TouchArcade.ru

After seeing Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels [ $2.99 ] for the first time, you might be wondering why another dual stick shooter is necessary on iOS, considering the hundreds of others already available. The answer isn’t always an easy one, but let’s just say that Monster Shooter shows why we shouldn’t just be writing off the genre altogether.

Monster Shooter tells the story of alien battles from one planet to another, all with the ultimate goal of saving a kitten with a runny nose. These naughty aliens want to wreak havoc and torture the poor kitty, and are even traveling anywhere in the galaxy as to not be captured.

As the kitty rescuer, you travel from planet to planet in a level-based format, and are shooting down enemies in a dual stick style shooter. The controls of a shooter are of the upmost importance, and they work well in this game especially with the multiple options available. If you’re finding the aiming to be a difficult affair, you can turn on the auto aim option and then you’ll only have to tap when you want to shoot, rather than where. Having the option of a fixed d-pad is also a nice touch, meaning you can play in whatever way suits your style best.

One of the most polarizing topics of discussion on our forums is the game’s option to pay for additional upgrades and weapons through in-app purchases. As you play each level, you will consistently pick-up in-game cash that you can spend on these items anyway, and fortunately there seems to be enough cash in each level to purchase the items during the natural progression of play, making the actual buying of cash through IAP feel largely optional.

The upgrades and power-ups available in the shop amp up the gameplay in glorious fashion too, providing you with nukes, grenades, or stim-packs that could make all the difference when you’re caught in a tough situation. You can even buy a few select items while in the heat of battle, if you didn’t prepare well enough.

Even more interesting than the power-ups you can buy are the abilities you can only earn by leveling up, which range from a higher fire rate, more damage, or more cash dropped by enemies. These abilities are fantastic and can help out greatly while playing, but the way of unlocking them could use some work. The problem is that you can only unlock them while playing the game, meaning you have to stop mid-level, potentially costing you precious health or combo momentum.

Where Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels differentiates itself from other shooters on iOS is in its tight control, and cartoonish graphical style. The animation is fluid, and each planet has a distinct look to keep things fresh. Being on both iPad and iPhone as a universal app also helps, as the larger screen of an iPad lends itself well for keeping track of enemies, and a larger d-pad area for better control.

Packing in over 60 levels across 3 distinct planets, Monster Shooter is likely to hold on to your attention for quite a while. This is not even including the endless survival mode, which could potentially last you forever. Adding even more to the longevity are the in-game side missions (of Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] fame) that you can complete along your path of destruction. Game Center achievements and leaderboards should be standard fare by now, and are included.

Exploding alien faces with an awesome new weapon you just purchased almost never gets old, meaning you’ll probably keep playing Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels for hours on end. Packing in a huge amount of content and little in the way of problems means that you should probably grab this one on your next iOS shopping spree.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

When you truly adore a game, sequels can be a scary thing. Sure, it’s more of what you love—but what if they mess it up? What if they abandon all the things you love for the sake of novelty? Well, Defender Chronicles [$1.99 / $2.99 / $4.99 (HD)] fans, let us put your fears to rest. We’ve had a chance to spend some time with Defender Chronicles II, and it seems to have everything the original had to offer. And every little bit of it is bigger, better, and sexier.

I spent the summer of 2009 consumed by the original. I had a brand new 3GS and pages of games, but Defender Chronicles – Legend of the Desert King was the one that devoured my time. Its mix of vertical tower defense and RPG conventions was completely irrestistable, and Gimka Entertainment and Menara Games propped it up with massive updates that added to its already substantial content. Defender Chronicles II is looking like it will contain that same potential for time investment, so you might want to clear your schedule in advance.

This game is leagues beyond its predecessor in terms of visual appeal, and that’s an achievement—as we pointed out way back in our review, Defender Chronicles was a looker in its time. But now every unit is more detailed and every animation is more fluid. And crisp—Retina support is in for iPhone, though apparently not for iPad. The game lives up to the rose-colored vision you may have of the original, but it’s much more refined, more up-to-date.

