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Freaky Jump App Review ricochets off the doodle jump bounce game

jmcclain0129 — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:53:31 +0000

Freaky Jump

Yet another app riding on the success of Doodle Jump’s bouncing game system, Freaky Jump injects some new concepts that hardly come across as creative but breathes fresh life into the genre.

Screen SHot | Game Action | Freaky Jump

To start off, Freaky Jump follows the same concept of bouncing off platforms and advancing to the top. However, the difference lies in the fact that Freaky Jump does not consist of one infinitely long level where your objective is to get a high score. Instead, you are required to reach a certain height before moving on to the next level. In short, stages and levels replace a free jump mode.

Screen Shot | Freaky Jump | Game Action

Add-ons such as propeller caps and rockets are also present in Freaky Jump. However, a magnet is also available to further boost high scores. Springs found in Doodle Jump and other similar games can also be found in Freaky Jump, giving a slight boost to gamers. However, unlike in Doodle Jump, players are unable to shoot projectiles in Freaky Jump.

Screen Shot | Game Play

Freaky Jump requires players to complete all the stages in one “world” before moving on to the next. While the concept of levels and stages in a traditionally open-mode genre is rather fresh, it soon becomes stale for levels are virtually identical to each other with the obvious reshuffling of tile placements being what sets them apart. With the completion of each level, stars are given based on the points accumulated, but they hardly do anything to bolster game progress.

Achievements are also available for fanatics, but that is hardly anything to fuss or rave about. It is insignificant as it does not contribute much to actual game play.

Pros:

Level system instead of infinite mode.
Slightly different from run of the mill jumping games.

Cons:

Levels are not very varied. Only background and slight platform changes.
Not much incentive to continue playing the game (e.g. unlockable content)

Aniversia App Review pits animals against aliens to save the planet.

jmcclain0129 — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:04:31 +0000

In Aniversia by Trinaum, you take control of animals that are rendered in a very cute and cuddly style. Do not be deceived though, for these animals are to be used in an all out battle between alien invaders that threaten the safety of the planet. The animals appear to be a cross between a hedgehog’s rear and a random animal’s head. Examples include a dog, a bull, and a porcupine.

Screen Shot | Landing Page

It takes awhile to understand what this app is all about. With an extremely vague tutorial that only explains the controls, it was quite a struggle to comprehend the app. No explanation was given on the objective(s) of the stages and everything was rather confusing.

ScreenShot | In App Tutorial Screens

In the game, your objective is to take out the enemies scattered across the level map. You may use the surrounding objects to your advantage, such as smashing through debris or mounting cannons to assault your rivals. Items scattered around respond well to impact with a great physics mechanism. You can smash, crush, or simply push the crates, tires and other things aside. In each level, you are given control of two animals that you can toggle between with the touch of a button. Use them to your advantage and take the opposition out.

Screen SHot | Game Action

The game controls are simple but yet difficult to master. A tiny touchpad allows for movement, while a button above it allows you to toggle between characters. Two buttons on the right side allow for attacks and blocks. However, it is hardly responsive as attacks to awhile before they responded to taps and the movement button was too small to slide around with.

Screen Shot | Game Action | On The Hunt

With the cutesy graphics and novel game play design, Aniversia appeals to children but not older players. Things like graphics can be improved upon as some stages seemed to be more of an eyesore. A better tutorial would be good too. The game shows potential but there is much to improve on.

Pros:

Cute graphics.
Unique game-play system.
Cool comics style introduction.
Physics mechanism for interacting with surroundings.

Cons:

Color scheme.
Lack of a good tutorial.
Not very responsive controls.

Prince Of Dragon

Ryan Johnson — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:16:45 +0000

The Dark Lord has given the land of Babylon a proverbial FU, taking rule over the land and spreading pain, suffering, and darkness to a once happy people. You are the Prince Of Dragon, the only one that can harness the power of a once untamed beast to overthrow the Dark Lord’s reign and to restore Babylon back to greatness.

Created by Chai Studio, Prince Of Dragon is a non-stop 2D shooter with continuous automatic fire and side-to-side up-down game-play. To defeat the evil Dark Lord you’ve got to bob and weave between enemy fire, destroy most enemies in your path, collect bonuses delivered by a fairy, and eliminate bosses. Your character, the Prince Of Dragon, fire’s his weaponry endlessly with no effort required on your part. You can earn three bonus powers that make conquering enemies much easier. You can shoot off a burst of flames that eliminates anything in it’s path with a single shot (except for bosses), a shield which does the obvious, and dragon power that unleashes a barrage of fire and blasts that inflict major pain on your enemies. Aside from unleashing the occasional bonus power, the only thing you need to worry about while playing is navigating the Prince Of Dragon so he can more easily kill enemies and avoiding taking too much damage. Seeing that the most important aspect of the game is precision control this has to mean that the game controls are flawless doesn’t it?

