TouchArcade.ru

If I have one single gaming kryptonite, it's the endless runner. Since Canabalt, I have put my mitts on nearly every single one on every device I can in every type and iteration on the same theme, from Robot Unicorn Attack to Jetpack Joyride. Put one of these in my hands, and I will not leave the house, eat or accomplish anything productive. Be-Rad Entertainment's Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! [99¢] takes the idea of the endless runner, then packages it with a series of smaller levels.

While most people are probably hoping for a more true-to-form Serious Sam experience on iOS, you'll instead be taking on the role of one of the Headless Kamikaze's here, chasing after Sam in hopes of taking him out with your exploding hands. The game comes as part of the Serious Sam indie series, which tasks independent developers with taking on their own version of the universe, Mommy Games and Vlambeer have already taken their shot and now its Be-Rad's turn.

As is the case with most running games, to finish a level you'll have to avoid bouncing bombs, flying missiles, and oddly placed shrubbery on your journey. To do so, you'll get a nice little double-jump and a hefty kick, but don't kick too much, because it'll add to your rage meter causing you to explode prematurely. It's a good thing you get several lives to complete your attack on Sam.

It's a bit similar to Be-Rad's other runner game, Lame Castle, but with a thick coating of Serious Sam — which basically just means it's considerably more violent. Like most running games, your goal is to run to the right, tapping the left side of the screen makes you jump and tapping the right side makes you kick. You'll have around 40 objective based missions that are nice and short, and after the first couple missions you'll unlock an endless mode and eventually a frog kicking mode (which incidentally, is exactly what it sounds like).

The controls are far looser than most runner games and offer you a much higher chance to correct your mistakes. The double-jump helps a lot, as does the kick — it's not just about avoiding obstacles, it's also about destroying them. It's helpful in a lot of ways, and the looser nature of the whole thing makes it a far more relaxing runner than most.

Each of the standalone missions comes with secondary objectives as well. These tend to be one of just a few different types with a different numerical goal attached. For instance, you'll need to kick thirty frogs in one level, or kick sixty rockets in another. These are points modifiers, which help up your overall score on the leaderboards. When you complete the bonus goals and certain levels, you'll also unlock permanent boosts like the number of lives you get or how quickly your rage meter grows.

What's going to immediately catch you is the visuals, which have a hand-drawn look to them and seem like they were created entirely with a colored pencils and a scissors. It works to great effect, even though the environments or obstacle types don't really change much throughout the experience.

Which is the biggest problem with Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! You can't really criticize a runner game for lack of variety, but since this one comes packed with smaller, mission based sections, it does feel like they could have done more to diversify the experience. The endless mode doesn't really need much, it's a fine endless runner, but since the objective based stuff feels like a great opportunity to really change up the experience, it's too bad it didn't happen.

You'll get the occasional ribbing and off-the-wall humor of the Serious Sam series in the form of sound effects and the incidental visual cue, and as a weird standalone package, Kamikaze Attack works well. Running around without a head and with bombs for hands is far more fun than you'd think, and even if the game doesn't ramp up the challenge as much as most of its ilk, the total quirk and oddness of it all should make for an enjoyable experience for most.

[source]

Whoa, hey, stop the presses even though nobody reads newspapers or magazines or uses paper anymore! Adult Swim Digital, the publishing wing of Adult Swim, has just announced a much broader original content initiative that'll see the release of several App Store exclusive games in 2011 and 2012. In 2011 specifically, we'll see a total of five originals from Adult Swim. Its first original, Monsters Ate My Condo [$.99], is on the 'Store right now, actually.

We're pretty sure we don't need to remind you, but just in case you're not hip with Adult Swim, this is the publisher responsible for sharing Robot Unicorn Attack [$.99 / HD] and other delectables like the flash-tastic Cream Wolf, with the world.