The gameplay has been similarly preserved. You’ll still spend your time turning flags into guilds and upgrading them through tiers of units, archers to rangers, squires to cavaliers. Strategy seems more important than ever before, with enemy units that take advantage of every potential weakness in your defense. Height and range are the biggest considerations as you scroll around massive, multi-tiered 2D maps. There are quite a few of those this time around, and they hit an almost Escher-esque level of complexity pretty quickly.

There isn’t much that’s changed outright, really. Voice actor George Ledoux returns to impress us with his Sean Connery impression, though he also pulls off an impressive lizardman. Heroes Melwen and the General return, but this time they’re accompanied by two new friends: Lovell and Elwyn, an archer and priest. The brand-new story of the heroes and their defence of Athelia against the Orcs and Forsaken is told through gorgeous comic-book cutscenes once more.

From our brief time with the game, it really seems like you’re going to be able to put in a ludicrous numbers of hours. There’s so much here for the player that wants to go deep, with heroes to level up and customize, hundreds of artifacts to locate and five difficulty levels and game modes to work through. The difficulty curve also feels a bit steeper, so if you’re already familiar with the game you shouldn’t be underwhelmed. If you’re feeling particularly cocky, you’ll be able to challenge yourself with a huge list of Game Center achievements and leaderboards.

Ultimately, it seems like Defender Chronicles II will be the perfect sort of sequel. It updates already excellent gameplay for a new generation of devices, and brings in all sorts of improvements in the process. It’s hard to imagine any Defender Chronicles fans being disappointed, and folks that are new to the series should be in for a treat. We’ll be taking a closer look at the game over the next couple weeks, and we’ll be back with our review after it hits the App Store on May 24th. In the meantime, the developers are posting regular previews in our discussion thread, so take a peek if your appetite isn’t already whetted enough.

[source]

Donut Games has seemingly always had the philosophy of making small, simple games that only have a few bits of gameplay to speak of. Bubble Pig [ $0.99 ] continues that trend by having one touch gameplay that is both fun and rewarding time after time.

While pigs don’t exactly fly, their rubbery skins and rotund bodies do lend well to bouncing, and Bubble Pig’s gameplay takes full advantage of this. Bouncing the pig around each level is easy; all you have to do is tap where you’d like the pig to bounce to, and he’ll continue to bounce automatically in that direction.

One-touch controls can feel too simplistic if not done well, but this game manages to do it without making it feel like an effortless experience. As some of our forum posters have pointed out, the gameplay is remarkably similar to Bean’s Quest [ $1.99 ] or Superstar Chefs [ $0.99 ].

Making the pig bounce all around the level may be fun, but you will need to complete goals along the way to keep things moving smoothly. Using the pig, you’ll need to activate switches scattered throughout each stage, with the level completing once you’ve hit them all. What makes the stages fun isn’t just moving around and hitting the switches however, the gimmicks involved in each stage are.

Just about every level has a unique gimmick you’ll need to overcome, keeping things fresh each time you play. In one level, you may need to dodge angry foxes that threaten to slaughter your poor pig, or perhaps you’ll need to navigate a series of pipes to find all of the switches in another. Having a new type of concept introduced in almost each new level will keep you thirsty for more and more every time you pick up the game.

Also scattered through each level are various fruits and coins for you to collect. Collecting these items (especially all of them if you can) will reward you with achievements and a special star rating for each level. To further incentivize collecting, you can also compare scores with your friends to make sure you’re as hot as you think you are. Sharing and comparing is key for longevity in these types of games, so it’s nice to see the leaderboards and achievements integrated so tightly.

We’ve probably all come to expect by now that Donut has a unique style that every one of their games uses, and Bubble Pig is no exception. Each stage is colorful and the animations are incredibly smooth, keeping with the standards already set. Being a universal app also helps, as playing on the iPad makes controlling the pig a bit easier, and the colors pop just a bit more.

