Hey everyone, belated welcome to 2016. Been away awhile obviously, shiney objects and what not heh. Anywho, here's the games I picked up this week and a little description for each as to why.
Adventures of Mana
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adventures-of-mana/id1048629983?mt=8
13.99usd, 467mb download, gamecenter enabled, offline only.
. I remember, back in freshman highschool playing this game on my original gameboy. Staring at that green tinted screen with a light on overhead because back then the gameboy didnt have backlighting. I played this game for hours and hours, so many so that I more than once tanned my forehead from resting it on the light heheh. This is Final Fantasy Adventure modernized with graphics and controls, but near untouched anywhere else... and thats fantastic for me :) Think the original legend of zelda meets experience points, leveling up, more gear slots, full towns, its amazing and man... that soundtrack. Brought on sniffles first time I heard the opening theme last night :)
. Everyone should get this game.
Marvel Avengers Academy
https://itunes.apple.com/app/marvel-avengers-academy/id1061768547?mt=8
Free, 94mb download, gamecenter enabled, online only.
. Do you like simpsons bustin out? How about family guy quest for more stuff? Or that peanuts one that I don't recall the name of. If any of those strikes your fancy and/or your a fan of anything and everything marvel this just might excite you. Build the avengers academy one building at a time, recruit teenage versions of all the famous characters in marvel's stable (mostly just the movie related ones though). Fantastic cellshading graphics, animations are fun to watch, story/conversations are more often than not funny as heck.
. Your basically doing the tried and true method here for this genre. Give your characters tasks which take time. Collecting rewards from those tasks. Accomplishing goals, upgrading buildings, upgrading characters and so on and so on. I will point out though that this game while knee deep in the simpsons/familyguy/peanuts gameplay also implements features from games like future fight, galaxy of heroes and such for upgrading. Star quality on all characters, leveling them up, improving them, etc.
. Thumbs up here, your enjoyment will depend on whether you like this genre or hate it. Either way, its free and worth a peek :)
https://itunes.apple.com/app/all-is-lost/id1061999170?mt=8
Free, 117mb download, gamecenter enabled, optional online.
. I really like Forsaken Media, they have a knack for approaching game genres (or making their own) and balancing free and premium quite fairly. Heroes and Castles (and its awesome sequel), Bug Heroes (and its also awesome sequel), Puzzle to the Center of the Earth, they really don't have a bad title in their stable.
. This is there finger pressed on the endless runner genre. But so far it isnt endless. You are a emergency rescue service, stations fall out of orbit in space, their crews are in danger and its your job to get them out in one piece. What you do is play as each crew member and their rank denotes the challenge of their stage. It also denotes the amount of tries you get before they die. After you've played thru all your attempts for all crew (succeed or fail), the station falls out of orbit and you get a summary of your performance, unlockables if you qualify, promotion if you qualify and then your back to the main screen waiting momentarily for another station emergency notification.
. This game... has some seriously challenging controls for an endless runner. Left hand controls jump and slide. Right hand will be used to control things in your way in the game. You see as your character runs across stages you will see jump, roll and arrow keys. Arrow keys are swiped with right hand, doing so removes blocks, turns off fire, etc, etc. But it does so only momentarily so you need to time the swipes and whatnot or the obstacles will reset before you clear them. So... your encountering ever more challenging combinations of left and right hand movements and to be completely honest I'm having trouble keeping up with it. I'm old, my hand eye coordination isnt as sharp as I wish it was heh.
. That said, it is still a fun game for as far in to it as I can manage and I do thumbs up suggest it. Only iap is a add remover for .99cents and you can watch video adds if you want to get additional attempts at completing stages.
Greedy Cave
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-greedy-cave/id1028950091?mt=8
Free, 70mb download, gamecenter enabled, online optional.
. Confession : For as much as I spazzed and looked forward to Adventures of Mana, this is the game that I didn't put down for half the night last night at work.
. This game is a rogue-a-like. What that means is if / when you die, most of the stuff you've looted does not come with you back to town. What does come is experience points, level ups, gold, and any item in your inventory thats 'gold' quality. So the gameplay lays itself out as follows :
. Go in dungeon, go as far in to dungeon as you possibly can. Loot, level up, use enchanting tables to improve equipment, use shrines to turn non gold gear in to gold gear. Keep going further in to the dungeon. Either a, die and return to town or b, find a escape scroll and leave alive. In town upgrade your gear, buy new gear, combine gear, look at quest board, claim rewards for completing quests/achievements, stare at the town because its fantastic visually and you can see other random players characters (but not interact with them). After all this, when ready you go back in the dungeon, and hopefully go even further this time.
. There is story here told through journal pages you find as you play. The leveling system awards you a talent point each time you level that you spend as you wish on attack up, defense up, health, mana, you name it. Every so many talent point usage you fill a guage up enough to unlock two new skills but you can only have one so choose wisely.
. Visually this game reminds me of Don't Starve... improved.
. Three thumbs up here folks, I enjoyed every minute of it and even though I don't normally veer towards rogue-a-likes (mostly because i like keeping every damn thing i get my grubby hands on in my rpgs), this one does everything just right in such a way that I'm addicted :)
o7
