April Release catch up!

Well ok I'm like 10 missions away from finishing GTA5's main story but I'm a bit burnt out so lets talk about something else. Well not something else, here's the games I picked up each week since my last post! Benefit to me missing almost two weeks? Several games I picked up I ended up deleting so this post will be the ones who are still around keeping me entertained.

Ys Chronicles 1
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id962713931?mt=8
Action RPG port from the pc / psp1 way back originally released in 2000. Heavy Japanese RPG here :)
4.99, gamecenter enabled, no internet connection required. No IAP.

Weekly Recommendations

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the ever rare ever elusive... Premium release week. All have premium price tags, two (devious and crawlers) have optional iap. None have a online requirement. All have game enter achievements. Enjoy :)

Sorry for the lack of updates last week, was in a rut of sorts. There were quality games released, I'll fit them in over the next few days. o7

Weekly Recommendations

Good game release list this week, two thumbs up!

Hell Gate
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hell-gate/id917957714?mt=8
Free, Universal, 124mb download, no Gamecenter.

Top down action rpg. Tap and hero runs in that direction, slashes everything in his path. Abilities to learn and level up, great to collect and combine, level ups to be had. Translated from Japanese so it's hit and miss, but I find such translations a,using to be honest heh. Free, iap options and a energy bar is present but the game seems quite friendly with giving you iap currency.

Tutorial annoyed me, couldn't by pass it and when the damn game asked me to rate it tapping no or yes conflicted with tutorial which would only let me tap my backpack that I couldn't tap because of the rate me button heh. Ahh well. Decent enough game so far, online required.

Stormblades
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stormblades/id961615948?mt=8
Free, Universal, 148mb download, no Gamecenter.

Infinity Blade genre with improved/simplified combat controls. Stage based, no downtime/exploration in between fights. Purchase/upgrade system present but you will only be working with your weapons.

Fantastic graphics and controls are very forgiving. I LOVE the way enemy armor chips away as you hit it making opponents more susceptible to your hits. Online optional, your trophy count counts towards a world wide ranking system if you do have Internet.

Stan Lee's Hero Command
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stan-lees-hero-command/id941294589?mt=8
Free, Universal, 249mb download, no Gamecenter.

Action adventure with upgrade system for powers and stats. Fight across stages with various goals, collect purple currency that is spent on stat improvement. Unlocking new powers appears to either come with time as you play or iap currency if your so inclined. Iap currency is awarded via achievements. Currently three heroes to choose from, one free your choice when you launch game for first time. Other two bought with iap currency. Iap currency is really well proportioned to be honest. Energy bar present as well as timers on stat improvements. Dual stick control system, no internet connection required.

Kingdom Tales 2 HD
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id960639511?mt=8
Free, iPad only, 358mb download, Gamecenter enabled.

Kingdom Tales 2
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id960636244?mt=8
Free, iPhone/iPod, 383mb download, Gamecenter enabled.

Plays almost exactly like jack of trades, another game from G5. Fixed maps, roads, clear debris build buildings, upgrade them, collect resources, reach quest goals for each stage, star ratings, etc. various difficulties.

Free to try, 5 bucks unlocks full game, no iap and it isn't universal. Also has difficulties, lowest difficulty removes the traditional stage timer that those jack of trades series had.

Goblin Quest: Escape!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id897517248
Free, Universal, 120mb download, no Gamecenter.

Action Adventure game. The boss of this dungeon has finished building it but wants it fool proof against heroes. You as a lowly goblin are tasked with running his dungeon so he can improve it. Analog controls with no combat what so ever. Full upgrade system for consumable potions and whatnot as well as equipment with permanent benefits. Only iap is the advertisement unlock at 1.99usd. Dual currency but secondary currency is awarded for completing stage goals, or purchasable with standard coin found in every dungeon. All dungeons completely farm able for standard coin.

Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id916585802?mt=8
4.99usd, Universal, 252mb download, Gamecenter enabled.

Single tower, tower defense. Seems entirely gesture based combat so far. Tap targets, finger swipes in simple designs based on spells you want to use. Earn coin from killing bad guys, spend coin on equipment and tower upgrades. Absolutely hilarious story and cut scenes. Not entirely sure I like the double dipping of IAP and premium pricing. Honestly I probably wouldn't have this one on my ipad if I had known how high the iap packages go. On itunes it only goes as high as .99cents. In game iap packs goes as high as 50 dollars.

