Vikings are widely considered a gruff and fearsome group, but what many people may not know is that they have a softer side as well. This has never been more readily apparent than it is in the game Axe in Face [99¢] from Blue Carrot Games. The Norse gardener Red Beard, when he's not looting and pillaging, likes to tend to his beautiful plot of yellow daffodils. His fellow Viking peers apparently don't share this appreciation of fine horticulture and will brazenly trample through Red Beard's garden, crushing the delicate flowers beneath their feet. This enrages Red Beard, and he deals with it in typical Viking fashion – by throwing an axe at the offenders and lopping off their heads.

Okay, so that part doesn't exactly qualify as the “softer” side of Red Beard, but it is an effective way to keep people out of your garden. Axe in Face can best be described as a line drawing defense game. Your daffodils occupy the left edge of the screen while waves of impolite Vikings approach from the right. Drawing a line from Red Beard creates a path for the axe to travel on before returning to him like a boomerang, and the goal is to behead as many Vikings as possible with each throw while not allowing any of them to get by you and into the garden. You can only throw one axe at a time and must wait for it to return to Red Beard before throwing again, and if even one Viking gets into the daffodils it's game over.

There's also some strategic elements to Axe in Face that add challenge and variety to the gameplay. Since the waves of Vikings are constantly moving forward, you'll need to lead each axe throw in order to ensure it crosses their path. There are different types of Vikings moving at different speeds, and it can be really satisfying to time your throw just right as to hit a group of them in one throw. One type of Viking is holding a tree as he walks, and your axe must first pass through a fire at the bottom of the screen before it will do damage to these enemies. Also, orbs can be collected from beheaded Vikings which contribute to a special meter which can allow you to either zap three Vikings with lightning or freeze the playfield and slow down their movement.

All of these elements come together really well in Axe in Face providing a simple concept with just enough depth and strategy to keep things interesting. It can be an incredibly challenging game too, but not overly frustrating. Rather than get mad at failing a level I can't help but smile as Red Beard bursts into tears when his flowers are trampled. The graphics and sound effects are really well done too, and Axe in Face contains 32 increasingly difficult levels and a number of achievements which should keep you busy for quite a while. Players in our forums are really enjoying the game, and the developer is there as well to answer questions and take suggestions for future updates. If you're looking for a game that blends elements from different genres in a fun way and provides a hearty challenge, Axe in Face is definitely a solid choice.

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Medici for iPhone, the latest of Dr. Knizia’s board games to make its way to the iDevice, has been released by Sage Board Games and is now available from the app store. This auction-based title offers Knizia’s traditional balanced strategy gameplay for a slightly confusing, yet ultimately wholly satisfying, experience.

Medici for iPhone Pros:

Nice Renaissance-era theme
Deep [...]

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Earlier this month we took a look at Neuroshima Hex [$2.99], the iPhone adaptation of a strategy-heavy boardgame based in the Neuroshima universe. This game world straddles several sci-fi cliches and includes things like nuclear war, a sentient robotic revolt, mutants, humans doing whatever they can to survive, and even somewhat intelligent carnivorous plant life. Adapted from the tabletop Neuroshima game, Neuroshima Hex features four of the main factions and is fast-paced enough that calling it an "action" board game seems appropriate.

Like many strategy games with unique rulesets, Neuroshima Hex is fairly complicated. Playing the game involves selecting one of the four factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, then playing with a 35 tile "deck". Players start by placing their headquarters on the game board, and the rest of the game revolves around attacking the enemy HQ while defending your own utilizing the tiles you draw at the start of your turn. Your deck of tiles consists of three different types, tiles that contain different types of units, modules which buff those units, and instant action tiles that do things like destroy or slide a unit, or even initiate combat.

The issue with all this is that the learning curve of the game is less of a curve and more of a wall, as the developers didn't do much to make the game approachable to newbies aside from including a brief tutorial video. There is a help section in the game, but is isn't convenient at all to refer to while you're actually playing. Once you get a hang of strategically using your hex tiles to attack the opponent as well as deal with their threats on the game board Neuroshima Hex is a lot of fun… But as suggested in the thread in our forums getting there requires reading additional material on the game or even printing out a quick reference guide PDF.

