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Majestic Nights: Season One is a role-playing thriller set in an alternate eighties where every conspiracy is real
It's the eighties. The Berlin Wall is tumbling down, Live Aid is helping to raise money for the poor, Jason Donovan is dating Kylie Minogue, and everything is right with the world. Except that every conspiracy story ever conceived is actually true, we live in a completely fabricated illusion of what is real, and all this is perpetrated by Cardholder, an intelligence officer at a shadowy government organisation. This is the weird and wonderful world of Majestic Nights: Season One, the teaser trailer for which has just been released. Scant few details are available at the moment, but players will apparently "use wits, stealth and sometimes even a little force to investigate, explore, and…
Majestic NightsAngry Birds Transformers trailer demonstrates why Rovio's new game will make me homeless
If you're lucky enough to be attending San Diego Comic-Con then you might have already seen the new trailer for Angry Birds Transformers. If you're stuck at home, at school, or even worse, at work, then never fear, because you can see the new video here. The video shows off a CGI render of various Angry Birds as Transformers, running through the environment and battling piggy enemies. Astrotrain, Optimus Prime, and Megatron all make an appearance, and they seem to be fighting on the same side too, which is neat. What's not so neat is that this new trailer also shows off the new TelePods, which you'll be able to scan and subsequently bring new characters into your game. Since I'm a gigan…
Hands-on with Hearthstone's Curse of Naxxramas update, the creepy expansion hoping to entangle you in its webbing
After we reported that Hearthstone's Curse of Naxxramas update was out in the wilds of the App Store, I raced off to start playing it and bring you a look at some of the content in this expansion. It's safe to say that it's easily comparable to the high quality of the main game, but there are some extras included that Hearthstone players will want to seriously think about investing in for online play. I run through them briefly in my hands-on video below, as well as showing you a match in motion.…
Hands-on with Rush Horizon, the endless-racer for nineties arcade fans
AppSpy was first on the scene for coverage of Rush Horizon, and with good reason: the game looked like a slice of sun-drenched arcade racing in the promo materials we were sent. Now that I've been hands-on with the game, I can confirm that Rush Horizon absolutely delivers on its promise of nostalgic-yet-modern arcade racing, inspired by the gaming greats from the eighties and nineties. Rad Racer, Out Run, Hang-On, Ridge Racer: there's a bit of everything in here, and since this is an endless-racer, there's a spot of Temple Run mixed in too. Rush Horizon is currently in soft-launch, here's my early look at the game.…
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.…
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...…
