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Hands-on with Tiny Realms, the strategy management title that puts its focus on the word 'strategy'
Strategy management games are a dime a dozen at the moment, so it takes something special for a new one to capture the imagination of mobile gamers. Tiny Realms appears to be a fairly standard iteration on the Clash of Clans formula, but when you see the battles in motion, you start to see the big differences that one small change can make. I explain in the hands-on video below what this change is, so click play and take a look at our preview of the soft-launched version of the game.…
Tiny Realms
Modern Combat 5: Blackout Review
Modern Combat 5: Blackout is an orgy of simulated violence - short bursts of brutal, amoral slaying set to a soundtrack of bombastic Zimmer-esque strings and the metallic trill of shell casings on concrete. Like it's predecessor Zero Hour, it throws set piece after set piece at you, switching between urban shootouts, gunship massacres, sniper challenges, and aquatic escapes with the excitement of an impatient child opening Christmas presents. The controls are the familiar mixed bag o…
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game from Combo Crew devs jump kicks its way onto iOS and Android
The official game of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is out now on iOS and Android. While the AppSpy team isn't massively excited by the upcoming film, this video game adaptation - named, rather appropriately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - has firmly grabbed our attention, as it's developed by the team behind Combo Crew. The game's plot - which is written by one of the authors of the comic book series - revolves around you recapturing the streets of New York City as the Turtles, playing as either Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, or Michelangelo against the evil forces of the Foot Clan. To do so you'll brawl through stage after stage of mutant goons and end-of-level bosses,…
Hands-on with Assassin's Creed Memories, the card battler that manages to make aerial assassinations a bit dull
As a long-time fan of the Assassin's Creed series, I've been eagerly awaiting another really strong mobile tie-in game since the rather smashing Assassin's Creed Pirates. The news of a card battler - which as regular viewers will know is one of my favourite genres - being combined with Assassin's Creed was exciting indeed. It's with a heavy heart then that I have to report that Assassin's Creed Memories is a bit dull, or in the very least the soft-launched version in the Australian App Store is a bit dull. Slow-moving, overly-complex, and only the faintest of connections to the Assassin's Creed universe make the game in its current state a disappointment. Here's my hands-on video explainin…
Modern Combat 5: iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 5 Graphics Comparison
When I captured my hands-on with Modern Combat 5: Blackout, I recorded the footage while playing the game on an iPod 5th gen. This iPod runs on Apple's A5 processor, the same processor found in the most commonly owned iPhone model: the iPhone 4S. However, some pointed out that the visuals on display in the video didn't seem as impressive as the graphics seen when playing Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour on an iPhone 5. To see just how much difference processor speed makes to Gameloft's soon-to-be-launched military shooter, I decided to play Modern Combat 5 on an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5c, and compare the results. Is the iPhone 4S version the ugly duckling to the iPhone 5S's beauti…
Hands-on with Balance of the Shaolin, the game of zen-like balance and oddly aggressive birds
Balance of the Shaolin could be compared with a Twitch game (along the lines of Flappy Bird), and a minigame collection (such as WarioWare). The actions you can make in the game are limited to correcting your balance left and right, and jumping in place, but the dangers of each stage change with the scenery. You have to avoid the strikes of rogue monks, leap over lava, dodge the attacks of passing birds, and so on. Balance of the Shaolin is a cute, simple game, and the presentation is wonderfully retro. Here's what it looks like in motion...…
Hands-on with Epic Gamer!, the iOS trivia title that tests your gaming knowledge
I always got told that games won't teach you anything, but I've learned plenty from them I reckon. 1. You can take three or four shots anywhere on the torso before dying, but a headshot is always fatal. 2. If you're given two paths in a road to walk down, you should always investigate both, just in case you miss a cool piece of treasure. 3. All spiders are pure evil and will try to kill you at the very earliest opportunity they get. I've also picked up a fair few factoids about games over the years, and I'm about to have that knowledge tested with Epic Gamer!, a trivia title about video games, for mobiles and tablets.…
Hands-on with Star Wars: Commander, the strategy management game with wookies
When I wrote the announcement story for Star Wars: Commander, I compared it with Clash of Clans, because quite honestly that's what the App Store description suggests it plays like. After a little time with the game, I can confidently tell you that, yes, Star Wars: Commander is very much fashioned in the style of a Clash of Clans. But don't hold that against it: Clash of Clans is still great fun, and this time around the blend of strategy and management also features adorable Jawas, and the odd cameo by Han Solo. Here's my early preview of Star Wars: Commander, based on the soft-launched Australian version...…
