May 21, 2013

G5 hits us with another hidden mystery thriller, this one called Righteous Kill. It details the investigative adventures of Officer Vasquez and NYPD’s Vigilante Unit as they hunt for clues to prove the guilt of Terry Collins, who is suspected of perpetuating an extrajudicial execution of a criminal who escaped justice. It is loosely based on the movie of the same name.

It’s similar to a few other G5 games, but this one caught my eye because the premise is interestingly different. I was a detective tasked with solving a heinous crime by collecting clues.

This is where the hidden object element that the developer is renown for takes center stage. The clues were hidden in the scene mosaics that made up most of the game. I used an inventory list to assist me in the collection of the clues, which were all hiding in plain site. Every time I found an object, it was struck off the list automatically.

I think what sets the game apart is how the objects are hidden. The developer uses line perspective and projected lighting to create some well-camouflaged items. Graphically, the scenes were very intricate, with plenty detail which made seeking stuff a bit more of a challenge. For especially hard-to-find items, there was a rechargeable UV utility that highlighted the item, and the game had excellent cutscenes as well.

I especially liked the mini-games that popped up at times. They broke up the monotony of object-finding and enhanced the story.

My biggest complaint? Repetition. I got to a point that I felt the mystery got lost in the camouflage itself. I could have done with less doubled or tripled hidden bats. I think there was a major opportunity to really tie in the clue finding with the overall premise of the game, and I think, unfortunately, that gets lost as it progressed.

Still, it’s a pleasant game that taxes the brain function in an especially exciting way.

May 21, 2013

The turn-based strategy game is a perfect game for tablets and mobile phones. When you’ve got 5 minutes to spare, make your move and get on with your day. Sounds great, at least in theory.

With Wizard Ops Tactics, you’ve got such a game. You control 3 wizards, each with their own affinity and powers, and your job is to take out the other 3 wizards or control a magical orb on the map for 3 turns.

There’s some depth here, with there being plenty of different attacks and the ability to level up your wizards should you ever finish enough games. More on that in a bit.

It’s also a neat idea to have the locations of the battles have such an effect on gameplay, with poisoned water, hot springs and other natural hazards forcing you to rethink some moves. So whilst the game has a solid foundation and is built on a good idea, it’s hard to recommend.

There are a number of problems with this game. The controls are pretty poor and some elements of the game aren’t very well explained. To move your character, you tap on the wizard you want and then tap where you want them to go.

Sounds simple, but it’s drawn out and clumsy. Getting your characters to move and act takes much longer than it should, requiring tap after tap to confirm each action. Heaven forbid you want to cancel a maneuver.

The battles are always against another person – in either online or ‘pass and play’ mode. It’s online where you’ll be earning XP and money (to buy more units) and it’s online where the pace of the game just grinds to a halt.

Each move, as mentioned, takes an age and waiting for your opponent to move can literally take days. This removes all sense of urgency or consistency within each battle. Each time you load up a fight, you’ll do well to remind yourself of what you did last move or what your plan for the match was.

It also kills the game dead when every turn is punctuated by an advert that fills the entire screen and takes at least 20 seconds to disappear. It may not sound like much, but it truly kills any momentum the game has and stops any desire I have to play the game.

May 20, 2013

Ever wanted to roam about some dungeons, grab some weapons, go through more dungeons and pick up better weapons? If you answered yes, then Dark Avenger is the game for you.

You may have a good idea of what the game’s like if I were to explain it as Diablo-esque. You hack and slash at enemies, level up your character and pick up weapons and gold as you go.

The dungeons are pretty straightforward, essentially forcing you down a straight corridor. This is a bit of a shame for me, as half the fun of a dungeon is getting lost in it, exploring every nook and cranny and hoping to stumble across some hidden gold. This won’t happen in Dark Avenger.

