Bounce and Bust Through Foes for Epic Loot in Treasure Buster
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Treasure Buster ($0.99) by FDG Mobile Games GbR is a unique roguelike dungeon crawling experience that mixes in bubble-shooting and pinball-like elements into the recipe. If you enjoy dungeon crawlers and collecting loot, but want something fresh and exciting, then Treasure Buster is one you shouldn’t miss.
When I have time to spare, I like to sit down and play a video game to unwind and relax, as well as pass the time. While I mostly like to keep busy with puzzles, I do love to play dungeon crawler games every now and then. That’s because of the awesome hack-n-slash action and all of the awesome loot that you can collect along the way that make your own characters stronger. I mean, what’s not to like about that? But I did notice that most of the games in the genre are usually the same thing, just with a different skin. So when I saw the news of Treasure Buster hit my inbox, I was intrigued — it’s a completely new take on dungeon crawlers that works incredibly well. In fact, once you get started with Treasure Buster, you’ll have a hard time putting it down.
Visually, Treasure Buster is gorgeous with the retro pixel art style that was everywhere back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and has been making a modern comeback. If you grew up with the games back then, you’ll feel right at home in Treasure Buster. The dungeons are full of detail and feature fantastic use of textures and shadows to give everything a bit more depth than just looking flat and 2-D. The character sprites are nicely done, as the game showcases great diversity in the heroes that you can choose. They all have their own unique appearances and strengths and weaknesses, and are bouncy with bubbly personalities. The colors used in Treasure Buster range from bright and vivid for the treasure, to more dark and rich hues for the dungeon environments and enemies. And despite the pixelated aesthetic, you can clearly tell what everything is supposed to be, so FDG did a great job with how everything looks and feels here. The chiptune soundtrack is upbeat, quirky, and definitely helps get you in the mood for some pinball dungeon crawling action. The sound effects as you bounce all over the room are delightful to hear, and will bring a smile to your face.
There are two game modes in Treasure Buster: Arcade and Endless. Arcade lets you go through a kind of single-player campaign mode, where you must navigate from room-to-room and eventually reach (and defeat) the boss of the area before proceeding to the next dungeon. You’ll have the opportunity to allocate skill points on your selected character’s attributes before moving on, so there are chances to improve your hero. In Endless, you clear out a room and then choose between two different coin tosses that will determine what the next room will hold. If you’re more into high score chasing, then Endless will be perfect, but if you like to see some kind of progression in a roguelike game, then Arcade is the way to go.
The controls in Treasure Buster are super simple and allow players to play the game with one hand. Since each room holds you, some enemies, and sometimes randomized obstacles like walls and blocks, movement is limited. To fling your hero into action, just touch-and-drag anywhere on the screen to reveal an arrow on your character. The further you pull back, the stronger the fling will be, similar to games like Angry Birds. When you have your arrow aiming where you want to go (make use of physics and angles to get hard to reach spots), just release your finger from the screen and your hero will be on their way. They’ll bounce around the room, hitting enemies and chipping away at their health bars along the way. Sometimes you may have a power-up item, like the Lance, that lets you pierce through enemies instead of bouncing off of them. These power-ups can be activated with a tap on the button in the bottom right corner.
Each hero has their own attributes, which will affect the speed, damage, and even health that they have. The numbers on opponents indicate how many moves you can make before they’ll move or unleash an attack, which may or may not hit you depending on where you stop. It’s important to note the attack patterns of enemies, because when they attack, it’s like dodging in a bullet hell game, except you can’t move. So getting into the best position ahead of time is important so you don’t get hit as much, which means less health you lose and more loot you can get before the run ends. When you’re on a hot streak during your turn, you’ll activate your hero’s “Treasure Aura,” which will get your better, more valuable loot drops from foes, which mean a higher score in the end.
