TouchArcade.ru

New Scientist is reporting on a study by Purdue PhD computer science student Abhinav Pathak on energy usage in free mobile games. If you browse around Pathak’s site, he’s spent his time building all sorts of in-depth debugging tools to really nail down where your battery is spent on different functions inside of a mobile application.

The findings aren’t surprising:

For example, in Angry Birds only 20 per cent is used to display and run the game, while 45 per cent is spent finding and uploading the user’s location with GPS then downloading location-appropriate ads over a 3G connection. The 3G connection stays open for around 10 seconds, even if data transmission is complete, and this “tail energy” consumes another 28 per cent of the app’s energy. …Read More

Angry Birds isn’t alone in this phenomenon, as basically any free game that’s serving you ads is doing all sorts of battery-burning stuff in the background to constantly fetch the newest and (hopefully) most relevant advertisements for you. Again, this might be one of those “Well, duh” sort of stories for a lot of people out there, but it’s just another fantastic example in that even though the price of a free game might technically be zero dollars, even without IAP, you’re “paying” for that game in other ways– Often at the expense of battery life.

[via New Scientist]

[source]

I love it when a logo explains it all.

You put on your shoes, and turn on the app. In the background, you hear the throaty hum of an engine and the voice of a pilot speaking into her comm. As you walk out the door, she tells you that you’re on a mission. She doesn’t know what kind, and she doesn’t seem to care, either. Your target is Abel Township, one of the last two remaining strongholds within 100 miles of this area. This is weeks, maybe years after a zombie d-day. Right as you hit outdoors and start an honest jog, the story takes a turn. A missile slams into the helicopter. You hear the crunch of metal, warning beacons, and gears grinding.

You’re three miles out of Abel, and maybe a quarter of a mile out on your run. You’re told to jump, so you do. And then you hear the groans of the undead.

Horror and athletics don’t usually mix, but with a heaping of pure passion, these two things can gel just as well as sweat and iron. Zombies, Run, is an exciting fitness app from London-based studio Six to Start. Its goal is to tell you the story of a fractured world as you jog, and put you firmly in the thick of it. You participate as a silent and athletically gifted protagonist that the survivors of Abel dub “Runner 5.” Runners have a single job: run — run to find new materials, or pick up packages, or trade with others. Each mission in the game presents a new piece of scripted story. Each segment is broken into chunks that are cleverly bookended by your own workout playlists.

The stylish Zombies, Run! poster that was given to its backers on Kickstarter.

The effect is sort of like what would happen if Stephen King’s The Mist 3-D ever melded with Nike Plus. The narrators, who hiss into different sides of your earbuds as you run, provide a rough context as to where you are and what you need to do. They bump out pieces of story intermittently, as you picture wandering through the bowels of a messed up hospital or explore an air drop outside of Abel base. After each mission, the app turns into something similar to Fallout’s radio stations; it plays your music alongside radio-style commentary and news from two Abel survivors.

There’s a much more mechanical game part to Zombies, Run, too. As you run, you’ll pick up items that can be used to boost Abel Township’s hospital, food stores, communication station, armory, residential areas, or recreational facilities. It’s a simple mechanic, but it feels like a treat after an awesome run.

Sometimes, you’ll hear the groans of the undead in your ear and have to run faster in the real world to get away from the game’s zombies. This specific part of the experience is its interval training, which is an important element that sets this apart. Most fitness games are horrible at getting you to new heights. Even the good ones like EA Active are bad at this. Band exercises have limitations, and running in place isn’t going to get your bigger or stronger or faster. Pushing yourself safely with intervals in a real world scenario is an important component to any kind of serious training, and Zombies, Run has that.

That’s a great element, but what I really think makes Zombies, Run work, and work so well, is its soul. The studio has one experienced runner with a history of using fitness apps and a staff filled with people who dig and understand proper storytelling. They want to deliver something special. As an organization, Six to Start seems like the perfect fit for this kind of app.

