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“Chariots of the Dogs,” [$4.99] the fourth episode in the Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space series is easily the best one so far. The Sam & Max series has always been tightly written and designed, but “Chariots” does two things remarkably well: it matches its narrative hook to its mechanics, and it ties the entire series together.

If nothing else, “Chariots” is remarkable for the way it brings almost all of the big questions from the first three episodes and ties them together: the Bosco and Stinky subplots are advanced, and previously off-screen bit roles come forward as major players in the series. This feels satisfying and rewarding for longtime devotees, and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space’s episodic structure lends itself to weaving these disparate narrative threads together. Even the intro sequence feels tighter and more cinematic, suggesting a series that is maturing with each episode.

Episodes one, two, and three were generally self-contained, but “Chariots” provides the most solid narrative link in the series thus far: it picks up the immediate aftermath of “Night of the Raving Dead” [$4.99]and ends on a cliffhanger that propels the story into episode five [$4.99]

The Sam & Max series has always been, at its heart, based on inventory items, but Beyond Time and Space seems dedicated to refining and twisting that formula as much as possible: “Moai Better Blues” [$4.99] used portals to great effect; the previously mentioned “Raving Dead” included several dialogue trees and ambient aural puzzles. Without spoiling anything, “Chariots of the Dogs” focuses on time travel.

Incidentally, the time travel mechanic was first introduced in episode one, “Ice Station Santa,” [$4.99] when Sam and Max have to appease the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future. (The Ghost of Christmas Future section actually foreshadows the end of “Chariots,” if you’re paying attention.)

The beauty of “Chariots” isn’t just that it’s an adventure game with a time-travel story; the time travel conceit shapes and informs every puzzle, becoming the tentpole mechanic in its own right. A lazier game would use time travel as a plot device and build a standard inventory game around it. “Chariots of the Dogs” focuses not just on matching certain items with certain solutions, but in exploring their effects through time. Like its predecessors, “Chariots” does a good job matching its story hooks with its mechanics, which makes each relatively short episode feel distinctive and full-featured.

The logic employed in “Chariots” is relatively straightforward: the Freelance Police can move forward in time to gather clues, which in turn allows them to travel backward in time to affect the future. There’s a nice gameplay loop there, and the game as a whole feels holistic and natural, each puzzle mechanic and story arc syncing perfectly.

It’s no surprise, then, that “Chariots” feels intuitive and fun throughout. Making its players feel smart has always been one of Sam & Max’s strong suits, but every episode until now has had puzzles that feel arbitrary or unfair. Generally speaking, the broad strokes of each puzzle or story arc are easy to grasp in “Chariots,” even if the step-by-step puzzle solution requires some tinkering and mental elasticity. For my money, this installment strikes the right balance of deductive reasoning and old-fashioned observation.

This is, I’m assuming, another of episodic game development’s bounties — after four games (not counting Sam & Max Save the World, the previous series of episodic Telltale games), it’s no surprise to find the writers and developers zeroing in on smart, intuitive puzzle design.

“Chariots of the Dogs”  is smoothly and tightly paced, and nothing feels misplaced or kludged together. It’s a charming, warm, and funny game, and it’s the best episode in an increasingly good series.

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We’ve been following F5 Games’ upcoming social RPG Pocket Heroes since we first saw it back at last year’s E3. The idea behind Pocket Heroes is to let players around the world build up a party online and play through an RPG-style game, taking turns asynchronously. For simplicity’s sake it’s been described as Dungeons & Dragons meets Words With Friends, which sounds like an exciting proposition.

In early April we got an update on the progress of Pocket Heroes which pegged the release date as May 10th for a price of $1.99. Well, in a new post on the developer’s website we get a bit of a good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that Pocket Heroes won’t be hitting its intended May 10th launch date, but on the bright side the team feels confident that they will still see a release sometime during May or shortly after.

The good news is that the extra time has gone into making some significant improvements to where Pocket Heroes was previously at. First off is a huge overhaul of the UI, including getting rid of the placeholder font seen in the game’s preview trailer, which was a point of contention from some. As you can see in the following screens, the new UI is much more visually appealing while also allowing you to do more. It will also change dynamically to display the pertinent information to whatever you’re currently focused on.

