Like most of us I grew up playing a lot of board games such as Sorry!, Clue, Monopoly, and The Game of Life just to name a few. So it would be sufficient to say that I was excited upon hearing the news that Electronic Arts would be giving this classic a new age makeover.
While all your old favorite characters are here (Scarlett, White, Green,Peacock, etc…) I must attest that this is a much different game than what I had expected (a port of the classic board game much in the viens of the monopoly port released earlier this year). Clue for the iPhone is more of a puzzle/adventure game. It’s complicated, and involves more thought than you’d expect, but it’s also easy to pick up and play in short bits while you’re on the go. In this varieant of Clue, you play a reporter tasked with investigate different scenarios all including the untimely murder of Mr.Black (talk about bad luck, decades later and this guy still manages to get killed on a nightly basis). You go from room to room talking to the suspects, examining objects, and taking notes. You’ll get clues like, “I was reading a book,” or, “the cause of murder can only come from an autopsy,” or, “Mr. Green was in the north wing.” The game presents you with a clock that ticks down after you perform these actions until it eventually hits zero signaling the end of the game at which point you must give an accusation as to who commited the crime, with what weapon, and in which room. The Crime Map, Notes, and Suspicions tabs all help you build your case.
Clue’s presentation in this new frontier for the game is both stylish and functional. Allowing you to seamlessly navigate the house, interview your suspects and narrow down your investigation. Plus the inclusion of all the comic book style graphics and the fact that the case is different each time you play makes this game quite a value.
Although it’s much different than the Clue I grew up playing this version is still entertaining and certainly challenging. You have to use deductive reasoning to solve each mystery and multiple endings enhance the shelf life of this one
Pros:
- Cool detective film noir/ comic book style graphics
- Case outcomes different on each play
- Challenging
Cons:
- I wish there were more scenerios
- I was kind of hoping for the board game version of this
- No multiplayer
The crime map is used to map out all of your clues
Can you really trust a smirk like that?
Mr. Black should really consider getting some new friends.
Tags: app, application, arts, board game, clue, ea games, electronic, game, iphone, ipod, review, touch
Digital Chocolate has been extremely active in the iPhone/iPod Touch app scene from the beggining almost to the point that it would seem they have released a new title monthly. But that’s not neccisarily a bad thing considering that many of their games are easyily accessible quirky and most importantly, fun. California Gold Rush is a worthy successsor to Digital Chocolate’s fame seemingly recieving its inspiration from classics such as “Dig-Dug” and “Boulder Dash”.
California Gold Rush’s protagonist, Mandy, is a newcomer to the mining profession with an eye for gold. She can sense when gold is nearby, marked with little exclamation points as you dig through the earth. By just tapping a square in the mine, Mandy bores right through it. It takes her several swings to clear away rocky patches of earth and each swing of her pickax drains a little bit of stamina, which acts as a sort of timer for this game. When her stamina runs out, the stage ends and you need to have pocketed enough gold by that time to reach at least the first star in a meter strung along the top of the screen. Moving through the mines also uses stamina, but at a much slower rate. Mandy cannot carry all of the gold she finds in a single load, so you must climb to the surface every once in a while to sell off your haul at the general store, conveniently located at the top of every mine. Here, you can buy sticks of dynamite that drill through the mines in both horizontal and vertical lines.Using dynamite is a great way to save stamina and break some of the more resilient rocks and patches of iron which are completely immune to your pickax.
California Gold Rush is a mix of the puzzle and stratagy genres. The puzzle element is figuring out where the hidden gold is in the mines by burrowing around or looking for clues, often handed over by locating trapped miners in the earth, or by buying maps and clues from the general store. The strategy is maintaining your stamina so you do not run out of it prior to fulfilling the levels objectives. Prospecting into the unknown can sometimes reveal massive gold veins, or it can lead you right into an impenetrable rock wall or a pool of lava and often the deeper you dig the larger the danger of cave-ins (indicated by dust trickling off of a wall) that will sap you of stamina.
