Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Richard Brown'
Celebrity Pack Brings Glamour To Top Trumps Collection
Turn-based card game Top Trumps will never go out of fashion. I should know - I've been addicted to it since 24th March, 1991. To ensure Top Trumps keeps up with the times, the brains behind the iPhone spin-off app Top Trumps Collection are regularly dealing out content updates to its stat-hungry players. So, after shuffling up the Top Trumps pack recently with a bespoke European Football Stars edition, Mobile Pie and Connect2Media are playing what they hope is the 'ace' card. The newly available Celebrity pack, which retails for a meagre 99c, tests your knowledge of A-listers across a range of fields. AppSpy Top Tip #1: read Entertainment Weekly BEFORE you challenge a friend to a Top Tr…
Action-Adventure Bullet Time Shoots Onto iPhone In November
The only major gripe Andrew had with Danish studio Kiloo's otherwise ace Frisbee Forever concerned the game's in-app purchase system. If you have any ambitions on unlocking the later levels, you see, and thereby completing the Frisbee Forever experience, you're gonna need to commit either some serious wonga or some serious time. For the sake of those with limited attention spans and an overdraft, let's all hope that Kiloo's forthcoming action-adventure game Bullet Time adopts a different business model. Subtitled 'The Tale of John Irish', Bullet Time is set in a Terminator-style post-apocalyptic world in which your family have been abducted and razor blades are at a premium. Unsurprising…
Win An iPad 2 In Smartphone Alliance Reader Survey 2011
Have you ever gazed longingly down at that thing in your lap and thought, "Hmmm, if only it were bigger"? That's why Apple invented the iPad. To stop you from suffering from Little Man Syndrome forever, the publishers of AppSpy - Steel Media - are giving you the chance to win an iPad 2 (or Android tablet) via its Smartphone Alliance ad network. All you have to do, fair AppSpy readers, to be in with a shout of landing that free iPad 2 is answer a few questions on your smartphone habits in the Smartphone Alliance Reader Survey 2011. So, five minutes out of your day for a lifetime of touchscreen-tablet happiness. Seems like a good swap. Just remember one thing: big up AppSpy in Question 15…
Sponsored Feature: Frogger Decades On iPhone
Konami seem to be fairly happy with how their partnership with Revolutionary Concepts has gone so far, and it's easy to see why. The first title of a four-game contract with the developer was Gesundheit!, which boasted an unusual setup and an adorable crayon-drawn art style. Next up was Frogger Decades, a revival of Konami’s amphibian arcade-platformer franchise that has been praised for its top-notch presentation and enjoyably challenging gameplay. Brandon Church (producer and game designer for Konami) and Wayne Whatford (CEO and creative director at Revolutionary Concepts) spoke to us about the partnership's first two titles, how the relationship is working so far, and the possibi…
Tee Off With Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 For Free On iPhone
I'm happy to go on record and state that Eldrick 'Tiger' Woods has been a naughty little cub of late. With both his pro and pro life in tatters after those infamous November 2009 extramarital revelations, Tiger's due some good news. That'll have to wait, I'm afraid, though we do have some good news to share ABOUT Tiger Woods this morning on AppSpy. Yes, indeed, EA's 4* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 game for iPhone has pitched up on the App Store green for free. You read that right: the full Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 for iPhone experience - not some Lite / ad-supported version - is available from Apple's clubhouse for nothing. It's been slashed by the developers on account of the ongoing PGA Tou…
Hector: Ep3 - Beyond Reasonable Doom Staggers Onto the App Store For $4.99
'Twas only six weeks ago that AppSpy writer Ryan put out an APB on the second instalment in the Hector series on iPhone. Lo and behold, AppSpy chief (games) inspector Andrew has received word on the App Store wire that the successor to Hector: Ep 2 - Senseless Acts of Justice is roaming free on iPhone. He immediately relayed that sensitive information to me, of course. And asked me to post a notice on the site. So, here it is. According to our intel, the darkly humorous Hector: Ep3 - Beyond Reasonable Doom stars the puzzle-solving, titular, alcoholic, rotund detective inspector, who is on a mission to save the town of Clappers Wreake from annihilation. Given that Episodes 1 and 2 in Hect…
Updated Squads In First Touch Soccer On iPhone
For those of you still recovering from last night's pulsating La Liga encounter between Valencia and Barcelona, you may wanna look away or else risk a spell in football rehab. With the transfer window well and truly closed, soccer clubs around Europe cannot sign any more reinforcements to their squads, meaning no outrageous bid from Manchester City for Lionel Messi until January at the earliest. This gives footy game developers the opportunity to catch up on a bit of transfer admin and update all of the various league and team databases. Makers of first-class football sim First Touch Soccer Exient have been busier than most over the last few weeks, then, but they've got there. The latest…
Relive Past Glories In Street Fighter II: The Collection On iPhone
