One of the best things Ubisoft has done in recent years (besides giving birth to Assassin’s Creed) was to reboot the Rayman series. The developers must have realised that Rayman’s true strength had always been the excellent platforming action. And so they released a graphically super impressive 2D platforming game with great controls, great gameplay and a very unique soundtrack called Rayman Origins.

Luckily, Rayman Jungle Run for iPhone and iPad has a lot in common with its bigger console brother. It looks just as beautiful and is a very polished, very fun game. The biggest difference is the gameplay; while you have full directional control in Rayman Origins, Rayman Jungle Run is an on-rail game where you only need to help Rayman avoid various obstacles. You’ll be doing this by simply tapping the left side of the screen to jump and fly, and the right side of the screen to punch.

In the first few levels, all you need to do and worry about is jumping. The game will then introduce you to the concept of floating and finally into punching stuff. This is done very intuitively and creates a very nice learning curve. At first I was a bit worried that Rayman Jungle Run might be too easy because the first few levels were no real challenge at all. I was proven wrong pretty soon when I tried to complete one of the challenge levels that you first need to unlock before you can play them. I probably tried that level about 50 times and have yet to complete it.

The game is split into four chapters with ten levels each. The levels are full of coins that, if you wish to collect all 100 per level, you often have to find secret passages for. Collecting all 100 coins in a level will gain you a special zombie tooth. In each of the four chapters there is one special challenge level that can be unlocked by collecting five of those teeth. All of the levels have a very distinctive art style and look and feel very different. But while they all look different, they also all look equally gorgeous! Rayman Jungle Run really is a beautiful game!

So it looks as good as Rayman Origins, but unfortunately it doesn’t sound quite as good. The music in Rayman Jungle Run is very similar, but it does sound very repetitive and might get on your nerves pretty quickly. It doesn’t help that there isn’t a huge variety of songs either. But compared to how much fun I had with this game overall, I can forgive the weakness in the music department.

So my verdict is quite clear: If you like beautiful and challenging platforming games on your iPhone and iPad, there’s really no way around buying Rayman Jungle Run. For what it offers I also consider it a steal!

I have to make a confession: I’m in love with this game. Pix’n Love Rush, while being such a simple game, does so many things incredibly right. In its core, it’s an old-school jump ‘n’ run with 3 distinct game modes that will keep you busy for a long time. And all of it is tied together with an incredible art style.

The first game mode is called “Classic Rush” and puts you in full control of Pix’, a cat like character that can run left/right, jump and shoot things. You’ll need those abilities to rush with Pix’ through constantly changing levels where you need to collect positive coins and protect butterflies to earn points and avoid negative coins and shoot bats to keep your points and not lose any of your lives. It sounds simple, but the great level design will definitely keep you on your toes. “Classic Rush” can be played either with a 5 minute time limit or an endless mode that’s only limited by your ability to stay alive.

The second mode is “Cursed Rush” in which you only have to do one thing and one thing only: Jump. At the right time that is. While Pix’ is running at a constant pace, you need to make sure that he jumps over all the gaps to arrive safely at the end of each level.There are 5 levels that want to be finished, each more difficult than the previous one. Especially the later stages require you to memorize the levels, otherwise there’s almost no way to successfully make it to the end.

The third mode is “Rainbow Rush” and unfortunately this mode is only available in the iPhone version of Pix’n Love Rush. This mode is a variation of “Cursed Rush”, where Pix’ again keeps on running to the right. This time however, you need to make sure that he doesn’t bump into any of the walls. It’s a nice take on the gameplay and definitely a fun mode as well – that’s why it’s really a shame that this update, released over two months ago, didn’t make its way to the iPad version yet.

What makes Pix’n Love Rush so outstanding is the level of polish and the incredible presentation. The old-school, always changing pixel art looks stunning and the catchy chip tune soundtrack somehow never gets old. It’s hard to describe, but all the elements in Pix’n Love Rush are so well combined that this game is more than the sum of its parts. The only thing that disappointed me is the outdated iPad version – especially since I really like the way this game is presented on the iPad. If it would have at least been a Universal App, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but paying more money for the iPad version that comes with less content feels wrong – no matter how well its presentation is. If you’re into platformers and/or old-school games, do yourself a favor and get Pix’n Love Rush for your iPhone [$0.99] or iPad [$1.99].

Gameloft’s new third person shooter 9mm is often compared to Remedy’s Max Payne. In case you’re not familiar with Max Payne, it was a celebrated third person shooter released in 2001 with a distinct feature called bullet time: For a limited amount of time you could slow down everything in the game except your ability to aim. This enabled you to take out several enemies at once all while dodging their bullets at the same time. Ah, what a satisfying feeling that was. Now, why the heck am I talking about this? Because that’s the exact gameplay mechanic that found its way into 9mm. And Gameloft managed to nail it.

