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App Review: Everlands
App Review: Everlands is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Turn-based strategy games are quite popular on the App Store, beloved due to heir addictive and thought-provoking qualities. But every now and again, there comes along a genre-shaking game that just blows me away. Everlands, developed by Hexage.net, is one example.
Everlands’s basic plot revolves around the evil spirits taking control of animals, and the brave plethora of creatures that must come together to stop the evil and cleanse their possessed brethren. While this more juvenile, lighthearted storyline seems out of place in a genre filled with macho heroes, futuristic weaponry and vehicular combat, it blends nicely into the game and serves as a much welcomed change of pace.
In Everlands, you and your opponent take turns placing animals on the hexagonal board. Each animal has a certain amount of life and attack points, but can only attack out of certain sides. After attacking out of a certain side, the animal cannot attack out of that side again for the rest of the match. When an animal loses all life points, it will change alignments, resetting all life points but not attack sides. Each species has varying amounts of life and attack points, as well as a unique special ability. For example, the intimidating Tiger is able to reduce the attack points of all adjacent enemy animals, while the prickly Hedgehog is able to attack on almost all sides (and the Raccoon can steal eggs, which is just plain awesome). Everlands is super easy to play, with the bonus of shorter tutorials, but adds just the right amount of depth to avoid being simplistic and dull.
In order to complete a stage, you must have possession of more than 50% of the board with your creatures. If you are victorious, you unlock another animal to add to your arsenal. While the story mode starts off easy, the difficulty quickly ramps up as you learn to synergize your animal’s abilities and weaknesses together. However, the story mode is rather short, and with the conclusion of the game you are left little replay value. Perhaps in a effort to combat this, Everlands also features a two-player duel mode where you can square off against a friend using the same device.
Everlands is able to simultaneously pay homage to strategy game and casual game principles, making it a blast to play. Everlands is a must-own game if you’re a lover of strategy games, or just have the desire for a great game. Hexage.net builds on a classic hexic strategy game with its own unique quirks and twists, creating a game that shouldn’t be missed.
Trainyard Review
Review: 180
Review: 180 is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
- Price: $1.99 (Download here)
- Version: 1.0
- Official Site: Headcase Games
180 from Headcase Games, is a fun and fairly gentle matching game that will surely reward puzzle game fans, but left me wanting a little more.
In 180, players must match flippable coins in rows or columns of three or more, trying to keep the ever-encroaching stack from reaching the bottom of the screen.
What makes the game interesting is that every piece has two sides, with images like moons, hearts, musical notes, and so forth printed on each face. Before launching a piece, the player can flip it to make a better match.
Even better, the player can flip any piece already on the board, setting up big combos and possibly clearing the entire screen for a serious bonus. Even on the game’s easiest mode, the speed picks up pretty fast, and 180 can become a real challenge.
In addition to the “endless” mode, which just lasts until you run out of room and the stack hits the bottom, there is a “time attack” mode, which gives you 90 seconds to try and maximize your score, and a “drop attack” mode, which has something to do with depth.
For this last mode, no real explanation was offered, and I wasn’t quite sure what the goal was. Fortunately the game plays pretty much the same in all three modes, so when in doubt, match!
With OpenFeint integration, this is another good app for people with an itch to see their name at the top of the score list, but it doesn’t have to be a mad dash for the highest score. The endless mode can be very relaxing until you lose control, and while the game only features one music track, its dreamy melody helps set the mood.
Despite 180’s good points, there are a couple of things that keep it from standing alongside the puzzling greats. When I first picked up the game, I often found myself pressing the wrong column to send my coin down, which can mess up a game real fast.
While I improved rapidly, the “fat finger” tended to return when the game got more frantic and I was in a hurry. Nothing is more frustrating than misplacing a critical piece with only seconds to spare, and losing the game as a result.
While the game is fairly visually polished, it never quite came together either. This is more of a whine than a criticism, since it has no effect on gameplay, so take it with a grain of salt. PopCap, the ultimate standard for puzzle gamers, has mastered the art of making the action visually and audibly rewarding, which really adds a layer on top of the game itself.
While 180 isn’t ugly, its aesthetics aren’t appropriately rewarding to the player. The end result was that I was less likely to start a new game right away after losing.
