iOS Rapid Fire Reviews

I've played a bunch of iOS games recently, and don't want to write full review for any of them, so here are rapid fire opinions.

New World Colony
Settlers of Catan meets Risk.  The gameplay is fun, and the game is free.  But the app slows down a lot, and crashes a lot too.  It takes 2-3x longer to play than it should.  If they fix the performance, I would highly recommend it.



Elder Signs
Yahtzee meets Arkham Horror.  I don't like either of the source games, and I'm sorry I spent money on this.  I played for about 30 minutes total, and don't expect to play any more.  Not even worth a picture.  Its actually well done, so if you think you would like it, don't let me turn you away.

Starbase Orion
Masters of Orion meets Masters of Orion.  This is a very faithful adaptation of MOO, one of the best empire building games of all time, but it runs on iOS!  There are a few changes from MOO, but they all seemed either good or neutral. I was so excited when I heard about this game, and bought it right away.  I only have an iPhone, so thats all I've played it on.  It is well done, and looks great.  But it just doesn't click, I think it is a bit too slow, and the iPhone screen is just too small.  Also it takes a while, and I could just play real MOO on my computer.  If it sounds cool to you, try it on an iPad.  I'll definitely give it another shot if I get an iPad.

Snuggle Truck
Drive a truck and try to keep stuffed animals from falling out.  I can't think of anything positive to say about this, but at least it was free.  Deleted.

Jetpack Joyride
Tiny Wings meets a jetpack.  This game is well done, and kind of fun.  You fly around a dude with a jetpack, he goes up when you press the screen, and falls when you don't, and he always goes right.  There are lots of power ups and unlocks.  This is an amazing amount of polish to put on a one button game, but in the end it is just a one button game, and I liked Tiny Wings more.

Amazing Breaker
Snood meets Angry Birds?  There is a free version, and I wish I knew that before I paid for the full version.  Basically you have a variety of bomb to throw at ice sculptures, and try to destroy the whole thing.  The art is pretty, but I didn't enjoy the gameplay much.  This is another one that you shouldn't let me turn you off, its well done, so if you think it will be fun, try the free version.

Cut the Rope
I loved this game.  Plus there are new levels, so I should have played those instead of all this other stuff.  Basically you cut ropes with your fingers and the candy falls and swings around, then you cut other ropes at the right time, and feed the candy to the OmNom.  There are some stars to try to get each level, and they keep adding new gameplay elements like a spider who climbs out the rope and steals the candy if you don't cut if fast enough.  Well worth $1.

Dungeon Raid
A rouge-like Bejeweled.  You match tiles to blow them up, and then new ones fall from the roof to replace them.  But these tiles give you money or experience, or refill your armor or health.  This game has very fun RPG elements, like leveling up and getting new skills, and getting your stats up  The skulls attack you each turn, so you need to kill them fast, or e able to soak up their hits.  Special (boss) skulls appear often.  There are different classes and races, but it takes too long to unlock them.  I played if furiously for a month or so after I got it, and it was totally worth $3.  There are many difficulty levels, and you will get a real challenge if you dare to crank it up.  There is a free version now, so give it a try.

Contre Jour
Cut the Rope, with the art from World of Goo, and less fun.  Instead of cutting rope, you deform the land by stretching or compressing it.  You still try to get a thing from one place to another.  I'm not a big fan.

iBlast Moki 2
Cut The Rope, except replace the rope with lots of bombs.  You again try to get a thing from one place to another place, but this time there could be more than one thing.  Your tools are a bunch of bombs, which explode based on a timer you can set.  This is a pretty cool game, and I'm amazed they managed to make a level editor that works on an iPhone.

Zenonia 3
A top down action RPG.  Emulating a controller with a touch screen doesn't work well, so the controls sucked.  The small amount of story I saw was pretty much what you'd expect from a mediocre RPG.

Kard Kombat
Magic meets Mortal Kombat, but it only gets the spelling of the second word.  You can download it free, then you buy the game in chunks with in app purchases.  It is a bit weird that your available cards for a given game are randomly chosen from all your unlocked cards, so it is hard to repeatedly use the same strategy.  The game is fun, and I got a good few weeks out of playing through to unlock everything after I bought four mages.  This competes with Ascension for the best card game I've played on the iPhone.

Godville
Progress Quest ruined.  Progress Quest was hilarious and amusing.  Godville is as close to Progress Quest I've seen on iPhone, but it doesn't get it quite right.  It lacks all the funny names, and constantly moving progress bars.  And worst of all, it gives you something to do.  Progress Quest is about being a zero player game, not about having buttons to press.  Really I'm just upset that I can't recapture the feeling I had when I first learned about Progress Quest.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
I don't get it. It a weird RPG with abstract dialogue and virtually non-existant gameplay. It is pretty, and I guess the music or sound is supposed to be cool.  People like it, but I don't see why.

Continuity 2
A cool puzzle game where you traverse a maze, but can also move the tiles of the maze to get to different places.  I thought it was a great idea, but I didn't actually enjoy playing it, so I stopped.

Tower Defense: Lost Earth
It's a tower defense game.  I liked it, but there isn't much to say.  Its just about what you expect, guys go down paths, and you build towers to shoot them.  There are rare use power ups.  Sometimes the controls are frustrating.  I'm guessing there are better tower defense games on the iPhone, but I haven't tried any of them.

Feed Me Oil
The Incredible Machine meets liquid physics.  You need to get oil from A to B, and you have things like platforms, fans and magic swirls to help you out.  I just checked and two more level sets have been released since I last played, so now I have an iPhone game to be excited about for a while.

Battleheart
I thought it would be like Final Fantasy Tactics.  Instead it has mediocre gameplay with frustrating controls, and I didn't like it.

Infinity Blade
Mike Tyson's Punch Out reborn as the most amazing looking game on iOS.  It is incredible that this game is even possible, the Unreal engine can manage .  The gameplay is to walk from fight to fight, with a few possible paths to get to the last boss.  You reset at the start if you win or if you die, and you level up and get equipment to get stronger.  The bad guys level up with you as well.  In the fights you use swipes and taps to dodge, block, and attack.  Basically the bad guys telegraph their attacks, and you guess (I guess maybe you could learn, but I'm horrible at learning attack telegraphs) which way it is coming from, and dodge or block in the right way.  Then wail on them for a while.  Get it to prove the iPhone can handle it, and it's an ok game too.

Tiny Wings
A one button timing game oozing charm.  All you do is press the screen to go down faster, and time it so that you get sweet air off the bumps.  It is a lot more fun than it sounds.  You get sets of 3 goals that allow you to "nest up."  It is unclear how nesting up helps you, but then you get more goals, so that is fun.  Eventually you will get stuck, but you'll have a good time until then.  I can't get to island 8.

Destructopus
You are Destructopus, devourer of side scrolling worlds.  Fun concept, not fun gameplay.

I must have trashed a game you liked in here somewhere, let me know how wrong I am in the comments.