And that’s great news. The shooter mechanics in 9mm are amongst the best you can get on your iPhone or iPad right now. The controls are buttery smooth and I especially like the way the camera tilts when you aim – it’s just a slight movement, but it really gives a nice touch to the overall experience.

You’ll spend most of your time shooting bad guys and that’s a good thing – because that’s what 9mm by far is most competent in. There’s the occasional quick events mission that you need to endure, some button pressing to open doors every now and then and some not-so-great dialogue and story in between. You play as John “Loose” Kannon (I know…), a cop who likes to bend the law if that’s what it takes to get the bad guys into jail. Early on in the game, he kills the brother of a drug lord and finds himself in a drug war where his own family becomes a target.

But worry not, all the story bits are kept very short, so you can get back into the action before you could be bothered by it. However, there’s one thing the cutscenes are good for: You get the time to admire the graphics. 9mm is a gorgeous game – if anyone would have told me a few years ago that we’d soon get games with such graphics on our mobile phones, I’d have called them illusional. Just have a look at our screenshot or check out the trailer and you’ll get an idea of what to expect.

The single player campaign clocks in at about 3 to 4 hours. That’s not particularly long, but 9mm offers a fair amount of replay value thanks to a mission rating that keeps track of several stats like your accuracy for example. I strongly suggest to pick one of the higher difficulty levels though (and/or disable auto-aim), I found the game to be balanced on the easy side. Once you’re done with the campaign, you can jump right into one of two multiplayer modes: “Free for all” (death-match) and “Cops ‘n’ Gangstas” (team death-match). Gameloft’s online service, Gameloft Live, will keep track of your progress – the more and the better you play, the faster you’ll level up your character and unlock new and better weapons.

All in all, 9mm is probably one of the, if not the, best third person shooter available for your iPhone or iPad right now. The action is satisfying, the controls are slick and the visuals are amongst the best iOS has to offer. You like action? Get 9mm. It comes as Universal App for $6,99.

How good are your reflexes? No, don’t answer – play a round of Boost 2 on your iPhone or iPad and show me your high-score! This game will definitely challenge your reaction time, and no matter how good your reflexes are, it will push you to your limit. The important part in this case is, that it’s a whole lot of fun to get there!

In Boost 2 you’re racing through a tunnel in ego-perspective at an ever increasing speed while you need to avoid crashing into any of the randomly generated obstacles. It really is a simple concept, but it’s executed incredibly well and with a great amount of polish that makes it a joy to go hunting for the high-score. And Boost 2 never fails to give you this “just one more try” feeling that turns this game into a highly addictive affair.

You control the game by tilting your device left and right. This works incredibly well, is super precise and an excellent fit for iOS devices. And like in almost any tilt controlled game you have the option to calibrate the tilt-controls to your likings in the options menu.

Boost 2 comes with two singleplayer modes (Time Trial, Survival) and one multiplayer mode. In Time Trial, there’s a timer on top of the screen that counts down to zero. Your goal is to never let it get there by adding precious seconds every time you hover over a boost field. Once you’re in boost mode, you have not only added a few seconds to the timer and are faster, you can also crash once without it resulting in a game over. However, crashing means you will lose time and if you crash again, it’ll also mean game over. So crashing should be avoided at all cost.

In Survival the goal is again to get as far as you can, but it works a bit different. There are no boosts, the speed will increase gradually over time until you reach maximum speed. This also means that one crash results in game over. Also, Survival mode is not available from the beginning. You first need to score 2000 points in Time Trial to unlock it.

The multiplayer is classic 1 vs 1. You both get to race for 60 seconds at the same time and the one who’s travelled the longer distance wins. Boost 2 indicates who’s currently leading by displaying red blocks to the one behind and blue blocks to the leader.

To sum everything up, Boost 2 offers some great instant action whenever you feel the need for an adrenalin rush. The presentation is great and the controls are precise and a perfect fit for iPhone and iPad. The game comes as universal app and at the time of this review it is currently on sale for $0.99.

Kosmo Spin is the first game of developer Simogo, the swedish team who just recently brought us the great Bumpy Road. And much like Bumpy Road, Kosmo Spin also focuses on a unique way of controlling the game.

In Kosmo Spin, you’re asked to defend a planet from a breakfast stealing, ball shooting UFO. And as the name suggests, you will do so by spinning the planet that your little guy with the square head is standing on. The square head comes in handy to defend the planet by bouncing all sorts of balls back into space. If a ball hits the planet, the impact will make it impossible to spin it for a few moments, thus rendering you defenseless against the alien’s beam laser. That beam laser is also the only thing you’ll have to fear in Kosmo Spin. If the alien catches you, it’s game over.