Bubble Pig is one of those games that achieves a great balance between being straightforward, while still managing to be challenging too. Dismissing the game as being too formulaic would be unfair, as it manages to be very fun despite its simplistic premise.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

I have to admit I’m behind on children’s cinema. I totally haven’t seen Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon. Though they’re clearly from the same world, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t follow the same plot as PikPok’s DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop [ $1.99 ], which is about kids riding dragons to herd sheep. But really, that seems like an innovative solution to a common problem, no?

Though it takes a few levels to reveal its workings, DreamWorks Dragons is a game of logic puzzles. You’re given a few tools, things a dragon could reasonably be expected to do, like roaring, picking up rocks, smashing things and burning stuff. With them, you need to run through a series of levels about herding sheep into their pens. But the stakes are high: each step needs to be completed in the right order or you’ll end up withcharbroiled sheep on your hands. Mmm, mutton.

Once you’ve unlocked all of your dragon’s abilities, they line up in icons down the left side of the screen. This dragon is well-trained; just drag an icon for an action to the spot you want it to be performed and Toothless will handle it. He’ll fly there and act out your command, be it burning trees, crushing statues, or lifting and dropping rocks. The only thing he can’t do is carry the sheep for you, which is fair enough. I mean, would you let a dragon carry you around?

The game is balanced for a younger audience, of course, so it might take a while before it starts to pose a serious challenge. But while the difficulty curve is shallow, DreamWorks Dragons eventually gets pretty great. The sheep are incredibly vulnerable, and later levels are designed to take full advantage of that. A single mistake means you’ll probably roast a sheep, or drop it off a cliff, or feed it to a shark. No one wants that—or at least they wouldn’t if the animations weren’t so fantastic. I definitely killed sheep in every way possible just to, um, watch them die.

Morbid curiosity aside, killing sheep is not just a bad thing to do; it will also hurt your level rank. Each level has a three star rating to aim for, with one star awarded for completing the level, one star for saving all the sheep, and one star for doing it all within a set number of actions. At first it’s hard not to get three stars. But things pick up by around the midway point of the game.

Some of the later levels get pretty ridiculous, in fact, with drawbridges, catapults, gates and such to manage on top of the usual cliffs and rocks and bridges and hay. There are forty levels in the main game, with twenty more available via an in-app purchase. That second pack gives you the Deadly Nadder to control, which can use its tail spines to create ladders for sheep. This ability is nearly as silly as it looks, but it adds a new challenge into the mix.

Each group of 20 levels also has 9 hidden treasures to be found. Frustrated? Go treasure hunting, since it usually means burning down every stand of trees in your path. You’ll also unlock a bonus level for each set of three treasures you find. Once you’re through those, there’s one more way to play: most of the Game Center achievements revolve around “losing” sheep in a variety of horrifying ways.

If you’re not in the target audience, DreamWorks Dragons probably won’t blow you away. It takes a bit too long to get into and ultimately lacks in variety. But every aspect of the game has been built with PikPok’s trademark care. It’s hard to turn down gorgeous animation and well-crafted levels. If you’re a fan of How To Train Your Dragon, this game is definitely worth a download. If you’re not, you’ll still find a solid set of logic puzzles within. Given how awful movie tie-ins tend to be, DreamWorks Dragons deserves to be recognized. It’s definitely one of the good ones, so check it out—then swing by our discussion thread to share your thoughts.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

A couple of weeks back we told you about Galcon [$1.99 / Free ] creator Phil Hassey’s latest project titled Dynamite Jack. You play as a captured Space Marine who is forced to work in a dangerous place known as Anathema Mines. Of course, being a bad ass you decide that working for “the man” against your will just isn’t for you, so you set out to escape from the depths of the mine.

In a recent blog post, Phil noted that a fellow developer suggested that the deaths in Dynamite Jack lacked a certain impact. So drawing inspiration from the awesome death sequences for Roget Wilco from the classic Space Quest series, Dynamite Jack now features plenty of awesome ways to die, as you can see in this new video.

