When I first heard of the music rhythm game SineWave, I consulted my old pal Google to find out what it meant. Now I’m no professor (shock, horror), but apparently a sine wave is a mathematical curve that describes a smooth, shapely and acoustically unique oscillation. And, interestingly, sine waves are the most frequently used waveform when producing deep sub bass. At least to my layman’s mind, this description is particularly apt for the debut project from indie developer Mad Fellows – smooth and unique.
Mad Fellows is a relatively new two man company founded by ex-Guitar Hero and DJ Hero veterans Paul Norris and Dan Horbury. If you're like me, then you probably sunk a significant amount of hours into Guitar Hero during the peak of its popularity, so if nothing else, it was always going to be intriguing to see how the duo translated the concept to mobile devices.
Point-and-click adventure games have been enjoying a rebirth in popularity over the past few years, with a number of high profile and high quality titles making their way to our iOS screens. Not only have we enjoyed a slew of innovative new adventure games – did someone say Machinarium or The Wolf Among Us? – developers have also tapped into our nostalgia by bringing old classics back to life. Developer Wadjet Eye Games has jumped aboard the bandwagon, bringing its previously PC-only point-and-click adventure series, Blackwell, to an iOS audience.
The Blackwell games – Legacy, Unbound and Convergence – probably can’t be called “old school,” since the first title in the series was only released in 2006. But that’s certainly the feeling that Wadjet Eye Games has gone for, taking clear inspiration from developers like Sierra and LucasArts, with a retro visual style. If you’re old enough to remember these classic adventure games, it’s a nice touch that invokes warm and fuzzy feelings of your childhood. Having said that, the art style doesn’t always hit the mark, but more on that below.
Since its creation, the Borderlands universe has become known for its rewarding loot-fests, grinding RPG elements, wasteland setting, and plethora of masked psychos, skaggs and ruthless vault hunters. The first game was also known for its almost complete lack of story. Some enjoyed jumping straight into the action without having to sit through lengthy cutscenes; others pined for something more - a motive to keep grinding. With one of its two latest adaptations (the other being Game of Thrones - A Telltale Adventure), Telltale Games (The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead) has flipped the franchise on its head, doing what Telltale do best and scrapping conventional gameplay elements and focusing on a beginning to end, immersive narrative experience. And Tales From The Borderlands is one of the studio's best yet.
Remember Zombies, Run! The audio-based fitness game that immersed you in a post-apocalyptic world, where your progress counted on how many steps you could rack up? Well the guys at Six to Start are merging the world of fitness fanatics and the mobile game scene once again with a new title, Dungeon Runner: Fitness Quest. As its title suggests, it takes aim at another corner of the gaming world - the classic 8-bit dungeon crawler.
To get started, you prop your phone up so the Facetime camera, and the screen, are facing you. Immediately you are asked to start running, and when you do, the on-screen pixel knight follows your lead and begins his adventure. You come across a small handful of barriers to begin with, such as closed gates, breakable pots (classic) and floor spikes. Each of these obstacles requires you to perform one of many workouts to proceed e.g. do squats to lift the gate, or star jumps to vault over the spikes. After a few of these smaller obstacles you’re faced with an enemy of some type, who must be punched until their health bar is drained, but if you’re a little bit spent and take too long, you’ll be struck and lose a heart. It’s kind of like a virtual obstacle course of sorts, without all the mud, neon tights and judgmental eyes.
Of course, the Facetime camera doesn’t have the same capacity to track your movements as the Kinect, and if you’re lazy enough you can just sit in your desk chair waving your hand at the camera while you fend off demons. But ‘winning’ the game isn’t really the point, is it? Sure you can sit there and complete every level while flailing your arms like a maniac, endangering those close to you, but there’s no real reward for trying to convince yourself that you’re smarter than a machine. Dungeon Runner: Fitness Quest is simply a workout companion, and quite a neat one at that. It’s also the kind of game that youngsters fuelled by their weight in red frogs go bananas for and could offer a healthy alternative for a rainy day inside.
Dungeon Runner: Fitness Quest serves its purpose well, though that's about all it does. There are five worlds each littered with the same pitfalls and baddies, the only difference being that the length is extended each time you advance. And the enemy characters reaction time is so slow, even in the final level, that you're never really in any danger of losing a heart. And even if you do happen to lose half a heart from an enemy attack, you usually collect a full heart after defeating them anyway. It's nearly impossible to screw up a perfect run. It's a tad lazy, even for a game that you can ‘GET’ or a ‘GET game’ – is that what we’re calling it now?
I used to sleep walk, I'd wake up in the kitchen on the floor, or standing outside in the garden. Nowadays I sometimes have conversations with my girlfriend or the dogs in my sleep; the usual stuff really, kindly letting them know that I'm being chased by a duck with six legs. That sort of thing.
But Bob has an entirely unique set of issues, he can't sleep without falling off a roof or being pursued by clocks with legs.
Back To Bed is an exploration into the absurd. Bob sleepwalks, and you as his dog need to coerce him back to the safety of his pillows and sheets. Without the narcoleptic nincompoop sauntering from the edge of a building.
