Supergay - 2.99 (Klicrainbow)

Supergay is a game from Klicrainbow, which has a lot of mini-games that you play while going through the story of Super gay & The Attack of His Ex-Girlfriends. Now, when I first heard of this game, I was a little worried that people would take it too seriously, and it really seems like they have. It’s a ridiculously weird comic book type story game that revolves around a gay character, but there’s a lot of humor in it, and a game with humor revolving around gay culture is going to get a few nasty reviews and bad press no matter how well it’s done.

In Supergay, you play as Tom, a scientist who has discovered the secrets to cloning, and is about to be married to his boss’s daughter. But he’s also gay, and just came out of the closet. So, what does he decide to do? Clone himself, of course, so that his clone can go through with the wedding. But things don’t turn out as planned, and inevitably, Supergay is born.

The mini-games throughout the game are decent enough. Some of them will have you fighting off girlfriend clones, while others will have you making the clone machine work, or hiding from the press while making it into the office. There’s a good variety of games, and each of them has nice, tight, responsive controls. Between the mini-games, you’ll have cut-scenes for the story, tapping on the screen to move on in the dialogue. The graphics are, like you’d expect, very vibrant and colorful, and look very polished and professional.

The story in Supergay is actually very well written, and the plot is well executed. Character’s change, drama unfolds, and there’s quite a bit of humor. It doesn’t drag on, or get boring, and as hard as having a story based game is, Klicrainbow has pulled it off extremely well.

There’s not really much more to say about Supergay, except that if you enjoy mini-games, and don’t mind reading a story while you play a game, and are not offended by gay culture, or by a developer making fun of gay culture (which you might take it as), then Supergay is a game that you should have. There is pretty much no replayability though, and once you get done with it, you’ll probably never open it again. No online services makes it tough to keep on your device as well. Is it worth $2.99? Probably not, but then again, it’s very hard to put a price on smiles and laughs these days, and I think $3 for this story game is a reasonable price. Especially since it’s Universal and the last update added 6 new levels, speaking of which, is probably the only reason you’d keep it on your device, the addition of new levels with updates. But Klicrainbow has done a great job creating a world for Tom/Supergay, and I hope to see them expand on it in the future, and maybe create a full-fledged platformer or action/adventure game to go along with this game.

I’m giving Supergay a rating of 7.5 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/supergay/id439497294?mt=8

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Acid Rain - 0.99 (Bal Rokko)

Acid Rain is a new swipe/tap casual arcade game from Bal Rokko. There’s only one game mode to play at the moment, called Flower. In Flower Mode, you need to tap or swipe on the drops of acid rain coming down from the sky, in waves towards the flowers, while trying to not hit the good drops of rain, or the lightning drops, which kill a flower if you hit them, letting them go down into the ground. The game is over when the gauge on the left side of the screen fills up with acid drops as they hit the ground, or if you hit 3 lightning drops, killing all 3 flowers.

The scoring in Acid Rain is extremely good, you get one point for each drop of acid rain that you tap to pop, but if you swipe through the drops of acid rain without lifting your finger off of the screen, you get a combo score. After swiping through 10 drops, your score will double, and goes up with each 10 drops that you swipe through in succession. Hitting a regular drop of rain while in the middle of a combo resets it to zero, so you really need to be careful not to hit the blue drops of rain coming down. Having a perfect combo swipe gets you 3 stars at the end of the level, which is 10 points for the first star, 25 for the second, and 100 for the third, all added together. So, for instance, in the first wave, if you swipe through all 8 acid rain drops, you’ll get 8 points, then because of the combo, you’ll get 3 stars, which will add up to be 135 points. Add on the 8 points for the acid drops, and you’ll have 143 points. You also get points for each flower that survives each storm, and this score also goes up as you progress through the storms. So a lot of work has gone into making Acid Rain a game that’s really focused on combos and high scoring.

