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Added: 21.10.2013 20:00 | 2 views | 0 comments
Known for convoluted skill trees, multiple-layer menus, and complex gear load-outs, role-playing games can be daunting to the casual gamer. With Pocket Titans, new indie developer Noisy Orc Games removes much of what generally bars the way for players unfamiliar with RPG mechanics. What's left is a fast-paced, streamlined fantasy role-player that, though repetitive and largely automated, is a fine introduction to one of the game industry's most venerable genres. Briefly, Pocket Titans' narrative involves a group of young apprentices attending the Titans Academy where they hope to become full-fledged heroes. The gameis built upon a foundation of fantasy archetypes, but rather than coming up with thinly-veiled terms for them, Noisy Orc presents them as literally as possible. For instance, characters announce themselves not with bombastic titles like "Tim, the Nefarious and Deadly Enchanter," or "Rothelm, the One-Eyed Orc-Beater," but simply as "Mage" and "Warrior" (or Healer, Ranger, Paladin, Hunter, Warlock, and Rogue). |
Added: 21.10.2013 18:00 | 3 views | 0 comments
Kids these days, they just don't appreciate the classics. Well, CSR Classics is going to teach those whippersnappers about the oldies but goodies - and in a slightly more suspect lesson, something about racing in the streets as well. It's all in good fun though, as this free-to-play follow-up to the original challenges you to both drive fast and fix up classic cars. Now get off my lawn! Born from the same companies that brought you its predecessor (namely Boss Alien and NaturalMotion Games), CSR Classics sticks pretty close to the same formula while adding an additional focus on restoring once-beautiful older rides to their former glory. That's because you can acquire cars in either "Loved" or "Unloved" form, with the latter option costing considerably less but also giving you a vehicle that needs some work in pretty much every area: body, engine, tires, you name it. |
Added: 21.10.2013 16:00 | 4 views | 0 comments
For the most part, bears are pretty nice. Oh sure, a mother bear will fully rip your face off should you get in between her and her cubs, but usually the world's largest land predator would rather just hang around waterfalls catching salmon and looking cute and stuff like that. But imagine waking up to a world in which bears were the dominant species. Walking upright, they dress as humans do, populate zoos with mankind, and learn to speak. That would be totally weird, right? And yet this is what happens in the aptly titled Fist of Awesome from developer Nicoll Hunt's imprint, I Fight Bears - an indie publisher which proclaims from the title screen that they make "games for people with beards." Our hero, a lumberjack type named Tim Burr, is enjoying a reunion of friends and family when his fist suddenly explodes in size (think Foo Fighter's excellent ) and begins to speak to him. The fist goes by the name of Awesome, and he is here with terrible, bone-chilling news! At some point in history, the space/time continuum was disrupted resulting in an alternate present in which bears call the shots. Tim appears to be the one human left who can recall what once was, and he, along with his newly gigantic, wise-cracking fist must undertake a heroic quest to discover what went wrong and right this new and terrible bear-heavy world. |
Added: 21.10.2013 15:00 | 3 views | 0 comments
Back in January, I reviewed a game called . I liked it quite a bit despite there being a few issues with progression, energy management, and a bothersome menu system. Why am I bringing that up? Because Elemental Kingdoms is the exact same game. No, really, it's the exact same game as Lies of Astaroth. The only difference is a visual overhaul and some new audio. That's not to say that there's anything inherently shady going on here, though. After doing a little digging, I was able to find out that Perfect World and iFree Studio have actually been working together on Elemental Kingdoms; so while the original developer's name isn't on "the box," they were still very much a part of the game's creation. At the very least, it's not something to worry about from a legal standpoint. |
Added: 18.10.2013 20:00 | 3 views | 0 comments
