Manipulate Time in Causality, a Unique Puzzler
February 15, 2017 by RSS Feed
Causality ($1.99) by Loju is a puzzle game that has you manipulating time (but not space) in order to alter the sequence of events to change the final outcome. If you love mind-bending puzzle games like Splitter Critters and Mini Metro, then Causality is another fine puzzle game to add to your collection.
Lately, I’ve been playing more video games than usual to drown out the soul crushing burdens of what reality has become, and honestly, it’s been working out pretty well. A lot of my gaming is on my PlayStation 4 these days but every now and then I like to take a break and relax with a challenging puzzle game, because they’re one of my favorite genres. Even though I want to relax, I want to keep my mind stimulated in some manner, and what better way to do this than with puzzles? While it feels like I’ve played every kind of puzzle game there is on the App Store, every now and then something comes out that surprises me, and Causality is definitely the gem for me this week.
Visually speaking, Causality is downright stunning and gorgeous. The game features a minimalistic isometric aesthetic that is reminiscent of titles like Monument Valley and Minimize. No matter what device you’re playing this game on, everything just looks fantastic and crisp on the Retina screen. Despite the minimalism, Causality packs in plenty of fine details in the various alien environments that you’ll be playing in, and the character models for the astronauts are rendered nicely with smooth movement. Causality also uses a realistic “rewind” effect on the screen when you control time, which is fun to watch. The color palette ranges from soft pastels to brighter and more vibrant hues, and there are some lovely lighting and shadow effects that make everything pop out even more. Animations are fluid like velvet, so I experienced no lag on my iPhone 7. There is a soothing ambient soundtrack in the background that will help you focus on solving the puzzles, and the sound effects are delightful. It’s safe to say that Loju has done an excellent job with Causality’s visuals and audio, which I think alone make the game worth a purchase.
Like other puzzle games, Causality is level-based and has 60 puzzles for players to solve at the moment. These stages are split up across four different alien worlds, and even the level select screen is a sight to behold. The game does not have any stars to earn, but there is a limited time frame allotted,so keep that in mind. Completed stages appear in solid color on the map, whereas incomplete ones have an outline on them. Causality is also linear, as you’ll have to clear the current stage you’re on in order to gain access to the next one. The goal is simple: guide each astronaut to the exit square that matches their color. Once they have all reached their destination within the time frame, then you solved the puzzle. But time is complicated — you’ll need to work with your past selves and even deal with time paradoxes in order to reach your destination, and there are deadly aliens and other hazardous objects that stand in your way.
The controls in Causality are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. To make time move forward, just drag your finger down on the left hand side of the screen. To reverse time, drag upwards. Along the bottom of the screen is a line that represents the time frame for the stage, and upcoming hazards are indicated with an exclamation mark above the line at a certain point. The outlined circle shows you your progress when time is moving forward or backward. On each stage, you’ll find various obstacles along the square tile grids. These dangers include tiles that change your astronaut’s movement direction, dangerous alien tentacles that will break through loose floor tiles, electric boxes that need to be disabled by floor switches, and more. The tiles with arrows on them can be tapped on to change the direction they’ll be facing, which in turn alters the path of your astronauts who come across it. The key is to switch these tiles around while you’re in the middle of the time frame, because sometimes that’s the only way to solve the puzzle. That’s just one of the many challenges that await in the unique puzzles of Causality, and I’m absolutely loving it.
Since there are no movement limits or stars to earn in Causality, and just a time frame to worry about, it’s easy to rewind and undo a mistake you made. But if you prefer to restart from the beginning and try again, there is a restart button in the top right that lets you quickly restart the stage. The button above the restart option lets you access the game’s menu. And for those who like to strive for something in a game, there are 13 achievements available to unlock.
I’m still in the early stages of Causality, but this is certainly one of the most unique puzzle games I’ve found on the App Store. The game has a beautiful aesthetic that is calming, the music and sounds are pure bliss, and the controls are intuitive and responsive, indicating that this was a game that was optimized for touch screens. The puzzles themselves start off easy enough, but then things gradually pick up and become intricate and challenging. It’s just a perfect treat for puzzle lovers.
I highly recommend checking out Causality this week if you’re in the mood for a truly special puzzle game. You can find Causality on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for $1.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Photon Strike is a Fun Arcade Scroller for iOS
February 15, 2017 by RSS Feed
You may known of my penchant for tower defense games, but I also have a not-so-secret love for arcade scrollers. The good news for your time-sucking pleasure is that I found a new one called Photon Strike. It’s a solid vertical scroller for iPhone an iPad (I played on iPad) with good graphics and fast action. In fact, it’s very fast. It’s similar to others in the genre. You have to steer your ship (with your fingers), firing as long as your finger is on the screen. Waves of enemies fly around the screen, and you have to shoot/avoid them. Powerups are available throughout each level, and you get credits for each enemy you destroy for buying upgrades. It’s free to download, but for real-world cash, you can get yourself a whole heap of credits. You can also watch videos for free credits. Every five waves there’s a boss at the end. It’s ad-supported, but the ads go away with any purchase (the ads are not obnoxious). That said, this is the kind of game where I’m happy to pay to unlock ads to directly support the developer.
