Archive for the ‘ARM’ tag
Still Alive: ‘C64 for iPhone’ Gets iCade Support, iPad Coming
It’s been over a year since the last update, and many in our forums were worried that the app had been abandoned, but I’m happy to report that has released an update to C64 for iPhone [App Store], the Commodore 64 emulator and game store (at over 50 titles right now) for iOS, that we’ve been tracking since way back in 2008.
Stuart Carnie of Manomio filled me in on the license tangles he’s been dealing with since late last year which stymied work on the app, but indicates all is now resolved and that he’s excited to bring this update, as well as return his focus to development and the acquisition of new licenses for C64-loving iOS gamers.
The big news in this latest version of C64 for iPhone, version 2.2, is the addition of support for the iCade and compatible devices (such as the iControlPad and Gametel controller we recently covered), which is huge news given the nature of the typical Commodore 64 game title. In this initial implementation, iCade support means joystick and fire button emulation — certain games with extended features, such as , still require tapping the screen for key input and the like. This update also brings full support for iOS 5.
It’s worth pointing out that, presently, C64 is not a Universal application, and so using it on an iPad in the iCade means running the iPhone app at 2x video magnification. However, Stuart has big plans for the app and shared a short-list of what’s coming, down the road…
- A new, Universal app!
- This is a rewrite in order to add all the required features
- PRO: By not replacing the iPhone version, we can keep existing users with old hardware on the current builds
- PRO: For compatible games, we’ll continue to add them to C64 for iPhone
- Activate your original C64 for iPhone purchases if you have it installed
- Cycle-exact emulation — will require ARMv7 devices
- Same OpenGL ES 2.0 retro visual effects currently in progress for iAmiga
- iCADE / iControlPad / Gametel support
- TV-out
- Network play
- More in-app purchases, including existing titles
- A big pack of free games to get you started
- Retina display support
- BASIC mode, with 1541 “disk” save support
We’re very glad to see Stuart out of the woods and moving forward with his efforts to bring retro fun to today’s gamers. We will keep readers in the loop on the latest from Manomio as the news unfolds.
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Five Alarm Freebie Alert – ‘Space Miner’ and ‘Space Miner HD’ Free for the Weekend
Hey, here’s a thing: both Space Miner [Free] and Space Miner HD [Free] are totally free right now. Back in February of last year, released Space Miner to the masses and pretty much took everybody by surprise with the amount of depth, humor, personality, and most importantly stellar gameplay found within the title. It was almost as if they took the core mechanics of the classic Asteroids arcade game and built a fantastic, fully realized universe around it with copious amounts of RPG elements, space shooting, and a gripping storyline. In fact, that’s exactly what they did.
We loved Space Miner in our original review, and Venan kept the love flowing during 2010 with a huge update in April which enhanced the visuals for the then top-tier hardware and added a hardcore difficulty mode. With the arrival of Retina Display devices, Space Miner eventually jumped on board the high resolution gravy train and in December of last year an iPad native version of the game was released. All of this post-release attention didn’t go unnoticed either, as we chose Space Miner as our iPhone Game of the Year for 2010. In fact, if you ask Brad Nicholson, he’ll tell you that Space Miner is an even better game than Game Dev Story [$3.99/Lite]. That’s high praise!
Now, to celebrate the release of their latest title Book of Heroes [Free], Venan has gone and not only made the Space Miner games free through the weekend but have actually made their other games free as well. Don’t hesitate to jump all over Ninjatown: Trees of Doom! [Free/HD] while you’re busy mashing away at the download button on Space Miner.
The Space Miner games have seen several sales during their time on the App Store (and really what games haven’t), but this is the first time it’s ever gone completely free, although there is a free-to-play version called Space Miner Blast [Free] which is a more arcade-focused affair and is also totally worth a download as it offers a slightly different experience. But seriously, while you have the chance, grab the real-deal Space Miner for free during this weekend. I don’t want to sound like a jerk or anything, but if you don’t own Space Miner, we totally can’t be friends.
Space Miner™, Free
Space Miner™ HD, Free (iPad Only)
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‘Judge Dredd vs. Zombies’ Review – Guys, Dredd Is The Law
Judge Dredd vs. Zombies [$.99] is what you think it is, which is to say, it’s an over-the-top dual-stick shooter that pits the equally over-the-top dystopian cop against hordes and hordes of the undead. Despite all signs of the End Times have come pointing to “Yes,” Dredd is as moronically meat-headed as ever. The slick , line-slinging judge, jury, and executioner has his hands full with himself throughout the entire experience. It’s as if, in a weird twist, this game is more about Dredd’s need to stroke his own ego than his desire to purge his precious and pure Mega-City One of zombies.
