On Tap

Beat Sneak Bandit

nmartens — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:30:06 -0500

Simogo follows up Bumpy Road, our favorite game of 2011, with this delightful, vibrant, inventive rhythm-stealth-puzzler. I’ve only put in about an hour so far, but, uh, yeah, you should get it. Like, now. I’ll meet you back here next week and we can talk about it some more.

—Nick

English Country Tune

nmartens — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:32:06 -0500

There’s a certain masochism involved in being a serious gamer, right? I mean, we want fun games, but we also want challenging games, and every challenging game will occasionally make you mad as hell. I probably screamed “fuck!” ten times an hour while playing Super Crate Box, and I adore that game. I suppose it’s an odd way to spend one’s leisure time, but I wouldn’t trade it.

If that makes no sense to you, and in fact sounds like a form of minor lunacy, you probably shouldn’t play English Coutnry Tune (Universal). But if you know what I’m talking about, then you’ll probably want this 3D puzzle game, from the prolific mastermind Increpare, on your iWhatever. ECT cultivates challenge as if it were a vintage of fine wine; you will sense notes of bafflement, incredulity, loss of self worth, nutmeg, and despair when you play, culminating, always, with a crisp finish of satisfaction.

What I’m saying is, ECT’s puzzles are tough but fair. Its premise is utilitarian—you are a tile, and you navigate a series of three-dimensional, grid-based levels solving puzzles. Mostly, you push things; you push balls into goals and push blocks off ledges. It’s hard to pin down what makes it better than other games that do those things, but basically, the puzzles in English Country Tune are just really, really good. After a couple brief tutorial levels, you won’t find a single puzzle you can solve by just pushing stuff around mindlessly, which means you actually have to think about every stage.

The reason ECT is so mentally engaging, I suspect, is that the rules governing how objects behave are both unusual and rigorous. The most striking example of this is how the spheres (which the game calls “larvae”) interact with gravity. In-game text says, “The larvae are weightless. They simulate gravity as a camouflage technique. They will fall relative to how they were pushed.” So, you determine how gravity affects the spheres based on the direction you push them from. They will fall in opposite directions if you push them from the top versus the bottom.

Understanding this concept is hard (and so is explaining it), but incorporating it into your brain to the point where you can actually predict how spheres will fall requires a dizzying knot of mental contortion. But when you get it, a transformation takes place, not on screen but in your mind, and the game becomes maleable. This happens over and over again in English Country Tune, when you learn a new mechanic or discover an evasive solution, and it makes every last bitter drop of challenge worthwhile. You will stare at the game for entire minutes, straining to see something you are incapable of seeing. Then a switch flips, and wouldn’t you know, it was right there the whole time.

—Nick

Good New Games: Salvidor Dali Edition

nmartens — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:03:00 -0500

Okay, only one of these games has anything remotely in common with Dali. Can you spot it?!!

Hero Academy (iPhone)

What it is: What we’ve all been waiting for — an asynchronous multiplayer turn-based tactics game where you draw units and items like cards, with random online game matching. (I’m “Jammy” on there if you’d like to play.)

Why it’s interesting: If you can find one thing in the description above that’s not interesting, I will give you $100.

Windosill (iPad)

What it is: A seamless iPad port of Vectorpark’s surrealist Flash masterpiece. Strong contendor for most beautiful app on iOS.

Why it’s interesting: You can enable “see-thru” mode to check out how all the little pieces fit together, which somehow makes the game’s simple geometry even more stunning.

War of the Roses (Universal)

What it is: Basically, a super simplified take on Go. You and an opponent place stones, and you get exponentially more points as your contiguous groups grow. Placement is based on cards, which limits the paralysis of choice and keeps the game moving.

Why it’s interesting: Four times a game, if you have the right card, you can swap out an opponent’s stone and put yours in its place. This can drastically swing the score, so matches never feel completely hopeless.

—Nick

I just got an iPad, so I'd love to see what you guys consider the "essential" games to have installed. Other app recs would be welcome, but since you focus on games I'd be happy with just that :)

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:08:57 -0500

Well, three of the “essential” games on our list are universal apps — Edge Extended, Bumpy Road, and Bit Pilot — and they all play great on the iPad. I would hasten to add World of Goo, Forget-Me-Not, Fractal, and SpellTower to that list.