Crazy Test – Simple, Addictive, Fun!
LilRacerz
LilRacerz is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
LilRacerz , an inaugural app by developers Blast One, is by definition an arcade ‘micro racer’ style game. However, so much energy, polish and life is infused into this game that it transcends its genre, making you forgot you’re playing a top-down 2D racer that only cost two dollars.
The game play revolves around nine different tournament cups for you to win, each consisting of several unique races. At the end of each race you receive gold coins to spruce up your ride and at the conclusion of each cup (if you scored first or second cumulatively) you unlock a brand new car for the new tourney. It’s a simple and effective no-frills formula that kept me hooked right from the start.
Racing itself is made very easy by efficient and simple controls. You have your acceleration and brake pedals, two steering buttons for maneuvering left and right, and the ubiquitous ‘nitro’ key to give a little jolt to the engine. Controls were generally responsive, and I appreciated how the dev ingeniously placed the nitro right above the acceleration pedal, allowing you to activate it without taking your thumb off the acceleration. All the races consists of two to three laps with four AI opponents, usually making for a frenzied jockeying for position that makes this game a whole lot of pulse-pounding entertainment.
One of the major selling points of LilRacerz are the impressive and stylish pixel-art graphics. Blast One did a fantastic job in making sure their game looked nice, and the different sceneries, ranging from a snowy arctic to desert wasteland to rainforest, all looked bright and crisp. The game is 2D, although I tended to forget that because of how nicely the basic physics system was woven into racing and steering and how realistic the graphics are. As an added bonus, you can laugh manically as you chase and run over skittish pedestrians, reducing them to splatters on the track.
Rounding out LilRacerz is the Crystal integration for score and achievement tracking, a ‘quick race’ mode to race on tracks you’ve already unlocked, and a thumping retro-style soundtrack for your listening enjoyment. From the superb gameplay to excellent graphics, LilRacerz is a very welcome addition to the app store, a great casual racing game that I highly recommend. I’m going to be keeping a lookout for more games by Blast One, because LilRacerz is an optimistic sign of great things to come.
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPod Touch 2g 3.1.2
Jump O’ Clock Latest Casual Game From Glu
Jump O’ Clock Latest Casual Game From Glu is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Glu has a great history of casual games. They have produced one of our favorite casual iPhone games including Glyder, Beat It!, Bonsai Blast. Today they have released a new casual game and their first with Open Feint integrated, Jump O’ Clock.
In Jump O’ Clock, you play a tiny robot with magnetic feet in a Steampunk world trying to climb as high as possible. You do this by jumping from rotating gears and jumping off of the wall.
Along the way you can gather bolts that are scattered around the levels. The more bolts you gather, the more energy you get. If you gather enough energy, you can activate a super jump that nearly instantly bumps up your travelled height by a few hundred feet.
Jump O Clock marks the first game from Glu Mobile to integrate the leading social gaming network, Open Feint. It allows you to track your score and achievements against your friends and everyone else in the world.
Jump O Clock is available in the App Store now, for $0.99.
Hit the jump for the official game description and features and some more screen shots.
Game Description:
Playing Jump O’ Clock can lead to severely extended sessions of gameplay! Take control of the lovable steampunk robot LE0 and jump from gear to gear while avoiding hazards in an endless upward world. Collect bolts to fill your SUPER-JUMP METER, and BOOST the height of your jumps. Timing is crucial to keep from winding up on the wrong side of the razor-sharp teeth, scalding steam, electrified wires or broken pipes. Connect to OpenFeint and compete for the dizzying heights of high-score greatness. If you’ve got time, Jump O’ Clock has your challenge – an endless platform adventure which never plays the same twice. Why try and beat a clock when you can JUMP O’ CLOCK?
FEATURES:
- Endless vertical platform game – LIKE DOODLE JUMP – jump from gear to gear in an effort to climb as high as possible
- The infinite adventure is NEVER THE SAME GAME TWICE!
- OpenFeint enabled! Challenge friends and post and share the highest scores with other players, Twitter and Facebook.
- Earn more points as LE0 climbs higher and higher in the clockworks. COLLECT BOLTS for extra points and to fill the SUPER-JUMP METER, earning BOOSTS to jump HIGHER.
