Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Richard Brown'
9-Year-Old Designer Helps PopCap Create Allied Star Police
If you weren't already aware, Electronic Arts acquired Seattle-based casual games phenom PopCap ten days ago for a cool $650 million. For that considerable outlay, the publishing giant behind NBA Jam and Dead Space picked up some of the most addictive iPhone IP around, including Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, and Bejeweled 2 + Blitz. In addition, EA will, naturally, inherit PopCap's recently formed spin-off label 4th & Battery, which is charged with producing edgier, stranger, more experimental games. Unpleasant Horse was the first creation from the 4th & Battery laboratory: unfortunately for the studio, it proved too hot for Apple to handle, and was promptly rejected. Next up from t…
Teaser Trailer Revealed For Square Enix's JRPG Chaos Rings II
We don't need to stress the inherent quality of Square Enix's JRPG franchise Chaos Rings again, do we? Ok, maybe we do then. Well, the original - Chaos Rings - was selected as the game of 2010 by AppSpy. 'Nuff said about that. Meanwhile, Its prequel - Chaos Rings Omega - finished 2nd in our rundown of the best games of May 2011. So far, so impressive. In the run-up to Chaos Rings Omega's launch, we reported on an advert placed in Japanese game magazine Famitsu by Squeenix, which suggested a direct sequel to Chaos Rings (I) was in the works. Lo and behold, the role-playing game specialists have only gone and unsheathed a few screenies and a trailer for Chaos Rings II, thus confirming wha…
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Will Magically Appear On iPhone In November
So, after seven novels, eight movies, 14 years, and $15 billion in merchandising sales, Harry Potter has finally hung up his wizard's wand. Or has he...? Nope, he hasn't. The bespectacled one will be returning to your (touch)screens in November 2011 for the follow-up to the 5* Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4. Craftily entitled Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7, Traveller's Tales's iPhone game will reference the fantastical goings-on at Hogwarts from The Order of the Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince, and The Deathly Hallows volumes. Lego Harry Potter: Year 5-7 will, therefore, take us on the journey to the climactic showdown between Harry and Lord Voldemort, where, of course - Spoiler Alert! Spoile…
Block-Based Puzzler Qvoid Hits App Store On 21st July
Ever heard of Gavina Games? Probably not - they haven't released anything yet. But this Spain-based team are just about ready to lay down some Qvoid on your iOS device. What's Qvoid, huh? Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that it looks like a pretty good puzzler. You roll a white cube along a surface of multi-coloured cubes, picking up each cube's colour and mixing it with the rest as you try and turn the whole surface black. The bad news? Teleporters, moving platforms, stubborn color blocks, and collapsing blocks mean that the 96 levels aren't going to be easy. It'll hit an App Store near you on 21st July. Not long now, folks.…
RedLynx's DrawRace Decelerates To Zero Pennies
Finnish developers RedLynx have a good pedigree on the AppSpy circuit, what with their five-star rated Monster Trucks Nitro 2 and DrawRace tearing up the competition. In preparation for the much-anticipated sequel to the latter (due out later this month), RedLynx have rather kindly trimmed the price of DrawRace down to nothing. For those of you unfamiliar with this well-regarded iPhone title, it's essentially a cross between Flight Control and Formula 1. You trace out the perfect racing line with your finger on-screen, the speed at which you move your digits corresponding to the vehicle's acceleration and braking. In addition to reducing the game's ticket price, RedLynx have thrown in fi…
Apple Adjusts App Store Prices Across The World
Well, there's good news and there's bad news, AppSpy readers. If you live in Australia - like my good friend Andrew - pop open the champagne bottles this morning, for App Store prices in your region have fallen. If you live in England - like my good self - curl up into a small ball and pray the last 24 hours have been nothing but a bad dream. A nightmare, basically. To explain: Apple has decided to raise the RRP of iPhone games in the UK across the board (with the exception of £2.99 titles), so that the lowest paid-for price point is now 69p, up from 59p. Whether this affects the frankly ridonkulous sales of Angry Birds in the future is open to debate, but I'd suggest not. Down Un…
Guardians: The Last Day of the Citadel Slashes It Way Onto iPhone
Guardians: The Last Day of the Citadel, a hack-and-slasher by Drakkar Dev, has just landed on the App Store. And with 3D graphics powered by the Unity engine, it certainly looks the biz. You play as Loreena, a female warrior with a serious axe to grind. Your home - the Citadel - has been invaded by the demonic Vash and you've got to escape. Guardians: The Last Day of the Citadel also boasts an original soundtrack, a full campaign, and 'cinematic-style' fight sequences. If you fancy a piece of this slash-'em-up action, download Guardians: The Last Day of the Citadel now on iPhone for $4.99.…
Sponsored Feature: American Tomato On iPhone
