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My fondest memories of the original Star Wars films were the starfighter dogfights. The first time you see the assault run on the Death Star, or the ill-fated attack on the second before it was finished, it's really cool to watch a bunch of fighter craft flying around, blowing the heck out of each other. Every once in a while, you can get the same sense of scale and calamity in a game - usually of the real-time strategy variety.
It's safe to say that while point-and-click adventure games have a very niche market, there's a select few mediums where they work well. Touch devices and PCs have always been prime candidates, as their interfaces lend themselves to a control scheme that isn't overly complicated: click to move, click to interact, click to do everything.
It's hard out there for a photo app these days. After the runaway success of Instagram, a lot of imitators popped up thinking that if they offered the same "snap, filter and share" features, users would flock to them, as well.
Despite Twitter making it difficult for developers to maintain third-party clients, they just keep popping up. This week, we take a look at Falcon Pro, which seems to marry the idea of beauty, functionality, and smooth animations into a solid contender for the best of its kind.
I first played Cipher Prime's Splice when it was part of a recent fourth Humble Bundle, and it still enjoys a place in my Installed Games list on Steam. It's a puzzle game that involves taking different strains of bacteria and "splicing" them, moving around cells in order to fit an provided outline. Of course, you have a set amount of moves, and added "mutation" cells will change the game in different ways: for instance, one mutation will cause each cell attached to it to grow, or split identically. The trick is to plan ahead and think strategically in order to finish each level and move on.
As gamers, we've all become familiar with the tie-in title. These are usually released in conjunction with a movie or TV show to widen its exposure, and historically they're usually pretty sub-par.
I've been enjoying video games for most of my life, and some of them come with a seizure warning before I start playing. This is to make sure that people who are prone to seizures or headaches know that there is a large amount of strobe effects in the game they're about to start.
For all the shooters and racing games that mobile fans see, there's another subset that seems specifically made for the touch environment. "Zen" games are popular because they're relatively simple, can be played in short bursts to cure boredom, and ultimately allow their audience to sit back and relax. Pixel Twist fulfills all three of those criteria.
What looks, plays, and sounds like a Final Fantasy game, but isn’t? If you answered Chaos Rings Omega, I’d like to give you a no-prize. This game comes to us from publisher Square-Enix, who also handles a lot of the other JRPGs that have shaped the genre into what it is today.
After a long time in development, Marvel (and their parent company Disney) have released Avengers Initiative to the Android masses. Coming with a $6.99 price tag on a limited number of devices, it adds to the growing list of Avengers-themed mobile games, even if only one of those heroes is available in this particular title.
It seems to be a really good couple weeks for platforming fans. After the positive review we gave Pizza Boy last week, Paper Monsters is next on our docket. This 3D platformer is relatively simple - in a good way - and looks to be a cheap and well-polished title for Android.
At the end of October, Rockstar Studios announced that the mobile version of its smash-hit Grand Theft Auto: Vice City would be coming to Android and iOS. Now, it has announced an official release date of December 6, with a $4.99 price tag across all platforms.
PC gamers alive in the 1990's will remember the XCOM series of games as bastions of the strategy genre. In each, you took control of a global organization that was tasked with defending the Earth from aliens; you did so in turn-based missions, where you killed enemies, escorted VIPs, and defended objectives.
While there seems to be no shortage of Twitter clients on the Google Play store, they all seem to be a mixed bag of different features and reliability. Some will do push, while others are free; some won't do notifications, and some animations are downright sluggish. Sadly, unless you have the time to go through every app to see which one fits the best, you'll likely need to settle for "close enough."
Google announced today on the official Gmail blog that advanced search in Gmail has been expanded. You can now scour your mail with more flexible date search options, by attachment size, exact query match, and more.
Much of the platforming genre is based on nostalgia: nostalgia for games like Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country or Sonic the Hedgehog. These titles dominated consoles and earned themselves legions of fans along the way. An entire sub-set of mobile games is based around recreating that magic, especially when it comes to gameplay.
The Hunters: Episode One is a new game on the Google Play Store that looks to appeal to fans of the XCOM, Jagged Alliance, and Final Fantasy Tactics series. You take control of a team of mercenaries in turn-based missions which will earn you money upon completion. You can use that money to upgrade your squad and complete contracts that refresh every day. You can also purchase in-game currency with real money, as well.
It's hard to be a free to play app in the Google Play Store. With so many games throwing in-app payments into the faces of their players, it's tempting to follow along with them - if the money's good, why not? However, in the pursuit of cash, gameplay might suffer. On one hand, you want people to pay money, but on the other, you (ideally) don't want to ruin the experience they have if they don't. Thankfully, Royal Revolt avoids that last problem.
If you were a gamer in the 90s, there was a good chance you either owned or had played a Super Nintendo. While the debate still rages on about whether that machine or the Sega Genesis was superior, it can be safely stated that the SNES had some amazing role-playing titles.