- 15 additional CHALLENGES ranging from mildly tricky to devilishly difficult.
[ Jump O’ Clock Latest Casual Game From Glu is a post from 148Apps ]
Retro Paddle
Retro Paddle is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
You have to respect the classics.
Retro Paddle is Richard Fennema’s tribute to Pong for the iPhone! Although insanely simplistic in nature, Retro Paddle serves more to remind to the world how far the gaming world has come since Pong’s console release in 1974 (roughly three years before home computers were available to the public). This ridiculously simple concept was something the world had never seen before: at home console gaming! Pong, with sales totaling over 40,000,000 in it’s first year, was a massive hit and the public ate it up. This simple game sparked a series of innovations that led to cartridge based gaming and the decision to port classics like Space Invaders from the arcade to the TV screen.
After the console gaming crash of 83′ and 84′, the general public avoided console gaming until gaming legends Nintendo and Sega hit the scene in the late 80’s with the NES and the SG-1000. From there, it’s all history and the world’s youth would never be the same because of it. In fact, Pong indirectly set in motion – albeit an extremely indirect set of motions- a line of events that would ultimately lead to the creation of IAR and for that we pay tribute! It’s hard to believe that the at home gaming phenomenon came with instructions that said: “Avoid missing ball for high score.”
Retro Paddle has the same basic rules. To win… you must not miss the ball. Simple and to the point. The only difference is that Retro Paddle has some cool new features; you can change the control settings from touch to tilt and adjust the difficulty! Not much in comparison to other games currently in the app store but enough to satisfy the retro gamer. So if you’re a nostalgic gamer like me, then chances are you’d probably enjoy Retro Paddle! You can purchase this game for $.99 in the app store.
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G 3.1.3
App Sale: Compression
App Sale: Compression is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Compression is on sale for free – normally $1.99
Compression is a snazzy, Dr. Mario – style tetris game that I reviewed a few months back.
It’s casual, fun and pretty easy to pick up and play. There’s also a new $0.99 in-app purchase that unlocks another addictive game mode. A recent update fixed some of the issues with the first version, giving you another reason why you should definitely pick up this game while it’s on sale.
Version 1.1
Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Developer: PopCap
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.19 out of 5 stars
Plants? Versus Zombies? What?
Plants vs. Zombies is an action/strategy game that could be thought of as a form of tower defense. In the past few months we’ve seem many examples of games that use this gameplay, but now the original Plants vs. Zombies is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Plants Vs. Zombies was a huge hit for Pop Cap on the desktop. The game quickly became the number one selling game in PopCap’s history, and that’s a pretty big deal if you consider the number of sales Bejeweled has had in the many years it’s been around.
While the gameplay mechanic is similar to any tower defense game, it has been greatly simplified. The game has also been done in an interesting and very humorous manner. What’s not fun about a bunch of plants destroying the undead? You start off the game in a pretty slow, but helpful to the beginner, progression of tutorial levels eventually unlocking killer plant after killer plant. Each with their own interesting defense mechanism. Along the way, new forms of strange and interesting zombies are also released. As you can imagine, different plants (towers) work better against particular zombies (creeps) based on their characteristics. Luckily there is an almanac available to view the number of different plants and zombies and their characteristics.
The gameplay differs from a traditional tower defense, basically a simplification of the mechanic. Rather than the creeps moving in various directions, the game board in Plants vs. Zombies is laid out in a grid with the Zombies always moving in the same direction, right to left.
Where the game gets a little more complicated than your average tower defense is in the number of different plants you have to choose from. At the beginning of each level you are given the opportunity to choose your plants for the level. Luckily you know what kind of zombies you have to face in that level as they are displayed on the screen. Different zombies move differently. Some are fast and weak, some are slow and strong, others have special characteristics like jumping, flying, etc. As mentioned earlier, some plants work better on certain types of zombies and choosing the correct ones for the level is the key to progression.
Let’s take a look at the trailer for Plants vs. Zombies from PopCap.
There are lots of things to love about this game. There’s the great comic style, the humorous gameplay, and the attention to detail put into this game. Each new plant or zombie has interesting and funny characteristics. In addition, there’s the great long play adventure mode with 50 levels to progress in. There’s also an unlockable quick play mode once the adventure mode has been completed.