In terms of general apps, I’m no expert, but I couldn’t do without Reeder and Instapaper.

—Nick

Older Games That Still Pretty Much Rule

nmartens — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:04:05 -0500

I haven’t found enough good new games recently to do a quick-hit style list, so I figured I’d highlight some old favorites that I might not get a chance to mention otherwise.

Dungeon Raid (iPhone)

Does everyone realize that this game should be, like, way up there with Drop7 and Canabalt and whatever else is in the iPhone game “canon”? I mean, it’s basically double heroin, in app form. You’ve got gem-matching like Bejeweled—except better because you can trace crazy huge lines all across the screen—plus dungeon crawling RPG elements like Puzzle Quest—except better because it uses a roguelike structure where you maximize your character for a single run—and the result is devastatingly, apocalyptically addictive. And you can play it with one hand! Really, I’m not sure any game is more perfectly suited to the iPhone.

(Alright, I know it’s not that old, but it was technically disqualified from my 2011 list, which made me sad.)

Boost 2 (Universal)

Man, I was into this shit when it was still Boost One (#worsthipsterever). Back then, I loved it for its ultra-clean modernist style, for how fluid the tilt controls felt, and for how the entire world unfolded and inverted half-way through your run. Then it got one of the best updates I’ve seen for any game—it sharpened up the graphics, tweaked the interface, and introduced the now-definitive time trial mode, along with a bunch of other goodies. I’ve been playing this one for a while and don’t plan on stopping any time soon.

Vector Ball (iPhone/iPad)

Okay, so this is just a clone of the old Flash game Curveball. But Curveball is probably my favorite flash game ever (I wish I knew who developed it. Anyone?), and Vector Ball has its own style, retina graphics, solid physics, and good touch and tilt controls. (I actually prefer tilt; touch is too easy.) So yeah, not the world’s most impressive feat of design, but I’m happy to have it in my pocket.

—Nick

It probably goes without saying that you guys have a hell of a lot of iPhone apps. How do you keep it all organized? Folders? Deleting stuff? Help!

nmartens — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:39:00 -0500

Here’s a screenshot of my games page. So yeah, it’s basically just folders. The folder numbers do actually correspond to rank, so Games 1 holds my favorites, etc. New Games is for stuff I like and want to write about/rank. The games just hanging out on the screen are brand new. David uses a similar system, but he has categories for Unplayed, Favorites, and Local Multiplayer, and doesn’t do my obsessive ranking thing.

He also says, “I’m considering starting a folder for games I can play with one hand and a baby in my arms.”

I delete tons of stuff because I download games constantly and I only keep ones I like on my devices. Thanks to the new “Purchased” feature in the App Store, I don’t really have to worry about losing track of what I’ve bought in case I ever want to go back.

I don’t use iTunes for any of this because I fucking hate iTunes.

—Nick

Super Crate Box (Universal), the scintillating arcade-style action platformer from indie superheroes...

nmartens — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:31:05 -0500

Super Crate Box (Universal), the scintillating arcade-style action platformer from indie superheroes Vlambeer, hit the App Store last night, and with it the tradition of great videogame boxes continues.

If you read this blog, I assume you recognize the top four boxes in that picture up there. And I’ll bet they’re all tied to emotional memories, too — a little jolt that runs up your spine when you see each of them. Something like despair, amusement, affection, and excitement, respectively.

SCB’s eponymous box adds a new feeling to that list: suspense.

In SCB, the all-important box does two things. First, it gives you a new weapon. No surprise there. Second, it gives you one point. That’s the revolution. In Super Crate Box, the only way you can score points, the entire purpose of the game, is to grab a box. That means you get zilch for killing enemies. That means you have to switch weapons constantly, even when you got your favorite two seconds ago. That means you can never get comfortable. That means every time you approach a box, you know the entire game is about to flip on its head, for better or worse, so you have to be prepared for anything. The tension is beautiful.

That’s the singular flash of inspiration in the concept behind SCB’s box, but what’s inside the box shows a meticulous attention to detail. The weapons in the game are all familiar—mini guns, revolvers, laser rifles, grenade launchers—but they are executed with balance, precision, and variety. Each forces you to play in a different way: land mines are powerful but require time and space to operate, while the disc gun instantly cuts through swaths of monsters if you can dodge its rebound. You’ll praise the lord when you get a rocket launcher with a big red baddie in your face, and curse the developer as you pull dual pistols with enemies swarming. And because you never know what’s next, at some point you will have to rely on each and every weapon to get you out of a jam, even the one you hate the most (I’m looking at you, flamethrower).