I haven’t played the game too much yet, but in the short time I’ve spent with it, Treasure Buster is a new favorite. I am in love with the pixel-perfect vintage visuals, the chiptune soundtrack is a joy to my ears, and the controls are top-notch and what a mobile game is all about. While the controls are easy to learn, it’s difficult to master since you have to take into account positioning after the fling for maximum survivability. But it’s satisfying to watch your hero bounce and knock out all of the foes, while seeing the screen get showered with shiny loot. This is one game that I know I will be returning to often when I need to relieve some stress, which seems to be a lot as of late.
I highly recommend checking out Treasure Buster if you’re a fan of roguelike dungeon crawlers and pinball. You can get Treasure Buster on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $0.99.
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Brawl Your Way to Saving the Village in Dan the Man
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Dan The Man (Free) by Halfbrick Studios is an old-school style arcade platformer game that is packed with a ton of beat-em-up action. If you enjoyed tiles like Beatdown, but wish that there were some platformer action thrown into the mix, then you should give Dan the Man a try.
As a kid who grew up in the early ‘90s, I have fond memories of the arcade and even playing the Super Mario Bros. at home. And it didn’t just stop there — I branched off to other various platformer games that I could get my hands on (you know, as a kid with no disposable income). I ended up loving the platformer genre, but even more so when there was some kind of combat and objective other than “jump on some platforms.” When I had heard that Halfbrick Studios, the creators of the popular Jetpack Joyride games featuring Barry Steakfries, was creating a new arcade-like platformer, I was ecstatic to check it out for myself. It’s now available to the masses, and definitely a great way to pass the time if you’re a fan of the genre.
Visually, Dan the Man is oozing with retro charm. Just like other Halfbrick games, Dan the Man has a classic vintage pixel-art style aesthetic that is gorgeous and packed with incredible detail. The environments range from lush wildlife areas to modern civilization and architecture, and all of the settings look fantastic. Character models are rendered nicely too, with everyone having their own unique appearance and movement patterns. The color palette is fantastic, with tones ranging from bright and vivid hues to darker and richer shades. All of the animations are smooth and fluid, and I did not experience lag on my iPhone 7. To top it all off, the game has a quirky and upbeat chiptune soundtrack that just adds to the thrill of the game. Sound effects are also fun to listen to as you beat up any foes that stand in your way. Overall, I love what Halfbrick has created in terms of visuals and audio with Dan the Man.
Like traditional platformer brawler games, Dan the Man features a level-based Story Mode, and you must clear the current stage before you can move on to the next area. Think of the levels in Super Mario Bros. games and you’ll get the picture. But even though the game is a free download, the levels are rather lengthy, and there are even secret areas to discover as you play, so there is a lot of content available from the get-go.
Eventually, you’ll also unlock daily missions and weekly events, which only add to the replay value of the game. Even though Dan the Man is a brawler, there is a story behind the chaos: a mysterious organization has emerged from the shadows and plunged a village into peril. They took Dan’s girlfriend, Josie (the roles can be reversed), and it’s up to you to help save everyone. It’s revealed in an in-game announcement that Dan the Man was originally just going to be a web series, but I’m glad that it turned into an action-packed iOS game instead. The goal is to reach the endpoint of the stage you’re on, or defeat tough bosses in intense battles. But be warned — there are some parts of the level where you’ll have to face off against a set number of foes before you can proceed. There’s no time limit in the game, but you’ll still be breaking a sweat over what seem like an endless swarm of foes coming at you relentlessly.
Controls in Dan the Man are simple enough to understand, though I feel that the button positioning could have been better optimized. The bottom left area will have your typical buttons for moving left and right. In the bottom right area will be buttons for jumping, attacking with your melee punches and kicks, and another button for weapon attacks. You’ll find a variety of weapons as you make your way through stages, and these can range from knives and shurikens to different guns to take down foes with. The damage done by each weapon will vary, and you can switch weapons at any time by tapping on the weapon box on the left side of the screen.
