Banish the Creatures of Darkness With Your Light in Towaga
February 01, 2017 by RSS Feed
Towaga ($2.99) by Sunnyside Games is a fresh new take on the traditional 2-D arcade shooter game. If you love to test your reflex skills and are itching for a fast-paced game to pass some time with, then Towaga is definitely one that you should check out.
I’ve been going through a bit of stress lately, so the best way for me to take my mind off things is to play video games. While I like to play games on a variety of platforms, the one device that I have with me at all times is my iPhone, of course, so it usually ends up being my primary gaming handheld for the most part. Personally, I enjoy puzzle games the most on iOS, but I find arcade shooter games to be a great stress-reliever too, especially right now. While I’ve played my fair share of arcade shooters on iOS, Towaga caught my eye while browsing the App Store this week, and I had to give it a shot. Needless to say, Towaga is a refreshing new take on the genre that manages to keep things interesting.
Visually speaking, Towaga is downright gorgeous, especially on your Retina screens. The game features a beautifully detailed aesthetic that is both intricate and magical, which fits nicely with the theme of Towaga itself. The various ancient temples that act as the stages are packed with incredible detail that range from the textures and dynamic lighting effects, and Chimù has a distinctive appearance that makes him stand out atop the legendary temples of Towaga. There is also a nice variety of enemies that you will encounter on each level, and even the enemy character models have their own unique appearances and behaviors that you’ll learn the more you play. As I mentioned, the game makes great use of dynamic lighting as you fire off your giant lightbeam from Chimù’s palms, and all of the animations are smooth and fluid. Towaga also has a soothing, atmospheric soundtrack that is rather captivating and engaging, and fits the ancient legendary temple theme rather well. Overall, Sunnyside Games has done a great job with Towaga in terms of visuals and audio, though this should not be too surprising as they did create The Firm, which I was a fan of back in the day.
In Towaga, there is only one game mode, and that is essentially to survive for as long as you can. The game currently has six levels, but only the first stage is available to you from the get-go — the other five must be unlocked by meeting the point threshold of the previous level. Each stage features a different section of the legendary temple of Towaga, and with that brings different enemies that will be out to get you as you perform the exorcism ritual. The objective in each level is to illuminate the dark critters that come at you from all angles and then to exorcise them out of existence, which net you points for your final score.
Controls in Towaga are as simple as they come. Your primary virtual joystick for aiming and shooting Chimù’s lightbeam can be found in the bottom right, and you just move it around to aim and press it to fire. When the beam hits a creature, a ring of runic symbols will light up, and once it’s complete, the creature becomes frozen for a brief period of time, giving you a few seconds to do the same thing to another foe if possible. The more of them you stun at the same time, the more points you’ll earn due to the multiplier. The moment you lift your thumb from the laser stick, those stunned creatures will be exorcised away into nothingness. In the bottom left corner will be another joystick, and this activates your Overbeam, which is a stronger lightbeam that is more spread out and can hit multiple foes at once, weakening and stunning them, but it drains a bit of your life away. You’ll recover some health from exorcised foes, so it’s all about speed, timing, and balance. The Overbeam can’t be used if your health is too low, and when you run out of health on your bar, the round ends and your score gets tallied up.
The game keeps track of your highest score and number of deaths on each stage, in case you want to see your progression throughout the game. Even though the game starts off simple enough, things do get frantic when the quicker foes start flying in, or when the beefier critters start making their way to you in hordes. It does take a bit of practice to master, but once you do, the game is intensely satisfying.
I’m still trying to make my way through the first temple, but so far I’m enjoying Towaga. It’s different from other arcade shooters that I’ve played in the past, but that’s always a welcome change to a tried-and-true genre. On top of the uncommon gameplay, Towaga showcases an exquisite artwork style and the music and sounds are delightful. Controls are simple and intuitive, though it does require some practice to fully master if you want to get the best scores and unlock all stages. I do think that the game gets a bit repetitive in the first stage though, so perhaps lowering the target threshold to unlock the next stage is something the developer should consider. Or at least make it a bit more randomized in terms of enemy encounters.