Hearing “I am the law” or some other ridiculously chest-puffing line every 15 seconds isn’t this game’s biggest problem, though — the free-to-play model is. It comes across as much too pushy and needed and, as a result, it consistently strikes me as gross.
Sure, you can upgrade your weapons and bring along “special equipment” like “Instant Reload” or “Body Armor” using in-game credits, but they quickly end up costing too much in comparison to the amounts you can earn. The difficulty curve on zombie damage models are pretty sharp, too, so you’ll feel naked in short order — and grinding on previous levels, for whatever reason, won’t net you any extra credits.
Dredd sure doesn’t seem to mind. Like a 50-year-old wrestler who keeps taking bumps because he filed bankruptcy one too many times and still has a camper on a line of credit, an under equipped Dredd is consistently revved to keep battling against increasingly bad odds. His confidence and enthusiasm are off the wall.
What really salvages this entire experience is its combat model. It’s really, really enjoyable. Movement is a snap, while the shooting in particular is great. There’s a brilliant auto-aim mechanic that flawlessly moves from threat to threat as smoothly and intelligently as if you were the one making the choice. And even when you do want to control where you shoot, you can just tap on the screen to target.
A combo system, the reload mechanisms, and item pick-ups alter the pacing of the combat in consistently entertaining ways. As you kill, you’ll steadily earn more bonus points as a combo meter builds. The catch is that, whenever you stop to reload, the meter has a chance kick back to zero by virtue of inactivity. This is where the Dredd badge pick-ups littering the game come in: not only do they give you points, but they also keep that combo meter going when you’re not actively blasting zombies into re-oblivion.
This isn’t ground-breaking stuff, but it works and it works really well. Dredd’s other constituent parts, on the other hand, are merely competent: the UI is inelegant but alright, the level selection and rating system are industry standard, and the visuals are OK. Nothing outside of the shooting feels particularly inspired. The lackluster and oftentimes barren level, sound, and presentation design leave a lot to be desired.
But… as far as fundamentals go, the fact that Judge Dredd vs. Zombies’s combat rocks is a pretty big boon to what is otherwise a fairly competent, yet occasionally annoying game. The bad parts, and particularly the greedy free-to-play hooks and the barrage of Dredd-isms, are the big stains. The shooting makes up for a lot of this, but there’s a whole lot of ugly to wade through before you get to the good.
TouchArcade Rating: 
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Controller Update: The New Gametel Controller, iControlPad Analog Stick Support
While the iOS device’s multitouch screen has introduced a whole new way of interacting with software and enabled game developers to rethink the fundamentals of game control, there are definitely areas where it falls short. One such area is in the on-screen approximation of a physical control stick or D-pad. Ever since we first mentioned the iControlPad, three and a half years ago, button mashers particularly frustrated by virtual controls began eagerly waiting for such physical controller accessories to arrive. This summer, the iCade and iControlPad did arrive and developers wanting to go that extra mile began adding in support for these controllers, where it made sense.
Gametel controller
In a short time from now, the controller market will be gaining another iOS-compatible unit for gamers to choose from in the form of from Fructel AB. News on this one began spreading a couple of weeks back, but we only just learned of the device, likely due to the Android-centric PR that surrounds it; there’s scant mention of iOS devices on the product webpage. Luckily, C64 for iPhone [App Store] developer Stuart Carnie of Manomio pinged me to let us know that the unit works quite well with iOS devices (by way of an iCade emulation mode, the addition of which was driven by Stuart, himself), and that he is particularly impressed by the unit’s ergonomics.
The Gametel controller pairs with any iOS device, appearing to be a keyboard to the host unit. It has a spring-loaded arm / brace extending from the top of the unit that allows it to firmly grasp most any type of app phone, including all iPhone and iPod touch devices (not the iPad, of course). The unit sports a digital directional pad, four main action buttons, a Select and a Start button, and two shoulder buttons. (It lacks the analog nubs offered by the iControlPad.) The Gametel device delivers 9 hours of battery life — for itself only, not the host unit — and is charged via micro USB cable.
