…

The gameplay in Pac-Man is a tried and tested formula, and it’s something that’s been shown off in many different formats, whether as parody, homage or just informational. It’s had so much media play over the last three decades that if you put someone in front of the game, they would instantly know what’s required of them. For the uninitiated, however, the basic premise is that the player – as Pac-Man – is required to collect all of the pac-dots/pellets within each of the levels while avoiding the four ghosts. Collect all of the pac-dots and you win the level and move onto the next in line.

The A.I. in Pac-Man, for its time, was amazing. A lot of people, myself included, could easily be caught thinking that Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde had their own agendas, that they were doing more than just using a simple pathing algorithm to get themselves closer to the main character at all times. Even now, with A.I. as intelligent as we’re treated to in AAA games, I still found myself thinking that the ghosts were working together to trap me in the corners of the maze. Even now, many years after I played Pac-Man for the first time, I’m still nowhere near good enough to get to the legendary end-game screen, which is so sought after that I can’t even fathom the outrage from fans if they spent the time to reach it only to discover that Namco “fixed the problem”. So, while I couldn’t get to it myself, I assume it’s still there.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think it’s possible to sit someone less than 70 years old in front of Pac-Man and have them not understand what they’re expected to do. Everyone knows how to play Pac-Man. The 3DS version of the game makes things even easier too, by allowing the player to choose whether they want to use the D-Pad or the Circle Pad. So, whichever control method takes your fancy, whichever one you use most often, or even whichever one catches your eye when you play Pac-Man on 3DS for the first time, you can rest assured that you’ll be able to use it.

Pac-Man is one of those games that everyone should have on them at all times. It’s absolutely timeless. While it’s no longer one of the best games out there, it’s still a game that people can have a lot of fun with. If you’re looking to recapture that “misspent” youth wakka-wakka-ing around a blue and black screen, or even if you just want something to play on your commute to school or work, you can never go far wrong with Pac-Man. It’s a classic for a reason.

SPLASH OR CRASH by James Bowden:

Splash or Crash is a game about falling. And while it reads like the title of a Z-list celebrity tombstoning show it is actually about falling down wells. Rocks, melons, Russian Dolls; all manner of things are thrown down all manner of watering holes and it’s your job to navigate past some of the most unhelpful water collection set-ups since Jack and Jill’s hill with one goal: reach the water at the bottom of the well as quickly as possible.

The concept is dandy. Plot is shirked in favour of barrier-less high score fare, with the focus being to set as fast a time as you can on each of the game’s ten ‘different’ wells. You can choose which object you wish to assume control of, with each offering a difference in speed, boost and health.

The game is quickly undermined, however, largely due to its randomly generated level format. Each well is populated by a grab bag of obstacles such as shortbread biscuits, pizza gates, Japanese doors and boost-causing doughnuts, and you never know how those ker-azy objects are going to appear. Oh it’s mad. It is indeed zany. Ho ho, Crash or Splash is soooo so so so wacky!

But it’s precisely the random level element that ruins it. You’ll play through the ten levels waiting for the one that will surprise. The one that will open up into a grand chasm. The one that will take you through some absolutely bonkers Willy Wonka Well of chocolate milk dreams (the game’s loading screens promise that a well can contain anything, afterall). But all ten wells are effectively the same deal with different wallpaper, which is an ailment of being randomly generated; the designers are forced to work within easily generated and connected templates.

Fall. Splash. Seen one, seen ’em all.

It’s a shame because Splash or Crash looks alright, has a sense of fun with its physics-enabled obstacles tumbling down the well should you collide with them, and the controls are responsive. As far as controlling a falling rock goes, anyway. Like that uncle, Splash or Crash is the sort of game that elicits deep sighs and frowned head shaking; you’ll likely tire of its ways within an hour, and it ultimately it lacks any sort of applaud-able ambition.