I still recommend giving Towaga a try if you are looking for a game that sets itself apart from the typical fare. Towaga is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Match to Build a Village and Survive the Night in Super Gridland
February 01, 2017 by RSS Feed
Super Gridland ($1.99) by doublespeak games is a new match-three kingdom-building RPG that will put your strategic matching skills to the test. If you enjoyed games like You Must Build A Boat, 10000000, and Hero Emblems, then you will love what Super Gridland has to offer.
Even though a lot of my gaming is being done on my PS4 these days, I still love to turn to my iPhone for those rare moments of downtime between work and classes. On the mobile platform, one of my favorite game genres is puzzle, with the majority falling under the match-three category. However, with most match-threes being the same thing with a different skin, I am even more intrigued by the match-three RPGs because they add an entire new layer over a tried-and-true genre. While I’ve gone through my fair share of them, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of them and am always looking out for new ones to try out. So naturally, when I saw Super Gridland on the App Store over the weekend, I knew that I had to try it out. It probably goes without saying, but I am not disappointed with Super Gridland.
Visually speaking, Super Gridland features a nice retro aesthetic with the pixelated art style. If you grew up with the old-school consoles back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, such as the SNES and Genesis, then you will feel right at home with the graphics in Super Gridland. And while the game sports the pixelated look, everything in the game is still fairly detailed, from the buildings that your character ends up creating to the enemies that come out at night for you. I do wish that the character sprites for your character and enemies were a little bigger, as it can be hard to see compared to everything else. The game has a nice variety for the color palette, as it features bright and vibrant hues during the day and dark, creepy tones at night. Animations are smooth and fluid, and there was no lag on my iPhone 7. Super Gridland also features a fantastic chiptune soundtrack that is a joy to listen to in the background, and the sound effects are top notch. It goes without saying that the developers have done a great job with Super Gridland in terms of the visual and audio department, though I still think that the character sprites could be a tad larger.
So what is Super Gridland, exactly? While it’s a match-three RPG game like YMBAB, it’s slightly different from what you may be used to, because it’s more of a turn-based strategy game than frantic match-three combo-fest. The game supports three save files so you can have multiple adventures going at once, but each slot will have it’s own player progression. In Super Gridland, you will help your nameless protagonist collect resources during the day in order to build up a village. But as time passes, night will come, and bloodthirsty monsters will begin to come in and attack you and your small village. As each day passes, new resources get introduced and night combat gets more difficult, but when you die, you’ll just pick up on the day that you left off on.
The gameplay of Super Gridland is simple enough: make matches of three or more in a vertical or horizontal line in order to collect resources or survive in battle (attack, shield, heal, or even bring out more monsters). Like all match-three type games, it’s best to create bigger matches, as they can also lead to chain combos. As you make progress in the days, your character will grow stronger, and you’ll eventually end up with more hearts so survival becomes a bit easier, though you still have to think about your moves carefully.
Controls in Super Gridland are simple and straightforward enough, especially if you’ve played these types of games before. Each game consists of a grid that has a random assortment of resource (day) and combat (night) tiles. In order to make a match of three or more, you’ll have to select the tile you want to swap, and then swipe it in the direction that you want it to move to, or just tap on an adjacent tile to switch them with each other. While the control scheme works alright, I did find that it was a bit clunky at times, where my swipes and taps weren’t being registered. Hopefully the developers can optimize the controls a bit in a future update to make it more streamlined, but still, it works if you’re just a bit careful with where you tap and swipe.
