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Order & Chaos Online – World Of Warcraft Inspired Game For iPhone and iPad

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Tom in Games, iPad Games, iPhone Games, iPod Games, MMORPG, News, RPG

Gameloft has released a trailer to announce their upcoming MMORPG Order & Chaos Online. Anyone who is familiar with Blizzards online monument World of Warcraft will be instantly reminded of it while watching the trailer:

Gameloft is a developer people either love for bringing some of their favorite console experiences to the iPhone or blame for trying to produce games that are inspired by the biggest names of gaming, but often don’t feel original. There is no doubt that Gameloft has taken a close look at World of Warcraft – but since it is by far the most successful MMORPG, who would blame them? It will be interesting to see if Gameloft succeeds to give Order & Chaos Online an original touch. But even if they only succeed in adapting the gameplay mechanics to the iPhone and iPad, Order & Chaos Online will have incredible potential to become a huge game.

Another interesting aspect is how we will pay for Order & Chaos Online. Will it come with a monthly subscription fee? Will it be some sort of freemium model? If we look at the past, Gameloft has released their games relatively close to their first announcement, so I expect we will get more information within the next few weeks, as well as a release date.

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Kami Retro Review – Lemmings Meets Mario And Gets Hit By A Rainbow

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Tom in Action, Featured Reviews, Games, iPad Games, iPhone Games, iPod Games, Platform, Puzzle

kami retro icon small Kami Retro Review Lemmings Meets Mario And Gets Hit By A RainbowKami Retro is an interesting genre mix with outstanding visuals. Think of Lemmings thrown into a blender together with Mario and add a rainbow into the mix – the result would be Kami Retro, a puzzle game that involves gesture controlled platforming.

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What you will notice first when you look at Kami Retro are the visuals. This game is over the top colorful. Even the menus give you a ‘too much information to handle’ feeling. I guess this is a hate it or love it look. Personally, I always appreciate it when developers go all out and try something new, and in the case of Kami Retro the result is great.

The goal of Kami Retro is to make sure your characters arrive safely on the other side of each level. This involves 2 aspects. First of all, you will have to figure out the correct path and solve some puzzles. The game will regularly introduce new items like ventilators or springs that you need to put in place for your characters. Second, you will then have to guide your character through the level. That means even after you figured out the perfect path, you will still have to prove yourself in some platforming action before you have solved the level.

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The controls are gesture based. A swipe up will make your character jump, a swipe against the direction your character is running will make him turn around. At the beginning I found myself swiping randomly on the screen wondering why he didn’t jump every now and then until I learned that you have to swipe on the character. Besides that, Kami Retro is very intuitive and fun to control. However, things can get pretty hectic as you advance in the game. In each level you will have to rescue 4 characters. Throughout the first levels this is not a big deal because the characters show up one by one. After a while this changes and you will have to deal with more than one of them on-screen.

The game comes with 6 scenarios, 12 levels each. In the levels you have to collect stars that will unlock the next scenarios one by one. There is also 1 bonus stage per scenario where you have to collect all the stars within a certain time limit. They are actually quite challenging. But because they are really fun as well, I happily replayed them to get all the stars.

I had a great time playing Kami Retro, especially thanks to the outstanding visuals. The concept, despite being put together from existing ideas, is original, fun and packed into a very polished experience. You can get it for $1,99 on the App Store.

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Rage Review – Rail-Shooter Goodness From John Carmack Himself

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Tom in Action, Action, Featured Reviews, FPS, Games, iPad Games, iPhone Games, iPod Games

rage icon Rage Review Rail Shooter Goodness From John Carmack HimselfIt is great to see more and more of the traditional pc and console developers releasing quality titles on the App Store. In Rage‘s case the developer is id Software, a big name for pc gamers – especially when it comes to shooters with Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein being one of id’s most loved titles. Rage for iPhone and iPad is a rail-shooter based on id’s brand new id Tech 5 megatexture engine. And while it looks beautiful, it’s a great deal of fun!

Rage does one thing and does it well: Straightforward, in your face action. Your only objective is to shoot everything that moves(and some stationary targets) as ammunition efficient and fast as possible and to collect some goodies while doing so. That’s it. But it is executed to perfection. You can really feel id’s shooter expertise in Rage.