I liked most aspects of Prince Of Dragon. I love 2D shooters, who doesn’t? But there were two critical aspects of this game that I didn’t like. The game controls are very erratic, making precision control a near impossibility, and the game itself is too easy. Why is it too easy? Well, I beat it in about 20 minutes.

So what’s with the game controls? Well, it uses a floating circular touchpad that shows up anywhere you touch on the screen. This sounds perfect because being able to invoke the controls anywhere on the screen helps you avoid covering up critical parts of the gaming surface as you play, unfortunately I found that way too often I’d be trying to direct the Prince Of Dragon one direction as he shot forward in the completely opposite direction, or didn’t move at all. The developers appeared to have offset this by making the game easier. As mentioned, I was able to play straight through to the end of the game in a single sitting. You can take damage over and over and you don’t miss a beat.

If the game controls get updated so they’re more precise and the difficulty of the game is increased it’d go a long way to upping my rating. I’d love this game if it had more levels, was harder, and really demanded strong gaming skills to conquer. The graphics, sounds, and so forth are definitely good enough, but the rest of the game needs some tweaking.

Pros:

Good graphics
Fun game-play

Cons:

Game controls need some major work, very imprecise
Currently too easy, I beat it in 20 minutes

Version Reviewed: 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iOS 3.1.2 or later

Fuzion2

Ryan Johnson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:22:35 +0000

Here’s a freebie that you definitely shouldn’t pass up! Fuzion2 is all about saving the world from an atomic disaster–well sort of. There’s no huge explosions, no imagery of the earth in peril, all of that is pretty much left up to your imagination, but if you get yourself in the right mindset this is a kick butt game.

Created by Ninjamerica Games, Fuzion2 is all about fusing together like particles. This may sound a bit nerdy, but trust me it’s really addictive. The game presents you with a variety of challenges that require you to generate a certain number of points or accomplish a goal within a very short period of time (ex. 30 seconds). Sometimes you just need to fuse together as many particles as you can, sometimes you need to fuse together particles while also avoiding inert particles, and other times you to fuse together particles nearby dark matter in order to dissolve it.

It takes strategy and perfect timing to be efficient at fusing particles. Various different colors of particles bounce erratically around the screen. To fuse like particles together you must quickly touch the screen in a place where you think two like particles will exist. When you touch the screen it generates a mini vortex that temporarily sucks in particles that are close. If you time it just right with two or more like particles they’ll fuse together and explode.

Fuzion2 has 5 levels of game-play each one consisting of multiple goals. The game transitions seamlessly and quickly from one goal which makes for engaging and sometimes stressful game-play. You can earn a variety of power-ups that help make conquering levels a bit easier. There’s a Blueness Ray that turns nearby ions blue, an Ion Blast that obliterates nearby ions regardless of color, a Particle Accelerator that releases four extra ions into the reaction (big help), and an Atomic Clock that gives you 15 more seconds to reach your goal (also a big help). For a free game, Fuzion2 really offers a nice collection of features and challenges.

Overall I really like Fuzion2. I think it’s a well balanced game that offers a lot for a freebie and is certainly one I’ll keep going back to until I beat all the levels. If you’re a fan of puzzle games that require coordination, strategy, and at times can be a little stressful, then you’ll love Fuzion2. Definitely don’t hesitate to get this one.

Pros:

Good graphics, sufficiently challenging, offers a lot of replayability
Fast paced game-play, a good time-killer
Nice variety of challenges, very addictive

Cons:

Even though I haven’t beat it yet, it has 5 levels, I’d love to have more

Version reviewed: 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iOS 3.0 or later

Chain Disaster

Ryan Johnson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:48:25 +0000

Here’s a freebie that’ll leave you wanting more. Chain Disaster, the newest app by omegaHern LLC, is the latest edition to the chain reaction genre of games, draws you in with it’s free price point, but unfortunately comes up way short of it’s predecessors. Unlike other popular chain reaction games which have multiple levels, a variety of themes, and cute and fun characters, Chain Disaster is plain, has only one level, no global leaderboard, and well — leaves much to be desired.

