Since there seems to be a rather large number of interesting looking free-to-play or free-to-try new releases this week, I’ve decided to break up my usual coverage into two separate posts.
In this shorter post I’ll be quickly covering eleven free titles that will be launching worldwide at 11pm EST tonight and I’ll be following that up with coverage of notable new paid titles.
Let’s kick off this freebie-fest with what is probably one of the most promising of tonight’s free titles, Smash Hit which comes to us from Mediocre AB, the team responsible for the Sprinkle game series. In this FPS (first person smasher) you are give a small supply of ball bearings and then set in motion, moving forward with and endless supply of fragile obstacles hurdling toward you. With no way to stop, you have to toss the ball bearings (by tapping on the screen) at the objects to break them. You can earn more ammo by smashing special crystals, but get hit and you’ll lose a sizable amount of your remaining ammo, run out of ammo and it’s game over. Check out the trailer for a glimpse of the sweet looking graphics. Couple that with Mediocre’s great physics engine and it certainly makes this one to watch tonight. You can play the game completely for free, or pay a one-time $1.99 IAP to unlock cloud saves, statistics and the ability to restart from checkpoints.
Next there’s Chillingo’s alien-themed, dots-like creature matching game Tanglers Blitz. At first glance, it doesn’t look like it offers much new in terms of gameplay, but kids will probably dig the theme.
Next up Com2uS casts its line into the App Store waters this week with Ace Fishing: Wild Catch, a 3D fishing adventure with loads of customizable and unlockable gear (in other words plenty of IAP and in game currency spending opportunities).
The somewhat polarizing Glu Games is back with Frontline Commando 2, the sequel to their popular 2011 third-person shooter. This looks like it offers a nice variety of soldiers, weapons and missions, but again, the big question will be how much IAPs effect/restrict the gameplay. I never plaid the original Frontline Commando, so I’m not sure how much the IAP played into that title.
Demolition Crush is a physics-based puzzle game that will probably appeal to the Angry Birds crowd as players attempt to blast down each structure below a specified height with only the bombs they’ve been given. Once again, this is a not necessarily a new game concept, but it looks like it could be an entertaining little stress reliever.
Tonight, developer Jorg Wintersteinis releasing a sequel to his 2011 retro, Mario/Alex Kidd/Wonderboy-inspired platformer Bloo Kid. The new game, Bloo Kid 2, features the same classic platforming game play, boss battles, pixel art style, and chiptunes music and will have players running, jumping and swimming their way through “three huge worlds with nine levels each”. This download contains the first three worlds with the remaining worlds coming in content updates. The original Bloo Kid is also currently free.
Next up is a kung fu-themed episodic adventure game called Shuyan The Kung Fu Princess. I don’t know much about this one, but the first episode will free for a short period after launch, then it goes up to its regular price of $2.99, so make sure to grab this one when it goes live.
Starry Duo is an atmospheric “casual spell-casting game” from Mono Interactive. Players navigate through a dark and dangerous forest collecting stars to power their magic wand, which they’ll use to defend themselves against the forests evil inhabitants.
Speaking of forests, next up is Tanuki Forest. A flying game where the heroic creature collects forest animals, growing in Centipede-like fashion, building up the chain behind him to “get more points and unleash the megachain”. This one looks like it has some rather nice hand-painted artwork and I’ll be checking it out tonight.
Finally, I’ll end this post with a couple of colorful puzzle games, the first of which is Glint – HD. Match and destroy large colorful bubbles whilst collecting power-ups and avoiding bombs. This has the potential to be an addictive little title.
The second is Colors – a color matching game. Draw lines with your finger and match squares to pop balls of the same color into the upper section of the screen. The bigger the squares, the larger the balls, but if the balls stack up too high, it’s game over. There are also power ups to help you go further and leaderboards to compete against your friends.
And that’ll do it for the freebies, look for another post later tonight with the new paid games.
 Smash Hit |
 Tanglers Blitz |
 Ace Fishing: Wild Catch |
 Frontline Commando 2 |
 Demolition Crush |
 Bloo Kid 2 |
 Shuyan The Kung Fu Princess |
 Starry Duo |
 Tanuki Forest |
 Glint – HD |
