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Added: 27.11.2013 20:00 | 4 views | 0 comments
In Skull Legends, players are forced to stand their ground with nothing but a bow and arrow in their hands, and the knowledge of building various towers throughout the landscape as legions of evil skeleton monsters slowly shake their bones and grow closer and closer to their defensive position. Just another day on the job, right? While this might sound like typical tower defense gameplay fare at first, an immersive first-person perspective and deep elemental components make this one of the most refreshing surprises that the genre has to offer on a mobile device today. There's virtually no story to be found here in Skull Legends, other than the fact that there are hundreds of bad guys slowly walking to get you, and that you need to stop them at all costs with your trusty bow and arrow. It actually feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity at times, though, considering how everything else in the game is extremely spot-on. There's a nice medieval theme that's prevalent throughout the game's two-dozen or so levels, and fluid 3D character models and animations will take you through four diverse environments including the crypt, a snowy forest village, and a lava-filled canyon. |
Added: 27.11.2013 18:00 | 4 views | 0 comments
For younger gamers, sometimes it's okay if the line between a game and a learning app gets a little blurry. That "best of both worlds" quality definitely applies to Fun Town, the latest release from British studio Touch & Learn. Combining a colorful, engaging place to explore with some solid early life lessons turns out to be a winning formula, one that parents will appreciate no matter how they decide to classify it. The first thing people of any age will notice about Fun Town is that it has no instructions. That seems to be very much by design, as the whole idea behind the titular town is that kids should figure it out by jumping right in and interacting with it. That's done by touching out on the main street to see what happens, and all of the town's citizens and vehicles will respond with sounds and motion when tapped. |
Added: 26.11.2013 17:00 | 5 views | 0 comments
Team Monster is another one of those combination games that hybridizes a couple of gameplay ideas, in this case monster collection with line-drawing strategy, and actually manages it to great effect. Within the first minute I was intrigued by the idea (and the lovely visuals). After a couple of hours, however, the glacial pacing had drained almost all of the fun out of it. When a lone human and a talking chicken wash up on the shores of a mysterious island, it doesn't take long for adventure to follow. Within moments of regaining consciousness the duo encounters and befriends a wild monster, who then jumps to their defense against some other far nastier denizens. Once the tutorial dust settles, players will have a team of up to four creatures to command as they fight their way through wave after wave of corrupted monsters and really, really large bosses. It's all about dragging a line from creatures to their targets (locations, enemies, or allies) and knowing when to activate their special abilities - which will vary depending on whether a monster is a Ranged or Melee Attacker, Healer, or Tanker. |
Added: 25.11.2013 22:00 | 5 views | 0 comments
Demon Tribe is an ambitious attempt to combine collectible card battle games with MOBA-style action, and it works quite well - as long as you have the patience to figure out what's going on. I've played a lot of CCGs in my time - one of the hazards of the job - and I expected more of the same with Demon Tribe. It's not exactly a genre known for innovation and original gameplay, after all, and a quick, cursory glance offered little to suggest that this game would be any different. So it was a surprise to find that it boasts a far greater degree of complexity than I'd anticipated, and that my CCG autopilot would be of limited use. You begin Demon Tribe under rather hazy circumstances as the newly-chosen director of Omega Surveillance, a sort of secret, supernatural agency charged with monitoring the fragile border between the Waking and Dream worlds (or something like that - the introductory tutorial is pretty heavily loaded and blows by quickly); and long story short, the job of keeping our world from being overrun by demons is now in your hands. You don't defend the border directly, however. Instead, you direct a squad of agents into battle, controlling their actions in single-player "assault battles" as well as multiplayer co-operative battles and PvP brawls of up to six players. Each agent is a unique character and carries a "deck" of demon forms that they can assume during fights. This is where the CCG angle manifests: demons are "summoned" with gems that are acquired as you play and then added to your agents' repertoire. In a way, it's a bit like having multiple custom decks that can be used to handle different situations and combined for bigger battles. |
Added: 25.11.2013 21:00 | 5 views | 0 comments
Let's get this out of the way: Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas is the Zelda-like to end all Zelda-likes. Its similarities to and inspirations from The Legend of Zelda--especially Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass--are numerous, pervasive, and obvious. From its silent, sword-wielding, pot-smashing protagonist to its Zora-like Gillmen to its secondary B-equipment--bombs, bow, and boots--Oceanhorn wears its muse on its sleeve. Despite its substantial list of intentional similarities, though, Oceanhorn manages to come across as a self-assured action-adventure as well as a respectful homage to one of Nintendo's finest. The story begins shortly after our unnamed hero's father sets out to find and destroy the great monster, Oceanhorn. The hero--a young boy who's already lost his mother--goes to stay with a hermitic friend of his father's on a small island. This friend soon recognizes that the boy shares the same fate as his father, and must also seek out Oceanhorn before it tears their world apart. What follows is a lengthy adventure across the sprawling, aquatic map of Oceanhorn as the hero seeks out items of power that will help him defeat the beast. While Oceanhorn's story is not its strongest point, it provides reason enough to make this journey and fills in teresting gaps via logbook entries your father left around the world. |
Added: 25.11.2013 19:00 | 7 views | 0 comments
Soccer, or football as they call it everywhere but here in America, is a funny game. Sometimes you lose sight of how humorous it can be until a game reminds you, which is what Flick Kick Football Legends does so well. The gameplay isn't too shabby either, but a veritable barrage of ads kills the mood a bit. Actually, the onslaught kills it more than a bit, which is rather unfortunate. You won't find a more pleasantly surprising set-up for a game than this one, which places you at the helm of a football squad seeking to reclaim some of its lost glory. The thing is, the rebuilding is only necessary because one of the star player's power-up shots went awry, killing the old manager in a fiery explosion. It's a clever bit of poking fun at video game conventions that's presented in comic book style, and as an added bonus, the tutorial is woven into it too. |
Added: 25.11.2013 17:07 | 14 views | 0 comments
Before we get into this, a disclaimer: This reviewer has never played Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse in its original release for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. As such, no comparisons to the original game are to be found in this review, and it will only be judged on its own merits. That said, this iOS port of the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC remake is good. Quite good, in fact, and perhaps surprisingly so. Platformers can be hit or miss on the iPhone, especially when they weren't originally made with the system in mind; and when they fall, they can fall hard. Such is not the case here, though. While not perfect, Castle of Illusion still works well in the palm of your hand, and almost feels like it's been optimized to compensate for its shortcomings. The biggest issue we had was with the controls, which feel a bit sticky when you try to move in just about any direction except to the right. This provides a bit of a problem when you need to duck, or worse, when the left-right portions change to full-on 3D movement, which the game does seamlessly otherwise. |
