A Gaming Diary
iPhone
ZX Nostalgia (iPhone)
Jun 28th
Ah, the Speccy. The best of the eighties home computers.
Yes it was! Shut up! No arguments! Colour clash was cool! And the rubbery keyboard was awesome! La la la la I can’t hear you!
Oh, Horace, I miss you.
Anyway, on Saturday a Spectrum emulator appeared on the App Store, with fourteen games included. Whether they’re licenced or not, I don’t know, so I expect the app to be taken down before long. I’m glad I grabbed it, though. The controls are slightly annoying, it seems like it might be running a bit fast on my 3GS and there’s no way add more games – but I had a genuinely enjoyable time lying in bed on Saturday morning playing Horace Goes Skiing, Deathchase, Manic Miner, Chuckie Egg, etc.
The controls made ladders difficult, but I still had fun.
Shame that I hate level three of Chuckie Egg as much as I always did. And was Wheelie always that hard, or is it just the controls?
I know people have issues with the controls and emulation, but as a nostalgia rush – and that’s the name, after all – I’m not going to be complaining.
FIFA World Cup (iPhone)
Jun 28th
So, I ran through yesterday’s games to get the results I wanted.
I made it all better!
Yay Mexico! Hooray!
You know, the more I play FIFA, the more I like it. It’s a great little footie game. For quick games where I can play current World Cup matches, it’s just about perfect. Very enjoyable stuff. I might put the difficulty level up at some point, but right now being able to play games I know I’ll win is just what I want.
Angry Birds (iPhone)
Jun 28th
That's a bit of a mess... and it's about to get messier when that bomb explodes.
Well, I’ve got all the latest levels up to two stars now, but getting the full three stars is proving tricky. I’ve got a few, but not as many as I’d expect after the amount of time I’ve put in.
This, I feel, is a good thing.
Twin Blades (iPhone)
Jun 28th
Tried the boss again.
Went through earlier levels to become more powerful.
Tried the boss again.
Gnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng...
No luck, very annoying.
So I’m really not sure why I’ve not deleted the game yet, but some strange force beyond my understanding is keeping it on my iPhone.
The Red Star Lite (iPhone)
Jun 25th
Conversion of a cult favourite that came out on the PS2 and, I believe, the Xbox. (I had the PS2 version, but didn’t play it very much – I don’t even seem to have blogged about it.)
It’s a fairly impressive conversion, too. There’s quite a lot of slowdown on my 3GS – no iPhone 4 for me… ever, I doubt – but it’s by no means unplayable. The controls also work really well – there’s been a lot of thought put into these. Shame the instructions still talk about the PS2 buttons at times, but it’s not a big deal. The Lite version also has a lot of game in it. I’ve not managed to finish it yet.
Mostly it's a scrolling beat/shoot-em-up, but sometimes it's a straight bullet hell shooter.
The main problem is that the game lacks checkpoints. Every time I’ve died I’ve had to start back the beginning of the first level, had to read the same text, had to fight the same enemies, had to face off against the same mid-boss, etc. I remember it being slightly shocking on the PS2, on the iPhone it just doesn’t work.
So why do I keep going back?
Shaolin Training (iPhone)
Jun 25th
So, the developer messaged me and told me that his game was free for a few days and it’d be nice if I downloaded it.
So I did.
And what can I say? It’s the best monk-themed, physics-based, crate-tipping game that I’ve ever played. EVER.
Fly, boxes, fly!
You’re a little monk chap, there are lots of crates and boxes on the level. You have to run around and push them off the level, while not falling off yourself. Not falling is made more difficult by all the cannonballs being fired at you, but just running off the level like an idiot is always a danger.
The controls work well enough, though getting in just the right position to push smaller boxes can be a pain. The recharging special move is nice.
It hasn’t set my world on fire, but I have been going back. How long I’m keep going back, though, remains to be seen.
Twin Blades (iPhone)
Jun 25th
Apparently, Twin Blades has had a huge update since I last played it, but I’m not entirely sure what’s different. Possibly the story wasn’t there before. Maybe the upgrade shop is different. I can’t really remember.
Killing zombies all day long, la la la la.
Regardless of the changes, the core gameplay seems to be the same as I remember. Run to the right, kill everything in your way in a glorious spray of blood and ashes. It’s fantastic fun in short bursts, but there’s a problem.
Arrrrghhhhhhh!
Yep, that’s a boss. A great, mean fucker of a boss. Oh, yes, I’m sure I could (a) go back and level up or (b) get some fucking skills, but I’m not sure I’ve got the will for it. The game’s still on my iPhone, but it’s hanging on by the skin of its teeth right now.
Rogue Planet (iPhone)
Jun 23rd
It’s a bit like Advance Wars, but with less charm, based on doing the first one and a half missions.
One and a half?
Why, yes. And, yes, maybe it should be hyphenated, I’m really not sure.
You see, in the first (non-combat) mission, it told me I could blow up bridges. So I did. In the second mission, I saw lots of enemies advancing, so blew up the bridge again. (It’s the same map, the bridge was magically repaired between missions.) That was fine. It slowed the enemy advance and meant I could pick them off when they were in the river.
Yesterday upon the stair I met a bridge that wasn't there.
But then my last soldier unit died. And vehicles can’t cross water. I was left with a bunch of tanks and stuff on one side of the river, the enemy had a mecha unit on the other side. No ranged attacks for either side, no way over the river… stalemate. The game didn’t notice, though, so days passed while neither of us did anything – and then I quit.
That, along with a generally-good-but-sometimes-annoying touch interface and TOO MANY WORDS BETWEEN MISSIONS meant that I deleted the game from my phone. It doesn’t take much at the moment.
Still, it’s very polished and it was free, so I’m not going to cuss it out. Just, right now, I do not feel the need of it.
Prince of Persia Retro (iPhone)
Jun 23rd
I bought this very game for my Sega Master System when I was in my second year of my degree. I wrote down the level codes as I went along… then finished the game the day I got it. So I carefully snipped the page of the manual I’d scrawled the codes on and took the game back to Our Price on Broad Street and they gave me a refund.
Slightly underhanded, that was.
You utter, utter bastard, Prince.
Anyway, the iPhone version may be the same game with different graphics – it’s so long ago that any differences are invisible to me – but I just can’t get used to the iPhone controls and keep missing jumps and getting very frustrated.
Deleted, yes.
Plushed (iPhone)
Jun 23rd
Nice little platformer, but I ran out of pizza so couldn’t open a snake and deleted the game in a fit of pique.
Sorry, Plushed, you probably deserved better.
Stuck. Bollocks. Can't be bothered to restart level.
You also probably a deserve a longer blog post, explaining the mechanics and talking about the graphics and all that stuff, but this is all you’re getting.
Feel free to feel deeply aggrieved – especially as I downloaded you when you were free.