The graphics are bright and colorful with rather impressive explosion effects. and the soundtrack seems to have been ripped straight out of the old west with plenty of whistling and flair. However, I will say that I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with Mandy’s path finding skills. The clicking and/or dragging to move Mandy to nearby locations seemed to work very well it was when I sent her directly from the mines up to the generl store (Clicking the backpack icon) that I became slightly unhappy with Mandy’s choices. Her paths would lead to unexpected mining that cost stamina I did not intend to expend or she would run straight into a bat (the primary enemy in the game) which cost stamina and a 1,000 gold when there was clearly another way around not inhabited by a bat.
California Gold Rush is a great game that will easily please both puzzle and strategy fans and while luck does play a part in your quest for gold, thinking things through before breaking into the ground will make things quite a bit easier. Think before digging, look at your surroundings, buy maps and dynamite and always watch your stamina. I also appreciate how the game smartly rolls out new challenges so you are never overwhelmed, but never bored of playing the same kinds of stages over and over again. Couple all of this with great production values, and California Gold Rush becomes a game that I wholeheartedly recommend.
Pros:
- Catchy tunes
- Colorful graphics
- Impressive game play with a fresh coat of paint over the classics it draws from
Cons:
- Would have liked to see more landscapes
- Needs improvement on the path finding A.I.
Who doesn't enjoy old school dynamite explosions?
Can someone tell me where all these underground ice sheets came from?
Uh oh... lava in a mine is never a good thing.
Tags: app, application, california, chocolate, digital, game, gold, iphone, ipod, rush, touch
Box Clever:
Box Clever tasks you with navigating a small blue pill (I think?) to a small blue orb while avoiding green pills and clicking grey objects to have them break away allowing you to push them or to kill off the opposing green pills. It starts off easy but quickly becomes a rather difficult brain teaser.
Ninja+:
Ninja + puts you in the shoes of a wall jumping, rope swinging, and throwing knife throwing ninja. Ninja + is all about collecting coins using the W,A,S, and D keys to move and jump with the space bar shoots a throwing knife and the mouse button launches your rope in the direction of the mouse pointer. You will have o use all these skills to grab all the coins and defeat enemies in the games included 6 levels. While only six levels makes this a short game there is also an included level creator.
Rocky Rider:
Rocky Rider is another tilt driving game but what sets this one apart from the thousands of other similiar games is the ability to change your vehicle by going through gates to turn it from an SUV into a remote controlled car or a monster truck depending on the level. Add that to the boosts and hidden point bonuses and you can make this quite a contender for the genre.
Lemonade World:
Lemonade World is a new twist on the old lemonade stand simulation game. It enables you to manages getting ice and planting lemon trees as well as marketing and other such functions but its definitely addictive trying to get a new best score for your thirty day spans.
Sniper Assassin 3:
Sniper assassin 3 is a point and click shooter that focuses on you selecting the right stick figure to kill with your sniper rifle. It has multiple missions in itself but will also link you to the two games prior in order to play those levels as well.
Tags: assassin, box, clever, Free, game, lemonade, links, ninja, online, rider, rocky, sniper, world
Recently the developers over at Firemint (better known for their other app “Flight Control” which I also reviewed) released a racing game entitled “Real Racing”. I must say Real Racing is the real deal when it comes to mobile racing games. It’s one of the best I have ever played and while the $9.99 price tag may shy some customers away I assure you that if you enjoy racing games you should most definitely pick this one up its well worth your downloading dollars.
Real Racing is a bit more of a racing simulation than what I had originally thought it would be considering that its main competitors would be the Need for Speed series, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart, or Cro-Mag Rally. But don’t get me wrong this is no Gran Turismo (PlayStation series of games) where you need to fine tune your engine and earn licenses in order to race. No, Real Racing is a happy union of the arcade style racer and the more simulation based genre and while yes it would give you a leg up if you learned the strengths and weaknesses of the cars you’ll drive its not by any means detrimental to the fun factor of just hopping into the game running a few laps and having a blast while doing so.