MINI NINJAS by Martin Baker:

A lot of us will have heard the name Mini Ninjas before, a game that started life as a console and PC platforming title developed by Hitman studio IO Interactive. However, people that may have played the original game in the franchise may be wondering how it could ever be transferred to an iOS device. The simple answer? It hasn’t been. Mini Ninjas on iOS, this time developed in-house by Square Enix, is a totally different game than its console/PC big brother; instead of a platforming adventure we’re given a side-scrolling infinite runner. But can it still capture the charm and inherent appeal of the original?

The gameplay requires that you run as far as you possibly can from the left hand side of the screen to the right, with the distance you manage to travel being the score that you manage to attain. If you stumble and fall, you do have an opportunity to pick yourself back up again, although you have to spend coins in order to do so, with the purchase becoming more and more expensive the more times you have to do it in any one attempt. As you run through the level you can pick up coins to spend in the in-game store, but you’ve got to be careful: while collecting coins might seem appealing, the aim of the game is to get as far as you can, and constantly collecting coins can often be an easy way to an early Game Over screen.

As you progress you’ll be able to enlist the help of other Mini Ninjas to help you on your quest to get as far as possible. These helpers take the place of power-ups in more traditional infinite runners, each of them having a special ability that the main character can make use of such as the ability to smash rocks and other obstacles, or just the ability to pull coins towards themselves easier. Whatever the ability is, you should make sure to grab it whenever possible as they make things a whole lot easier.

The controls in Mini Ninjas on the iOS are simple too, more similar to how Jones on Fire performed than any other infinite runner. To play, the player has to either tap the left hand side of the screen, or the right. Tapping the left will cause the character to jump – jumping higher if the “button” is held down and shorter if the player just gives it a quick tap – and the right hand side of the screen to slash your sword or whatever other weapon you happen to have (which depends on if you’ve got a “power-up” currently activated as the other ninjas have different weapons). Thanks to the fact that Mini Ninjas only asks the player to use two buttons, for the most part, it’s easily accessible to a wide range of potential players. Being an infinite runner, quick reflexes are a plus but not absolutely necessary.

Mini Ninjas is an enjoyable game, especially for fans of the franchise, but there are better examples of the genre out there. Constant drops in frame rate, even on newer iOS devices, hamper the progress of even experienced infinite runner gamers – there’s nothing more frustrating than dying because a frame dropped or the game failed to recognise a ‘jump’ command – and it’s that that’s keeping the game from the top of the pile. The visuals are nice and there’s plenty of replay value but, at the moment, it feels like a week or two more of development wouldn’t have gone amiss.

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You know what day it is? It’s Monday again and that can mean only one thing here at GodisaGeek: It’s time for another edition of Mobile Monday, the article where we take a look at four mobile games and let you know if they’re worth your time and money.

This week we’re taking a look at Dark Arcana: The Carnival from Artifex Mundi, Castlevania from Konami, Monster Truck Destruction from Odd Games and Nightsky from Nicklas Nygren.

Read on to find the full reviews of each game, but don’t forget to come back next week for more Mobile Monday reviews. While you’re here, if you have played any of the games listed, or even just want to come back once you’ve had a go to let us know how you got on, we’d love to hear from you in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

DARK ARCANA: THE CARNIVAL by Martin Baker:

It’s another week here at Mobile Monday and that must mean that it’s time to take a look at yet another adventure game from the guys over at G5 Games. This time we’re taking a look at Dark Arcana: The Carnival, developed by Artifex Mundi, which follows the disappearance of a young girl’s mother in a strange and spooky carnival. All of the typical G5 adventure game tropes are present, but with some little extras thrown in here and there. Can you get to the end and discover the secret to the disappearance? It’s going to take everything you’ve got.