There’s also power-ups that really help you build your score. One power-up is a rainbow that goes all the way across the screen, and turns each raindrop that goes through it into a rainbow drop. Popping each of these adds to your combo bonus, as well as gives you 10 points per drop popped, and is a great way to make your score skyrocket. Another power-up is a 500 point ball that you just need to swipe through or tap on to get. These 500 point balls are also multiplied by your current drop multiplier. So if you’re swiping through drops, and you’re on your 35th drop, and then swipe through the 500 point ball, it’ll be multiplied by 4 making it 2000 points, all of this, again, adding a ton to the scoring mechanics of Acid Rain.

The addition of GameCenter also helps drive this high-scoring affair, and adds quite a bit to the replayability of the game. However, there are no achievements, which would have been very nice to see in this game, considering you’re getting huge combos, big scores, and an insane number of rain drops while moving through wave after wave and storm after storm.

The graphics in Acid Rain are great, very vibrant, even though you’re mainly playing in the rain and the sky is usually grey, the rainbow, rainbow drops, and green and blue rain drops really pop when they’re set against the grey background. The flowers also dance while you’re playing, and really are quite cute. The animation of the rain popping is really good as well, and there’s a line that follows your finger as you swipe across the screen. Some levels also include a wind mechanic that makes the rain drops swing back and forth. All of this really adds to the atmosphere and great polished look of the game. It is retina display supported, but not Universal.

All-n-all, Acid Rain is a solid casual arcade game that’s good for gamers of all skill levels, and all ages. Later in the game it gets pretty challenging, as they throw in 2 acid drops per row of rain, and I’m assuming there’s 3, eventually, but I haven’t gotten that good at it yet. It’s very polished, and there’s more content to come with future updates, which I’m really excited about. Especially the addition of the next game mode. At $0.99, it’s a great buy, and isn’t going to be deleted from my device any time soon.

Acid Rain is getting a score of 8.5 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acid-rain/id412650688?mt=8

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'AlphaBalls Review' Do You Have The Balls To Try This Game?

Think of all the cliche alien movies you have seen this year. About 100% of them have huge Michael Bay- esque explosions and  awesome futuristic weapons.  Alpha Balls also has to do with an alien invasion but fortunately does away with all the over used explosions so common in main stream media.
When you first start up the game you are brought to a menu screen where you have a few different options.  You can check out the gamecenter leaderboards and see how your friends are doing, go through the tutorial, and finally start a game.  There is only one game mode; Survival, and it is score based.  You can try to compete for a high score by playing survival for a long time or just play it for fun.
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The main enemy in the game is an alien spacecraft that is trying to destroy the earth.  They're not using heavy arms or swarms of enemies but are hedging the success of their mission on throwing large balls at our planet and hoping we are obliterated. But dammit were AMERICA we don't stand for shenanigans like that!  Our awesome and high tech solution is to shoot balls back at their balls so that they are pushed away from our planet, hopefully hitting our annoying neighbors.  The ball shooting device is similar to a tennis serving machine and machine-gun fires the balls right back at them.  In order to shoot you drag your finger on the lower part of the screen in the direction you want to fire.  Keep in mind you have a limited amount  of ammo that replenishes slowly so you really have to be strategic in where and what you shoot of.  Unfortunately that means you cant have extreme firing rampages like in Rambo but that would just make the game too unbalanced. If you tap the screen with 2 fingers a charged shot is released that has more impact power than the regular shots. Using this ability decreases the shot meter by 5 shots which you could have used defending your base. You start off with a shield but that diminishes when it gets hits more than once which leaves no room for error. The game gets really intense later on in survival mode and will have you hooked trying to save your base.
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Overall this is a great physics based shooting game but is a little lacking on content.  More enemy types besides the 2 currently in the game would make the game more strategic as well.  I give it a 4/5 stars.
Info:
Releasing Sept. 1st
Price: 0.99
Devs: Appsolute Entertainment
Note: Pictures will be added once the game is released along with the unreleased video.

