Pinch: iPhone Game Review (a puzzle game by Coatsink Software)

Pinch is a 72-level puzzle game that is easy to learn but challenging enough to hold the attention of all levels of gamers.

Pinch contains six difficulty levels; each of which contain twelve levels. The first twelve levels are a tutorial level and are fairly quick plays. The next twelve levels make up the easy level and aren't a significant challenge. The medium, hard, harder and flux levels contain enough challenges to hold even the most experienced gamer's attention. The objective of the game is to get all of the "buttons" (called norbs) to the goal within the quickest period of time. The game uses OpenFeint to track scores on the leader board and manage game forums and chats.

There are a variety of challenges within the game which range from color-coded gates where your norb must match the gate's color to pass through, one-way walls, switches which open gates when depressed (which lead to the challenge of how to depress the switch and move your norb through the open gates; all at the same time), and chasms where your norb must be sufficiently sized to pass over.

The way to navigate through these top-level challenges is to "pinch" your nord apart and recombine it with other norbs to create either a different color or a different sized norb. You can also separate a norb into two or more smaller norbs to allow for a switch to be continually depressed while the other norb passes through an open gate.



Pinch is available for $.99 in the AppStore.

Links:
Coatsink Software

Future Fight: iPhone Game Review (Bloober Team)

I want to start this review by stating one of my biases - I like my warfare games to be 'shoot 'em ups' where the only strategy needed is to "kill everything while avoiding being killed". As such, Future Fight just isn't my cup of tea as the game play is closer to Risk (the board game) than Roswell Fighter or Assault Squadron. That being said, Future Fight seems to offer a lot for the strategy gamer.

Future Fight was developed by the Bloober Team, who had previously released the blood and guts WiiWare game Last Flight, and this game is a battle-only spin-off from upcoming iPad game Gender Wars. Piotr Babieno, one of game producers, commented that “Future Fight will focus on battle and will exclusively have Operations mode in which player will focus only on tactical management of his armies and fighting battles, so we decided that it will be better to establish new branch of games for fans of gameplay over storyline”.



Future Fight offers a 'Quick Battle' mode along with the core 'Operations' mode. To keep things interesting, there is also a hot-seat multi-player mode. With each turn, you get to chose one action that one ship within your fleet can take. These actions range from moving to a new position, firing upon an enemy ship, repairing one of your ships or bribing one of the enemy ships. Both your action and your enemy's action are executed at the same time so there is never a guarantee that an intended target will remain in its position. Each level ends when one side defeats all of the opponent ships on the board.

Future Fight is available for $4.99 in the AppStore.

Links:
Bloober Team

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

Babeorella - iPhone Game Review (doublesix)

I was at a kid’s party a few weeks back and got to relive my youth with a number of arcade game from the 90’s. Babeorella is an arena-style shoot-em-up / survival game that is very similar to the arcade game Smash TV. The story line behind this game is that you (Babeorella) have crash-landed on a planet inhabited by killer robots. In your best Jane Fonda-cum-Barbarella outfit, you have to fight your way through numerous waves of robot attacks.

Each wave of robot attacks gets progressively harder as new robots come after you and their weapons increase in power. To counter this, you start the game with the ability to launch three kinds of attacks – close combat, long-range and a ‘special attack’. For the first few waves, your primary weapon is going to be the whip but you need to pick up the upgrades and power-ups that are scattered throughout arena to be able to survive the upper waves. doublesix plays on a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor throughout the game as one of your weapons is named a “Bimbo Bomb” (and this does the most damage of all of your weaponry).

The controls are very similar to a console game where you move Babeorella by sliding your finger around the virtual ‘joystick’ control. The attack buttons are on the right side of the screen and the type of attack is automatically selected based on distance from your enemy. The “Special” button allows you to dash by your enemies with a Bimbo Bomb attack.

Like Smash TV, there is just one arena, but a DLC option within the game implies that future game boards will be forthcoming. To keep things interesting, there are several challenge modes within the game which you can start via the occasional exclamation mark that pops up on the map. Successfully completing these challenges upgrades your skills (which can be a life saver) and unlocks new costumes (which is a bit of a ‘ho-hum’).

Babeorella is available for $2.99 in the iTunes AppStore.

Zio - iPhone Game Review (by Glenn Marshall)

Zio is an interactive, organic art application that was created by artist Glenn Marshall and this application was used to create the visualization for Glenn's collaboration with Peter Gabriel, "The Nest That Sailed The Sky".



The "basic" application is available in the iTunes store for $1.99 and allows you to interact with three preset Zio Worlds. You can drag and rotate the images on the screen and you can "pinch" to zoom-in on the image. Where it gets fun is that you can turn on the audio mic and the images respond to the sounds in your environment. You can also save snapshots of any of the images to the photo library. To switch between worlds, you simply shake your iPhone.