As a big fan of games like YMBAB, I just had to try Super Gridland. I’m pretty happy that the gameplay elements are slightly different from YMBAB, because in that game, it was all about being fast with the matches you were making, whereas Super Gridland requires a bit more thought and patience. It definitely takes a bit of getting used to, and if you like the mechanics of YMBAB and play Super Gridland the same way, chances are you will die fairly quickly when nightfall comes. I had to play a few rounds before I finally got the hang of things, but I can assure you that the result is worth the time required you need for some practice. The only problem is due to the size of the sprites, it can be hard to notice when you’re in danger of dying, especially since the game doesn’t give you any kind of audible warning when your hearts (located at the top of the screen) are about to be depleted.
Still, with the awesome graphics and fun music, Super Gridland is definitely one game I’ll continue playing for a while. I just hope to see larger character sprites and some kind of visual or audible warning regarding critical health levels. Another thing to note is the fact that the game kind of just throws you into the middle of things without any explanation, so it’s up to you to figure things out on your own. While this doesn’t bother me too much, it may be a bit more problematic for newbies to the match-three RPG genre, so perhaps the developer should add an optional tutorial mode.
I recommend giving Super Gridland a try if you are in the mood for a challenging turn-based match-three kingdom-building RPG. You can find Super Gridland on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $1.99. There are no in-app purchases.
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Rebuild the Solar System With the Puzzling Arcade Action of Lunaform
February 01, 2017 by RSS Feed
Lunaform ($0.99) by Chronobit Studios is a puzzle arcade game that is similar to the classic Breakout gameplay, except in reverse. So instead of breaking the cells, you’re trying to fill them up with color. If you enjoyed games like ZenDots and Gray Cubes, then you will like what Lunaform offers.
Lately, most of my gaming is done on my PlayStation 4, but when I’m on-the-go, I turn to my trusty iPhone 7 for my gaming needs because it’s always with me (sorry 3DS). If you’ve followed my work here at AppAdvice for the past few years, then you’ll know that I love a good puzzle game on my iPhone, because I find them challenging and stimulating while also being relaxing. Another genre that I enjoy are arcade games, because how can I resist the satisfaction of beating my own high scores? Naturally, when you combine puzzle and arcade together, I’m all over it, and that’s just the case with Lunaform.
Visually, Lunaform carries a rather simple and minimalistic design that is clean and pleasant to look at. It also has a bit of the low-poly aesthetic when you are choosing which planet (aka chapter) to play, and I thought it goes well with the overall minimalistic look. The game features a pitch black background to represent space, and the bright and vibrant colors of the planets, hexes, stars, and other game visuals provide a nice, stark contrast so that everything is easily recognizable. Animations in Lunaform are pretty smooth and fluid, so I had no issues with lag on my iPhone 7. The ambient soundtrack is fairly soothing as well, so it’s nice to listen to and helps you concentrate on the puzzles in front of you. Needless to say, I think Chronobit did a good job in terms of the simplistic style and feel of Lunaform.
Like many other puzzle arcade games before it, Lunaform is level-based and players must complete each available stage in order to gain access to the next one. Once all of the levels are complete on a chapter, then the next planet gets unlocked. At the moment, the game has 36 levels that are split up across five planets, and there is one hidden planet that you’ll have to find on your own. Every stage has up to three stars that can be earned, and the final result depends on how well you managed to do before clearing the puzzle. While Lunaform starts out easy enough with the tutorial and first few levels, players will find much more intricate and complex puzzles as they go on and unlock the later planets. The goal of Lunaform is straightforward: fill up each hex shape on the grid with the incoming stars of the same color until all of them are filled. But watch out — if a hex is hit with a different color star, then it takes damage instead. It starts off slow enough, but the pace picks up gradually and the game becomes much more challenging.
Controls in Lunaform are intuitive and responsive. Each stage will consist of a grid of colored hex outlines, and you’ll see colored stars coming in from the edges of the screen. In order to get the hexes filled, they need to be hit by same-colored stars, and sometimes reposition is necessary. To do this, just tap on a hex piece and then tap on the one you want to swap it with (it doesn’t have to be adjacent). When the more complicated star patterns begin to come in, you’ll have to think fast and swap the hexes around quicker in order to make sure that the stars hit the right targets. In the game, it takes three star hits to fill up a hex completely, and five to destroy it. If the movement of the stars is too slow for you, just do a long-press on the screen to speed things up. When you have acquired some power-up items to use, a button appears in the bottom center of the screen — just tap on it to activate, but be aware that each power-up needs to recharge before it can be used again.