The Origin

Adrian Hon is one of the brains behind Zombies, Run. He’s the runner of the office. He tells me that he’s wanted a better kind of running game since the iPhone made its debut. He’s used a lot running apps, like Nike Plus and Runkeeper, as well as a couple of more visual-oriented apps. The problem he sees with these apps is legion. Running while looking at a screen is dangerous, stopping to see your progress is counterproductive, GPS can send you to bad places, and there’s not an element of fun.

Hon says he used to hate running when he was younger. He, literally, “Couldn’t think of a worse thing to do.” This all changed when he discovered Garmin GPS, which added an element of fun to the mix. Because of this app, he still runs, although its more of a seasonal thing because no-one likes getting out on ice.

There's a Zombies, Run store that sells these.

“One of the things I really liked about the Garmin was the ‘ghost mode,’ where you could race against yourself.” Hon says. “It made me think there was quite a lot that could be done with fitness games. And I think that physical activity — and of course, sports — is inherently fun and good, so it really shouldn’t be that hard to make a game out of them.” He laments what studios are doing now with their fitness games.

“However, developers have been more focused on the more reliably profitable, yet massively competitive, genres of casual games lately. And more experimental folk find it more difficult to combine tech and physical interaction in a way that doesn’t make you want to shoot yourself when you try to play.”

Zombies, Run was the answer to Hon’s issues with fitness apps and a riff on Ghost mode. It’s a viable one, too, because it treats your phone as if it were an iPod Nano. It only spits out audio when you select a mission, and it never asks you to take a gander at it while you exercise. Aside from random zombie horde events, it also lets you decide when you want to push yourself. A lot of fitness games, if they’re not taxing, they’re just screaming at you. It can be a really counterproductive factor in a workout. It’s easier to get hurt this way. Zombies, Run allows you to take care of your body while also torturing your mind.

Zombies, Run was a project that floated around in Hon’s head since his Garmin days. He and Six To Start had a lot of ideas bouncing around, but they settled on this one, as it artfully combines super simple play alongside an actual story. The narrative is something Hon obviously enjoys, too. “It’s a shame that so few developers have made more than a token effort to put proper stories in their games,” Hon says. “I understand that Triple Town and Bejeweled don’t need stories, but then again, I quite liked Puzzle Quest, so there’s a lot of room in mobile for innovation, but we’re still seeing the same old stuff, even from indie developers.”

This is the first promotional image for the game on the App Store.

Six to Start is all about story. If it isn’t obvious from the fact that it created an audio-based running game about the end of the world, check out its web site.

“We are next-gen storytellers,” the studio proudly states. “Great storytelling and great gameplay is at the heart of what we do. Storytelling is a huge part of the world’s culture, and great stories have always had the ability to move and excite us, whatever the medium. Play means a lot to us, too. We draw inspiration from video games, boardgames, casual games and playful applications and services.”

Six To Start believes that through play, people can learn and discover new experiences. When story and play are combined, it gives Six to Start “the opportunity to deeply engage with our audience get them to do new things — as a large single group or individually.” It’s getting me to run away from zombies, and think about the world they exist in as I kill my body, so this place is obviously doing something right.

Six To Start and Hon’s baby became 3,464 people’s baby, too. Zombies, Run was funded via Kickstarter. The team put up the game’s idea, asked for $12,500 and then received over $70,000 in return. The project was funded in six days alone. Backers received all sorts of neat prizes, including their names in the game’s credits, a poster, or the chance to name something in the game after themselves.

Hon has prior experience with Kickstarter, so it wasn’t a big moment when the idea of putting Zombies, Run on the popular crowd-funding service came to him. However, the decision was also a great way to vet the game’s core idea. “Plus, we thought that the public would be easier to convince Zombies, Run was a good idea than the usual gatekeepers.”