Check It Out: Photon Strike is a Fun Arcade Scroller for iOS
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6WX8olQYhw?feature=oembed&w=200&h=150]Source link: https://www.macobserver.com/cool-stuff-found/photon-strike-ios-fun-arcade-scroller/credit : macobserver
fire + rain Review: The Prettiest Weather App for iPhone
February 15, 2017 by RSS Feed
Fire + Rain is a gorgeous weather app for iOS. It may not pack in the most weather data nor do so as efficiently as it could, but its elegance shines through. Those who want basic information about the day or work week would do well to give this weather app a go.
Download Fire + Rain for iOS:
➤ Fire + Rain in the App Store (free)
In 2017, it’s extremely hard to argue that there is an even slight shortage of weather apps in the App Store. Just searching “weather” brings up hundreds if not thousands of results. Yet more seem to pour in every single day. Developers always think they have the perfect weather app whether by sheer number of features or the most impressive UI. Fire + Rain is yet another new weather app that clearly tries tackling the latter goal.
Fire + Rain has one of the most unique, yet gorgeous designs I’ve seen in a weather app. It almost feels like something that would fit in on a Windows Phone device. It comes with three themes: fire, rain, and Earth — each just change the color palette a bit.
Fire + Rain’s Gorgeous Design
Navigating Fire + Rain is largely done using gestures. Double-tapping anywhere on the screen switches between forecasts: hourly, the next 36 hours, or a full 14 days. Then swiping up and down scrolls through the timeline for that forecast. For instance, swiping through the 14-day forecast advances the weather details per day while swiping through hourly advances them per hour.
With each swipe, a new background takes over to express the weather conditions for that timeframe. If it’s going to rain, you’ll get a dark blue with some light rain drops. If it’s sunny, the background is a gentle orange. These colors will also depend on which theme you use, but I’m using the default which is fire — both by name and by colloquial description.
The app lists hours or days you already scrolled by on the right. They elegantly fade into the background the further along the timeline you browse. I also appreciate how an animation follows my finger as I swipe. It almost looks like I’m lightly ragging my finger through water.
Fire + Rain displays the weather conditions for the given time on the bottom along with an ellipsis to expand further details. Underneath that you can tap the current displayed location to change it or the search icon to find a new one.
Weather and Forecasts
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});If you’re looking for an in-depth weather app complete with radars and data customizations, you’ve come to the wrong place. Fire + Rain is not a weather app for the “pros” and it doesn’t try to be one. Instead, it gives you the basic information you need to get through the day.
Before you scroll through hours and days, Fire + Rain gives you current conditions at a glance. You can see the current temperature, what it feels like and a brief description of the weather. If you tap the ellipsis, you also get wind, wind gust, humidity and pressure. For periods when precipitation is possible, the app also gives you measurements for predicted rain and snowfall.
The app description in the App Store also says that push notifications let you know when rain or snow is coming down to the nearest 10 minutes. I didn’t get to test this out because it’s been pretty calm where I am, but I imagine it works similarly to Dark Sky.
Speaking of which, unlike many other third-party weather apps, Fire + Rain doesn’t get its data from the Dark Sky API. The Weather Network powers the app instead. TWN actually makes one of my favorite Apple TV weather apps both in terms of UI and accuracy, so I have no doubts that translates well here.
When compared to Dark Sky and data from The Weather Channel, Fire + Rain’s forecasts were quite similar. It’s hard to find wildly inaccurate weather apps nowadays anyway. Plus, if one forecast is inaccurate, they tend to all miss the mark. We all know that happens from time to time as well.
Gorgeous Isn’t Always Ideal
As pretty as Fire + Rain is, I do have one complaint about the UI. All the scrolling means it takes much longer to get the information you’re looking for. In other weather apps, you can pop in, get an immediate glance at the week, and pop out. Because Fire + Rain only shows one day at a time, that’s not possible here. You have to scroll to get to a specific day or hour, and even then you may miss it and have to go back.
It’s not a huge concern if you aren’t in a rush, but does have a noticeable delay compared to other apps. This is one aspect of Fir + Rain that seems to prefer form over function.
Ultimately, Fire + Rain is a gorgeous weather app for iOS. It may not pack in the most weather data nor do so as efficiently as it could, but its elegance shines through. Those who want basic information about the day or work week would do well to give this free app a go.
