game review - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

[New Game] Quadropus Rampage Review: A Bit Shallow, But Oceans Of Fun

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

In Quadropus Rampage, you are (predictably) a quadropus. I am not entirely sure what a quadropus is, and it’s not adequately explained in the game. All I know is that it has four limbs, looks kind of like an octopus, and it will mess you up if you don't stop staring at it like that. From the first frame, Quadropus Rampage is a torrent of non-stop button mashing carnage. Does this brand spanking new game have staying power, or does it come and go like the tides?

(Endless) Gameplay

There is not so much a goal in Quadropus Rampage as there is a drive to make it just a little farther each time.

May

Arma Tactics THD Review: Like Chess With Guns... And Frustration, And Confusion, And Swearing

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, News, Reviews

PC gamers know the ARMA series as wickedly difficult, painstakingly accurate military shooters - the thinking man's (or possibly masochist's) alternative to the likes of Call of Duty. For its first full mobile game, ARMA is eschewing the first person shooter genre in favor of a tactical game: a top-down, turn-based combat system where strategy wins over speed and reflexes. It's a good choice for touchscreens, and an understandable one given ARMA's current fanbase. It's just too bad that the execution didn't pan out.

Arma: Tactics THD makes a solid effort to update the tactical genre and integrate it with the modern shooter aesthetic, but fails at just about every point.

Apr

EPOCH Review: A (Nearly) Perfect Touchscreen Translation Of Cover-Based Shooting

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, Reviews

Last Updated: April 15th, 2013

Just two days ago I decried the relative lack of innovation in mobile gaming, and after climbing EPOCH's surprisingly steep difficulty curve, I get to eat humble pie. This cover-based shooter from Android newcomer Uppercut Games blew me away with its original control scheme and immersive graphics. It's not flawless, but its combination of mobile-friendly gameplay and and impressive presentation should make every action gamer (and developer) sit up and take notice.

The shooting is fast and twitchy. The battle system requires skill, timing, and strategy to master. And best of all, EPOCH is a triple-A action game that never once had me wishing for my controller.

Mar

Real Boxing Review: A Beautiful, Clunky Mess That Delivers An Uppercut To Your Wallet

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, Reviews

Real Boxing has garnered quite a bit of success on iOS, and with a little help from NVIDIA, it's grabbed headlines on its way to Android as well. Though the game was first spotted running on the Shield hardware, it's now available on other Tegra devices. With a title as pretty as this, it would be a shame to run it on anything less than the most advanced hardware out there - too bad we'll have to settle for a Tegra 3 for the time being.

Though Real Boxing is superb as far as the graphics are concerned, the rest of the game falls flat.

Dec

Flower Power: Eufloria HD Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

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.

Eufloria is a game that manages to capture this sense of chaos, allowing you to zoom out to see the entire asteroid belt you're capable of conquering, or to zoom in completely to see each individual ship firing lasers at targets.

Dec

Honestly, Kind Of Dull: Broken Sword II - The Smoking Mirror Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

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.

Especially with this year's The Walking Dead games garnering so much praise, the genre could be in for a little bit of a renaissance. With the recent release of Broken Sword II - The Smoking Mirror: Remastered, Android gamers will get an updated look at a game that many have touted as one of the best adventures in the genre.

Dec

Dropping Some Science: Splice Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

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.

Dec

Raiden Legacy Review: A Reminder That Video Games Used To Be Really, Really Hard

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

Last Updated: December 9th, 2012

Twenty years ago you had to pump quarters into an arcade machine to enjoy the punishing shooter known as Raiden. The game was so successful that multiple sequels followed. Now you can play four Raiden arcade games on your mobile device for a one-time fee. This is a retro gaming experience that tries to preserve the feel of the original game, and still make it work on a touch screen. So is Raiden still awesome? Let's see.

Gameplay

See that thing there? Shoot it. That other thing over there? Shoot that, too. That third whatsit over there? That one is a power up.

Dec

Time To Wreck It!: Wreck-It Ralph Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

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.

However, Disney's Wreck-It Ralph subverts this trope because it's in the unique position of being based off of video games. That's kind of hard to mess up.

Wreck-It Ralph is a series of three (soon to be four) arcade games that feature characters and environments from the movie. The first is a direct port of the Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade game that Ralph calls home, the second will remind players of Doodle Jump and other "bounce as high as you can" games, and the third is a very modest twin-joystick shooter.

Dec

Game Review: Shoot Em Up + Rave = Beat Hazard Ultra

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

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.

I've never felt that been susceptible to the problems the warnings are meant to address, but then again, I hadn't played Beat Hazard Ultra, either.

Beast Hazard Ultra is a shoot-em-up game that uses your music to generate levels. Gameplay-wise, it's a mix of Asteroids and the traditional two-joystick shooters that many players are already familiar with.