There is no denying that right now, RETRO IS IN!
I guess that the old saying that everything old is new again, certainly applies to video games too, as this week saw a number of additional retro-styled games get released on the App Store.
It doesn’t get much more retro than hangman, and those greenback-filled pool owning developers at Zynga better start backing up the armored tucks, because they take this traditional paper and pencil game and make it their own with Hanging With Friends. It’s an asynchronous version of the classic, with a random selection of letters to form your word as well as purchasable hint power-ups and round-based gameplay making this game a lot of fun! Following their usual M.O., Zynga’s Hanging With Friends is available in a free ad-interrupted version and a $1.99 ad free release. Sorry iPad owners, this one is iPhone only, so you’ll be pixel-doubling.
Next up for the flashback titles are a couple of challenging pixel art platformers, OrangePixel’s Meganoid (which was previously released on Android) and Black Phoenix Games’ Don’t Die, which is a universal app. Continuing with the pixel art, Chaotic Box released Match Panic, a great pick up and play sorting game, which I reviewed earlier this week. Spilt Milk Studios launched Hard Lines, their great neon-infused take on the classic game ‘Snake’ with six different game modes. Finally in the throwback category, Electronic Arts brings the laser disc-backed arcade classic Dragon’s Lair 2: Time Warp to the iPhone and just a few weeks after Snappy Touch released their Incredible Machine inspired game Casey’s Contraptions, Disney Interactive Studios has now released the original The Incredible Machine game for the iPad.
If this wasn’t enough, or you just aren’t into retro-style gaming, then you can check out a few of these other interesting new releases. First, being a big fan of puzzle and physics-based games myself, and seeing as this is a big genre on the iOS platforms, I always like to highlight a couple of the most promising looking new titles in this category. So this week I want to recognize Clever Buttons from first-time developer kakburk and Rocket Bunnies, the more arcade-style level-based physics game developed by Defiant Development and published by Chillingo.
Those looking for something visually stimulating, should consider Speedbump Studios “immersive interactive experience” dream:scape. RedLynx is also trying something a bit different, with their new game 1000 Heroz (available in separate iPhone and iPad releases). The game is basically a daily speed run where leaderboards are open for only 24 hours, after which a new run (with a new hero and a new relic to collect) will be available, with 1000 levels in all (almost 3 years of daily levels). Several weeks back, Backflip Studios brought us Army of Darkness Defense, a tower defense style game set in the world of the the third film in the Evil Dead series. This week Trigger Apps released Evil Dead, a dual stick shooter set against the original film in this popular horror film series with a graphical style somewhat reminiscent of Minigore.
Last but not least, GAMEVIL returns with the next title in their popular Baseball Superstars® franchise, Baseball Superstars® II Pro. The game launched at just 99¢ and is scoring fairly high with fans of the series and like other titles from GAMEVIL, is certain to be well supported. Finally one for the kids…Toca Hair Salon. Your child will absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this latest “interactive toy” from the team at Toca Boca. You get to cut, color, blow-dry, comb and shave the hair on four different cute characters (including a lion). My 4 year-old smiles from ear to ear every time we load up this game, and the house, the car, wherever she is playing is filled with sounds of laughter and giddy excitement. I highly recommend this one to any of you parents out there with young children.
As always, please leave a comment below letting us know what new releases you picked up this week.
