QuickLook.Technobrains

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into Little Red Sled.  I have nothing against cute graphics, but it looked like it might be too much of a kid’s game for me.  As it turns out, Little Red Sled ends up being more of a big kid’s game in cute clothing.  That’s not to say that kids won’t like it, because they probably will. I think they might find some of the higher courses extremely frustrating, though.  I know I did.

Basically, you’re goal in Little Red Sled is to collect presents, perform tricks, knock down or avoid bunnies (it all depends on the track) and ultimately score a lot of points.  At the beginning of the course you’re given a nice rundown of everything you need to accomplish, and at the end you find out how close you came to meeting those goals.  So far I have run across three types of presents.  The red and green presents are simply worth different point values, while the blue present provides you temporary invincibility.  While you are invincible you actually score points running into things like bunnies and trees.  Otherwise, those things just slow you down.

Some Steep Hills

To control your sled, simply tilt the device appropriately to move left or right.  You can slow down by pressing the screen, and after jumping off of a ramp or snow bank you can perform a trick by shaking the device.  While Little Red Sled has been one of the most responsive games in terms of the shaking mechanism, I still would have preferred an on screen button.  The main issue I had with Little Red Sled is that the difficulty of the levels seemed to change from easy to insane within a couple of levels.  I’m not sure if there are any courses beyond the first map, but if so I feel like I’m never going to see them because the level I’m on now is so tough.  I’m not suggesting that tough is a bad thing, but it’s not very sporting when it sneaks up on you.

The graphics are, well, cute – hence the point behind my first paragraph.  As I’ve said about other games recently, that doesn’t mean they aren’t good.  Like most visually appealing games there are small features that make the game come alive, like tracks left in the snow from your sled and the ball of your snow cap bobbing back and forth from the wind.  The sound effects fit this game to a tee.  The voice over is great, especially when an exclamation of joy is uttered.  I did find it a bit amusing that the bunnies sounded like ogres, though.  The crowning achievement of the aesthetic department has to be the music.  I’m a big fan of simple piano orchestrations, and it sounded just right for this game.  I detected at least 3 different tracks in the game, and they were all expertly played.  Thank you for understanding the importance of music.

There’s no question that Little Red Sled adheres heavily to the “cute” factor.  However, don’t let this stop you from giving it a try, because under the cover it’s a fun and eventually challenging game.  By the time you get to the courses that require three goals to be met you’ll be wishing it was a kid’s game.  Grab a sled, hit the slopes, and enjoy – but watch out for those bunnies!

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Store Link – Lite Version
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

So how do you make a second rate iDracula clone and still have hopes of it selling well?  You slap a bankable property on top of it, of course!  That’s exactly what Big Head Games has done with The Terminator for the iPhone.  When someone sets the standard for a certain type of game, such as iDracula did for free roaming two controller shooting games, the general goal should be to try and meet or exceed those standards, not lower the bar several notches.

The Terminator is a simple shooting game.  Sure there’s a “story” mode with “objectives”, but the objectives are still along the lines of “destroy everything”, at least for the two levels I played.  This wouldn’t have been so bad, execept each level consisted of walking towards the top of the screen, shooting one type of enemy until you finished the level.  Even a bigger variety of foes per level might have made somewhat of a difference.  In Quick Game you at least have the satisfaction of trying to rescue other freedom fighters, but that even gets old after a while, because you’re still facing off against only one kind of enemy.

Rescue The Resistance

The controls are either two on-screen joysticks (one for moving and one for firing) or a drag method of movement and firing.  The drag method didn’t really do much for me at all, since most of the time I couldn’t seem to get my guy to fire instead of move.  The virtual joystick mode was much better, but I found myself quite often unable to move because my thumb had slipped off the area where the movement joystick was rendered.  In a high energy game such as this one, it’s not good having to worry all the time about not having good control over your movement.

Graphically The Terminator certainly paints a bleak vision of the future.  Unfortunately, it appears that bleak also means drab.  The graphics are small and detail isn’t that great.  The power ups sometimes seem to blend into the ground.  Because the weapons are so generic, the weapon effects are generic as well.  The sound is actually pretty decent, and the music is good, though the in-game tune often sounds more like a horror soundtrack than something from a future sci-fi scenario.

If you’re a die hard Terminator fan, you might be able to overlook most of the game’s misgivings and be satisfied with the fact that you’re running around blowing up Terminators.  For the rest of us, iDracula has much similar mechanics and is a whole lot more fun (you can check out why here).

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
App Store Link
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Reviewed Platform: iPhone
Device Used: iPod Touch
Software Type: Game
Developed By: Donoma Games

I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of the lone gunman, waiting in some concealed perch to take out his prey without the slightest hint that he exists. Personally, I’m too nervous to do something like that in real life, and even if I wasn’t I doubt I could hit the broadside of a barn with a bazooka. The virtual world is totally different, however – at least is some respects. Thankfully, games like Codename Lone Wolf allow me to live this fantasy virtually, so I don’t have to worry about hurting myself or some innocent bystander in the process.

