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Hands-on with Goblin Sword, a mix of Castlevania, Legend of Zelda, and awesome
You read that title right, Goblin Sword contains elements of the legendary Konami platformer, Nintendo's second instalment featuring Link, and a whole lot of excellent. The controls are quick to respond, and there are so many secrets to uncover, if your platforming skills are up to the task. And if the highly detaled pixel art in Goblin Sword doesn't win you over immediately then you and I can no longer be friends.…
Goblin SwordHands-on with Fotonica, in which I spend half the video picking my jaw up from off the floor
It's not hyperbole when I say that Fotonica is one of the most beautiful games I've played all year. Click play on the video and you'll see that that's immediately evident. There's something mathematically beautiful about wire frame models, perhaps its the raw geometry of the anatomic? The gameplay itself is a known quantity, but it's well-made, and that's what counts when the visuals are as striking as they are. What do you think of the gorgeous Fotonica? Let us know, below.…
DEVICE 6 and Year Walk dev may need to delay new game The Sailor's Dream due to iPhone 6 announcement
Simogo's work is exemplary, and we've been steadily becoming more desperate to play The Sailor's Dream ever since it was announced. But there's a chance we may have to wait a little longer than we anticipated. Simogo's artist / writer Simon Flesser has taken to Twitter to express dismay at the new resolutions of the upcoming iPhone 6 models. This morning, he said "2 new resolutions that are nowhere near the old ones, and expectations of your games looking good on all devices, is killing my enthusiasm." He followed up by writing "I am incredibly frustrated with the platform right now". However, most concerning for fans of Simogo's games, were later tweets; We don't want to release in…
Hands-on with NERF Hoops, the flipping fun foam-filled flinger
If you missed out on the Paper Toss craze a few years back, then Backflip once again has you covered, this time in a free-to-play format and with a NERF licence chucked in for good measure. NERF Hoops is pretty fun when you start getting into it, and comparing your score with mates is always neat. If you've played the game it's based on to death then there's not too much new for you here, but for everyone else, the game is well worth closer inspection. Take a look at my hands-on with the game below, and watch as I get an epic score on the hardest difficulty level.…
Genre Busters: top 5 hardcore platformers on iOS
The platforming genre is almost as old as gaming itself, and you aren't a truly “hardcore” gamer until you've bested a fiendishly tough test of jumping. Being 1337 gamers ourselves, James and I have our own personal favourites when it comes to platforming on mobile, and in the below video you'll see the best, most punishing, totally gruelling platformers to ever grace a touchscreen. Too busy jumpin' to watch the full hour? No problem, here are the links to jump to the content you want to see. 1. Kid Tripp2. League of Evil 33. Rayman Fiesta Run4. Mikey Hooks5. Super Crate Box…
Hands-on with Space Age, the retro-inspired space adventure
Pocket Gamer's Mark Brown has gone and had a sneaky peek at Space Age, an adventure game with a classic schlock sci-fi aesthetic, and pulpy narrative. Click play on the video below to see the game in motion, then sound off in the comments and let us know if you're excited for its release.…
Final Fantasy VII is coming to iOS and Android in October, sort of
Here at AppSpy, we're big fans of Square Enix's mobile JRPGs, and we've been waiting patiently for the Japanese giant to announce the legendary Final Fantasy VII for mobiles for quite some time. That wait is finally over. Well, kind of. Square Enix has announced Dive In for mobiles in Japan, a cloud service that allows you to play games streamed over the Internet. First games on the block for distribution? The tepidly received Final Fantasy XIII and stone-cold PlayStation classic Final Fantasy VII. Much like the ill-fated OnLive, Dive In doesn't download the game to your device for play at any time. Instead you constantly stream a video feed of the game running on a supercomputer, whic…
Hands-on with Illusion of L'Phalcia, the JRPG where your best friend is a speaking Leopard
To a large extent, you know what you're getting with a Kemco JRPG. It's likely to be a good quality, retro-inspired adventure featuring anime visuals, a good soundtrack, and a decent battle system to boot. What you may not be expecting is a talking cat who fights alongside you for scraps of food. But that's what you get with Illusion of L'Phalcia. Here's my hands-on.…
Surviving in Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Episode 3 - Getting Murdered
Despite the rather grim title, I did enjoy most of my time with Minecraft: PE this week. I made lots of progress with my little mine, created new types of tools from even better materials, built a furnace, and even found a hidden underground cave. But there was also murder by some stupid jerk that creeped up on me. See the highs and the lows, in the video below. Missed an episode? Not to worry: see the entire series here.…
The Walking Dead Pinball Review
The Walking Dead Pinball is an odd creature. On the one hand, it's another solid instalment of Zen's popular pinball series. You get the same realistic physics and weighty flippers that series fans have come to rely upon, and a themed table which recreates environments and situations from the critically acclaimed Telltale series. The question which Pocket Gamer's Jon Munday asks, however, is whether people really want to revisit the emotional tale of Clementine and Lee through the me…
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Duke Dashington Review
What do you get when you splice Tomb Raider's spike-infested temples with 8-bit platforming sensibilities, then throw in a protagonist who takes styling tips from Wario? The answer is Duke Dashington, a swipe-based retro platformer which offers healthy doses of challenge in micro portions. As Pocket Gamer's Harry Slater discovered, getting out of a collapsing pyramid in ten seconds flat can be a tricky business. Thankfully, the struggle is generally a rewarding one. Watch the…
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Snuggle up with this trailer for The Sleeping Prince
The setup for The Sleeping Prince is classic fairytale stuff: Sydney Slime is up to no good in the Kingdom of Cloudreach, and it's up to Prince Perilous to save the day. The problem is, Prince Perilous just will not wake up. Therefore it's your job to save the day by flinging his limp body through Slime's castle, whilst besting foes and solving puzzles in this physics-based platformer. The Sleeping Prince is out of Signal Studio, them folks what made the well-received Toy Soldiers on XBLA, so we're quietly confident this one will be worth keeping an eye on. Stick with AppSpy for more on The Sleeping Prince, which will be available Thursday the 11th of September on iOS.…
Learn how to play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite with AppSpy - Part 6
With a significant victory puffing wind into our sails, James, Harry and myself are eager to get stuck into the Monster Hunter Freedom Unite action in this episode. We fight rare forest Congas, go giddy for the mushroom gold rush, and test our mettle once again against the land shark. How do we get on? Find out by clicking play on the video below. Missed the last episode? You wally, click here.…
Learn how to play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite with AppSpy - Part 5
So yeah, I wuss out a bit in Episode 5 of our Monster Hunter Freedom Unite series. I told fellow MH compatriots Harry and James that all I want to do after the string of shocking defeats we've been experiencing, is to head into the wilds and pick Mountain Herbs. But things really heat up when the AppSpy / Pocket Gamer crew meet with what would become our nemesis. The mighty Congalala: a pink monkey with a bad case of wind. An epic battle ensues, and this is how it unfolds... Need to catch up on the last episode? Click here.…
Genre Busters: the best Pokemon alternatives on iOS
It's abundantly clear by now that, were Nintendo to release (or re-release) a Pokemon game on iOS or Android, the company would clean up. So many people want to catch a Porygon on their mobile that other games companies have realised that there's a hefty profit to be made from filling that JRPG-lite hole in the market, and have gone ahead and created games heavily inspired on the premier monster battler. But which games are worth your time, and what's less use than a Magikarp? Find out below, in video form. Not got a full hour? Scrub through to the various games on our list using the ever-so dandy links below. 1. Mighty Monsters2. Monster Legacy3. Beastie Bay4. Micromon And a big tha…
