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Bungie's First-Person Shooter Marathon Ported To iPad
Just two weeks after Daniel Blezek spilled the beans on his Bungie-authorized Marathon iPad port, the pre-Halo first-person shooter has been released today. On Bungie Day 2011! What a coincidence! Oh yeah, and it's free. For those who had their PC gamer blinkers on in the '90s, Marathon was a Mac-only first-person shooter trilogy, almost always compared to Doom. And though it didn't garner as much attention as Doom, it's still considered a seminal genre piece. There's no sign of an iPhone version quite yet, but we'll keep you posted on any goss.…
Execute The Perfect Punishment In Torture Bunny
Chillingo's subsidiary studio Clickgamer are without question most famous for publishing monster hit Angry Birds, yet perhaps surprisingly the feral fowl only received a 4/5 from AppSpy. Clickgamer needn't feel too aggrieved, though, for we did later dish out a perfect 5 for their Helsing's Fire iPhone title. Looking to emulate Helsing Fire's critical success is Torture Bunny, a somewhat sadistic game involving torture chambers, domesticated animals, and dark humour. Drag and drop your desired instruments of pain, then sit back and watch the helpless bunny ripped asunder in all manner of ways. You inflict this horrific / entertaining suffering across 50 levels and five separate dungeons,…
Firemint's Real Racing Down To 99c
As part of parent company EA's ongoing sale, Australian developers Firemint have slashed the prices on two of their brilliant iOS games. Real Racing, recipient of a five out of five award here on AppSpy, for one, is now a miniscule 99c. Considering our own Damien Chiappara said, “If you love racing games, and can get over the moderate current price, then Real Racing is a great play with tons of play options and deserves a spot on your iPhone,” when the game was full price two years ago, there really is no excuse for missing out while it’s cheap. Real Racing 2, meanwhile, is also on sale at $4.99, a sum which it’s hard to argue against considering we described it as…
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters Review
As I write this Australia is yet to have the (dis?)pleasure of watching the 2011 release of Green Lantern - why we’re subjected to a two month delay is beyond my understanding, but it does provide a great opportunity to spend some time with Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters for the iOS. At first it’s nice to see the game forgoing the expected 2D/3D brawler in favor of something slightly different as you control Hal Jordan in this 3D shooter. Better still, the less-trav…
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STREET FIGHTER IV VOLT Review
As I consider CAPCOM’s latest Street Fighter title for iOS I can’t help but drag my eyes across the room to the two arcade sticks I have for playing the console version with my friends. While there’s a lot of fun to be had in mastering characters offline, the real magic happens when two people go head-to-head and although last year’s iOS version provided local multiplayer, players can now take their fight to a global level with STREET FIGHTER IV Volt. In additi…
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Pocket Academy Review
Ask and ye shall receive - it wasn’t all that long ago that Japanese iOS gamers had their hands on the latest release from Kairosoft, Pocket Academy, but now English speaking audiences can try their hands at running a high-school. Much like the other titles in the ‘Story’ series your job is to manage a company (or in this case an institution) in order to keep it growing and providing the best services in the country. First things first though; ‘Game Dev’…
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The Great Jitters: Pudding Panic Review
Unless it’s your first time, when you jump on to a ‘Haunted House’ ride at a carnival or fairground you know what you’re in for - usually a tightly packed rail-ride filled with cheap thrills and spooks where anticipation rather than genuine fear gets your blood pumping. Thankfully the experience is short-lived, but in Pudding Panic by kunst-stoff a poor thrill-seeking jelly is forced to live through a nightmare of 48 separate areas in the most poorly maintained…
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Edge Games Decide If You Can't Sue 'Em, Beat 'Em
As we noted in passing last week, French iPhone publisher Mobigame obtained the trademark in May to the term 'Edge' after a long-running dispute with notorious IP troll Tim Langdell. Most industry observers sided with Mobigame in their copyright infringement battle with Langdell's company Edge Games, who for more than a decade seemed content to protect their right to the phrase 'Edge' rather than develop fresh titles of their own. Well, now Langdell & Co. no longer have a trademark to aggressively defend in and out of court, they've decided to bite the bullet and produce a new game. Oh, the shame and the horror. The isometric puzzler EDGEBobby2, therefore, marks Edge Games's first fo…