The chaos created by running all over and adapting to random weapons gives SCB a depth of strategy that’s rare in fast-paced, action heavy games. You must constantly balance your desire to run after boxes to score points with your need to clear out monsters so you don’t die. As you unlock more advanced arenas and more frantic game modes, you have to develop an intimate feel for each weapon and a balletic touch with your character’s movement to survive more than a few seconds. And since SCB’s physics and mechanics are wound as tight as the most relentlessly hardcore bastard of a retro game, this learning curve is nothing but a joy to climb. Well, besides the time you spend cursing.

And now we come to the elephant in the room. Super Crate Box was originally a PC game, and as you know, PC games are often controlled with the keyboard. You may also notice that neither the iPhone nor iPad can use a keyboard to control games. What a conundrum!

Look, I know this is supposed to be a big deal. And I promise, few despise virtual controllers on iOS games more than me. I couldn’t bring myself to put the super awesome platformer Pix’n Love Rush on our list because I never felt I could rely on its controls in tight situations. But just a few hours before I wrote this up, I posted a 102 in SCB on my iPad. Granted, it was on the easiest mode and level, but that’s like 70 higher than I ever managed on the PC. Vlambeer got help on this port from seasoned App Store developer Halfbot, and it shows. You might need a few rounds to get comfortable with the virtual buttons, but honestly, after playing the game heavily for a week, I don’t even think about the controls anymore. They just work.

On the PC, Super Crate Box was a pure, perfect gem of a game. It lost nothing in its translation to iOS. And it gave us our latest great videogame box, a modest little brown crate, filled with suspense and thrills.

—Nick

The List: January Update

nmartens — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:05 -0500

We’re trying to make these updates to The List a monthly thing. Here’s what’s new for January:

English Country Tune: A puzzle game that explores the concept of pushing things around to an obsessive extreme, with fluid controls and a no-nonsense presentation. If you like: Marble Madness

SpellTower: Combines Boggle’s word finding with a classic rising-blocks puzzler; the best word game on iOS to date. If you like: Crossword puzzles

Moxie 2: A classic word game streamlined by smart design that feels old-fashioned in all the right ways. If you like: The Jumble

Realistic Summer Sports Simulator: A witty, charming, polished, and totally hilarious retro sports game with a ridiculously fun core mechanic. If you like: NES Track & Field

Tetris: Despite EA’s bullshit, its one-touch mode makes using the touchscreen feel natural and uncompromised. If you like: Tetris

Is it possible to call a game a crazy piece of shit and have it...

irondavy — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:33:00 -0500

Is it possible to call a game a crazy piece of shit and have it come off as a compliment? I hope so, because I am here to tell you that I adore Justin Smith’s new title, Realistic Summer Sports Simulator (Universal), for being a crazy piece of shit.

When video games get labeled as “funny” it’s typically because of the dialogue, or the characters. Rare is the video game that’s funny for its actual mechanics. Katamari Damacy and Wario Ware come to mind, and I would say RSSS is a cousin, or baby nephew, of those games.

As the title clues, it’s a bit like that Nintendo game, World Class Track Meet. You know, the one where you stomped on that clunky Power Pad peripheral to perform long jumps and the like. With Track Meet, the gap between running in place in your socks and performing real track events comes off as inept and embarrassing. RSSS takes that gap and amps up the absurdity, making it the centerpiece of the game.

In this way, it’s a lot like his previous title, Enviro-Bear, or the venerable QWOP, which delight in making a simple task immensely difficult. It’s the flip opposite of many games, which put the player in the position of someone with far more ability.

You’re given one mechanism, a bouncy fling maneuver, to execute all fourteen available sports. There’s no instructions, but the games are just close enough to their real counterparts to give you a sense of direction. Puzzling out how to play the games is at least half the fun.