That said the iap currency seems to be being awarded as stars are earned on stages and things have been unlocking for free periodically as I play. Who knows, could work, will follow up on this one if it doesn't end up deleted.

Weekly Recommendations

Afew charming games hit this week, I've already played enough of Tap Heroes that the link here is actually to the post I made a little bit earlier this evening. Will give a more detailed impression of the other two games after I've spent some more time with them.

Tap Heroes - Idle RPG Action
http://taeles.blogspot.com/2015/03/httpsitunes.html

Summary : Casual auto play rpg where your only required involvement is your eyes and occasionally spending your heroes hard earned cash on upgrades.

OverKill 3
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id874866593?mt=8

Summary : Free, one of the original shooters for our iOS playground. Traditionally this series was a first person view through the scope of your gun. Now its gone full 3d with hiding behind objects and whatnot. Shoot things, hide from things, spend cash on better stuff, do the first two even better with the new stuff.

Prison Life RPG
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id961339405?mt=8

Summary : Prison simulator, choose your short term sentence prisoner and try to survive. Choose gangs to join, where to eat, interact, pick fights, break out of prison. All round fun

Weekly Recommendations

Quite a bit of thinking involved in this weeks recommendations... and one game that's alot of part time fun.

Timelines: Assault On America
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id879593535?mt=8
Free (2.99usd in app purchase for full unlock / add removal), iPad Only, Gamecenter enabled, 562mb download.

Oh thank god! I thought this type of game was extinct on the app store. Everytime someone claims to be a rts these days its almost always some clash of clans iap riddled clone that makes me want to strangle someone. But, thank god. Here this one is. Why am I excited? This is a command & conquer style rts game. Place buildings, train troops, march across 12 stages, unlock multiple upgrades, upgrades carry over stages, visuals are sharp, controls nice. Every rts fan should have this in their library.

Evil Genius Online: The World Domination Simulation
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id814976567?mt=8
Free, universal, gamecenter enabled, 80mb download.

This one's getting some flak for being a 'dungeon keeper' clone which without a doubt hands down is the single worst game to ever grace the iOS app store but that judgement is a bit harsh in my opinion. Dungeon Keeper iOS was a clash of clans money grab by Electronic Arts, may they burn in hell for damaging so holy a franchise's good name. This game is a full on base builder simulator from Rebellion. Build your base, recruit minions, do quests, Honestly I see no similarities between this and dungeon keeper. The minion's running the job/production buildings reminds me of Rebellion's city builder Harmony Isle and a bit like Zynga's Farmville 2. In order to do jobs and harass the good guys you need items that are often produced passively or actively via various objects in your base, decorating out your base makes it safer. Not sure if there is a pvp mechanic yet, haven't gotten all the way in to the game.

I'm liking it, the iap is mostly avoidable.

World Zombination
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id680624697?mt=8
Free, universal, gamecenter enabled, 62mb download.

Play as zombies or as humans and fend the side off you didnt choose. Combat feels like a higher speed tower defense game. Upgrading system in place, lots of units to choose from. Idle income generators present. Online required.

AdVenture Capitalist!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id927006017?mt=8
Free, Universal, gamecenter enabled, 52mb download.

I... this game is amusing me and I'm not sure why... maybe its the improvement reward nature of this game. Dunno, but I do like it. The game starts out simple enough. Tap a lemon to sell it. And again, and again. Until you have afew bucks and you buy the upgrade for it that lets you sell more with each tap. This makes you earn more per tap. You keep at this till suddenly the managers button lights up. Oh whats this? Look it, a manager for each business, buying the manager automates the taping. Sweet, less tapping is always nice. So now your watching that little lemon sell over and over, your occasionally upgrading it when it hits upgrade 25 suddenly the speed of  selling doubles. Nice! Then the newspaper delivery business becomes affordable. Buy that. tap, tap, tap for afew and get its manager. Win! Two automated businesses! Hey upgrade button just lit up, oh sweet upgrades double permanently triple the profits of the business, nice!

Suddenly 40 minutes later I own all but one of the businesses, I have 6 billion in the bank, all but one owned business managered and upgraded, most businesses are level 100 or higher, green bars are flying everywhere, that cash balance is chinging along, I've watched a advertisement video that gave me a 4 hour double profits buff and now I'm looking at the investor mechanic curiously which apparently is a acquire / sacrifice / spend investor system of improvement.