Mooniacs Review
When transporting Jujubees, it’s probably best not to tie the crate to your rocket with a rope. At least, this is what I have gathered from the introduction to Mooniacs by Bad Juju Games and Namco Networks. So, as it would happen, in order to collect the precious cargo you’ll have to combine the capabilities of each Mooniac by bouncing them around the screen in a precise manner. With that said, ‘precise’ isn’t easy to gauge. Players only have one try to c…
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Top 3 iOS Games June 2011
With so many great releases in the last month it’s getting hard to keep up the pace. Instead of the usual end-of-month woe of multiple releases, gamers were inundated by a landslide of two huge bundles of releases. Despite this I’ve been spending all the free time I’ve had while I’ve been ill to start catching up, so expect July’s top list to be a hotly contended one.With that said today we’ll be covering AppSpy’s Top 3 iOS titles for June 2011 3. Continuity 2: The Continuation (Ragtime Games) For those who watched our review I have to say I’m still shocked at having missed out on this title in its first incarnation, but I’m a…
Build An Empire In Zynga's CityVille Hometown
Not content with farming, developer Zynga has turned its hand to urban life with CityVille Hometown, available now on the App Store for free. In the game, you're the architect of your own dreams. So long as those dreams involve a city teeming with houses and prosperous businesses that you've built from scratch. You can invite your Facebook acquaintances, too: once connected, you may snoop around their houses and ask them to help build your city. In that order. CityVille Hometown is in all good App Stores as of this moment, and it's free. Bonus!…
A Day Full Of Being Sick
Hi loyal readers and watchers of our reviews (and other assorted products)! As you may have noticed things have been a bit slow over the last fortnight with regards to our video content and I feel obliged to apologize as I'm currently dealing with a nasty seasonal cold. I will have to delay our Wrap-Up video along with June's Top List, however in the meantime I'd like to reintroduce some of the new faces around AppSpy. Some may already know Richard Brown for his love of football, crumpets and a fine Darjeeling. I'm fairly certain at least one of those things are factual; I might be taking a stab at the others. Outside of bringing some fine news to AppSpy, you can also find his handiwork on…
New Quests Added To MMORPG Order & Chaos Online
Ying and yang. Black and white. Crouch and Messi. iPod and Zune. To that list of famous polar opposites, we should, natch, add Order & Chaos. Gameloft decided to take these two sides of the state space coin online in its World of Warcraft-esque title on iPhone at the end of April. Fast forward two months and this 3D, real-time epic MMORPG has levelled-up to version 1.0.2. So, what's in store for all the Elves, Orcs, and Undead who brave the App Store forest and click 'Update' when prompted? New quests, language-specific chat channels, additional armour sets, and a teleporter in Greenmont, mainly. And if you happen to be particularly rubbish at battling and consistently meet your vir…
Grab Street Fighter IV: Volt For iPhone At Reduced Price
Back in the ‘90s, the battle for arcade beat-‘em-up supremacy was as keenly, errrr, fought as the US presidential elections. Albeit less bloody. The two main contenders were, of course, the Street Fighter series and Midway’s Mortal Kombat franchise. Well, on iPhone in the 2010s, nothing changes (or at least everything stays the same), for this pair of monster grapplers are duking it out once more. In Round 1, Ryu, Ken, Guile, & co. took the AppSpy honours, tasting victory with a perfect 5/5 rating. By comparison, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3's warriors couldn't muster the same winning combo of graphics + audio + gameplay, Finishing with a solid but unspectacular 3. Look…
Tiny Lights Review
Being the nerd/geek or whatever you want to call it that I am, it should be no surprise that I read the occasional comic. As such, the idea of colors representing a sort of emotional rainbow is nothing new, but then again society has seemingly always paired feelings with different shades of the visible spectrum. Tiny Lights by Darling Dash and The You Company turns this idea in to a classic adventure game where you'll guide 'lights', each with unique powers that will help in restoring…
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