Controlling your car is great and comes almost intuitively. There are four control methods to choose from the default is Accelerometer steering with auto acceleration and a manual brake (which you apply by touching the center of the screen), there are also schemes for manual brake and acceleration with accelerometer steering or touch to steer arrow keys with manual braking or a virtual steering wheel dial with manual braking. I personally like the default as it just seems so natural.
As with what you would expect from a premium priced game Real Racing comes with several different modes including a quick play mode which allows new comers to get in to a race quickly and effortlessly to try out the different control schemes and cars. After trying out a few quick races and settling on a control scheme, jump into career mode. This is the real meat and potatoes of the game. There are three vehicle classes: hatchback, sedan, and muscle and you start at the bottom of the ladder in the hatchback class with just a couple of cars. As you work your way through the career, taking part in racing events and qualifiers, you unlock more classes and more vehicles in each class, up to 36. Right now, there are 57 different events in career mode to race through, spread across 12 tracks. Completing career mode will take you several hours easily. There is also a Wi-Fi enabled multiplayer mode and as with all other racing games I can think of it also includes a time trail mode.
Finishing the career mode is not the end of Real Racing, though. Firemint has created a robust set of online features, using their own cloud cell technology, that will keep you playing for quite some time. While, Real Racing features local Wi-Fi multiplayer, it’s the league play that will really catch the eye of racing fans. There are several leagues that you can join and attempt to work your way through. Leagues have timed seasons, different rules and requirements, and can zero in on specific track or vehicle classes. Firemint is maintaining a central league site for tracking all the rankings.
Another aspect that really surprised me (other than the Nintendo DS/Sony PSP quality graphics) was the computer AI. It was fierce yet respectable and easily the best on the iPhone. Computer controlled racers will bang into your bumper and trade paint off your sides if you allow them to but will also act as aggressively with the other computer controlled opponents making for some tough competition.
Real Racing does an amazing job combining its stunning visuals, smart AI, and excellent community features into one incredibly controlled racing game. If you love racing games, there is almost no reason not to download this game. It is truly worth every penny of its $9.99 price tag.
Pros:
- Unreal graphics and visuals for only 60 mb of game
- Great computer A.I.
- Race to your own music or listen to one of the included indy tracks
- Awesome Online features
Cons:
- Website is slightly confusing
- possible track and car downloads couldn’t come soon enough
Tags: app, application, Firemint, game, iphone, ipod, racing, real, review, touch
Currently, there are literally dozens of tower defense games available through the Apple App Store. This makes NGmoco’s newest installment in the genre, Star Defense is a very hard recommendation at first impression, with its $5.99 price tag and the fact that its part of a very over populated genre of games. However it seems as if NGmoco has hit the proverbial nail on the head with this one. Star Defense is very polished from the fully 3D plane levels, to the groovy spatial sound track, and the near perfect balancing of turrets and alien baddies. Even if you think you’ve played enough tower defense games to last a lifetime Star Defense is well worth the purchase for fans of the genre.
What sets Star Defense apart from its many predecessors is that instead of placing you in a flat plane in which to deploy turrets you are given 3D globes or, in some cases, cubes which are littered with paths bending and criss-crossing every which way. This set up makes for some very strategic placement of your defenses as some paths intersect and loop allowing you to set-up some very devastating networks of turrets turning these intersections into veritable gauntlets to punish those pesky aliens. My primary concern with these planets was not being able to easily scope out and place turrets when I can only see a slight portion of each globe at a time. Thankfully, NGmoco made it a painless affair to simply slide your finger across the screen in order to see other portions of the planet and takes advantage of multi-touch “pinching” in order to zoom in or out making planning and deploying your tower defenses effortless.
You have five different towers at your disposal that are purchased with the money you earn from destroying enemies: basic machine guns, a flame thrower that does lasting damage, a slime tower that temporarily slows enemies down, a lightning tower that shocks multiple aliens at once, and a rocket launcher that requires no explanation as to its utility. Not all of these towers are available at first, as you conquer the seven planets, you unlock the last two towers. Each tower can be upgraded twice, increasing the rate of fire, area of effect or range, and the overall damage of the shot.