Everyday I Hear Zombies Moan

I usually stick to high-impact weight lifting. I don’t run because I’m afraid that I’ll lose my precious muscle mass. Call it a tic. The truly awesome thing about this app is that it is capable of embracing your routine, no matter how weird it is. I normally use the elliptical for my needs, for example, and I can use Zombies, Run. All I have to do is turn off the GPS features and turn on its experimental accelerometer functionality and I can play just like a runner might. Conversely, I can also just chill with it, and listen to the story, although this method isn’t preferable.

I’m taking Zombies, Run into the gym every day. That’s huge because it’s proving to be a tool. On my calf and thigh days, it’s pushing me, reminding me not to fall into casual or relaxed grooves. I need that because I’m usually only interested in sweating if I’m lifting something spectacularly heavy.

I guess games end up changing a lot when the budget suddenly skyrockets.

Plus, the story is tremendously well told. This isn’t a blown-up, bombastic tale of a few survivors just making do. There’s subtlety to its characters and its world, and just like The Walking Dead, there are moments of intense action, bookended by periods of drama and character building. Zombies, Run wants to actually tell you a story. It isn’t afraid to do so, and that comes across, even if you might be slightly too tired to care in sections. I never feel like an idiot while listening to it, either. It’s told with a straight face and with enough touch to make it feel like an honest story, and not just some weird nerd fantasy running app. There’s interesting stuff tucked into each mission — stuff you want to tune in order to learn more about the world Six to Start is building.

Also, of note, this isn’t a trainer. It doesn’t scream at you. It might nudge you with the zombie horde attacks, but the app doesn’t get in your face. It let’s you do your own thing in your own way. It was designed specifically to do this.

“We want to enhance people’s lives by making their workouts fun, not turn into nagging machines,” says Naomi Alderman, the writer of Zombies, Run. Mission accomplished, I think.

Zombies, Run is available now on the App Store for $7.99. An Android version is coming down the pipes, too. Currently, the game has a total of 20 missions. More missions are slated to come down the line as IAP. Check it out if it even vaguely interests you. I think you’ll be surprised by its purity — and its scares.

[source]

My Xbox Live and Dragon Shout have been welcome surprises for Xbox Live or Skyrim users, respectively. Judging by looks and promise alone, we imagine that Halo Waypoint is going to be huge for Halo and Live fans.

On December 10 the slick-looking companion app will see a release across the App Store, Android, and Windows Phone 7. It’ll, of course, usher in all the Halo Reach-specific stat-tracking, service details, challenge, and map functionality that a Reach person could want, but it will also include a fun real-time twist to all of this.

Assisted Tactical Assault System is a “companion experience” built into Waypoint that will, essentially, act as a sort of multiplayer GPS. With ATLAS, you’ll be able to track weapon and vehicle spawn locations, health pack locations, engagements, teammates, and yourself in near real-time. It’ll also spit out weapon loadout information for players, as well as current team scores. This is crazy!

We’re not sure what it’ll be like to fist a controller and phone while actually playing a game of Reach at the same time, but ATLAS sure does sound like that next-level official companion piece we’ve been waiting for, so we’ll definitely be giving it a spin tomorrow. It’s also of note that the app will connect people to the game’s web site, which we’re guessing is where a lot of this magic will actually be happening.

Halo Waypoint will debut at $4.99 for Android and iOS, and free on Windows Phone 7. Microsoft and 343 have a pretty expansive FAQ and post on the app, if you want some hardcore specific details and technical information.

[source]

Like most geeks, I've spent some time thinking about the best place to go in case of a zombie apocalypse. My pick is always Costco — food, weapons and big solid doors all in one place. Since that plan is unlikely to ever have any real world value, I've taken the opportunity to barricade my local big-box against the zombie horde in Please Stay Calm [Free], a new location-based MMO from Massive Damage Inc.

If you've ever played a game like Mafia Wars, you'll have some idea of what to expect in Please Stay Calm. It's similar in design, but it takes place in your neighborhood. The world has been overrun by zombies, and you're a survivor. You'll need to scavenge for resources, build up a safehouse and a good team, and gun down the undead — and a few of your fellow survivors.

