Apple started off the week with a bang, with their big iPhone, iPad and Apple TV news event. Now we get some new games in what has (as expected) turned out to be a fairly light week for new releases.
First up is the world-wide release of Kabam’s latest Disney Co. licensed free to play game, Star Wars™: Uprising. Pretty much your standard mission-based action RPG, with a Star Wars theme, the timeline of Star Wars™: Uprising falls between the events of Star Wars™: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi™ and the upcoming film, Star Wars™: The Force Awakens™. Players create their hero (male or female) from one of four races/species and then collect and customize their abilities, weapons and gear. Players can also join up with friends and form a cartel and play alongside them in synchronous cooperative play to complete missions. This one is sure to appeal to Star Wars fans.
Though it’s from a different developer, Noodlecake Studios’s latest free-to-play offering, Mucho Taco feels very reminiscent of the studio’s super successful tapper, Bitcoin Billionaire. Swapping tapping for swiping, bitcoins for tacos and drone delivered packages for swinging piñatas, you are trying to swipe and serve up tacos to earn money to then expand to additional restaurants and unlock new types of tacos. If you enjoyed Bitcoin Billionaire, then you’ll probably find this little time waster ‘muy bueno’.
Radiangames has launched Devastator, their latest twin-stick shooter on iOS this week. I have not tried it yet, but you can usually count on these titles to be quality games with responsive controls. With 12 unique enemy types, 50 different waves to try to outmaneuver and an unlockable Elite difficulty, there seems to be plenty of arcade action here to challenge even the most experienced twin stick shooter fan.
Speaking of hectic… for his iOS debut, developer Graham Reid has crafted a fun and hectic take on the arcade classic Pong, called Hecticube. Keeping with a modern, yet minimalistic style like the game which inspired it, Hecticube is a fast-paced head to head battle to destroy your opponent’s goal as you rally back and forth in the battle arena. Instead of paddles, players shoot at the ball to cause it to ricochet around the area and (hopefully) into their opponent’s goal. Each time a goal is struck, it shrinks and moves to a new position (still on its owners side of the arena), making it a little more difficult to hit as a player gets closer and closer to the loss. Once a player’s goal completely disappears, they lose the match. The game supports both single-player against an AI opponent as well as local, same device two-player battles for some great dispute solving fun.
“Ball’s world was black and white until vibrant alien Blocks fell from the sky and destroyed civilization”. While it may sound like more like a dark drama from that one-line description, charming, fun and humorous, the just released, Super Happy Fun Block was for me, the shining iOS star of this weekend’s Boston Festival of Indie Games. It is a superbly entertaining puzzle platformer with a really cool level manipulation game mechanic revolving around color. Levels are nicely illustrated and animated using solely black and white line drawings with the exception of a splattering of color thanks to some blue and red colored blocks. Using a control on the right side of the screen, you can swipe to the left to hide all of the blue blocks, allowing ball to jump or pass through them. Another swipe to the left and they reappear. Swipes to the right have a similar effect on the red blocks. So it becomes a matter of timing swipes and jumps to allow you to navigate where you need to, resulting in a really clever and challenging platformer as you try to figure out how you need to manipulate your environment to reach stars, unlock secret levels and more. I highly recommend this one!
I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t like miniature golf, nor a child who isn’t entertained by Shaun The Sheep. Now Aardman Animation brings these fun things together to form Shaun the Sheep – Puzzle Putt. A new puzzly take on miniature golf, players must first “repair” a course before they can play it, by strategically placing various specialized grass and mud tiles in places on the course which will allow them to complete the hole. Then it’s time to putt. Pull back, aim and release (classic digital mini golf style) and try to get the ball into the hole within (or ideally under) par. Various characters from the Shaun The Sheep series will appear on the courses and when struck will have differing effects on the ball. And if the included 72 levels weren’t enough, you can use the game’s included ‘Creator Mode’ to build your own courses for friends and family to play.
Let me start by saying…I have no idea how good this next app is, but the idea of a first-person shooter starring none other than John Rambo, sounds like it’ll probably either be really good…or really bad. Rambo – The Mobile Game sees our hero returning to the United States after serving in Vietnam. A wanted man, former Army Special Forces Green Beret, John Rambo must fight off those trying to kill him utilizing an arsenal of weaponry comprised of all of your favorites from the film series, including hand-to-hand combat with a big honkin’ knife. I’m not sure if this is related to the PC/Console release that came out (I believe) last year, but I have a feeling that fans of the Rambo film series will be weighing in on this one quite soon after release.
Finally, that brings us to the iOS release of Daedalic Entertainment’s richly animated 2012 adventure game, Deponia. An odd love story and case of mistaken identity, the game is set on the garbage-covered planet Deponia, and follows the antics and misadventures of Rufus, a poor and ill-tempered man who dreams of a better life in the rich floating cities above. When a beautiful woman named Goal (literally) falls from her privileged life above into a neighboring trash heap, Rufus seizes the opportunity to finally get off of the planet by setting off on a quest to return the “unconscious beauty back to her home”, with lots of unexpected twists and turns along the way. Shiny with a good helping of polish, Deponia features an entertaining storyline, gorgeous visuals, professional voice work throughout, interesting puzzles and an easy to use and intuitive interface (one simple button reveals all possible interactive hotspots in case you get stuck). I hadn’t heard of this game until its iOS release, so I’m thrilled to discover it now on iOS.
And that will do it for this week…enjoy!
 Mucho Taco |
 Devastator |
 Hecticube |
 Super Happy Fun Block |
 Shaun the Sheep – Puzzle Putt |
 Rambo – The Mobile Game |
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