Stranded Without A Phone - iPhone Game Review (Gilligames)

Stranded Without a Phone is a pretty cool desert island survival RPG game. The premise of the game is that you are the only survivor of a spaceship crash on a planet that is almost completely covered by ocean. You must develop survival skills and build shelter, find food and drink, and collect salvageable parts from the wreckage that washes ashore. The short-term goal of the game is to find enough food and water to survive past Day 3; the long-term goal is to use the parts that you find to build a radio and call for a rescue team (which wins the game).

The game play of Stranded Without a Phone should be very familiar to PC gamers. You move your character around the island by tapping the screen in the direction that you would like to go as you search for food, water and items that can help rescue you. Berry bushes are of immediate assistance as they can ward off hunger and you also need to search for items that can be used to construct more complex tools (rope, nets, radio parts, etc.) that can help with your rescue. There are over 70 potential inventory items and the game provides details on which items/parts you need to construct other, more complex tools. One of the challenges is that you can only carry six items in inventory unless you create the means to carry additional items.

The game has a day and night cycle so you need to manage your hydration, nutrition, injuries and health on a "daily" basis (see the right-hand corner of the screen for the health monitor). You also need to manage your sleep cycle and one of the challenges is that you can't get sufficient sleep if you aren't healthy.

Stranded Without a Phone takes a few tries to make your way through the game but it is addictive so you can easily spend a couple of hours with this game. Each time that you play the game, the island map is regenerated so the game (and its inherent challenges) don't get old quickly.

Stranded Without a Phone is $1.99 in the iTunes Store.

Links:
Gilligames

Galactic Bowling: iPod Touch / iPhone Game Review (Perpetual FX Creative)

Galactic Bowling - App Store Link ($4.99)

Galactic Bowling is a well-done port of Perpetual FX Creative's inter-galactic bowling game for the PC. I have to give kudos to Perpetual FX Creative as this port maximizes the capabilities of the iPhone/iPod touch platform. The game has great graphics, four well-defined characters (all with full back-stories) and the 'inter-galactic battle with aliens' story-line actually fits within the framework of this bowling game.

Here is the official story line: "Since the dawn of time there has been a balance between light and dark energies. For as long as can be remembered each side had a planet that was tied to the fate of these energies. The "Dark Planet" Eosp-B served as the center of dark energy for the universe. It was ruled by one known as the "Dark Queen", Lucindall Evveril. Just as there was a Dark Planet, there also existed a planet of light energy. In order to maintain peace the Dark Queen placed her daughter, the Anubis Princess, in a position of power to watch over the planet of light. By doing so, the Dark Queen was able to have control over all of the dark and the light powers in the universe.

But, the day came when the dark planet began to decay and die. The dark planet beings began losing their energy and their powers. Out of desperate need for survival, the Dark Queen built a magnificent ship capable of harvesting all the power from entire planets. The queen knew she would not be allowed to destroy all life in the galaxy, so she created the ultimate tournament to decide which planets would be spared from death. Each planet would appoint one of their own to travel the galaxy and compete in the Galactic Bowling League. Earth had only four people brave enough and crazy enough to accept this heroic challenge: John Dire aka "The Air Strike"; Kendra Klein aka "The Striking Beauty"; Max Fortner aka "The Lucky Strike"; and Shaniqua Stevens aka "The Cobra Strike".

The winner of the Earth League will earn the right to compete against the clever and fierce aliens in the Galactic League, tough opponents, each trying desperately to save their home planets from total destruction."

The game has three distinctive play modes (solo, regular and battle) and eleven lanes to play on. On the first few levels, you compete against the other players from Earth on standard bowling lanes. As the game progresses, the locations change and the lanes get more complex. There are obstacles on the more complex lanes which include such things as fire, loops and worm holes.

The player controls are fairly straight-forward as you are able to position your player by using a horizontal slide bar at the bottom of the screen and you can set the angle of approach with a vertical slide bar. The physical bowling motion takes place by tapping a power meter to set the strength of the throw prior to tapping the bowler him/herself. Don't worry as this all probably sounds a lot more complex than it really is. The quick summary is that you can get bowling right away without having to learn any complex moves but there are features (like the vertical slide and the power meter) that allow you to finesse your approach. Once you throw the ball, you can use the the iPhone's accelerometer to put some spin on the ball while it is in motion.

With each throw, your "power-up" meter starts to fill - the more pins you knock down, the faster it fills up. Once filled, you can bowl a 'special' ball that automatically clears all the pins standing. You can unlock other special balls as you progress through the story which include extra speed, extra power and the ability to split your ball in two. Like Guitar Hero, you even can earn various types of 'whammies' which you can use to disrupt your opponent's game.

Galactic Bowling will hold your attention quickly but there is more than enough here to warrant many repeat plays.

Robocalypse: iPhone/iPod Touch Game Review (Vogster)

Robocalypse is a new game from Vogster Entertainment that combines elements of real-time strategy (RTS) games with arcade style "shoot 'em up" which makes for a very enjoyable game.