Also seen in the screens above is the new chat interface in Pocket Heroes. It drives me nuts when online multiplayer games – especially turn-based ones – don’t have some sort of chat functionality. In an RPG however, discussing situations and strategizing with your party members will likely be a crucial component of success, so it’s nice to see it being handled well here.

Besides the new chat and UI work, the team has also been endlessly tweaking, balancing, and fleshing out the many details in Pocket Heroes to make sure it’s the best it can be. They sound confident that the game will be launching in May, and we look forward to checking out the full version then. Be sure to hit up our forums for even more discussion on Pocket Heroes.

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If there’s anything that could completely wreck my plans and productivity, it would be a Super Crate Box [$1.99] RPG. I’d say a quick prayer of thanks to Vlambeer for not going forward with that idea, but it’s too late. FireFruitForge and Everplay Interactive have something against letting me work in peace, I guess, because Spellsword [$0.99] is that perfect storm of quick, one-more-try gameplay and RPG mechanics I can completely lose myself in.

Spellsword isn’t a clone of Super Crate Box (thankfully—Vlambeer really could use a break), but it has a similar starting point. It’s an arena game that’s designed around rapidly collecting weapon spawns to kill baddies. But where Super Crate Box focuses tightly on that mechanic to the exclusion of everything else, Spellsword takes a more expansive road. Along that road you’re going to find levelling, loot, and a lot of new ways to play.

As a result, it’s not quite as clean as Super Crate Box’s more minimalistic approach allows. It has a few problems, and things get sloppy from time to time. I’m not saying you shouldn’t play it, though. It’s crazy-fun, and you really shouldn’t miss out.

You start out as a quippy hero with a spellsword. It’s not worth much on its own, but it can be enhanced with cards that litter the arena. Each one powers up the sword in some way—with fire, ice or poison damage, for starters—and each one also sets off some sort of effect. The ice card sends out wheels of ice, the fire card launches fireballs, and the poison card poisons every enemy on screen. And that’s just the start.

So while you can certainly run around killing things with your sword, it’s dangerous. Better to collect every card you can, and lean on those one-time effects to do the killing for you. This is where the game feels most like Super Crate Box, dodging enemies to get to the next card and never stopping to rest. Still, the differences are pretty huge.

For one thing, enemies drop rupees. In fact, the whole game is pretty much built around the rupee economy. Play well to earn more rupees, which you can use to level up your cards, your sword, and even your rupee drop rate. You can also use them to buy gear that adds to those same skills. And before you ask, no—there isn’t any IAP.

Mission mode is another big difference. Each of the three current arenas come with 20 missions. These ask you to do a bunch of different things. You might need to survive some waves, kill some baddies or collect some cards. In exchange you’re given big payouts of rupees, new cards and the occasional piece of gear.

Endless mode is more familiar, with nonstop waves of baddies until you burn through all your hearts. There are three difficulty tiers of endless mode for each arena. In them you’ll grind rupees, and you’ll also find the leaderboard competition.

When it comes to the little things, Spellsword goes the distance. The look is great, very much like Terra Noctis [$0.99], FireFruitForge’s other big title. The sound is no slouch, but it doesn’t really stand out. Love it or hate it, the real flavor rests in the hero’s quips. There’s one for every mission, and nearly ever single one is a reference to a show, game, or movie. They run the gamut from modern and obvious to old and seriously obscure. Me, I find ‘em charming.

As I mentioned, there are also some problems. The controls aren’t great, and on iPad they’re worse. There’s already a fix incoming for that—along with adding new control types, it will let you reposition the iPad controls. There’s also some clumsiness in the arena design. It’s easy to get caught on edges, or mess up platforms. There are also ways to abuse positioning and let enemies wander off to their own deaths. These things aren’t remotely dealbreakers, but they can be irritating.

Overall, though, the game is outstanding. The RPG mechanics add a whole new layer of compulsion to an already inviting sort of game. It’s not easy to call it quits, especially when there’s one more level to earn, or one more piece of gear you can almost afford. Those things make it less of a pure skill game—you’ll need to put in a bit of a grind to cap out— but they also add a bit of strategy. There is real value in carefully choosing your gear and putting your rupees to good use when leveling.