Monsters Ate My Condo is a fast-flowing, almost Jenga-esque puzzle game developed by PikPok, the New Zealand-based studio who handles the Flick Kick franchise. In the stupidly vibrant Monsters, you match up colored floors in towering condos in order to feed monsters. If you suck, the tower falls.

One of the coolest things about it is its look, which riffs on Japanese anime, pop-culture, and monster flicks. You can grab the game right now because it's good, but just so you know, we'll have a proper review-y write-up shortly.

The second game in this initiative has been revealed, too. Adult Swim is getting together with the studio that brought us Wispin [$1.99 / HD], Grumpyface Studios, for Bring Me Sandwiches. Slated to hit a little later this month, this is another title revolving around feeding a monstrosity. Specifically, you’ll be tasked with making sandwiches out of whatever an alien wants, including people and junk.

Overall, we’re totally stoked about Adult Swim’s push for original content. As much as we’ve loved the flash game ports in the past, it’ll be refreshing to see the publisher’s creativity and moneybags dropped into games catered specifically for iOS. Adult Swim is stoked, too.

This afternoon you’re in for a treat if you’re a fan of our weekly podcast. Adult Swim producer and all-around awesome dude Chris Johnston joined Eli and I for a regular episode. At the top, we have a good discussion revolving around Monsters and this initiative. Also, we do the regular podcast thing and because we’re all so pro, it turned out pretty well.

[source]

The first major content update to Halfbrick’s relentlessly awesome Jetpack Joyride [$.99] [Universal] is exactly what we wanted from an inaugural attempt to make the game better. Version 1.1 packs in a new fire-breathing robot dragon vehicle dubbed Mr. Cuddles, a fruit-spewing jetpack that makes a jolly mess all over the lab, and addresses several issues relating to achievements, missions, and other things like coin bankrolls.

Most importantly, it adds the studio’s own person wizard Phil Larsen, the most amazing Australian I’ve ever shared a crab cake with, to the core game. Tragically, he’s only making this single cameo appearance as of this moment, but I suppose it’s only a matter of time until he succeeds Barry Steakfries in future games, right Halfbrick?

All of these improvements have been rolled in as a free update to the game, and it’s totally up for grabs right now. If you’re unfamiliar with Jetpack Joyride, go read our review and do the right thing: buy it.

[source]

Word games are some of the earliest and most venerated titles on the App Store, and still developers continue to find ways to refine and revitalize the genre. The popularity of Words With Friends and the resurgence of updated standards like Wurdle demonstrate clearly that there’s life in the old girl yet. Genre mash-ups are another energizer; from PopCap’s Bookworm Adventures on PC to the upcoming Word Fighter on iOS, sprinkling in just a few new letters can make the difference between snore and adore.

In the case of Quarrel Deluxe [$4.99/Lite], the twist comes in the form of strategic gameplay. A fresh and fun take on the Scrabble formula, the game sports bright visuals, intuitive mechanics, and a crunchy outer layer of macro objectives that gives the sweet casual core longevity and depth. Think of it as an adorable war of the words.

At its most fundamental, Quarrel Deluxe is more or less a hybrid of Scrabble and Risk. The goal of each match is to claim all the territories on the map from your opponents. After you choose a faction to represent your soldiers (robots, aliens, ninjas, highlanders, etc.), the computer will divvy up the board’s zones between you and the AI players and randomize who gets the first move.

The first phase of each player’s turn is the attack phase. You can select a territory to attack from and then one of your enemy’s to invade. The number of troops you invade with then determines how the ensuing word battle plays out.

Both sides in a territory skirmish are given the same 8 letter tiles, which represent a mixed up anagram. Just like Scrabble, each letter tile has a point value attached to it, but since both sides have the same tiles, the maximum point limit (achieved by spelling the whole 8-letter anagram) is the same for both teams. This is where the strategery comes in to the wordsmithing.