Super Secret Service is the kind of honest game where you truly get what you pay for, scrapping the IAPs and in-game adverts and getting on with the short bursts of frantic arcade gameplay– a quintessential "quick fix" experience.
This tidy little tapper is a collaboration between Austin Ivansmith (DuckTales Remastered), Johan Vinet (Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW) and composer, flashygoodness (Tower of Heaven) where you sacrifice the lives of thousands of agents to shield the president from incoming projectiles.
The gameplay is about as simple as it gets, alternating between taps of the left and right sides of the screen when necessary, a la Timberman. If a shoe, pie or pistol strikes the President it’s game over. But it’s the red herring items like boomerangs and paper airplanes that you really need to look out for. These items pose no threat, but their presence causes you to flinch, often pushing you to needlessly dispense of a valuable agent, leaving the President open to fast flying projectiles. It’s kind of like the video game version of the playground pastime ‘slaps’ (or ‘knuckles’, whichever was your cup of tea), where hesitation and rashness both have punishing consequences.
Sometimes, games of the instant restart ilk have a looping soundtrack that is agonising enough to the ears to negate any of the game’s addictive qualities. Super Secret Service does not suffer the same fate. The chiptune soundtrack provided by flashygoodness is reminiscent of classic SNES titles. Now I know that comparison gets thrown around like a size ten shoe at a presidential press conference in Baghdad. But it truly is the case with Super Secret Service. In addition to that, Ivansmith’s experience with DuckTales Remastered has inspired some incredibly polished character models. It was actually kind of morbid reviewing the stats at the end of a round, reading the names and birthdays and seeing the faces of every agent lost. Early on in the game I unlocked an achievement for losing at least one agent born in every month of the year. And now I’m working towards disposing of the entire service of ten thousand agents. I am a monster.
Super Secret Service’s impressive visuals and catchy melodies set the stage for a simple and increasingly frenetic passion project that harkens back to the simpler days of gaming. It may be a little bit too modest for the full asking price of $1.99, but you can get it for 50% off up until the 16th of November, and for what seems to be becoming an "added bonus" these days, once you've purchased the game you won’t be asked to shell out any more cash.
You wouldn't be the first gamer to look past a title like Heavy Metal Thunder in the belief that the gamebook, as a genre, was something from a bygone era. But this relic of the eighties has never had it better, using the touchscreen interface of mobile devices to reinvent itself for modern audiences in exciting and dynamic new ways. And like I discovered with Motley Crüe, Dungeons & Dragons and jogging, playing Cubus Games' Heavy Metal Thunder has proven that some things from the eighties are still worth your attention.
Adventure Islands Games first developed Duke Dashington for Ludum Dare, a competition where participants are given 48 hours to develop a game inspired by a theme - Duke Dashington's theme is "10 seconds." For its transition from PC to the App Store, developer Jussi Simpanen has added over 100 rooms and three additional temples, which is a good thing. Everything about this game, from the vibrant pixel graphics to the classic 8-bit soundtrack and simple but frantic gameplay - evokes fond memories of classic SNES titles, like DuckTales.
Time. Rarely is there enough of it to allow us to do and achieve all the things we wish to. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is our most precious commodity, valuing it above even health and wealth. For what good is health without the time to enjoy being healthy? And what good are riches without the time to spend big?
It’s thoughts such as these that caused me to fall out of love with Godus, the new god game by developer 22cans - headed by industry icon Peter Molyneux. It was a brief love affair, lasting only two weeks. At first I tried the “it’s not you it’s me” breakup tactic, but realised I was just lying to myself. It was the timers that eventually got the better of me.
Aimlessly rocketing through space sounds like one of the most terrifying scenarios possible, right? If you're a lightweight comet, however, it's one of the most peaceful experiences imagined. Hyperfocal Designs' Unknown Orbit gives you control of a comet orbiting a series of small planets. The aim is to time your landings on each planet's surface, holding one finger on the touchscreen as you rocket down a mountain slope, and letting go as you launch from any available incline. It's like Tiny Wings on a 3D plane.
The isolated electric guitar twangs and calm, wispy sound effects make this one very relaxing experience. You're given three objectives at a time, but for the most part I found myself forgetting about the task at hand and just enjoying the ride. However, this state of Zen isn't a given. It has to be earned by mastering the tricky gyroscope controls and sometimes unpredictable physics. And that's on easy mode. Unknown Orbit's serene qualities are by far it's greatest strength, so I didn't spend too much time on the higher difficulties, Omen and Erratus.
Your longevity as a stray rock depends on the mass of your icy core, which you maintain by gathering snowballs. This requirement gets a little frustrating at times due to collectibles being spread far and wide over each planets surface. In addition to this, each snow ball adds an insignificant amount of mass to your comet, and it feels as if you're only delaying the inevitable for another 10 seconds or so.
Hyperfocal Designs should be commended for creating a title that can be at times a warm, calming meander through space, yet at others a cruel and punishing challenge from the pits of hell, reminding you that you can never take a second for granted. If you're feeling stressed, grab a beverage, your favourite pair of headphones and pick up a copy of Unknown Orbit.