While the controls work for the most part, sometimes I did have issues with the spacing between the action buttons, so I ended up jumping instead of punching or using my ranged attack, and other times I was facing the wrong direction while attacking. While you can change the controls to cater to left-handed users, you can’t drag the buttons into a position that better suits you, which is a bit disappointing. Hopefully Halfbrick can consider allowing us to fine tune the controls to better suit us.
As I mentioned, the levels in the game are pretty long, which is a bit surprising for a free-to-download game. There are several checkpoints that you can reach in a stage, so if you end up failing, you can pick up at the last checkpoint. Sometimes you will find “video cassettes” that play an ad in the middle of a level, which is a bit annoying, but since you’ll be doing a lot of button mashing at times, it can be a nice 30-second break for your thumbs. You’ll also encounter “Ye Olde Shoppe” every so often on a level, which is where you can buy some food to heal up (like apples) or whatever weapon they have in stock. Coins are easy to collect in the game, because it will drop from fallen foes, broken boxes and vases, and there’s plenty of cash just scattered all over the stage for you to collect.
The money you find can also be used to purchase upgrades for your selected character, such as stronger attacks, more health, and even new moves. And if you don’t mind spending a few bucks of real cash, you can unlock special characters that have their own distinctive play styles, such as Barry Steakfries himself. The characters range in price from $0.99 to $4.99 for Barry Steakfries. You can also buy coins if you’re impatient, or go for Premium to get rid of the ads in the game. But again, all of the in-app purchases are completely optional, and the game is still a blast even if you never pay a dime. There’s a nice sense of balance here between the free-to-play aspect and in-app purchases.
I’ve been playing through Dan the Man over the past few days when I’m not busy with other aspects of my life, and am enjoying it a lot so far. The graphics take me back to the golden days of gaming and my youth, and everything about the game is eccentric and fun. The controls do need a bit more polish though, and I would prefer to be able to adjust the positioning myself, so hopefully that comes in a future update. Still, for a free game, it does not get in-your-face with the ads and in-app purchases too much, and there is a ton of content that is available for everyone to check out.
If you’re a fan of action-packed brawler platformer games, then I recommend giving Dan the Man a try. It’s a perfect way to kill some time or just relieve stress — I mean, you’ll be punching a bunch of baddies in the face, after all.
Dan the Man is available on the App Store as a free download for your iPhone and iPad. It has in-app purchases and also is compatible with iMessage for stickers.
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The Struggle is Real When Crap! I’m Broke
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Crap! I'm Broke: Out of Pocket ($1.99) by Arcane Circus is a crazy life management game that hits a bit too close to home for many people, I’d imagine. If you enjoy games that are packed with mini-games, like Peter Panic, but like having a slice of life thrown into the mix, then Crap! I’m Broke is the game for you.
Let’s face it — for most of us, life gets crazy and overwhelming with bills and other unexpected costs that pop up every now and then in our lives. However, while we may be comfortable with where we are now (or not), chances are that we all started out somewhere (or still are). The moment we got our first job, we experienced what it is like to earn a dollar and value it, because that’s about the time when we start having our own bills to pay. And let me tell you — bills are no fun. Of course, while it’s not fun to struggle in life, it does make for a challenging mobile game. When I got wind of Crap! I’m Broke in my inbox, I was intrigued — a game about being broke in life? How could I not be curious? So I decided to check it out.
The visuals in CIBOOP feature a Cubist aesthetic that is rather unique in the App Store and makes the game stand out much more. While it has a Cubist look and feel, it is still rather flat and minimalistic, like most artsy games these days. The colors are a nice mix of soft pastels and vibrant tones as you make your way through the broke life, and all of the contrast comes together nicely in the end. Animations are mostly smooth, though some of the movement can be a bit jarring at first as you make your way from job-to-job due to the odd controls. The game has a quirky jazz soundtrack to go along with everything, and the sound effects definitely make this real-life-simulator feel rather realistic. In terms of visuals and audio, CIBOOP is a nicely done package.