Since death comes often during the course of playing Dynamite Jack, there will be an option to turn off the death animations if they grow tiresome, but they’ll be on by default. Part of the leaderboard tracking will include how many times you bite the dust as well. Dynamite Jack is scheduled for release on Mac and PC May 10th, and will be coming to the iPad within a couple of months after, hopefully around July 1st if all goes according to plan.

[source]

How refreshing it is to play a game with a down-to-earth plot? Even the most grounded of games usually bear their fair share of swords and sorcery or bombastic battles. Super Lemonade Factory [$1.99] goes a different route, telling a simple story from one particular moment in time. Lisolet and Andre are newly married in the days after World War II. Andre is set to take up his father’s lemonade factory, but first he and Lisolet must tour the premises, meeting the workers and learning about the challenges they face.

It might sound a little dry, but the tale accompanies a clever platformer designed to play on the strengths and weaknesses of its stars. Andre is blessed with physical strength and can break through boxes that bar the couple’s path. Lisolet is agile; she can double jump and reach places Andre can’t, often giving him a foot up with a crate from a higher perch. Isn’t it lovely to see a marriage with partners that complement each other so well?

The journey through the factory is surprisingly perilous—you’d think it had been designed as a deathtrap. Often, either Andre or Lisolet will need rescuing right from the start. You’ll have to direct the other across a pit of spikes, perhaps, over floating platforms and around the surprisingly deadly people of the factory. Once one has saved the other, they can travel together—Andre is happy to give Lisolet a piggyback so you needn’t cover the same ground twice. From there it’s usually a hop, skip and a jump to the level’s exit.

A detour may be necessary on the way. Though it seems like the sort of thing aimed at completionists, you’ll want to collect each level’s bottle cap. These are occasionally well hidden and usually hard to reach, but behind them sits half the game’s content. Collect all the caps in a given area and you’ll unlock the hardcore version of that area, where platforms are smaller and faster and spikes are everywhere. Brushing against a spike is deadly, and Andre and Lisolet only have two lives to work with if you can’t find any bags of sugar to replenish them.

Controlling the couple is simple, with on-screen controls for walking, jumping and dashing. These are responsive and rarely get in the way, but they suffer the usual flaw of being a little too easily mis-tapped. You can swap between Andre and Lisolet with a horizontal swipe; a vertical swipe puts Lisolet on Andre’s back.

Lisolet is blessed with one more ability: a way with words. She can speak with any of the factory’s denizens. The foreman, the chef – these workers open up about their hopes and dreams, both for the company and for themselves. A food inspector waxes poetic on the need for cleanliness, and a General blusters about the misfortune that could befall a company that chose not to meet military requests for supplies.

These bits of flavor are woven into the metagame: Game Center achievements are awarded for speaking with all employees, and your progress is marked on the level select screen. But more than that, the dialogue is rather charming. The foreman is a burgeoning Bolshevik who loves to muse on the meaning of labor; Andre will share stories from his past. Much of it hits a bit heavy-handed, but it’s always a pleasant diversion—you’ll also find the occasional pop-culture reference if you’re paying attention.

In the end, the gameplay suffers for its simplicity. The most puzzling levels aren’t more complicated than pushing a couple boxes in the right order before jumping, and there are only so many spikes one can add to a level before it gets silly. If there’s more to be done with the formula, though, we may yet see it done. The developers offer a system for level creation and plan to add the best of the user-created content to the game. On top of 72 already entertaining levels, that sounds pretty good.

And hey, if you haven’t noticed, Super Lemonade Factory is a looker. If you’re into pixel art, you won’t be disappointed—both the style and the animation are fantastic. On top of that the chiptune soundtrack is pretty great, if a tad overly-aggressive for the content.

So while the game isn’t flawless, it’s still an easy recommendation. There are kinks to be worked out, but they don’t detract much from the good stuff: a solid, fun puzzle platformer with great ideas and outstanding presentation. And, frankly, how often do we get to play a game with such a delightfully low-key premise? For that, Super Lemonade Factory most certainly deserves a look. Still, it’s unlikely to push platformer fans, so know that going in. You might not find a challenge, but you’ll find a lot of charm.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

A lot of studios are turning to the casual market to expand their base and diversify portfolios speckled in viscera and splatters of crimson. League of Evil studio Ravenous Games is doing just that with its side-scrolling puzzle game Burger Cat. The result is unique: Ravenous is undoubtedly delivering something that feels like a Ravenous joint, but it’s appropriate for our little ones and game-challenged family members.