I don’t mean to characterize this game as a so-bad-it’s-good sort of thing. It’s quite the opposite: it’s witty, charming, and extremely polished. The art is perfect, and packed with great details throughout. It also has a local multiplayer option so you and your friends can goof your way through a competition, including a hilarious torch ceremony. Really, Realistic Summer Sports Simulator gets everything right. Where Enviro-Bear could be aggressively off-putting in its absurdity, I get the sense that RSSS will be perfect for groups of friends, and young kids, and me, by myself, late at night.

— David

On Tap's Best iOS Games of 2011

nmartens — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:30:06 -0500

On Tap's Best iOS Games of 2011:

Oh hey, we wrote up a list of our favorite iPhone and iPad games of the year for The Bygone Bureau. Go check it out, if you’re into that sort of thing.

(Psssst… not to spoil anything, but you might notice a small change at the top of The List.)

Good New Games

nmartens — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:46:43 -0500

Sin or Win (iPad)

What it is: A frantic game about juggling cavemen that will test the limits of your touchscreen.

Why it’s interesting: During the natural flow of the game, you have to choose between two scoring systems that work against each other, giving its single mode unusual variety.

Ice Rage (Universal)

What it is: A polished, fast-paced, arcade style hockey game where you can play as a bear and slash the hell out of your opponent without penalty.

Why it’s interesting: On hard mode, you control both your skater and your goalie with the same input, which somehow works.

Pirouette (iPad)

What it is: A fascinating linear game with beautiful pixel art that tells the story of a woman (I think?) who either has several dying wives or is crazy.

Why it’s interesting: The game got rejected from the App Store with a request to reclassify it as a book, which raises all sorts of super deep philosophical questions about the nature of games. Also, the writing is fantastic.

—Nick

You should mention that Edge is free today!

nmartens — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:42:00 -0500

Yes! Everyone go get Edge if you haven’t already. Edge Extended is discounted too, and it’s a really awesome update to the original.

As an editorial note, you probably shouldn’t rely on this blog to tell you about deals and the like. Touch Arcade does a good job of that already, and we’re going for something a little different here.

However, if Touch Arcade posts a bit too much for your liking, we’re using Twitter as kind of a low-volume feed of interesting new releases and deals, so you can check us out there.

Get These Games

nmartens — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:00:06 -0500

It’s basically impossible to keep up with every notable iOS game, so from time to time I go back through some sources to see if I missed anything good. Turns out I totally, totally did.

Corpse Craft (iPad)

Ever since Puzzle Quest came out a few years ago, I’ve been delighted by the trend of puzzle/RPG hybrids. But after playing Corpse Craft, I can’t believe I haven’t seen more combinations of puzzle and strategy. Corpse Craft’s core mechanic is beautifully simple; you play a SameGame-style block breaker in the center of the screen to collect resourses, then use those resources to build creatures to attack your enemy. The game includes tons of other compelling features, from the Edward Gorey inspired art to the day/night cycle of battles, but really the basic idea is so good that I would play it without any of that. So when you add in all the attention to detail, you end up with something pretty special.

Paul & Percy (iPad)

Sometimes it just feels good to push boxes around. For the lifelong gamer, it scratches a primal itch. Paul & Percy—a smart, simple, and pure puzzle platformer—scratches it but good. You play as the two titular characters, one on each side of a split screen, and you control one at a time to help both reach an end goal. The touch controls are perfect, the game looks great, it has a cheeky sense of humor, but above all else, the puzzles are just really well designed. The early stages aren’t too easy, the game introduces interesting new mechanics at a regular pace, and the harder levles never feel unfair. Very impressive.

Moxie 2 (iPhone or iPad)

From its intro video to its wooden textures to its utilitarian interface to its folksy slogan, everything about Moxie 2 feels old-fashioned in the best way. Building on a classic word game convention, your goal is to swap new letters into an existing word to make new words. Rounds are fast-paced—you only get 64 characters to make a high score—and the game gives you the freedom to play however you want. Moxie quickly becomes an intense balance of risk vs. reward—do you want to play low scoring common words that can accept most letters, or higher scoring complex words that will force you to skip valuable characters? I’ve played a lot of this game, and I feel like I’ve barely tested the surface of the strategy it offers. I can’t wait to see how deep it goes.

—Nick

Thank You Mr. Miyamoto

nmartens — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:31:06 -0500

Twenty five years later, we’re still thinking up new ways to jump. But I doubt we’ll ever find a better one.

