Tear the World Apart to Get Cute Aliens Home in Splitter Critters
February 01, 2017 by RSS Feed
Splitter Critters ($2.99) by RAC7 Games is a refreshing and completely original puzzler that will have you tearing it apart just to solve each puzzle. If you love puzzle games but are craving something different from the norm, then Splitter Critters is one you must check out for yourself.
With all of the stressful events in the past two weeks, I’ve found sanctuary in video games as a way to take my mind off things and just escape reality for a few hours at a time. A lot of my gaming has been just on Diablo 3 on the PlayStation 4 with my boyfriend, but I like to take a break from that as well and just relax with some puzzle games on my iPhone 7. While it may feel like I’ve gone through all the different kinds of puzzles available on iOS, I was intrigued with Splitter Critters the moment I saw it featured on the App Store, and I knew I had to check it out for myself. I think it goes without saying that Splitter Critters definitely does not disappoint, especially if you already enjoy puzzle games.
Visually speaking, Splitter Critters is gorgeous. The game is rendered in 2-D with a minimalistic paper-craft aesthetic that is soothing and beautiful to look at, especially on your Retina screens. And due to the unique paper-craft style, some objects in the environment appear layered and the hues range from light to dark, giving the graphics a bit more depth despite being 2-D. The colors in Splitter Critters ranges from soft pastels to lush greens to darker and richer tones, so the wide color palette makes sure to set the tone for each area that you’re in. The visual for the tear in the stage is realistic and makes it all feel even more like paper-craft, which I love. It’s distinctive and stands out from the crowd. Animations in Splitter Critters is smooth and fluid, with no lag on my iPhone 7. To top everything off, the soundtrack is atmospheric and immerses you in each individual world, setting the tone for your long journey of helping these cute alien critters. RAC7 has done a superb job in terms of visuals and audio for Splitter Critters, and just being able to experience these for yourself is worth the price of admission.
Like other puzzle games, Splitter Critters is level-based and players must go through each stage one-by-one in a linear fashion. At the moment, there are five planets to go through, and each one has seven stages. While it may not seem like a lot at first, the developers have already added some new levels and are promising more in future updates, so there will be more content added gradually. The goal of the game is to help the little alien creatures reach their spaceship so that they can get home (or wherever it is they are heading to). The game does not have time limits or move restrictions, so you can technically play the game at your own pace, which is always nice. Once you get all of the aliens into the spaceship, then the stage is complete. It sounds easy enough, but given the game mechanics and the addition of various enemies and obstacles along the way, things do get a bit trickier as you go.
The controls in Splitter Critters are simple but do take some time and practice to master. In the game, you must tear up and rearrange the stage to help the little aliens get to their spaceship. To do this, just swipe your finger on the screen where you want to rip the stage, and then use your finger to drag a piece up, down, left, or right. Once you make a tear, you can only move the piece once, so make sure you get it right. Otherwise, you can always undo your last move (or more) and try again, or just restart the puzzle from the beginning. If you’re unable to make a cut, the game lets you know with visual and audible feedback. Because of the unusual game mechanics, Splitter Critters makes players think in different ways to solve the puzzles at hand, and it’s rather invigorating.
I’m still fairly early on in Splitter Critters, but I’m enjoying the game so far. I love the paper-craft art style of the game, and the music is whimsical and charming. The controls are intuitive and designed for touch screen devices, and it’s not hard to learn at all, but it does take a bit of patience to master. The gameplay is different from your standard puzzle game fare, and it’s a welcome change. And with more levels coming, there’s always going to be a reason to come back to this gem.
I recommend giving Splitter Critters a try if you like puzzle games but want something that stands apart from the rest. You can find Splitter Critters on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Use Your Smarts to Get Through the Tower in Journey of Haha
January 18, 2017 by RSS Feed
Journey of Haha ($1.99) by Sergio Arrascaeta is an adventure puzzle game where you must use your brains to get through the tower, rather than speed or strength — who would have thought of that? If you like a good puzzle adventure game, such as Ninja Boy Adventures, then you will get a lot of enjoyment out of Journey of Haha.