The world Please Stay Calm inhabits is one that's on the edge of destruction. Zombies are everywhere, the government has been useless, and the survivors are on their own — almost. The app ties you into the CVC, a network of survivors that connects you with missions, a black market and chat. While this is all done up in a simple informational interface, presenting the package as an app for survivors adds a nice bit of immersion.

As a survivor, two tasks will occupy most of your time: hunting zombies and scavenging for supplies. As you explore your neighborhood, you can visit nearby stores and landmarks. Without leaving your home, you can investigate the corner store across the street and strip it of a portion of its useful resources. Searching for supplies opens a top-down minigame where you seek out static dots that represent supplies and cash while dodging the dots that represent zombies. Hunting zombies brings up another minigame. Two dimensional zombies assault your screen while you try to pick the right weapon to use from a flashing selection screen. Both are reflex tests, so care and quickness will see you through alive.

Winning a fight or surviving a scavenging hunt rewards you with cash and supplies, two of the many, many numbers you'll need to pay attention to in this game. Some supplies can be taken to the black market and sold for cash, others are a currency on their own. You've also got health to worry about, stamina, and energy — you can't investigate without energy. Then there are credits, the premium currency for Please Stay Calm. They can be converted to supplies and cash. Supplies upgrade equipment and pay for health packs, credits pay for items that restore stamina and energy (and public chat, strangely), and cash gives you equipment. Lost yet?

Eventually your assortment of bars will refill for free, so the patient among us can play without paying. Then you can go back to hunting. If that was all there was to the game it would get old fast, but there's always more to do. Like any MMO, Please Stay Calm is better with friends. You can choose one nearby location as your safehouse and use your supplies to upgrade it. Not only do you end up with an awesome stronghold, but its stats effect yours in battle. More friends in your safehouse means more people to cooperate with, and everyone knows you can't survive a zombie apocalypse alone.

There are a few other things to do in Please Stay Calm. You can duel other players to earn cash, supplies and experience. As you level up you'll get access to missions that carry the storyline and offer great rewards. You can build outposts and harvest them for cash or supplies. And Massive Damage Inc. has more planned: they've hinted at turf wars, crafting systems and more of everything else. Still, without those things Please Stay Calm feels like it's still a bit beta, still somewhat unfinished.

The location-based MMO is a genre still growing into its own. Location-based anything is still quite new — only since we've had GPS technology in our phones has it really caught on. Please Stay Calm is a fun example of where the genre is today, but ultimately it feels like a novelty. You can tie it into Foursquare, and then it's a more social novelty. If, like me, you're waiting for the killer app of this genre, you'll have to keep waiting, but Please Stay Calm is a satisfying way to pass the time till then. If you want to share your zombie-slaying exploits on your way to the top of the leaderboards, stop by our discussion thread.

[source]

If you were among the group of people who scooped up the Parrot AR.Drone when it was first released (Check out our review) and have since gotten bored of the few apps/games that Parrot has put out since then, here's an idea for you: Aerial WiFI hacking rig. Appropriately named, SkyNET takes the Parrot AR.Drone, and trades the protective shell for a tiny Linux computer, a 3G card, GPS, and two WiFi cards.

The idea, in a nutshell, is once you've got your SkyNET drone all set up, you fly around in urban environments loaded with WiFi networks controlling the AR.Drone via 3G. It looks for networks it can break into, breaks into them, and attempts to compromise any vulnerable computer on the network. From there, these infected machines can take orders from SkyNET with no traceable ties back to the hackers running it, as everything is coming directly from an aerial drone connected directly to your WiFi network.

Pretty creepy, right? This seems like the stuff out of science fiction, but with the right technical know-how can be done today for approximately $600. So, if you haven't yet, now might be a good time to secure your wireless network. Personally, I'm just blown away that a device that was originally sold as a fun iOS-controlled quadricopter with some augmented reality games can be used for such crazy things.