It accomplishes this by removing the barrier of entry, while maintaining the vibe and the high-level production we expect from a Ravenous product. In the game, you play as a cat on a quest to find hamburgers. Functionally, this adventures boils down to a bunch of instanced quests where you, as a maestro of landscaping, have to alter the 2D world the cat inhabits in order to get him to a burger. The movement is automatic, but your ability to add and remove blocks of land or introduce an item that changes the way the cat interacts with its world is manual.

For example, in the game’s first level, you’ll need to add a block of land to the corner of a hill so the cat can scramble up the hill as if it were a stairway. In the next, you actually build a similar stairway with three blocks of land, two of which will need to be stacked on top of each other. As the game progresses, you’ll get much more imaginative items: a mouse that re-directs the cat’s attention, a spring that rockets the cat into the air, a pick-axe that removes pieces of the environment, and so on. Actual obstacles that add repercussions, like spinning cogs with blades, are added steadily. The items you’ll receive have a hard cap in each level, and I had the most fun really playing with what I could do with the least amount of stuff, though creating conga lines of items has its simple pleasures, too. In fact, Burger Cat seems to encourage experimentation, as it often gives you way too much.

It’s a different game from the folks who made League of Evil, but it feels similar from a production standpoint. The art is bright and bubbly like the new visuals in League of Evil 2, and the animation work is on par. Music, on the other hand, is exceedingly epic. It almost rewards you before you do anything. Excuse me, but I want my Ode To Joy when I get my hamburger, and not before.

If this looks familiar by the way, it’s because it existed on Flash before. Burger Cat is a new-look port of a WobblyWare title you can play for free right now. In this shot of the original below, take note of how smooth this new iteration looks: no more grids, a less clumsy UI, and less mess in general.

“We updated the graphics to be more cartoony and made some design changes to make another one of our polished iOS releases,” Ravenous told TouchArcade. “The game just felt more suited to touch screen controls and has a lot of potential with the casual market.” And it does play exceedingly better. This game is a breeze to control with your fingers. I’ve zero complaints with what I’ve played so far.

And that’s the thing: we haven’t seen everything Burger Cat has to offer, so stay tuned as we obtain a final build and deliver our final thoughts. My gut says, though, that this is something we’ll be pretty happy with, even though we’re not its market. Look for this to hit April 12 across iPhone and iPad.

[source]

Finnish studio Futuremark Games Studio has a new owner: Rovio Mobile, the creators of Angry Birds. In an announcement today, Rovio announced the acquisition of FGS, but it didn’t disclose what the studio will be doing for its new owner. It also didn’t talk about what it paid, though that’s pretty standard.

This is an interesting buy on a couple of levels. Futuremark was once a two-studio company. One was a 3D benchmarking studio, the other made passable games like, say, Unstoppable Gorg [$4.99 / Free]. Rovio has acquired the latter as opposed to the former, and its allowing the main arm retain all of its game studios’ known IP. Futuremark will be able to make sequels, then.

The PC version of Unstoppable Gorg.

In a press release, Rovio says that this is all just a part of its “rapid expansion in entertainment, publishing, animation, and retail.” Rovio plans to “continue to focus on seeking out the world’s best talent to join its team.”

Futuremark, by the way, will continue with benchmarks. In a statement we received, Futuremark says that it will churn out a new version of 3DMark this year that will “allow a direct comparison of gaming performance across” various OSes and form factors. That sounds… fun.

[source]

When Hunters: Episode One hit the scene almost a year ago, we were impressed with its solid gameplay and daily mission structure. With Hunters 2 [$4.99], Rodeo Games looks to expand on the success of the original with additional content while attempting to address some of the shortfalls of the original. While Hunters 2 has its share of nagging problems, there are more than enough improvements to the core gameplay to make this sequel worthwhile.