What will happen though, is a lot of combat. It’s pretty simple, as for the most part you’ll simply hold down the attack button to perform a 3-hit combo repeatedly. The strategy comes in when you launch special attacks.

Special attacks unlock as you level-up and have their own special properties that will make you think about what 3 you want to take with you into the dungeon. Some will make you invulnerable from attack, some are long-ranged whilst others will teleport you across the room.

The enemies themselves are pretty varied. They’ll be quick or slow, defensive or offensive and they’ll have a variety of ranges from which they attack. All of this adds up to make combat a lot more engaging and enjoyable than it first appears.

With this type of game, it’s all about the loot and in Dark Avenger, you’re never far away from picking up some new gear. What you do with it is another matter as loot can be sold, upgraded using ‘forge stones’ or broken down to collect said ‘forge stones’. Yet another layer to Dark Avenger‘s gameplay that makes it that much more enjoyable.

Aside from plodding through level after level of dungeons, you’ve got a few other modes to keep things interesting. There’s a time attack mode that forces you to go through previously completed levels, but much faster as a timer’s counting down and the only way to keep it topped up is by defeating enemies. Your reward for this is the fact you get 20% more gold on the run-threoughs. Well worth it.

The three other modes are ‘Infinity Tower’, ‘Deathmatch’ and the newly released ‘Boss Raid’. These modes have a multiplayer focus and either see you working with or against other players.

As you’d guess, ‘Infinity Tower’ tasks you with going through floor after floor of enemies, all using one life. Each day, the person who makes it to the highest floor gets a reward, with other positions in the table also getting rewards.

‘Deathmatch’ is pretty poor. The game’s combat isn’t suited very well to this style of competitive play and it’s not very balanced. As a level 13 character you won’t have much fun against a level 23 character that you’ll no doubt come up against.

‘Boss Raid’ also has a multiplayer slant, in that you’re dumped into a room with 3 other random players and you have to defeat a boss much stronger than anything you’ve faced in the single-player game. There’s nothing tactical about 4 people attacking a giant creature at the same time, yet it still feels fun and rewarding after slaying these mighty creatures.

Dark Avenger doesn’t do anything new with the dungeon crawling, loot picking-up genre, but it does do it well. Very, very well.

May 17, 2013

How much muck could a muck chuck chuck if a muck chuck could chuck muck?

Chuck the Muck is a cool entry from KizStudios that merges nice graphics with easy-to-learn gameplay and a familiar scoring method.

Bob is the name of our protagonist in this one. A blob with attitude, Bob is described as a being with an appetite, and it seems to hunger for colored gems. It just so happens that these gems are not that easy to get to. Thus Bob’s job is to use the gooey stuff in his environment to solve the physics puzzlers that the the gem placements created.

The basic tool was a stretchy, springy “muck” that I could manipulate to a degree. Using it as a trampoline of sorts, I could use my finger to direct Bob in a pre-determined trajectory. This helped me collect the gems for three start score. Missing a target or a landing could lead to Bob’s demise. The controls mostly involved dragging, pulling to release and tap and hold.

As the game progresses, the puzzles get harder. There are guards (who could catch Bob/me) and different traps and tools made an appearance. For instance, I ran into diamonds that were conveniently placed in precarious spots, such that even if I did get the gem, I could drop into an endless abyss. Using movable ooze cannons in tandem allowed for me to figure out the puzzle. The power-ups (like guard uniforms to “hide” from the guards) make sense in the context of the game, and denote creativity. The store was well stocked with purchasables to enhance the game.

The scoring and gameplay are quite similar to that used in Angry Birds, with leveled gameplay and cumulative gem collection. I think it help that these elements make the game familiar, while allowing the gameplay ensure that it is not just another Angry Birds clone cloaked as something else.

All in all, it is a pretty nice addition to anyone’s gaming portfolio, and I do believe it has the best intro tongue twister in the history of gaming.

