It is shaping up to be a fairly expensive Thursday of new iOS releases, with plenty of good looking indie games at or above the $2.99 price point.
However, let’s kick things off with a few less expensive titles, the first of which is an adorable gravity bending puzzle platformer form Rejected Games called An Alien with a Magnet, which looks to combine some of the fun gameplay elements of pinball and games like Super Knights and Major Magnet as you help an Alien and his spaceship jump orbits between planets, collect stars, jewels and avoid danger. An Alien with a Magnet’s designer RZDESIGN will be putting Hyper Breaker Turbo (which was one of our notable new releases in May) on sale for 99¢ as well to celebrate the launch of his new game.
Next up is a new title from the guys at Ivanovich Games. Their latest title, Please! No more bags will have your fingers in a frenzy as you try to help get luggage onto the correct conveyor belts to reach their proper travel destination. New mechanics are introduced along the way to shake things up and there are weekly tournaments.
Retro fans may dig Kid Tripp, an old-school style pixel platformer in the vein of Alex Kidd, Wonder Boy and Mario with a catchy soundtrack. It is the first game from the one-man indie studio, Not Done Yet Games.
An interesting looking combination of Pac-Man, platformer and speed run, Gavina Games’ Brick Roll looks like it’ll appeal to arcade game fans as well die-hard speed run fans. If I had to take a guess, this game is probably a lot more difficult than it appears.
Juicy Beast brings their popular web-based game, Knightmare Tower to iOS. An ‘evil guy’ has taken the King’s ten daughters up into a tower and it is up to you to save them. The game plays much like one of those horizontal catapult-driven fly farther games (not unlike JB’s own Burrito Bison), but vertically, with loads of upgrades to help give you the edge and push your knight further.
Next up is Pivvot, the sophomore effort from musician turned game developer (and still musician) Whitaker Trebella. A challenging game of avoidance and a test of reflexes, players must navigate a hovering ball around a winding path by pivoting (thus the name) left and right around an ever-changing and increasingly difficult series of obstacles, each of which requires a unique approach and sometimes split-second timing to avoid. The game features a number of different play modes to keep you entertained and the fight for the top of the leaderbaords interesting.
Double Fine Productions returns to iOS with Dropchord “a music-driven, score challenge game with mesmerizing visuals and an original electronic soundtrack! Influenced by music visualizers and score attack arcade games”. Basically you use your fingers to move the beam which is crossing a circle, dodging scratches and collecting notes. You can check out the trailer on the second page of this post to see this neon-infused game in action.
Neko Entertainment’s Puddle is the first of two maze-like environment tilting games to hit the App Store tonight. Players must carefully guide a puddle of fluid by shifting the world around it. There are multiple different types of fluid (water, oil, nitroglycerin, molten lava) each of which flows and reacts differently and plenty of different obstacles to contend with. The visuals on this one look quite nice! Puddle will be available for 40% at launch.
Playrise Digital’s Baby Nom Nom uses a very similar game mechanic to that of Puddle, but is more comical (for lack of a better word) approach. You are attempting to free the rice from the maze to feed the baby before time runs out. Once again, you never actually interact directly with the rice, but instead move the environment with a single finger. It is also worth noting that Playrise Digital will be donating 15% of every download to “SOS Children’s Villages“, a global charity which provides loving homes for orphaned and vulnerable kids all over the world.
Finally that brings us to the difficult to pronounce (correctly), rymdkapsel, a strategy game from Grapefrukt Games which already released on Playstation Mobile earlier this year. You hold sway over an increasing number of building minions who you can command to build Tetris-piece shaped rooms on your space station. You must plan and build your station to withstand increasingly more difficult waves of attacks from laser-wielding enemy forces determined to take out your minions. It’ll take strategy, forethought, resource management, and trial and error, and even a little luck to survive. I HIGHLY recommend this one.
That’s all I’ve got for you tonight, hopefully you can find something that you’ll enjoy.
Let us know what new games you did pick up in the comments below and I’m sure Trevor and I will be discussing at least a few of them on Friday’s podcast.