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JoyJoy Review
There is nothing new about JoyJoy’s premise. At heart it is a classic twin stick shooter formed from the same mold as Smash TV and Geometry Wars. What developer Radiangames has attemted to bring to this tried and tested formula is an attractive visual style, and versatile weapons system. You must guide your ship around an arena populated by ever increasing waves of enemies. Collecting them from fallen foes, you can hold a total of six ammunition types. These include spread…
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challengeBadland update brings four player co-op to Day 1 campaign
Frogmind’s latest update to its wonderfully floaty side-scroller Badland has added four player co-op The multiplayer levels are all modified versions of the game’s original Day 1 levels. These 40 stages have been tweaked for co-op play, and feature 120 new missions, plus seven new achievements, to test your group's skill. While the update will let you and your chums control your flying furballs using a corner of your iPad's touch screen, it also supports MFi controllers. If you have the controllers on hand, this allows you to all get a good view of the action without your friends' thumbs getting in the way. Playing through Badland with four other players will likely cha…
dEXTRIS Review
Dextris is twitch gaming distilled down to its purest form. Controlling two neon coloured blocks in unison, your simple task is to dodge left and right as you rocket endlessly upwards through its vertically-scrolling course. By default, the pink and blue squares you command sit happily in the middle of the screen. Holding the right side of the screen causes both blocks to shoot rapidly to the right and grind their way up the wall. Hold the left side, and you'll get the opposite result…
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Charming indie platformer Thomas Was Alone has just jumped onto the iPad
Mike Bithell has finally ported his minimalist indie platformer Thomas Was Alone to iPad. Set in a dark, angular universe, Thomas Was Alone has you take control of a selection of different sized rectangles as they try to escape their collapsing world. While the cast is just a collection of four side shapes, the differences between them goes deeper than just their dimensions Each rectangle possessing unique abilities. Take Clare, the large blue square, who, despite worrying about her size, is the only one of the team able to float on water. Then there's the cynical Chris, whose shorter stature lets him fit through gaps others cannot. It is only by making use of every block's individual…
Eye on the App Store: JoyJoy, Hyper Square, Darkin, Biosis, and more
As part of our regular scheduled programming over on Twitch, we'll be hosting Eye on the App Store very shortly indeed. It's a great chance to see all the games that'll be hitting the Apple's App Store at midnight tonight hours in advance, saving you time, money, and wasted space on your iOS device. Our line-up today includes twin-stick shooter JoyJoy, as well as three very different kinds of puzzle games: Hyper Square, Darkin, and Biosis. There'll be one or two more treats in store, so come along to see the show for the full rundown. We now go live at the same time every day, plus all of our shows are recorded and kept safely in storage for you. Be sure to check them out! Catch today's…
Alone in the Dark to sneak onto the App Store at midnight tonight
Alone in the Dark, the game that inspired the survival horror genre back in 1992, is finally making its way to the App Store. The iOS version of the Lovecraft-inspired chiller has you solving the murder of Jeremy Hartwood. Letting you take on either the role of private investigator Edward Cornby or the victim’s niece Emily, you must complete the various puzzle’s that fill Hartwood’s manner to unravel the mystery. Naturally, this port of the Atari PC classic feature’s new controls to optimise the experience for touchscreen. Controls aside, though, we're keen to see whether time has been cruel or kind to this infamous entry in the horror genre. Appropriately, …
Warhammer 40,000: Chess – Regicide coming to iOS later this year
Hammerfall Publishing announced a new collaboration with Games Workshop today, with news of its new strategy title Warhammer 40,000: Chess – Regicide. Despite the name, Regicide won't just be swap out standard chess pieces for Space Marines and Orks. Project lead at Hammerfall Cathrin Machin promises that the game will go “beyond the standard boundaries of chess to revolutionize the way it is seen”. What this actually means is anyone's guess, though, with the trailer (below) giving away nothing of the gameplay. What is known is that the game will stay faithful to the 40,000 universe. The single player campaign, written by Games Workshop author Ross Watson, will fo…
We’re playing Surgeon Simulator - live on Twitch (5pm UK | 9am Pacific | 12 noon Eastern)