That makes it important to bounce back as many of the balls as possible, so you’re always able to escape the beam laser. The balls come in different sizes and with unique attributes. Some are faster than the others, some require you to bounce them more than once to get rid of them, and some are shot in a different angle, making it harder to get to the right spot.

Besides an endless modes where the UFO gradually gets faster and faster, there’s also a quest mode. In this mode, Simogo has prepared special tasks for you, like surviving for 10 seconds while the UFO is ridiculously fast or to not let the UFO beam up any food for 10 seconds. The tasks range from very easy to very hard and come in great variety.

If you’re looking for a polished casual game that’s very easy to get into, then Kosmo Spin should catch your attention. It comes as universal app for as little as $0.99.

Demolition Dash is a running/platforming game developed by Germany based studio Dreamfab, that offers a great presentation and high level of polish. I already had plenty of fun with a preview build of Demolition Dash a few weeks ago, and with the final release featuring some significant performance improvements, the whole thing just got even better.

Zilla (who you will be in control of) just awoke after 100.000.000 years of sleep. Now that’s a long time, so who can blame him for wanting some action? And that’s were you come in. Your task is to safely guide Zilla through 8 major cities all over the world, while he happily destroys everything that gets in his way.

Unlike other games in this genre, Demolition Dash does not feature an get-as-far-as-possible endless mode (although one will be added with a future update), but predesigned levels that you’ll need to make it through alive from start to finish. There are eight cities with three levels each that you’ll unlock bit by bit. The difficulty ramps up nicely with every level you advance to keep the game challenging without making it frustrating.

As in every running game, everything comes down to timing. You’ll need to make sure Zilla doesn’t fall into any of the countless gaps by jumping over them and that he doesn’t run into the police by either avoiding them or roaring them off their feet. Tapping the left side of the screen will make Zilla jump, tapping the ride side will make him roar. Roaring will also destroy stuff like billboard ads and cars to get you some tasty bonus points. To make sure you can’t just run around roaring all the time, it needs a little bit of time to reload.

As I already mentioned at the beginning, Demolition Dash looks and sounds great. Dreamfab has made sure there’s a ton of things happening all over the screen and has put a lot of attention to all the little details. There’s exploding cars, parallax scrolling, a new art style for each of the eight cities and a soundtrack that also changes depending on the city you’re in. If I had to point out something that could be improved, I can only think of the performance. While it’s already been improved compared to the preview version, it still feels like it could use a few more fps to do the insane amount of stuff happening on the screen justice.

All in all, Demolition Dash is an entertaining platforming/running game with great visuals, challenging but fun gameplay and a great level of polish. The fact that there’s an endless mode coming in a future update should add some more replay value to keep you coming back for more. Demolition Dash is available for iPhone[$0.99] and iPad[$1.99].

Unpleasant Horse is the first game from 4th & Battery, a subdivision of PopCap. 4th & Battery was brought to life to function as a creative valve for the guys at PopCap; a platform that enables them to develop unconventional games that wouldn’t fit into PopCap’s portfolio. Which, at least in the case of Unpleasant Horse, are then released for free – now that’s the spirit!

Unpleasant Horse is a classic highscoring game. You’re in control of the black, unpleasant horse (hence the title) that hops from cloud to cloud, while it’s shredding peaceful, flying horses in between. The mechanics are quite simple: By touching the screen, you define the angel that your unpleasant horse will jump to the next cloud. If in between the two clouds happens to be one of the peaceful horses, the unpleasant horse will grab them and then crush them into spinning saw blades that are waiting on the ground. The longer you hold on to the innocent horses while they’re being shredded into gory pieces, the more points you’ll get. So the title is pretty accurate – it really is a rather unpleasant horse.

Besides looking for horses, you should also keep your eyes open for birds. Catching one of them enables a one-time double jump. These come in handy in case you have jumped into a direction where there’s no clouds or horses to hang on to.

So while this isn’t the deepest or most challenging game you can get on the App Store, it’s a small and fun title with a refreshingly bizarre setting – so it’s exactly what 4th & Battery were aiming for. And since this game is for free, there’s no reason why shouldn’t give this unpleasant horse a ride.

We have been featuring Bumpy Road for quite some time now, and the reason is rather simple: It’s a great game that perfectly demonstrates how to utilize the touchscreen interface on iPhone and iPad to create a unique and fun gameplay mechanic. Oh, and it also looks and sounds great. Sounds good?

