First attempt, accidentally closed the recorder mid recording session. Recorder then refused to relaunch, continually crashing. Had to reinstall from the cydia app store. Second attempt, half way through recording I noticed my headphones that I was talking in to were not plugged in to the ipad. Third attempt, Completed the entire video and during replay half way through the video audio cut out because the protective case on my ipad air nudged the mic plug out of the ipad just enough to kill recording.
Fourth attempt. I removed the ipad from the case entirely, got to the last game I was going to cover and then my cellphone sitting a foot from me started ringing, and my phone ringing is of the epic bomb alarm sound. I figured I have apple's video editing software on this ipad so I'd start a second video, finish the game review and splice both together. Problem is, when I went in to the recorder to save my first recording the recorder app crashed again, and rebooting the ipad made the app completely dissappear from my screen which means I'll need to reinstall it. Again.
Folks, this is what life is like when running jailbroken apps on a jailbroken device. There simply isn't the quality control present. I'm back to plan a. Enjoy the ps3 controller app on my jailbroken device until a proper sized controller arrives at which point I'll no doubt unjailbreak in a heartbeat.
Anyways. These are the games I downloaded last night:
Bloodstroke
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloodstroke/id638100057?mt=8
Universal, 2.99usd, 55mb download.
Very very cool top down hack'n'slash with great graphics. Your a body guard and your job is to protect your client. Your client happens to be a scientist wanted by damn well everyone in the country so each stage generally involves your client running from point a to point b with you heading off the flood of bad guys who want to kill him. Left bottom is your analog stick used for movement, bottom right is your ranged attack. You will automatically hit anyone in your melee range, using your ranged attack shoots the hostile closest to you. Above that button is your utility attack, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. All do aoe damage. Above that is a medical pack that heals the client. And above that you can drop in resupplies of the previous two at a cost of ingame currency.
Game play is straight forward, get him to his destination and get cash for doing so along with a 1/2/3 star rating system for how well you did. Cash is also earned via achievement screen, get money when you get achievements. Cash is spent on upgrading your weapons and the clients survivability. You do not earn any money for stages you have already completed. This near eliminates any replayability in my opinion and also means you can potentially walk yourself in to the iap screen wall if you poorly spend your cash. And lets talk about iap.
The iap in this is straight up currency packs which... I don't like at all. I just paid 3 bucks for this game and now thanks to no grinding of completed stages your trying to force me in to that iap tab? If you want me to spend cash post game purchase there are only two ways this will be accomplished. Permanent iap options, coin doublers, etc. Or keep adding content via patches. I tend to give a dollar or two for patches with content I like. Aside from that, nope.
Sound is great, asian feel, combat sounds great. Graphics, the art style is unique, almost like your running around on a oriental painting heh. Very cool. Controls work well.
In the end, I do recommend this game. Its fun and great for some casual mayhem. Avoid the iap screen though, we need to get a message to these developers as to what we will and will not accept from them.
Next game, a match three rpg.
Wizard Quest
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wizard-quest/id673017009?mt=8
Universal, .99usd, 44mb download.
This game is at its heart a match three battler. You will begin stages with your mage at the bottom of the screen and he will slowly walk towards the top. As the screen scrolls random objects appear and its your job to match 3 or 4 or 5 or so to clear them. Any objects that reach the bottom of the screen subtract from your wizards hit points. Straight forward. Now, at the end of each stage is a boss fight. When fighting the boss you'll be splitting your actions between matching items that harm/hinder the boss and matching items to heal the wizard. Successfully killing the boss ends the stage, rewards you with exp which in turn levels you up and unlocks many many things for purchase inbetween stages. The map inbetween stages is top down with icons representing where you can go. Each stage lets you know what rewards you can expect for completing, there's lots of facebook logos everywhere but so far no forced facebook activity aside from a quest rewarding you for logging in. There is a crafting system present which involves collecting things on your stages. You'll spot chests that are opened by matching any three of anything next to them.
Graphics are snes era. Nothing epic but really the game has a old school charm and probably runs on every damn device in the world.
There are standard iap currency packs and... unusually you actually have to level up to unlock certain iap purchasing options. Odd.
There's alot to this game, I'll be pestering one of my co-workers about it since he on the leaderboards is about 6 times further than me heh.
The next title, endless runner.
On the Line
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id795845788?mt=8
Universal, .99usd, 48mb download
On the Line is a very straight forward endless runner in which a white line appears and generates on the screen, its your job to stay in it and not touch the edges as the line goes in random directions and gets faster / more complex the longer you last. The goal is to score distance both for leaderboard fun and the fact that each run, the cm distance traveled is applied to something your building. Completing 100% of what your building gets you an achievement and moves on to a higher cm requiring next project. The further you get in to a project, the quicker the maze gets as you play.
Very simple, but oddly enjoyable to boot. Zero iap. Music is techno.
The last game today is a fruit ninja one off.
Draw Slasher
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/draw-slasher/id670757356?mt=8
Universal, 3.99usd 356mb download.
Ok, imagine fruit ninja. With zombies. You are a ninja, and zombie monkey something or anothers are attacking your home town. To fight them you simply draw across them. The way you draw determines your ninja's slash attack. Swipe, swipe, swipe. That easy. I like the graphics, simple and artful.
A bit of drama about this game however. Its the fourth or so remake of a very similar game on the app store made by the same developer. What he did was put three of these titles on the app store over the years, each time graphically improving and adding content. Then when the vita came out he made the fourth version of this game on the vita and its the best graphically and content wise. Now, he has ported the vita version back to its roots on the iOS. Why the drama? Well over time the community on forums like toucharcade have felt that the re-releases should of simply been patches on existing games instead of entirely new titles requiring new purchases and loss of progress. And for more drama? When the developer was called out on ta's forums last night about this being a re skin of all his previous games also on the app store, the developer promptly removed all the previous incarnations of this game from the store.
Drama.
Anyways, as I've never played this title on the vita or iOS, I find it enjoyable enough. Its relaxing and has a very very simple control scheme. The game does also have three modes of play. The first is story and it does just that, tells the story of your ninja. Challenges mode has various unique requirements to the game play, additional challenges unlock as you accomplish existing ones. Arcade mode is essentially endless mode.
Zero iap, no upgrading system. This is simply a decent arcade smasher.
There were two other games I originally downloaded but have since uninstalled. The first was the new dungeon keeper from electronic arts. This game is nothing more than a clash of clans clone using the art style and units of our beloved dungeon keeper 1 and 2 from the late 90's. Its a cash grab and has nothing to do with our beloved games of yonder years. Take that fact and then toss on that I couldn't even get it to run, well... game uninstalled. I do not recommend it. If your interested in your traditional dungeon keeper experience, both are available on gog.com and I also highly recommend you support the following title :
War of the Overworld
https://wftogame.com/
Its on steam early access for about 20 dollars, 35 dollars for collectors edition. The game is expected to have an official release first half of this year.
The other game was a endless runner marvel super heroes brawler. The reason its not listed? Fatal exception errors and crashes galore. Your luck may very if you grab it. I wish you well.
o/
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