In comparison, Carcassonne [$4.99] features a fully interactive voiced over tutorial that did an absolutely fantastic job at introducing new players to the game. Carcassonne is also host to some great online multiplayer options while Neuroshima Hex only comes with single device multiplayer. Thankfully, the developers have posted in our forums acknowledging these issues and plan on addressing them in the future.

Neuroshima Hex is a fun fast paced strategy game, and if you already know how to play, you'll likely have a great time jumping right in to this iPhone port. If you're intrigued by hex grid strategy games, and this is the first you've heard of Neuroshima Hex, just be aware that you've got quite a bit of work in front of you as you climb the steep learning curve.

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Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!

For the lot o' ye landlubbers readin' this post, I first be tellin' ye today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. All ye squiffies not knowin' this a'fore ought be keelhauled off me vessle! For the rest of ye buccaneers, enjoy the sweet trade 'till the sun be settin'! One lot o' scallywags that would ne'er be missin' this great, grand day be the scurvy dogs o'er at Cyan Worlds, thar in the far nor' west. And how timely it be for 'em to bestow such booty upon yer bold and mighty scriber (that be me) as a pre-release build of their latest 'ware, Stoneship: Curse of a Thousand Islands! (And I be not talkin' about the dressin', yer can be sure!) </piratespeak>

Indeed, never quite able to find enough ways to properly celebrate this fine holiday, I must thank Cyan Worlds for providing us with an exclusive preview build of their upcoming title, Stoneship. It has made my day of festivities that much richer.

As Cyan indicated to us earlier, Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands represents "a lighthearted new direction" for the studio. Cyan describes the game as a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game. That's quite a string of adjectives. After spending a bit of time with the game in its current form, I can say that each of those descriptors indeed apply. And, as such, it's something of a difficult title to nutshell for the uninitiated — but I'll try, and in two different ways.

I will first give a rather general characterization of the game "on paper," is it were. Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of pirate sieges and tangles with ghastly monsters from the deep. The game is played by moving about any given level, uncovering obscured blocks of both land and sea in an attempt to discover ports, and temples (and, as a result, weaponry) as well as rafts of men lost at sea who will join your forces, as well as the location of any pirate ships that make your forces necessary in the first place.

Once you find a port, it becomes your own…as well as a target for pirates in the area. Each level has a set number of moves you're permitted to execute before the inevitable pirate onslaught ensues. Multiple ports can be linked together to allow resource (battle-ready men) sharing, which is all about shifting men from port to port in the 10 second count-down before the pirate attack comes. Of course, you can only set things up to your advantage here if you've uncovered the location of the lurking pirates in your set number of turns. If not, the pirates come from one of the remaining hidden blocks on the map (which is pretty much a bad thing).

The core play mode is Campaign, which is a round-to-round push through the eighty three included levels (with additional levels to come later via update). A Challenge mode is also offered, which is a sort-of pick and choose affair.

Stoneship is not a complicated game — really, it's not. But it sounds like it might be, described thus. And so, in a move not typical for our demo videos, I've recorded nearly the entire tutorial session, which explains the gameplay by example, far better than I can with words alone. The action in the video steps up towards the end, after the tutorial, but forgive what must necessarily be somewhat of a less exciting, if highly informative, glimpse of the game in action.

It does take a little while to get the hang of, but after a few rounds, it ends up feeling quite natural.

The pre-release build we were given feels quite close to complete, with the minor issue here and there that should be addressed prior to launch. Stoneship is expected to soon make it's App Store appearance, and an update will shortly follow, bringing with it various enhancements including Game Center support.

Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands is a casual and interesting mix of ingredients from a number of different formulas that come together to make up a rather unique title. We hope Stoneship marks the beginning of a series of new iOS releases from MYST-maker Cyan.

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The Final Fantasy Tactics series is on its way to the iPhone, but not as soon as we had hoped. Recently some rumors had been spreading around that Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions would be released on the 15th of this month, which unfortunately has been debunked officially courtesy of the Square Enix Facebook page.

The release date is still to be determined per Square Enix, but as a bit of a consolation prize they did release the above screenshot of the currently in development iPhone game. Being huge Tactics fans, we're more than a little disappointed that we won't be playing the game as soon as we had hoped, but we're definitely going to keep an eye out for more news on the game's development.