With some elbow grease and a good once over, Spellsword could easily earn a permanent spot on my iPhone. It’s really that good. And Everplay Interactive seems dedicated to hitting those heights, if the developer’s comments in our discussion thread are anything to go by. I don’t see how you could possibly go wrong here. This a game that’s fun, full-featured and ridiculously cheap, with a developer that’s working hard to keep fixes and content coming. Looks like a winner from here.

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Rogue was a little before my time, and it took a while to see the appeal. Games with permadeath sound like an exercise in extreme frustration, even balanced out by tantalizingly random loot and procedurally generated worlds. In the past few years I’ve come around on the subject of roguelikes, though. It’s nice to have RPGs and skill-based games meet up, and they’re the best way to enjoy a complete game in a short time.

The latter is what I enjoy most about them, so it grates on me that so many of the best roguelikes take hours to complete. Wouldn’t it be nice if more of them embraced their strengths and provided seriously compact experiences? Not that there’s not room for the long-form, but how I’d love to have more games out there like Zaga 33 [$0.99]. It’s quick, compact and challenging in equal parts—nothing wasted, nothing left out.

It’s odd to see a game so well-suited to iOS arriving as a port from desktop, but that’s where we find ourselves. Developer Michael Brough has embraced all the best things about the roguelike in Zaga 33, and has done so with bite-sized chunks that fit perfectly into the world of mobile gaming. Got 15 minutes to kill? That’s enough to work your way through the whole game if you have the skills to pull it off. Of course, you don’t stop there. It’ll take more than a few of those short sessions to work your way up to that level, and more than a few afterwards to max out your high score.

Stranded on the, err, rogue planet Zaga 33, your hero, the humble “@,” must travel into its depths to destroy the alien cortex. You’re virtually unarmed, extremely vulnerable, and facing down 25 levels of hostile aliens. Zaga 33 strips out all but the absolute necessities of the genre. You won’t level up your little @, and you get nothing for your kills. Each time you hit an alien you take down one of its two hit points. Each time an alien hits you, you take one damage out of a maximum of nine.

That means hunting is counterproductive, so each time you enter a new screen you’ll need to weigh your possibilities. Do you head for one of the potentially useful artifacts? Doing so might draw an alien’s attention. You can fight one off easily enough, and you’ll recover one hit point when you reach the next room. But if there are two in your way, or three, you might find yourself in dire straits.

Add to that dilemma another layer of concern: you’re never sure what the artifacts will be until you use them. The artifacts’ symbols are shuffled with every new game you start, so a starburst symbol might be a healing item one playthrough and a nuke the next. Is it worth it to fight through a sea of hostile aliens for what might just be a teleportation spell? It’s a tough call. Knowing that the number of items you have at the end effects your final score—well that just makes it tougher.

You’re not left with only unknowns, at least. Zaga 33 tells you exactly how each alien will behave. Goblins move toward you, snarks move between you and the exit, and so on. This is information you’ll need in order to survive, and it turns each level into something of a puzzle. You can’t always reach the exit without getting hit, but it’s always worth trying.

Zaga 33 isn’t for everyone. The controls aren’t perfect, which can sometimes lead to mistakes. The game’s distinctly retro aesthetic will be a turn-off for some. And I can sympathize with the feeling that roguelikes can be a bit pointless. I enjoy the repetition, the fight to improve my score in a pretty randomly generated experience, but there’s no shame in preferring persistance.

If a retro-style roguelike sounds right up your alley, on the other hand, Zaga 33 is a must-buy. It’s tiny, but that just means you can try often and learn from your mistakes. I don’t usually expect to get much from a game in 15 minutes, but Zaga 33 makes every second count. Try the free desktop version if you’re on the fence—if it captures you like it’s captured me, you’ll be happy to put down a bit of change to take it on the go.

