From now on we’re going to try and round up some of the mobile games news and upcoming games in the weekend. The mobile platforms have matured over the last couple of years, and it’s easy for mobile games to get lost in the crowd — even though some of you have indicated you don’t want to be exposed to them.
However, sometimes there are interesting games that are worth highlighting but that we don’t get around to during the week. That’s what these weekend posts will be for. If people have sent us a code to try out their game and it looks good, we’ll post short impressions. If there is only a video to go on but it still looks interesting, we’ll highlight those.
We’re going to play around with what works best and listen to what people want from these posts, so please leave your feedback in the comments! Keep in mind that we don’t all have iOS or Android devices over here, so one week might be more platform-centric than the other, depending on what comes out and what we are able to play. Finally, this first weekend post is a bit on the long side because I had to go through hundreds of emails in our inbox to filter out the good and crazy ones.
Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?
Destructopus!(iOS, late April)
This is a promising side-scrolling “destruct-em-up” with an environmental 16-bit vibe. Destructopus — a giant mutant octopus who is awoken by greedy oil-drilling industrialists — is mad as hell about pollutiion, deforestation and cute animals becoming endangered. Using your tentacles and a laser eye (!!), you destroy buildings, people, tanks, soldiers and shoot down aircraft.
I was able to play a little bit of it, and it’s good fun already. You have to get to the end of each level without dying while trying to destroy as much as possible within as short a time as possible. Basically it’s a mix between a side-scrollingRampageand a beat-up up, but with a giant octopus monster. Did I mention it has a laser eye?
Dodging shots and destroying enemies racks up a multiplier for the all-important highscores. As you rack up points, you’re able to also purchase a ton of upgrades for things like dodging left and right, increased health and armor, eye-laser shots, and movement speed. There’s an eco theme throughout the game, with some jokes about pollution and whatnot, but it’s presented in a friendly manner without it becoming heavy-handed.
It’s currently scheduled for the end of April for a price that developer GlitchSoft is still thinking about, but from what they’ve told me it should be cheap enough to pick up without putting too much thought into it. Also, it is calledDestructopus!We’ll have more about this one closer to its release date.
Burn It All(iOS, April 28th)
Theother daywe posted a trailer about this upcoming puzzler from Pastagames, the devs that madePix’n Love Rush, but it was a bit hard to understand the mechanics just from that video. I got some time to play it in the last couple of days, and there’s a lot more to it than the trailer shows. Using flames, you have to burn all burnable material in a level before the time runs out. This can either be different ropes that burn at different speeds, or wooden figures.
The puzzle element comes into play by having to factor in how long a rope is and how fast it will burn. Sometimes you have to burn through some ropes before you can reach other ropes, so you have to experiment and think about the fastest solution. The three different flames behave in a different way: the red flame can only burn ropes from their ends, the blue flame just burns anything that it touches, and the green flame can burn through multiple things in a row.
After burning material(s), your flame has to recharge before it can burn again, which turns it into a very time-sensitive planning kind of puzzler. It’s actually a lot of fun and I found the puzzle designs to be particularly creative. It’s also hard as hell to get the maximum score of three gems in even the first batch of levels, so if you’re into puzzle games andAngry Birdstype of completionism, you should keep your eye on this one.
Hunters: Episode 1(iPhone, $5.99;iPad, $7.99)
Huntersmight sound a bit pricey, especially with that “Episode 1” bit in the title. But that’s until you find out that it’s a mix ofX-Com,Jagged AllianceandSpace Hulk.DeveloperRodeo Gamesincludes former employees from Lionhead, Criterion, EA and Codemasters, and it kind of shows. The game has a ton of depth and complexity, and beside theX-Com/Jagged Alliancetype of turn-based gameplay and upgrading, the game gives you new missions every day.
It’s a very deep game so don’t expect to understand everything straight away, or to play it on the go, until you master the basics. The missions also don’t seem to have much structure in ways of a story arc or anything like that, although I’ve heard that’s in the works. If you’ve been craving some classic turn-based squad strategy, this is the one you want. There is a free version you can try out, and the game unlocks through an in-App purchase, so go try it!