May 17, 2013

I can’t say that I expected much from Elements Battle. The name is about as unimaginative as it gets, the art looked pretty but uninspired and to top it off it’s freemium, which is a business model that I’ve never been entirely comfortable with.

As it turns out though Elements Battle is substantially better than I expected. The core game is a lot like Puzzle Quest. The bulk of it is a series of puzzle battles on a grid where three or more identical symbols must be matched each turn. Those symbols correspond to elemental spells which get fired at an opponent once enough of them have been matched. The opponent does the same and the winner is the one with health left at the end.

Outside of battles there are some basic RPG mechanics with quests to complete (though they all boil down to battles too), levels to gain and a store used to purchase additional spells and equipment.

Battles require energy to fight and that energy goes down after every battle (though it gradually goes back up again too if the game isn’t played for a while). Spells also need replenishing periodically and they won’t recharge on their own. Both energy and spells can be bought using in game currency, which in itself can either be earned from completing quests or bought with real money.

New players are given enough energy and money to play Elements Battle for quite a while. If played a lot eventually the freemium side will rear its ugly head and a point will come where it’s necessary to either spend real money or wait a while to keep playing, but it’s not as stingy as many freemium games as it gives players enough gold and loot for winning battles and completing quests that I never felt like I really needed to spend money to keep going.

Elements Battle controls well, there’s loads of content and there are even player versus player battles, though it’s not possible to communicate with other players, so it’s not that much different to battling the AI.

So far so good, but while there’s certainly a lot of game here it quickly starts to feel a bit repetitive, as it’s almost all battles and much of the time it’s necessary to fight the same or similar battles multiple times over to grind for quests or loot.

The battles themselves could be better too, as there’s a time limit of around seven seconds each turn, which I didn’t find was long enough to really think about a strategy. I’d have liked to be able to decide which elements to focus on or try and set up chain reactions by making additional matches from symbols that fall into the space cleared when a match is made, but generally there’s no time for that and often I found that I’d just have to go for the first match I could see.

Played in short bursts Elements Battle is good fun and won’t be too money hungry, but longer play sessions become repetitive and dull.

May 17, 2013

Sonic the Hedgehog is a classic, at least in the sense that it was the launching pad for a famous character. In reality, it’s a lot more like some bands’ first album: their later stuff is more refined, exploring their strengths better, to make for a better product. Such is the original Sonic game. Sonic 2 and 3 do a lot to make the series much better, so I must admit that when I heard that Sonic 1 was being remastered by Christian Whitehead and company a la Sonic CD, I was initially disappointed. But really, there was no reason to be: the tweaks and new features make this better.

Sonic should be well-known at this point. Run, jump, fight Eggman’s robots and contraptions (though he’ll always be Dr. Robotnik to me), and avoid those darn spikes. This is the game that started the classic formula, including the most underappreciated part of the series’ gameplay: the complex levels and challenging platforming that comes from their multiple layers.

The spin dash I have mixed opinions about: it makes the game feel better, but it makes certain sections much easier. This is especially true of the final boss, where dodging the sparks that come out becomes much, much easier thanks to the ability to quickly speed away from them on a dime. But hey, it makes the game a bit less frustrating, so it’s worth it, right? Plus, it’s just an option, so the purists can turn it off.

The other new features add a lot of value to the game. It’s possible to play as Tails and Knuckles, or even Sonic with Tails. Powerups from later Sonic games can be used. There’s a Time Attack mode. The cartridges for the three different versions of the game as well to be displayed when launching the game. It’s a minor feature, but for a project powered by hardcore fans who have gotten to work with Sega, it means a lot.

The controller support helps to make this a far-improved experience as well. A wide variety is supported just like in Sonic CD – the MOGA models are supported as are HID controllers, for example. The virtual controls are far from perfect, but at least they’re configurable.

Sonic the Hedgehog may not be the best game in the series, but the bonus content that comes along with it (in surprising amounts) is well worth checking out for fans both new and old.