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Dino Survival - 0.99 (SomeHand)

Dino Survival is a new tilting arcade game from SomeHand. There’s two different game modes Meteor Garden, and Last Place. In Meteor Garden, it’s your job to collect as many fruits as you can, while avoiding randomly falling meteors. You’ll need to grab fruits as fast as you can, back to back, in order to get big combo bonus scores, and one hit from a meteor, or go too long without any fruit, and it’s game over. In Last Place, you’ll face more pattern oriented meteors, all falling at once. While trying to get out of the way of the meteors, you’re given one fruit, for each pattern, to try and collect. Get hit once, or miss out on too many fruits in a row, and it’s game over.

The controls in Dino Survival are nice and responsive, but you’re only able to choose between three different calibration options, and no sensitivity options. Almost every tilting game in the AppStore should have calibration and sensitivity options, because, of course, we all like to hold, and play, our iDevices differently. Also adding a joystick for gamers with iPads would have been a great idea, as it can get pretty tiring tilting your big iPad around for any length of time.

Graphics-wise, Dino Survival is cute, and polished. The animations are good, and the shadows for the falling meteors get bigger and bigger as the meteors get closer to hitting the ground. The addition of fruits makes the game more vibrant, as do the 5 environments. There are 2 unlockable dinosaurs, but they don’t have different playing mechanics. There’s no movement difference between any of them, and no special attributes for the unlockable characters. Having this would have made a big difference in the game.

GameCenter leader boards exist for both game modes, but there are no achievements. In a game like Dino Survival, where you’re collecting items and dodging things continuously, achievements are always nice to have. But the lack of them doesn’t hurt the gameplay too much, and the leader boards help add replay value to the game.

In the end, Dino Survival is a solid casual arcade game, and SomeHand has shown that they can put a good game together. However, it does feel like there’s a lack of content here, and if SomeHand had spent just a little more time adding little different mechanics, and maybe some power-ups, or more modes, Dino Survival could have easily been a must buy game. Right now, Dino Survival is free, but the price will go back up to $0.99 soon, and if you miss out on the free promotion, you can rest assured that this game is worth the $0.99 you’ll spend on it, especially if the developers keep adding to the game, and making it the best they can.

I’m giving Dino Survival a score of 6 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dino-survival!/id458568138?mt=8

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Save Yammi HD- 0.99 (Bulkypix)- "Not Cut the Rope!"

There's no doubt in the world that when you first see this game your first thought is "Wait, this looks just like Cut the Rope"! It does sort of resemble Cut the Rope, especially since the main character in this game Yammi bares a strong resemblance to Om Nom. Even though Save Yammi HD [$0.99 (iPad Only)] by Bulkypix looks like it might be a ripoff of Cut the Rope, it's not. It's actually the complete opposite. You could actually say that Save Yammi builds off of the things that made Cut the Rope such a success and they turn it into their own. In this game your goal is to deliver the cookie into Yammi's mouth. In each of the over 100 levels you can collect the stars within each level to earn bonus points to boost your overall score. There is a

rope that you can use in this game, but there's no cutting ropes. Instead you can draw the ropes. You can draw the ropes before you start the level by popping the bubble that holds the cookie. The bad part is that you can only draw the ropes you'll need at the very second you begin the level, because the ropes actually start to vanish as time moves on. So that means by the time you're near Yammi your rope that you drew might have completely disappeared there. One of the coolest things about the ropes is that once you draw it, it's not completely straight. It actually acts like a real rope by sort of drooping down a bit once you set it. You're also only given a limited amount of rope to use. I actually love the idea of being able to draw ropes. It might take you a couple of replays to get the ropes exactly where you want them, but that's what keeps you playing and makes the game absolutely addictive! New elements in the game are gradually added over the 100 levels. There's power-ups that allow you to float and a bunch more of other things. There's also a great deal of obstacles such as electric volts to watch out for or lightning to avoid or risk getting your cookie obliterated into pieces! I also forgot to mention that the gyroscope in the game is extremely helpful and works perfectly. Overall, I found Save Yammi HD to be a fantastic puzzler. There's definitely a lot more thinking in this game