You can put one tile into play for every soldier you have in the fight. If you only have four soldiers to work with, you won’t be able to play the whole anagram. Instead, you’ll have to find the most valuable combination of four tiles from the eight you’re given. If you’re outnumbered, then even the highest possible total for your soldiers can be defeated by the AI just by playing STARS when you play STAR.

Thankfully, the game simulates human error and will occasionally flub one even when it has the advantage, which gives you incentive to play your best even when the odds are against you. You will regularly experience the thrill of a come from behind victory, which is one of the best feelings you can have in a word game.

Time can be a factor, so coming up with words quickly is ideal. If both you and your opponent achieve the same point total, then the player who submits their word first is declared the victor. The AI does seem to have a major advantage here, as I don’t think I’ve once submitted a winning word before my opponent had buzzed in. Some game modes offer unlimited time to think about your words, while others will put you on the spot and give you a countdown timer.

Minor quibbles about timing aside, the word battle mechanics are solid and extremely entertaining. However, it’s the metagame of deciding what territories to invade and when, along with how you distribute reinforcements when your attack phase is over, that makes the game truly stand out from the crowd for me.

Blitzkrieg a wide swath of the map, and your enemy can just sweep through your poorly defended annexations when their turn comes up. Turtle up in your territories for too long and you’ll quickly find yourself outnumbered; reinforcements are doled out on the basis of how many territories you control. While the maps are nowhere near as large and complex as the Risk board, there are plenty of opportunities to engage in wily play like capturing choke points that can be easily reinforced and defended.

Before I continue, I think it’s pertinent to bring up something about myself. I am primarily a single-player gamer. I have railed long and frequently about the mistakes that developers make in awkwardly forcing multi-player gameplay into titles that just don’t need it when they could just focus on improving the single player experience instead.

With that disclaimer behind us, this game really would shine with a multiplayer component. The strategic and word mechanics make this title an ideal staging ground for PvP, and its absence is a gigantic missed opportunity for Quarrel Deluxe. It would have pushed the game into killer app territory.

Don’t get me wrong, the lack of multi-player does not take the shine off the overall package here. It is a smartly produced and full experience as it currently exists, and the value proposition is assuredly there. Pick up the lite version as a demo at the very least, and you’ll likely be swayed into a full purchase of the deluxe package as I was. Daily challenges keep the game fresh, Twitter integration lets you brag to your followers about how gr8 ur speeling iz, and the bright presentation makes Quarrel Deluxe a game with wide appeal that you’ll want to keep coming back to.

[source]

Technical hiccups and control issues kept us from delivering a glowing review for Fenix Fire Games’ visually stunning fast-paced platformer, Roboto [$2.99]. In a new update, these issues have presumably stabilized the touch-and-go experience users have been grumbling about.

Version 1.0.1 brings about, foremost, important visual optimizations, as well as graphical effects and camera options for people with older devices. It also packs in nebulous bug fixes. I suspect that the new aforementioned toggles in the Options menu are exactly what users with older devices will need in order to run the game sans the frame rate hitches and critical crashes.

While the tremendously bad virtual stick in Roboto has yet to be addressed, Fenix has added a choice in the Options menu with this new update. Now, you’ll be able to use the L/R or the joystick for navigation. Neat! I wonder what's next? C'mon iControlPad support!

[source]

It's not out of the ordinary to see games appear on the App Store with lackluster screenshots, and Vermes On Mars [$0.99] by Aztlan Games couldn't be a better example of that. You couldn't tell what was going on, and all of the screenshots looked a little too similar to each other. Regardless, we decided to give it a spin just to see what the game had to offer, and boy are we glad we did. In fact, I've had such a good time with this top-down 2D Sci-Fi shooter that I'd much rather be playing the next level than writing this review.

In Vermes on Mars, you control four unmanned vehicles on Mars. These vehicles are used to patrol the area and search for minerals, while always watching out for alien lifeforms– Specifically, worms. These big worms (also known as "Vermes") seem to be clearly inspired by the popular science fiction novel and movie, Dune, which I'm a-OK with.