Save The Plane

Lone Wolf is actually a pretty decent little game. You start out as SWAT, and then move to Marine and Assassin as you complete 26 different missions around the world. The variance of the missions is quite refreshing. As SWAT you’ll do everything from taking out the lone gunman at a political rally to stopping a lunatic on a bus full of captives. On the marine levels you get to travel abroad, helping accomplish tasks from clearing terrorists sects out of war ravaged cities to slaying high ranking militant officers holed up in secluded camps. I’d imagine the diversity plays out the same in the assassin levels, though I haven’t quite made it there yet. I also thought it was cool that the bad guys react to your actions. For instance, in the scenario where some gunmen are holding a plane hostage, after you take out one gunman you only have so much time before the others will shoot the hostages, ending your mission. Finally, it’s neat to see that you’re not alone. Even though your partners don’t actively participate in the missions, you’ll see cops or other SWAT members or whatever is appropriate for the situation that you are in. To me that just adds an element of authenticity to the scenes.

The view is first person, with you looking down the scope of your gun at the enemies. The bottom of the screen is your trigger, and you use a swiping motion to pull it. At the top right of the screen is your magnification wheel. You can zoom in to 2, 4 or 8 times the normal view. This is especially helpful when you’re trying to shoot around hostages, but it’s usually best to cruise around the scene as a whole with no magnification. In general the game is played in portrait mode, but another cool feature is that you can turn the device to landscape to activate your camera mode, as some missions require you to take pictures of the scene.

Militant On The Run

The interface is actually pretty cool, but there are a couple of issues that can make things difficult on certain missions. The first problem is that it can be very hard to steady your crosshairs on the target, which is especially frustrating on missions that are timed or where the enemies change positions with any frequency. In one of the SWAT missions there is a ten second interval between the time you shoot the first gunman and then have to take out the second one, and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to complete that one simply because I couldn’t get a steady shot in that small amount of time. The other problem is that zooming in and out seems to place the view at random locations on the screen, instead of just zooming in / out on the location you’re currently viewing. Some missions require you to be zoomed in to get certain targets, but navigating a scene while zoomed can be tedious, so the random jumping can get frustrating. Thankfully most of the missions are playable despite these issues, and with the mission select screen you can bypass a mission if it’s particularly difficult for you.

The graphics are pretty decent. Everything is certainly detailed enough, and there are nice little touches like the bad guys dropping their guns when they’ve been hit or hostages falling to their knees and covering their heads after their captor has been slain. There were a few goofy things, though, like an odd perspective when there were lots of buildings in a scene or the animation sometimes when a person that had been shot crumpled to the ground. The thing I found the most amusing was the fact that no matter where you actually shot a bad guy, they always ended up with a bullet hole in the head. Sound effects were basically limited to your gun shots, so not much to say there. There could have at least been a sound when you snapped a picture. The music was actually good and suited the mood of the game quite nicely.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Installation Ease: 10
Fun Factor: 7
Usability: 7
Documentation: 10
Adjustability: 7

Addon Packs: NO
Suitable For Young Kids: NO
Online Support: YES

CONS:
- Zooming in and out is jumpy
- Hard to stabilize crosshairs quickly

PROS:
- Diverse set of scenarios
- Decent visuals
- Developer regularly making improvement

OVERALL::

Shooting games are pretty popular on the iPhone, and with big name licenses like Shooter and Terminator, it takes something special to stand above the crowd. I think Codename Lone Wolf has what it takes. Codename’s strongest asset is it’s diverse range of scenarios, which in and of itself sets the game apart from others of it’s kind. Add to that a conceptually sound interface, decent graphics and a good soundtrack, and there’s a lot to like here. Let’s just hope there’s a bit more tweaking to come on the interface, especially in terms of maintaining a proper position when zooming and the ability to stabilize the crosshairs a little easier. Otherwise, the developer has a good thing going with Codename Lone Wolf.

Overall Rating: 7.9
Available Platforms: iPhone

App Store Link
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Let’s face it – the name alone implies that this game should be cool. I mean, what’s better than pirates and dragons? After playing the game for a little while, it turns out that there is apparently a lot that’s better than this combination of swashbuckling anti-heroes and mythical fire breathing creatures.

In the game you control a pirate ship, and I had hope that at some point you got to fight dragons. In the first mission, however, all you do is shoot water balloons (yes, you heard me right) at 4 buoys. Doesn’t seem like a difficult task, except that the controls are quite unfriendly, which for me meant a lot more time circling aimlessly and crashing into things than anything else. Granted, crashing into a buoy counts as a hit, but it also does damage to your ship. You use left and right motions to steer the ship, which is constantly moving forward. There appears to be no way to alter the speed of the ship, however. You tap on the screen to fire, which at least for me means letting go of the device with one hand, effectively killing my steering momentarily.

