08
Jun
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Fruit Ninja Free Gets Massive Update With Local Tablet Multiplayer, New Blades, New Backgrounds, And Yes, More Fruit

Posted by in Games, News

It's been quite a while since the Android version of HalfBrick's food murder simulator Fruit Ninja got a content update, but the dry spell ends today. The latest additions to the free app (and only the free app) include better support for Android tablets and a basket full of extra goodies. The most important bit is certainly the introduction of a local, single-device multiplayer mode, though you'll need a 7" or larger tablet to take advantage of it. Players slice fruit at the opposite ends of the screen to compete for a high score.

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Other new content includes eight more blades (including a calligraphy brush and rainbow sword) and seven new backgrounds.

27
Sep
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Jetpack Joyride Drops Amazon Appstore Exclusivity, Now Available For All In the Play Store

Posted by in Games, News

Back in August, Halfbrick Studios brought their hit iOS game Jetpack Joyride over to the Android side. The problem was, though, you could only get it from the Amazon Appstore. That's not the case any longer, as the game has finally abandoned its exclusive period in the Appstore and is now available in the Play Store.

For those who may not have seen our previous coverage of the app or read Jeremiah's review (spoiler: he loved it), a little insight may be in order. For starters, there are only three words you need to know: Machine gun jetpack. If that's not enough, then here are two more: robot dragons.

23
Aug
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[Game Review] Jetpack Joyride Is Everything A Mobile Game Should Be, Plus Robot Dragons

Posted by in Games, Reviews

The Rocketeer taught me three important lessons when I was a kid: Jennifer Connelly is smoking hot, Nazis are all evil, and the only thing cooler than a test pilot in pre-war Hollywood is a test pilot with a rocket pack stolen from Howard Hughes. Along those lines, Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride made quite a splash on iOS, and now it's available on Android as a free game supported by in-app purchases. For the moment it's available only on the Amazon Appstore, but Amazon will kindly give you a $1 credit to download the game. That alone should be enough to catch your attention, but there's a great game in there as well.

10
Jun
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Watch Where You Look! Senseye Shows Off Its Futuristic Eye Control System At Computex 2012

Posted by in Apps/Games, News

Over at Computex Taipei, the usual array of bizarre and/or nifty gadgets you'd expect at a technology trade show are out in numbers. Coming to the attention of The Verge's Sean Hollister was a demo by Scandinavian company Senseye, with its intriguing eye tracking-based control and navigation system. As you might expect, a camera simply follows the motion of your eyes and moves the cursor to their focal point. To the obvious amusement of Halfbrick Studios, the Senseye was demonstrated on a large screen playing Fruit Ninja.

The Senseye system added a new peril for the player as simply looking at the dangerous bombs masquerading as sliceable fruit resulted in them exploding, but this was alleviated using good ol' peripheral vision.

08
Jun
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[Review] Age Of Zombies Achieves Impossible: Comes With Virtual Joysticks That Don't Inspire Suicide

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Call me a stickler, but I think games should play well before looking pretty. I think they should be functional, polished and most of all, not frustrating. This seems to elude most developers who insist on using on-screen joysticks for their products, as more often than not they're a buggy, non-responsive mess.

From having poorly-defined boundaries to not reacting to multi-touch well, the system seems to be a bit flawed.

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However, Halfbrick studios (the developers of the wildly-successful Fruit Ninja) have finally managed to code some joysticks that work straight out of the box, no tweaking required. Their newest game, Age of Zombies, relies quite heavily on them, so I'm both glad and relieved that they've decided to make sure people can actually play their game before they've released it to the wild.

03
Jun
age of zombies

Halfbrick Studios' Age Of Zombies No Longer An Xperia PLAY Exclusive, Now Available For All Android 1.6+ Devices

Posted by in Games, News

Roughly two months ago, Halfbrick - the company behind the infuriatingly addictive Fruit Ninja - released its latest and seemingly greatest Android game: Age of Zombies. The otherwise praiseworthy game had one major flaw, however - it was only available for Sony Ericsson's Xperia PLAY, which at the time wasn't widely available. This resulted in understandable disappointment and displeasure in the Android gaming community - our own Artem Russakovskii used the weekly app roundup to publicly express his desire to play (no pun intended) the game.

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Today, however, the wait is over for non-PLAYers, as Halfbrick Studios just pushed an update to the game that makes it available to all multitouch-capable devices running Android 1.6 or above.

05
Mar
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The War Against Infringement On The Android Market Is Heating Up: Fruit Ninja Clones And More

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Development, Editorials, News

The Android market is filled with apps of questionable legality. But oftentimes, overpriced, branded theme and clock apps like those you'll find here are considered relatively harmless - who's stupid enough to buy them, anyway? Still, apps in this category are in clear violation of registered trademarks - and that doesn't sit well with their holders.

Google even has a page for developers and copyright holders to submit DMCA takedown requests for apps on the Market. Google's form guides you through what information is needed, and how to identify the apps in question - really, it makes the whole process quite simple.