Download Fire + Rain for iOS:
➤ Fire + Rain in the App Store (free)
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Find Fame, Fortune and Dragons as the Maze Lord
February 13, 2017 by RSS Feed
Maze Lord ($1.99) by Crescent Moon Games and Jetdogs is a roguelike puzzle game that will have you using your noggin’ to traverse through a dangerous dungeon to face off against an insidious dragon. If you enjoyed games like Dungelot: Shattered Lands and The Nightmare Cooperative, then chances are high that you will enjoy Maze Lord.
Over the past few years, there is no doubt that roguelike puzzles have risen in popularity, and nowadays they’re pretty much a dime-a-dozen on the App Store. I’ve grown to love them since I was introduced to them several years ago, but let’s face it — most of them are the same thing with a different skin now. Despite that fact, I still enjoy seeing what’s new in the world of mobile gaming, so naturally, when I heard of Maze Lord, I was intrigued as it combines two of my favorite genres together: roguelike RPGs and puzzles. Plus, it’s from Crescent Moon Games, which is a developer that I’m a big fan of after releases like Legend of the Skyfish, Pocket RPG: iPhone Edition, and Shadow Blade: Reload, so Maze Lord was just another title I had to have in my mobile game collection. And I must say that Maze Lord does not disappoint.
In terms of visuals, Maze Lord features a rather cartoonish aesthetic that definitely reminds me of the Dungelot games. Despite the cartoon-like art style, the game is packed with fine details that include textures for the maze-style dungeon rooms, the lighting effects, and the nicely rendered character models for your protagonist and all of the different enemy types that you’ll be encountering. The color palette used ranges from bright and vibrant hues for character sprites and items to darker, earthy tones for the room floors, walls, and doors. All of the animations in Maze Lord are smooth and fluid, and character sprites come alive with bouncy idle animations. The game has an adventurous yet soothing soundtrack in the background, and the sound effects when you perform various actions is rather realistic. Overall, the developers did an excellent job with Maze Lord’s visuals and audio, in my opinion, and it’s one reason I’ll keep coming back to the game.
Unlike other roguelike games, Maze Lord sets itself apart from the rest by having levels (it’s more of a puzzle game), so it’s more of a pseudo roguelike in that matter. On the first launch, players will go through a brief tutorial that consists of the first few levels to explain the basics of the game. After that, you’re on your own to solve the puzzles and make your way to fame and fortune, as well as defeating a tough dragon. The goal of the game is simple: get your character through each room grid by making his way to the door in order to reach the next area. While it sounds simple enough, players will find that the labyrinth of the dungeon gets much more intricate and complex the further you go, and there will be many more obstacles and enemies that stand in your way. And unlike games like Dungelot, Maze Lord consists of actual puzzles that can only be solved in certain ways, so if you make a mistake, chances are high that you’ll have to restart and try to figure out the proper solution. Up to three stars can be earned on each stage as well, depending on how many steps it takes you to solve the puzzle, and netting three stars will get you special artifacts that can be traded in for rewards in the Shop. The number of steps you’re allotted is shown on the door that you need to reach.
Controls in Maze Lord are pretty intuitive and responsive. To have your character move, just tap on the square that you want to move to and, assuming that it’s possible, he will go towards that particular square. But as you go, you’ll encounter doors that require keys, and enemies that will take away a heart (you start with three) when you get past them by attacking. Potions will restore a heart, and sometimes keys need to be “bought” by trading a gold coin for it, so you have to get the coin on the stage first. If you get an item and don’t need to use it right away, it gets held in your stash, which you can access with a tap from the bottom of the screen.
Like I mentioned earlier, the further you get in the game, the more complicated the puzzles get, and sometimes there is only one specific solution to clear it. If you make a mistake, just tap on the gear icon in the bottom left corner to access the game menu, where you can choose to go back to the level select screen or restart the current level. For quick restarting, you can just tap on the restart button in the bottom right corner as well. Experience points are earned when you complete a puzzle, with more points awarded to you if you solve it in fewer moves. The artifacts you find can be exchanged for red crystals, which you can use to resurrect your hero if you die or run out of steps. As you are introduced to new game mechanics in the puzzles, new items become available for your use, like torches to get rid of spider webs.
I’m still in the early stages of Maze Lord but I’m enjoying the game a lot so far. The graphics look fantastic on Retina screens, the music and sound effects are fun and calming, the controls feel natural on touch screens, and the puzzle gameplay is rather challenging at a nice, gradual pace. This is certainly a game I’ll continue playing for a while.
I recommend giving Maze Lord a try if you’re in the mood for a little hidden gem among the roguelike puzzler category. You can find Maze Lord on the App Store as a universal download for just $1.99 for a limited time (30 percent off the regular price). There are no in-app purchases.
