Touchgrind iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 27, 2008


Touchgrind for iPhone is a skateboarding game that’s pretty difficult to master. It will take some time and frustration to get the hang of. Once you do though, you’ll have the joy of pulling off moves and getting multipliers to get the most points possible. You control your board with two fingers, one on the back and the other at the middle of the board. There is a little tutorial mode you can try out at the beginning to see how the controls work.

The graphics look very nice and the sound effects are pretty realistic.

The huge problem that stood out at me for this game was the fact that you are zoomed in so closely and can only see your board that it’s hard to get a feel for the skate park and where the rails and ramps are located. This makes it very hard to line up the board to pull of tricks precisely. If Illusion Labs could somehow figure out a way to remedy this problem, I think it would be a lot more enjoyable than the current set up. A split screen where you’re board is on the bottom and a more zoomed out shot of the skate park on top so you can actually see where you are going would be fantastic.

Just be prepared to spend some time getting used to this dynamic in Touchgrind.

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Arcade Hoops iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 22, 2008

arcadehoopsArcade Hoops by Skyworks looks and plays like those mini basketball games in the real arcade. Unfortunately, it isn’t as fun. The graphics are nice and the sound is serviceable. The replay value suffers tremendously for this hoops game though. There are only two modes that you can play which are Classic and Progressive.

Classic is where the goal stays still and you have 45 seconds to sink as many J’s as possible.

Progressive starts with 99 seconds on the clock and the goal very close. After 33 seconds it moves to the middle distance, and the last 33 are three pointers. You can save your high scores for each mode.

I would like to see some more variety like the goal moving left and right and changing speeds back and forth. As it stands right now, it’s too easy to score a bucket. I would also like to be rewarded for great shooting percentage. This is a complete non-factor and can’t see how they wouldn’t have worked that into the scoring system somehow.

Arcade Hoops could have easily been a free game with some advertising thrown in during play. For free, I might be able to enjoy this one a little more, but not for $1.99. I would pass on Arcade Hoops for now.

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Fieldrunners iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 22, 2008

Fieldrunners iPhone Tower Defense GameFieldrunners is a tower defense type game for iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s, made by Subatomic Studios. For those that have no idea what a tower defense game is, allow me to explain very briefly. There is an entrance to your fortress on one side, and on the other is where enemies come into the gaming area. Your goal is to make it as difficult as possible for enemies to make there way to your fortress’ entrance. Once 20 enemies breach your entrance you will be defeated. You do this by buying weapons that you arrange into a maze like pattern. There are four weapons ranging from cheapest to the most expensive, a machine gun, a goo gun (slows down your enemies for a little bit), a missle launcher and a zapper. Every time you kill an enemy, you get some cash to add to your gauntlet  or upgrade  your weapons. Did you place a weapon in the wrong position that easily allows penetration? Don’t worry, you can remove it and place it somewhere else for better fortification.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous (especially the opening menu presentation) and the sound is just as good.

Replay value is about the only thing Fieldrunners falls short in. There are two maps with three difficulties. You also can unlock an endless mode for each map. However, this could become boring after a while.

Overall, this game is wildly addictive. I found myself playing to level 100 on easy for the first map. It took about an hour or so of straight gameplay. But it was fun all the way. More maps and weapons would be a great addition that I’d like to see Subatomic Studios plan for a sequel. I had such a good time, and have no problems spending $4.99 on Fieldrunners.

Posted in 8, Games, Strategy | Leave a comment

Enigmo iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 18, 2008

Enigmo Game for iPhone screenshotFor those that love a challenging and cerebral iPhone puzzle game, Enigmo from Pangea Software should put you in heaven. This is a brilliantly designed game and the goal is to gather 40 water droplets into a container. Some levels have multiple containers that you must fill simultaneously. If you stop the flow of droplets into any of the bins, the already accumulated count decreases, so KEEP THE DROPLETS FLOWING!

Liquid drops from a main container and you must position certain tools (trampoline like things, sponges, steel planks, among other objects) to go over walls to reach the end container. The tools are pretty easy to get the hang of after a few tries.

This game requires a good deal of patience to position elements just so. It’s all about angles and you have to be fast to get the most possible points per level. You are able to zoom in pretty closely if needed in order to rotate the tools to your liking. There’s not a “right way” to accomplish the goal on each level and you get bonus points for not using all the tools given. So you get to flex your creativity and try out all the options you can think of.

The graphics are very nicely accomplished and the sound effects are great, even though there isn’t a lot of variety.

Enigmo scores very high on the replay value. 50 levels are included in the game from App Store, which should provide many hours of puzzle solving addiction. And if that wasn’t enough to get your fix, you can also download extra levels that are user-added from Pangea’s site. They say there’s another 300 for you to plow through, so go nuts.

One thing that bugged me while playing, was the difficulty of rotating a tool versus moving it to another location. Also, I lost a couple tools on some of the puzzles. I think they get behind the walls and its hard to see them if you let them go.

Overall, this is a fantastic strategy game that requires patience and fast thinking. If mindless, time wasting type games are your style, I would pass on this one. However, If you like solving things in unique ways, Enigmo should be perfect and is a must buy at $1.99.

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Chopper iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 17, 2008

chopperIf you like your action games with a side of strategy and skill, Chopper is for you. It’s a side-scroller where you pilot a helicopter and are given mission objectives to accomplish by maneuvering your chopper around and over buildings. The missions consist of landing and rescuing hostages from enemies. You have the ability to kill combatants (who are armed by the way and will fire missiles at you) with a bomb that you can drop straight down over your current location or a machine gun that you can shoot from a ways out. After picking up the specified number of helpless people, you fly back to your base and drop them off to complete the objective. You get three lives but can accumulate extra if you gain enough points as the game progresses.