From the moment the game starts, it’s obvious that something is not quite right with the titular carnival; the people that are running it are strange, the doors leading to the different areas are creepy, and yet the small girl and her mother are content to walk through without care. Not something you’d find me doing. It’s not long before the story starts and you, as an investigator, are sent into the carnival to find out what happened. Talking to the carnival’s manager is your first port of call, but he’s not making it easy, running off and locking doors behind him, so you’re going to have to play some puzzles in order to unlock the doors and get to him. Just as with any typical adventure game, this is what you’re going to spend your time doing in Dark Arcana: The Carnival: moving forward until you can’t move any more, solving a puzzle to get to the next screen, then rinsing and repeating.

With a G5 adventure game, we’re used to seeing the type of puzzles where you’re given a scene and told to find items on the list. While this is part of Dark Arcana: The Carnival, it’s not the main puzzle element, which is a welcome change as that type of puzzle is arguably becoming a little stale. A lot of the puzzles will be more reminiscent of traditional adventure puzzles, looking for a specific “key” to open a specific “lock” in order to progress. One puzzle, at the start of the game, has the player matching items to their unique circus performer, and this is one of the best puzzles in a G5 game to date, entertaining, slightly challenging and rewarding. Just what the doctor ordered.

The controls in Dark Arcana: The Carnival are simple, only requiring the player to tap the screen to select the different object in the scene. However, there’s a problem that arises if the player is using a smaller iOS device such as an iPod Touch or an iPhone in that the objects can be tiny and difficult to press. This isn’t the first time that a G5 game has had this problem, and it probably won’t be the last, but it’s something to be aware of if accurately tapping the touch screen has proven to be challenging for you in the past; unless that adds to the appeal of a puzzle game. The story and control scheme lend themselves well to a game that can be played by people of all ages, there’s no need to be an avid gamer when it comes to Dark Arcana: The Carnival, just enjoy it.

Though the game feels at home on any iOS device, it’s just a little bit harder to play, and screams out to be played on the bigger screen of an iMac or a MacBook. The puzzles are appealing, well created and well executed, the animations are fluid and well done and the story isn’t bad either. Dark Arcana: The Carnival is certainly one of the best G5 adventure games to date.  

CASTLEVANIA by Lee Garbutt:

If you are eagerly awaiting both Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, and its portable sibling Mirror of Fate, the latest Virtual Console title to hit the Nintendo 3DS could well be of great interest.

What we have here is the game that started it all, and if you’re willing to put up with mid-80’s game design and cumbersome mechanics, the original Castlevania is still a very enjoyable platformer. As the boringly named vampire hunter Simon Belmont, you arrive at Castlevania to rid the world of Dracula. Wielding the classic Vampire Killer whip, and a host of collectable items such as Holy Water, knives and axes, you traverse a series of linear levels, battling classic horror beasties on your way to defeat the dreaded Nosferatu.

Being an early NES title, Castlevania is hard as bloody nails. Simon slowly walks around like an arthritic pensioner, while the jumping mechanics can and will be the death of you. If you feel the need to jump, you better damn well be sure you’re committed to that decision, because you can’t change directions while in the air. It’s all too easy to be hit by a stray flying enemy mid-jump, watching helplessly as your brown-hued warrior falls to his death. You will learn to hate bats and flying Medusa heads.

So it’s a relic of old-fashioned game design, one of regular frustration and unfair death. But this 27-year old game is still an enjoyable one; the music still sounds great and the graphics are surprisingly detailed for the time period. As mentioned before, the game is frustrating but it does have infinite continues. Combine that with the 3DS Virtual Console’s Restore Point feature, and some of the bite is taken away from the difficulty.

If your experience with the Castlevania series began with the post-Symphony of The Night titles, leading up to Lords of Shadow, then this Virtual Console title is a great reminder of why the series is so well regarded. A classic action-platformer that holds up incredibly well, nearly three decades after its release.