The power-ups that you acquire as you progress in Lunaform can make a big difference in the gameplay. Right now there are six upgrades available, and you can purchase them from the upgrade shop with the hex coins that you acquire from completing stages — the better you do (earn three stars by finishing quickly and as few swaps as possible), the more coins you get. When you’ve acquired a few upgrades, you’ll have to pick-and-choose up to three of them to take with you when you play, and you can swap them out at any time from the shop.
To keep the game interesting, there are also various types of hexes that are available on the grids as well. The beginning will feature just basic hexes, but soon you’ll find Bumper Hexes (change direction of stars), Locked Hexes (can’t be swapped), and Core Hexes that must be protected and can’t be destroyed or else you’ve failed. Different types of stars introduce themselves as you go too, such as Nova Stars that explode when they hit a hex so that they fill or damage hexes in the blast radius, Suns that have two normal stars orbiting it, and even Arc Stars that move unpredictably. When all of these different game mechanics are introduced, it adds a new layer of depth to the game and certainly keeps things fresh and fascinating — there’s never a dull moment.
I’ve only started to play Lunaform recently, but so far, as a fan of puzzle arcade games, I’m enjoying it. The minimal design with bright colors is pleasant to look at, the music is fun and whimsical, and the gameplay is unique and challenging. The controls are effortless so anyone can learn how to play, but it will take time and practice to master when it comes to the more intricate puzzles.
I recommend giving Lunaform a try if you’re into puzzle arcade games and need something new to pass the time with. You can find Lunaform on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $0.99. There are no in-app purchases.
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Roll and Dash Your Way Through the Puzzles of Red’s Kingdom
February 01, 2017 by RSS Feed
Red's Kingdom ($1.99) by Cobra Mobile Limited is an action adventure puzzle game that features plenty of challenging puzzles and cute animals. If you enjoyed games like Legend of the Skyfish and even The Legend of Zelda games, then you will get a kick out of Red’s Kingdom.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I’m a big gamer, though a lot of my gaming has been done on the PlayStation 4 these days. Despite this, I have my iPhone 7 with me everywhere I go so it’s probably my most-used gaming platform, even though I’ve always preferred consoles. For mobile, I think the best types of games involve puzzles and adventure, because I love to think even when I’m just looking to relax. So when I saw Red’s Kingdom on the App Store since last week, I was intrigued — plus, who doesn’t love cute animals? I had to check it out for myself, and needless to say I’m not disappointed with what this game has to offer to the masses.
Graphically speaking, Red’s Kingdom is stunningly gorgeous. The game makes use of a slightly angled top-down perspective with the 3-D rendered visuals, and all of it is downright beautiful. The environments remind me a bit of The Legend of Zelda mixed in with a dash of Animal Crossing, and everything is incredibly detailed and looks fantastically lush. The character models for Red, Mad King Mac, and all of the other NPCs and enemies that you’ll encounter are endearing and adorable, so it’s hard to not fall in love with the critters as you play. Colors are bright and vibrant, and even the darker dungeon areas are lit up nicely with glowing auras from scattered lights. There are also somewhat animated cutscenes that explain the game’s story, and these are fun to watch, especially since they look wonderful and are crisp on your Retina screen. Animations in Red’s Kingdom are buttery smooth so I had zero issues with lag on my iPhone 7, and the game’s soundtrack is rather charming and whimsical, so I recommend immersing yourself in the game with a good pair of headphones. Overall, Cobra Mobile has done an excellent job with the visuals and audio of Red’s Kingdom.