[via Gizmodo]

[source]

It's Wednesday again, which means one thing around these parts: New Zealand game release extravaganza. If this is your first New Zealand Wednesday, here's how it works- When a developer sets a specific release date for their game, it becomes available for download in that region when that date hits. All of these games were set for release on 4/14, and since it's already 4/14 in some areas of the world, these games are already available for download there. This gives us a rare sneak peek at what is coming, unlike the usual "Oh hey, this is on the App Store now!" that we get the rest of the week. All of these games will be available at 11:00 PM EST, or potentially earlier if you buy your iOS games from Asian or European App Stores.

Anyway, here is what is coming out this evening that we're looking forward to:

Resident Evil Mercenaries VS, $2.99 – [Forum Thread] – Capcom's first online multiplayer enabled iOS title is a Resident Evil-based shooter with oddly high hardware requirements (for how poor the graphics look, anyway). You'll need a 3rd generation device or newer to compete in the 2v2 online team matches with various familiar Resident Evil weaponry on the three included maps with the hilariously descriptive names of "Dock," "Fort," and "Castle." We're likely going to need to wait a few days to review this one, as with any online game, it needs a community of players first.

You Don't Know Jack, $2.99 – [Forum Thread] – Twenty "episodes" worth of questions are included, and there's even an iPad version. I'm totally excited for this, as the You Don't Know Jack series of games have been amazing over the years. There's even talk of updates and additional episodes, although it isn't clear whether these will be free or available via IAP.

Streets of Rage 2, $2.99 – [Forum Thread] – I'm not sure what to say here, it's Streets of Rage 2 for the Sega Genesis wrapped in Sega's emulator. I could probably write a review for the game without even playing it, but more than anything else, I'm just disappointed that they're not releasing more of their fantastic RPG back-catalog since teasing us with Phantasy Star II [$2.99].

The Relic, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – A cool looking universal hack and slash which seems to come packed not only with what's being described as an "epic adventure," but also an experience system laden with upgrades. I'm liking the massive swarms of enemies in the above video, which is something I feel a lot of iOS hack and slash games are sorely missing.

A.I.R. Defense, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – Despite the incredibly vague iTunes description, this game looks like it could be a lot of fun. Judging by the video above, it seems to combine elements of line drawing, castle defense, and tower defense in to one very bright game. I'm always open to try variations of games that dabble in multiple genres that work well on iOS devices.

Coconut Dodge, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] Believe it or not, you're looking at the PSN game of the year for 2010. I'm not entirely sure if that means Coconut Dodge is just that good, or the competition amongst PSN games is just that bad. Either way, I'm incredibly anxious to try it as according to the iTunes Description, the game has taken home several perfect 10/10's on the PSP which seems strange for a crab-based avoidance game.

Color Collider, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – This looks like a neat universal puzzle game by Capcom with gameplay that revolves around positioning the colored triangles to get the balls at the top of the screen into the appropriately colored buckets at the bottom of the screen. I'm a sucker for physics-based puzzle games, and the color changing element sounds like a lot of (complicated) fun.

Air Penguin, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – A penguin-based bouncing game where you bounce from floating ice platform to floating ice platform while avoiding hungry sharks and other obstacles. Featuring both a 100-level store mode and an endless survival mode, Air Penguin is entirely tilt based and seems to be packed with Game Center achievements as well.

Men vs Machines, Free – [Forum Thread] – What do you get when you take Gun Bros and re-skin it with a steampunk theme? I think we've found out! With that being said, the concept behind Gun Bros was really great, so if you had a lot of fun with Gun Bros, and want to start over again with steampunk weaponry, here's your chance.

Bug Village, Free – [Forum Thread] – Another freemium game from Glu today, this one puts you in the driver's seat of building a vibrant village of bugs. I'm oddly digging the art style, and am curious to see how far you can get in the game before hitting the inevitable time sink and pay wall.

Elemental Rage HD, $6.99 – [Forum Thread] – We previewed this game recently, and as a lover of all things Metroidvania, I'm totally excited to play through it. An iPhone version is in the works as well, and is expected to launch in the next couple of weeks.

