20
Jun
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[Review] Naval Clash Blows The Original 'Battleship' Out Of The Water, Brings Smooth Multiplayer Gameplay to Android

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

 In my youth, one of the games I hated most was Battleship - it was simply too slow for my liking. Spending what seemed like ages trying to seek out hits in a sea of misses only served to bore me out of my mind.

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However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Naval Clash eliminated most of my hate towards the game. At its core, it's a rendition of Battleship that allows you to play against a CPU, friends over Bluetooth, or other players over Naval Battle's multiplayer service. Following the likes of Words With Friends, Naval Clash takes an old formula that "everyone" likes and makes it available on a mobile platform.

15
Jun
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[Review] Doodle God Lets You Flex Your Omnipotence, Could Probably Have Used More Time In The Garden

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: August 2nd, 2011

The Game

 When distilled down to its base values, Doodle God is a large logic puzzle based on matching. You're given four elements (earth, air, water, fire) at the start of the game and can combine them to make things. Combining fire and air gets you steam, fire with water alcohol (firewater, har har), and many others.

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From there, you can use the products of your matching to make other things, which is where the game gets most of its depth. There are over 200 different elements to find, and more being added all the time. This is the major selling point of the game, touting the ability to make fantastical creatures, like the front end of an airplane and the back end of a horse.

10
Jun
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[Review] Rebirth Brings A Basic But Faithful (And Free) Lumines Port To Android

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

Puzzle games are some of my favourite titles for the Android because of their tendency to play well in short bursts. Rebirth looks to take the gameplay behind Lumines and bring it over to the mobile market: the question is, will it do the original justice?

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The Concept

For those looking for a basic clone of Lumines (more on that later), you've come to the right spot. Rebirth is pretty much the game to a "T", and brings the block-stacking madness to the Android platform with good faith.

For those unfamiliar, Lumines was a puzzle game that was first developed for the Playstation Portable System.

06
Jun
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[Hands On] Happy Vikings Is A Mix Of Pleasant Puzzle Mechanics, But Does It Shine By Its Own Merits?

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

Sometimes, you have to go with what works. It's no secret that some mechanics are tried-and-true, and will allow you to please gamers while adding in your own twists. Sometimes, though, it's evident when a game borrows a bit too much and doesn't give enough back.

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Happy Vikings mixes gameplay from a number of different classic puzzle titles, including a lifting-and-matching mechanic from an NES game called Wario's Woods. Instead of just flipping tiles with a cursor, you actually have a sprite in the puzzle area which you can use to manipulate tiles. This is the titular "happy Viking." Our Viking (let's call him "Olaf") can lift and push treasure, booze, and food to form shapes beginning with three tiles.

02
Jun
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[Review] Nano Panda Shrinks Down the Science-Based Physics Fun

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

Let's say you've got a problem of a scientific nature: you've got a group of rogue atoms wreaking havoc in your petri dish, and you need to get rid of them. They've managed to convert certain structures into deadly traps, and are content to just hang around like a college grad who just won't move out. Who do you send in to fix this problem?

If you answered "Pandas", I'd like you to get your head checked. But first, check out this game.

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Nano Panda comes at us from developer Unit9 Apps, who've put together a fun little puzzling game that's managed to capture a certain...

30
May
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[Quick Look] Refraction Tests Your Brain With Over 120 Levels of Reflection Madness

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

I'm a big fan of puzzle games on my Android. They tend to work well in a touch-controlled medium because their concepts are usually simple enough to pick up and play. Refraction is no different, and challenges players with over 120 levels of color-matching, light-bending goodness that will have even the smartest of you scratching your head for awhile.

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Like every good puzzle game, Refraction starts out with a simple concept: use mirrors to guide beams of light to their corresponding beacons. It then adds another element in prisms, which allows for the splitting and combination of colors. Combining a yellow and red beam in a prism will produce orange, and running that beam back through a prism will break it back into its original components.

30
May
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[Review] Chalk Ball Uses Your Art Skills In A Classic Game Of Keep-Up

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

It's often the case that a game does not necessarily have to be complicated in order to achieve success, and this point is proven in Chalk Ball. The premise is simple: keep a bouncing ball aloft by drawing lines on a chalk board, all while earning points towards a high score. Drawing shapes depletes your chalk meter, which is required to be able to scribble further.

In order to replenish this meter (and your drawing abilities), you're required to hit white balls on the board which spawn at random. Hitting a ball with an already-full meter adds a white line along the bottom of the screen, giving you a free bounce if your efforts fail.

23
May
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[New In The Market] Robotek Brings Lasers, Explosions, and Risk-Based Mayhem To The Palm Of Your Hand

Posted by in Applications, Games, News

Just in case you thought today would be devoid of some kind of fun, developer Hexage decided to release its latest game, Robotek. You play as the last human holdout on a robot-conquered Earth, slowly working from one base to take liberate nodes, countries, continents, and eventually the planet back from your oppressors. Combat plays out in a strategic, turn-based style, but there's a bit of a twist to it.

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You fight your robot enemies by spinning a virtual slot machine from which you gain bonuses, drone units and special attacks based on the outcome. This mechanic adds a bit of unpredictability to the game while still allowing you to plan your next move: the first tumbler moves slow enough that you can choose where it lands, but the second and third are more of a crapshoot.

20
May
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Jenga Hits The Android Market, Real World Anxiety Included

Posted by in Games, News

Who doesn't love Jenga? I can't think of a single person that doesn't like to drive themselves totally insane with anticipation playing this awesome leaning-tower-of-blocks game. As of... well, now, you can get that same intense feeling on your Android device, as NaturalMotionGames has brought this family-friendly game to Android.

Probably among the most important features of the game is the realistic physics. If you're going to play, you want it to be physically correct, right? NaturalMotion put a lot of work into making sure that each block is accurately affected by removing surrounding blocks, so gameplay should feel just like the real deal.

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