As a simulator game, there’s only one mode in CIBOOP, and you’ll find out that you start off as a guy who just got a new home in the city, and for the first three months, your mom will help you with the rent. But after that, you’re on your own. You have a refrigerator that has some different food items that you can purchase to prevent starvation, and a laptop where you pay your bills and get messages alerting to you either unforeseen expenses or maybe some cash back (but mostly the former). In order to get some cash, you’ll have to get out of your place and go find work from nearby businesses. At first, you start out just washing dishes at the diner next door, but as you pay your bills and earn your keep, you’ll be able to unlock more jobs from other nearby businesses, like burger flipping, sorting cans in the factory, bartending, and even being a bouncer for the club.
One thing you’ll always have to be sure to do is keep an eye on the hunger and month gauges in the top left. The circular month gauge lets you know how much time you have left until the end of the month, when bills are due. The hunger gauge is your hunger — if you work too hard and forget to eat, you’ll starve to death. And if you don’t starve to death, you’ll be buried under piles of debt. Either way, the outcome isn’t pretty. However, the developers did add an “ending” to the game, so if you can manage to survive life’s struggles, there is something to look forward to.
The controls in CIBOOP are simple enough. While you’re in your house, just drag your finger across the screen to pan the camera around, and tap on items to interact with them (refrigerator, laptop, and door). When you’re outside, run to your next destination by holding the left or right side of the screen. When there is a job vacancy available at an available business, you’ll know because of the sign on the window or wall. Tap on the door to enter the business and get to work. Each job is a mini-game with its own set of controls that you’ll be able to check before getting started. For example, dish washing just requires you to scrub the dishes with your finger until the dirt is gone. Burger flipping is done by tapping on your character to flip a burger, and then tap the patty to get the bun on and have it served. The mini-game instructions are pretty clear and easy to follow.
While the controls mostly work, I did have some issues with the burger flipping and factory jobs so far, as I haven’t made it to bartending or bouncing yet. I noticed for burger flipping, some of the faster patties are harder to get the buns on, because I’ve tapped numerous times as they’re whizzing by and barely made it before it got served. It’s not as responsive as it should be, and I hope to see this fixed in the future. I also noticed that for the factory job, as I’m trying to sort through as many cans as possible, my character drops the can a bit short of the bucket that it belongs to, causing me to lose out on money and also cutting down the shift time. These wouldn’t be big issues if it weren’t for the fact that the game is entirely dependent on the amount of money you make, so every little bit helps out here. I’ve been short for the bills at the end of the month because of silly mistakes done due to unoptimized controls, and it’s rather frustrating. Hopefully the controls get better optimized in a future update.
Once you’re done with a job’s shift, you’ll be kicked out of the business and you can either look for more work elsewhere or go home if you need to eat or have to pay the bills. The game gives you a loud, audible warning when you’re approaching starvation threshold and bill time, so by the time you hear the second warning, you should know to hightail it out of there and get home.
To pay bills, just get to your laptop and then choose the “Pay Off” option. But you should do this after getting something to eat first, because otherwise you screwed yourself over with no money left for food. Sometimes jobs will have “Employee of the Month” challenges, which will net you a nice wad of cash if you can successfully complete it. This will help with keeping your tummy full and is a step closer to paying the bills to make sure no debt piles up.
At the end of the month, after paying your bills, you also get an opportunity to purchase things from the web store on your computer. These can be furnishings for your place (disposable income) or one-time purchases that can give you bonuses for working certain jobs for the month. You’ll also encounter some transients on the street as you go to and from work, and interacting with them means giving them five bucks. The game has its own karma system too, so who knows — that generosity may pay off if you feel like going into the market to buy some lottery scratchers. At the start of a new year, you’ll also have the opportunity for New Year Resolutions, like “Go to a gaming convention” or “Visit family.” These are goals that you’ll want to save up for, which will get you some great memories in return.