One Single Life(iOS,free)
One Single Lifeis a free game with a nice art style where death is permanent. You touch once to start running across the roof of a skyscraper, and touch again to jump and land on the roof of another one. The idea is that you’re supposed to feel more tension because of the permadeath thing, which you kind of do. Until you fall to your death, go “oh ok,” and carry on with your life.
You could probably write interesting things about it if you wanted to, like how it’s a metaphor for how corporate youth seek death-defying risky behavior to cope with the lack of depth in their life. Or you could just say it’s worth a shot because it’s free and you’re not really going to play it more than once. Although if you want to, you can just remove the app and put it back on your device to retry it, defeating its purpose entirely.
Knights vs. Aliens(iOS,$2.99) /Knights vs. Bears(iOS,free right now)
Knights vs. Things are strategy games where you clear maps by strategically taking over towers that spawn soldiers. Bigger towers take more units to take over, but spawn units faster once you do. And the more units you generate, the faster you can swipe across the map to win. It’s pretty simple and fun, and the controls let you easily move multiple forces from tower to tower to clear a level of bears or aliens that try to take over towers themselves.
With different nations that each have their own powers, there is a ton of content here in terms of levels, but it can get a little repetitive if you play too much of it in one sitting. Having said that, I spent more than half an hour with it on the first run and missed most of what I was watching on TV, so it’s pretty addictive. TryKnights vs. Bearsfirst because it’s free, and grabKnights vs. Aliensif you want more. Although it seems like they are mostly the same game.
Mos Speedrun(iOS,$1.99)
This is a cute platformer with some awesome music. You tap and hold the left or right sides of the screen to run in that direction, and touch with two fingers to jump. Every level is a speedrun to collect coins and as many hidden items as possible within the shortest amount of time. It’s a good mobile platformer and unlocking everything in the game’s 20 levels will last you quite a long time.
The controls can take a little bit to get used to though, and sometimes it’s hard to jump exactly how you want to, or you end up landing straight into enemies that kill you with one hit. But if you stick with it, it becomes a challenging cool platformer that can eat up a lot of your time. And is that a beedog!!??
WTF?Upskirt(iOS)
It’s exactly what you think it is. It wasn’t approved by Apple for somemysteriousreason, but you may grab it through the Xsellize repository on Cydiahere. Didn’t try it out, and don’t have any intention to. Seriously guys.
Girl Fart(Android!)
Blastcow fromReallycoolguystweeted me this the other day. You’re a girl and you have to use traffic noise to mask your farts, lest some dude in a suit freaks out. If you don’t fart enough you explode. Yep.
Weekly news highlights:
Games are thenumber 1 usefor tablets, the guys behindStar Commandhad some things to say,D.A.R.K.could be interesting forDead Spacefans,High Flyer Death Defyerlooks awesome,Streets of Rage 2is now on iOS, andDream::scapelooks Unreal.
Notable updates:
Death Rally(iOS,$2.99)
Wereviewedthis the other week, but the game has since dropped to in price and has gotten an update with a new car, two new weapons and a nitro challenge for the speed freaks. It looks like it will get more updates over time, so if you were holding out before because of the price, this is pretty much a no-brainer now.
Good cause:End Malaria(iOS,$0.99)
One of our readers sent this in, as one of his family members works for theMalaria Consortium. It’s a $0.99 kind of educational game with a mix of mosquito-swatting gameplay and information about malaria and how you can help combat the disease. The proceeds go to a good cause, and once malaria is gone, you don’t need to get those injections anymore if you travel to one of those countries. Think about it!
Tweet Land(iOS, Web)
Last but not least, Dtoider AwesomeExMachina pointed us toTweet Land, an upcoming iPhone and web browser project. The concept is to create games where random real-life tweets influence your gameplay. The first of the games is a pixel art racing game calledRoute 140where certain words said on Twitter (like meteor or shotgun) will affect the game itself. It looks very interesting to say the least, and there’s aKickstarterpage to donate to if you’re interested!
That’s it for this week. Let us know what you think and what you want to see more (or less) of in the future! Silly mobiles? More impressions? Different types of games? Top 10 mobile game sales?