(Via.)

Tetris

nmartens — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:13:04 -0500

Can you change the way you think about a game you’ve been playing for decades?

When you try the new version of Tetris, released to the App Store last week, you’ll need to answer that question. The developer wants you to cede control over the game’s iconic falling blocks in favor of their new one-touch scheme, and making this request even more troublesome, that developer is Electronic Arts. Oy.

Let’s get a few things out of the way: the best version of Tetris is Tetris DS, this new version, hereafter called Tetris for iOS, isn’t in that discussion; its “Galaxy” mode is kinda cool and kinda infuriating; EA’s Origin should be avoided at all cost, even though you can’t play multiplayer without it, which sucks; their “T-Coin” and “T-Club” systems for unlocking new content are similarly shitty; you can play the game the traditional way, but the swipe-based controls will let you down; and just so this doesn’t seem like a litany of complaints, the game is real pretty and makes nice use of Futura Bold. But none of that is important.

Here’s what matters:

Notice that one on the left, “One-Touch”? Tap that, select a difficulty, and this is what you’ll see:

I think you get where this is going. Tap one of the numbered shadows and the block falls into place—no rotating, no dropping, no nothing. One-touch Tetris.

EA has desecrated a masterpiece by dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator. Right? If you’re like me, it’s hard to resist that reaction. I mean, I’ve been rotating and dropping blocks for as long as I can remember, and no soulless conglomerate is going to take that from me. But before we get too carried away, take a second to back out to the home screen, fire up “Marathon” mode instead—which features traditional Tetris controls implemented via swipes—and crank it up to level 10.

It doesn’t take long for my screen to fill with accidental gaps. For high level play, I find the swipe controls completely unusable. Further, I can’t see any way to make them better while still giving the player full control over the blocks. I mean, what other option is there? Tilt controls? Not precise. Virtual D-pad? Please.

So, if we want Tetris on our iPhones (and I sure as hell do) then we need a new control scheme. Is EA’s “One-touch” mode the answer?

When I play Tetris, I only want to get four-line clears (aka “Tetrises”). I’m not trying to brag (because that would be an absurdly lame brag), but rather establish that I’ve played enough Tetris to have a specific style of play. And after a week of Tetris for iOS, playing One-touch mode feels completely natural.

Unsurprisingly, the game isn’t any harder with One-touch. Even when I want to do something unusual—like create a long gap for a straight piece—if the option isn’t presented at first, it will be after I tap “cycle” to display more options. (Pro-tip: you can also just tap anywhere on the field besides the shadow blocks to cycle options.) Cycling seems like a pain at first, and it does break some of the mode’s blissful simplicity, but without it the mode would in fact be dumbed-down. It quickly became second nature for me.

But I also don’t feel that One-touch mode strips Tetris of its challenge, or at least any of the challenge that I value. When playing with a control pad or keyboard, it doesn’t take long to for the basic manipulation of blocks to burn itself into muscle memory. Once that happens, Tetris becomes entirely a game of strategy and reflex, forcing you to rapidly place blocks in good places.

One-touch mode retains that element. The game doesn’t make good choices for you, and that frantic, panicky feeling still kicks in when the timer bar plummets through the shadow blocks. Okay, so you lose the struggle of having to squeeze blocks in unlikely places when your tower grows too high, and super-twitchy manual dexterity is no longer required to play at the highest speeds. Those things never mattered to me, but if those are core elements of your Tetris experience, then One-touch isn’t for you.

A week ago, I would have told you it was impossible to make a great Tetris for touchscreen. Now, when I pull out my iPhone, tap that horrible EA-ified icon, and load up One-touch mode, I feel like I’m playing an honest, real, uncompromised game of of Tetris. And that’s awesome.