I like this game :) You continue making profits whether game is running or not. I just unlocked the bank, at level 1 without upgrade purchase but with advertisement boost its putting out 2.149billion every 2 hours roughly.

Can't wait to ge the oil company...

Weekly Recommendations

Ahh god being sick sucks!

Daytona Rush
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id924428944?mt=8
Free, universal, gamecenter enabled.

Fun little freemium title. Drive your car till you break it or run out of fuel, then spend your earned cash on upgrades and whatnot. Controls are simple. Swipe left or right to change lanes. Fuel up when the left most red lane changes green. Don't stay long in the left most lane is red or your disqualified. Hit drunk drivers (they weave in their lane) for extra cash, your vehicle isn't damaged when hitting them. The further you make it the higher your cash multiplier, better vehicles also increase this.

Fun game. Started out totally free for first few days with no iap and no adds. Yesterday a update hit it, intro period over. Prices of cars and upgrades have increased somewhat across the board and you can now watch a video at the end of each race to double your earnings from that race. Some folks are whining over on toucharcade about this but from my perspective it feels like a very nice balance. Price increase with double profits? Win.

Tempo

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id696701152?mt=8
4.99usd, universal, gamecenter enabled.

Very high production value here. Top end graphics, smooth sound and gameplay. This is a... rhythm shooter? The whole game plays in bullet time when on missions, you will find yourself tapping circles at optimal points to score bonus points, or drawling lines and other mini games as your character runs across stages generally winning. All stages are timed. Your chosen agents ratings of strength, reflex and focus determine clock time, how much time actions take and how much time you get back for perfectly executing actions. The more time left on the clock, the better your score. The better your score, the better upgrades and agents and whatnot.

Very good game, I need more time with it to explore the improvement mechanics present.

Weekly Recommendations

I had my sights set on three games this week but the 'heist' one at the last minute went soft launch instead of world wide. Bummer.

Midnight Star
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id694850851
Free, Universal, 588mb download, gamecenter enabled.

Rail shooter with rpg elements. Very good graphics, controls are nice though the where you tap vs where the game shoots feels off to me. Good story, the game is tied in to Midnight Rise, a tell tale styled game near as I can tell also on the app store. Missions, tournaments, events, all award currency you spend on your ship, armor and weapons. Story starts out : Alien contact made, alien contact screwed up, sun exploded, earth's gone. You and three others plus your ship appear to be all that remains of humanity.

Their network appears to be down, I can't register or make use of any of the online features atm. Energy system is present as well as a speed up currency for upgrading things.

Clumsy Knight vs. Skeletons
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id958459966

Fun little auto adventure rpg. Your character runs across the stage, stops to smack everything he encounters. You can feed him potions with various benefits but aside from that you simply sit back and watch. Winning awards experience points, gear, potions and advancement to more difficult stages. Summary of story : Princess kidnapped, you rescue princess. All stages are repeatable. All gear can be combined with potions and whatnot to enhance usefulness of gear. Toss a fire orb on a sword, get a fire sword. Toss a ice orb on a shield, get an ice shield. Want to clear your sword's fire enchant? Toss a ice orb on your fire shield. All equipment can field two stats and those stats to have hard caps that you can combine/upgrade them to. The potions used for upgrading equipment also serve as actual potions that give you on the spot boosts mid combat or heal you and whatnot.

No iap, free, just a simple advertisement across the top center of the screen. On the iPad this advertisement is completely out of the way and harmless, a co-worker with a iphone5 reports its always in the way on his smaller screen. Developers say they are hard at work on additional content / sequels.

Weekly Recommendations

Hey everyone, new week, several new games added. Expensive week and none of these games are small in download size, consider yourself warned!

Exiles
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id927443601?mt=8
4.99usd, universal, no gamecenter, 436mb download.

Whats it about?
Futuristic action rpg from the makers of Ravensword 1 and 2! Game play itself reminds me of shadowgun with talent's to spend, experience, level ups, weapon upgrades, vehicles and a hell of alot of scenery to run around in. Shoot things, loot them, teleporters, quest lines, plenty to do. Early opinion on TA's forums suggests a very short main story and lacking amount of side things to do but these developers have an excellent track record of supporting games and adding on to them over time. Money well spent if you like futuristic shooters.