then there is to me in Cut the Rope. The levels in this game were just very well done and though out. This right here is a true puzzle game. My final score is 4/5 stars. The game can be frustrating at times but in the end it'll keep you coming back every time. So if you're looking for a cute challenging game or your a Cut the Rope fan and you want more of a challenge then go check out Save Yammi HD by Bulkypix for $0.99 here. This game is only available for iPad... no I'm just kidding. You can also pick it up for your iPhone & iPod Touch for just $0.99 also here.

Gameplay/Trailer

Save Yammi for iPhone & iPod Touch [$0.99]

Save Yammi Lite for iPhone & iPod Touch [FREE]

Save Yammi HD for iPad [$0.99]

Save Yammi HD Lite for iPad [FREE]

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Goop - 0.99 (Fine & Dandy Games)

Goop is a new casual arcade game from Fine & Dandy Games. In it, you will try and save the Eeeps by getting them from one side of the screen to the other without letting them get hit by the dripping goop. There’s 4 different environments in which you can try and save the Eeeps in, each with different goop set-ups. Four different characters, each with different mechanics and ways of moving helps add a bit of strategy to the game as well.

The graphics in Goop are great, nice, polished, and presented in Retina Display. The four environments are each wonderfully colored, and are extremely varied. Each one of the Eeeps are different colors, pink, bright green, dull green, and purple, making it easy to tell which Eeeps you are dealing with, and needing to get across the screen. The controls are good and responsive, you touch the Eeeps to make them jump forward, and tap, hold, and drag them left to pull them backwards a bit.

Goop is definitely a nice pick-up-and-play game, easy to waste a few minutes on whenever you’ve got a couple minutes to spare. It’s easy enough to be accessible for kids, but challenging enough to keep even adults entertained.

There are 4 different leader boards on GameCenter, along with 22 achievements, adding quite a bit to the replay value. There is, however, no mode select, or difficulty change options, though the difficulty does go up as you play, changing the rate and timing of the goop drips. Having different modes made for a game like Goop would have been a great idea. The game seems to be set up perfectly for a Challenge Mode, or something of that sort. A Story Mode would have also been a great idea for the game, finding out why they’re away from their home, or why they need to get back would have made the game more entertaining.

With the 4 different environments, there’s not much content in the way of gameplay. Each world is the size of the screen, and does not scroll. Most games with one-screen levels give us way more than 4 levels, so seeing this was kind of disappointing.

What really does stand out are they graphics, easy playability, the climbing difficulty, and the scoring system. Once you get a certain number of Eeeps across the screen, you’ll enter bonus modes, increasing your score quite a bit, and driving you to get more and more Eeeps across the screen. The climbing difficulty helps keep the game entertaining to hardened gamers, and the leader boards and achievements add that extra challenge.

In the end, Goop is a cute casual game that’s great for kids as well as adults, and casual to hardcore gamers. It could just use a bit more content and gameplay. But for $0.99, it’s a great buy, as it’s a game that could potentially stay on your device for a long, long time. Fine & Dandy Games have shown that they know what makes a game accessible to everyone, and I’m excited to see what they’re next offering to the AppStore will be. I do hope to see more done with Goop, but it’s worth buying as is now, as it’ll give you more entertainment than 4 quarters spent at the arcade.

Goop is getting a score of 7 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goop/id426940636?mt=8

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'Dragon Fantasy' Review- Retro RPG's and Humour Go Suprisingly Well Together

Harkening back to the good old days of RPG's is Muteki Corp's newest game, Dragon Fantasy.  Right from the start with the hilarious intro you know this is going to be a great experience.  After the intro you start off in the kingdom of Wester where the new king is about to be crowned.  Then suddenly a Dark Knight comes and states that his master demands an audience with the prince who was going to be crowned.  Ogden(your in game character) chases after the Dark Knight to attempt to get the Prince back.

