A Gaming Diary
Archive for August, 2009
Mini Taxi (iPhone)
Aug 28th
Just a quickie.
Mini Taxi is currently free, but only for the next few hours.
It’s a top-down driving game, very reminiscent of Sega classic Crazy Taxi. It seems okay from the quick go I just had, but I’m not sure I’d want to pay for it. So download it now and you won’t have to.
Inkvaders (iPhone)
Aug 28th
It’s funny what can make you finally give in and buy a game. People on the Internet have been praising Inkvaders. It’s currently only 59p, but will be going up in price soon. Two good reasons to buy there, but the thing that finally pushed me over the edge was when I read that the hero’s name was Generic Marine. (His friends call him G.)
Generic Marine. Honest, with a pinch of humour.
Sold.
Anyway, the game. It seems all right, actually. You run left and right and shoot martians until their brains fall out. Sometimes you boost yourself up into the air to grab meteors, which act as the game’s currency. There are weapon upgrades, item boxes, that sort of thing.
It’s all presented in a charming style, with a human hand changing pages as you go through the menus and everything looking like paper cutouts. (Not unlike Zombies vs. Sheep, actually. Really must play that again sometime.)
So, yeah, seems to be worth 59p, but I can’t say I’m too wild about it. May well grow on me, though. Watch this space.
Trace (iPhone)
Aug 28th
Trace.
It’s a platform game… where you make the platforms.
Use the buttons at the bottom of the screen to move left and right and jump, draw platforms on the screen to help you get to the exit.
It’s a lovely little idea and packed with a lot of levels.
Unfortunately, I find the buttons a little too small and the line drawing a bit imprecise. The curse of the giant digits strikes again. And the difficulty curve is all over the place.
It is, however, completely free, so there’s no excuse not to try it.
Puzzlings (iPhone)
Aug 28th
Played some more of this last night and had a very good time.
There’s not an awful lot to say about it, no, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth playing. In fact, it’s pretty much essential if it’s still 59p. It’s gone up a bit, though, it’s still a very good buy.
I’ve still not failed a level – apart from the puzzle levels – but the bar’s been down in the red a few times now.
Alive 4-ever (iPhone)
Aug 27th
Left 4 Dead. On the iPhone. Without online play, just local Bluetooth. Also top-down. Also set in arenas.
It looks like this.
So, yes, it’s another top-down, twin-stick shooter. It’s a good one, though. The controls work nicely and each level has a main objective and a bonus objective. The first level tasks you with killing sixty zombies, the challenge is to kill them in less than three minutes. A few levels later and you have to rescue a survivor, the challenge being not to let any survivors die. The level after that asks you retrieve a briefcase with a vaccine in it, the challenge wants you to kill fifty zombies on the way. It mixes things up nicely, especially as survivors need to be protected as shuffle slowly to the safe zone and when carrying a briefcase you can only use your pistol, rather than your main gun.
There’s even an RPG-style levelling system, that lets you upgrade your character.
You also earn money for new weapons by completely levels and doing challenges gets you bonus equipment, like extra health or ammo. It’s a nice system that keeps you play and it all adds up to being one of the best shooters on the App Store, even in single-player. (I doubt I’ll ever be able to try the multiplayer mode.)
My only quibble right now – apart from the standard problem of your thumbs obscuring the bottom corners of the screen – is that you don’t seem to be able to see whether or not you’ve completed the challenge for a level when you’re selecting a level to play. That’s going to be annoying, I think.
Sketch Hop (iPhone)
Aug 27th
I’ve downloaded the game several times, both via my computer and direct to my iPhone. I’ve rebooted, done a hard reset, freed memory using the Activity Monitor app, I even did a Restore in iTunes. (I did then restore from an old backup, rather start over fresh. There’s only so far I’ll go!)
Still, the results are the same. I start Sketch Hop, I get this.
The music starts, stutters for a while, then seems to play okay. I even seem to get a few sound effects, but all I see are shifting blocks on the screen, often with a little bit of fancy shading over on the left of the screen. In case the developer comes back again and finds it useful, here are some of my stats from Activity Monitor.
I’m a bit worried that there’s something wrong with my iPhone hardware, but I’ve tried Blue Skies 3GS, my only 3GS-only app and games like Terminator Salvation and Real Racing and they all play fine.
Oh, and for the record, I have not “jailbroken” my iPhone. It’s running all official software and always has been.
Sketch Hop (iPhone)
Aug 26th
Hmpf.
New free 3GS-only game showing off Mad Monkey’s new sketch shaders.
Except, when I try to play it, I just get screens that look like this.
That’s after rebooting, redownloading, even a hard reset.
Bother.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Aug 26th
When you wish upon a star… oh, wait, as far as I can tell, you can’t do that in this version.