Drivin' The Boat

After many attempts I finally beat the first level (there were several times I had all 4 buoys, but died getting the last one), and I was instructed to find the dragon in the citadel for level 2 – as an added bonus I had no water balloons. Part way through what seemed like a haphazardly thrown together level I came across a big room where I was instructed to go fishing with a rod that was twice as big as my ship, and before I knew it I had a golden key that was almost bigger than I was. Opening the door for that key led to another key, which led to another, which lead to the room with the dragon. To capture the dragon I had to catch a fish – which I miraculously caught on my first try – and use that to lead the dragon out of the citadel. Once that task was complete, the game was over… what? That’s right, for a mere $2.99 you get a whole two levels of gameplay that assuming you can play straight through takes about 3-4 minutes.

The graphics remind me of a beginner’s attempt at 3D modeling. The ship and tower in level one actually look pretty decent and the buoys are pretty standard fare. The walls in the first two levels and the key I found in level two look like basic rendered objects with no textures applied. Some of the passages in level two even connect at odd angles. Overall it feels like a haphazard design. There are no sound effects to speak of, which is a shame. The launching and splattering of water balloons could have made for some interesting sounds. The music is enjoyable, but seems to be a tinny. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or a problem with how the music was recorded, but either way it detracts from what is otherwise a fairly well orchestrated piece of music.

According to the App Store description, Pirates And Dragons is “packed with state of the art graphics great puzzles and fast paced real time action”. I’m guessing all this must be in the levels we don’t get. It claims this is a “must download for Gamers”, but I’d wager that you’re $2.99 could be spent on much better games. A lot of times I can say “I don’t care for this game but’, however in this case I wouldn’t be able to think of anything to finish that phrase. Unless you want to see a pirate ship toting around a fish with a huge fishing rod, this game isn’t for you.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

When I reviewed Upsi Runner I felt that it was a little too retro for my tastes.  On the other hand, Upsi Looper seems to have hit a much better balance than its predecessor. I’m sure the concept has been around forever (I believe I played a version called Doubleback on the TRS-80), but Upsi Looper manages to present the genre with simplicity and class at the same time, and helps bring a classic to modern gamers in a nice little package.

The basic premise is that you must run into or circle objects to score points. In Regular and Expert mode you have three lives to gather as many points as you can, and in Fruit Fest mode the screen will fill with fruit for 60 seconds, and you play until all the fruit is gathered. Either way, the game is all about points. You can either run into a fruit or draw a circle around a fruit to score points. However, if you circle more than one fruit at the same time you will score more points per fruit than collecting them individually. In Regular and Expert mode there are also “bad guys” – a couple of which you will recognize from Upsi Runner – that can only be circled to be cleared. Again, circling multiple critters and / or fruits at the same time nets you more points per item collected. Finally there are skulls, which can only be removed by circling bombs.

Lizard Got Your Tounge?

The controls are as simple as can be – tilt the device to make the line go where you want it to. You do have to be a bit conscious about your physical position, however. If you’re leaning back a bit, you might lose sight of your screen as you’re tilting the device to get the line to the top of the screen. I also find that if you managed to move the line exactly opposite of the way you were traveling, it’s sometimes hard to tell where the beginning of the line is as it’s tracing over itself. This isn’t too big of a problem unless you’re heading into a pack of villains, since colliding with villains instead of circling them takes away a life. These were the only real quibbles I had with the controls, and the positional thing is really more a matter of good posture than anything else (though the game may not play so well while lying in bed!)

In addition to points there are 24 different achievements to earn by playing the game. These range from something as simple as playing 10 games to more challenging objectives like exploding 5 skulls with one bomb. My personal favorites were the ones dealing with distance traveled while playing – quite creative! There’s certainly enough variety in the achievements alone to keep you busy for some time, especially if you’re like me and forget what the criteria are so you just happen to come by them on accident!

Catch A Couple Smiles

The graphics are about at the same level as Upsi Runner. In fact, a couple of the sprites were borrowed from that game, it would seem. And to be fair to to Upsi Runner, the backgrounds in that game are more interesting than the one here. I still don’t really care for the fonts, either. For some reason, though, all that doesn’t really seem to bother me with this game like it did with the other one. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve come to expect more from platform games, but the simple look actually works for Upsi Looper. The sound effects are okay, and actually work well with the concept of “popping” the objects. Music, as before, is not present. So unfortunately I’m listening to River Of Dreams – the only album on my iPod – as I’m playing the game and typing this. Oh well…

Shen Mansell clearly has a heart for game making, and that’s most evident in the fact that he tries to make every game better than the last. In the case of Upsi Looper, I feel like he has succeeded. It would be cool to see the game receive a bit of a facelift some day, and at least one musical track would be nice, but the simple, solid game play and many achievements to earn make this a fun game despite the “nice to haves”. After spending some time with this I’m certainly looking forward to his next outing, Gum Drops.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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Reviewed Platform: iPhone
Device Used: iPod Touch
Software Type: Game
Developed By: Birdsoft

I’m not familiar with Jezzball, the inspiration for this game, but I’m also reminded of the game Qix when I play Jezster. It’s not my favorite genre of game, but Jezster is a charming interpretation of the genre that has enough perks thrown in to be interesting. It’s not an every-day-play for me, but it’s certainly worth the price of admission.