While I love games of all kinds spread out across various platforms, I can’t help but be drawn to puzzle games when it comes to mobile on iOS. The touch screen works well for these types of games, and even though I turn to games to take my mind off of reality for a while, I prefer to keep my mind stimulated and puzzle games do a fantastic job of this. If you’ve been following my work here at AppAdvice for the past few years, then this should come as no surprise to you. Though it feels like I’ve gone through every type of puzzle game that the App Store has to offer ever since it launched in 2008, I can’t help but get intrigued whenever new ones hit the store, and Journey of Haha was one that definitely caught my eye. If you’re a fan of puzzles, then Journey of Haha does not disappoint.
In terms of visuals, Journey of Haha is beautiful. The game features a retro pixelated art style that will appeal to anyone who grew up with the classic consoles of yesteryear, and the 2-D top-down rendering makes it easy to see everything in a single view. Despite the vintage graphics, all of the tower rooms are packed with incredible amounts of detail, ranging from the textures of the floors and walls, to the blocks, grass, enemies, and even the character sprite of Haha herself (yes, her name is Haha). Animations in Journey of Haha are smooth and fluid, so I had no lag on my iPhone 7. I did think that the movement of Haha herself felt a bit slow sometimes, which is partly due to the controls, which I’ll get to in a bit. The game also has a rather atmospheric soundtrack that is both captivating and engaging, making it a delight to listen to as you figure out the puzzles that lay ahead of you. For a small development studio, I think that the developers did an excellent job with the look and feel of Journey of Haha.
Like many other puzzle games before it, Journey of Haha is level-based. At the moment, there are eight different floors of the tower that you must guide Haha through, and each chapter has eight stages in it, except for the final one, which has four. All levels are locked until you clear the one before it, so the game is incredibly linear in that respect. However, once you beat a stage, it’s available to pick from the Level Select screen, and you’ll want to do this if you care about acquiring a perfect three stars on every stage (depends on how fast you can beat it). The goal of the game is to help Haha find and collect all of the keys in a room to unlock the door to the next, until you reach the top of the tower. However, there will be traps, obstacles, and foes that will try and stop you from achieving your goal, naturally. The enemies you’ll come across range from benign to deadly, so watch out!
The controls in Journey of Haha are as simple as they come. To move Haha, just drag around the virtual joystick in the bottom left corner with your thumb. Having Haha move over keys will have her collect them, and running into blocks lets you push them if they can be moved. As more puzzle mechanics get introduced, you’ll find various buttons in the bottom right corner, such as freezing enemies into ice blocks so that they can be moved, or you can freeze them twice to destroy them. The game introduces new elements of the game to you at a gradual pace, and everything builds on top of what you already know, so it’s never overwhelming.
The only issue I have is the fact that the movement feels a bit slow, and the joystick goes wherever you place your thumb, which can be annoying — there should be an option for a fixed virtual joystick so that you can train your muscle memory instead of having it go all over the place. Hopefully the developers can fix this in the future.
Once you gather up all of the available keys, it will unlock a chest that contains the last key or item you need before the door opens. Sometimes an enemy will awaken at this moment as well. When you get the last object, the door opens and the moment you pass through the door, you have cleared the stage and the game reveals how you did. If you met the threshold for the fastest clear time, you will earn three stars. Otherwise, you’ll only get one or two, depending on your speed.
I’ve just started Journey of Haha in the past day, but so far I am enjoying it a lot. As a big fan of puzzle games on iOS, I feel that this is another worthy gem that deserves a spot in my collection. The visuals are downright stunning and a nice throwback to the golden age of gaming, and the music is soothing. While the puzzles start off pretty easy, I like that the difficulty does ramp up but at a gradual pace that will never feel overwhelming, and it’s great that the puzzle mechanics just continue to build on one another, because the transition is rather seamless. I just want to see more customization and optimization with the controls, so hopefully the developer can fix that in a future update, and perhaps add more levels.