The whole patrolling process works very nicely with the iOS touch controls. If you tap the screen, the four vehicles all move to that area, but if you draw a line, the vehicles automatically distribute themselves along it. While the vehicles are moving, you can draw the next line to modify their as well.  The AI navigation of your lines isn't perfect though, and occasionally the vehicles get stuck against some terrain and need extra help around the corner, but not too often.

When one of your vehicles enters the vicinity of a martian worm, it bursts from under the sand and attacks. This is a good time to switch to weapons mode and blast it before it eats your vehicle. There's eight varieties of worm to encounter but the most deadly are bossworms, which spawn other worms and spit fire. To stand a better chance against the legless alien creatures, you can upgrade each of your four vehicles individually. As you progress through the game, three additional vehicles are unlockable, to strengthen your fleet, if you've earned enough credits. Other items also come into play, like additional weapons, lightning to scare worms from the soil, plus items to provide more time or slow down the aggressive worms.

Once you've cleared an area of worms, the level is completed and the levels adjoining your current location are unlocked. There's a solid 40 levels in total. If you don't locate and neutralize the worms within the allocated time, a sand-storm will destroy your robotic vehicles. Your progress is not lost when you die, so you can retry the level until successful, although a destroyed vehicle does lose it's upgrades. The music and sound effects are pretty good too, and it even integrates with Game Center for a measly 7 achievements and score rankings.

I've had a ton of fun with Vermes on Mars, but it isn't without its flaws. It's a little awkward to switch between the navigation and combat modes, which is accomplished by double tapping the border of the screen. Also, the sandstorm animation could be better. It doesn't really give you a good indication of where its edges are, which often leads to vehicles being destroyed without looking like they're actually touching it. It would also be nice to be able to position vehicles individually in order to protect weakened vehicles with stronger ones.

Vermes on Mars constantly switches from "calmly patrolling the area" to being attacked, which provides a great feeling of tension and release, as you're constantly anticipating the worms–  Things become even more exciting when multiple worms or larger worms attack simultaneously which makes for a surprisingly fun gameplay experience.  The game is under 20MB so you can download it via 3G, and it's even universal, making it easy to grab and play on whatever device you'd like.

[source]

Last month we checked out the trailer for an upcoming platformer called Roboto from developer Fenix Fire Games, and thought it looked pretty promising. You play as a hoverboard riding robot who is chasing his female robot crush all across the galaxy, in an effort to win her affection. Gameplay appeared to fall somewhere in between a traditional platformer and a fast-paced endless running game, which seemed like a good combination.

Then last week, Roboto [$2.99] was released in the App Store, and after playing through the game it mostly delivers on all the promise that was expected from the trailer. The visuals and level design are the brightest points of Roboto, but a couple of technical shortcomings and less-than-ideal controls hold it back from true greatness. Fenix Fire is already in the process of addressing these issues though, and with just a small bit of post-release update love Roboto could be one of the finest platformers available on the entire iOS platform.

Right off the bat you’ll notice that Roboto is simply stunning visually. The crisp and colorful graphics look fantastic on the Retina Display, and there are loads of little details that give the game a great sense of character. Gameplay is strictly on a 2D plane, but the entire game is rendered in 3D and the usage of the foreground and background give a great sense of depth as you play. Killing an enemy might shoot a gear right into the screen when it explodes, and background elements like huge wrecking balls will swing into the foreground, looking like they might burst right through the screen.

Roboto’s moves consist of running left or right, jumping, hovering, and shooting. Holding down the jump button will cause Roboto to hover for a short period, a la Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2. Roboto’s actions will expend an energy meter at the top of the screen, which can be replenished by collecting various energy pickups spread throughout the levels. If you run out of energy and come across a point where you need to hover over a gap, you’re pretty much screwed, so it’s best to keep a close eye on your supply and not overuse any of your moves.