The basic idea of the game is that you must fill in a certain percentage of each game board to move on to the next one. You do this by drawing lines between existing borders. Any area that is completely blocked off by the line and doesn’t contain a bad guy will be filled in. You can create lines either horizontally or vertically. To change the direction of your line you can select to have either a small button in each bottom corner of the screen, or you can have a button that pops up when you swipe in the corner. Personally, I found the pop-up button too difficult to use, and the permanent buttons take up so little room that they don’t impede game play any. There are six worlds, and each world is comprised of 4 sub-levels and a boss level. To help you along the way there are a number of power-ups to be collected, including extra time and extra lives. There is also a bomb that will destroy surrounding filled in areas if you don’t click on it in time. There are more power ups listed in the help screens, but so far the ones I listed are the only ones I’ve run across. For the sake of completeness I should mention that there is a “classic” mode that emulates the original Jezzball, but without the power ups and such it just wasn’t really that entertaining.

Just Jezzin'

There are a couple of issues I encountered while playing, like times where it seemed that an enemy passed through a line instead of breaking it, but overall the production value on this game is pretty solid. My biggest gripe, though, is that the game is really difficult. Even on the easy level I barely passed world 1, and now routinely get caught between sub-level 3 and 4 in world 2. The problem stems from the fact that there are a lot of enemies in the area you have to cover. I know there are games with a lot more happening on screen at one time, but because of the nature of having to play from border to border in this one, you’ll learn quickly that the enemies can travel a lot faster than your line. Occasionally some random blocks will pop up that let you connect lines someplace besides the borders, but these don’t tend to hang around for very long. Also, the very limited time you have often precludes you from waiting until the “right” moment to try and create a line.

The graphics are simple but effective. The enemies are animated for as much detail as they contain, and each world is themed with background that tries to represent that theme. A little more detail in the background might have been nice, though I suppose since it gets covered up that probably wouldn’t be too practical. The sound effects for power ups are decent enough, but the bouncing of enemies off of borders gets a bit repetitive, especially if one is trapped in a small area. Like a lot of iPhone games, there is no music in Jezster either.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 4
Installation Ease: 10
Fun Factor: 6
Usability: 9
Documentation: 10
Adjustability: 10

Addon Packs: NO
Suitable For Young Kids: YES
Online Support: YES

CONS:
- Difficult even on easy level
- HUD style control difficult to use
- No music

PROS:
- Power ups take genre to new level
- Solid production values

OVERALL::
Jezster still hasn’t really sold me on this genre of game, but it’s a solid attempt that at least makes things a little more interesting. Decent graphics provide an adequate atmosphere, and for the most part the sound effects enhance the ambiance. I think an easier “easy” mode and some music would go a long way to making Jezster a more enjoyable experience.

Overall Rating: 8
Available Platforms: iPhone
App Store Link
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I honestly don’t remember if I had anything like Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots when I was a kid, but I always thought they looked like fun.  Armor Games has attempted to recapture that magic in the form of Drastic Plastic, and they do a pretty good job of it.  The basic scenario is that you must battle your robot against six different opponents.  As you win bouts you can buy upgrades for your robot’s head, torso, arms and legs.  There are two upgrades to each body part, and unless you’re really good (which I’m apparently not), you’ll need to get certain upgrades to advance to the next bout.  Don’t confuse this with me saying that you need the upgrades to unlock the next bout, because a new fight is available as soon as you defeat a robot for the first time.

The control scheme is simple.  You have a picture of a glove in each of the two lower corners of the screen, and these allow you to throw punches.  You tilt the device left and right to move your robot towards the center or edge of the ring.  Retreating gives you a moment to regain some energy, though you can never regain full strength once you’ve been hit.  Two rounds wins a match, and if you get defeated you don’t lose anything except a few minutes of time.  The two biggest drawbacks to Drastic Plastic are that you will have to replay easy matches several times to earn enough money for upgrades, and there really isn’t any replay value once you’ve beaten the game.  If you’re not patient about advancement then this game probably isn’t for you.  If you want something to play over and over again you’ll want to pass as well.

Fighting A Wood Chipper

Graphically, the game is quite enjoyable.  All the robots look drastically different, and you even get to fight a cockroach at one point, among other things.  There are some details that are neat, like the finger that comes down to fix a robot back up the first time it’s been knocked out in a match.  They really did a good job of simulating the playing field for the game they were trying to emulate.  The sound effects are what you’d expect for this type of game, and actually work pretty well.  The music is pretty decent too, including a separate track for each robot.

While  I enjoyed the game, I’m a bit on the fence about recommending because of the somewhat tedious nature of replaying weak matches and the lack of any replay value once you’ve beaten the game.  However, the game is free, so as long as you can tolerate the download time I think in the end it’s worth it for the hour or two of entertainment you’ll get.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

The bad thing about the App Store is that due to all the sales, I tend to make impulse buys.  The good news is that sometimes impulse buys actually pay off.  Such is the case with Bubble Bee from Sputnik Games.  The premise is quite simple.  You are a bee, and you must avoid the “baddies”, and if you so choose, pop bubbles.  This is a “do or die” game, so one hit and it’s over.  How high can you score?