Mimpi is a gorgeous and whimsical platform-adventure with touchscreen controls about a little white dog who discovers one morning that his master has gone missing. So like any good dog, he decides to venture out past his peaceful home and scour the dangerous lands of the earth to find out just where his master went off to. The story and presentation are some of the biggest strengths here in Mimpi, as everything gets told completely without dialogue, and actually gives you a deeper sense of engagement in both the characters and the narrative than most text-heavy games do these days. The graphics are wonderfully bright, with an almost paper-like quality to them at times, and Mimpi's animations are especially fluid and adorable as he hops and platforms along hills, logs, sleepy fish heads, and everything else you can think of in between! But the big twist here is that a lot of objects in the game environment can actually be moved and manipulated by the touch of your finger: something you'll be needing to do a lot of if you want to traverse most of the game's trickier platforming sections and puzzle scenes (not to mention the odd and rather out-of-place hidden object scenes you'll be asked to complete at the end of each larger level). The visuals and world design are the true shining stars here in Mimpi, as everything feels like one enormous and interconnected sidescrolling stage, that takes you through all sorts of different environments from hillsides and forests, to beaches and underwater caves (Mimpi gets to ride around in a giant air bubble during these sections). It's true that you'll never see the same location twice in the game, and the optional bone collectables provide an extra splash of challenge, which unlock cute comic strip stories in the gallery; in addition to the rarer light bulb collectables, which give you an extra hint when you need some help on how to proceed. |
Added: 18.10.2013 17:00 | 3 views | 0 comments
Samurai Siege enters a crowded field of mobile combat simulation games whose notable members include . The basic concepts of building your village, strengthening defenses, improving structures, training troops, and sending them out to conquer other villages remains the same. Now, however, instead of dragons or medieval warriors, it's you and a bunch of samurai warriors! Not too shabby, if you ask us. Samurai Siege takes place in two main modes: village management and combat. The former allows you to place and upgrade new structures, such as marketplaces that generate coins or arrow towers to provide rudimentary defense. Here you also unlock troops and train them for battle, storing them in your training fields until it's time to head out and do some conquering. Combat pits you against well-defended enemy villages. Tap the screen to deploy troops, then sit back and watch the action. In the end, it's all about gaining more resources so you can beef up your village to become the ultimate samurai warrior town this side of Kyoto. |
Added: 17.10.2013 21:00 | 4 views | 0 comments
With two apps under its belt - puzzle game Blendamaze and weather forecasting app Foresee - developer borderleap is still relatively new on the mobile app scene. Even so, it's established a distinct aesthetic that's carried forth in its third release, harmony: a sleek, colorful puzzle game. harmony's main boast is that it contains over a thousand levels; unfortunately, too many of those feel like padding. Like other borderleap apps, harmony employs a clean, minimalist approach to graphics. Each level consists of nothing more than bands of color that call to mind the paint swatches used by graphic designers. When the game starts, you're confronted with several slightly jumbled color bands and are given a simple, three-step tutorial. The gameplay concept is simple: each colored block contains one or more dots indicating how many moves it can make. Blocks can be swapped (within a certain range) by tapping first one and then the other. In order to solve the puzzle, not only must all the colored blocks be placed correctly, but every one of their collective moves must be used. |
Added: 17.10.2013 20:00 | 4 views | 0 comments
Oh hello there, it's berry nice to meet you! And now that my one awful attempt at being funny is done with and out of the way, I can tell you about a brand new physics-based puzzle game that comes to us straight from the berry-filled mountaintops of Random House Digital: in what is the very first mobile game by the big-name publishing house. Borrowing ideas from both , Catch the Berry is an amalgam of several successful physics-based puzzler ideas that we've seen before in the past. But does their new arrangement here give you that sweet taste of satisfaction that mobile gamers crave, or does it just leave you with a big ol' red berry stain on the front of your shirt? The setup to Catch the Berry is simple, and told through a handful of nicely illustrated title cards before getting right down to the actual gameplay. The Telfnords are little blue elf-like creatures who like harvesting berries on the top of their mountain community. But then one day while out picking berries, a Telfnord named Huckle discovers a magical artifact that makes all of the berries come to life! The story essentially ends there, and the Telfnords simply just go back to picking more berries like they always have before: only now the berries have eyes, mouths, and personalities, which actually makes things a little disturbing if the Telfnords are still planning on eating all of the living berries that they harvest in the game. Whatever, we just won't think about that. |
