A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Mr. HAND – The Hand Who Loved Me (iPhone)
Oct 8th
Not another vertically-scrolling Bond-themed, hand ‘em up! Haven’t we had enough of them already?
What?
Oh.
Well, this game was free last night, so I grabbed it.
You fly up the level, tilting left and right, trying to hit hands that you can beat and and avoid hands that will beat you.
It’s good fun, it works, but I didn’t feel that it had that special something that keeps you coming back to simple games like this. I’ll play it some more, though, and see if my opinion changes – these are very much first impressions.
Anyway, if it’s still free, go get it. Presentation-wise, you’ve never quite seen anything like it.
Edge Lite (iPhone)
Oct 8th
The full version’s back on the App Store, but costs £2.99, so I thought I’d play through the Lite before making a decision.
Oddly, I couldn’t control it. Bits that were easy last time I played were near impossible this time round. I’m not sure what’s changed, but it was a very frustrating experience and I didn’t even bother finishing the levels in the Lite version.
Won’t be buying the full version quite yet, then.
Tumiki Training Night (iPhone)
Oct 7th
I remember playing this on the PC years ago.
It’s a horizontal 2D shooter where you can catch enemies after you’ve killed them and use them as extra shields/weapons.
It’s nice enough, with good tilt controls that – hurrah! – come with sensible calibration options, for once.
Not sure I’ll buy the full version, even for 59p, as this demo level lasts about as long as I want to play, but I’m glad I downloaded it.
Samurai: Way of the Warrior (iPhone)
Oct 7th
A lunchtime spent cutting off heads is never a lunchtime wasted.
I finished off level three and then breezed through level four without a single death. Either I’m getting better or the difficulty level is all over the place, even in this new version. I suspect I’m getting better, though.
Perfect Balance: Harmony Lite (iPhone)
Oct 7th
I’ve been playing and enjoying the original web version of Perfect Balance, but I’ve finished all the levels. Last night I still felt the urge to play, but Flash runs horribly on my aging laptop at home, so instead of looking at the web-based sequel, I downloaded the Lite version of the iPhone version.
Didn’t take me long to get through the generous number of levels in the Lite, but it works well on the iPhone screen. I was worried about the accuracy, because when balancing things you really need to be pixel perfect, but I didn’t have any issues.
Anyway, I haven’t bought the full version yet – the Lite scratched my itch well enough last night – but I’m sure I will at some point.
Oh, yes, I should probably mention what type of game it is before I go, if the name and screen shot haven’t explained it well enough. Well, it’s a balancing game from the developer of the excellent iDrop Dead. There are some static shapes floating in space and you have to balance shapes on top of them to complete the level. It’s easy to pick up, the physics make sense and it’s really quite compulsive.
Real Racing (iPhone)
Oct 7th
Yet another game that I’m having to start from the beginning. I went in and did the first time trial in the career and got a silver trophy.
Couldn’t face a three race series so went and investigated the online options, which I’ve never tried before.
Maybe I’m just a bit dim, but it was all rather confusing. I had a choice of a couple of leagues, but I tried the first one and it wouldn’t let me do a race because I hadn’t unlocked that track in the single player game, so that was out.
Tried a second league and that let me play. I set times on three tracks – having to wait patiently for a timer to tick down between each race – then at the end I went into the Season Stats page and it showed me that I’d finished fourth in the league. I think that was the end, but there wasn’t a big ending screen with my results or anything, just that page. When I went it again the league was back in progress, though, I’m not sure what’s going on.
Like I said, I think I’m just being a bit dim, but I’ll stick to the single player stuff for now, I reckon.
Samurai: Way of the Warrior (iPhone)
Oct 7th
Hadn’t played this since getting a new iPhone, so I had to start over.
Got up to level three without much difficulty, though the rebalanced difficulty does seem to have made level two slightly harder and the big jump at level three doesn’t exist any more.
It’s still exceptionally beautiful and I do love cutting people in half and seeing heads roll. I just do.
I think I’m getting the combo timing down again, too. Seems to work best when you do the next gesture just as the animation for the previous gesture finishes, I think.
There’s a Lite version now, by the way, and the full thing’s on sale for 59p at the moment, so there’s no excuse for not having a go.
If you think you’ve found a bug on level one with a gate that won’t open, check out some paths to your left. Caught me out first time and almost caught me last night, too.
Stoneloops of Jurassica (iPhone)
Oct 7th
Went through another couple of levels last night.
Right now, the difficulty level is just about perfect for me. I can – and do – fail levels, but I win them more often. I like that sense of danger without getting stuck.
Hopefully the game won’t get too hard.
I’m doing better on the bonus levels now, so I’m starting levels with power-ups fairly often, which helps.
Alive 4-ever (iPhone)
Oct 6th
Oh, hey, I broke Survival mode.
I ran out of ammo and ran off to find some more, all panicked like. I noticed as I ran that no new zombies seemed to be arriving on screen. I shot one of the huge horde that was following me and – lo! – a new one appeared.
I tested it some more, running around for ages, leading the slow shambling mass of rotting flesh around the level. No new zombies. Shot a couple in the horde, two more appeared from offscreen.
So it appears that there’s a maximum number of zombies that the game can put in a level and, if you manage to get a load of slow ones, you can simply lead them round the level to your heart’s content.
It doesn’t affect the leaderboards or leveling up your character, as they both appear to be tied to the points that come from killing, but it does allow you to run around for ten minutes to unlock the super gold pistol.
It feels a bit cheap, but it’s an awesome gun. I went back into Survival mode after unlocking it and lasted nearly five minutes using that gun alone. That’s really not bad for a sub weapon. And, yes, I was actually killing zombies that time.