One big issue with the game that I did notice after trying several times to make it past a few months in Year 2 is the fact that the game is insanely difficult. I get it — life is hard and this game reflects that. But it isn’t exactly fair when you can barely survive for a few months after the first three because the jobs don’t get you enough, and it seems that everything that goes wrong with your computer (battery) and house goes wrong too soon, piling up on your bills. You’re struggling from the get-go and you’ll have to rely on sheer luck to get some Employee of the Month challenges in order to even come close to paying off your bills on time without getting debt or not starving.
I will be keeping CIBOOP on my iPhone 7 because it’s beautiful and a nice time wasting distraction (and it can teach kids a great lesson), but I want to see optimizations made for some of the mini-game controls and not such a steep difficulty in the beginning. If these changes can be made, then the game will be a lot better.
If you’re a fan of slice-of-life titles that are packed with challenging mini-games, then I recommend giving Crap! I’m Broke a try. If your’e on the fence, I’d recommend waiting to see if things improve with updates.
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Master the Art of the Novella in Paperback: The Game
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Paperback: The Game ($3.99) by Fowers Games Inc. is the mobile port of the physical deck-building card game. If you’ve played the physical game and love the rising trend of boardgames going digital, such as Exploding Kittens and Sushi Go!, then you will enjoy Paperback: The Game, especially if you love word games like Scrabble.
As a writer, naturally I love words and expanding my vocabulary, so word games are a genre that I thoroughly enjoy. I’ve gone through dozens of Scrabble-like clones in my time with an iPhone, and I also spent a lot of time with more unique word games like Letterpress. However, in the end, these games got a bit tiring because it was the same thing for the most part, just in a different skin. It’s been a while since I’ve discovered a great word game to play and pass the time, but I think that has changed with Paperback: The Game. Honestly, I have never heard of the game until recently, when I saw it on the App Store, and as a writer, I found it quirky and relatable.
Visually speaking, Paperback has a distinctive kitschy look and feel to it that truly makes it stand out among the overcrowded word game market. Players are greeted with stylish, pulp novel artwork that feels like a blast from the past. There are fine details and textures everywhere, from the character designs to the letter booklets themselves. If you take a look at the novel cards, even though they’re small, they feature fantastic artwork so that it looks like a novel that you could pick up at the bookstore many years ago. Colors in the game range from soft and light tones to dark and richer hues, and everything just comes together nicely. Animations are smooth and fluid, and the upbeat, eccentric soundtrack is a joy to listen to. And as a writer, I was delighted to hear the page-turning and typewriter sound effects as you play, because it just makes me feel right at home.
There’s only one game mode in Paperback, but a game can consist of two to four players. You can go head-on with actual players in a local game (pass the device around) or choose from Easy, Smart, or Smarter AI. You can also change the number of novel cards that are allowed in the game if you want to, but a “Reset” button makes it easy to go back to the defaults at any time before the game.
So how do you play? Even if you’re a newbie like me, the game does have a tutorial in the first game to show you the basics, though I am pretty sure it could be explained better in-game. Regardless, each player will have their own deck of letter cards, which are like tiles in Scrabble. You’ll draw enough cards and you’ll want to spell out a word with what you have in your hand, even drawing another letter from the pile next to the hand if needed (one per turn). The letter booklets can consist of single or double letter combinations, and there are the novel covers that serve as wildcards when you need some help. When your word is scored, you’ll earn a few coins (each letter has its own worth) that you can use to purchase more cards from the top half of the screen, and these get added to your deck to use. Some cards will have abilities, and you can long press on the card to view abilities, cost, and how many stars it is worth. The better cards cost more to get, so you’ll have to know your vocabulary in order to do well. The game ends once two of the novel piles on the right side are empty, and the player who has the most points by then wins the game.
While the game has a tutorial, it isn’t exactly clear from the get-go how words are scored. This is a bit annoying, because you’ll have to play a few rounds before you fully understand the game. But each letter has a point value that is shown in the top right corner — if you can get a point for the letter, you’ll earn a penny for each point that the card is worth, allowing you to buy better cards for your deck. There is definitely a learning curve to the game, since it’s not as straightforward as other word games, but it’s still enjoyable for fans of the genre.