The real brilliance of Roboto lies in its level designs. They are each designed to be completed speed run style if you choose, but if you slow down and take your time there are plenty of items to collect or enemies to defeat. At the end of each of the 30 levels in the game, your score is tallied based on completion time, enemies killed, remaining energy, and whether or not you collected each of the 3 gears hidden in the level. This gives Roboto great replay value, as after merely completing a level it can be a nice challenge to go back and try to get 100% for everything and land a huge score. Game Center integration for achievements and leaderboards adds to this as well.

My biggest gripe with Roboto is the absolutely terrible control stick used for moving your character in the game. The stick is seriously temperamental, and sometimes will drop whatever direction you’re moving without you even realizing it. This can make the game infinitely frustrating, as you’ll literally be hovering over a gap and will suddenly drop right into it due to no fault of your own. I’ve easily died more times from this one issue than from any enemy or challenge in the game. Luckily, Fenix Fire has posted on their Facebook page that an update will hit soon that adds separate left and right arrows for movement, which I think will be a much better option. But right at this moment, the control issue drives me absolutely bananas.

Another issue worth considering is that for such a graphically intense game, performance has been spotty for some players. It’s not really consistent, either, as I’ve had almost no issues running the game on my iPhone 4, except for very minor stutters when a ton of things happen onscreen at once. Conversely, some members in our forums cannot even play the game at all due to an abysmal frame rate grinding things to a halt or the game simply crashing on them. The developers also mention on their Facebook that performance optimization is coming in an update as well, but again, as of this writing you may or may not have any luck getting the game to run consistently well, or at all.

Roboto has all the makings of a classic platforming game. It’s one of the most visually impressive games I’ve seen in some time, and the gameplay itself is well designed and a lot of fun. If the controls and performance issues can be ironed out sufficiently, then Roboto will fall into the “must have” category of iOS platformers. Right now though, expect to be frustrated with the touchy control stick and potential for some technical hangups that might prevent your from playing the game. If you’re on the fence, it might be worth waiting to see how the update resolves these issues.

[source]

Emotional Robots’ Warm Gun will pull your eyeballs out of your head at first glance. It’s got a unique look: it’s a sci-fi, class-based FPS set in a post-apocalyptic second coming of the wild, wild west. Think Red Dead Redemption meets Borderlands, except the Borderlands part is just icing on the grit-and-sand cake. The game first hit our radar earlier this year when it was announced for an iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch release alongside its PC launch. At the time of that report, we didn’t have a release. And while we still don’t have an exact one, we do have a window now: August, so says a studio rep.

We’ve also since seen the first footage of the iOS version, too. Just the other day, actually, the studio dropped a pretty stellar teaser trailer of the game running natively on the platforms. And if you can’t already tell, yeah, this is an Unreal Engine 3 joint.

To hear Emotional Robots explain it, the decision to port the game had a lot to do growth and popularity as a studio and for the game. Emotional Robots took the opportunity that Epic has given developers with UDK as a challenge and as a way to “break into the industry and get gamers familiar with Warm Gun.” At the end of the day, it believes its created not just one, but two unique experiences for PC and for mobile respectively.

It'll be interesting seeing how the iOS counterparts play, as a keyboard and mouse is arguably the ideal way to play a FPS. In an e-mail chat, the studio addressed my concerns to some degree, stating that the controls on iOS devices are definitely a key point of interest and it’s creating multiple schemes for players to get comfortable with.

“We are constantly updating and tweaking the controls and will be offering multiple control schemes,” executive producer Zach Lehman said. “ We realize that using touch screen to control a FPS is limited in some ways, so we are trying to cover as many bases as possible by doing extensive testing and offering customization where we can.” He also mentioned that users will have a hand in the future of the controls — as I was reminded several times, it wants feedback from enthusiasts.