Unfortunately, Avoid The Baddies mode isn’t all that entertaining.  This is basically a simulation of the multitude of flash games where you’re a circle or square or whatever and you’re dodging all the other objects in the arena.  On the other hand, Pop The Bubbles mode is quite fun.  You still have all those baddies to avoid, but there are also bubbles to pop.  As you pop the bubbles you grow bigger (though I’m pretty sure your growth stops at some point).  Also, baddies become more frequent and faster.  Have no fear, though, as there are power-ups like stop the baddies or invincibility to help you last longer.  The game uses motion control to guide your bee, and for the most part it works well, though sometimes trying to stop or turn to catch a power-up is a bit problematic.  There is a sensitivity option in the settings, but I found that the default setting works best for me.

Just Buzzin' Around

The graphics are simple but look good.  There’s animation wherever possible, including a little smoke trail that follows your bee.  The only thing I didn’t care for was the background.  It’s kind of a soupy green etherial looking nothing that doesn’t really enhance the game.  There are really only two sound effects in the game, one when you pop a bubble, and another when you collide with a baddie.  The popping bubble sounds just as you’d expect, and I don’t know what the baddies are supposed to be, but the collision noise with them amuses me.  There’s one musical track, which is one track more than a lot of games have, and it’s a nice subttle classical riff that’s well written.

Bubble Bee is probably not for those who want something to play for hours on end, and the simple mechanics might not appeal to a lot of folks.  For me, however, I found the game to be much like Cube Runner in the sense that once I started to play, I could never play just one game.  As of the day this was posted (2.14.2009) the price was still 99 cents, which is more than reasonable for this polished package.

Final Verdict: Recommended
Lite Version
Full Version
Developer Web Site

http://www.ludimate.com

Reviewed by Eric Pankoke

I’ll probably say this every time such a game comes along, but I love it when a developer takes a tested, seasoned concept and adds enough twists and turns to make it new and their own. Such is the case with Tilelander from Ludimate. The game obviously finds its roots in the classic Qix, but it won’t be long before you realize this isn’t your simple 80’s remake.

The premise behind the game is a bit silly, but then games like this were never really meant to have a plot. Tileland has been invaded by the Xyzons, and it’s up to you to stop them. “How?” you might ask. All you have to do is fill each level with tiles. Well, actually you can get away with just filling most of the level with tiles. Whenever you capture the last Xyzon on a level they will leave some flags, and this will help you complete the level without totally filling it. So how do you fill a level with tiles? You start each level “attached” to a tile. As you move around the level you create a trail, and as soon as you touch another tile the trail becomes a solid wall of tiles. If you touch a tile that will cause an area to be enclosed, all the space enclosed in that area will be filled with tiles. Additionally, any Xyzon caught in that area will be destroyed.

 Xyzons aren’t going to just let you surround them without a fight, however. The enemy will move around the screen in an attempt to destroy you. Some simply move up and down or left to right. Others will travel all around the screen in random patterns, while some will actually gravitate towards you. Certain Xyzons will actually produce other Xyzons to hunt you, while the shy kind will stay back and shoot at you any opportunity they get.

So besides capturing the enemy in tiles, how do you defend yourself? That’s where Tilelander sets itself apart from other games of this type. In many levels you have guns scattered throughout the screen. When you run into a gun it fires in the direction that you were moving. The second item you have to aid you in your quest is a tile that will actually create more tiles for you. At first this didn’t seem very useful, but it turns out that if you create a tile on the same area that a Xyzon is moving to, it will actually kill the Xyzon. The third, and in my opinion coolest, item at your disposal is a cloning device. This will create a “duplicate” of your ship that moves the same direction you do. However, if you move left and then stop, the clone will keep moving. In addition, clones can trigger guns, use the tile creation devices, and kill Xyzons by running into them (though some take multiple hits by clones). There are a few other items at your disposal as well, but you can check those out when you play the game.

There are two modes in the game. Arcade mode plays just as you’d expect from everything I’ve described above. The second mode, which comes in Easy, Normal and Hard flavors, has one interesting quirk to it. Xyzons will only move when you do! This restriction does not apply to Xyzon projectiles, though. However, if Xyzons only move when you do, and clones move even when you stop, hopefully you can see a huge benefit to clones in this mode. Personally, I prefer the second mode, though Arcade mode would provide an additional challenge if you’ve played through all levels in the other mode.

When I first started playing this game it seemed like just an above average Qix clone with a few twists. The more I replayed various levels, however, I really started to gain an appreciation for the work and creativity that went into coming up with some of these levels. A few of them were a bit tedious if you had to play them repeated times, but that was the exception to the rule. Some of them were brilliant, and you could tell by the themes that these guys have been video game fans for a long time, which was really neat.

