A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Bird Strike (iPhone)
Feb 17th
Updated with a randomly-generated endless mode, is this now a rival to Doodle Jump? I’m not sure yet. It’s certainly enjoyable fun and adds a lot to the game, but I’m not sure if the fiddly bits are genuinely annoying or if I’m just a bit rubbish. Possibly both, thinking about it.
Achievement unlocked!
Anyway, you still have to zoom up and up, higher and higher, but now there’s no falling back down to consider. You can fall back down a little way, but beyond that it’s game over. Which is all as it should be.
If you’ve bought Bird Strike – and there’s no reason not to, quite frankly – it’s an excellent update, but I don’t think it quite pushes the game into the upper reaches of the “must have” iPhone games. It’s a fine game, but the iPhone’s got millions of those pesky little buggers. There’s no reason not to buy this, as I said, but there’s also no compelling reason to choose this over dozens of other equally good games.
Angry Birds (iPhone)
Feb 17th
Angry Birds is only game I played last night. I only had a three or four levels left to get three stars on and, though some were tricky, I made it in the end.
Yes, why thank you, I am bloody great.
Still some achievements left to get. There’s an interesting one I need to do by upping my score on the first batch of levels by 20,000 points, but the others are all “destroy X of Y” snorefests.
Look out below!
After that there are the leaderboards. Apparently, I’m top of one of them, but there’s no easy way to check, so I’ve no idea which level I’ve achieved godlike status on.
Wheeler’s Treasure (iPhone)
Feb 16th
Was feeling indecisive last night, so got my wife to pick a random game for me to play and she chose this. I’d completely forgotten how good it was. I was worried I’d have to go through the tutorial again, but when I started playing it was all very simple and soon I was rolling past friends’ gravestones and, after a couple of goes, even beat my own high score.
Ack! Stay out of the tar!
There are all sorts of unlockables – last night I unlocked a water bottle and a whole new game mode – and it’s fast, fluid and generally just pretty darn good. There are so many games I like, play for a day, then ignore. That doesn’t matter financially – even I can afford 59p here and there – but it’s a real shame when games of this quality are left to quietly rot on my iPhone.
I should play something random more often – it’s almost always a nice surprise.
Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies (iPhone)
Feb 16th
I found the power switch! Hooray! I also got a much higher score than I had before. I do love the double-barreled shotgun. It’s good for blowing off heads, limbs and assorted chunks of rotting zombie flesh. Still haven’t tried any of the drinks from the vending machines – they’re awfully expensive.
You know, this really is a brilliant game. The controls are spot-on, it’s graphically impressive, it’s friendly to people playing without sound and it’s just a great example of how care and attention can do the seemingly impossible. After all, who’d have thought that this game would actually work on the iPhone? Conventional wisdom is often just mob stupidity.
Just a little closer... but not too close.
It gives me hope for the recently-announced Street Fighter IV. If this can work, why can’t Street Fighter? Oh, I’m sure it’ll be simplified somewhat, but I’m willing to bet that fireballs will come more easily than with the standard Xbox 360 controller. You mark my words.
It’s also likely to be packed full of expensive DLC, but CoD: Zombies costs nine pounds for the game with two maps and is well worth the cash, expensive as it is for an iPhone game.
Angry Birds (iPhone)
Feb 16th
If I could change one thing about Angry Birds, I’d have it display the score targets for the star rankings somewhere. There’s nothing more annoying than beating your old two-star score by a few thousand points only to find that you still have reached the elusive three-star score.
Don't worry, it's not a real tank.
It happened several times last night. Everything went right, I beat my old score with ease, I expected to see three stars pop up, I was disappointed. I did manage to get three stars on another two or three levels, but the last few are proving very, very difficult to get. I’d at least like some sort of target.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Feb 16th
Thanks for those letters, stupid game.
I hate having a rack full of useless letters worth lots of points. I feel unable to swap them, because, after all, they’re worth lots of points, but I can’t use them, either. So I end up scraping words worth tiny amounts of points as I wait for a decent opportunity to use my big letters. I guess that the best thing would just be to do a swap – but what if my opponent got them and used them against me?
Robot Rampage (iPhone)
Feb 15th
Now, this I like!
The name is fairly descriptive. You’re a giant robot and you’re on a rampage. Or, more accurately, a Rampage. You see, this game is really quite reminiscient of that city-destroying coin-op classic. (Shut up. I liked it.)
Die, puny buildings, die!
Instead of climbing buildings, though, you lay waste to them with feet and fists and, mostly, a deadly laser beam that shoots out of your eyes. You stomp through randomly-generated city blocks, destroying the buildings and dealing with the assorted military units the game throws at you.
Even the high score table looks great.
It’s very stylish, the controls are absolutely perfect, it’s great fun and you always have to pay attention – even a lone solider can do a lot of damage if you don’t deal with him quickly. This is what I want to see more of on the App Store – polished bite-sized games that play to the format’s strengths.
I’m not sure how long I’ll play before I get bored of it, but for a little over a quid, it doesn’t need to last forever. I’ve had enough fun from it already, given the price.
Arodius (iPhone)
Feb 15th
Christ, this is dull. It’s a twin-stick shooter with lovely controls and nice, bright graphical style, but every level is just a few waves of uninteresting enemies, followed by a big version of one or two of those enemies. Then every six levels or so there’s a boss fight, which is a bit more interesting, but not much.
Pew pew pew pew pew snore.
The thing is, there might be a good game here. If higher difficulties through more enemies and bullets at you, it might get a lot more fun. Trouble is, those are locked until Easy mode is completed. I’m really not sure I can be bothered to continue. It’s not like I’m short of games to play.
The only other notable thing about the game is that Apple seem to think that it’s for over-seventeens only. I’m not quite sure why, unless it’s because there are fantasy women in small amount of clothing on some screens.
Why, yes, I would like to Sumit my score.
Maybe there’s some some incredibly rude action shots later in the game, but somehow I doubt it. I think it’s just weird American prudishness rearing its ugly head again.
Hook Champ (iPhone)
Feb 15th
Was tempted back to this by an update featuring John Gore from Minigore. Couldn’t find those levels – maybe you need to buy them in the shop, or something, I am stupid and forgot to look – but spent my time getting reacquainted with the game after a long time away.
Water is very annoying - stay out of it where possible.
The controls have changed, apparently, but it’s been so long since I last played that I couldn’t tell you how. It all seems more fluid than I remembered, though. I got very frustrated with the level I’d got to when I last played, until I worked out the best way to get through breakable blocks and remembered I had shoes that would let me jump up a long way. Once I’d worked that out, the level turned out to be pretty easy. It’s just a shame it took me about ten tries to remember how everything worked.
I’m looking forward to really getting back into this now I’ve worked it all out again – but whether I will or not is another question. Still, that’s the great thing about the iPhone. I’ve got dozens of games sitting there, waiting to be played again at any time.
Angry Birds (iPhone)
Feb 15th
This level is harder than it looks.
Up to two stars on all the new levels now, but I’m having trouble getting three stars on some of them. I need to think harder – I’ve found that, generally speaking, if you’re having trouble getting three stars the problem lies in the plan, not the execution. Accuracy is important, but pixel-perfect positioning and blind luck don’t play as much of a part as many people think.