So lets talk about the controls. In Bumpy Road, you guide the car of an elderly couple. But you wont be doing this with any on-screen buttons. Nope, in Bumpy Road you control the ground. Wherever you touch the road, it will lift up, creating a bump that you have to use to create momentum for the car. Creating a bump left of the car will make it go right and vice versa, touching the road right underneath the car will make it jump. The mechanics of this control scheme are implemented perfectly and work like a charm. However, as easy as it might sound, you’ll actually need to spend some time practicing until you get the hang of it.

Bumpy Road comes with 2 modes. The first one, Evergreen Ride, is an endless mode where you’ll be trying to get the couple as far as possible without falling into the numerous gaps or running out of gas. In order to get going you’ll need to collect little gizmos that are everywhere along the way to fill up your fuel gauge. Once the fuel gauge is completely filled up, the game will go black-and-white and speeds up for short period of time. The second mode is called Sunday Trip and is all about getting the couple as fast as possible from start to finish. On top of the normal gizmos you’ll also find some that will speed up the car, making it crucial to catch as many of them as possible. There are no gaps in this mode, so it’s a great choice if you need some more practice with the controls.

Every inch of Bumpy Road feels incredibly polished. From the menus to the art style and the music: Simogo has put a lot of attention to detail and made sure that Bumpy Road is a flawless experience. It really is a very charming game. The fact that you can collect memories of the couples while playing that, bit by bit, unlock their romantic story only emphasizes this point. The only criticism that I can think of is a lack of variety. But since the whole point of the game is the control scheme it’s build on, that’s a minor complaint.

Bumpy Road is out now on the App Store as universal app for $2.99.

Do you remember our review of League of Evil? Most of the things we said about that game can be applied to Mos Speedrun. But while they are both great retro platformers, there are a few unique things about Mos Speedrun that sets it apart.

Mos Speedrun is all about platforming. Your goal is simply to make it alive to the end of the level. But that’s easier said than done, because you’ll need to avoid every single hazardous obstacle the levels through at you. If you touch just one of the various enemies, your run is over and you’ll have to start all over again. With platformers like this, the first question is always if the controls can carry the gameplay. And the answer in Mos Speedrun’s case is thankfully “Yes, the can!”. It took some time until developers nailed the responsiveness needed for accurate platforming, but what’s offered here works great.

The game is divided into 5 chapters with 5 levels each. To unlock the next chapter, you have to collect a certain amount of badges. You can earn a badge by completing one of 4 challenges in each level: finishing the level, finishing the level within a time limit, collecting all the coins and collecting a hidden skull. The challenges can (and have to) be tackled one by one. This creates some nice replay value.

The presentation of this game is as old school as it can be. The pixel art graphics combined with a chiptune soundtrack will remind you how we all used to sit in front of TVs with brick controllers in our hands. But while I’m really digging pixel art games in general, I would have like to see a more refined art style in Mos Speedrun.

Bottom line is: If you’re into platforming and retro games, go and get Mos Speedrun! In case you’re not sure yet, just give the free lite version a spin.

Pulse: Volume One is Cipher Prime Studios’ 3rd game, and yet again it’s all about music. After Auditorium and Fractal, this time it’s a rhythm based game. But unlike all the Rock Bands and Guitar Heros out there, you will not have to press fixed buttons with the right timing. No, Pulse features an original ring layout. The great thing about this layout is that it can be adapted to a song’s time signature. So if there’s a song with a 4/4 time signature, Pulse will use 4 or 8 rings. If the song’s got a 3/4 you’ll have to deal with 6 rings. Brilliant.

Right now, Pulse comes with 8 songs, with the difficulty being the songs themselves. The difficulty gradually increases with each song up to a point where it requires finger-bending magic to clear them with 100%. For me, it became pretty difficult once the game requires you to tap different notes at the same time while they are moving into opposite directions. If you spend enough time with it, Pulse will clearly turn you into the master of multi-touch. Check out our gameplay video below to get an idea of how Pulse works.

Now, you might say 8 songs for $4.99 sounds a bit steep. And it actually would, if Cipher Prime didn’t already promise to add 4 new songs every month for free! The devs are working closely with local artists to get all sorts of genres into Pulse. The 8 songs you get right now are all produced in-house by Cipher Prime themselves. But worry not, these guys have proven more than once that they’ve got a talent for putting hypnotizing tracks together. And they have nailed it again in Pulse. Each song has a distinguish mood and oftentimes I couldn’t help but immediately replay them, that’s how catchy they are. But it’s not just the Songs that are outstanding, it’s the whole package. The presentation is also great, with a very minimalistic and clean design.

But before you storm to the App Store to get this game I have to ask you for one thing: Please, please play this game with headphones! Cipher Prime clearly has put a lot of effort into their songs, it would be a waste to play them through the iPad speaker. That said, I can fully recommend Pulse: Volume 1. It’s definitely one of the best rhythm games I have played so far.