A Gaming Diary
iPhone
33rd Division (iPhone)
Oct 23rd
Cor. Also: blimey. The second level is a bit of a tough one. First you have to get through a narrow pass under the gaze of a machine gun nest and then there’s a patrolling guard who always seems to be in the worst position possible.
I think that – for Time mode at least, which, as I said yesterday, is very much where it’s at – the only way to be successful is to have lots and lots of soldiers coming in and lots and lots of soldiers lying down on the ground waiting for a chance to move. However, multitasking that much is pretty much beyond me. I think my best score is about twenty-three, which is pitiful.
Now, don’t get the wrong impression. Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s not. A stiff challenge can still be great fun – and is here.
geoDefense Swarm (iPhone)
Oct 23rd
I fancied some tower defense and I wasn’t feeling very well, so I didn’t want to play my iPhone in landscape mode. How that works, I don’t know, but I definitely wanted to keep it upright.
Anyway, I had a few tries of the second Medium level and died horribly each time.
I know I nearly had it last time I tried, but I can’t remember how I had everything set up. Sigh.
It’s a great game and all, but it hates me.
SkySmash 1918 (iPhone)
Oct 23rd
Gorgeous vertical shooter. Oddly, the best controls are off by default, but a quick dip into the options sorts that out.
I haven’t got off the first level yet – the boss keeps killing me despite not actually seeming to be very difficult – so I’m not comfortable offering any sort of verdict, but it seems good from a few quick goes.
33rd Division (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
Okay, I’ve had more time with this game now and am prepared to offer my verdict. Are you ready? My verdict is this: 33rd Division is an excellent little game and for 59p it’s an absolute bargain. It’s fast, frantic and heart-stoppingly tense at times – far more so than Sniper Vs Sniper, which isn’t any sort of slouch in the tension department itself.
This is especially true of Time mode. In Life mode, you have a set number of lives, in Time mode a set amount of time, which gets topped up every time a soldier reaches home. This may not sound like much of a difference, but the difference in the way the game plays is astonishing. In Life mode, you can deal with one soldier at a time, but in Time mode there’s no such luxury. Unless you constantly bring extra soldiers into play you will run out of time very, very quickly. This means that lying down to wait for enemies to look away becomes a necessity you can ill afford and you’re constantly dealing with two or three soldiers at once. It’s a much better way to play the game and I can’t see myself going back to Life mode – unless I’m feeling very lazy or I need to play it to unlock maps.
Also, I’ve got quite a good position on the scoreboard right now, which is nice.
Sniper Vs Sniper: Online (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
From the chaps that brought us Baseball Slugger (or Homerun Battle, as I think they renamed it), comes this sniper game. I’ve not tried the online part yet – I’m only on GPRS here, which I don’t think would be very good for online gaming – but I’ve played through the first three levels of the single player game. It’s probably easier to show, rather than tell.
You look at a scene. Somewhere in it are snipers.
You look for them through your binoculars, moving your view by tilting your iPhone.
When you spot a bad guy, you change to the view down your rifle scope.
And then you shoot him.
It’s easy to pick up, but it’s going to be hard to master. Getting head shots isn’t as simple as you might think and it’s very tense stuff. I suspect it’s only really going to come alive online, though.
33rd Division (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
Do you like line drawing games like Flight Control and Harbor Master, but wish they were a bit more manly? Are you worried that you’re somehow dicing with your testosterone levels by playing games with little boats and planes? Do you only like games that feature Nazis or other evil foreign types? Then 33rd Division might look appealing, being a line drawing game with a rugged World War Two theme.
But – ha! – the joke’s on you, because it still looks quite cute. And – oh no! – all your soldiers have forgotten to bring their guns to the war. Frankly, you might just as well buy the America’s Next Top Model game and be done with it. Fierce.
Yeah, sorry, I’ve been spending too much time on forums populated by teenagers who are in that appalling stage of their lives where everything has to be serious and grown up and definitely not for children. Luckily, I’ve outgrown that phase, though I can still remember only wanting to read graphic novels and not comics. Teenage boys are idiots. All of them.
Um, right, where was I? Oh, yes, 33rd Division is a line drawing game. Like the others, your units (in this case tiny soldiers) come in from the sides of the screen and you have to direct them home. The difference here – apart from the WW2 skin – is that you’re not trying to keep your units from hitting each other, but to get them home without enemies seeing them. Enemy soldiers patrol around the screen and have vision cones. If they see you, you’re dead. You can lie down to stay out of sight, even when an enemy’s in range, but you can’t move and dogs can still spot you.
Basically, it’s the world’s first stealth line drawing game. (The first one that I’ve seen, at least.)
I’ve only had one very quick go so far, but it seems like a nice twist to the standard formula and I think I’m going to enjoy it.
Baseball Superstars 2010 Free (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
This is the sequel to one of my favourite games, but I haven’t bought the full version. Mostly because it didn’t look like it was enough of an upgrade to be worth the vast sum of £3.49.
Luckily, there’s now a demo version, which I played for a while last night. As expected, it’s rather unexciting. It’s better, don’t get me wrong. The graphics are nicer, I like choosing a goal at the start of a season and it’s good to have touchscreen menus. It just doesn’t quite feel different enough. As soon as they drop the price I’ll probably jump on it, but for now I’ll stick with the 2009 version, unless further play of the demo brings out any hidden depths.
iDrop Dead: Flower Edition (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
Unlocked the final world last night. It’s all bouncy. Not quite sure how to deal with it, to be honest, and I’m not getting great scores so far. Nice to have something new, though.
The picture below isn’t of the new world, it’s from an earlier world. Those pink circles are bombs that are triggered if something hits them. One of them has just started to explode.
Things might get messy. Hopefully. Messy = points.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 22nd
I managed to get rid of all seven of my letters last night – and make quite a rude word with them to boot. Very satisfying.
Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, the game had an update. That’s not usually a bad thing and this adds push notifications and ways to spam social networking sites with adverts for the game (or something), but it’s also has given the game a new icon. Now, it might look fine sitting with all the other icons on one of your Home screen, but I’ve got the game in the dock and it looks horrible.
Yuck. I think I may write to my MP about this outrage.
Minigore (iPhone)
Oct 21st
Another day, another Minigore update. This one’s mainly to fix the terrible bugs in the last version, but also adds some extended music and adds power-ups to the radar.
You see that picture? I risked life and limb to take that. You see the little icon on the right of the screen there? The one with the yellow circle around it? It shows that there’s a crate over in that direction.
So, nothing very new then, but Minigore remains a fantastic piece of shooting action that should probably come preinstalled on every iPhone to prove to people that virtual controls can work.