MONSTER TRUCK DESTRUCTION by Martin Baker:

Quite a few things get me excited when it comes to mobile games, but nothing has gotten me as excited in recent months as the chance to play a game centred around Monster Trucks. I remember a time, waaaay back, when I’d watch the mighty behemoths with my Dad on a Sunday morning. The likes of Bigfoot and Gravedigger used to astound me then and their appeal isn’t lost on me even now. Monster Truck Destruction, a game developed by Odd Games, is something that feels like it has me as its target audience – but is it any good?

Throughout your championship you’ll be playing through two main game modes. Drag is a game mode which tasks the player with driving around a predetermined course with the goal being to beat the other monster truck across the finish line. Do this enough times and you’ll move through the mini-tournament and become the winner, advancing yourself in the major championship. The other mode, Freestyle, is what I grew up watching, monster trucks doing anything that looks cool. Smashing through objects, making seemingly impossible jumps and more. The aim of Freestyle is to rack up as many points by performing stunts as you can – but you have to be careful: being forced to reset will lose you all those precious points. Getting the most points in Freestyle mode is what you’re looking for, and doing so will advance you through the game’s main championship mode.

You also get to play these game modes whenever you want through the title’s ‘Single Event’ mode, which allows you to practice your craft in order to get the better scores where it really matters – in championship mode. As you’re building up your wins, attaining more money, you’ll also be able to upgrade your monster truck however you see fit, something that you’re going to want to do in order to make it in the big leagues. It’s all your standard stuff though – upgrade the exhaust, upgrade the engine, etc, – so you’re not going to feel overwhelmed by the options on offer.

The controls are where Monster Truck Destruction starts to feel a bit flimsy but, in fairness, the developers did try to make it as user friendly as possible by adding multiple control schemes but, at the end of the day, they’re still on-screen touch controls and they’re always going to feel a bit off, especially when you’re playing a game where the slightest accidental movement could mean the difference between top and bottom place. There have been worse uses of on-screen controls, and Monster Truck Destruction does its best will the tools it’s been provided with, just don’t expect it to be some kind if control scheme epiphany.

Monster Truck Madness is a solid game if you’re already a fan of the massive machines, but it’s not going to convert anybody who’s on the fence about it all. The repetitive gameplay and loose controls are balanced by good looking visuals and interesting social integration but there’s no denying that this is one for the fans, and the fans alone.

NIGHTSKY by Jonny Lewis:

Physics games are everywhere these days. A quick Google search and you’ll find websites stuffed full of the things – roll this ball to X location, stack this many boxes without making a mess, throw this feathery vertebrate at that green vertebrate. They all sound simple, and they are, so why are there so many of them knocking about? Maybe we just like throwing things around? NightSky, from developer Nicalis, is a physics game with a twist. The twist? Wonderful presentation. Is it still fun? Absolutely.

The story behind NightSky tells of a young man who has a particularly lucid repetitive dream about a spinning ball after stumbling upon a glowing sea shell on the beach one day. You control the ball in the young man’s dreams, rolling it around atmospheric environments in an effort to get it to the finish. NightSky is pitched by the developers as a “beautiful, non-violent game”, so the challenge arises in the form of obstacles in your path that hinder your progress.

NightSky is great to play as a relaxing experience, as it never really becomes challenging enough to annoy or frustrate, which is to the game’s benefit as you’ll struggle to put it down, easing your way through stage after to stage will probably see you complete the games nine different worlds in just a handful of play sessions. You control the ball with the analogue stick, with two commands assigned to the Y and B face buttons. The commands change from level to level with turbo, brake and gravity shift  amongst the commands on offer. Some levels see you catch a ride on or in vehicles, while some are turned into a platform version of pinball.

Rolling your little ball around the silhouetted environments is an enjoyable experience, with the game’s striking visual style being the thing that probably sticks longest in the memory. Your glowing ball moves across 2D black backgrounds set against an array of spectacular vistas, sky scenes and sunsets. The game’s visual flare is something to be commended. As a game, NightSky is fun; it offers little in the way of challenge but, while it lasts, you’ll enjoy every minute of it.

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