The graphics in Tilelander are fairly simplistic, but serve the game well. Each of the Xyzons has a unique and discernable look, and of course your spaceship stands out from the crowd with its sleek, plus sign exterior. What’s really enjoyable about the graphics, however, is how the different tile types are used to create recognizable images of everything from Elvis to a stock market graph. Sometimes it’s almost a shame to have to ruin the cool designs Ludimate has created.

As with most puzzle games, the sound effects are nothing special, though everything did compliment its corresponding action. I did appreciate the fact that each tile type had a unique sound both when filling in an area and when being destroyed. The music was a mixed bag. What I heard of it was okay, but it seemed like on many levels there either wasn’t music or it was not playing correctly. On several occasions there was a lot of crackling but no sound, which lead me to believe that maybe their audio system wasn’t working 100% correctly on my machine.

Pros:

- Some nice twists to a vintage concept
- Several really well done level designs
- An overall polished package

Cons:

- Only being able to save every ten levels
- “Only” seventy levels
- Potential audio problems

The beauty of the Pocket PC is that it’s still trying to find its niche, so developers don’t feel constrained to the mass-market mentality that console developers have. As a result you get games like Tilelander, which takes a concept that works and makes it something unique. Hopefully this is just the first of many products to come out of the Ludimate stable.

Score: 9/10

www.max-studio.net

Reviewed by Eric Pankoke
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Burning Armor Code E
Winner of the Cutting Edge Coding Competition 2006

Given the right angle, there’s always room for another vertical shooter in my collection. Unfortunately, even after being rewritten using the EDGE gaming library, I’m not sure that Burning Armor has enough of an edge to rise to the top. Read on to find out of this is one flight worth taking, or if you should just let Burning Armor crash and burn…

Burning Armor appears to be your typical vertical scrolling shooter. You wade headlong into the enemy hoping to destroy them before they get to you. Some ships come at you in formations like 1942, while others just fly in and hang out until either they’ve destroyed you or you’ve taken care of them. Destroying smaller ships yield low value coins, while bigger ships produce high value coins or more importantly, power-ups. Power-ups range from increased firepower to full ship repair, so you want to be sure that you never miss a power-up if at all possible. You should keep in mind that power-ups are ship specific, so if you fail to destroy a particular big ship, don’t expect to find its power-up in the next big ship that comes along.

As with most shooters, you have a basic weapon that can be upgraded; in this case it happens to start out as a machine gun. In addition to that you have a hyper beam, which has unlimited use but must be charged in order to use it. To initiate the charging process you press the center of the D-Pad. Once the weapon is charged, your ship will slow down, indicating that it’s ready. Pressing the D-Pad again fires the weapon, which spends a few seconds destroying everything on screen. Once the beam is exhausted it goes through a preliminary recharge, which is separate from the charge that you initiate with the D-Pad. Finally you have the evade button, which just like in 1942 causes your plane to fly around in a loop, temporarily avoiding all bullets and ships on the screen. Once you’ve performed an evade, you need to wait for the evade meter to charge up before you can use that feature again.

Burning Armor has two modes: Normal and Turbo. Even when playing normal, I found this game overly difficult. So far I have not been able to beat the first level, and to be honest, as time passed I lost my desire to keep trying. The level design is not very interesting, the enemies aren’t all that original in how they attack, and it gets rather frustrating getting all the way to the end almost every time just to get trounced by the boss and have to start over. It would have been real nice to have an introductory level or something, so that mediocre players like myself could feel at least somewhat accomplished.

You have the choice of using the stylus or D-Pad to move your ship around the screen. Unfortunately, you don’t have the ability to map the rest of the hardware buttons yourself. This is a shame, because I would really have liked to use something besides the center of the D-Pad for the hyper beam. This certainly isn’t a major issue, but I don’t understand why most games don’t allow the remapping of controls any more, especially those of the action genre.

Burning Armor Code E

While not quite up to the level of Skyforce Reloaded or Claygun, the graphics in Burning Armor are still really good.  It’s nice to see a traditional shooter that doesn’t use traditional ship designs.  Sure, many of the aircraft have recognizable influences, but they still look original compared to what you see in most vertical shooters these days.  I also liked how they effectively used multiple layers to provide a feeling of depth, as aircraft on the lower level appeared smaller.  I realize this is not a new technique, but it’s a slick one that is quite often neglected in this sort of game.  My chief complaint as far as the graphics are concerned is that it was often difficult to see the ammunition that was being hurled at you, which seems to be quite common in this sort of game, especially on devices with smaller screens.  Fortunately, there is a low graphics detail setting which hides the clouds, a main contributor to the lack of visibility on the ammunition.

The music in Burning Armor is well done.  Sadly I can’t speak for whether or not the game has multiple tracks, since I have as yet to beat the first level, but if they’re as good as the one on the first level I’d say Burning Armor has a great soundtrack.  On the other hand, the sound effects are basically limited to the firing of your main weapon and explosions.  My suggestion is to leave the music on and turn off the sound effects.  You won’t be missing anything.