I recommend giving Journey of Haha a try if you’re looking for an adventure puzzle game to keep you entertained. You can find Journey of Haha on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $1.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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The Best Free VPN App for iPhone
January 18, 2017 by RSS Feed
Betternet is a terrific VPN service. It’s perfectly easy to activate on iPhone with one tap and connect to the “optimal” location. If you need to connect to a specific location, you can do so at several areas in the world including multiple U.S. points for a low monthly fee. It’s secure, fast, and consistently works well.
Download Betternet for iOS:
➤ Betternet in the App Store (free)
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to start using a VPN. A VPN, or virtual private network, shields your IP address by instead running your Internet connection through a different one at a different location. This tricks websites you visit into thinking you’re connecting from somewhere else while protecting your own identity.
You don’t need to use VPN all the time, but they’re ideal for when you have to use an unsecured public Wi-Fi network or if you can’t access location-restricted websites. On iPhone, the best VPN apps are ones that don’t log your data and invade your privacy — something VPNs are meant to protect — and they have a simple, easy-to-use interface. Our pick for the best free VPN on iPhone is Betternet.
Setting Up Your Betternet VPN
Apple bakes VPN functionality right into the core of iOS so Betternet just acts as a means for an access point. When you first download the app, you have to install a configuration profile in Settings to let iOS know you want to connect to your VPN through Betternet.
It’s just a matter of following the prompts. You should be done in about two taps. Then you can switch back over to Betternet to get started. The easiest way to connect is to literally just press the giant Connect button. Within a few seconds or less, Betternet has you connected and you can already go about browsing. It’s totally free and safe, no questions asked.
Betternet does not snoop into your data nor sells it for money. In fact, I greatly admire the transparency Betternet offers about how it makes its money and continues to run. It has a page on its website explaining just how it makes money, none of which include selling your data or showing you annoying ads as you browse.
The only ways Betternet make money are through ads within the app — not while you browse — and videos. Every so often to connect to the VPN you’re asked to watch a short advertisement first. The button will say “Watch a video and connect” but within moments, your VPN is active. Of course, there is an easy workaround to this though. Just tap “Skip and connect” right underneath.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Feel free to dodge the app entirely the next time you want to enable VPN. Open the Settings app and toward the top, switch on VPN. As long as you have the Betternet app installed and you added the profile, it’ll connect right away without any video advertisements or opening any apps at all. Then again, if you want to continue to support Betternet, by all means use the app and watch the quick ad.
Advanced Features and Location Changing
Betternet’s quick one-tap activation should be more than adequate for most people looking to use VPN, but not for all. Some, particularly those trying to access websites blocked either in the office or in entire countries, need more control.
For that, Betternet offers a premium version of its service. Premium gives you several location options, plus the promise of an even faster connection and prioritized tech support should you need it. It costs $4.99 per month or $29.99 on an annual basis — the latter is a nice 50 percent discount.
Your location options with Premium include seven cities in the United States: Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Virginia, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. (Virginia is a state, not a city, so that’s weird.) Plus you can also connect through an IP address out of the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Australia, Germany, Singapore or Hong Kong. This provides fine-tuned control over your location in an already intuitive VPN app.
While it is a downside that Betternet charges to change your location, the cost is pretty inexpensive especially if you purchase annually. The other downside is that Betternet doesn’t appear to show your IP address or location even if you’re connected for free. It just says you’re connected from an “optimal location” in the United States but doesn’t specify what or where that is.
I’ve been using Betternet for years and it has always reliably connected me to the Internet through a VPN. The simple interface and the trustworthy policy of never selling or logging data make it a winner.