[source]

Surely at some point in your life you've (either purposefully or accidentally) let a helium filled balloon loose into the air which then potentially went on to travel hundreds of miles before finally deflating enough to come back to Earth. There's no shortage of sites detailing the dangers to wildlife of actually doing this, but what if you still want to release some balloons but without littering or causing other potential problems? Well, that's where Floonr [Free] comes in.

Using this app (Calling it a "game" is likely a bit of a stretch.) you're able to scroll around Google Maps to see other balloons that have been launched, as well as launch your own. These balloons float about as they would in the real world, until they eventually crash land in 150 miles or so. You can attach messages to your balloons and other people can comment on your balloons. Also, unlike a lot of real-world GPS-based games, there seems to be a surprising amount of activity in the app.

There's a hefty amount of completely optional IAP such as stickers to add to your balloons as well as "power-ups" of sorts that do things like let your balloons float either longer or faster. I'm not entirely sure what the point of buying these is, but at least the option is there I suppose. Floonr isn't a killer must-have app by any means, but it's really cool how they've applied the activity of releasing balloons to a smartphone app and I've had a lot of fun reading what (often silly) messages there are attached to balloons virtually soaring overhead.

[source]

Tokyo's Apple Store was recently host to a "Game Nights at the Apple Store" event where EA presented a slideshow with a surprising amount of information regarding upcoming titles for both the iPhone and iPad. We've known some of these have been in the works for a while, but this is the first time for many that we've either seen any kind of screenshot or any solid release information. Japanese iPhone site 4gamer.net was in attendance, and provides the following photos of the slideshow:

First off, Reckless Racing, formerly known as Deliverace is a game we were following quite a bit before it got picked up to be published by EA. Since then, we haven't heard much about the game aside from wondering when it was finally going to be released.

According to the above slide, it's slated for this month. EA almost always releases their games on Thursdays, so we're likely either looking at a release late at night next Wednesday, or the following week. Next up is NBA Elite 11, a 5 on 5 fully licensed basketball game that takes advantage of the Retina Display:

A client for EA's free flash game portal pogo.com is also on its way. The slide mentions the game will be ad supported, with additional content available via a subscription. We'll have to see how this plays out on the device, and if the subscription they're referring to is Club Pogo or something that will be exclusive to the iOS app:

Much like Reckless Racing, I expect the above two games that EA has listed as October releases to pop up late next Wednesday or the following Wednesday. Moving on to November releases comes Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. We've been increasingly impressed with the Need For Speed series on the App Store, and I'm thinking Hot Pursuit will continue the tradition:

Next up is Pictureka!, an iPad game that sounds like a fast paced version of Where's Waldo? [$2.99 / HD]. It comes with pass and play local multiplayer for 2-4 people, and promises an art style that's both truly engaging and wacky. I'm not one to pass up on anything wacky:

Monopoly is finally coming to the iPad, which is allowing me to cross off yet another board game from my list of games I want on the device. The iPad exclusive features sound really rad, such as the auto-rotating tabletop mode… And I can't wait to see what in the world the new "cheating" mode entails. A mini game where you steal money from the bank while the rest of the players are getting drinks or going to the bathroom? We'll have to wait until December to find out:

EA Sports Active has been popular on consoles, and now is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The following slide isn't really clear how involved the app will be, but hopefully it includes some cool GPS or accelerometer integration for tracking your performance instead of being yet another calorie/workout logging app. The features list upcoming post-launch gyro support, so we'll have to see how that all works:

Last, but certainly not least by any means is Dead Space 2. This confusingly named third person shooter is apparently going to bridge the story between Dead Space and its sequel, making this something more along the lines of Dead Space 1.5 than Dead Space 2. (This confusing sequel numbering reminds me of the Angry Video Game Nerd episode on the subject.)

