It is a great night for iOS gamers with a lot of fun and interesting titles headed our way, including quite a few freebies, starting with Craneballs Studios highly anticipated reboot of 33rd Division This classic path-drawing title makes a triumphant return in an all-new free-to-play release that recaptures the charm of the original game, but adds additional gameplay elements that help give the game a bit more longevity, strategy and variation. Plus, for the first time you’ll be able to help rescue troops on your iPad. Even after all these years and a falling out of favor for path-drawing games, 33rd Division’s gameplay certainly holds up and this is worthy of a download.
Next up is Kilka Card Gods, a free-to-play puzzle card game from Bamtang Games which is a mashup of elements from games like Mastermind, Sudoku and solitaire. Players race against the clock in an attempt to clear a grid by placing playing cards in their appropriate slots.
Also free is Paint it Back. This Picross-style logic puzzle game from Casual Labs tasks players with recreating 140 lost paintings using the clues posted at the at the head of each row and column on the gridded play area. And if you like grids, then you’ll also want to check out Blox Blast. In each 2 minute game, players slide rows and columns of blocks in order to match squares of four blocks or more. There are combos for fast chains of matches as well as a number of power-ups to keep things interesting.
Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? G5 Entertainment hits the grills once again, with a free-to-play title in their popular food slinging time-management franchise, Stand O’ Food® Empire.
Finally Disney publishes a free interactive 3D storybook app called Fantasyland: Break The Curse. A bit of creative marketing/ entertainment for the theme park, “The classic Disney stories of our youth have come under a spell from two evil queens and New Fantasyland is counting on YOU to help! Based on the spectacular new additions to Magic Kingdom® Park, this highly interactive app reveals the legend behind New Fantasyland, and gives you the power to break the curse that has kept it hidden from our view.”
Let’s spend some greenbacks…
First up for the paid apps is Pocket Titans. This RPG puzzle adventure game may be developer Kumotion iOS debut, but it looks like a rather promising start for the studio, with a cool tile-sliding game mechanic. It is a casual strategy game with 8 playable characters, each with their own special abilities. Battle against Ghosts, Orcs, Skeletons and more while upgrading your weapons and armor as you make your way through 30 different enemies and 5 boss battles. You also have the ability to play against your Game Center fiends in multiplayer matchups….game on!
Next we have Random House Digital’s first foray into the physics puzzle genre with Catch The Berry. It is a cute (and often deceptively difficult, given its cute characters) game that combines many elements from other popular titles in the genre including Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, Trace 2 and more. Your task is simple, draw magical paths with your finger to help the berries make their way safely into the basket, however this gets more and more difficult as new gameplay elements are introduced like spikes, fans, the ability to tilt the screen, moving platforms and more.
Mimpi, the latest publishing effort from Crescent Moon Games. I’ve already played through this entire game and it is a rather meaty and charming mix of puzzle platformer and point and click adventure game. Mimpi offers players some cool a-ha puzzle solving moments coupled with platforming portions that will test their reflexes, all wrapped up in an adorably psychedelic package. This is a thoroughly entertaining game, and well-worth the $2.
3 Cubes Research Limited, the creators of the psychological first person action adventure horror game, The Woods return with a new horror game, Indigo Lake which mixes first person combat, driving and puzzle solving. It appears that a lot of work has gone into the physics engines and camera work and according to the developers, players can expect to get about 8 hours of gameplay from this open world adventure game….pretty impressive for a $2 game!
Getting away from the spooky here’s one for the kids, Spinlight Studio’s latest, Swapsies Sports. At a launch sale price of $1.99, Swapsies Sports. is a mix ‘n match puzzle game for your little balls of energy. By matching the correct pieces of a particular sports uniform, your child unlocks one of ten different sport-themed mini games. There are loads of different sports to choose from including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, golf, tennis, boxing, cycling and skateboarding. If you have little ones, Spinlight Studio’s apps are usually a sure bet for fun.
Like your games a little more physical and social? Then ZoOp! may be just the app for you this week. Two to six players all play on the same iPad and are furiously trying to swipe points into their own goal while at the same time, preventing the other players from doing the same. Check out the gameplay trailer on the second page of this post to see the frenetic action. It looks like with the right group of friends it could either be really fun or end with several scraped up fingers…remember to clip those fingernails.
If you are still speaking to your friends after ZoOp! or still have a score to settle, then there is another same-device player v. player game you can check out as well. Fortune’s Vault’s aptly named Me vs. You is a collection of three simultaneously played, two-player games. Yes, you read that correctly…hope those multitasking skills are up to par as you try to deflect, shoot and reflex your way to victory.
Ubisoft’s adorable yet unintelligible Rabbids are back in Rabbids Big Bang, which takes this physics game franchise to the outer reaches of space. This latest outing offers players “150 different missions including crash-landing landing on planets, bouncing off of space cows and reaching specific speeds”. And once again you’ll be able to deck out your Rabbids in all sorts of costumes and outfits. I was under the impression this would be 99¢ at launch, but the New Zealand App Store currently has it priced at the US equivalent of $2.99, so we’ll see if it drops after worldwide launch tonight.
That brings us to what is probably my most anticipated title of the night, Simogo’s DEVICE 6. Like their last, brilliant yet unsettling title, Year Walk, DEVICE 6 is a game steeped in mystery and not one that I want to ruin before you have a chance to experience it for yourself (I have a pre-release copy and have played through some of the game already) so I will tread lightly here. For now, all I will say at this point is that if you enjoyed Year Walk, you are probably going to like this one as well. I highly suggest reading Pocket Tactics’ interview with the game’s creator, Simon Flesser.
Finally, the last title I wanted to mention tonight is Runaway: The Dream Of The Turtle Part1. This latest point and click adventure from publisher Bulkypix and developer Pendulo kicks off the second part of the Runaway saga. Brian and Gina are vacationing in Hawaii when Gina goes missing. Brian must do everything in his power to find the love of his life again. Fans of the series are surly going to be picking this one up tonight.
And I’ll stop there before my fingers start cramping up.
In the comments section below please let us know which of these apps (or others) that you’ll be picking up this week.
 33rd Division |
 Kilka Card Gods |
 Paint it Back |
 Stand O’ Food® Empire |
 Pocket Titans |
 |
 Catch The Berry |
 Indigo Lake |
 ZoOp! |
 Me vs. You |
 Swapsies Sports |