Pros:

It’s a vertical shooter
Good graphics, especially in the ship design
Soundtrack for first level is good

Cons:

Too difficult for my tastes
Lackluster level design
Can’t remap controls

Score: 6/10

Burning Armor is not necessarily a bad game.  Other than decent ship design, however, there’s nothing here that sets Burning Armor apart from the rest.  Add to that the insane difficulty level, and I would have to suggest booking a flight on Claygun or Skyforce Reloaded first.

Rage of Mages II

Rage of Mages II from Nival Interactive
Reviewed by: Eric Pankoke

I’ve never been a real big fan of ports. Typically, if the port is going from a small machine to a big machine, the developers don’t want to spend the time to add extra features to take advantage of the new, expanded hardware. When going from a big to a small machine, the developers often try to cram too much in and don’t take into account the limited interface or capabilities of the target platform. Such is the case with Rage Of Mages II (also called Allods 2) from Nival Interactive.

The game has some sort of “Mad Mages trying to take over the world” type fantasy plot, but I honestly haven’t been interested enough to pay that close attention to the main story. For your part in the plot you get to choose one of four characters – if I had to guess I’d say a warrior, archer, sorceress and mage – and try to help vanquish the evil that has spread across the land. You initially have a couple of tasks to complete, but once you get to the first town beyond your starting point you can select which quests to do in what order, within certain boundaries. So far quests have typically been of the “find and kill the bad guy of the area” type, so there’s nothing out of the ordinary there.

The game is divided up into two types of areas. There are towns where you can buy goods or hang out in taverns to hear the latest gossip, get new quests and hire mercenaries to journey with you. Then there are the quest sections, which see you wandering around areas to either talk to NPCs or fight monsters, and every once in a while there might even be some goods for you to pick up. That’s basically it for gameplay.

The interface in town is simple enough. Click on a building to enter it. Click on a patron in the tavern and press “Talk” to hear what they have to say, or “Hire” if the option is available to have them join your party. In the shop, you can drag items from your inventory to the shop to sell, or from the shop to your inventory to buy.

Once you get to the quest areas, the interface becomes a jumbled mess. There are a bunch of icons on the right hand side, and it took me several times of reading the help and then looking back at the icons (you can’t have the help open at the same time) to figure out what icon does what. To move around the area you can click on an individual party member or drag and surround to select multiple party members. Then just click where you want to go. At least, that’s what you do if the area you want to move to is visible on the screen. To move somewhere farther away, you need to scroll the map first. Supposedly this can be done by clicking on the edges of the map, but that very seldom worked for me. You can use the D-Pad, which is what I primarily end up doing, but for some reason that seems awkward.

To talk to NPCs scattered around the map, you walk near them. I would much rather be able to click on them, because it’s often hard to tell whether an NPC is not responding simply because they have nothing to say or because you haven’t approached them from the right direction. However, if you want to pick up items on the map you can click on those. Of course, more often than not I seemed to have to fight with my characters in order to get them to pick anything up.

Speaking of fighting, the combat in Rage Of Mages is pretty hideous as well. To attack a monster, you select one or more player characters, then click on the monster to attack. Or, you can use some of the icons to the right. I tend to prefer the more direct route of clicking on the bad guys, which at first seems acceptable. Once that monster is killed, though, your characters seemed to get confused. Often, clicking on a new target does nothing, or results in only a portion of the selected characters actually attacking. What’s worse, if you kill a monster and another one comes up to attack you, often the character will stand there like a deer trapped in headlights. In battles that require stealth and planning, these nuances get rather frustrating.

The worst part of the whole interface is that in the two most complex areas, character creation and solving quests, there’s not really any good explanation of what’s going on. A more robust help file would have been nice, and shouldn’t have been that hard to do.

The graphics in Rage Of Mages 2 are not very consistent. Things like the menus and shops are done very nicely. However, once you get into the quest areas, the graphics get muddled and often unrecognizable. Half the time I’m not really sure what I’m fighting. The absolute worst offenders, however, are the player character and party NPCs. No matter which player type you choose, your character in the game always looks the same. To make matters worse, half the people that join your party look just like you. Short of clicking on them and listening to their voices, the only way to distinguish who’s who is to look at the inventory.

The sound effects in the game vary greatly. Some, like the ambient sounds of creatures in the forest, are really nice. Others, like the sound a mage makes when idle, can get rather annoying. The worst, however, is the voice of your main character, who feels the need to say something along the lines of “okay” every time you move. There’s no music in the game whatsoever. Not during the introduction, or when sorting through the menus, or during the game itself. To me there’s no excuse for that these days, especially from an established developer.

I think there were good intentions here. Unfortunately, instead of taking an established premise and making a unique interpretation for a different platform, they chose the “easy” route and made a flawed port in an unwelcoming environment. If you’ve run out of other role playing games, you might consider giving RofM 2 a shot. However, I strongly suggest making sure you’ve extinguished your other options first.

Pros:

At least it’s an RPG
The potential of a good story is there

Cons:

Unfriendly interface
Inconsistent audio and video
Inadequate instructions

Final Score: 4/10

www.trialaction.com

Dragon Ball from TrialAction Games
Reviewed by: Eric Pankoke

One thing I like about the PDA game market is that unlike the PC and console markets, the developers are not shackled by the mantra “sell fast, sell many”. As a result we are often treated to unique, simple and fun games like Dragon Ball from Trial Action Games.