Since Red’s Kingdom is an action adventure puzzle game that falls in the same vein as The Legend of Zelda, players will have to go through each puzzle in a linear fashion, as long as they can get what they need to advance in the game, anyway. In the beginning of the game, you’ll find Red sleeping soundly, until Mad King Mac sneaks in and steals his golden nut award and even kidnaps his father. After Red wakes up and realizes what happened, he sets out on a journey to recover both the golden nut and rescue his father, but it won’t be easy. You’ll have to help guide Red through a series of rooms that are connected to each other and solve the puzzles in each chamber order to advance on your quest. Eventually, you’ll also encounter enemy goons and have to defeat Mad King Mac himself in order to succeed. Fortunately, there are other characters that you’ll meet who can help you on your journey and can give you useful items that grant Red powerful abilities to take out his foes. The puzzles start off rather simple, but things get more intricate as you go, and when you throw in combat with grunts, there’s a lot of stuff to enjoy in Red’s Kingdom.
The control scheme in Red’s Kingdom is simple, straightforward, and intuitive. To make Red move, just swipe your finger in the direction you want him to roll in. Red will not stop rolling until he hits a wall or obstacle, so it does take multiple attempts in order to get him where you need to be in order to solve the current puzzle. When Red rolls over a switch or special block, they’ll automatically activate without any other input from the player. However, when you come across lever switches, you’ll have to have Red bump into them a second time in order for those to activate.
For combat, you’ll first have to acquire the medallion that grants you the ability to fight first, which you get from rescuing the first NPC character you come across. In order to bust up some baddies, you can roll into them to deal a hit, but be careful since you also take some damage from it as well. If you tap on the screen as you’re rolling towards them (but make sure to do it before you hit them), you’ll be able to do a critical hit that deals more damage to the enemy. If you run out of hearts (located in the upper left corner), then you die and will have to pick up from the last save point that you reached.
Regarding Red’s Kingdom’s save system, I wish that it was better. There’s no way to manually save the game whenever you want, which is how most games nowadays work. Instead, the game only saves your progress when you roll Red over a glowing save icon that is hidden on the ground in a specific room, and when you die, you’ll revive at the last save point you reached. That means that you’ll have to do some puzzles over again if you didn’t manage to reach the next save point, and that can mean a lot of wasted time. I am not a big fan of this saving system, and I hope that the developer can consider changing it in the future to something that autosaves whenever you enter a room or have a manual option. I’ve had to redo several puzzles during my testing of the game, and it becomes rather tedious.
Since the game is like The Legend of Zelda and other similar titles, you’ll be able to see the amount of time you’ve played so far on the game save select screen. When you access the game’s menu while playing, you’ll be able to see your current progress, view the map, see what items you’ve collected so far, and view tips on each game mechanic as you encounter them. On top of that, since the game is about exploration, there are hidden secrets that you can discover on your own as well, but they’ll take time to uncover.
I’m still pretty early on in Red’s Kingdom, but so far I’m enjoying the game a lot. I fell in love with the graphics the moment I saw the opening scene, the music is delightful, the controls are super responsive to user input, and the gameplay mechanics are challenging and fun. Plus, this is the type of game that you will have to put a bit of time into since there is so much to do and discover, so it’s a good value for the price. I’ve only just started, but I will be sticking around with Red and seeing his adventure to the end.
I highly recommend giving Red’s Kingdom a try if you’re looking for a great little action adventure puzzle game for your iOS device. You can find Red’s Kingdom on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV for just $1.99 for a limited time only (it’s 50 percent off the normal price of $3.99).
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Eradicate a Robotic Virus Threat in the Puzzling Imprint-X
February 01, 2017 by RSS Feed
imprint-X ($2.99) by Morgondag is a relaxing puzzle game that takes place in a dystopian future where a robotic virus is enslaving the human race through virtual reality. If you liked games such as Deus Ex GO, then you will enjoy what imprint-X brings to the table.