The game has been modified well for the iPhone in most respects. While the on screen buttons can be rather small, I rarely had an issue with pressing the wrong button. This might be an issue while riding in moving vehicles though.
The game does a good job with respect to pick up and play characteristics of iPhone and iPod Touch users. If you quit the game or are interupted by a phone call, you can easily resume right where you left off the next time you start the app up.
While overall this game is a load of fun, there are some things we’d like to see fixed. First, for those that already have played the game on the desktop, the time to ramp up the game is rather long. Would be nice to have a way to jump ahead in some fashion. We also noticed some slight slow down on the second generation iPod Touch we were using to test the game when there were lots of things moving at once on the screen. This likely isn’t a real concern unless you are on a first generation device.
Overall there’s a lot of game here. Well made for those that like to sit down and play for hours or just play in quick bursts. If you enjoy strategy games, you’ll enjoy Plants vs. Zombies. And at $2.99, it’s a steal.
Angry Birds
Angry Birds is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Edit: Angry Birds is on sale for $0.99, normally $1.99.
Private Snowball: Commander, these birds are angry.
Commander Napoleon: What? Why?
Private Snowball: It could possibly be because we stole their eggs to make Sunday Brunch.
Commander Napoleon: No, that can’t be it. We reimbursed them by giving them DDT-infused worms. What’s the worst these angry birds can do?
Private Snowball: Sir, it appears they are launching themselves at our headquarters using a giant slingshot.
The Good: Angry Birds is a gorgeous, cartoony ‘crush the castle’ style game that involves flinging birds of various colors at pigs enclosed in haphazard wooden buildings. It’s like the three little pigs, if the wolf was replaced by a slingshot and homicidal birds. And if clickgamer.com wrote fairy tales, and not games.
The game starts off tame, but eventually new birds and harder levels are introduced. More difficult levels require some intense strategy and some creative solutions. The sheer amount of high-quality and inspired levels offered will keep you hooked for quite a while.
A recent update introduced an impressive 42 extra levels, which makes for one long, long game addition. For the casual gamer or a bird-catapult enthusiast (I know you’re out there), Angry Birds is an absolute must.
The Bad: I can’t say anything bad about this game, except that it’s very addictive.
The Ugly: After downloading this, don’t expect to sleep for a while. Like I said, this game is addicting.
Puppy Park
Puppy Park is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
PUPPY PARK is now featured on the FRONT PAGE of the APP STORE, and is ranked #24 in most popular paid puzzle games!!!!!
Puppy Park is a cute, colorful puzzle game in which you are the
caretaker of the best dog park in town.
Puppies love to come play there, but when they first arrive, they are
lonely and sad.
You can make them happy by moving them next to their friends!
The Park is open and the puppies are waiting….are you ready to play?
Featuring
stylish graphics and animation, a dynamic and challenging color matching
system, and 30 different park levels of varying difficulty, Puppy Park
is perfect for puzzle and puppy fans of any age!
geoSpark
geoSpark is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Developer: Critical Thought Games
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1.1
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1.1
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars
Critical Thought Games (geoDefense, geoDefense Swarm) and Imangi Studios (Harbor Master, Hippo High Dive) have combined forces for their latest title, geoSpark. The result of this collaboration is a finely-honed, pick-up-and-play experience. geoSpark is a simple concept with some subtle depth that slowly reveals itself the more you play and the farther you get.
geoSpark shares some similarities to goDefense with regards to the stylish and colorful vector graphics. That’s where the similarities end, however, as geoSpark is intended as a very casual game with a singular purpose. As different colored sparks drift onto the screen, your goal is to simply remove them. You can tap a spark for low points, or drag like-colored sparks together for higher scoring combos. If at any point two disparate sparks touch each other, it’s game over.
As you hold a spark and drag it around for big combos, a gravity well appears underneath your finger and grows increasingly bigger. All of the surrounding sparks quickly get sucked towards this gravity well, propelling them faster towards each other. This is where the beauty lies in geoSpark, as there is real risk versus reward involved when attempting a large chain. Although being conservative is often the best strategy, the allure of a massive chain is hard to resist.