Getting through the planets in the main campaign will take you several hours, but that’s not the only play mode offered. Star Defense’s challenge mode, which throws endless waves of enemies your way, much like the classic “survival Mode” of most puzzle games. Your hard work in challenge mode is not a solitary achievement, though. You can post your score immediately to Twitter or Facebook directly from the game. Star Defense is not the first game to do this, but it’s nonetheless cool to see because it adds a social element to an otherwise single-player game.
It’s no question that Star Defense may be the new king of tower defense games. This game will no doubt raise the bar for other developers planning an endeavor in the genre.
Pros:
- Stunning visuals
- Great diversity of enemy units
- Cool soundtrack
Cons:
- I wish there was maybe a few more planets
- Limited on-line capabilities
Nikola Tesla would be proud.
Aliens and flamethrowers just don't mix.
Zooming in and out of the planet is a snap.
Tags: app, application, defense, game, iphone, ipod, ngmoco, review, star, touch, tower, turret
After much anticipation and years of hype Electronics Arts (better known as EA Games) has released The Sims 3 for not only the PC but also for the iPhone/iPod Touch. While the iPhone title is not a direct port of the PC version its far from being some watered down variation. No, The Sims 3 is its own experience designed specifically for the mobile gamer.
The Sims 3 starts off in a similar fashion as its PC cousins, you create your own avatar by selecting its gender, clothing, and most importantly, its personality. In order to customize your Sim’s personality you select from a variety of traits (both positive and negative) that culminate in an over-arching persona that will modify your sims goals and life long aspirations. These aspirations can range from being as generic as becoming friendly with every Sim in town, the more promiscuous, making WooHoo (The Sims’ politically correct way of saying sex) with several other Sims if you have the “Sleaze” persona, to the disturbing maniac persona’s lifetime goal of watching at least three other Sims sleep.
However, the lifetime wishes are not the only desires of your Sim. Each day, your Sim will ask you to help him or her fulfill smaller wishes like acquiring a promotion at work or buying nicer furniture. You are not required to accept every wish thrown at you. Choosing wishes gives you a constant stream of smaller, manageable, goals that keeps the game moving forward. According to EA, there are almost 75 wishes in the game. If you manage to satisfy all of them, you unlock an extra career option (criminal) and the ability to buy a car. Finishing all of these wishes will likely take you around 15 hours of playtime, but that’s if you move from one wish to the next and doing everything in your power to fulfil them. I’m not exactly sure how enjoyable it would be to treat this game as a checklist. I definitely preferred to just let things happen and see what the game would throw at my Sim on its own.
In addition to personality and appearance, one of the main draws for The Sims has always been the customization of your virtual home and this iteration of the Sims is no different. You start with a small house and some essential items, such a fridge, shower, and toilet. As you earn money from the game’s various career paths, you can buy new items for your house like stoves, beds, and computers.You can also customize items with different colors so that they match your personal tastes.
For the most part, Sims 3 for iPhone looks great. There are occasional glitches like Sims walking straight through other Sims, but the Sims themselves are nicely detailed and have good animations, such as when they make silly faces or begin their decent into madness because you aren’t talking care of their needs. The town itself looks pretty good and is easy to navigate by touching buildings and then selecting a corresponding action.
Overall, The Sims 3 for iPhone is a very complete game with a huge amount of content that I would recommend to any fan of the franchise. Especially considering all the talk about additional updates and online components expected to coincide with the launch of the iPhone OS 3.0.
Pros:
- Slick graphics and character animations.
- Good music and effects.
- Near limitless customization.
- A slew of wishes and desires ensures longevity.
Cons:
- Some Mini-games are just downright annoying.
- Town view makes your Sims look like little playmobile figurines.
- Interface has a moderately high learning curve.
Tall Fir Trees are a man's best companion.
The town is bright and colorful
So that's what happens when you drink from an unlabeled vial of chemicals
Tags: 3, app, application, iphone, ipod, review, sims, the sims, touch
Max Dirt Bike
A pretty addicting game where you control a dirt bike with the arrow keys. the right and left keys lean you forward and backward, respectively, while the up and down arrows control you acceleration and brake. It’s quick to hop in and play, got some cool artsy backdrops, and pretty unforgiving controls which will make you smack your head in frustration as you eat dirt but have you coming back for one more try.
