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Icycle: On Thin Ice Review
As iOS gamers, we've been exposed to some weird scenarios over the years. Narky birds with porky vendettas; hungry green monsters which subsist entirely on dangling sugar lozenges – to us, these things are just another day in the App Store. Icycle: On Thin Ice is game about a naked man named Dennis, who finds himself riding a tricycle through ever-shifting landscapes. Originally we thought the game might be showing us a dream or nightmare scenario. Then Dennis gets hit by a fish…
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Destructamundo's rhythmic explosions confuse us
Destructamundo is a rhythmic puzzle game created by Robotube Games with assistance from Gaijin, the makers of the Bit.trip series. From what we understand, you have a specific amount of warheads you need to use to blow up all the planets on screen, and the whole thing is somehow tied to the music. See we're not too confident in how the game works, even after watching the trailer - only that it looks quite intriguing. Judge for yourselves. The game is slated to be out early next year for iOS and Ouya. As usual, we'll let you know when we're getting close to release. Destructamundo looks too compelling to pass up.…
Aaru's Awakening is fascinatingly gorgeous
This upcoming platformer has a very distinctive visual style. The creature you're playing also has the ability to blink between small distances, and it looks like the gameplay is based around mastery of this mechanic. Aaru's Awakening is being made for PC and Mac release at the moment, but they have plans to work on iOS and Android ports. The game won't be out on iOS anytime soon as they are prioritizing the computer release, but in the meantime, have a watch of the trailer. We'll let you know more next year when Aaru's Awakening gets closer to launch.…
Trade in your rocket booster for a giant mech with new Jetpack Joyride update
Jetpack Joyride is great and all, but I've always felt it was lacking one important element: the ability to play as an enormous homicidal robot. Thankfully, the folks at Halfbrick have seen fit to correct this terrible oversight in the game's most recent update, codenamed 'S.A.M.' If you can get Barry to collect three tokens, then the stubble-faced aeronaut will leap into the belly of the giant mech. Check it out: What's more, if you manage to hop inside S.A.M.'s metal chassis on five consecutive days, you'll unlock some bonus costumes for Barry. And, for those of you who already have Christmas on the brain (for shame) you can now purchase Santa's rocket-equipped sleigh, an…
Document editing suite Polaris Office reduced from $19.99 to 99c
We realise that we usually focus on games here at AppSpy. Still, even dedicated gamers like ourselves (very) occasionally use our iPhones or iPads for business purposes. The Polaris Office suite has earned a reputation as one of the better document editing apps on the App Store. Basically, it lets you edit a wide range of MS Office documents (including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint pages) using your Apple tablet or phone. It also interacts with filesharing services like Dropbox, allowing you to move your edited files back and forth between handset and PC. All this functionality comes at a cost, though. When Polaris Office originally hit the App Store last year, it came with a price…
Bacon the Game certainly not one for vegetarians
Most people love bacon. It's one of the many delicious meats given to us by pigs, and now it is the centre of a line drawing game for iOS. Draw a path through all the bacon so that your little avatar can eat all the bacon. A simple goal, and one that's easy to relate to. As you might imagine, the paths drawn become more complex as the game goes on. The trailer will tell you more! This greasy title is set to release on the App Store December 5th. Pretty fitting if you ask us... ham is a common Christmas meat, so why not play a game based around bacon in the same month?…
Rev your chainswords for the debut trailer of Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
Mere days after Games Workshop's tabletop corridor shooter Space Hulk lumbers onto iOS, another Warhammer 40K property has been sighted making a charge for App Store glory. According to its brand new announcement trailer, Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf will bring turn-based combat mechanics to the collectible card game genre, and shower both elements in a fountain of blood. Cooked up by the folks at HeroCraft, the game will be free-to-play, and is set to arrive in the spring of 2014. The trailer (above) shows some sturdy looking Space Wolves being equipped with weaponry via a card selection screen, before putting those weapons to devastating use against some Chaos Marines. As we don't ge…
Candy Crush Saga follow-up Papa Pear Saga ready to be plucked from App Stores worldwide
The pear flavoured follow-up to global success story Candy Crush Saga has just gone live on App Stores around the world. Papa Pear Saga is essentially developer King's take on PopCap's iconic ball-pinger Peggle. You chuck a marble at a floating cluster of fruit, and the marble eliminates every object it touches from the screen. There's a huge amount of luck involved in clearing a screen, but the game makes plenty of encourages noises and dole's out mad rainbow victory fireworks to make you feel like you've earned your three stars. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but if it enjoys half the success of Candy Crush Saga, then you, your mates, and your mum will all be playing it by tomor…