Download Betternet for iOS:
➤ Betternet in the App Store (free)
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Save the World From Rampaging Mutant Zombies in Sonny
January 17, 2017 by RSS Feed
Sonny ($2.99) by Armor Games Inc is a turn-based combat RPG that is filled with lots of action and zombies. For those who are unaware, the original Sonny games are cult-hit classics that are Flash-based and you could play them in your browser. This version of Sonny, though, has been completely reimagined for iOS and is well worth your time and money, even if you’ve never played Sonny before in your life.
It seems that ever since “The Walking Dead” became a worldwide phenomenon because of the AMC television series, zombies have risen in popularity among those who usually aren’t into them in the first place. Nowadays, you can’t really find someone who isn’t into the zombie apocalypse thing, or at least knows enough about it. I’ve been a fan of zombies and vampires long before they became popular, but hey, I welcome the trend with a warm embrace. So naturally, when I saw Sonny on the App Store, I was intrigued because for once, you get to fight as a zombie who still has their humanity — that’s definitely something you don’t see every day. Plus, it’s a turn-based RPG style game, which is one of my favorites, so how can I say no to this gem? Needless to say, I’m not in the least bit disappointed with it.
Visually speaking, Sonny is gorgeous and immersive with the bizarre and dangerous world that it takes place in. If you’re a fan of gritty graphic novels and comic books, then you will love the art style of Sonny, as it features comic strip style cutscenes that explain the in-depth story behind the game. And it’s not just the cutscenes that are done up in this fantastic art style, because the rest of the game falls in line with it too. The character models of Sonny, as well as the other characters and enemies that you encounter, are all rendered beautifully and have incredible amounts of detail in their sprites that it makes it feel like you’re just in a giant graphic novel that has come alive. While the tone of the game is dark and gloomy, and most of the environments that you’ll find yourself in reflect this, the game still makes use of bright and vibrant hues that contrast nicely. This is most noticeable with the attacks that will be exchanged between Sonny and his foes, because these can be rather flashy as you get further into the game. All animations are buttery smooth and fluid on my iPhone 7 with no lag, and a captivating and engaging soundtrack. There’s also some great voice acting that is done during the dialogue exchanges. Armor Games have knocked it out of the park with the visuals and audio behind Sonny.
When you first start Sonny, you’ll go through a few cutscenes that explain the origins of Sonny. Essentially, Sonny was on a ship and died, but there’s Louis, who finds him and happens to have this awesome serum that can revive the dead and keep their mind intact but without their memories. But there’s not much time to explain it all, because as soon as Sonny comes back to life, there are other zombies who are trying to kill him and Louis. The only key to survival is to fight, of course.
As the game goes on, you’ll find Sonny and yourself in new zones that reveal the story through character dialogue and cutscenes. While you’re in each new zone, you can just tap on the “Fight” button to begin the multi-stage combat sequence for each level in that area. Each battle consists of several waves of foes, and may have a boss battle during the last phase.
Since the game is also an RPG, you will gain experience points from each successful fight, and it’s possible to find new equipment that you can use, which can increase your power, speed, defense, vitality, critical chance, and hit bonus stats. When you level up, you gain a skill point that can be used to acquire a new active or passive skill in the tree, or you can spend it to upgrade an existing skill to make it even more powerful. Since the points only come as you gain levels, it’s important to think about what you’re putting them into if you want a good character build. Fortunately if you make a mistake, or change your mind, there is a re-spec option so you can distribute the points from scratch, but this will cost you money, and it gets more expensive the more skill points you’ve accrued. Sonny can only have up to eight active abilities to use in battle, so make your decisions wisely.
The combat system in Sonny is pretty simple and straightforward. Everything is turn-based, and each character has their speed attribute that affects how fast their blue “focus” bar fills up. When the focus bar is full, that character can take their turn and time is frozen to indicate this, so it’s not like Active Time Battle like in some Final Fantasy games. When it’s Sonny’s turn, you can tap on the foe that you want to target, and then select the skill that you want to use on them. You can have basic attacks that are fast and simple, or go for your stronger abilities that do more damage, but do have cooldown periods. If you need to heal, you can tap on yourself and select your healing ability. When the focus bar on enemies or your teammates fill up, they will take action on their own, so you don’t have to worry about them.