SHIFT 4
Quite the brain teaser, SHIFT controls using the arrow keys to move, the space bar is jump and the shift key to ‘SHIFT’ between the black or white section of each room. You will have to use your shifting abilities to get keys, and unlock doors in order to escape each of the facilities within a certain time limit.
Pandemic 2
Pandemic 2 tasks you with control of a virus in which you upgrade gradually in an attempt to wipe out earth’s population. Pandemic is a tycoon game at heart at the beginning your virus starts with one out break in a random country and you must evolve your virus strategically as the world news streams across on the left. In other words if a headline reads that your virus is being made ineffective by a certain treatment you must try and evolve your virus into different strains in order to keep decimating the populace. You gain evolution points (the form of currency used to upgrade your virus) by upping your death toll.
Tattoo Artist 2
Tattoo Artist 2 puts you in the shoes of a, you guessed it, tattoo artist. You use the mouse to control your needle as you draw outlines and then color in the finished design. Definitely challenging.
CiviBalls
Another great time killing puzzle game. CiviBalls assigns you with cutting chains in order to land the right marble with its color corresponding pot but it becomes quite challenging when you add in the physics based puzzle elements.
Tags: Free, games, links, list, online, picks, time, top, wasting
I have to admit that when I had first heard that SEGA was releasing a port of the first Sonic the Hedgehog for the iPhone/iPod Touch I was skeptical of how it would all work out, albeit I was excited to play a favorite game from my childhood years over again on a new platform. It would seem, however, that my skepticism was well founded. Sonic the Hedgehog was originally released for the SEGA Genesis back in 1991 and the series has evolved onto several other platforms and survived a few genre bending titles. This Sonic, a port of the very first in the series, is a side scrolling action/adventure game in which you are trying to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik.
The primary draw of the original Sonic games was based on the blazing fast speed, ridiculous jumps and roller coaster styled levels which have you bouncing on springs, sprinting through loop-de-loops and corkscrews all while trying to collect enough rings to unlock the really cool rotating stages, and fighting some crazy robot bosses. The port is pretty true to the original in that it has all the same levels, sounds, music , and the graphical flair that it had more than a decade ago.
However, I must say that the controls, which have been minimized to a virtual directional pad and a jump button (they inexplicably removed the button that allowed you to duck into a ball and charge up a dash attack that made it easier to go through loops at slow speeds), seem rather unresponsive. This may be due to the fact that this game has some serious frame rate issues. The game just can’t keep up with itself and I even found that the more I played the game, paused it to get to the menus, or adjusted the volume the worse the lag became. That’s really quite a shame considering that even after so many years, the original Sonic the Hedgehog is an awesome game. I played it on the Genesis when it first released and absolutely loved it. Sonic the Hedgehog is a smart platformer with great stage design.
The sights in this game are fantastic and the thrill of rushing through the roller coaster loops is still here but Sonic is the kind of platformer that had no shortage of flash, but still rewarded real skill. Collecting enough rings in each level to access all of the bonus stages was definitely tough. But mastering the skills needed to really enjoy Sonic is just beyond most people’s reach thanks to the problems with this port. The control problems are augmented with the slowdown that truly does affect game play. Making critical jumps is harder when the frame rate drops and you end up in the middle of a pit of spikes when you most definitely had enough height and speed to your jump to make it to the other side.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a wonderful game that is marred by uneven optimization and emulation. The controls are also just not as precise as they need to be for such a twitch-based game. You need to make lightning-fast moves to reach the best areas, grab the most amount of rings, and avoid smashing into the animal themed robots. If SEGA can fix the frame rate issues and make Sonic play smoother, some of the control issues might subside. Until then, though, I would hold off on this one.
The full screen view mode.
The arcade style view mode.
Game over man... (Be prepared to see this fairly often)
Tags: app, application, hedgehog, iphone, ipod, review, sega, sonic, touch