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Relax With a Hole-In-One in OK Golf
February 10, 2017 by RSS Feed
OK Golf ($2.99) by Okidokico Entertainment Inc. is a gorgeous puzzle game that will have you thinking about taking a vacation on lush golf courses and resorts. If you enjoy games like the Super Stickman Golf series but want something a bit more realistic, then OK Golf is one that could be worth checking out.
Look, I admit it — I’m not much of a golfer, that is, aside from mini-golf. I get bored when I see golf on television and honestly, I definitely can’t hit the ball in real life as well as other people I’ve seen on the course. However, for some reason I’m drawn to iOS games that involve golfing, probably because they usually end up being puzzles that need to be solved and I don’t need to exert any physical strength or look like a fool in front of other people. I’ve been a big fan of the Super Stickman Golf games from Noodlecake Studios, but that’s probably because they involve unique game elements in them that you won’t find in real life, and the puzzles themselves are great. When I saw OK Golf featured on the App Store this week, I was intrigued — since golf puzzles are the only way I can tolerate golf, I had to check it out. So far, OK Golf is a beautiful and solid golfing game but it does have some flaws that prevent it from being perfect.
Visually, OK Golf is downright stunning and exquisite. The game features dioramas in a low-poly aesthetic that is fully rendered in 3-D, and the courses that you’ll be golfing on are inspired by real classic golfing destinations. There’s also a subtle vignette effect around the screen edges that makes the graphics and colors pop out even more. OK Golf has a fantastic color palette as well, which ranges from bright and vibrant hues to darker, richer tones. And to make everything feel a tad more realistic, there are dynamic lighting effects, and a day and night cycle so that the courses feel more practical. Animations are smooth and fluid, so I had no experience with lag on my iPhone 7, though the controls leave a bit to be desired (more on that in a minute). The game does not have a full on soundtrack playing in the background, but it does have some nice nature sounds, such as chirping birds, to give you that calming feeling. Plus, there are some reasonable sound effects to give you that feeling that you are playing golf (but not really). Overall, I think that the developers did a good job with OK Golf in terms of visuals and audio.
As with other typical puzzle game fare, OK Golf is level-based and features four different golf course areas that have about nine stages in each. The developers have already promised more free courses and content in the future, so there is something to look forward to if you end up completing all of the available puzzles right now. On top of that, there are three game modes available: Free Play, Championship, and Timed, though you have to earn enough stars in Free Play to unlock the other two. Each course will have a different layout, of course, so the par will always be different but clear from the beginning. Depending on how well you do, up to three stars can be earned on each stage, and the goal is simple: get the ball into the hole in the fewest moves as possible. While you can go over the maximum par, doing so earns you bogies and nets you only one star, so it’s important to strive for the least moves.
The controls in OK Golf are pretty straightforward, though I think that it does feel a bit clunky at times. To hit the ball, just drag your finger back from the ball and you’ll see the trajectory line. The further back you go, the more force gets applied to the ball in the hit. If you change your mind, you can just reverse it to cancel. For power shots, just drag it all the way back, until the curved line turns orange rather than yellow. You can also pan the stage around by using two fingers, or rotate the diorama by dragging around anywhere on the screen with just one finger.
While the controls work alright, I found them to be a bit tedious to work with at times. This was due to the fact that it did not seem to respond well sometimes due to the angle I was facing, or I would reach the edge of my screen and it would reset itself. Rotating the map while trying to aim your shot is also inverted, so it completely threw me off. Plus, pulling the ball all the way back for a power shot meant jagged positioning, since it would suddenly jump a few feet from the end of the regular yellow line. Another thing I noticed was the fact that even if you aim your shot perfectly for what you think should be a hole-in-one, once you release your finger from the screen to hit the ball, it ends up being slightly off to the left or right of wherever you wanted it to go. Since the game does not have wind, this does not make sense. The physics also seem off, because the ball does not roll or gain momentum on parts of the course that are clearly sloped. I hope that the developers take some time to optimize and streamline the controls in a future update, because that’s what is keeping me from truly enjoying the game right now.
Despite my qualms with the game’s controls, I’m enjoying OK Golf for what it’s worth. Keeping up with current events and my personal life has been rather stressful lately, so I still find OK Golf to be a nice zone of zen for me when I need a break from reality. The game features some of the most elegant visuals I’ve seen for a simple golf game, and the sound effects are calming, which is always nice to have these days. I just hope to see improvements made to the controls in a future update, along with the promised free content.
If you’re in the mood for a relaxing little golf puzzle game, then I recommend giving OK Golf a try, but be warned about the controls. Hopefully that’s fixed sooner rather than later. OK Golf can be found on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99.
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