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Ghost Harvest Is New Freemium Title From 8lb Gorilla
Burke and Hare would turn in their graves if they realised that, in time, fiddling around with dead bodies for fun could all be done via a freemium iPhone app. Two years after their debut outing Zombies & Me, 8lb Gorilla (EA's micro-studio) returns with a new venture, pitched somewhere between FarmVille and The Addams Family. I mean, why harvest life-giving crops when you could be saving the souls of bucket-kicking space miners, pilots, and other unfortunates? As the cemetery boss, it’s your job to take care of the graves and spruce up the grim locale with trees, mansions, scarecrows and other boo-tiful artefacts. Much like freemium title Smurfs' Village with its Smurfberries,…
Friday Wrap-Up June 17 2011
What's this? A new segment? Darn tootin'! I had a lot of fun with this one and it's only set to get better ;) In the ongoing quest to add to even more videos to your Inbox, AppSpy is proud to introduce this new segment - our weekly news wrap-up. What can you expect? Well, other than dropping a highlight on some of the significant news of the week I'll also be naming our game of the week and in the future we might be organizing competitions through this mini-vodcast. For those concerned about the re-use of the 'top list' footage, new overlays and intros are in the pipeline, but for now... courage. First up! It's no surprise that a great game can be made even better when a develope…
Flick Golf Extreme! Review
It's odd what you might consider 'missing' from a game until you're handed it on a plate. While Flick Golf by Full Fat is still a fun distraction, it's not terribly exciting. I hear you asking, 'But it's golf - what else did you expect?' - well, it seems that the latest incarnation of the series has answered this question. How about teeing off from a helicopter on to an aircraft carrier? How does that float your boat? If you're not already familiar with 'flick' titles in general, the…
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ZOOKEEPER DX Review
Lets use the 'way back when' machine to jump to the far-off land of 2005. To set the scene: You have your chunky Nintendo DS and while Super Mario 64 is fun, you need something else besides your aging Gameboy Advance games to justify playing on it. Insert Zoo Keeper and the introduction of three-match gameplay on a touch device - it's like Bejeweled but with a slightly new dimension to it and that's enough to keep you hooked, at least for a while. Fast-forward to 2011 and now you have…
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Fishlabs Warm Hearts With Ice-Cold Snowboard Hero Update
Snowboard Hero: probably the - cough - coolest type of hero you can be. German developers Fishlabs would be inclined to agree, since they dedicated an entire iPhone sim to this particular extreme sport. Rather kindly, Fishlabs have taken the time to update Snowboard Hero, debuting two more playable characters - Kurt and Monica - and two new tracks (one of which is pleasantly named Death Ridge). Uberboards have also been introduced, resulting in your character becoming statistically awesome as soon as he sets foot on them. The extra tracks, events, and achievements are all gravy in our view, considering that the limited number of courses was one of the few qualms we had with Snowboard Her…
Java Classic Skipping Stone Plops Onto iPhone
Korean devs Gamevil didn't just arrive on the gaming scene via the popular Zelda-esque Zenonia RPG series, oh no. They’ve been around for donkey’s years. For example, their Java game Skipping Stone first skipped onto mobiles in 2005. Six years, eh? Well overdue a remake, in my opinion. This casual one-touch game challenges players to time their taps and send the cute rock far into the big blue. Unfortunately for all concerned, octopuses and dolphins lurk along the surface, impeding your skimming progress. Anyways, Skipping Stone features a sizeable 32 achievements, along with 4 maps called City, Jungle, Island, and Magical World. Those of you who look back at the blissful da…
Call of Mini: Zombies Review
There are no prizes for working out the influences for Triniti Interactive's latest release 'Call of Mini: Zombies', so it should be no surprise to find yourself strapping in to a zombie-themed twin-stick shooter. After selecting from a handful of characters you're faced with the challenge of shooting, chopping or blowing up a variety of zombies invading one of two different locations. In keeping with the 'Call of Duty' theme, players maneuver and fire their weapons from a third-perso…
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Chillingo and MetroGames Partner Up On iOS