Playworld Superheroes
https://itunes.apple.com/app/playworld-superheroes/id880572811
3.99usd, universal, no gamecenter, 300mb download.

Whats it about?
Did you ever as a kid imagine yourself a super hero? Your backyard or nearby tree fort was your base of operations? Want to relive that? You are literally a kid with a really active imagination in this one. As a kid you explore your backyard and tree fort, finding pieces of stuff you use to make your super hero costume... which is made out of cardboard heh. You can color the cardboard how ever you like and amazingly when you go in to missions the color patterns translate on to the real suit. Oh and on that, when you do missions the kid goes from backyard cardboard to super mega city mega man inspired costume fighting sky scrapper sized monsters and whatnot.

Combat is a blend of infinity blade and epoch. Definitely get this one!

Radiation Island
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radiation-island/id923760656?mt=8
2.99usd, universal, gamecenter enabled, 746mb download.

Whats it about?
Survival exploration on a island, the intro is reAAAALLllyy interesting. Plays / feels like minecraft on visual steroids. Doesn't look like we'll be digging holes in the ground or building walls though. Very very nice game, I've already placed a campfire outside a house I've set up shop in. Boomerang for attacking unpleasant stuff. Following the quest tab in my journal building things. Everything seems to respawn so I'm living off pineapples off the beach heh.

Disney Infinity: Toybox 2.0
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id895324943?mt=8
Free, universal, no gamecenter, 3.8gig download!

Whats it about?
Action plat former in Disney world now with marvel characters. Uses those action figures you find in stores to unlock characters. Still grasping at this one to be honest, hoping it has controller support. Something of note, this game is the single largest pre install download in the history of the app store at a size of 3.8gigs! Which is also interesting because until this past Wednesday apple had a 2gig cap download. Imagine if this sticks permanently... yes!

And those are my new games, enjoy!

Weekly Recommendations

Two new games this week, and one that I prefer to only play on my iphone... rare indeed.

Dragon Quest V
 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id933113994
14.99usd, 179mb download, universal, no gamecenter.

Why I recommend it
I've been playing dragon quest games since 7th grade, my addiction to this franchise pre dates final fantasy even. I played 1 thru 4 back in my youth. I played 7 and most of 8 as an adult when they came out on the PlayStation. But I never ever got to play 5 and 6 because they never launched on a platform that I owned at the time of release, pretty sure neither originally came to the states for that matter. But here 5 is, woot!

Turn based old school rpg here folks, plenty of grinding to do and a really really long storyline. Lots of things we're used to now a days aren't present. No talent trees, no map, just a very important requirement to actually talk to everyone and a whole lot of putting 2 and 2 together throughout. Actually very rewarding as a result. Like 4, 5 is a direct port of the Nintendo DS release so its got '3d' graphics for better (worse in my opinion. give me 8's graphics or give me 3/2/1's please).

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dreeps: alarm playing game
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id953366068
2.99usd, 59mb download, universal, no gamecenter.

Why I recommend it
If you've ever played godville, you know fully well what to expect here. If you haven't... this is probably going to be the least interactive game you ever ever play. The main character of this game is a robot boy, blonde hair. What does he do? He goes out and explores. He kills any monsters he encounters, gains experience and levels up from this. He encounters npcs, talks to them for abit but you don't understand a word said. Its not your job to do so. Your only job is to put him to bed, wake him up and if you like occasionally tap on him for a quick heal when he's been kicked around.

Sound boring? For many it will be. But it is pretty nice knowing that if I wake him up and set him on his routine when I wake up each day, for my entire day he will probably be more productive at what he does than I am at what I do. I can check in on him from time to time. Listen to the games background music as I do other things. The visuals are charming and the interface... what there is of it works fine.

I'm level... -checks quickly- level 3, 50 exp from level 4.

Other releases, and there were plenty can be found over on toucharcade or on your appshopper app if you know where to look. o7

Weekly Recommendations

Picked up one new game this week. Note, there are lots of other games that do come out each week, I'm just a bit frugal of late and selective of my grabs. The toucharcade link on the right nicely highlights Wednesday night releases and its where I surf when making my selections for the most part. I also hit the apple app store Thursday afternoon, by then they have their game section updated with new spotlights, new releases and new updates.

