A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Texting of the Bread (iPhone)
Sep 28th
Typing of the Dead, but with 2D side-on graphics and gingerbread men instead of zombies.
Basically, like.
Your weapon is milk.
Anyway, I’ve only tried Survival mode, which went on for bloody ages longer than I really wanted it to, so I haven’t got much to say. Honestly, I wouldn’t be blogging about it at all yet, but it’s the only game I played yesterday.
Dice Tower (iPhone)
Sep 27th
Build a tower of dice. Hence the name.
Really rather brilliant game where you have to build a tower out of dice. The rules are fairly complex, with trial and error working better at first that trying to read the rules. I’m not even going to try and explain them all, but the basics are that die you place must equal the sum or difference of the dice below.
It’s heavily reliant on luck, obviously, but there’s also a fair amount of strategy involved. I played this an awful lot at the weekend and I recommend it highly for some casual, thoughtful fun.
Splode (iPhone)
Sep 27th
It's a little bit gorgeous.
Free (when I downloaded it) chain reaction game. Think a pastoral, slow paced, rather dull EEEE. Still ate far too much of my time as it appears to be impossible to stop playing once you start.
Words With Friends/Pirates (iPhone)
Sep 27th
So, yeah, as well as playing many turns of Words With Friends every day, I’ve also been playing limited-time spin-off Words With Pirates.
It’s very, very silly.
A screenshot will explain all.
Yaarrrrrrgh!
Anyway, if you want to play, you better grab it now – apparently they’ll be turning off the servers before too long.
Heads Will Roll (iPhone)
Sep 24th
Heads do roll.
Fun tilting, drop-through-the-gaps game.
Yeah, that’s not really enough for a blog post is it? One measly sentence, it’s really not enough.
Um, er, oh, here’s a video of my cat playing with bubbles.
Will that do?
Super QuickHook (iPhone)
Sep 24th
It's still impossible to get a shot of the hook in action.
Haven’t played this in ages and ages.
I should have done though, because it’s all sorts of excellence.
Fast, fluid frozen fun.
Or something.
Slice It! FREE (iPhone)
Sep 23rd
This is not the way to complete this level.
Simple concept. You’ve got a shape and using a certain number of slices you have to slice the shape into a certain number of equally-sized pieces. This lite version is pretty generous, with over a dozen levels included. It’s enough for me to know that if I bought the full version I’d probably Hulk out and throw my phone across the room, so I think I’ll leave it.
It’s nothing wrong with the game, which takes a simple concept and presents it well, but the precision needed is a bit too much for me.
Robot Unicorn Attack (iPhone)
Sep 22nd
This is weird. A week after Game Center launches and Robot Unicorn Attack implements leaderboards and achievements… with OpenFeint.
Huh.
I hope this isn’t a trend. I don’t want another service to add to the list – I want Game Center to kick everyone else out of town and become the one, true way of comparing scores with my friends. And if they’re not going to go with Game Center surely – surely! – they should have gone with Facebook Connect so we can compare our scores with people playing the Facebook version?
LIVE IN HARMONY, HARMONY.
Also, Robot Unicorn Attack’s OpenFeint integration seems a little odd. It looks like it only uploads scores you’ve made since updating, not your best score so far. Not a problem for me, as I beat my old high score on my second go, but I imagine it’ll be annoying for some people.
Axe In Face (iPhone)
Sep 22nd
To kill some enemies the axe needs to pass through the fire on the way.
After playing more Axe In Face last night, I am pleased to confirm that it is still very good indeed. I have lost a few times, but I’ve not yet got to a level that’s seemed ridiculously hard. That may yet come, though.
Axe In Face (iPhone)
Sep 21st
And here it is, my saviour. The game that slapped a smile back on my face and restored my faith in iPhone gaming.
Ten reasons:
1 – It’s called Axe In Face. Axe in Face! Brilliant!
2 – You play a viking who is guarding his lovely daffodil garden from other vikings who want to trample all over it.
3 – You guard your flowers by, well, throwing your axe around and slicing vikings in two.
4 – The game uses a simple, effective line-drawing mechanic. You draw the axe’s path, let go of the screen, wait for the axe to return to you and do it again.
Or, indeed, axe in the back of the head.
5 – There are tons of levels.
6 – You earn medals when you complete levels, as well as getting a score, so there’s replay incentive even if you manage to complete every level.
7 – It’s absolutely gorgeous.
8 – It’s funny.
9 – It’s only 59p.
10 – YOU ARE A VIKING AND SLICE PEOPLE IN HALF TO STOP THEM STEPPING ON YOUR FLOWERS.