Famed publishers of Angry Birds on iPhone Chillingo have just announced a business partnership with MetroGames, primarily known for their plethora of Facebook-based social games. The first fruits of the partnership to grace our iOS palms will be a portable remake of Pixel Ranger. Already popular on Zuckerberg's social network, Pixel Ranger puts you in the heavily armed boots of the titular hero, collecting ammo, avoiding sticky goo, and traversing platforms. Further along the line, we can expect a lot more content to free-fall onto the App Store as a consequence of this collabo, since MetroGames possess quite the back catalogue of content. By way of examples, they've already adapted the…
Z2Live's Trade Nations Builds A Facebook Extension
Z2Live's Trade Nations, a social build-'em-up for the iPhone masses, has been given planning permission for several new extensions, including the ability to connect your account to Facebook. From there, you can invite your friends and acquaintances to be your Trade Nations neighbour. If annoying your 602 Facebizzle pals in this way isn't incentive enough to convert, then how's about the gaining exclusive access to the newly opened jewellery shop?! As for the game itself, try to think of Trade Nations as a mixture of SimCity, Age of Empires, and FarmVille...but called Trade Nations. Rather than, say, Age of SimVille. Whatever - the Facebook integration brings a whole new dimension to Tra…
Escape from LaVille Review
Were you ever 'treated' to a book of puzzles as a kid? Maybe it was a gift from a well-meaning aunt or grandparent looking to provide you with something educational and entertaining at the same time. It's a bitter-sweet joy that's almost perfectly captured by the puzzle-adventure genre and while some games fall in to the 'sweet' category, others like Escape from LaVille tend to slide in to the other. After a brief expositional introduction you're dumped in to a locked room with nothin…
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DeathSmiles Upon Us In New Ways
DeathSmiles, the upcoming iPhone gothic shmup with arguably the most contradictory yet intriguing compound word name seen this week, is back on our radar with some fresh details from the developer. Bullet hell specialists Cave have revealed an additional game mode, a brand new character, and an absolutely off the chain soundtrack for this Xbox 360 port. In the iPhone-exclusive mode, you'll play as the curiously named Princess Tiara, battling your way through a plethora of evil witches haunting her otherwise pleasant kingdom of Gilverado. Cave haven't announced a release date yet for DeathSmiles, but it will be posted on the company's website soon. One thing is for sure, though, if Cave…
Bumpy Road Gets Bumpier With Update
Swedish two-man indie developer team Simogo have given players a reason to jump back into their compulsive and uniquely designed title Bumpy Road. With two new time-attack tracks for the game’s Sunday Trip mode and two entirely new Sprint and Marathon modes to play through, Simogo have really flooded Bumpy Road's engine. In a good way. Throw in the Brake Gizmo, a new obstacle that slows you down mid-flow, and you’ve got a more-than-tidy update package. We gave the “engaging and engrossing” Bumpy Road 5 out of 5 on release barely a month ago, so it’s not always a long and winding road when waiting for updates. It's worth noting, too, that Bumpy Road drove on…
dream:scape Review
The adventure genre in its most pure form has had its highs and lows, however an individual game's success isn't always based on the strength of its narrative. This is in part due to the way individuals approach gaming in general, be it through a narrative filter or one of the gameplay itself (for more on this search for Narratology vs Ludology). For those asking why I've delved in to gaming philosophy, I present dream:scape by Speedbump - a short, but gripping little narrative that ta…
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Zoo Keeper DX Touch Edition Aligns Itself With iPhone
A few weeks after one phenomenally popular handheld franchise roared onto iPhone, another portable gaming favourite crosses the platform divide. So, following the well received port of PSP hit Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, classic DS puzzler Zoo Keeper has been adapted for the iPhone by Kiteretsu. For those of you fortunate enough never to have succumbed to this legal gaming crack, Zoo Keeper DX Touch Edition requires you to remove the on-screen animal tiles by lining them up in rows and columns of three. Doesn’t matter whether the lines of three animals are horizontally or vertically – just so long as you ‘catch’ 100 of the critters. One note of warning, though…
Ducati Challenge Review
Motorcycle racers have come and gone with varying amounts of success on the App Store, but when most people have constant contact with four-wheeled vehicles it's not easy to convince them that two-wheels can feel just as natural in a virtual environment. Ducati Challenge by Digital Tales strides ahead of those that have come before, packing smooth controls and a realistic feel that players can ease in to as they master earlier stages of the game. Unfortunately there are no alternative…
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