I’m a fan of chain reaction games. I can literally play Sneezies for hours. But Chain Disaster just doesn’t cut the mustard and here’s why. When I think of chain reaction games I think of them like puzzles. Games with multiple levels, that require real strategy and a bit of luck to advance in the game. Chain Disaster offers nothing of the sort. The entire object of the game is to beat your previous high score. To make it easier or harder on yourself you can adjust how many dots show on the screen. Obviously the more the dots the easier it gets, but aside from that you’re just touching dots, watching them explode, and then starting all over again. See what I mean by leaving you wanting more?

The saving graces of this game is that it’s free, but aside from that I don’t see very many pluses. The graphics are weak, the single level game-play is weak, and pretty much everything else about it is weak. Try it out if you’re curious to see how weak it is, but aside from a few minutes of life wasting not so entertaining entertainment, I’m pretty sure it’ll be a one and doner for you.

Pros:

It’s free

Cons:

Offers only one level
No global leaderboard
Only object of the game is to beat your previous high score
Takes literally one second to play

Version Reviewed: Version 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iOS 3.0 or later

100 Nazi Scalps

Ryan Johnson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:39:12 +0000

Grab your baseball bat, sharpen your knife, and bring plenty of ammo because we’re going to go scalp some Nazis! 100 Nazi Scalps seems heavily inspired by Brad Pitt’s character Lieutenant Aldo Raine in the movie Inglorious Basterds. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know that Lt. Raine is all about killing some Nazis, and by any means necessary. In the movie knives, bats, and guns are used to instill fear and to ultimately turn the tide on the oppressive regime. 100 Nazi Scalps is essentially the same, except you don’t use bats and knives to intimidate, you use them to bash and rip off some scalps!

Created by Apalon, 100 Nazi Scalps is a 2D platformer with limited side-to-side movement, a fair assortment of World War II weaponry, and simple yet fairly difficult game-play. Enemies attack from in-front and behind, kneeling helps to avoid damaging gunfire but doesn’t protect you from incoming grenades. Essentially you need to scurry forward and backward rattling off as much gunfire as you can, kneeling to limit damage, and scalping any enemies that fall to their knees. Occasionally enemies will drop more powerful weapons so it’s important to snatch them up when you can.

If you want to do well in this game the most critical thing to master is toggling between and using weapons. Personally I found the weapons buttons to be very awkward to use. There are four buttons lined up horizontally, two that let you toggle from weapon to weapon and two that let you use the weapons. Not sure why they developer chose to set it up this way, but it’s something I would change as soon as possible. It took me several tries before I figured out how to use them properly. Essentially you need to swipe down across the far left buttons to switch between the bat and knife, and to change guns, and need to tap on the right buttons to use the weapons. The bat and knife don’t actually work until you’re literally in the face of enemies which seems a bit strange to me. For a while there I thought they didn’t actually work.

Once you get used to the weapons setup, which will will take a little practice, the game is pretty fun. I like the sounds and the bloodiness of the game. A fair amount of tissue matter and guts are displayed when you shoot people. The more powerful the gun the more impressive the result. Grenades are a favorite of mine as they make bodies explode into multiple piles of hamburger. I’d have to say the overall fun-factor of the game is only so-so. Mainly because you’re range of motion is very limited, and the fact that you can’t bust out your knife and bat until you’re up in the enemies grill kinda sucks. I wish you could jump around, throw punches, chuck knives if you want to, smash some skulls from further away than two inches, stuff like that. I’m a fan of the overall theme, love myself a good 2D arcade thriller, but unfortunately 100 Nazi Scalps as it stands today, doesn’t quite live up to it’s full potential.

Pros:

Fair amount of blood and guts
Great theme, love killing and scalping Nazis
Reasonable value for the price

Cons:

Weapons buttons are awkward and annoying; needs improvement
Only 6 levels of game-play
Challenging for what it is, but concept is too simple, needs more complexity

Version Reviewed: 1.07

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iOS 2.2.1 or later

Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box

Rich DeBell — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:17:37 +0000

Developed by Alawar Entertainment, Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box is more much than just another hidden objects game. Vampire Saga integrates hidden objects gameplay with puzzle solving and adventure game elements. In Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box a grandfather tells his story to his grand son of when he was a young man who snuck onto a cargo ship to escape from a war. What he finds on the ship (Named Pandora) is much worse though than the war he departed. He passed out on a cargo ship that would take him to Boston, and when he woke up, all crewmen were gone. He searched all parts of the ship and under the water for clues. What he found were the dead captain on the seafloor, a dead crewman in a dingie, a nearly dead woman in the closet of the cargo hold, and more questions than answers. As we follow his adventure on the ship and on the small island, then to the present day in his apartment, a chilling story slowly unveils itself concluding with any exciting and surprising ending.