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These days, endless runners need to go above and beyond in some aspect if they hope to rise above the competition and get some attention. Enter Escape from Age of Monsters [$0.99 / HD] an endless runner from Massive Joe Studios. Featuring a beautiful and unique art style, Escape certainly has our attention as a game worth checking out.

Escape puts you in the role of Gizzard, a man in possession of a mysterious pair of gloves who is to survive the monster invasion. With orphans in tow, you’ll guide Gizzard through buildings punching down walls and monsters, all while collecting floating items offering points, coins and a variety of power-ups (slowdown, speedup, e.t.c.). Miss a punch, and the monsters will take the orphans before eventually taking you down and ending the game. As expected, the longer you stay alive, the faster the obstacles come at you, until you eventually succumb to the monsters.

The first thing you’ll notice about Escape from Age of Monsters is its gorgeous visuals. The hand-drawn animated style is quite unique and simply looks stunning. Everything from the characters themselves to the backdrops to even the menus has an air of being meticulously detailed, and gives off the feeling that you’re playing in an animated cartoon. Amazingly, this feeling is amplified on the new iPad, as the retina-visuals on the large screen look quite fantastic. This sentiment is also carried over with the game’s music, which boasts a great metal soundtrack that fits the theme and sets the mood appropriately. This all leads to a very enjoyable playing experience, as Escape simply nails its presentation.

Gizzard’s gloves are the key to Escape’s gameplay. One glove is colored red while the other is blue. Tapping on the right side of the screen will launch a red punch while tapping on the left side launches the blue. Relatedly, every barrier and baddie you encounter will be colored red or blue. Thus, the game becomes an exercise in tapping the appropriate side of the screen that corresponds with the obstacle in front of you.

In addition to the simple survival objective, Escape features a mission system that tasks you with various objectives and rewards items that permanently increase the base score multiplier upon completion. This continues a recent trend in endless titles that provide score-enhancing awards vice older titles that tried to mostly preserve leaderboard parity regardless of how much you played. One minor complaint is the lack of iCloud support for your progress, although that is somewhat expected considering iPad and iPhone versions are separate. Regardless, it’s a good incentive program that encourages gamers to play for more than just leaderboard chasing (even if the rewards are simply to make said chasing easier).

While the controls are simple enough for an endless runner, there are a few miscues that prevent it from being flawless. For example, each successful punch has the opportunity to award double points, with three consecutive ‘perfect’ punches putting you in ‘Turbo Mode,’ where the score multiplayer jumps up even further and you get a temporary extra life (until the mode breaks).

However, the timing for the perfect punches seems a bit off. While continual practice alleviates this problem somewhat, you never seem to fully grasp the timing window. Another issue revolves around the swiping mechanism needed to collect the various items and power-ups littered on the level. I had multiple occasions where I’d swipe at the item several times and the collection wouldn’t register. Considering how hectic Escape gets in later buildings, this can get frustrating when you’re trying to balance item collection and wall breaking.

Despite the above issues, Escape from Age of Monsters is still a great endless runner. I’d argue that it warrants consideration simply from its visuals. Luckily, you won’t have to make that decision as Escape also offers a balanced gameplay experience to accompany those visuals. With that in mind, you’d be hard-pressed to pass up on this endless runner.

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Late last week Capcom surprised everybody by announcing an iOS port of their classic arcade fighter Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 [ $2.99 ]. In all honesty, I suspect this was a cleverly timed release to casually tie in with ‘The Avengers’ movie coming out next week, but whatever the motivation I’m not complaining. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is one of the most beloved fighting games in history, and prior to the downloadable rerelease on XBL and PSN in 2009 it could be kind of a difficult game to play unless you owned the Dreamcast or the somewhat rare PS2 or Xbox versions.

With that said it’s fairly mind blowing then that today you can download the entire original game onto a device that fits snugly in your pocket (or to your iPad if you’d rather, since the game is Universal, though it’s extra snug trying to jam that in your pocket). The iOS version of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is really cool for what it is, basically a cheap nostalgic trip, but it’s plagued with several major problems that drag the experience down, making it feel more like a novelty rather than another solid iOS fighter.