Bonus sparks occasionally appear in geoSpark, such as a 2X multiplier, a screen-clearing bomb, a slowdown spark, and the ever elusive 1UP. More Sparks of different shape, size, and color appear the longer you survive, and you will eventually reach ones with different behaviors. OpenFeint is used to track both high-scores and longest chains, and there are 14 achievements that you can obtain. Topping your previous best score, as well as those of your friends, is the real hook of the game, and everything about geoSpark’s structure is streamlined to quickly get you into the next game.
The one area where geoSpark falls flat is the included tutorial video. It does a pretty lousy job of conveying all of the core gameplay elements, and there are no instructions otherwise. It is easy to dismiss the game as having little substance based on the tutorial, as it really takes a few playthroughs to get the hang of things and develop some winning strategies. Some players might never get to that ah-ha moment because of the boring and nebulous demonstration video.
geoSpark is the type of game that is built for repeat visits. The frantic pacing of the game, and fairly bite-sized sessions, do a good job of compelling gamers to push farther. The game can be frustrating at times, but it’s very satisfying when you get into the zone and score higher than you ever expected. As with the best casual games out there, geoSpark is something you can always go back to and have some fun.
iDemolished
iDemolished is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Day 1: Well, I’ve always liked destroying buildings. So when Mommy told me about an opening at a local building destruction business ran by iauns (the foreman is part of her book club, and they meet on the third Tuesday of every month for discussion and scones), I reasoned that I was the person for the job. And I don’t think I had any plans for my life, anyways.
Day 2: I did not know a stick of TNT cost only one dollar. Must be that blasted economy.
Day 3: I was given a few tutorial levels to start with, but I ended up making the intern do them while I supervised. Apparently, the buildings I’m knocking down are just pieces of wood stacked on top of each other. I think I could have taken them down with a good shove.
Day 4: Foreman gave me a stack of one dollar bills and told me to go blow out building number four. I used one stick of TNT to do the deed, and then hid the rest in my truck. You can’t get one dollar TNT anywhere, you know.
Day 5: I found out I could rig TNT to explode at a later or earlier time. I guess that’s useful, if I ever came across a building that took more than one stick of explosive to bring down.
Day 6: Given a new type explosive to use. My foreman is impressed with my work, and I’ve been making sure to give that intern plenty of field experience. The kid’s rather sharp, you know. I haven’t heard from him in a while though. I hope he’s finished my dry cleaning.
Day 7: Buildings are getting kind of challenging, especially after the intern left. But it’s not like I needed him anyways. I’m starting to rethink wasting my extraordinary talents on a job as mundane as this.
Day 8: I slid my resignation under foreman’s door, and then went home, retreating back into the recesses of my parents’ basement. I still think I have that car full of TNT, though.
-
I’ve spent nearly a week (that just tells you how much I’ve procrastinated in getting this review out) constantly playing this game, and I’ve barely made a dent in it.
The ability to control the falling blocks (to an extent) with the accelerometer is clever, and I enjoy being able to rig bombs to explode at different times. The strategy of buying bombs is also present, as bigger bombs cost more and become less efficient, but are sometimes necessary. And it’s just fun to fill up a building with 60 sticks of $1 dollar TNT and compare it to a building with a single mother-hen bomb.
The campaign of the game is gigantic, filled with several pages of structures to demolish. Progressively harder buildings are made out of some sturdier stuff and are much more difficult, requiring increasingly clever tactics in order to meet your status quo.
I’m always a fan of being able to generate your own game content, and iDemolished has a neat feature that allows the creation of your own to-be-obliterated buildings. The building creation interface is slightly intimidating and confusing at first, but after sifting through all the stuff, it’s pretty intuitive. And it’s a lot of fun making things and blowing them up.
iDemolished is a fantastic game, having the unique ability to keep a gamer enthralled for hours (which is good for the game, but not so great for my sleeping habits, or battery life). The game is streamlined and high quality, and I haven’t had any problem with the crashing or bugs that plagues other promising apps.
For those looking for a pyrotechnic fix, iDemolished is a great way to spend that dollar (well, other than on $1 TNT, of course. But where can you find that, these days?)