You control your character by dragging your finger in the direction you want your character to move in.  The controls are quite smooth and you can use any part of the screen for control.  You move across the expansive continent similar to how you do in Final Fantasy.  There are various towns, villages, and temples scattered across the land.  You will end up visiting most of these places in pursuit of the stolen Prince and there are no fetch quests like in KRPG's.  Battles take place randomly as you go across the land and the combat is turn based.  You have four options while in battle: Fight, Magic, Items, and Run.  When you select Fight you automatically hit the opponent and there is a small chance that a critical hit(which makes the damage of your attack higher) will occur.  You gain Magic over the course of the game and can be useful when your in a pinch. The item option is self explanatory, you can select certain items that you have with you and use them in combat.  Run can be used when your too much of a wuss to fight a enemy and there is a small chance it wont work that round.  The battles are fairly fast paced and there isn't loads of text you have to tap through to get to the next action.
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The graphics are simply awesome with beautiful 8-bit effects that seem like they're coming straight from a arcade game. The 8-bit music is amazing as well and definitely adds a finishing touch to the game that makes playing through it all the more fun.
Overall this is a simply must have game that provides a humorous throwback to the good ol Retro RPG age. This should be anyone's first forray into the AppStore RPG market.  I give it 5/5 Stars.
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Price: 2.99 + Universal support
Link: Dragon Fantasy Link
Site: http://mutekicorp.com/

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'Pixaqaurium' Review- Who Knew Pixels Were Such High Upkeep Pets!

At one point or another everyone has had some form of a pet in their life.  Be it a frog named Hoppy or a fluffy dog everyone cares about their pet regardless of shape and form.  But sometimes owning a pet can be too much and quite stressful on you and your relations with others.  Fortunately Pixaquarium; a new pet simulation game, takes the weight off your shoulders and lets you have the experience of having a pet without really having one.

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Pixaquarium as the name suggest focuses on you raising and caring for your very own virtual fish.  When you first start the game up you are allowed to choose what type of tank you want your fish to live in.  Then after you made your selection you are taken to the fish tank which has a fish egg in it.  After 30 seconds pass the egg hatches into either a boy or a girl baby fish which you can then name.  The baby fish requires a lot of interaction as you would expect and it can be difficult to keep it alive during this phase of its life.  Fortunately after just 59 minutes it evolves into a teenager which doesn't require as much interaction and care. Then after 12 hours it finally evolves into a adult. The appearence of your fish changes every time it evolves and their are 44 different types of fish to discover. With only 2 evolutions per your fish's life you will be playing this over and over again trying to discover all of the other evolutions.  All of the fish you have discovered are added to the Fish Book which catalogs them all and includes descriptions.   You cant access the book in-game but once your fish inevitably dies due to old age you can check it in the main menu.  It becomes necessary to check in every once in a while and is great to kill the 5 minutes you have off in the work day.  

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You can interact with your fish in 4 different ways, either by playing with it by dragging your finger along the screen, feeding it food, cleaning up its waste, or healing it from its sickness.  Those options may sound fairly limited but they are the same options that the very first Tamagotchi had.  I asked the developer if new interactions,new breeds of fish, and items your fish can play with would be included in a future update and he said they certainly would.  I also would like to see mini games but I suspect he is already working on some of those.  The art in this game sports the "retro" pixel effect which takes me back to the era when having a Tamagotchi was completely awesome. Their really isn't any music in the game but that doesn't really affect the feel of the game.

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Overall this is a highly addicting game that will have you checking back on your cute little fish often.  With tons of different fish breeds to discover you definitely wont be bored for a very long time!  

Pick it up now for the low price of [0.99]

The game is also universal so you can get it on both of your apple devices!