—Nick

Update Complete

nmartens — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:23:00 -0500

New games on the list! We’ve added a couple to the “exceptional” category, a bunch under “enjoyable,” and links for everything. Here’s what’s new:

Fractal: A beautifully made tile-based puzzle game, with a complex core mechanic that takes patience to master and will have you seeing hexagons when you close your eyes. If you like: Go
Halcyon: A mutli-touch take on color matching that feels more like playing a virtual guitar than a videogame. The later stages will test your limits. If you like: Minority Report
World of Goo: What needs to be said? One of the best physics puzzlers of all time, perfectly suited to touch. If you like: Lego

Bloktonic: A well made matching puzzler where gems fall from four sides of the screen and stack up in the middle. If you like: Sega Swirl
Current: Like Bust-a-Move, with a cyber style twist, and objects that reproduce in unusual patterns. If you like: Marbles
Groove Coaster: The best pure music game to date on iOS, with great Japanese music, beat-based gameplay that goes beyond tapping, and, since it’s from the developer of Infinity Gene, an awesome art style. If you like: Gitaroo Man? No? Fine, Rock Band.
Kosmo Spin: A simple, adorable game where you run around a tiny world, grab turnips, and fight an alien, from the makers of Bumpy Road. If you like: Super Mario Bros. 2
LandFormer: Raise and lower the landscape to match elevations in this charming terrain puzzler. If you like: Sim City
Minim: A cool looking and surprisingly accessible math-based puzzler that plays a bit like an exploded Drop 7. If you like: The Count from Sesame Street
Monospace: A slick, perspective-shifting, cube-sliding puzzler, with a clean modernist look. If you like: Portal.
Newtonica: An odd-looking game that turns out to be quite simple: rotate a sphere so that falling stars land on like-colored quadrants. If you like: Trackball games
Steam Birds: Survival: A top-down, turn-based, WWII-era dog fighter that throws your tiny squadron against increasingly impossible odds. If you like: Baldur’s Gate
Ticket to Ride: The classic train-based board game gets a solid iOS rendition. If you like: Settlers of Catan
Tumble Drop: A cheerful, hilariously animated entry in the remove-blocks-so-an-object-falls-safely-to-the-ground genre. If you like: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge
Vectorball: The classic Pong-in-3D flash game Curveball gets a Tron-styled iOS version. If you like: Ping Pong

Classic Block Breakers, with a Twist

nmartens — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:17:24 -0500

If Tetris taught us anything, it’s that blocks are bad news. Blocks are a leading cause of cluttered screen syndrome, acute frustration, and in severe cases, death. Thankfully, makers of puzzle games been giving us new and interesting ways to make blocks disappear for nearly 30 years. And just when you thought the genre was all but tapped out, along came the iPhone.

Async Corp.

My favorite iOS games are those that would be clumsy if not impossible with traditional inputs, but feel effortless and obvious on a touch screen. Async Corp. demonstrates this perfectly: tap a block on one side of the screen, then one on the other side, and they swap places if a larger matching block results. It feels like a mechanic as old as Breakout, but it never would have been natural on another platform. On top of that, the little sneezing blocks are so cute you feel bad about killing them, and the game’s faux-corporate conceit is inexplicable to the point that it somehow makes sense. A keeper. (iPhone)

Blowup!!

It’s a rare game that can earn two exclamation points, but Blowup!! lives up to its bravado. It starts with what may be the most common formula in all of “casual” games: the screen is filled with colored blocks, you tap a contiguous blob of same-colored blocks to make them disappear, and the rest fall into the void. (Fun fact: this mechanic was pioneered in 1985 by SameGame.) Blowup!! stands out from the legions of lazy clones by focusing on a single aspect of the formula: creating the biggest single color blob possible. But what really makes the game special is how it creates that focus. As your blob gets bigger, the individual blocks transform into cooler and cooler robots. I know, right? Blowup!! uses a ton of other clever tweaks to breathe life into a tired formula, but really, you should just play it and see for yourself. (iPhone)

Unify

If it’s not clear already, here at On Tap, we ♥ Zach Gage. The dude just has a knack for making interesting, unique, and super pretty games. His titles Bit Pilot, Halcyon, and Spelltower are all instant iOS classics, but his first effort for iPhone, Unify, shouldn’t be forgotten. It uses the classic match-four-falling-blocks-to-clear-them mechanic, but in Unify, the blocks fall from both sides of the screen, landing on a central line. All sorts of unexpected gameplay scenarios arise from this one simple twist, but my favorite is how it affects combos. I’ve never really been able to “see” combos in puzzle games; they mostly happen as a result of chance rather than any deliberate planning on my part. But for whatever reason, Unify reverses this phenomenon. I almost never get combos on accident, and I find it unprecedentedly easy to design them. So rather than just feeling lucky when blocks start exploding all over the place, I actually get a sense of accomplishment. And isn’t that why we play puzzle games anyway? (iPhone)

You should download SpellTower

irondavy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:52:00 -0500

Last night, SpellTower (iPad) hit the App Store. It’s a new word puzzle game by Zach Gage, creator of Halcyon and Bit Pilot, so it was the easiest download in a while. It’s also one of the easiest recommendations in a while. If you’re looking for a new word game, you should feel good about skipping this post and just downloading it.