The fact that Warm Gun iOS will be a port of a promising, technically-cool property that was once scheduled to hit a standard platform doesn't come as the same kind of surprise as it used to. We see this happening a lot as mobile devices in general are increasingly becoming more legitimate platforms in 'traditional' video game makers' eyes. Lord knows they've demanded the market share for awhile.

“Warm Gun's level of graphics combined with the freedom given by an FPS that isn't 'on rails' is still rather unique to the market,” Lehman told us when we asked what differentiated the title from others. “In the past, we've had a lot of comments regarding our art style (and it being compared to games like Borderlands or Red Dead Redemption). While we recognize the similarities in atmosphere, that's pretty much where it ends.”

“Warm Gun offers a fast paced, gun-slinging experience with 12 unique weapons, 4 unique characters and 5 very different maps. We will also have achievements and honors that you can flaunt in front of your friends after you dominate them in a match.”

No word on price yet, but we'll pay whatever for the promise of Warm Gun.

[source]

I'll just get the bad news out of the way first: No Final Fantasy Tactics this week, it seems. The good news, though, is that unless there's some substantial SNAFU with Squeenix and the Apple approval process, we should be playing FFT next week. (Assuming of course they don't hold the release date for marketing reasons, which would be evil for how highly anticipated this game is.) Oh! And there's even more good news! There's a ton of great releases out this week that will keep you busy until you're waist-deep in turn-based bliss next week.

If you're new around here, here's how these Wednesday release posts work: Developers are able to set specific release dates for their games on the App Store. Since the App Store is a global marketplace (which recently includes 33 new countries) and due to the modern-day wizardry that is time zones, these release dates happen at different times. New Zealand, for instance, gets first crack at everything because of their proximity to the international date line. Us North Americans get our games last, at 11:00 PM Eastern. Everyone east of us gets 'em earlier, basically whenever it gets close to being Thursday in your neck of the woods.

Here's some noteworthy games being released:

Dice Soccer, Free – Forum Thread – This game has me torn. As an American, I have to muster some serious effort to care about soccer, but I love dice games. Nissa had a great time with a preview version of this game, and her review will be up closer to its US release tonight!

Gesundheit!, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – We had a great time with an early copy of this game that we got our hands on. Hand drawn art combines with an adorable premise of a pig with allergies. Seriously, it's good.

Groove Coaster, 99¢ – Forum Thread – Brad has had his muscular hands all over this game today and plans on providing a review closer to the US release. It's from the same mind that brought us Space Invaders: Infinity Gene [$4.99] which basically makes it an automatic purchase for people who enjoyed the style of Infinity Gene. Wait, you haven't played Infinity Gene? You should fix that.

Heli-Awesome, 99¢ – Forum Thread – As we should have mentioned when we first caught wind of this game, Heli-Awesome looks Hella-Awesome. (See what I did there? Eh?) It's a tilt-controlled see how far you can go kind of game, and it seems like I've always got room on my phone for another one of those, particularly if it involves spiders with propeller butts.

Hungribles, 99¢ – Forum Thread – Hey it's the weekly physics-based ultra-cute puzzle game with tons of levels, updates coming, and a three star grading system! Sure, it's the same old song and dance, but I seriously just can't stop playing games like this, and if the iTunes top charts are any indication, neither can you.

Mad Wheels, 99¢ / Lite / HD – Forum Thread – Judging by the above trailers, the developers took Twisted Metal and turned it into a isometric 3D racing game… And you have no idea how OK I am with that. Three game modes are included, but the cherry on top has got to be online multiplayer. I can't wait for the player base to build up to play.

Pollen Count 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – This game features that all too familiar line drawing mechanic to help bees pollinate things. According to the iTunes description, it's even the best looking casual game on the App Store. Anyway, a variety of bees are included to mix up gameplay, and there's even zombie bees. Yeah, that's right, zombie bees.