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Tero - 0.99 (Studio Yomi)

Tero is a platform game from Studio Yomi. Instead of the typical virtual controls, Tero is one of few platform games that has tilt controls. Normally I despise tilt controls in platformers, but Studio Yomi has done a decent job in making it work. In the game you’ll play as Tero, who is trying to help rescue the Spirit Flowers using a special orange orb that shoots projectiles at enemies by pressing on the screen. To move, you tilt your device left or right, attacking is done by swiping down, jumping by swiping up, and strong attacking by jumping up and then swiping down over your enemy while in the air. The physics are nice and don’t feel floaty or weighed down, though sometimes tilting feels a little funny because the levels tilt, staying horizontal, instead of moving with the screen.

There’s 24 levels in Tero, spread across 6 different environments, with boss battles every 4 stages. The graphics are very smooth and polished, and the environments are vibrant and nicely varied. There’s plenty of enemies to keep you on your toes, some needing only to be attacked by a spin move, others needing to be pounced on, or attacked twice. There’s also some enemies that you can’t touch without loosing health. Hearts are collected while going through the levels by finding Spirit Flowers and collecting the flowers scattered throughout the levels. Checkpoints are also found in stages, but when you die, instead of going back to the checkpoint, you go back to the level select screen, then to start the level again at the last checkpoint, you need to re-enter the level, making it an un-necessary mechanic that really takes away from the flow of the game. However, once you loose all your hearts, you’re able to re-start the level from the beginning with 3, so there are no game-over screens in Tero, which is always nice.

Power-ups include your orb, bombs, and shields, but nothing else. Power-ups that let you shoot fire at the enemies, let you kill un-killable enemies, gave you super jumping abilities, let you run faster, or made you invincible for a couple seconds would fit in very well with the game. No online services are added, so going for a high-score is sort of a mute point. This also takes away from the replay value. Once you finish Tero, you won’t have much desire to go back and re-play it, but if you do decide to, you’re given the option of choosing Easy, Normal or Hard difficulties. You’re also given 3 save slots just in case you’d like to start at the beginning with a different difficulty, or share the device with a friend or family member.

Sensitivity options for tilting would have been a good addition as well, and really, all platformers with tilt controls should have the option for virtual buttons. It’s what fans of the genre are use to, and love, and the fact that they’re not seen here is probably why this game isn’t selling very well. It is a highly polished and really good platformer, it just happens to be missing some pretty major features. It would also be nice to have seen some more story added to the game. With every boss battle you only get a little picture with the boss saying something like “I will crush you”. You don’t actually know why they kidnapped the Spirit Flowers, or why each monster has decided to help out the main evil behind the abductions. Including a story with the game would have made it well worth the download, regardless of the lack of virtual buttons.

The game is fairly new; it was only released a little over 3 weeks ago, so the developers do have plenty of time to fix these issues and add some features before calling it a bust, and I really hope they decide to keep working on Tero. The graphics and level design are really very good, and the environments and enemies are varied enough to keep any gamers attention. Just a little more work, and this could be a gem that gets a pretty decent fan following. Right now, for $0.99, it’s still very much worth the purchase, and is recommended to any fan of platformers that can forgive the tilt controls.

I’m giving Tero a score of 6.5/10

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tero/id453105446?mt=8

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Dust Those Bunnies - 0.99 (Gamers Rejoice)

Dust Those Bunnies is a new swiping arcade game from Gamers Rejoice. In it, you’ll be sweeping as many dust bunnies into a dust pan as you can in a certain amount of time while trying to avoid bomber bunnies and using power-ups. I should mention that this game was made using GameSalad. But it is one of only a couple GameSalad games that actually runs well on my 4th Gen Touch. In fact, I didn’t even know it was made using GameSalad until I read it on the Touch Arcade Forums. The load times are not bad at all, and the controls are nice, tight and responsive.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Dust Those Bunnies is the graphics. They’re black and white and look like a classic old film. They are done very well, and this decision to look like an old movie adds quite a bit to the polish of the game. The music sounds great, and with no sound effects, it adds even more to the feel of old silent films. There’s also a hidden sepia toned look for the game. We’re given two different game modes, one called Wage War, in which you’re given power-ups and 1:45 to get as many dust bunnies into the dust pan as you can. The other mode is called Commando, in this mode you’re given 1 minute with no power-ups to get as many dust bunnies into the dust pan as you can. Both modes are pretty challenging as you’ll need to keep an eye out for bomber bunnies that don’t look too different from the regular bunnies you’ll be sweeping up; one of their ears is a wick, and they have a different facial expression. You’re aloud to get of the bombers bunnies into the dust pan before they blow it up, and each one you do get into the pan takes away 25 points. If you manage to sweep them to the side of the pan, you’ll get 8 points.