Jeeez, those animated Street Fighters just can't stay out of the news, innit. After Capcom karate kicked Street Fighter IV: Volt's price down to $4.99 last Friday and welcomed a pair of new combatants into the fray, Ryu and Ken are muscling in on the App Store market again. For many in the early '90s, Street Fighter II was the only reason they'd brave their local murky, fetid arcades. For many more, Street Fighter II lit the blue touch paper under the beat-'em-genre, taking them out of the shadows and into the mainstream for the first time. None of that necessarily matters any more, for you don't even have to leave the comfort of your bed to engage in a spot of 1-on-1 brawling, Street Fi…
Classic Amiga Game Another World Hitting iPhone On 22nd September
In artistic and cultural circles, the term 'Renaissance' denotes a specific era during which my two favourite Ninja Turtles Leonardo and Michelangelo flourished. More generally speaking, the word 'renaissance' refers to a rebirth. With the recent news that Bullfrog's influential Theme Park is coming to an App Store town near you, you'd be forgiven for thinking iPhone users had witnessed their fair share of rebirths lately. Well, that depends on your definition of 'fair share' really, doesn't it. I'm all for nostalgia, you see, so am delighted to report that Eric Chahi's 1991 cinematic platformer / adventure game Another World is hitting the iPhone touchscreen on 22nd September. Publishe…
Save A Hotel Chain From Bankruptcy In Jane's Hotel 2 On iPhone
Hidden object titles, city-management sims, RTS games: G5 Entertainment aren't afraid to try their hand at a wide spectrum of video gaming genres. They're probably most readily associated with the time-management or business-management categories, mind, including the Supermarket Mania and Stand O'Food franchises. One of G5 Entertainment's most popular business-management characters is Jane, who's already featured in Jane's Zoo and Jane's Hotel on iPhone. A busy lady, I'm sure you'll agree. There's no rest for the wicked, though, for she's preparing to star in Jane's Hotel 2, which hits the App Store on 8th September. Unfortunately for the titular heroine, her family's hotel chain is abo…
Sequel To Action-Puzzler To-Fu Due Out This Week
The nature of the game development life cycle normally means you can expect sequels to appear approximately a year after their predecessors. Not in HotGen's world. This UK-publisher has decided to not only rip the iPhone games rulebook up, but to also feed it through the office shredder, and dump it into the recycling skip. So, despite HotGen's action-puzzler-platformer To-Fu: The Trials of Chi only stretching and pinging itself onto the App Store in May, its follow-up is due this Thursday. To-Fu 2 will feature the same challenging gameplay and elastic protagonist as its forerunner, but will introduce a new game mode and include over 100 obstacle-laden levels. We awarded its forebear 4…
Reckless Getaway Drops Down A Gear To 99c For Labor Day Weekend
Darn those jammy Yanks. While the rest of the world toils away at work this Monday in a deceptively cold office, the smelly cockpit of an articulated lorry, or down a dangerous mine, those American dudes can enjoy the mother of all lie-ins. Perhaps to console we unfortunate souls in the UK , Australia, and beyond during Labor Day Weekend, Reckless Getaway developers Polarbit have driven down the cost of their wacky iPhone racing sim. For a limited time, Reckless Getaway's $2.99 virtual price tag has been tossed into the garbage bin and replaced by a 99c sticker. As you'd probably expect given its moniker, Reckless Getaway incorporates crazy car chases, unrelenting po-po, insane jumps, a…
Team17 Announce Worms Crazy Golf For iPhone
SPOILER ALERT! This isn't a joke... What do you get if you cross one of my all-time favourite turn-based trajectory games with my third favourite sport? Worms Crazy Golf on iPhone, that's what. UK-based developers Team17 are, of course, the brains behind the long-running Worms series, and they recently announced that their famous band of garden invertebrates will be putting for glory later this year. Players will have to execute skilful chip shots and precision putts across three madcap 18-hole courses, while overcoming obstacles like castles that teleport balls and comedy bats. Old, familiar faces from the Worms universe will make an appearance in Worms Crazy Golf, including the sheep,…
Modern Combat 2 On Sale, Modern Combat 3 Inbound
Do you recall Jigsaw - sorry, me - inviting you to play a fun and exciting game last Wednesday? Yes, you do: it was called "Guess Gameloft's next FPS on iPhone", and the only clue supplied was a military-based piece of artwork. See, you do remember. As it transpires, the French studio weren't actually teasing a forthcoming first- or third-person shooter with their 'Join the resistance' tagline, 99c dog tag, and upturned round of bullets. No, instead, those little Gameloft teases were referring to an existing title: Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus. So, after all of that speculation and hype, Gameloft and I are delighted to inform you that their 5-star modern-day blast-'em-up has been redu…
Gobble Up Action-Platformer Muffin Knight On 1st September
What do Angry Mob Games's four-star twin-stick shooter Guerrilla Bob and their upcoming iPhone platformer Muffin Knight have in common, please? Pace. Lots of it. In fact, to describe the wise-cracking antics of the aforementioned Bob as anything less than 'frantic' would be to lie. (Plus, 'frantic antics' has a nice ring to it.) Muffin Knight, in all fairness, doesn't feature quite as much bullet-hell blasting as Guerrilla Bob, but more than compensates in other areas. For starters, the story of a young boy transformed into a knight by an aggrieved cake-baking fairy is, well, unique. The gameplay twist in which the accursed whippersnapper changes into a different creature every time he…
This does interest me, but Ive never played the console version, and these clips look a little…