To get full use of this application, you are going to want to upgrade to the Zio Studio (which is available as an in-app purchase for an additional $1.99). The studio offers 60+ editable parameters and five interface screens which gives you total control over your images.

Here is an overview of the Studio feature set:
- Size, shape and growth of branches,
- Particle motion and dynamics,
- Colours, shading and special effects,
- Audio reaction settings for individual graphics,
- Alter the underlying math algorithms,
- Camera tracking and motion,
- Watch Zio react in real time as you make changes,
- 10 user preset slots to save your creations and
- Full visual instruction and built-in help guide.

Links:
Butterfly/Glenn Marshall

Truck Modz - iPhone Game Review (Lotusland Studios)

Truck Modz is an interactive truck building game for the iPhone. While the game looks simply, it is remarkably clever and should be a big hit with the 3-5 year old set.

The game starts with a truck driving down the highway and the gameplay is all about how you interact with the truck. The simplest place to start is to make the truck go faster, slower, stop and back up, which is all done by sliding your finger across the screen. The sound effects are so realistic that my 5-year old spooked the driver when he was playing this in the car. You can also directly interact with the accessories on the truck by turning on the lights and siren, blowing the horn, raising the truck bed and more. There is also a CB icon in the bottom right corner of the screen which you can touch to hear some amusing banter.

Some of the 'gee-whiz' features are that you can shake your iPod and this 3-D game will show you one of four perspectives of your truck as it continues to drive down the road. You can also trick out your truck by selecting the wrench in the upper left corner of the screen. This takes you to the customization screen where you can re-paint your truck and you can swap out your wheels, cab and truck bed. You don't have to select pieces from the same truck style so you can have combinations like a cab pulling a giant hamburger or a combination of snow plow and dump truck pieces.



As an adult, my only complaint was that the background seemed somewhat repetitive. As a 'first app' for a junior gamer, Truck Modz is a winner.

Links:
Lotusland Studios

Super Newtronic iPhone/iPod Touch Game Review (Phantom EFX)

Super Newtronic is an addictive game that combines the basic elements of Breakout with a physics puzzle game.

Like Breakout, the concept is simple; you need to break all of the blocks on the screen. Where the fun starts is that you can either draw an energy line (which the ball will bounce off of) by sliding your finger across the screen or you can tap the screen and set off an explosion that will send the ball flying. If you tap and hold, you can charge up a larger explosion that will send the ball further. The catch is that you only have a set amount of energy at any one time (see the blue progress bar on the top-left side of the screen). Your energy recharges over time so you have to monitor how many lines you draw and explosions that you set off. If you run out of energy, your ball will break through the blue blocks at the bottom of the screen and you will lose that turn.

On top of having a limited amount of energy at any one time, your ball is subject to gravity, friction and all the laws of physics. One of the challenges is that it is difficult to get your ball into an 'endless' bounce on top of a block of bricks like you could do in Breakout.

There are two modes of play: an endless Arcade mode and a Challenge mode that has 50 unique levels and different possible game endings. Both levels have an online leader board system so that you can keep your competitive passions high.

In the arcade mode, your objective is to keep the advancing blocks from going off the bottom of the screen. Similar to games like Space Invaders, blocks slowly advance down the screen and the pace quickens as levels are successfully cleared. Adding to the complexity and challenge, a number of obstacles are introduced in the higher levels which include switches and gravity changing blocks.

The challenge mode is a time trial where you attempt to break all the blocks on the screen while the clock ticks down. There are nine different game endings based on the path you choose through the different levels within the challenge mode.

Super Newtronics is $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Links:
Phantom EFX

Tank Battle: Iron Warfare iPhone Game Review

Tank Battle: Iron Warfare is the latest in Tank Warfare games for the iPhone/iPod touch. Unlike some of the other games in this genre, Tank Battle is more action than strategy and it is easy to jump right in and start playing.

In Tank Battle, you guide your World War II style tank through a series of terrains to play a high stakes version of capture the flag. The goal within each level is to find the enemy flags which are positioned in different areas of the terrain (and directionally identified by the red flags in the sky) and park your tank in close proximity to each of the flags to give your 'men' time to lower the enemy's flag and raise your own. The primary challenge is that the enemy guards their flags and will start firing on you. While you have a number of allies and a heavy tank in many of the early levels, the number of allies decrease in the later levels along with your tank's ability to sustain a direct hit. To clear each level, you need to capture all of the flags. The game includes a training level along twenty additional levels of increasing difficulty.