The scoring system is pretty nice. You get one point for each small bunny you can swipe into the dust pan, two for medium bunnies, and 4 for big bunnies. If you sweep more than one bunny into the pan at a time, you’ll get an extra point for each bunny. For instance, if you sweep 4 bunnies into the pan at once, you’ll get 4 points, one for each, plus 4 points for the combo bonus, totaling 8 points. In Wage War Mode, there’s power-ups that will help you a lot with scoring, but that are clearly harder to get into the dust pan than the bunnies, being heavier and disappearing after a short time. There’s a disco ball, with which you’ll get 10 points for every bunny you sweet into the pan, plus the regular bonus points for sweeping more than one bunny in at a time. There’s also a dust buster power-up which will pick up every bunny you drag your finger over, including the bomber bunnies. Micro fiber cloths will help you out by making all the bunnies follow your finger, and a pocket watch will add 15 seconds to the timer. There’s also various items which will give you 10, 15, and 50 points.

Sweeping the bunnies into the dust pan isn’t as easy as it sounds. You need to get the speed just right. Going too fast will leave bunnies behind your finger, and going too slow will cause them to go in all sorts of different directions. In the loading screen before playing it says “This is sweeping, slow and steady sweeps will win the war.“, and it couldn’t be more true.

There are unlockables in the game as well. You can get new brooms, which unlock depending on how many total sweeps you’ve made, and each make it easier to sweep more bunnies into the dust pan. New enemies, each with a different maneuvering mechanic, are unlocked when you get a certain amount of total bunnies into the pan, and then there’s new areas to sweep on, each with different textures, and are unlocked based on how many total games you’ve played. You’ll also be able to unlock new music tracks as you progress through the game, and there’s in-game medals to try and snag as well. All of this adds a lot to the replay value of the game, as do the GameCenter leaderboards, One for both of the game modes.

With all of the content in Dust Those Bunnies, it’s a great game to get for $0.99. This is the introductory price, and I’m guessing the regular price will be $1.99. It hasn’t been said when the price will go up, but I’m guessing it will be like most introductory prices and go up about one week from the release date, which was August 25. It’s a pretty original game, which is something we don’t see too often in the AppStore these days, and it’s presented in a very professional manner. Given that it was made with GameSalad makes it even slightly more impressive. If casual arcade games that can be played by hardcore gamers as well is something you’re into, Dust Those Bunnies will be a great game to pick up. For me, it’s joining the ranks of Tiny Wings, Kosmo Spin, and other great casual games that bring along quite a hefty challenge. The only things I would love to see in the future is maybe another game mode, something like Endless Mode, mixing all of the different types of bunnies, the in-game achievements moved to GameCenter, and some more obstacles blocking your sweeping paths in the different environments you can unlock. Other than that, there’s not much room for improvement with this quality title from Gamers Rejoice.