The major sticking points in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 are that it’s difficult to control compared to the other top iOS fighters, the 12 year old visuals have not aged gracefully, and the overall performance leaves a lot to be desired. However, the virtual control setup that Capcom has come up with for the game is pretty clever, and just having a classic like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in my pocket is worth putting up with its shortcomings. It’s just a shame because with a little more care I think this port could have been a whole lot better.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 features a whopping 56 playable characters, 28 from the Marvel camp and 28 from Capcom. Only 24 are available from the start, with the rest being unlocked from an in-game store using coins earned through play, or for performing certain tasks like completing the arcade mode with different characters.

In the XBL and PSN versions of the game, all characters are unlocked from the start, but I far prefer having to unlock them on my own as it gives you a sense of progress and some goals to shoot for while playing. However, if you’re dying to download the iOS version and bust out some local Bluetooth multiplayer with a buddy (sadly there is no online) right out of the gate, then you might find it annoying to have to spend significant time earning enough coins to unlock your favorite characters. Surprisingly, there is no sort of in-app purchase option to unlock everything.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is all about 3-on-3 tag team matches where characters can be swapped in and out at will, there’s a crazy emphasis on battles in the air, and the combos and special moves are all outrageous and over the top. Unfortunately, the iOS version runs so sluggishly that much of those fun moments are turned to frustration. The framerate can be a bit choppy and the virtual controls don’t seem to respond as well as even other Capcom fighters available on the App Store. This makes pulling off elaborate combos and air battling nearly impossible.

Despite the controls being sometimes unreliable, the default controls that Capcom implemented to simplify the experience are pretty nifty. There’s just a single button each for punch and kick, then there is a special button for controlling teammates and another for special moves. Besides just tapping these special buttons, each one can also be flicked in 4 different directions in order to perform additional moves. For example you can simply tap the special move button to shoot out a hadoken (fireball), but if you flick it to the side instead you can instantly launch into a shoryuken (dragon punch).

It’s a really cool idea and when it works well it’s brilliant, but for some reason much of the time it feels like the special buttons don’t respond to many of your flicks. There is the option to go with the original arcade game controls, which means no flicking for special moves, and I found that this option is much more reliable but does require more work on your part.

The visuals in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 are also a pretty big letdown. I expect a 12 year old game to look dated, but for some reason the iOS version looks worse than any previous version. Sprites are noticeably jagged and pixelated, something that is accentuated on the iPad’s bigger screen. On the bright side, the fully 3D animated backgrounds are intact here and actually look quite good, especially when you consider the boring static backgrounds used in Street Fighter IV Volt on iOS.

So, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 has a lot of issues, but nothing that renders the game completely unplayable. The controls work well enough but are far from as good as other iOS fighters, and definitely not good enough to fully pull off some of the game’s more complicated techniques. If you’re a fan of the game on other platforms and can accept the problems it has on iOS for the sake of having it in your pocket, then I think it’s definitely worth the $3 price of admission (or $5 when the intro sale ends). Personally, I’m having a ton of fun playing through the game again, even with the inherent frustrations.

If you don’t have any particular affinity for the original game but are just looking for a new iOS fighter, then Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is a tougher sell. The controls are passable, but nowhere near the likes of Street Fighter IV Volt [ $6.99 ], King of Fighters-i [ $6.99 ], or SoulCalibur [ $11.99 ] on iOS. It’s frustrating because those examples prove that Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 could have been such a better port, and it may be in the future after some updating, but if nostalgia isn’t playing a big role in your desire for having this game on iPhone then I’d suggest waiting to see how things shake out down the line.

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Behind the scenes, 5 Ants‘ astoundingly gorgeous point-and-click stealth and adventure hybrid continues to grow from what we saw at GDC this year. In a recent conversation with us, a rep from the new Barcelona-based studio revealed three new levels, each of which is zanier than the last. Below, you can view what we saw: a camp, a candy store, and a robot.

One paper these things definitely don’t go together and we’re thinking that’s kind of the point. 5 Ants is embracing and expanding on the charm and absurdity of Tiny Thief, and these things are starting to get expressed in more than just character and scenario design. We couldn’t be more pumped after viewing these, but there’s still a wait ahead of us. Tiny Thief isn’t scheduled to hit iPad until later this summer.