Jimmie Johansson, involved with the project, informs me that the 120mm x 67mm x 24mm unit is light weight and durable and fits easily into a pocket. Production of the first batch of devices is happening right now, as I post this, and it should be available at Amazon UK before Christmas for around £50.
Oh — and it has a super feature: pressing Select and Start together instantly toggles in the on-screen keyboard, to enter high scores or search for an app to launch. It’s an extremely welcome feature to anyone that’s used an iCade, which lacks such functionality.
iControlPad
The Gametel controller isn’t the only news from the iOS controller scene. The folks behind the iControlPad have been busy working on firmware updates to better the experience of iOS gamers.
Remember, back in the review of the iControlPad, how I mentioned that only jailbroken iOS devices and other platforms could utilize the sweet, dual analog nubs on the iControlPad? Well, I’m happy to have been proven wrong. Now, it’s not as wonderful a scenario as if Apple had begun allowing the type of iOS Bluetooth pairing that an HID device with a set of analog sticks really needs. No. Instead, the iControlPad firmware developers created a new interface mode called “special packet mode” in the latest test firmware that sends the coordinates of the two analog nubs as strings of characters — from the perspective of an iOS device, they’re being sent by a keyboard. It’s a pretty awesome workaround in the face of an Apple restriction that we truly wish the company would see fit to dissolve, and it lets legitimate games in the App Store take advantage of physical analog controllers.
A perfect example of this mode in action is Warner Skoch’s [App Store], a space shooter in the vein of (a retro and rather simplified) Super Stardust HD that we’ve not covered directly, but that has in our forums where readers are enjoying it. It was in the OpenPandora forums that of this little gem. Have a look at a fan video showing iControlPad analog nub gameplay on an iPad. (The video also shows D-pad play of Super Mega Worm.)
Oh, and that pop-in-the-onscreen-keyboard trick the Gametel unit brings — the iControlPad, with the latest test firmware, has that as well (it just takes a few more seconds of button-holding to kick in).
iCade
So, with all this exciting news about the Gametel controller and the analog stick support from App Store games for the iControlPad, I went ahead and contacted to see if there is anything exciting on the horizon for the iCade. It turns out that while, sadly, the pop-up-keyboard trick isn’t a planned thing for the iCade right now, I did glean, from extremely vague terms, that there may be some interesting things to come in the iCade’s future. No specifics, unfortunately, but it’s something we’ll keep an eye on.
And there you have it — a round-up of physical controller news. The introduction of a new controller, the Gametel unit, will only sweeten the proposition for developers to support for such devices in their games down the road, and that’s definitely a good thing for iOS gamers. Stay tuned for more controller news as it unfolds.
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Out Now: ‘The Bards Tale’, ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies’, ‘Infinity Blade 2′, and More
‘Where’s My Water’ Gets 20 New Levels In Chapter Update; Also Free via Facebook Promotion
’s fairly well-received puzzle game, Where’s My Water [$.99], has received another big content update. This latest chapter, which is available now for $0, adds a new steam mechanic, more collectibles, and a total of 20 new puzzles. With this added into the overall level tally, the game can safely boast 120 different levels.
Let’s focus on that steam mechanic for a second since it ties into the chapter’s name, the “Boiling Point.” In the chapter’s puzzles, you’ll guide water into hot things, which converts the liquid into a gaseous cloud. Steam eats away at very specific pieces of a puzzle’s environment, revealing opportunities to keep the game’s Rube Golberg-ian action moving and Swampy the Alligator happy.
Here’s the new trailer:
Eli Note: Just as I was about to unleash this story to the wild, I discovered that Where’s My Water is the latest game to be available for free via Apple’s crazy Facebook promo code promotion. You might remember this from when we did the legendary 9,999 Alarm Freebie Alert for Halfbrick’s Jetpack Joyride [99¢]. This works the same way, either mash or the image below, follow the instructions, and claim your free copy of Where’s My Water.
Seriously, .
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‘These Robotic Hearts of Mine’ Review – A Successful Experiment in Narrative Puzzles
Stories are hard to come by on the App Store. Most games don’t bother with even a pretense of a story, and those that do tend to be crammed in rather painfully. It’s understandable — most iOS games are created by tiny teams, often just a programmer and an artist, so there’s not much room or budget for writing.
Sometimes, though, a game comes by that shows that you don’t need to sacrifice to tell a good tale. Some stories are as simple and eternal as boy meets girl, and they can be told over and over in brand new ways. These Robotic Hearts of Mine [$1.99] is one of those games. It’s small, simple and charming, and it does an admirable job of bringing narrative to that least-storied of genres, the puzzle game.