If you’ve played PopCap’s Bookworm then SpellTower will feel familiar. It’s largely the same interaction: you’re presented with a big board of letter tiles, and you drag from letter to letter to form words. I’ve spent a lot of time with Bookworm, and I was worried that SpellTower would feel too similar. In my brief time with it, I’m already convinced Spell Tower is a significantly better game.

The critical difference is that you have a few methods for clearing tiles without actually using them in a word. Some tiles cause a whole row to clear, and lengthy words knock out all adjacent tiles. These effects give you a small but robust set of strategies for tackling the challenges the game throws at you. The game modes are also nicely varied, each making you think about the game and your approach in a different way. I find that I enjoy spending time in each.

If you like word games, then this is a must-buy. It looks great to boot. Grab it here.

— David

Pinball Games for iPad and iPhone

irondavy — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:00:00 -0400

It tends to be the case that pre-touch video game formats will always feel flawed on iOS devices. Surprisingly, there’s one that does better on the iPad than any other console or computer I’ve experienced: pinball. The vertical screen, the physicality of the device, the short session nature of pinball — all feel like a natural fit.

Unfortunately there just aren’t that many good pinball apps out there. And you can trust me: over the past few weeks I’ve purchased and played over two dozen different pinball games and it’s a very bizarre little pocket of the App Store. I tried every app that looked like it had even a small chance of being decent, and what I found were a few gems and some weird surprises. I plan on maintaining this post as new pinball games come out, so consider this The State of the iOS Pinball Union.

The Best

I’ll start with some recommendations. There’s a gold standard here, and it’s set by the Russian studio GameProm. They’re the team responsible for Pinball HD, War Pinball HD, Slayer Pinball Rocks HD, and the upcoming Da Vinci Pinball (presumably also of the HD persuasion).

If I had to recommend a single pinball game, it’d be War Pinball HD. It features three tables that are, for some reason, based on decades-old military films. The people of 1990 may have missed their chance to enjoy Charlie Sheen’s face on a pinball machine, but now we don’t have to make the same mistake thanks to the Navy Seals table. Platoon strikes me as tonally wrong for pinball, which just makes me like it more.

But my favorite of the bunch is the one with a tiny model of Chuck Norris shooting a gun: Missing in Action. It’s the easiest table in the game, but I think it has the best flow. The multiball is a delightful, well-earned payoff, unlike most of these other games which freely give away what ought to be a rare and thrilling moment.

Slayer Pinball Rocks is strange and wonderful, though not as well thought out as War Pinball. I do give it points for being frequently insane. Like, how awesome is it that you unlock needlessly long phrases like “GLOBAL GENOCIDE” and “MELTING FLESH”? But my favorite feature has to be a bloody spike pit in the corner that does nothing but increase the volume of the music when you land a ball in it.

All of the GameProm games are worth checking out, but they also suffer from severe crashitude. In fact, War Pinball will often lock up right when you finish, but before it saves your high score, which is basically the worst possible time for a pinball game to crash. They’re also fairly challenging games, especially War Pinball, and the tutorials are a confusing mess of arrows and broken English, so be warned that they aren’t particularly approachable.

If you are indeed looking for something simple and friendly, I find myself weirdly drawn to Frogger Pinball (from the team behind the great Metroid Pinball for the DS). It’s by no means an amazing game, but it’s breezy, polished, and short enough to master. It takes advantage of being a digital game, offering boss fights and such that you could never achieve with a real physical table.

Another game that plays with the possibilities of digital is Undead Attack Pinball HD, a cute mix between tower defense and pinball. Hordes of zombies come in waves from above while you run them down with pinballs and defend the gutter. It’s not quite strong enough that I find myself going to it often, but it’s a nice break from the more challenging traditional games and it’s a great premise. I’d like to see more people designing tables that only work in a video game, and especially with multitouch.