A lot of my time has been spent revisiting Diablo 3 on my PlayStation 4 with my boyfriend in recent days, but I still make an attempt to stay up-to-date with my mobile gaming fix. If you’ve been following my work for some time, then you will know that puzzle games are one of my favorite genres, so naturally I have to check out whatever new offering there is. One reason puzzles are my favorite is because they’re not only a great way to help me relax (or at least try to these days), but they still help me keep my mind stimulated and fresh, because I hate not keeping my brain sharp. When I saw imprint-X on the App Store, I was intrigued by the game’s futuristic, yet dystopian, theme and the game mechanics themselves — a game about pushing buttons? As saturated as the puzzle genre is on the App Store, you don’t see too many of these around. Needless to say, imprint-X is both entertaining and challenging, especially if you’re a puzzle game fan yourself.
Visually speaking, imprint-X is beautiful due to the game’s retro, pixelated art style. While everything is rendered in 2-D and is pixelated, I still found the game to be incredibly detailed with textures, lighting, and other fine details. On top of that, the rendering of the main character sprite, a hacker clone, is cute and empowering, and I personally found her to appear rather relatable (a cute chick with glasses and VR headset, what’s not to like?) so the developers won me over with that. The game’s colors range from a pitch black background littered with bright shining stars to represent cyberspace, to rich earthy tones for the button machines, to vibrant and bright hues for the lights and other doodads. The animations in imprint-X are buttery smooth and fluid with no lag on my iPhone 7, and the game has a soothing and captivating soundtrack that fits the overall dystopian theme of the game. To top it all off, the quirky sound effects are weird yet charming, and it gives you nice audible feedback on whether your input sequence was correct or not, which is nice. In the end, I think Morgondag did an excellent job with imprint-X in terms of visuals and audio, because I fell in love with it the moment I launched the game.
Like all other puzzle games, imprint-X is level-based. At the moment, the game features about 100 stages for players to go through, and since the game is about pushing buttons, there are 700 buttons in total to push. So if you love to push buttons, then imprint-X is the perfect little game for you. The objective of the game is to figure out the correct button sequences for each puzzle, and up to four medals or stars can be earned on each stage, depending on how well you do — the less mistakes, the better. The gameplay is a mix of timing, memory (flashing lights tell you the order like Simon Says), and pattern recognition, so this is definitely a game that makes you stay on your toes and makes you think at the same time. When you clear a stage, it will give you access to the next stage, and sometimes this means a set of several new puzzles is available for you to solve. You can also go back to a stage and replay it for a better score if needed. As you complete puzzles, you will also earn what looks like experience points for each medal earned, and a full gauge of this earns you one life. If you make too many mistakes, you lose a life, so watch out!
The controls in imprint-X are as simple as they come. To push a button, all you have to do is tap on the screen. For those puzzles that involve timing and rhythm, you just have to tap on the right spot at the correct spot, and sometimes this will require two fingers to do successfully. While the controls are easy enough to understand, it does take practice to master because of the timing and memorization involved with figuring out the correct button sequences. And since some will require the use of multiple fingers at once, it can be tricky. The only problem with this is the fact that your fingers may be blocking your screen, especially with a smaller device, so I recommend playing imprint-X on a larger screen device if you have one available.
I’ve only just started playing imprint-X since this morning, but it’s definitely a unique puzzle game that I think is engaging, interesting, and most importantly, challenging, despite the “relaxing” description on the App Store. Plus, the pixel art style graphics are exquisite, the music is immersive, and the controls are simple enough for anyone to understand, but still takes time to master. The only issue with the game is the fact that nothing is explained to you in terms of how the game works, so you just have to start tinkering around in the first few levels before the puzzles begin to come together. A quick tutorial would have been nice for the newbies like myself, so maybe the developer can consider that for the future.
I recommend giving imprint-X a try if you are looking for a challenging puzzle game that takes place in a dystopian future where robotic viruses are a serious threat to mankind. You can find imprint-X on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Follow Mid Atlantic Consulting
Subscribe Mid Atlantic Consulting
APP review today