Better still, the puzzles in These Robotic Hearts of Mine are successful and interesting. Games that really experiment with narrative sometimes tend to end up a little light on enjoyable gameplay, but this game does not. It plays out over 36 levels of Rubik’s Cube-inspired puzzling that boast a reasonable difficulty curve, entertainment and even a smidgen of replayability.
The puzzles are straightforward. Each level has a field of hearts and gears. You can turn the gears by tapping them, and they take adjacent hearts with them when they rotate. The goal is to rotate the hearts until all are right-side-up, sometimes moving them from one gear to another in the process.
Each level gives you a minimum number of taps to try to achieve, but you can keep going as long as you’d like without penalty. There are the usual controls — buttons to take you back or forward a move, buttons to reset the level, and so on. You’ll never find yourself frustrated by an inability to proceed.
After each level is completed, you’re shown your progress compared to that of others, whether you hit the par score or fell within the average or worse. Then you’re treated to a single screen of narrative, one sentence of the story.
To avoid spoilers, I won’t get into the story. It’s so short and sweet that there isn’t much to be said that won’t give it all away. Suffice it to say that it’s emotionally charged, if not especially original, and that it’s quite successful.
As to how it merges with the gameplay, my feelings are mixed. I like the slow reveal of the story, the way you need to work through each level. As the levels get longer and more difficult, the story feels similarly halting. Needing to work for it feels quite appropriate. But some mechanical choices get in the way. For one, that score page you’re presented with on ending each level if quite an intrusion into the game’s atmosphere. It’s a distraction to start thinking numbers and strategies when the story is presented so briefly.
A more serious problem presents itself: you can freely skip your way through the entire game if you want to, reading the story panels and then skipping the level. It’s hard to take the combination of the two seriously when they can be ripped apart like that. If the goal is that people will play for their narrative, letting them skip the game undermines the experience, and frankly the story isn’t quite enough on its own.
In the end, These Robot Hearts of Mine is good, but it isn’t great. As a game, it doesn’t go quite far enough to reward players for pushing through or to encourage them to play well. As a narrative, too many of the game elements get in the way of the presentation. A bit more commitment could strengthen the game, hopefully in the direction of its narrative. There are plenty of great puzzle games out there, but never enough strong stories.
Still, it’s a lovely game, and for the most part it works quite well. I consider my time with it well spent, even if a few tweaks could have made These Robotic Hearts of Mine much more atmospheric. Give it a look for yourself, and let us know what you think in the
TouchArcade Rating: 
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Chair Releases ‘Infinity Blade 2′ Finger Work Out – Yes, This is Real
There’s hype building publicity stunts, then there’s hype building publicity stunts. Pre-release excitement for Chair’s upcoming Infinity Blade 2 is already at an all time high, which apparently has left Chair’s PR department scratching their collective heads to come up with what else they could do to promote a game that’s already on cruise control for greatness.
I’m guessing this eureka moment coincided with late night fitness-centric infomercials, resulting in a promotion that’s so silly we couldn’t help but post about it. Anyway, Chair has partnered up with musclebound bro who is known for , a free fitness-oriented self-help eBook. Nate (who can be seen above working out at the local playground) put together a list of exercises which should help prepare even the weakest of hands for Infinity Blade 2.

So, without further ado, we present to you, the unedited Infinity Blade 2 workout in its entirety:
1. Rubberband Splay: This is the reverse movement of gripping something. Train the reverse muscles in your hands and wrist to strengthen them.
Take a rubber band and place it around your thumb and fingertips. Touch all of your fingers together. Splay your fingers as far as you can stretch them and fight the resistance of the rubberband. Touch all of your fingers together again. That’s one rep. Do 20 on each hand.

2. Book Grip: Test your grip endurance. Can you hold for 20 seconds with just your index finger and thumb?
- Beginner: Grab two heavy books, hold them together, and grip them with your thumb and all of your fingers. Shoot for 20 seconds.
- Intermediate: Grip with your thumb and only your middle and ring finger. Shoot for 20 seconds.
- Hero: Grip with your thumb and index finger. Shoot for 20 seconds.
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3. Quarter Toss: Improve your reflexes and hand-eye coordination.