Ranger Rocket, 99¢ – Forum Thread – I really couldn't tell you how you play this game, but the iMovie trailer template sure makes it feel epic. A wide array of enemies are included, that must be dealt with using various power-ups, and I guess a black in white to color mechanic comes into play somehow too. Mysterious. I can't wait to try it.

Roads of Rome HD, $2.99 – Forum Thread – This is a PC game that has made the hop to the iPad. Roads of Rome is a time-management game centralized around building the Roman empire. That's certainly a much more intriguing premise than a beauty salon!

Roboto, $2.99 – Forum Thread – This 2.5D cel shaded hoverboard powered platformer just looks awesome. Just watch the trailer. There's even a free Flash version you can try out online.

Silent Ops, $6.99 – Forum Thread – This third person action adventure game features three different agents with different abilities, a 7 level single player campaign, and online multiplayer. Oh, it's even universal, a trend that I really hope Gameloft keeps up.

Silverfish MAX, $2.99 – Forum Thread – We were totally stoked about this when we heard about it a few days ago. We loved the original, so playing it on the iPad with the iCade naturally should be totally awesome.

The Marbians, Free / HD – Forum Thread – This free fling-powered physics puzzle game looks awfully nice, and it has an incredibly well done trailer… Which really makes me wonder what the catch of it being free is.

[source]

Stray Robot Games is a New Zealand based studio, formed late in 2010 who have just released their first iOS game: Wooords [99¢], a minimalistic word game, which involves sliding fridge-magnets around the screen. You've probably seen puzzles in newspapers (or on the App Store) which involve forming as many words as possible from nine letters. One of the letters is the "key letter" and must appear in each word, and if you manage to put all the letters in the right order, you form an elusive "big word" and earn bonus points.

In Wooords, instead of typing words in (or writing them in a newspaper), you simply slide fridge-magnets around to form words, anywhere on the screen. The letters don't have to be perfectly lined up, just adjoining, as the game is clever enough to detect when a word is formed and you'll be rewarded with a burst of stars, a happy sound and some points. An awful lot of effort went into this design decision, too.

For instance, as you move the fridge-magnets, they make little clinking noises as they collide with each other. If you drag a letter between two other letters, they ease apart to make room. And if you form a larger word, the letters subtlety decrease in size, so the word fits on the screen. If you shake your device the letters are randomly re-arranged. It's shocking how well this all works.

There's three game modes to choose from. In 'Classic' mode you have unlimited time to form words, which are rewarded by points and stars. Achieving one star unlocks the next puzzle (30 in total), but real satisfaction comes from obtaining the maximum three stars. This mode is about skill and persistence, rather than speed. The second mode is 'Daily Words', which is a daily competition to rank yourself against yourself, friends or the world. A fresh set of letters is released every 24 hours, which gives this game daily re-playability. And lastly, there's 'Word Jam' which places an emphasis on both speed and skill. The goal is to reach the target score within the word and time limit. This involves completing quick-fire rounds, so speed is definitely a factor here.

Wooords can be played casually for fun, but don't let the cute magnets fool you, this can also be a competitive game of speed, skill and strategy as you climb the Game Center leader-boards. The scoring in the old newspaper puzzles (and similar games) was based on the quantity of words found, with bonus points for nine-letter words. But in Wooords the scoring is far more advanced with multipliers, taking into account word complexity, the "IQ level" of a word, and more.

This cute little game has already become a part of my daily routine. It's fun to fling the magnets into words as quickly as possible and as the developer points out, you're also exercising your brain, by testing your "vocabulary, speed and concentration". Wooords is even a universal game, which sweetens the deal even further.

Even though you might already have a ton of similar word games on your device, the clever refrigerator magnet-powered gameplay feels surprisingly fresh, and makes the UI used in previously released word games flat out seem archaic in comparison. Before downloading, be warned: Wooords will make your actual refrigerator magnets seem unresponsive and far less interesting!

[source]