The difficultly level in Sonny is pretty gradual, though I am reading from iTunes reviews that things get pretty tough starting in Zone Three. This may be the point where you might need to reconsider re-speccing Sonny for a more suitable build, but there is another option available as well: training. From the game’s main menu, you can opt to go train, which features one wave of weaker foes that you can easily take out for some easy experience points. This is a good and quick way to get some extra experience points if you feel that the main story levels are getting a bit too hard and blocking your progression towards better skills and items.
When Sonny advances in the game, he will find some characters that join him on his journey to figure out what’s going on. You can manage your party members from the game’s main menu screen, and even pick what items to equip on them in the Items view. If you’re ever low on cash, and have items that you doubt will be of use anymore, you can sell them for some cash and re-spec when needed. The only bad thing about the teammates that you’ll have is the fact that you’ll have no control over how they perform in battle, so you may get annoyed with the AI during critical moments.
I’m new to the world of the Sonny games, but so far I’m enjoying this iOS release a lot, despite only being in the beginning of the game still. I love the art style, the original soundtrack score is fascinating to listen to and sets the mood perfectly, and the voice acting is well done. As a big fan of turn-based strategy RPGs, I think the combat system is awesome in Sonny, and the game is rather punishing if you make a mistake, so it keeps you on your toes. I do wish that it was possible to control how your teammates fight, but I suppose that the way it is now just means you have to plan out your every move, just in case your teammate can’t throw a heal your way. Still, this is a solid release for iOS and a game that I will be keeping around on my device.
I highly recommend giving Sonny a try if you’re into action-packed turn-based combat RPGs that are filled with zombies and dystopian worlds. You can find Sonny on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Become the Ultimate Duelist in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
January 16, 2017 by RSS Feed
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (Free) by KONAMI is the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! game for the mobile platform and it is based more on the anime series than the real-life trading card game. If you enjoy digital versions of trading card games like Hearthstone or grew up with the Yu-Gi-Oh! series and cards like I did, then you will like what Duel Links brings to the platform.
When I was in middle school going into high school, one of the things that I became obsessed with at the time, aside from Pokémon, was the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and card game. In fact, the card game is pretty much how I got started with my first two relationships, so it’s been a rather big part of my life growing up. I participated in Yu-Gi-Oh! events as a teenager and participated in several tournaments and even high school clubs, usually ranking at least in the top three. I believe I even picked up one or two of the video game versions of Yu-Gi-Oh! when I had the money to, but I always preferred the physical card games due to my collective personality. Needless to say, Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of my favorite things as a teenager, and while the obsession has waned a bit as I got into my twenties, I was still excited when I saw Duel Links hit the App Store. Now I get to relive my high school years that were filled with the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime in all of it’s cheesy, corny glory.
If you’ve ever watched the anime, then you’ll feel right at home in Duel Links. The game features shiny and vibrant anime artwork that seem like they’ve been pulled directly from the show. On top of that, the characters have rather expressive faces that change with their dialogue and taunts, and the cards themselves include original artwork from the real trading card game, even though this is based on the anime. Just like the anime, there are plenty of flashy visuals and graphics, and the dialogue from the characters are hilarious, complete with original voice acting. Animations are smooth and fluid so I had no issues with lag on my iPhone 7, and the background tunes just add another layer of excitement and nostalgia to the game. If you were a fan of the show, then you’ll love how Duel Links looks and feels.
