game review - 2/4 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Nov

Needs More Training: Avengers Initiative Review

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

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.

The Premise

Avengers Initiative puts you in the role of the Hulk, who has been tasked in bringing in a number of super-villains who have escaped from a high-tech prison in the Marvel Universe. The game plays almost exactly like the popular Ininity Blade series on iOs, where you'll dodge, parry, and perform attacks in 1-on-1 duels.

Nov

Waking Mars Review: Bring Mars Back To Life One Awesome Alien Creature At A Time

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

When you pick up your Android device to play a game, you're probably shooting stuff, jumping over stuff, driving stuff, or maybe flicking stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat. Sometimes these gaming tropes can be genuinely entertaining and clever, but it's all rather expected these days. Waking Mars takes a completely different approach. It's equal parts puzzle solving and adventure, with just a little platforming mixed in. It's a little expensive, but does it deliver?

Gameplay

The word of the day here is unique. Waking Mars seems at first like a generic adventure game, but it quickly becomes so much more. You control the least fortunate scientist in the solar system, who finds himself trapped in a series of underground Martian caves after a geologic event swallows up his basecamp.

Nov

Locked and Loaded - The Hunters: Episode One Review

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

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.

Now imagine that (with some tweaks, of course) on Android.

The premise of The Hunters: Episode One is relatively simple: you are the leader of a team of mercenaries, and you can take different contracts on a daily basis. Completing these contracts nets you money, which can be spent upgrading your mercs with equipment and armor.

Nov

Expendable Rearmed Review: Everything Explodes, And That's Alright

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Games, Reviews

There are plenty of games in Google Play these days, but I sometimes feel like developers forget to code in the fun. Games are supposed to be fun, right? And what's more fun than shooting anything and everything in your path with a rapidly rotating assortment of weapons? Not much, if you ask me. With that in mind, Expendable: Rearmed has a lot of potential. This is a port of a classic top-down arcade shooter from the Dreamcast, and it is all about destruction.

Gameplay

I am told there is a backstory to Expendable: Rearmed, but try as I might, I can't think of any reason to care about it.

Nov

Serving Up Pies: Pizza Boy Review

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

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.

Pizza Boy is one of those titles. Its premise is simple, like most games of its type tend to be: you're a pizza delivery boy looking to get a particular pie back from a bird who has stolen it. In order to retrieve it, you'll be traversing a number of levels by running, jumping and throwing bottles as projectiles.

Nov

Taking The Power Back: Reviewing Royal Revolt

Posted by Matt Demers in Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

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.

The Concept

Royal Revolt is a reverse tower defense game: instead of protecting against hordes of enemies, you are the horde that is looking to wreck everything.

Oct

SEGA's Zaxxon Escape Review: A Classic Game Successfully Reimagined For Your Phone

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Games, Reviews

Readers of a certain age might remember pumping quarter after quarter into arcade machines back in the day. Maybe one of those arcade games was the classic shooter known as Zaxxon. Now 30 years later Zaxxon is back as a fast-paced tunnel racer that requires some quick reflexes. It's easy for a reimagining of classic titles to go off the rails, but how does Zaxxon Escape fair? Let's see.

Gameplay

There's not much of a backstory here; you are in a space ship and have to get out of Zaxxon's asteroid city through a series of randomly generated tunnels with an explosion hot on your heels.

Oct

Iron Jack 2 Review: Plays Well, Rusty In Other Places

Posted by Matt Demers in Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

Iron Jack 2 is a mashing-up of multiple kinds of genres; it combines platforming with some physics-based gameplay and places them inside a familiar "beat levels, get three stars" box. You play as a lone spaceman whose job it is to collect fuel energy. Once enough energy is collected,a level can be exited and completed.

This sounds simple enough, right? We've seen many games use this formula to great effect, making its players jump through increasingly difficult hoops in order to get that vaunted three-star score, and a place on leaderboards. It's a great way of encouraging replayability: instead of having to concentrate on making every level fun, you just make it competitive, instead.

Oct

Review: Glu Mobile's "Indestructible" Is Anything But Bulletproof

Posted by Matt Demers in Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

In the realm of dual-stick shooters, Android’s offerings seem to be plentiful. However, one company’s name stands out due to their past success: Glu Mobile’s Gun Bros is a franchise that many gamers will recognize. Gun Bros seemed to have it all: an addicting premise, no shortage of customization, and perhaps most importantly, controls that didn’t suck. I’ve played my fair share of Gun Bros, so when Glu announced that they would be releasing a similar title (only this time, with cars!) I couldn’t help but be curious.

Rev Up That Engine…

Indestructible isn’t a concept that feels particularly new: you have a heavily modified car with a number of weapon options, and your goal is to kill enemies before they kill you.

Oct

Desert Stormfront Review: A Good Start For Touch-Based Real Time Strategy

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Game Reviews, Games

I have a special place in my heart for real time strategy games. Some of my fondest memories are playing with my dad in our cobbled-together home LAN with games like Age of Empires and Red Alert. But until last week, the last time I had seen a quality mobile RTS was Warfare Incorporated back on my Palm Tungsten T3, almost a decade ago. But now there's a real alternative: Desert Stormfront, from Noble Master Games, is worth a look from any dedicated strategy fan. It emulates the look and feel of Command & Conquer (with a few important changes) but wraps it all up in what's probably the best touch interface for an RTS available at the moment.