Grab a quarter, lay your hand flat, and place it on your fingers. In one motion, flick your wrist, sending the quarter flying through the air. Grab the quarter mid-air quickly. That’s one rep. Perform 10 reps on each hand.

4. Sandbag or Tennis Ball Dynamic Grip: Strengthen the muscles in your hands, fingers and wrists.
Hold a hot pad (shown) or a tennis ball in your hand with an underhand grip. Squeeze as hard as you can and hold for 2 seconds. Release your grip and repeat. Go for 30 reps on each hand.

5. Wrist and Forearm Stretch: After all that hardcore hero finger training, stretch your muscles in your wrist and forearms before you play Infinity Blade 2.
Put your hand flat in front of you. Grab the fingers of that hand with your other hand and gently pull your fingers toward your body, keeping your arm straight. You should feel a pull in your forearm and wrist. Hold for 30 seconds. Do 1 set for each hand.

Neat, right — and all in the name of fun. Regardless if you’re into pumping up your fingers and hands, Infinity Blade 2 hits in the next couple of days at $6.99. If you haven’t yet, give our preview a look, and chat with fellow finger-working buddies in the .
Meanwhile, we’re putting the finishing touches on our review which will go live with the launch of the game. Spoilers: It’s awesome.
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‘Bullet Time HD’ Review – Post-apocolyptic Freemium Dual Stick Shooting At Its Finest
Like it or not, more and more games in a wide variety of genres appear to be taking the freemium route in an effort to be more profitable. Rather than simply taking a binary stance as to the merits of freemium, I’d prefer to look at each game on a case by case basis to see if the developers manage to strike that balance of freemium elements versus playability and, most importantly, fun. Bullet Time HD [Free], the latest title from , hits that balance perfectly and leaves me hoping that future developers will create freemium games like this.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Bullet Time follows John Irish, a man out to rescue his family from the mutated creatures inhabiting the land. You’ll lead John through a variety of locales that look striking and definitely give off a Borderlands sort of vibe. The game looks great and runs amazingly well on an iPhone 4S, although there was some minor slowdown on a 4th generation iPod touch.
Control-wise, Bullet Time plays like your standard dual stick shooter, with no significant positives or negatives to the standard formula. In addition, from a gameplay perspective, you’ll always have a primary mission to accomplish, but the game also throws a few side missions and secret locales at you if you’re willing to look for them. Bullet Time also features a lot of excellent ambient sounds and hard rock music that do a great job setting the tone of the game. From a presentation standpoint, Bullet Time simply rocks.

One of Bullet Time’s strengths is in the wide variety of weapons, armor, and upgrades available to help on your quest for mutant destruction. Mr. Irish can take two different weapons into battle at any one time, and each weapon can be outfitted with powers that range from increased damage and critical change to enemy slowdown. Weapons also have various special abilities, such as rapid-fire or piercing, which add an additional strategic element. In addition, there are three pieces of armor you can upgrade, along with five different short-term boosts that you can use during play. Add all this together, and there is a ton of room for customization and replayability.
The freemium elements come into play with Bullet Time’s currency system. As you journey through each mission, you’ll primarily earn silver, which is the main currency in the game. In addition, you’ll also occasionally find crystals, the ‘premium’ currency (you will earn crystals with each level up, too). While a lot of the gear you can buy requires silver to purchase, the top gear for each level typically requires crystals, which can also be purchased via IAP. While you do earn a decent amount of crystals during normal play, there are items that are simply unobtainable unless you purchase extra crystals.
This will undoubtedly irk some folks, but I thought the developers did a great job optimizing the gameplay for equipment obtainable via silver. While some games implicitly require the freemium items for players to simply succeed, Bullet Time instead treats them as premium items that make the experience easier, and maybe a little more fun, which is my ideal view for these sorts of items.
In addition to the single player campaign, Bullet Time also has a survival-based multiplayer mode with up to three gamers playing simultaneously. Players can elect to be paired up randomly with other folks or they can start/join games with their Game Center friends. Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble trying to start a randomized game, but I was able to try a few Game Center ones. Once I was able to get a game going I found survival mode to be incredibly fun, particularly when I was able to play with folks in the same room as me. You also earn experience and silver while playing survival sessions, which makes multiplayer even more worth it if you’re able to get a game going.