As expected, gameplay in Hunters 2 is comparable to its predecessor. Players still deploy and guide hunters through a variety of environments (complete with fog of war), taking out opposing forces in furtherance of hitting mission objectives (which typically involve defending an objective, reaching a marker or just taking out all forces). Both the leveling and equipment systems return, offering a variety of different ways to upgrade your hunters. Also making a return is the daily mission hub, offering new contracts with different maps and objectives every day. At this point, Hunters 2 offers more of a ‘tried-and-true’ approach to turn-based strategy, leaving little to error or imagination.

While the gameplay is mostly similar, Hunters 2 does add a few new elements to the mix. In addition to fighting against other hunters, the game introduces a new alien race that has its own attack style. The aliens play a role in the new campaign mode, which finally offers a story experience to the Hunters world.  Hunters 2 also combines the previous Health/Armor system into simply Armor, streamlining weapon damage. A new crafting system also allows players to customize a wide variety of weapons (at a premium price). Permadeath also makes its debut, offering genre fans the opportunity for a more hardcore experience. Finally, the sequel overhauls the talent system, providing a great deal more customization for individual hunters.

This new upgrade system is at the heart of the Hunter 2 changes. Hunters are assigned two of six possible talent trees, which provide perks ranging from additional benefits while guarding to increased weapon damage and armor protection. Players can hire new hunters with different talent trees, although only a limited amount of hunters are available to hire at any one time (hunters for hire cycle every few hours with the rest of the in-game shop).

Level design has also improved in Hunters 2, with a bit more variety in environment and size. However, I still noticed that some of the tile sets appear to be recycled from the first Hunters. Visuals are also well done, with fast, fluid animations (although I think retina support for the new iPad would have been a nice addition). However, I did encounter a strange lighting bug that would completely wash out the environment colors and make the game very bright.

One feature that is sorely missing in Hunters 2 is the inclusion of iCloud support. Considering the amount of investment you can have with building up your team in terms of loot and stats, I really would have liked the ability to move saves between different iOS devices. This is especially true since Hunters 2 plays great on both iPad and iPhone.

Despite its inclusion of a story-driven campaign, plot is still somewhat lacking in Hunters 2. The number of set missions is incredibly small and the tale being told lacks any kind of narrative punch to serve as motivation for continuing the campaign. Granted, some gamers will undoubtedly not care about a story, but I just found it a little disappointing.

Still, despite my above complaints, Hunters 2 continues to do a great job preserving the core gameplay mechanics of Episode One. The leveling system and large variety of weapons keep me coming back  to play missions simply to earn more gold and experience to refine my hunters. Also, the loot system and daily mission structure do a great job promoting replayability. As mentioned above, there’s nothing new or particularly innovative, but it’s still implemented well.

It goes without saying that fans of Hunters: Episode One will have a great time with Hunters 2. The tweaks to the leveling and upgrade systems do a great job streamlining gameplay while the inclusion of an actual campaign and additional difficulty options are welcome additions. While the incremental upgrades probably won’t win over gamers that weren’t fans of the original, Hunters 2 still offers a compelling turn-based strategy experience.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

The iPhone and iPad port of Interwave Studios’ endless runner rComplex [$1.99] hit the App Store with a tremendous thud last week, as it failed to provide its users with the tools to succeed in the game’s artistically gifted world. On top of needing powers that Professor Xavier would find fascinating just to avoid the game’s obstacles, players had to deal with slow animations and bogus collisions. These problems have been addressed, however, in a hip, new patch. And, hey, the game’s is totally playable now.

Version 1.2 of rComplex, which cleared Apple certification on March 24, pulls the game’s camera back a notch so you can see what you need to avoid without fancy psychic powers. Also, the jump animation has been improved alongside the game’s collision detection. In all, these fixes make rComplex a substantially better, and enjoyable, game. If the early reception kept you from taking the plunge, consider re-considering. Or something.

[source]