May 16, 2013

Editor’s Note: As of publication, the game is only available for the Kindle Fire on the Amazon Appstore.

Sometimes we like predictability. We all know that NetherRealms make good software. We all know that the ‘Arkham’ series of games are a sign of quality. We all know that every single guard, policeman and security officer is absolutely useless in the city of Gotham and that it means villains are let loose on a regular basis.

Which is lucky for us, as these predictable factors come together to bring us Batman: Arkham City Lockdown. Taking place in the world created by previous ‘Arkham’ games, the game sees you playing as Batman as he beats up a bunch of escaped crooks and generally cleans up the streets. Not with a mop and bucket, mind, but with his fists and gadgets. You can expect to see favourites like Two-Face, Poison Ivy and The Joker. Also, keep an eye out for a certain Mortal Kombat character’s cameo.

Not only does the game use the ‘Arkham’ setting seen in previous games of the series, it also borrows heavily from ‘Arkham City’ as a whole. Not a bad thing, as Arkham City was a good looking 360, PS3 and PC game which makes this one of the better-looking apps I’ve seen running on a Kindle Fire. The same models and locations pop-up a little too regularly, but the quality of what you’re seeing can help you forgive the re-use of assets.

The worst offender of this re-use is the sound. Thugs spout the same lines over and over and the music’s on a fairly short loop. That’s what mute buttons were made for, right?

The game itself plays out like Infinity Blade, where you’re swiping the screen to dodge, punch, counter or use a gadget. The locations and combat offer some variety, with certain levels putting you under special conditions such as using no gadgets or clearing out a room in 60 seconds.

The gadgets in question (bat swarm, electric gloves, etc) can be upgraded as can Batman himself. You earn cash by completing levels and beating up thugs, as you’d expect, though this can be a problem as levelling up takes a while, forcing you to replay levels more times than perhaps you’d want to.

It’s also hard to say if it was me or the game causing an issue, but my swipes were mistaken as taps and vice versa. This is important as countering when you want to attack can make you lose your window of opportunity and punching when you want to counter will see you getting knocked out.

Minor control issues and forced replaying of levels aside, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown is a solid title that should please Batman fans long into the (Dark) night.

May 16, 2013

Zombies in games seems to be a fad that’s as unwilling to enter the grave as the re-animated corpses themselves. Still, every now and then you get a title that allows you to forgive this over-saturation. Into the Dead is one of those titles I’m happy to say.

The premise is dead (ha) simple. With no explanation you see that you’ve just scrambled out of the flaming wreckage of a helicopter. A helicopter that’s surrounded by zombies, no less, so you turn around and run.

And that’s the game.

Into the Dead is an endless runner, a game that has no end but merely goads you into running further and further each time by showing you how well your friends are doing.

It looks great. Not in a ‘loads of polygons’ kind of way but in a very stylish manner. The game is practically black and white, with colours being extremely washed out. There’s also some filters applied to the screen that make the whole world look dusty, gloomy and not very welcoming.

Running through an empty field would get pretty dull, no matter how stylish, and it’s lucky that the environment changes regularly enough to keep things not just visually interesting but the locations also affect playing. Cornfields will contain zombies hidden from view and a tree can easily be run into, causing you to stumble into the arms of a zombie.

The running and jumping is automated and this leaves you only having to worry about leaning your character left or right to avoid the zombies in front of you. Into the Dead allows you to choose a number of controller layouts, meaning you’ll either tap on the left or right side of the screen to lean or you can tilt whatever device your playing on. As someone that has to play games in public and hates tilting in the view of others, this was greatly appreciated.

To make getting through zombie-infested fields somewhat easier, there are crates you can run through to get a random weapon that’s inside. The weapons range from chainsaws to grenades and these weapons have their own strengths, weaknesses and range.