When you start the game, you’ll be asked to pick one of two characters: Yugi Moto or Seto Kaiba. Choosing your character grants you access to their starting deck, which includes their signature cards, the Dark Magician or the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, respectively. Don’t worry about commitment though — you’ll eventually unlock the other character you missed out on later in the game. As you make your way through Duel World, you’ll encounter other familiar duelists from the anime, which you can also unlock as playable characters once you defeat them. Once you unlock other characters, you’ll also get their signature cards in their deck, such as Red-Eyes Black Dragon for Joey Wheeler or Harpy Lady Sisters for Mai Valentine.
Even if you’ve never played Yu-Gi-Oh! before, the game is pretty easy to understand how to play since each phase is clearly introduced before you enter it, and you’ll have to manually enter or exit a phase before you end your turn. The basic phases are as follows: Draw, Standby, Main, Battle, Main 2 (optional), and End phase. Each game starts off with a coin toss to determine who goes first, and the one who does go first does not get to draw a card in the first turn. When you do draw, you just tap or swipe on the deck to get a card, and you can tap on any card in your hand to view their effect. To use a card, just drag it on the field and you’ll get options for normal or special summons for monsters, setting it face-down in defense position, activating or setting magic and trap cards. If you can activate a trap card during the opponent’s turn, the game prompts you so you don’t forget about it. When tribute summoning a level five or higher monster, the game makes it easy to select the monsters you want to sacrifice to bring out the bigger and badder monster out. To attack in the Battle Phase, just drag your finger from your monster card to the opponent’s creature that you want to attack, or directly attack them if they have no defenses. You can tap on a card on the field at any time to view the effect as well, in case you aren’t sure what something does.
The structure behind Duel Links is pretty simple: you’ll navigate through Duel World and battle other duelists that are hanging around. There are also missions that you’ll want to complete for rewards, such as more gems or more gate keys, which you need for accessing some Legendary Duelists from the television show. Eventually you will also unlock PVP mode where you can duel with random players or your friends once you’ve added them, but don’t expect to be paired up with equally matched people all of the time, as some balancing needs to be worked on in future updates.
As I stated before, Duel Links is based more on the anime than the traditional card game. This means that instead of each player having 8000 life points, you only have 4000, and rather than five spaces for monster and magic/trap cards, there are only three. Your deck must also contain between 20 to 30 cards, versus the normal 40 to 60. It’s a watered down version of the anime series, but it works surprisingly well for mobile.
Like other card games, the real fun behind Duel Links is your ability to collect cards and customize each deck that you acquire. At the moment, Duel Links includes cards from three sets that are based on the real card game, and you can purchase booster packs with gems. As you just start the game, KONAMI has decided to give players a hefty amount of free gems to start with, so you can acquire a slew of new cards right from the get-go. And even after you spend the initial amount of gems, it’s pretty easy to acquire more as you play the game constantly and level up your characters and collect daily login bonuses. If you are out of gems and really need more cards, you can always purchase more gems or boosters through in-app purchases.
When you acquire more cards from booster packs and rewards, you’ll want to customize your deck for better synergy and strategy. You can access the deck editor from the game menu, and there are a few ways to go about editing your deck. You can do it manually by going through your deck and card collection and adding or removing whatever you want, or you can go the lazy way and have the game auto-generate a deck for you with some of your best cards, but don’t expect the best synergy from this method. While this is not a full TCG experience, there’s still a good amount of depth and strategy involved for veteran Yu-Gi-Oh! players.
I’ve been playing Duel Links over the past few days and have been enjoying it greatly. It’s a nice nostalgic throwback for me personally, and the visuals look great and the music is fun. The dialogue has been giving me a ton of laughs because of how corny it can be, and the controls are great for touch screen devices. Even though it’s a free game, I feel like it’s pretty generous with the gems and you can get a ton of cards for your decks right from the start, so that’s nice to see. I will definitely be spending time with Duel Links for a while, though I wish that the difficulty in the beginning duels was a bit more challenging.
I recommend checking out Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links if you’re a fan of cheesy anime dialogue, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or card games in general. You can find Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for free with in-app purchases. The game is also available on Google Play for your Android friends.
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