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If you’re the kind of person who loves turn based strategy games, likes lots of tanks, and might even have some fond memories of the 1994 MS-DOS game Panzer General, do I have the iPad game for you. Well, more accurately, it’s a PC game, but the developers are hard at work on an iPad port and I think it’ll be great with touch controls. Allow me to introduce you to Panzer Corps.

Currently rocking an 80 over on Metacritic, Panzer Corps sounds like it has depth on top of depth on top of depth. How much depth? Well, here’s the first bullet point in the feature list:

• 400 unit types, divided into 19 unit classes with 20 detailed parameters to indentify units abilities, 17 terrain types affecting gameplay in various way.

Better yet, the single player campaign actually has branching points at various stages, where the outcome of the game will be entirely different depending on the margin of victory (or defeat). Apparently all major and minor nations are represented in the game, and your core units move through the game with you, leveling up and gaining new abilities along the way.

But wait, there’s more: “Award winning” online multiplayer utilizing something the developers refer to as the “PBEM++ system” system. Sounds awesome, right? If you’re antsy, you could download the PC demo right now. Meanwhile, those of us iPad-owning Mac users will have to wait until the iOS release which is currently slated for the third quarter of this year.

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I like to think that Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is an exploration of character and violence more than it is some grim zombie fairy tale. Its cast is as beastly as its undead. Action is sudden, terrifying, and distressing. Decisions are made in bursts of lust and blood, greed and anger, brains and preservation. This miasma is revealing: we’re not good people. This makes for interesting reading, as you get to glimpse into what makes us forget who we want to be, and become what we actually are.

The first episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead plays like a celebration of the comic and its themes. It adheres to the Kirkman’s vision, showcasing the series’ violence and grit, choice and character. You’ll make painful decisions, interact with broken people, and participate in some of the most brutal, real-world action that’s ever been shown in a video game. In under an hour of play with a Mac build of the title, I have become one of The Walking Dead’s characters: a liar and a monster in the face of danger.

You’ll play through a vehicle named Lee, a loosely defined character with a mysterious history and an innocence about him. The opening takes place right before the world goes to hell. Lee is in the back of a police car, handcuffed, talking to the officer driving when, suddenly, the officer strikes a walker with his vehicle. The crash is a stomach-churning, and the action after is intense. Lee survives, but finds himself in a world where the dead shamble and the living sprint.

Lee goes on to meet a few characters, including a little girl who becomes something of a companion. As you progress, you’ll make choices that each character will “remember,” perhaps coloring the events in later episodes as you jump in and out of alliances with others, react calmly or violently, or lie. Thus far, I don’t have a great sense of how anything that I’m saying or doing will play out, and that’s perhaps The Walking Dead’s biggest upcoming challenge: these choices need to feel meaningful one way or another.

Mechanically, the game controls like a cross between Jurassic Park and Heavy Rain: you manually move Lee in very specific environments, searching for items and clues that will inevitably lead you to the next story point. The Walking Dead doesn’t rely on puzzles as a bridge. Instead, it leverages Lee’s confusion and desire: you find things for people or for Lee. Action segments challenge you to react fast, as you line up reticules or tap buttons to complete QTEs. The dialogue system, on the other hand, presents multiple flavors of response and a timer forces you to make snap judgements and decisions.

I appreciate the intensity of the writing. The Walking Dead invites you to explore a grim and violent world spotted with people who actually feel like people and react in extreme ways under the pressure of survival. Being able to lie to cover things up or get an “in” with a group of better equipped survivors, or save one person over another are the game’s strongest points of narrative design. I’ve been swaying between unnerved or moved as I progress, and this emotional connection is what appeals to me the most about the game as a whole.

We don’t know how the iPad (or iPhone) version of The Walking Dead will control, though the expectation is that it’ll work similarly to how Jurassic Park did with its basic and functional touch, tap, and swipe controls. We’re also not so sure when we’ll see this episode on our devices of choice. Rumor has it that the iOS versions have been delayed beyond its planned May launch. We’re checking on that.