Features Include:

11 hidden object game scenes
Five mini-games
300 hidden objects
Animated cutscenes
A surprise ending!

Pros:

Great storyline
The game is difficult without clues, keeping it fresh and entertaining throughout
Graphics are good and scenes are very detailed, making finding hidden objects difficult (as it should be)
Sounds effects are wonderful. Both eire and compelling they perfectly match the theme of the game

Cons:

The cut seens are good however more animations in these would be preferred
Once played there is really no reason to play again, though this is the case with most games of this nature

Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box is a fun and entertaining game following the Hidden Object mould. In a game such as this it’s the process of working through the game segment by segment, uncovering more and more clues and facts enabling you to solve problems and hidden truths which is the true fun factor. In this capacity Alawar Entertainment accompshied this goal. Though there are areas or details I would like to see improved or expanded upon such as the graphics, and the depth of the game these are minor. When your biggest complaint is that you want to see more I see this as a good problem to have and hopefully in future updates or games Alawar will continue to build on this success. Available in both standard(iPhone and iPod Touch) and HD(iPad) versions, there is something here for all mobile mac enthusiasts.

Assault Commando

Ryan Johnson — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:49:44 +0000

Non-stop action, excellent sound effects, missile launchers, machine guns, Rambo style battles, and epic explosions await you in Assault Commando. The game takes place deep in the South American Jungle were serious trouble is brewing. Albrecht Braun has formed an army capable of overthrowing whole governments and ruling the world and up till now it appears nothing can stop him. Your mission is to go deep behind enemy lines to put an end to the madness before it spreads any further. You’ve teamed up with long-time war buddy Jack Gunfire to stomp out the enemy and save the world.

Created by 3D Magic Kft., Assault Commando is a seriously badass game. The game controls are simply flawless. It feels so natural as you sprint through the jungle, weaving in and out of trees for cover, masking your advance behind buildings, and mowing down enemies with rapid fire. Jeeps equipped with heavy artillery roll up and put you on blast, while infantry come out of the wood works, chasing you around and spraying automatic fire as they charge. You must stay moving at all times while firing toward targets with the utmost precision. It’s imperative that you can engage attackers from all angles at a moments notice. The joystick style controls give you the freedom you need to make this possible, but it’s up to you to harness your inner badass to make it happen.

On top of the seriously fun on-foot battles you also get to ride along in sweet shallow water boats through winding jungle streams and open up serious cans of whoop ass from behind the wheel of kick ass tanks. I mean seriously, this game has pretty much everything that I want out of a jungle style war game. The explosions are big and the sounds of battle are extremely realistic. It’s the closest thing to an actual arcade experience that I’ve played in quite sometime. The only thing I’d love to change is where you currently ride along in the boats and tanks it’d be way sweeter if you could actually drive ‘em.

If you couldn’t already tell I’m loving this game and think it’s definitely worth the download. It’s a decent value at it’s current $1.99 price, and I promise you that you won’t be disappointed with your purchase. I still have a ways to go before defeating the game, but so far I’m hooked and plan to stick with it to the end. I’d love to see the game continue to be improved upon to make it even more sensational. Some of the menus are ok, probably could be made to look more high-tech, it’d be cool to have more levels, some blood and guts folded in, and as mentioned being able to drive the vehicles would make it much sweeter, but as far as the graphics, game-play, and sounds go, they’re pretty much top notch.

Pros:

Controls and game-play is flawless
Graphics and sounds are top notch
Lots of big time explosions

Cons:

None that I can think of

Ninja Wars

Ryan Johnson — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 15:09:19 +0000

Ninja Wars is a 2D slash ‘em game filled with throwing stars, samurai swords, somersault jumps, lots of enemies and killer bosses. From the outside looking in it seems it has everything you’d ever want in a ninja battle game. So why didn’t it get a perfect rating? Well, even with all the proper assets, Ninja Wars lacks responsiveness, combo moves, and engaging game-play.

Created by Goldfish, Ninja Wars offers everything aesthetically that we’ve come to expect out of ninja games. It has a nice variety of bad guys that gang up on you at every pass. You’ve got to fend of your attackers from in front and behind, invoking your shield to block their blows at the proper time and busting out your samurai sword to slash them until their blood runs cold. Enemies begin their attack from afar by tossing throwing stars. You must bob and weave your way around incoming fire as you strategically position yourself to vanquish your enemies.