Simply put, Bullet Time gets a lot of things right when it comes to dual stick shooters. The controls, presentation, customization and replayability are all well done. Sure, it would be nice to be able to acquire all the items without IAP, and the multiplayer lobby system had some issues, but those are not game breakers. Add in the fact that the game is free and that the freemium elements are nonintrusive, and Bullet Time becomes a must-play for any fans of the genre. I only hope other developers take note, because this is how freemium should be done.
TouchArcade Rating: 
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‘Gua-Le-Ni’ for iPad Review – An Amateur Taxonomer’s Dream
Have you ever secretly wanted to live the life of a taxonomer, pouring over the details of new species to discover their histories? No? How about blocks — do you like to play with blocks? You might need to fall somewhere within that spectrum to really appreciate Gua-Le-Ni [$4.99], my new favorite taxonomic game. It’s a rapid-fire puzzle game with a fantastical approach to the vagaries of animal kind.
From moment to moment you’re tasked with the categorization of brand new animal hybrids. While you might be familiar with the dreaded CA-MEL or TI-GER, would you recognize a RAB-HOG on sight? How about a WART-DOR-PUS-STER? Anything goes in Gua-Le-Ni, and you’ll need to be quick enough to go along with it.
You do this with a collection of blocks, like children’s alphabet blocks. Each face of each block possesses one syllable of an animal’s name, and a section of that animal to go with it. So a “Ti” block face would have a tiger’s head, and the “Ger” would have its rear.
The blocks can be turned, spun and moved around to form whatever fantastic beast steps across your screen. You’re given two to start, a reasonable number for learning, but when you’re tired of the fifteenth variation of “Lob-mon” or “Rhi-ster” it will be time to move on.

You can do so at your own pace, more or less. In Fiction mode, you can add or remove blocks at will. Four-sectioned creatures may strain your taxonomic talents (and your speedy fingers), but they’re a worthy challenge after some practice. Once you’ve practiced to your heart’s content, you can move on to Non-Fiction mode.
Non-Fiction is no less imaginative than Fiction mode, but the beasts are more beastly and hungry. Some are herbivores, some carnivores, so you’ll need to be on your toes to feed them correctly. There are meals to be made with each combo of three feedings, and bonus points to be earned for them. Feed the animals the wrong foods, however, and it will ruin your combinations.
An odd bit of extra-terrestrial muck can be fed to the animals as well, mutating them into bigger and odder forms. But you must choose to do this — difficulty is not generally forced upon you. The developers at apparently tested the game for biometric reactions in order to ensure that the difficulty curve was appropriate and the cognitive challenge was always sufficient, and this attention to detail shows. Gua-Le-Ni is difficult enough to keep players strung along without indulging in pointless frustration.
Or at least that’s mostly true. The controls are just shy of perfect, and I have found myself occasionally stymied in a playthrough by a block refusing to turn or rotate as needed. The two-fingered twists and lifts are intuitive, but when they don’t register correctly the joy of playing is lost. Hopefully this will see a tweak or two in the days to come.
Despite that bit of friction, though, I find myself continually drawn back into Gua-Le-Ni. Much of its appeal is aesthetic. The scrap paper creatures are partly horrid in their combinations, but partly gorgeous too. The sound is catchy, and the tome-like interface is elegant and entirely usable. The narration particularly stands out, delightfully dotty as it is.
But the gameplay is no slouch, either. Part of the challenge lies in memorization — the blocks you use are always the same, so once you know where to find the “Ti,” you’ll likely never lose it. But managing meals complicates matters, as does the growing speed of the beasts that pass by. Your speed matters too — you earn more points for an animal classified quickly than one that takes time.
Your successes add up into high scores, ranked on two Game Center leaderboards. One is for total score, as could well be expected. But one is cleverer: the time it takes you to earn a Two of Four. That’s two full animals classified with four blocks each in Non-Fiction mode. It’s good inspiration to move up to four blocks as quickly as you can — lingering at fewer blocks slows down your scoring, and knocks off any chance you have of ranking on that leaderboard. There are also a selection of achievements to earn, some clever, but a few too many focused on sharing or rating the game.
Many players will find Gua-Le-Ni a bit steep for what it offers, the rather simple puzzle game at its heart. But for those of you who, like me, are drawn in by its gallimaufry of nonsense creatures, the game will be nearly impossible to resist. Give in – Gua-Le-Ni follows through with charm and plenty of fun. The joy of taxonomy may fade in time, but you’ll always have the knowledge that you were the one to identify the humble Lob-hog-bit, and that’s a memory that will last. Share it in our
TouchArcade Rating: 
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