A great feature of Chopper is the absolutely non-existent learning curve due to the controls being very intuitive. I immediately picked up on how to play and jumped right into the action. Tilt the iPhone up to ascend and left and right to travel in either direction. To drop a bomb, tap the icon at the top left and to fire your machine gun, tap and hold the top right.

Graphics for Chopper are fairly basic. You have 3D buildings and a ho-hum background and sky.

The sound in this game is nicely done, but there isn’t too much going on. There is the rat-a-tat-tat of the machine guns, explosions of the bombs and crashes when you hit a building. I love the sound enemies make when you kill them. Pretty funny!

You’ll get some pretty good replay value out of Chopper since it has twenty levels and you can progress through normal, hard, harder, and pacifist difficulties. There is plenty to keep you challenged for a while.

Overall, I had a blast playing this side scroller. I think it’s a solidly designed game by Majic Jungle Software and well worth the the sale price of $0.99 they have going on right now.

Posted in 8, Action, Games | Leave a comment

Wave Blazer iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 16, 2008

Wave Blazer iPhone Game Review ScreenshotWave Blazer from Polarbit is a twist on the standard street racer with its power boats on water. There are 10 courses with jumps, turns, tunnels, and power ups to keep you busy. Its controls are merely left, right and brake by default, meaning you don’t get to control the boat’s acceleration. You can brake by tapping the bottom of the screen; nice when you have to make a tight corner or hit a turbo boost power-up. On a game like this though, I would love to see a thumb control that lets you adjust your speed or braking at anytime while using your other hand to steer. In the options, there was the ability to turn off auto accel, but it was too hard to figure out how to make that work once I started racing. My boat just sat there motionless after doing everything I could think of to make it go. This is where that thumb control would have come in handy.

You are given a variety of boats to choose from, all with different attributes that make them unique. Only one is unlocked at the beginning. To unlock the rest, you have to finish in the top three on courses in Grand Prix mode. Current Position and Lap info is at the bottom left of the screen with a pause button on your right.

There are three modes for your enjoyment: Grand Prix, Time Trials and Arcade.

Grand Prix is pretty much a “career” mode. This is by far the most fun area of the game since you actually get to race against other boats. You start off with the easiest course and work your way up, having to finish at least third to move on and access new boats and courses.

Time Trials allows you to try and beat your previous course and lap records with a ghost boat showing your last best time. I thought that was a nice touch. The first two courses are open, and the rest are locked. To unlock the remaining courses, you must finish in the top 3 on all open courses in Grand Prix.

Arcade mode is simply trying to reach checkpoints along a course before time expires. For a beginner, this posed a bit of a challenge until I got used to the gameplay. After successful completion of one race, you move directly to the next course.

Wave Blazer’s graphics are not too special. They lack the polish that would have really set it apart in this department. I did appreciate the reflections on the water however.

Sound effects for Wave Blazer are lacking. The splashes all sound the same and the boat engine isn’t anything to get excited about.

The multiplayer option is to play against other Wave Blazers around the internet. You have to set up a userid before you start.

Replay value is limited to besting your records after you place 1st on all courses in Grand Prix mode and online multiplayer for those that are into it.

One of my gripes has to deal with initials input after you set a course record. The touch area is small, and you have to slide from one side to the other to scroll through the alphabet and find your letter. Also, it forces this on you every time. It would be nice if the game brought up your most recent initials from the last time you set a record, and allow modification or save from there. That’s minor, I know, but a pain if you like to do that kind of thing.

I was initially cold to this game, but overall started to warm up to it after I got the hang of it. The Grand Prix mode is where it’s at. If you liked the old Hydro Thunder arcade game, you should definitely try this one out. At $1.99, it’s worth the price, but I’d be hard pressed to pay much more than that without some better controls and maybe a few morse courses.

Checkout Wave Blazer in the App Store.

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Touch Hockey iPhone Game Review

By Ryan | December 15, 2008

touch-hockey
Touch Hockey for iPhone is a fun and addicting game if you don’t watch out. Developed by FlipSide5, it plays just like that air hockey table at the local skating rink with the only exception being you use your finger obviously. Smooth animations and a fairly capable AI player make this great for a mindless time waster if you’re by yourself. However, if you want to go all multiplayer action, this game has it. Your multi options include you on one side of your iPhone and a friend on the other, or you can play over a wifi connection if another iPhone is in range and has the game as well.

The graphics are decent, but you don’t really expect  much from an overhead view of an air hockey table.  They work.

The sound is actually one of my favorite features of this game. Audio engineer, Russ Kuba, did a great job with the sound effects. It sounds just like real air hockey from the puck sliding across the table and hitting the mallets to it racing past your opponent into the goal. It certainly enriches the gameplay and I miss it if I happen to play with my phone in silent mode.

Replay value is high based on the fact that you get a couple cool settings to play with. The total score that you have to get to to win is variable at 5, 7, 9, and 11. You can also adjust the size of the goals for yourself or your opponent. If you find that you’re beating the pants off the AI, select a smaller width goal that you have to shoot against and adjust yours to the widest (there are three goal-width settings).

Overall, I really enjoy playing Touch Hockey. They have a free, ad-supported version (the ads do not get in the way of the game, but instead come up every time you start a new game and then you just close them out; they can take some time to load if you’re on a spotty EDGE connection), and a retail version for $1.99. By all means, try out the free version. What have you got to lose?

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