Regardless, you’ll want to keep up with its progress. Provided Telltale will continue is trend of launching really, actually good ports of its games on iOS post-Jurassic Park, this is something I feel like could be required play material.

All of the assets in this article are from the PC, Mac, Xbox Live Arcade, or PSN version of the game. If it means anything to you, we played the Mac version with medium settings and it still looked fantastic. We expect this level of quality, at least, on the new iPad.

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I’m sure there are a lot of folks out there that took a quick glance at Millipede Creative’s Bullistic Unleashed [$0.99] and just kept moving. After all, the screenshots are filled with crude humor, the trailer a repository for irreverence, and there’s more lewd imagery and graphic violence than you can shake a stick at. However, if you look past all the window dressing, you’ll quickly discover that Bullistic Unleashed is an excellent game that combines several different genres successfully.

Bullistic puts you in the role of a bunch of cocky bulls that decide to demolish a shopping mall as well as all its inhabitants. You’ll accomplish this through 20 different levels, each with their own obstacles and layouts (including the now literal bull in a china shop). Cause enough damage in a level, and you’ll unlock the next. You’ll also unlock seven different bulls available for use by collecting hidden coins in each level. Each bull has their own special moves and physics attributes.

While it’s easy to describe Bullistic Unleashed as a simple physics-based title, it’s a bit more complicated than that.  Yes, you slingshot animals (bulls, in this case) across levels in an effort to cause as much havoc as possible. But, while similar games pit you against specific enemies, Bullistic wants you to simply cause as much damage as possible. Also, the game is littered with accelerators, elevators and barrels which have the potential to greatly extend the life of your bull after the initial shot. Also featured are bumpers and various obstacles that can put your bull out of play.

With all these elements, Bullistic plays like a hybrid of Angry Birds, Peggle, and pinball. That may sound like a strange combination, but it works surprisingly well. While the initial physics and slingshot are obviously important (and can make or break a level), the additional level elements are always in play and add an element of chance that keeps you coming back even when a level seems impossible. There’s a certain amount of timing and precision that provides additional rewards to the patient gamer. Levels are also compact, making this an easy title to play on the go.

All of this leads to a game that is widely accessible while providing incentive to gamers that want to put forth more effort. Furthermore, it’s also simply a blast to play. The wanton destruction never gets old, and there’s a ton of different ways to complete levels (especially when you start unlocking the different bulls). Later levels also have a surprising amount of strategy, and finally hitting 100% destruction on a level is an extremely satisfying experience.

In addition to the well-executed gameplay, Bullistic also gets a lot of the supplemental elements done right. The retina visuals are clear and detailed (for better or worse), with very little slow down. There’s enough content to keep most gamers satisfied (although I would like to see more levels in a future update). Even the presentation is top notch, with amusing menus and IAP shops. One minor complaint is the game’s excessive pushing of social network features and IAP, although neither is required to succeed at the game.

Let’s talk about humor, because Bullistic Unleashed is one of the most hilarious games I’ve ever played. Relatedly, it’s also one of the dirtiest games I’ve encountered in the App Store. You slingshot the bulls across levels using, well, their balls. Also, there’s a lot of gratuitous violence and screen-filling blood splatters as your bulls massacre the mall inhabitants (launching your poor bull into a meat grinder is certainly a sight as well). Let’s not forget the cows either, as your bulls will immediately stop the destruction if they get anywhere near their bovine companions (I’ll leave you to figure out why).

However, it’s not all juvenile jokes. Bullistic has a lot of enjoyable wit, especially with the various descriptions of the different bulls, as well as the general story. There’s enough pun-play involved that you know that the developers attempted to strike a balance between wit and crude humor – but then decided to go all out on the latter at some point.

There’s no doubt that Bullistic Unleashed isn’t for everyone. The over-the-top violence and humor will simply not work for some people. However, I implore anyone on the fence to bite the bullet and check out this title. It strikes that hard sought balance of accessibility, appealability (again, for some more than others) and enjoyability with very little in terms of detraction, and it’s certainly one of the better physics-based titles that I’ve checked out.

TouchArcade Rating:

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