You requested it, so we're back again with more Surgeon Simulator! Developers Bossa Studios announced last week that the free alien autopsy DLC would be coming to the iPad version of Surgeon Simulator shortly, so we thought this would be the perfect time to pick up where we left off and see how far we can get. In case you missed our last playthrough shortly after Surgeon Simulator launched on the iPad, our catch-up article is over here. Today, James will be doing his best to avoid being a butterfingers with all manner of sharp utensils while Peter gives him advice and tries not to laugh too hard at the inevitable mistakes that will arise. We have some codes to give away during the pl…
SOULCALIBUR Unbreakable Soul Review
Soulcalibur Unbreakable Soul is an odd instalment in the Soulcalibur franchise. This mobile, free-to-play game abandons the weapons-based arcade combat for which the series is famous, and instead focuses on the stories of its colourful cast to form the foundation for a collectible card game. In Unbreakable Soul’s defence, the CCG elements have been fairly well though out. You have a deck that can hold three fighter cards, each of which is assigned three weapon card. Each ch…
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Beautiful point-and-click adventure game Machinarium is on sale
To celebrate the recent release of beautiful puzzler Botanicula, Czech developer Amanita Design has reduced the price of its previous game, the equally handsome Machinarium. This gorgeous point-and-click adventure has you taking control of a tiny dilapidated robot as he makes his way through a steampunk world to rescue his robotic girlfriend’s robotic dog. However, to achieve this modest goal, he must overcome the robotic oppressors who rule the dystopian city. The story is told through charmingly animated pictures and glyphs, with all of its narrative nuances left for you to piece together. The textured wolrd invites you to interact with every element of the e…
Dexterity testing downhill skier Dudeski is now free on the App Store
Back in March we were enjoying the Winter Paralympics on the TV, and downhill skier Dudeski on our iPhones. While the real games are over, Dudeski's arcade styling can still be enjoyed - and for free, no less. Making your way to the bottom of the game’s pixilated Lord Shred mountain is not just a simple matter of weaving through the course’s slalom gates. Each of the mountain’s four stages are filled with different obstacles, from fallen tree’s to Yetis, all of which will end your run is not avoided. It is only by skillfully dodging all of these hazards that you'll make it to the finish line. If that wasn’t enough, there is also an avalanche chasing yo…
InnoGames producer walks us through upcoming iOS strategy game Rising Generals
Christoph Schmidt is the producer of Rising Generals, the recently revealed PVP strategy game from InnoGames. Rising Generals is the first of three upcoming titles to be revealed - two more titles are currently in development due for release end of 2014 / beginning of 2015. It looks like an '80s retro sci-fi spin on the company's biggest hit, Tribal Wars, albeit with a lot more detail and polish. I went to meet Christoph, who showed me the basics of the game, demonstrating the massive battles you'll take part in, and the huge maps you'll (hopefully) conquer. …
Genre Busters: Punishing Platformers - live on Twitch (5pm UK | 9am Pacific | 12 noon Eastern)
The very first episode of Genre Busters will be coming at you live over on our Twitch channel today! In this series of shows, live every Monday, we'll pick five of the best examples of each genre. Today, we're choosing the most painfully punishing platformers that we've ever laid our grubby mitts on. James will be manning the iPad, so expect him to be holding back the strong expletives as he exhausts all his lives and all his patience. Be sure to cheer (or jeer) him on via the chat window over on Twitch. Genre Busters will be starting over on Twitch at 5pm UK / 9am Pacific / 12 noon Eastern over on our Twitch channel. Be there. Or y'know... you'll miss it.…
CastleStorm - Free to Siege Review
Castlestorm: Free to Siege is a smorgasbord of gameplay styles. At its core it is a tower defence game, but it ladels in construction, brawling, and even physics destruction elements in its gameplay stew. You begin each stage facing off against your medieval enemy along a 2D path. Sometimes your goal will be to stop all of the advancing attackers. At other times you'll need bring down the enemy's fortifications using any or all of the plentiful combat systems at your disposal. The fi…
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Expansive 3D RPG The Shadow Sun gets hefty price reduction
Developer Ossian Studios has sliced the price of its fantasy RPG The Shadow Sun by more than half. The Shadow Sun has you controlling your hero from a third-person perspective through a 3D world. There are ten hours of story to quest your way through, made up of 70 different areas, all filled with their own dangers and secrets. The Shadow Sun takes clear inspiration from other Western-styled fantasy RPGs. This should come as no surprise considering it was developed by industry veterans whose collective works include contributions to Neverwinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate, and The Witcher. The limited time sale has cut The Shadow Sun's price from £5.49 / $7.99 to £1.99…