The weapons aren’t all available from the get-go, mind. You’ve got to level up which at set milestones unlocks extra content within the game. This is pretty well paced out and you’re never too far away from getting a new weapon. Levelling up will also unlock new modes, but these aren’t much different from the one mode you start with.

The previously mentioned ‘levelling up’ is completed by meeting set targets. These can be ‘kill 5 zombies’ or ‘run 1,000m without killing a zombie’ and are useful to force you into playing in a way you normally wouldn’t. The only issue with them is that they soon fall into the trap of setting ridiculous targets that stop your progress dead. Coins can be used to buy your way out of these missions, but you’ll want to use the coins on perks.

Perks are pretty simple, in fact there’s only (currently) 4 of them. A head start perk, start with a weapon, more ammo and more crates placed are all yours to use if you’ve got the coins.

Into the Dead manages to keep the zombie fad alive and is a great example of the endless runner genre.

May 15, 2013

Airplane simulations are always fun. They give folks like me who can’t fly aircraft an opportunity to, well, pretend to fly aircraft.

MAYDAY! Emergency Landing is cool, in that it ups the adventure quotient by not making me just a pilot, but one that has the ability to be heroic. In my own mind at least.

I liked the graphics that developer put together. Realistic coloring with defined shading made the cockpit out scenery look realistic. The screen was well used, with gauges and flight data spaced out well. The different environments and landing areas were interestingly crafted.

The controls were pretty nice. As I noted, I am not a pilot, but I assume that the beeping and flashing consoles mimicked the sounds and lights I’d expect. The accelerometer was the big piece here, with an onscreen throttle button as a permanent fixture. I liked how the flaps and landing gear buttons popped up at appropriate time, as did the buttons for braking and reversing thrust. They worked well with the onscreen gauges mentioned earlier.

The gameplay was direct; after a super-quick tutorial, I was off to the landing. There were mission-based levels, with plenty of varied conditions. On starting a landing sequence, i started in the air, already in descent towards a landing strip within view. Virtual arrows and green circles denoted the flight path, and I learned very quickly that it was a good idea to keep within the circles. I had an airspeed indicator to the right, and an altitude indicator to the left. Both glowed green when the recommended parameters were adhered to. They transformed to ominous shades of red when I was in danger; additionally, there was text and numerical values that popped up below… stuff like “faster!”. In addition, there was a helpful flight attendant that continually gave hints. These visual cues were well thought out in my opinion.

Bad landings ended up in catastrophe and opportunities to retry. Successful landings garnered a score based on lack of injuries and loss of passengers.

It’s a great game, despite the in-app purchasing system that allowed me to open up part or all of the game that could make some balk. So good, that I actually want to fly planes all the time now.

On my handheld, that is.

May 15, 2013

Soccer and the undead. Now that is a weird pairings. As much as soccer players fake injuries, it probably should not be too unexpected (zing! Hey… I should know)

Undead Soccer from Bulkypix merges The Beautiful Game and zombies in interesting fashion in this wave defense thriller.

The premise was simple. My protagonist’s fortuitous trip to the locker room saved him from becoming a zombie. Playing as him, I had to use soccer balls and related power ups to keep the hordes of zombies at bay.

The gameplay was fairly straightforward; zombies appeared in simulated groups and made their way to me. To survive, I had to use an unending supply of clicked soccer balls to knock them out. There was a delay between flicking a ball and getting a replacement, so accuracy was an important consideration. Occasionally, a power up icon would pop up. To claim it, I needed to “strike” it with the ball just as I would an incoming monster.

The power-ups were varied. Guns, rocket launchers, freezing utilities… even boomerang. They were all exhaustible, and each provided a unique and valuable advantage. I liked that there was a a degree of difficulty attached to getting the goodies even after uncovering them.

As the game progressed, the hordes got faster and craftier. The scenery progressed from the soccer pitch to docks, fairgrounds and other murky parts of the city. There was in-app purchasing, and I thought the game progress was slow without it. It’s a relatively cheap game, so I’ll try not to be too hard on the developer for it.