Reality TV is a rather divisive subject: some see it purely as televisual trash, while others consume every last possible second of it. Whatever your opinion is, tomato shooter / karaoke character creation title American Tomato has you covered. It offers more than enough to keep lovers and haters of reality TV comfortably entertained. Micky Fridlov of Aio Synergy, the game’s developer, talked to us about how American Tomato managed to get reality TV to work in an interactive format, the game’s endless customisation options, and the future plans for the title. AppSpy: Can you give us a brief summary of how American Tomato is structured and what your aims w…
Execute The Perfect Punishment In Torture Bunny
Chillingo's subsidiary studio Clickgamer are without question most famous for publishing monster hit Angry Birds, yet perhaps surprisingly the feral fowl only received a 4/5 from AppSpy. Clickgamer needn't feel too aggrieved, though, for we did later dish out a perfect 5 for their Helsing's Fire iPhone title. Looking to emulate Helsing Fire's critical success is Torture Bunny, a somewhat sadistic game involving torture chambers, domesticated animals, and dark humour. Drag and drop your desired instruments of pain, then sit back and watch the helpless bunny ripped asunder in all manner of ways. You inflict this horrific / entertaining suffering across 50 levels and five separate dungeons,…
Edge Games Decide If You Can't Sue 'Em, Beat 'Em
As we noted in passing last week, French iPhone publisher Mobigame obtained the trademark in May to the term 'Edge' after a long-running dispute with notorious IP troll Tim Langdell. Most industry observers sided with Mobigame in their copyright infringement battle with Langdell's company Edge Games, who for more than a decade seemed content to protect their right to the phrase 'Edge' rather than develop fresh titles of their own. Well, now Langdell & Co. no longer have a trademark to aggressively defend in and out of court, they've decided to bite the bullet and produce a new game. Oh, the shame and the horror. The isometric puzzler EDGEBobby2, therefore, marks Edge Games's first fo…
New Quests Added To MMORPG Order & Chaos Online
Ying and yang. Black and white. Crouch and Messi. iPod and Zune. To that list of famous polar opposites, we should, natch, add Order & Chaos. Gameloft decided to take these two sides of the state space coin online in its World of Warcraft-esque title on iPhone at the end of April. Fast forward two months and this 3D, real-time epic MMORPG has levelled-up to version 1.0.2. So, what's in store for all the Elves, Orcs, and Undead who brave the App Store forest and click 'Update' when prompted? New quests, language-specific chat channels, additional armour sets, and a teleporter in Greenmont, mainly. And if you happen to be particularly rubbish at battling and consistently meet your vir…
Grab Street Fighter IV: Volt For iPhone At Reduced Price
Back in the ‘90s, the battle for arcade beat-‘em-up supremacy was as keenly, errrr, fought as the US presidential elections. Albeit less bloody. The two main contenders were, of course, the Street Fighter series and Midway’s Mortal Kombat franchise. Well, on iPhone in the 2010s, nothing changes (or at least everything stays the same), for this pair of monster grapplers are duking it out once more. In Round 1, Ryu, Ken, Guile, & co. took the AppSpy honours, tasting victory with a perfect 5/5 rating. By comparison, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3's warriors couldn't muster the same winning combo of graphics + audio + gameplay, Finishing with a solid but unspectacular 3. Look…
Remedy's Explosive Death Rally Reduced To Free
Death Rally, Alan Wake, Max Payne, Max Payne 2: the sum total of Remedy Entertainment's gaming output since 1995. Not what you would call a prolific developer then, but, by heck, an influential one. Their debut release, Death Rally, was, of course, rejigged for the iPhone a couple of months ago, and earned a very creditable four stars from our Andrew. If you are still sitting on this particular top-down racer fence, mind, the news that Death Rally has gone free for a limited time could push you over the edge. What's more, since AppSpy reviewed Remedy's heavily armed driving game, the devs have upgraded its chassis with a new vehicle, paint jobs, achievements, and challenges Fancy wiping…
Survival Mode Brings Depth To Mighty Fin
AppSpy is, of course, the best resource on the planet for iPhone game reviews, yet with only one full-time reviewer on board to cover the scene, the odd beaut is bound to slip through our trawl net. That's why each month we publish a round-up of the Top 10 iPhone games sourced from the Quality Index. In May, Launching Pad Games's casual arcader Mighty Fin leapt like a salmon to fin-ish 3rd on the Qi countdown, only beaten out by Chaos Rings Omega and First Touch Soccer. We ourselves awarded it a 4/5, praising its single-finger simplicity, clever level design, and infuriatingly catchy soundtrack. The solitary piece of criticism levelled at Mighty Fin was its - cough - shallowness, which m…
Celebrate Sonic’s Birthday With Sega All-Stars Racing Game
A certain special somebody (or rather someTHING) is 20 years young today. Nope, not my nephew Samuel, but Sonic...Sonic The Hedgehog. The speediest of speedy anthropomorphic hedgehogs first whizzed onto a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis near you on 23rd June, 1991, and has zoomed onto countless platforms since. One of these is, of course, the iPhone, which The Blue Blur has graced on no less than five occasions already. The pick of the bunch, hitherto, is undoubtedly Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, if you were wondering. The latest Sonic experience to appear on Apple's touchscreen is Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, a Mario Kart-inspired arcade romp featuring ten of the Japanese game maker's…
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