Hearthstone's Curse of Naxxramas update is now live on iOS
If you've been slinging cards in Hearthstone for a while now then you might well be looking for more adventures to embark upon. The new Curse of Naxxramas update should be just what you're after if that's the case, as it adds five new Wings to the single player campaign of Hearthstone. The first of these Wings is titled The Arachnid Quarter, and will be free for a limited time during launch. After that it will join the rest of the Wings as a piece of paid content, unlockable with real money or Gold. Each Wing will set you back $6.99 / £4.99. Curse of Naxxramas contains 15 new bosses to defeat, 30 new cards to acquire, and a Heroic Mode which, once beaten, unlocks a new card back f…
Hands-on with Poptile, the elegantly designed, highly addictive, and really quite generous free-to-play block puzzler
The maker of Bicolor and Mr Flap is releasing a new block-matching game this week called Poptile, and as the video below shows, I thought it was rather good. You simply need to keep the blocks at the bottom of the screen reach the top, but doing so can be tough. Each time you tap to remove a block, all the blocks move up one place, and so the trick is to match as many blocks of the same colour as you can. There are some power-ups on offer to provide assistance too, should you need them. Get some friends involved in this and I reckon you'll have a great time trying to out-do one another's scores on Poptile's leaderboards. I know I did.…
Hands-on with Soccer Physics, the ridiculous football game where you'll use just one button in every match
There's been a spate of excellent games recently that have taken the sport of soccer (or football, if you're not American) and made something silly and fun and new from it. SnapMatch Soccer was one, Uppercup Football is another, and now Soccer Physics has been added to the group. Much like its creator's previous games, Soccer Physics is a simple one button game that has you controlling your team with just the one button, and therefore any strategies and nuance that comes from this blunt approach to control emanates from a lot of skill from the player, and a pinch of luck. I absolutely adored the time I spent with Soccer Physics, here's why...…
We're streaming Modern Combat 5: Blackout live on Twitch (5pm UK | 9am Pacific | 12 noon Eastern)
Only a couple of days left till Modern Combat 5: Blackout hits the App Store! As such, we're continuing Modern Combat week on our Twitch channel today, streaming an hour or more of Modern Combat 5: Blackout! In case you missed it, we had a Modern Combat retrospective yesterday. We found that as time has gone on, each iteration of the Modern Combat series has been tighter, more graphically oustanding, and even more explosive than the game before it. This bodes very well indeed for the latest entry in the series. The wonderful chaps and chapettes over at Gameloft have given us five fabulous (large size) Modern Combat 5 hoodies to give away to folks in the UK & Ireland. While one c…
Secret Files Tunguska Review
There is a simple question to ask yourself before playing Secret Files Tunguska: if you wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation, would your first instinct be to sellotape a mobile phone to your target's cat? If the answer is yes, then Tunguska's puzzles will be second nature. However, if this confluence of events seems unreasonable, and trial-and-error seems like a chore, then this may not the point-and-click adventure for you. Fortunately, the touchscreen conversion of the o…
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Hands-on with 80 Days, the Jules Verne-inspired steampunk adventure book
My first encounter with Jules Verne's sci-fi classic Around the World in Eighty Days was not through the novel itself. Though I'd love to say I was lounging around reading French literature at the age of 6, in truth I was watching quaint, already outdated cartoons like Around the World With Willy Fog. Though the cartoon adaption turned the globe trotting Phileas Fogg into a talking lion, Inkle's upcoming digital adventure book 80 Days is a little more faithful to the original text. In the game - which will be released this Thursday - you assume the role of Fogg's assistant Passepartout who must help his companion win a bet to circumnavigate the globe in under 80 days. I'll admit right no…
Kemco's RPG Band of Monsters goes from $7.99 to free for a limited time on iOS and Android
We all like something for nothing, and Kemco is offering RPG fans with iOS and Android devices exactly that. One of their role playing games - Machine Knight - has just hit 1,000,000 downloads on Android, so to celebrate Kemco is giving away another of its RPGs for free. It's called Band of Monsters, and considering that the game is usually priced $7.99 / £5.49, this promotion represents quite the saving on this usually premium title. Not convinced by the trailer? All you need to know is that you'll be going on a long quest to tame monsters around the world, combining them with one another when caught to make all-new monsters, and using them to fight in classic JRPG-style battles.…