Enjoy a cornucopia of extras in Junk Jack X's Thanksgiving update
We took a bit of an interest in the malleable digital playground that is Junk Junk X. So much so, in fact, that Peter and I documented some of our early, naive fumblings with the game in The Junk Jack X Files (below). However, while we were trying to work out which end of the pickaxe does the digging, the dev was busy knocking up the game's latest update. The 2.0.5 Thanksgiving update adds 100 new achievements, a collection of toys to mess around with, and some rare items to get your blocky mitts on. Of course, this is a seasonal update, so it also comes with the obligatory cornucopia full of Thanksgiving goodies. There are a ton of additional improvements in the changelog, including a…
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse Review
Trying recapture past glories is a dangerous pursuit. Just because something worked for an audience 20 years ago, doesn't mean it's going to play to modern tastes. However, that hasn't stopped Disney from taking another run its beloved platformer Castle of Illusion. Originally released on consoles, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse draws inspiration from the 2D Mega Drive classic. Instead of a direct remake, however, this digital download is an all-new experience, featuring fre…
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Top 6 Rhythm Action Games on iPhone and iPad
For a quick fire burst of snackable gaming, you can't beat a bit of bemani, or 'rhythm action' as it's become known. Popularised by Guitar Hero and the like, the music genre quickly became a staple of iOS gaming, with wannabe rock stars and bedroom DJs testing their skills on their touchscreen devices. With so many games to choose from, we thought it high-time we whittled the list down to the crucial six you absolutely must play. Oh, and don't think that we'll be covering any of that new age music stuff like Beat Hazard Ultra and Beat Sneak Bandit. That stuff has it's place and all, but this list is purely for the old-skool beat keepers.…
Second Chance Heroes - An action RPG with a lot of history
...because you play as historical figures! Get it? *ahem* Anyways, Second Chance Heroes has been in development for a couple of years. Rocket City Studios is aiming for a 2013 release date, or failing that, an early 2014 one. The game looks like your average action role-playing game, but what makes this one worth a look is the four player co-op, and the chance to play as historical figures. Now, obviously, they don't use their real names in the trailer, but you can tell who they are. Have a look to see what we mean. If you wish to know the whole roster, names and all, this page on their website will inform and amuse. As for the game, we'll let you know when it's close to launch.…
Critically acclaimed strategy game Skulls of the Shogun out now on iOS
Critically acclaimed strategy game Skulls of the Shogun is finally available on the App Store. Originally released for Windows 8 last year, this ghoulish take on the turn-based strategy genre puts you in charge of a dead Japanese general. It's up to you to marshal your ghostly army, and cut a swathe of spiritual destruction through the forces of the underworld. The game's humorous presentation, accessibility, and surprising depth earned it praise from critics and gamers alike. As you can see from the trailer below, it also looks fantastic. As 17-Bit Studios has kept iOS gamers waiting for so long, it has decided to throw in some bonus content previously only present on the Steam r…
Get on your bike and get your kit off in Icycle: On Thin Ice
We've done some funny thing on our iOS devices over the years. We've chucked birds at pigs. We've cut ropes to feed candy to a small green monster. However, we've never guided a naked man on a bicycle across an ever-shifting plane of ice and snow. Until now. You see, this bizarre scenario is precisely what you'll be faced with if you download new puzzle-platformer Icycle: On Thin Ice. Created as a kind of quasi-sequel to one of developer Damp Gnat's Flash games, Icycle: On Thin Ice comprises a series of gorgeous-looking multi-screen levels. The aim is to get your nude cyclist across the screen, collecting objects and cash - and (hopefully) picking up some clothes - along the way.…
Angry Birds Go! | Hands-On
If you happen to live in New Zealand, you may have noticed that you can now download Rovio's free-to-play kart racer Angry Birds Go! from the App Store. While I don't live in New Zealand, I do have a magical portal which allows me to cross time zones, download games from faraway lands, and zip back to Blighty before my Cornflakes go soggy. Thanks to this geography-defying temporal disturbance, I have managed to coax the feathery racer onto my iPhone, and record a little hands-on so that the rest of you can see what you're missing. Remember, this is the soft launch version of Angry Birds Go!, so the game may change between now and the game's global release date, December 11th…
