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Wide Sky (UPDATED: Ver. 1.3) Review
Review Update (21 Feb, 2013): Let it not be said that Marcus Eckert isn't listening to his audience. A recent update has overhauled Wide Sky with a seemingly minor, but drastically helpful quality-of-life update to the interface that proves to be the difference between sheer frustration and casual, mindless fun. An indicator on your hedgehog lets you keep track of where the rope will appear, and once latched on to a cloud you'll also receive a handy arrow pointing you in the direction…
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JOOL Review
Finding an endless runner these days with a unique spin on the genre is harder than you might think. With Jool, that last sentence was actually a bit of clever wordplay because what this game offers is an escape from the death that is inevitable in the genre. That's right, did your weird bird character fall from the platforms into oblivion? It's not game over, just flip your device around and continue the game playing as his malicious ego heading in the other direction. Oh, the ego fel…
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Battle Line™ Review
Sometimes I wonder if the releases coming from Gamevil suffer a soft of cultural disconnect that I just don't understand as a reviewer. Many of their releases revolve around grind-heavy mechanics with little behind the actual gameplay, while the almighty In-App Purchase paywall locks away everything you need to help you progress smoothly through the game. And despite this, these games are quite popular with a vocal fanbase; from Zenonia to Baseball Stars, and now to Battle Line. This…
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Half-Inch Heist Review
There aren't really too many games in which you get to pull off a heist. Oh sure there's a bank robbery in Grand Theft Auto 4, and there are games like The Getaway that pay homage to those types of movies, but the act of planning an elaborate thieving of some priceless artifact or gem is not really seen. Despite its name, Half-inch Heist really isn't the type of game to provide this experience. No, what we have here is more a quick reflexes arcade experience wrapped up in an eight bit…
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Puzzle Restorer Review
I've never been shy about telling people about one of my favorite iOS series', PathPix. It's something I enjoy on a purely personal level as it not only feels rewarding thanks to the images you create, but there's a zen-like flow to the puzzling. Puzzle Restorer by Gavina Games falls in the same category of pixel-filling, area-painting puzzlers, but with a fresh twist... you already know what you need to make. Players are handed a grid that they can swipe and create paths on - by star…
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Rise of the Blobs Review
Observe the valiant marshmallow, standing atop his pillar of righteousness, casting down fruit at any lowly blob that dares rise above its station. OK, so that's not what's happening here in Rise of the Blobs, well aside from the marshmallow and the pillar... and the blobs of course. Think of this as a rotating reverse Tetris in which you need to be vigilant, surveying around the spire, while throwing the right colored fruit on the right colored blob so you can tap it, make it go squis…
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After Burner Climax Review
I'll readily admit that I have next to no idea what I'm doing when I play After Burner. In just about every instance I've simply done the best I can and never sweated the details. After Burner Climax was designed to punish such 'casual' mindsets - it was, after all, an Arcade title - but the iOS release has a leniency to it that actually makes the chaos more of an amusing distraction than a brutal smokescreen for the unrelenting enemy. Whether you jump in with the touch or tilt based…
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Pixel People Review
Earth, gone. The human race, pretty much destroyed. Send in the clones! It's time to repopulate the species among the stars; to create a clone based utopia. First up, let us preface this review with a warning. This is a true freemium title. Many of the actions in this game take time to complete (up to a few minutes worth). All the time based actions can be sped up by using the utopium resource which is the in-app currency. Despite this, Pixel People strives to give you things to do so…
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Puzzle Retreat Review
If you consider pure puzzle titles to be a boring chore, you can probably stop right here; that's not the most flattering of openings, but I know there's more than a few of you who balk at the idea of a game not having at least some sort of action element to it. For those of you who remain, Puzzle Retreat is a brilliant zen-like puzzler that takes the 'sliding block' concept quite literally. Your goal on each level is simply to fill the empty spaces with ice and other objects later on…
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Undead Soccer Review
Late last year, The Bowling Dead was released, a novel take on the over-saturated zombie genre that had you flinging bowling balls at zombies. To be honest, we didn't foresee that other sports might also lend themselves to killing the undead, so the release of Undead Soccer kind of caught us by surprise. You flick soccer balls at zombies before they can reach you and munch your face off. A simple, and somewhat engaging premise, but like so many games on the iOS platform these days, a h…
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Banana Kong Review
Most gamers are familiar with the subtle changing of the name Donkey Kong to avoid copyright infringement from aping (if you'll pardon the pun) the famous movie about the giant gorilla and the woman that loved him. Banana Kong has a similar smell about it, trying to attach itself to a more popular property. However, while Donkey Kong could at least excuse itself with an innovative and engaging play experience, Banana Kong is just another endless runner clone built around in-app purchas…
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Wide Sky Review
There are times when you want to love something so badly that you'll spend hours on end hoping to find the one thing you can grip on to so you can share it with everyone else, but in the case of Wide Sky by Marcus Eckert, I've come up empty. Despite featuring some of the most amazing graphical, and dare I say it, even audio design the platform has to offer, this tongue-in-cheek title feels as though the gameplay itself wasn't tested thoroughly enough, and what should be a casual joy be…
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TABLE TOP RACING Review
When reviewing a title I often come across an internal dialogue in the form of a line of questioning that ends up sounding a little like this: "Where's all the depth? Shouldn't there be more stuff I can do?", "Does it matter? Are you having fun?", "Actually I am, but I'm afraid it won't last". For a game sporting as little as 8 stages and 10 vehicles, you'd think the fun would quickly run out, but Playrise Edge have nailed Table Top Racing's 'Kart' gameplay so perfectly that it's hard…
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Tin Man Can Review
There's something to be said for 'trial & error' gameplay done right. Games like Limbo and Another World are good examples. The player learns not to do something by being killed for their curiosity or their lack of reflex, but the checkpoint system of the game is lenient enough to allow the player to safely pursue their natural curiosity and exploratory drive. It's a nice balance, and one that Tin Man Can misses completely. Not only because every death sends you back to the start…
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Noble Nutlings Review
Boomlagoon, the makers of Noble Nutlings have received a lot of buzz thanks to being a company sporting ex-Rovio employees (you know, the developers behind Angry Birds). Before Angry Birds was a hit, Rovio had released many other games for mobile platforms - obviously these did OK for the company as they stayed in business, but what we're saying is it can take a lot of tries before hitting on something that really resonates. Keep this in mind for the review. Each level of Noble Nutli…
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