I can see Dead Space being absolutely amazing on the iPad, and if they do it right, an iconic example of just how good and immersive an iPad game can be. It's not entirely clear from the slide if the game is going to be iPad exclusive, or for the iPhone as well since the header mentions the iPhone, but the bulleted list below mentions it being graphically enhanced for the iPad. Either way, Dead Space on the XBOX 360 was incredible, and I have a feeling it's going to be either just as awesome on iOS devices, or just as disappointing as Mass Effect Galaxy [$1.99]– I'm not sure there's much room in between.

Of course, we will post more as soon as we get any more information on any of these games.

[via 4gamer.net]

[source]

Fishing games are a niche genre, little heard of before the popularity of the iOS touch and tilt interface. Games like Flick Fishing and Fishing Kings have introduced many newcomers to the sport in a more arcade-like way that has proven quite successful. So much so in fact that mega-publisher Activision have ported their take on angling to iOS, in Rapala Pro Bass Fishing [App Store], a universal app for the iPad and its smaller siblings.

Rapala Pro Bass Fishing starts off with a gutsy speedboat cutscene, in typical Activision flair. The intro movie kicks off what becomes a trend in your fishing career, as each victory is met with an over-the-top cutscene looking more like an MTV award night. Fortunately, everything in Rapala Pro Bass Fishing looks as great as these movies do, particularly the in-game environments which are fully fleshed out landscapes across many fishing hotspots.

In this respect, Rapala Pro Bass Fishing has addressed the crticisms of similar games that have come before it, and ensured a wide variety of locations that are completely explorable in your trusty speedboat. There aren't just several static fishing locations to cast your line at, but instead at each locale you unlock, there are a number of potential fishing spots to set your anchor at, necessitating your use of a trusty map to find the exact one with the species you're currently looking for.

There are two modes in Rapala Pro Bass Fishing, a Seasons mode and a Free Fishing mode. The latter is self-explanatory, but the Seasons Mode is ultimately where the majority of your fishing time will be spent. You start Seasons mode at the rookie level, where you are given 6 tasks to complete before being able to take on tougher challenges at other locations. Tasks include things like finding a particular type of fish, or catching a fish above a certain score grade, or even full blown fishing tournaments against several computer controlled opponents. Tasks are usually timed, with tournaments extending to 15 minutes at times. With as many of these as there are in Rapala Pro Bass Fishing, expect to be in for the long haul, as this is one heavy tackle box of goodies.

The actual fishing technique varies slightly between these games, but I was disappointed that Rapala Pro Bass Fishing opted for a much more casual, arcade heavy approach to the more technical fishing mechanics. This translates to a monotonous, toned down process of steering your boat via accelerometer to a large beacon of light (selected on your GPS map), casting your line by flicking your device forwards, then engaging in a series of gestures to hook your fish. Gestures change depending on the lure you have selected, but all are a simple combination of device tilts that help to pad out the fishing process.

Once your bait has been taken, you must tilt your device again to hook the fish (a bar will appear to show you the best time to do so) and then start reeling by circling the on-screen reel. Then the fun should begin, for as any salty sea dog will tell you– it's the thrill of the fight that counts. And in Rapala Pro Bass Fishing, this process is simplified so much that we may as well be playing kindergarten fish magnet games. Reeling in your fish is as simple as staring at the tension meter, waiting for it to rise, then tilting your device to one side. Your rod is always centred on your screen, and the only movement possible is left and right movement. Dipping your rod, lifting it to pull taut your line, pulling it from side to side to tire the fish…none of that is emulated here, which is disappointing.

If it weren't for the huge number of unlockables available; from rods, lures, fishing spots and new locations (that you buy through money earned in Seasons mode), that fact alone would steer us away from Rapala Fishing. iPad users are at least treated to a special local multiplayer fish-off that we can only hope makes its way in some form to all the devices. That aside, the fishing never seems to get truly challenging; and unlike some of the better fishing games, the whole process here does get repetitive. Still, you do have to appreciate the efforts put into Rapala Pro Bass Fishing. With 60 individual events, voiced commentary and multiple explorable locations, Rapala Pro Bass Fishing high production quality could still appeal to the more casual fishermen.

[source]