Levels are played from left to right and for the most part are pretty short. If you survive the first 2-3 waves of enemies you’ll likely cruise your way to the finish. Most levels end rather uneventfully unless they include a boss. Levels that include bosses more or less become a maylay of fighting as you must fight the boss and waves of enemies at the same time. For me personally I found the game-play to be quite monotonous and even when bosses were added it wasn’t very engaging.

In this game you can move upward and downward as well as forward and backward. You can jump, flail your sword, and toss throwing stars. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like that’s enough action to make the game fun. I desperately would love to be able to mix in some kicks and punches, and perhaps be able to leap over enemies. Unfortunately the maneuvering in the game feels very limited and restrictive and for that reason it makes the game feel like more of the same, regardless of how far you advance in the game.

There is a taste of upgradeability in Ninja Wars. You can earn additional skills, and can upgrade some of your weapons, but to be honest none of these really enhance the game very much. I’m one of the biggest fans of ninja games but to me Ninja Wars is lacking fun factor. I’d find Ninja Wars much more entertaining if the responsiveness and variety of movements was enhanced. The ability to mix up moves with kicks, punches, sword combos, and more would make it much more engaging. The other area that would help improve the overall feel of the game would be addressing the menus. Currently the game has a very broken up feel. The setup process for the game is a little awkward and the in-game menus seem out of place. I like the overall idea of Ninja Wars, but for me personally, it’s not one I plan to keep playing.

Pros:

30 levels, 6 bosses, lots of enemies to fight

Cons:

Game-play gets monotonous, each level gets harder, but isn’t very unique
Limited character movement, and lack of combos leaves you wanting more
Menus are awkward, lots of broken English littered throughout

Cannon Cadets

Ryan Johnson — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:04:51 +0000

In an otherwise happy-go-lucky galaxy a series of failed experiments has lead to the unravelling of a monkey named Gordo. Intent on making others suffer as much as he’s suffered Gordo creates an army of robotic minions and set out on a mission to kidnap all who are happy and subject them to a lifetime of misery and captivity. It appears all hope is lost as more and more happy people are corralled up and caged. Then, against all odds a brave young boy manages to escape Gordo’s wrath. Armed with a rocket and determined to make things right, Rocket Boy begins building his own army of justice he calls the Cannon Cadets, and sets out on a mission to free all captives and to rid the galaxy of Gordo for good!

Cannon Cadets, created by XMG Studio Inc., is the latest prime-time edition to the already long and popular list of physics based strategy games. In this game you’re armed with a rocket and a variety of ammo and it’s your mission to destroy the army of robotic minions that’re holding all the happy people hostage. As we’ve come to expect from these style of games, you’re provided with a limited amount of ammo to complete each level, and you’ve got to figure out how to destroy all relevant targets with what you’ve got. The best comparison I can think of is a galactic themed version of Angry Birds but with rockets, robots, burps, and farts.

Cannon Cadets doesn’t slouch on playability. It offers 80 levels, each one increasingly more complicated than the next. The more difficult the level the more cool the ammo gets and the more of an emphasis there is on precision. Cooler ammo has multiple effects. After launching your shot you can tap the screen a second time to unleash the ammo’s alter ego. Some ammo speeds up, others spread, you know the routine. If you’re a fan of similar physics based games then you’ll probably fly through the first 20 or so levels fairly easily. I didn’t really get hung up until level 40 or so.

Cannon Cadets delivers on all levels. The graphics are excellent, the game-play is precise, addictive, and smooth, you can play as four different characters, and the shear number of levels and the addictive nature of the game make it well worth the download. This game is by no means unique or revolutionary, but it is however an excellent addition to the already popular genre of physics based games. I can say with certainty that I’ve played physics games that are much harder. As far as difficulty goes I’d say Cannon Cadets is probably middle of the road, which may actually be a good thing for many of you. I’ve seen quite a number of people get stuck on levels in other similar games and eventually give up. I’m currently on level 44 and plan to see how far I can take it. If you’re in the market for a new physics game then you should definitely check out Cannon Cadets.

Pros:

Quality game, lots of levels, addictive
Great graphics and realistic physics
80 levels to keep you engaged, good re-playability

Cons:

Game-play isn’t unique, it’s very similar to other physics games, a borderline clone
Burp & fart sound effects get a little annoying after a while

Version Reviewed: 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iPhone OS 3.1 or later