One of the features that stands out in this game is the controls. You can guide your tank with almost pinpoint accuracy by using a combination of the on-screen directional arrows (see the bottom left corner of the screen shot) and the accelerometer. This precision is critical when you are using the Light tank (fast and nimble but weak) and you need to 'hit and run' when directly fighting the enemy. Other tank classifications are Medium (well-balanced) and Heavy (powerful and tough but slow).

Tank Battle: Iron Warfare is the first game developed by John Judnich, a 19-year-old college student at Santa Clara University near San Jose, California who is a self-taught videogame developer. The game is available for $1.99 in the AppStore.

iPhone Game Review: iSamJackson Soundboard (Heatwave Interactive)

Soundboard applications are an interesting genre as they seem to regularly pop up in the AppStore's Top Chart of Paid Apps. I'm waiting for the day when you can link these apps to ringtones or other device sounds.

iSamJackson contains a series of quotes spoken directly by Samuel L. Jackson. These aren't movie quotes as this is all new material. There are 100+ quotes in the base application but, to keep this app fresh, there are additional quotes packs (which allow you to add additional quotes to your library) that are available as add-ons.

The base application sells for $1.99 (clean version) or $2.99 (17+ explicit version) and the two 20-quote packs (MMO pwnership and Sports) sell for $.99 cents each.

Application features include:

Customizable Soundboard: Inject original and authentic Samuel L. Jackson quotes into conversation with quips that suit any occasion

Personality Scanner: With the scan of a thumb print, Samuel L. Jackson lets users know just what he thinks of them

Ask Sam: Solve the great dilemmas of life by asking any question and receiving instantaneous wisdom and advice from Samuel L. Jackson

17+ Explicit Version: Censor-free version for those who want to experience the full range of class and wit from the one-and-only Samuel L. Jackson

Clean Version: Expletive-free version for those who don’t want to upset their bosses too badly when they let Samuel L. Jackson’s comments flow during a staff meeting

Links:
iSamJackson

iPhone Game Review: Frogger Turns 29 / Adds Facebook Connectivity (Konami Digital)

Konami has done a lot to improve Frogger since its original release in 2008 (as a $9.99 app no less). Frogger is now .99 cents in the AppStore and it is a solid port of the original arcade game.

Like the original arcade game, the game concept is extremely simple. You have to move five frogs across the road and river and get them into each of five spaces at the top of the screen before the timer runs out. The space on the far left is the most challenging as your timing has to be near-perfect. This is certainly doable though as I got up to level four fairly quickly.

You control the frog by sliding your finger across the screen and you can move your frog from anywhere on the screen. (You have the option to change the controls to move your frog by tapping or tilting but controlling the frog by either of these methods is a dubious prospect that generally leads to a very quick game). As you complete each level, the obstacles grow. The cars on the road move faster, the turtles dive under water and there are snakes and alligators in the river.

Staying true to the original arcade game, Komani has added the option to switch the display to"Classic Graphics". On the more modern side, Frogger is now more tightly integrated with Facebook and offers a "Facebook share" function.

There is a reason that this game is on the AppStore's list of "Top 10 Paid Games" as it is a great game for whenever you have a couple minutes of downtime. For anyone like myself who spent more than a few quarters on the original arcade game, this price is definitely right for this application.

iPhone Game Review: Happy Tree Friends: Slap Happy (Publisher X)

The Wikipedia entry for the Happy Tree Friends cartoon series says "[d]espite its childish appearance, the show is extremely violent, with every episode featuring graphic deaths and/or pain. While the violence of these deaths is comparable to that of The Itchy & Scratchy Show (the short cartoon featured on The Simpsons), the portrayal of death in Happy Tree Friends is usually more graphic and anatomically correct, depicting bloodshed and dismemberment in more vivid and often exaggerated detail."

The game starts with a smiling doe-eyed rabbit that waves at you. You can take the nice approach and tickle the rabbit who then makes happy baby-like cooing noises or, staying true to the Happy Tree Friends series, you can abuse the rabbit in a variety of progressively destructive ways.

For starters, you can flick your finger across the screen to slap the rabbit. You can also shake your iPod/iPhone to bounce the rabbit off the walls, leaving him battered and bloody with each shake. After about half-a-dozen or so shakes, the rabbit falls down dead with an eyeball hanging out of one socket. At this point, you have to perform CPR or electro-shock to bring the rabbit back to life.

If bouncing the rabbit off the walls is too tame for you, you have three 'toys' which you can use to maim, mutilate and dismember the rabbit. You can use the saw to cut the rabbit in half, you can drop the pipe through the rabbit's head and, lastly, you can use the pair of spiked walls to crush the rabbit. In each of these cases, electro-shock brings the rabbit back to life and full health.