I’ve only played a few rounds of Paperback so far, but I’m liking it so far, despite not playing the original physical form of it. If you did play the physical game, you may notice some things are different, such as the lack of attack cards as noted by one iTunes reviewer. Still, for anyone who is new to Paperback or not, there is a lot to like with this mobile port. The graphics are stunning, the music is charming and delightful, and controls are simple enough for anyone. I just wish that the tutorial covered more about scoring and such, because it is not clear to players right away, especially those who are unfamiliar with the rules. Hopefully this gets fixed in a future update.
I recommend checking out Paperback: The Game if you’re a fan of boardgames, words, and novels. You can get Paperback: The Game on the App Store as a universal download for the iPhone and iPad for just $3.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Fill the Screen With Color in the Puzzling Flud
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Flud. ($1.99) by Appsolute Games LLC is a puzzle game that is about flooding the screen with color. If you enjoyed games like Open Bar and Bicolor, then you will get a kick out of Flud. It’s definitely one of those games that will make you think before you make your move, and a great option to consider when you just want to kick back and relax with a nice puzzler.
If you’ve been following my work here at AppAdvice for a while now, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of puzzle games. To me, there’s nothing better than coming home from a long and hectic day (and I’ve had a lot of that lately) and just unwinding with a puzzle game because it makes me relax but still stimulates my brain. There’s never a moment where I’m not thinking, so why not put my brain to use solving puzzles and staying sharp? I’ve gone through a ton of puzzle games while I’ve been working here at AppAdvice, but I can’t help but always be on the lookout for new ones, and still get excited when something that looks fresh and exciting hits my inbox. Flud by Appsolute Games is one of those puzzlers that still gets me thrilled.
In terms of visuals, Flud has a super minimalistic aesthetic that will appeal to fans of the look. The game is composed of bright and vivid solid colors mixed in with hues of white and gray. It features simple geometric shapes and the level layouts consist of squares to form grids. Animations in Flud are super smooth and fluid, so I had no problems with it on my iPhone 7. It’s insanely fun to watch the color flood the white spaces with the 3-D rendering effect, especially with the bubbly sound effects. Unfortunately, there’s no soundtrack in the background to help you focus on the puzzles, so you’ll have to provide your own music for that, or just enjoy the sound effects with silence.
Flud, like most puzzle games, is level-based. At the moment, you can play through four different chapters that have about 18 puzzles to solve, so there are 72 stages in total. The objective of the game is to flood all of the cells with color before moving on to the next stage. Unlike most puzzle games, though, players can play any of the six stages on the level page in any order, so they can skip ahead and return to a previous level if they are stuck. There are no timers or points to earn, but the game does give players a limited amount of moves and resources, which is where the challenge comes in.
Controls in Flud are simple and intuitive enough for anyone to understand. To start the “flow” of the color stream, just swipe from a starting cell, preferably at the end. The flow will continue forward until it hits a dead end. But you’ll be introduced to cells with arrows that can change the direction of the flow, and eventually you’ll get access to arrow tiles that can be placed on the grid where you need them to go. To place arrows, just double-tap on the space you want to place them in, and then swipe the arrow in the direction you want it to change the flow to. Each level will only give you a certain amount of “floods” and arrows though (visible at the top of the screen), so you have to use them wisely to flood the screen. If you make a mistake, you can just tap on the undo button to go back one step.
Since there are no time limits or points to worry about in Flud, you can play the game at your own pace, which is nice. The game starts off easy enough, but things get tricky at a gradual pace. The game does have iCloud support to save your game progress so that you don’t lose your place when switching devices.
I’ve just started Flud recently, but am enjoying my time with it so far. The minimalist graphics are nice and pleasing on the eyes, the bubbly, clicking sounds are nice audible feedback, and the puzzles themselves are deceptively simple but prove to be a real challenge. The only improvement to the game would be more levels, so hopefully that can be considered in the future if the game does well enough. Either way, Flud is a great little puzzler for any fans of the genre.
Flud. can be found 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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