Others

These aren’t my favorites, but if you’ve expired the previous, you should consider checking these out. Starting with the most recommended:

Theme Park Pinball: A very well made game with some fun in-app purchases (like one add-on to make all the games look run-down). All the tables are in the vein of older mechanical machines without much complexity, so there’s not much depth.

Pinball Tristan: I grew up on a Mac, so Tristan was one of the only games I had as a kid, alongside Prince of Persia and Glider. Tickles a nostalgic itch, but I think it’s actually pretty darn well designed for being a completely 2D table. This is actually the pinball game I’ve logged the most hours in, as the simplicity makes it a fair experience on the smaller iPhone screen.

Pinball Showdown: Some interesting ideas here, and nice art, but I never got into a good flow with it. All the main objectives are very hard to hit, and there’s not much else to do, but I’m still waiting to see if I find a rhythm with it.

The Weird

Normally I’d shy away from writing about games I don’t actively recommend, but it turns out there are some incredibly bananas pinball games out there and I’d feel bad if I didn’t let you know about them.

Ice Road Pinball is themed around ice road truckers. No, not Ice Road Truckers, the show, but ice road truckers the… trope? Icy ‘tudes are one thing, but rails instead of ramps? Whoa!

And Slayer isn’t the only band to have their own pinball game: the English electropop band Goldfrapp has a hallucinatory pinball game for iPhone where your play remixes their latest album. I, yeah, I don’t know.

And perhaps the strangest pinball game comes to us from the venerable Jerky Boys. I really did play this game. It features new recordings from the Jerky Boys. I believe this picture does more than any further description could.

— David

About That Dumb Kotaku Thing

nmartens — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:24:43 -0400

Last month, Kotaku featured a reader comment in a post under the headline “iPhone Games Just Aren’t Any Fun.” It’s a silly bit of linkbait (which I realize I am taking), expounding a stubborn “hardcore” gamer’s perspective on the iPhone as a gaming platform, and it’s not really worth a point-by-point response. One section, however, caught my attention. He says:

I have used [the iPhone] for games, or rather, tried to use it for games, for over three years now, and not once have I experienced my ‘Tetris Moment’ (Gameboy) or my ‘Lumines Moment’ (PSP) or my ‘Advance Wars Moment’ (GB Advance). That moment when all that the system is and can be is absorbed into your brain.

I know what he means. I had similar experiences on all those platforms with those exact games. So why do I see things so differently from this guy?

I currently keep 63 games on my iPhone, ranked in order, plus a bunch more I’m still checking out. (Yes, I am that cool.) You can see my top 10 above. I have had moments in each of them.

In Edge, the first game that showed me the potential of the platform, when I perfected the delicate touch that allowed me to balance on an edge indefinitely.

In Bit Pilot, when I drummed my thumbs across the screen, snagged a power up, bounced off the boundary, slipped through a gap between to asteroids, and it wasn’t an accident.

In Canabalt, when I didn’t jump at a window I could safely fall through.

In Dungeon Raid, when I found a diagonal path I hadn’t seen before, letting my circuitous line to reach one more sword, so the red X of death appeared on an particularly vexing special skull.

In Hookworld (really, all of Rocketcat’s hook games), when I dipped into the lava, mashed my rocket boots, popped out just in time, and sailed over a high rock.

In Drop7, playing on hardcore mode, when a new level of grey disks appeared, setting off a chain reaction I’d been building all game, which razed the field down to the bottom row.

In Forget-Me-Not, the first time I cleared a level, saw the layout of the next one, and my mind could instantly trace a ridiculously high-scoring path through it.

In Infinity Gene, when I stayed still amongst a swarm of attacking enemies, keeping my rapid-fire active, as their bullets barely skimmed by me.

In Tilt to Live, when I jerked the phone to the side, just like I did when I first used the NES as a little kid, only this time the device did read my mind, as my ship performed an acrobatic dodge.

When Carcassonne announced “It’s your turn now” from across the room, and a bolt of excitement shot up my spine just because I had an excuse to play around with it some more.

On a platform as novel and popular as iOS, which has attracted so many skilled developers, it’s ridiculous to say that moments like these aren’t out there for gamers of every stripe. You just have to look for them.

— Nick

Links to all these games are available on The List.