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Rimelands: Hammer of Thor [$4.99] is a new tactical turn-based RPG from developers Dicework and Crescent Moon Games (of Ravensword [$3.99/Lite] fame). We previewed a hands-on video of the game about a month ago that explained how the turn-based combat worked as well as showcasing some of the games many items and weapons. With Rimelands now available, we've been able to experience these first hand, and came away impressed with how well the different elements of the game come together. The dice-rolling combat mechanic gives it an old school pen-and-paper feel, while the dungeon crawling and loot collection offers plenty to discover in the game. Couple that with an interesting story and top-notch visuals, and Rimelands is one of the best RPG experiences you can have on the iPhone.

Humans have squandered the resources of the world, throwing off the balance of the ecosystem and turning their once beautiful lands into an uninhabitable frozen wasteland. They are forced to move into underground vaults for a thousand years, and when they finally emerge they find that a new race called the Fair Folk have taken over the dominant role above ground. Humans try to reclaim their territory, and war ensues. An uneasy peace is finally reached between the two sides, and they are able to precariously coexist together above ground. This leaves countless underground vaults filled with treasures of the last millennium, ready to be explored and exacted by you, treasure hunter Rose Cristo.

The story in Rimelands sets the stage perfectly for a dungeon crawling adventure. You'll play the role of Rose as she travels to the many towns and vaults in Rimelands discovering treasures, completing quests, and evolving her character with the multitude of items and abilities available. The game is played from an isometric viewpoint and combat and movement are grid-based. This can take some getting used to as you're only able to move in four directions rather than being able to move around the world freely. Coming within striking distance of an enemy allows you to engage in the turn-based combat which is a mixture of long-ranged and melee attacks. An interesting dice mechanic determines your offensive and defensive effectiveness, and playing Rimelands feels like an interactive board game where all of the dull pen-and-paper stuff has been automated for you.

An overhead map lets you travel to the towns and vaults that you discover during the game. Quests are obtained by talking with characters around the world much like your typical RPG. There is a main storyline to follow as well as many side quests to pick up and complete. The dungeons in Rimelands are full of dangerous enemies, as well as many unique treasures. Traversing these dungeons feels very Diablo-esque, as there are many rooms to explore and a ton of loot to obtain, although with strategic turn-based combat instead of the hack 'n slash variety. Making your way through the dungeons is incredibly fun, and I found it hard to stop playing until I was sure I'd explored every nook and cranny of each in order not to miss any lucrative treasure chests.

One of the high points of Rimelands is the extensive variety of items and weapons in the game, as well as the various skill trees for your character. Defeating enemies earns you gold and experience points, and upon leveling up you can choose a new ability from one of three skill trees. Barbarian brings melee effects, Assassin boosts your ranged abilities, and Shaman covers magical abilities. There's quite a bit of diversity with how you want to build your character, and good reason to play through the game multiple times focusing in different areas each time. An engineering dynamic is in the game as well, allowing you to build different weapons with blueprints that you find. It's an interesting idea, but not totally necessary due to the many excellent weapons you're bound to come across in the game anyway.

Graphically Rimelands is a beautiful game. The characters and enemies are fairly detailed, and their animations are excellent. The environments are also very attractive, with snowy terrain when you are in the above ground areas and dark dungeons with nice lighting effects when you go underground. The in-game graphics do have a slightly jagged look to them, but nothing overly detracting. Retina Display support is a possibility down the road, as is a native iPad version, although nothing has been finalized. Rimelands runs just fine in 2x mode on the iPad, and players in our forums are definitely enjoying the game this way. The story is told via static illustrations and text, and by in-game dialogue between characters as well. There isn't any full motion video or animated cutscenes, but the story is engaging and the illustrated bits look great.

There are plenty of other nuances to Rimelands, and it really is a game with a grand scope. You can expect to get about 8-10 hours out of one playthrough, and there is good incentive to go through multiple times and try out different character builds. Plus, this should only be the first chapter in the Rimelands universe, as more content will be coming down the line via updates as well as planned sequels. Dicework and Crescent Moon have a winner on their hands here, and I'll be looking forward to seeing more from this series. I don't typically love turn-based strategy games, but Rimelands had me hooked almost instantly. It's easy enough to get into whether you enjoy the strategic combat, loot collecting, character leveling, or just want to uncover the story in the unique steampunk universe. For fans of these elements, or any gamer in general, Rimelands: Hammer of Thor is a solid choice.

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