Graphically, the game had the zany look I’d expect from a zombie saga, with dark edges and coloring meant to elicit a sense of relentless foreboding. There was a simple elegance to the looks that was easy to appreciate. I was not the biggest fan of the animations, and I thought the opening sequences could have been a bit more refined, but all in all, it was far from shoddy.

For a simple game that can be very hard to put down, this is definitely a cool option.

May 14, 2013

Carmageddon is a carbonized road rage epidemic forced into a bottle. Do I dare shake it up?

Right from the beginning too, when I got to pick a racer from the very appropriately named Max Damage or Die Anna. I also got to choose from the inappropriately funny difficulty levels: “as easy as killing bunnies with axes, “normal everyday carnage” or *shudder* “harder than french kissing a cobra.”

Alrighty. I could tell this was gonna be an atypical ride on this Kickstart-ed reboot.

Without sugarcoating it, the game’s whole point was destruction. I had to jack up opponents and innocent bystanders and pedestrians for points. Practically anything moving was fair game; it was a massive downtown monster demolition derby. There was a premium on “splatting” people and being rewarded with a grievous splash of red. Destroying competing vehicles was preferred, with things like head-on collisions bringing me bonus points. At one point in the first race, I found myself in a stadium with scurrying football players. Earned time bonuses prolonged the time I ha to finish the course.

Even the bodies of water hid interesting secrets, some of the explosive kind. The vehicles were submersible, too.

Option-wise, there was a decent amount of variety. There were plenty of different cars to be had, 30-some unlockable picks. I liked that I could tweak the controls so completely, ticking between stuff like using tilt controls our simply using onscreen buttons to steer. The different scenes added to the overall feel.

The graphics were suitably grim. I thought the cars were well done, as were the cityscapes. I felt some elements could have been a tad more refined. The water was turgid in appearance, and I thought the people looked robotic in their movements. Some ran into me in a stationary state, though to be fair, I think the same occurred in the original PC port.

Putting on my daddy hat (and being overly protective), my biggest fuss is that the soft gore, cartoony as it was, still probably precludes younger patrons from playing it.

With the developers’ attitude, it is hard not to like this game, or see it as an awesome value. Career Mode is the perfect option for little bit morsels of long term time-killing, and Carmageddon brings back the 90s in a big way.

May 13, 2013

Survivalcraft is an interesting sandbox adventure that is very reminiscent of the sandbox cross-platform game Minecraft.

To be honest, it was pretty hard to see Survivalcraft outside of the shadow if the game it’s cloned from. A lot of the elements were similar. A careful look, however, did reveal things that made the former somewhat unique in its own right.

The game came in three modes: harmless, challenging, cruel, and creative. I was also able to tweak the conditions of the world in some of the game modes by toggling living conditions, weather and even time changes. There were a lot of options that changed the feel of the game, and thus increased the playability of the game. Folks familiar with Minecraft won’t be disappointed.

The basic premise played out like a Mark Burnett-inspired reality show: I was marooned by a sea vessel on an unfamiliar island, and had to use my ability to adapt to survive. The playing perspective was first person, and the graphics were a combination of block shapes and stark colors. The animations were purposely stilted, and the appearance gave it all an understated charm. I could toggle views (like from first to third), and was able to move and crouch with the controls, and swipe to turn or glance around.

Now, a lot of the gameplay depended on the mode selected; basically, I had to do what was necessary to survive. The developer did a good job of making the gameplay feel realistic; crouching in water was lethal, as was being unprotected at night or not procuring and consuming enough sustenance. Mining and creating things out of my immediate surroundings helped me survive, as did avoiding natural dangers that lurked.

The thing I liked best about this game was the infinite perspective. I liked the ability to use stuff like electricity, horses and electricity.

For a clone, it was fun to play, and as noted, wasn’t a mirror image, which made it worthwhile to try.