This game is definitely not for everyone but those with an off-beat/black sense of humor should enjoy this. It would be nice to see additional characters added in future versions of the game.

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.

Marine Sharpshooter - iPhone / iPod Touch Game Review (Groove Media)

Marine Sharpshooter is the latest first-person shooter (sniper) game added to the App Store. The game got a lot of attention when originally released as is was a free download and is now priced at .99 cents.

Marine Sharpshooter has a decent premise - "Dropped behind enemy lines, you must uncover and dismantle an elaborate terrorist plot to launch a series of co-ordinated attacks around the world. Your mission will take you from hidden outposts in desert cities to full scale military bases." There are five major missions within the game, each of which involve completing a series of objectives - clearing the enemy terrain of hostiles. In addition to having enemies who identify your position the minute you fire your first shot, you are also timed. You have to clear a set number of battlefields within the time alloted.

The problem is that a solid premise is marred by a flawed implementation -- the gun controls can often be sluggish and there is no zoom-in/zoom-out to help target your shots. Without having a zoom feature, you don't get a view of the whole terrain so your scope flashes red in the direction of enemy fire. While the key objective is to clear the enemy terrain, you are awarded points and the points system is somewhat bizarre. You lose 200 points for every missed shot but, when an enemy is hiding behind an object (window, etc.), these are the times where you have to point, rapid fire and hope for the best. My key complaint with Marine Sharpshooter is that the game play seems incredibly repetitive - every terrain has the feeling of 'sameness'.

While the game is certainly priced affordably, I'd recommend passing as I just couldn't find reason to keep playing this game. As a point of comparison, I played iSniper until I finished the game.

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

Oh, My Word! iPhone/iPod Touch Game Review (Mobile Pie)

Oh, My Word! is a very straight-forward game to get started with. The goal is to guess the hidden five letter word (which is the middle row in the screen shot) and, with each guess, you are told whether your guess falls above or below the hidden word in the dictionary. The challenge points are that you have a total of 50 guesses (and non-dictionary words use up a guess) and three hints (in total - not per word).

The problem with this game is that there just isn't enough here to hold my attention. I found myself guessing pluralized four letter and five letter words attempting to narrow down the word choices and I would often get to the point where the word bands (the upper and lower words) differed by two letters. The hints are also fairly non-helpful as you only get three for the whole game and you can only get a hint for one of the last three letters of the word. When too many of the hidden words seem to be plurals, it isn't much help to know that the last letter (or last two letters) are "S" (or "ES"). I tried the game multiple times and too often found myself trying to figure out a five letter word that falls between (i.e.) 'SHARES' and 'STARES'. While Oh, My Word! isn't a bad game, I'm not a Scrabble fan and this game didn't connect with me either.

Oh, My Word! is available in a free (advertiser supported) version and a paid version for .99 cents. If anyone is interested in trying the game, the free version will be more than fine for most people as it shows just one (slow to load) ad for Pearl Jam's new disc before the game.



Links:
Mobile Pie

iMEvil (from Techpad Productions) - iPod Touch/iPhone Application Review (featuring the voice of David Sobolov)

iMEvil isn't a a game but rather a soundboard application that features the vocal talents of David Sobolov. Sobolov's voice should be immediately recognizable to gamers as it has been used in dozens of games that include Call of Duty, Chronicles of Riddick, Halo Wars (the voice of Arbiter), Everquest and Unreal. In this application, you can play thirty-two different phrases that range from "Have You Been a Good Girl?" to "You Make This Too Easy"; all of which are delivered in Sobolov's classic horror movie voice.

While the concept of the application is very straight-forward, the challenge and the fun is in the havoc that you can cause using this application.

Check out this video of a prank call where the caller played some of the iMEvil phrases to a complete stranger.



iMEvil is available in the App Store for $1.99.

Links:
Evil Perfected (Game Website w/ Sound Samples)

HydroTilt XL (iPhone/iPod Game) is Now .99 Cents in the AppStore

I've downloaded a number of puzzle games over the last few months but HydroTilt XL is the only one that I'm still actively playing.

The premise of this game is that you have to guide a drop of water through various obstacles scattered across the game board to reach the goal point. You have crumbling blocks, grates, one way conveyer belts and air tunnels that can only be maneuvered by changing the drop of water into ice or steam. While this is an easy game to get started with, some of the puzzles require a bit of thought and planning to overcome. These puzzles add a unique twist and help HydroTitle XL stand out in the field of comparable tilt and balance game.

Since the game's original release, Publisher X has added a level editor and numerous additional levels. With the level editor, you can create your own levels which you can upload to iTunes for a chance to compete for cash prizes.

With the game now .99 cents, you aren't going to go wrong with this title.



Links:
HydroTilt XL Game Site