The premise behind Dragon Ball is rather straightforward. On each level there are several dragons trying to get from point A to point B along a track. Your objective is to destroy the dragons before they reach their destination. If a dragon reaches the end of the track you have to restart the level. Once you have used all of your lives the game is over.

So how do you get rid of those pesky dragons? Well, it seems that each dragon is made up of a series of sections, each section being one of several colors. Armed with your trusty “section shooter”, you must insert sections into the dragon’s body such that you create a string of at least 3 sections of the same color. Once you’ve done that, the connected sections will go away, and the remainder of the dragon will join back together. Once you’ve destroyed all of the sections in the dragon’s body, the head will disappear and that dragon is gone.

You control your shooter with the left and right directions on the D-Pad, and you can use either the stylus or the up direction on the D-Pad to fire. I prefer the D-Pad up direction, but unfortunately on my device it’s a bit sensitive, and quite often I find myself shooting on accident. Unfortunately, I can’t disable the use of the D-Pad for firing, so since the option is always there I choose to use it instead of the stylus. Optimally, it would have been nice to be able to configure the fire option to one of the hardware buttons.

From time to time sections of a dragon’s body will temporarily turn into a power-up. If you can destroy that section while it’s transformed, you will be awarded the corresponding power-up. Power-ups come in two different flavors. The first type of power-up affects every dragon on the screen. These power-ups include such things as slow-motion, stop, and reverse. The other type of power-up comes in the form of special sections that you can fire. These include a bomb that destroys everything around the vicinity of contact, a lightening bolt that destroys everything in its path, and a multicolored ball that takes on the color of the section it makes contact with.

In addition to the dragons themselves, the tracks are designed in such a way to provide their own challenges. Some of them have many twists and turns, so if your timing is off you might end up hitting the wrong section of a dragon as it rounds a bend. Other tracks cross over each other in sections, so a shot fired at a dragon passing under a section of track might inadvertently miss that dragon. There are even cases where the track has two exits, so you have to constantly watch both to make sure a dragon doesn’t get too close to either one of them.

So besides vanquishing the bad guys, what do you get for your time slaying dragons? Why, you get to rack up your score, of course! When you destroy sections of a dragon, you get points. When you destroy the entire dragon you also get points. In addition, you can score points with combos. Once you’ve destroyed a group of sections, if you can destroy another group with the next shot you have scored a combo. Each time you do this in succession the amount of the combo increases. On the flip side, the first time it takes you more than one shot to destroy a group of sections, the combo is over. The final way to score points is through a chain. Chains are formed when you destroy a group of sections, and the remaining sections that join back together have enough sections of the same color in a row to get destroyed themselves. A well placed shot could destroy 3 or more groups of sections in a dragon.

The game plays well, but is it easy on the eyes? You bet it is. All the “functional” screens (splash screen, menu, level map, etc.) are detailed and look very nice. The actual levels are a bit less detailed, but appealing none the less. Sections transforming into power-ups and back look good, and the effects when firing a bomb or lightening are pretty slick. Overall Dragon Ball presents a very professional visual appearance.

The audio is also first rate. While it appears that there is only a single track, the music matches quite well with the atmosphere. The sound effects all work together well, and the shattering of sections when destroyed gives quite an interesting impression of what the dragons might actually be. I quite enjoyed the audio element of the game.

Now we arrive at the “but…” section of the review. For the player in general, the biggest drawback to Dragon Ball will be the replay factor. There are a lot of levels to this game, but for all of the difficulties I’ve had with it, I’ve still managed to clear more than half of them already. If you aren’t into multi-pass games this might not be an issue, but I don’t think there’s much impetus to play the game once it has been completed. The next problem, and it’s possible that this is just specific to me, is that the game locks up a lot. I pretty much have to shut down the game after playing each level, and even then sometimes that’s not enough to keep the game from freezing the next time I launch it. And, since this is a full screen game, I’m pretty much forced to do a soft reset every time it freezes. I recently had to do a hard reset on my machine, and I’ve installed very little since then, so I don’t believe it’s an issue with any malicious software that’s running in the background. In fact, except for a couple of runtime files for different development environments and Total Commander, I don’t have anything else installed on my device yet. I’m using a Dell Axim X5 running WM2003. I’ve had problems with games locking up on me before, but not on a consistent basis like Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball is a good game and presents the “three in a row” puzzle game in a unique new fashion. Good graphics and sound effects will keep you entertained until you’ve worn out all the levels, though there’s not much to bring you back for seconds. If it weren’t for the constant lock-up problem I have, I’d be a lot more eager to recommend this game, but in fairness to the product I will in this case provide two scores accordingly.

Cons:

Little replay value
Lock-up issues on my machine

Pros:

Unique twist to a seasoned puzzle game style
Quality audio and visual elements
Lots of levels

Overall:

8/10 (without the constant freezing)
5/10 (with the freezing problem)