The plot of the game is that an accident happens at the Thermidoom factory and the A.I. routines of polite, state-of-the-art toasters are accidentally installed into Thermidoom′s other product line - Killer Military Robots. After unleashing these evil (but polite) robots who are bent on destroying the world, uber-geek programmer Myron Mako creates a new batch of robots and implants their memories with brain scans from retired WWII veterans. The game action takes places as you (Myron) command these robots in their fight against the evil Demolisher robot and his minions.

There are two main features that separate Robocalypse from many of the other RTS games on the market. The first is that the game doesn't take itself too seriously. The story line, cuts scenes and voice-overs add a welcome element of humor to the RTS genre. The storyline was written by Jay Lender (SpongeBob Squarepants) and Micah Wright (Angry Beavers).

The second feature is that the game is infinitely easier to get started with than many comparable RTS games. Many of the RTS games that I've recently played require a multi-hour commitment to be able to accomplish much of anything. Often these same games require the same time commitment to get out of the 'preamble' (outfitting ships, men, exploring the initial local, etc.) and into the main storyline. You can get through the first of the seventeen missions in Robocalypse fairly easily and learn the game as you play.

There are seventeen missions within the game, each of which includes both primary and secondary assignments along with hidden objectives that you can uncover through exploration of the terrain. You have six heros that you can directly control (heros can be built in a 'Hero Factory' - which requires you to have sufficient scrap metal and batteries) and a number of bots (Builder, Soldier, Medic) which you can control by placing 'action' and 'defend' flags on the screen. Once again, you need to have sufficient resources (scrap metal and batteries) to maintain your army and its factories. Missions range from the straight-forward destruction of enemy bases/structures to the time-boxed objectives where you need to defend a structure or area for a set amount of time.

Robocalypse was released earlier this month at a price of $4.99 but is currently on sale in the AppStore for $2.99.

Links:
Robocalypse Game Site

Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships Game Review (Playlogic)

My gaming background is probably relevant to this review so let me start there. Over the last few years, I’ve been predominately playing shooter and puzzle games so I can’t compare Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships to any of its RPG contemporaries.

The game starts with an interesting premise as you have an open-ended story line (rather than getting forced down a single-threaded story line like RPG games I’ve played in the past). You can choose between one of three characters, merchant, corsair, or adventurer, and each of these characters has a different storyline. Once you select your character, you can customize his abilities (using the new PIRATES role playing system – more on this later) and choose to fly under a country’s flag or simply roam the seas as a pirate.

Two of the three story lines start with you awakening on a ship in state of amnesia. The third character starts as a physician who provides support to the rebels. Here is where the open-ended story line comes into play -- every choice that you make affects the story’s outcome. These choices range from interacting with the colonial powers (which include governors, bankers and townspeople) and the missions that you complete (or fail to complete) and your interactions with your own officers and crew.

The choices you make in configuring your character’s abilities also influence the short and long-term outcomes in the game. The PIRATES role-playing system allow you to set your character’s Power, Impression, Reaction, Authority, Talent, Endurance and Success. While you gain in abilities with each quest and task that you successfully complete, it is advisable that you start the game with configuration that will support you in initial battles. In my first play-through, I died fairly quickly battling four of the undead in a jungle cave. While I liked playing as a corsair, you can chose to focus on trading and play as a merchant, which avoids a lot of the hand-to-hand and sea battles.

Age of Pirates 2 is an extremely detailed game and the number of quests (40+) should keep a gamer busy for weeks and months. The game comes with a map of the Caribbean and this new ‘game board’ is supposed to be 3 times the size of the previous Pirates’ “Caribbean Tales” title. Once you get through these quests, the game comes with a quest generator so this isn’t a game that you are going to play once and put down.

Taking a look at the ‘mechanics’ of the game, both graphics and sound are solid. The graphics aren’t pushing any boundaries (the game reminds me of the Ultima games that I played a few years back) but I have no complaints and sound fits well into the background of the game. My only complaint was the game controls, as you need to move and fight using a combination of the mouse and keyboard. I don’t know if this is standard in other RPG games but the game movements took me a while to get used to. I found myself getting overwhelmed in battle quickly until I got used to these dual-handed movements.

Overall, Age of Pirates 2 is good stuff and will likely appeal to fans of Civilization and Risk.

Flight Control - iPhone/iPod Touch Game Review (Firemint)

Flight Control is currently one of my favorite games and it is well worth the (current) .99 cent price.

The game's premise is deceptively simple; you are an air traffic controller and you have to land red and yellow planes and helicopters on their appropriate runways. You use the touch screen to draw the landing path for each plane. It is easy to get going with this game and that is what makes it additively challenging.

Landing the first 20 or so planes is reasonably straight-forward but, after that, planes start appearing from all sides of the screen...and many of them are queuing for the same runway. The other challenge is that the different types of planes fly at different speeds so it takes a careful eye to set and modify the flight paths for each of the planes to ensure there isn't a mid-air collision.

The ability to pause the game is nice but appleiphoneapps.com posted that Firemint is going to update the game on Friday (April 24th) to include online highscores and the ability to save your game.

While there is only one level of play, I haven't gotten bored of the game after many repeated plays (which says a lot). There is a good reason that Flight Control is the top selling game in the iTunes App Store.

Links:
Flight Control (iTunes App Store)