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If you are familiar with rail-shooters, you already know what to expect. Your character moves automatically through the levels while you shoot everything that get’s in your way. In Rage you have the choice to do this with either a shotgun, or a machine gun. You will have to pick up the ammo packs placed in the levels to stick with these weapons. If you fail to do so you will have to use the back-up pistol that comes with unlimited ammo, but doesn’t do as much damage of course. You can also increase damage with perfect reloads: When you reload, you have an exact time window to hit reload again to double-up the damage. Such a reload system is also a feature in the Gears of War series(and I loved it – remember the lore ride on insane difficulty?).

Besides the ammo packs there are also money bags waiting for you to be picked up to boost your highscore. You can also boost your highscore by headshots and by shooting stationary targets. Since headshots save you a lot of ammunition and reloading, they come in really handy in the higher difficulties. Rage comes with 3 levels and each of the 3 has a version “II” that wants to be unlocked.

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The controls in Rage are great. You have 4 options: Tilt control, touchpad control, gyroscope control and virtual window. Virtual window basically puts you into the game with 360 degrees of movement freedom. While that sounds great, I felt it involved too much physical movement. You will definitely be an attraction if you pull that off in public. Great thing is, all the control methods work great, so it really comes down to personal preference in this case.

The presentation is stunning. From graphics to animations to audio and even the menu design – it’s a gorgeous game. While Rage is a universal app, there is an HD version available that comes with greater texture resolution. Needless to say that if your iDevice can handle the HD version that’s the one I would go for.

Rage is a total recommendation to anyone who even remotely enjoys straightforward action games.

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Collision Effect Review – Excellent Action-Puzzle Game for iPhone and iPad

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Tom in Action, Casual, Featured Reviews, Games, iPad Games, iPhone Games, iPod Games, Puzzle, Strategy

collision effect icon Collision Effect Review Excellent Action Puzzle Game for iPhone and iPadThe App Store has quite a big number of excellent puzzle games to download. And with Collision Effect there’s now one more contender that should definitely get your attention. It comes as universal app for $0.99 and is an addictive and gorgeous representative of the genre for your iPhone and iPad.

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The title of the game basically describes what to expect from the gameplay. You will have to collide zybbles of the same color into each other without touching zybbles of a different color. The controls to make this happen are very straight forward. If you tap a zybble, it will have a gravity effect on all other zybbles of the same color which makes them instantly fly towards the one you just tapped.

Collision Effect comes with two different modes, ‘Action’ and ‘Puzzle’. The ‘Action’ mode will throw wave after wave of new zybbles at you which you will have to clear. As usual, this is getting more and more difficult with each new wave and becomes pretty hectic after just a few waves. The ‘Puzzle’ mode on the other hand will challenge your brain and your timing. It features 60 levels in which zybbles are waiting for you in fixed patterns. Again, only zybbles of the same color are allowed to touch each other. While these patterns never become too difficult, it is sometimes tricky to get the timing right. You can slow down the speed of the zybbles once you start moving them which makes it much easier to get the correct timing.

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While the ‘Action’ mode is undeniably fun, I have really enjoyed the puzzle mode. I hope Chillingo will keep on supporting this game with more (and more challenging) levels in future updates. The game features some beautiful particle effects and great sound that perfectly fits the gameplay. All in all Collision Effect is one of the more outstanding action-puzzle games on the App Store. At the moment there is no lite version available, but since the game was just released a few days ago we will maybe see one pop up over the next few weeks. However, if you are a fan of the genre I don’t think you can go wrong with Collision Effect for $0.99 – And the fact that it comes as a universal app makes it even more attractive.

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iPad 2 Getting “Much Closer To 360″ Says Infinity Blade Developer Chair

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Tom in iPad Games, News

We have already stated in our first impressions of the iPad 2 that the display resolution was a key factor for games on the all new iPad 2. Now Chair Entertainment creative director, Donald Mustard has spoken with MTV Multiplayer about this exact aspect.

He says the fact that the iPad 2 has way more processing power yet still the same screen resolution was “the best news for gamers ever.” Basically, developers now can really use the “extra processing power for extra sweet graphics” rather than dedicating more processing power per pixel.

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infinity blade icon 2 iPad 2 Getting Much Closer To 360 Says Infinity Blade Developer ChairChair has released an update for Infinity Blade earlier today to take advantage of the additional horse power of the iPad 2. Mustard now revealed the update boosts texture resolution, adds normal maps, specular shaders and full screen anti-aliasing. Wow.

He further says that the decision to keep the resolution of 1024 x 786 pixels helped “getting much, much closer to 360″. While his technical advisers were expecting handheld devices to be equal or surpass what we are seeing on the PS3 or 360 in about three to five years, he now believes this to happen within the next two years.

This is great news! Head over to MTV Multiplayer to read the full interview.

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