Plancon: Space Conflict
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plancon-space-conflict/id680585948?mt=8
2.99usd, universal, 369mb download, gamecenter enabled.

Why I recommend it
This one's a top down point click... rpg... shooter... thingie. The story is straight forward, aliens arrived, kicked us around, we're scattered and every capable pilot is important to the cause of humanity, including you. After your training station is exploded by some passer by aliens (that you consequently explode in return) you head to Venus headquarters and the story goes from there. You'll be hauling things, killing things, hiring crew, buying new ships, buying/equipping equipment, upgrading everything, there really is always something to do here. Controls are actually nice. Its top down for starters and while yes you can use an analog stick to pilot I actually enjoy the double tap system. Game pauses at start of combat, you assign weapons to targets, double tap to begin. your ship and theirs do a space dance around each other while shooting up a storm till either you or they bite the dust.

There is challenge to this one too. After completing the tutorial I set course from earth to Venus. Half way through warp I was dropped out in to a random encounter that very quickly made space debris of me. Note, save often.

Voice work is largely non present, music is decent. Plenty of text conversation in the game to read, most of it is decently translated though I do get a chuckle out of some mistranslations here and there.

IAP, everything in the market has a in game and out of game currency option except stations which are strictly purchased with real money. Accomplishing achievements earns real money currency as reward. Since all equipment in the game is in game purchase friendly, this iap system so far doesn't offend.


Feels like a bit of space miner, some free lancer tossed in. I'm enjoying it so far.

Weekly Recommendations

Going to try a different spin on what I did last year. Instead of listing every single game even remotely interesting each week, I'm going to select my games, play them and if I like them then I'll post them. Save afew steps, just means you all won't hear from me on the Wednesday releases till Friday or Saturday at the latest. Let me know if you'd like it back the other way.

I grabbed afew games this week, here are the two I am enjoying at the moment.

Hero Emblems
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hero-emblems/id645797558
2.99usd, universal, no gamecenter, 97mb download, no IAP.

Why I recommend it
Well for starters its match 3 and that's the life blood of my co-worker who will snap if I don't. heheh. But that aside, its a really really well done match 3 title with lots of rpg and lots of story to it. You have four heroes, each has a specific skill set and a corresponding emblem on the match board. Need some healing? match up healer emblems. Your armor a bit low? Match its emblem. I really like chaining 4 and 5 and more groups because your heroes just go crazy up there wailing as their symbols match up, its a very very rewarding experience anyone who likes match 3 games will be familiar with and this game rewards with explosions and sword swishing and enemy dieing. Traveling on the map reminds me of old board games where you move along lines to check points where events can and usually do occur. Towns sell equipment and emblems, experience points grant level ups, the only slight seen on this game so far for me is the poor translation but for some reason I'm even enjoying that :)

Great graphics, controls spot on, good sound, highly recommend. This one even took game of the week over at toucharcade.  I'll probably end up blogging on this one again as I progress further.

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Space Marshals
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id834315918?mt=8
4.99usd, universal, gamecenter enabled, 187mb download, no IAP.

Why I recommend it
Top down dual stick tactical shooter rpg-lite. Really, that's why heh. Its my type of game. Its a dual stick shooter but not your simple bland spam bullets across the stage type. You can aim, hide, stealth around, set traps, etc. Good story and narrative, controls are great too. Walk up to a loot able crate and your movement icon changes accordingly. Interface is very easy to work with, nice toss lines appear when playing with grenades and whatnot. Lots of voice over to enjoy in this one and the characters are all full of personality. From what I gather the space marshal (you) got put in prison for... I'm guessing over aggressiveness in the line of duty because when the prisoners take over the ship and escape to a planet leaving the ship derelict, the ships AI awakens you and several other folk reinstating their ranks and assigning them roles. As marshal, your primary job is to shoot and kill things. You have a navigator and a pilot I've seen so far. Once on the planet the AI coordinates everyone in to a base setup and it looks like I'll be stage based romphing around the planet dealing with prisoners who aren't likely to come along willingly.

Very western vibe here.

So, great controls, good graphics, great sound, no iap, definitely recommend this one.

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Those are the two I suggest you invest time / wallet in to. I'm pretty sure you'll find both money well spent.

o7