Dust Those Bunnies gets a score of 9.5/10

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dust-those-bunnies!/id437429857?mt=8

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SuperJumpBall: Basketball- 0.99 (Bengger Applications)

SuperJumpBall: Basketball [$0.99] by Bengger Applications is a neat new game where your mission is to guide the basketball out of harms way into the basketball hoop. There's 15 levels to play through with more coming in future updates. Your ball is always moving, so the only control in the game is tap to jump. If you land in the various obstacles such as the spikes or garbage bags then it's game over. To finish the level you have to make the basketball in the hoop. There's no time limit, but in various locations throughout the level there is points hanging around that you can collect to earn a higher score. If points are going to be awarded for each level then Game Center definitely needs to

be added in a future update, because right now I don't really see a point in try to get a bigger score. I'm also not a big fan of the control. I find it a bit hard to get use to and the jumping is laggy at times. I also hate that if you get caught on an object then you have to restart the entire level because there's no way to move the basketball back or forth. That's where a left and right button would be extremely useful. There is extras that you can earn in the game after completing a certain level. So far the only extras are changing the color of your ball to green for example. My favorite part of this game has to be the simple style graphics and the levels in my opinion we're very well done. Overall, the game is pretty challenging so you'll find yourself restarting levels over and over either trying to finish the level or get a higher score. My final rating is 3 out of 5 stars. It definitely needs a little more work and features, but it's a nice little game to fill in empty time during your day. If it weren't for the controls then this game would be much better. Hopefully the controls get a little tweaking. You can go download SuperJumpBall: Basketball by Bengger Applications for your iPhone & iPod Touch for just $0.99 here.

Release Trailer:

Promo Codes!!

KXKYX4MJJWY6

TFL9KRNXN49E

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Hyper Crush: The 8-Bit Adventure - 0.99 (Voxel Software, LLC)

Hyper Crush: The 8-Bit Adventure is the official platformer game of the musical group, Hyper Crush, made by Voxel Software. In it, you’ll play as all 3 band members, Holly, Preston and Donny, as you try to recover your special items and make it to The Moxy Theatre before your rival group, Slow Expand makes it there before you, stealing your time slot.

There are only 8 levels in Hyper Crush, and you’ll be forced to re-play each of the levels many, many times in order to get enough coins to buy Preston’s gun, which lets you break bricks. You MUST get this item in order to beat the game, because in level 5, you’ll start the level with a huge brick wall blocking your way. Once you get the brick breaking weapon, the game does become even more about collecting coins, and you’ll need to buy a pair of shoes in the shop as well that will let you make a huge jump in level 6. This amount of grinding can get pretty boring, and really take away from the gameplay experience.

The controls in Hyper Crush are pretty good, tight and responsive, but jumping feels a bit floaty. These floaty physics don’t really work well in conjunction with the tight controls, but it’s not enough to make you quit playing. Graphics-wise, the game is nice, and the environments look a lot like the original Super Mario Brothers, while the backgrounds kind of stand out against the platforms and bricks with their clear and polished looking cityscapes, but the mesh of the two goes together quite well, while the level select screen is set up exactly like World 1 of Super Mario Brothers 3. This tribute to Super Mario does bring back a lot of childhood memories, until you realize that you only have 8 levels and will be playing each of them at least 5 times in order to get enough coins to buy the items you need to complete the game.

All-n-all, Hyper Crush is a solid platformer that was executed poorly. The inclusion of a shop and the drive to collect coins along with the retro graphics don’t really make up for the lack of content and forced grinding. But then again, it’s really made as a game for the fans of Hyper Crush, so what do you expect? For $0.99 there’s plenty of great platformers in the AppStore that will give you more than 10 times the content.

Hyper Crush: The 8-Bit Adventure gets a score of 3/10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hyper-crush-the-8-bit-adventure/id448003049?mt=8

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Space Trooper USA - 0.99 (Bento Studio)

Space Trooper USA is a new dual-stick shooter from Bento Studio. From the start menu, after a loading screen which gives you a little bit of background, you’re thrown right into the action where you fight off wave after wave of enemies that get increasingly more difficult as you progress. Meteors crash down onto the asteroid that you’re on in random areas, releasing enemies and one big mother enemy that will keep spitting out a certain number of enemies until you kill it. The further you get into the game, the harder the enemies, and the more meteors crash into the asteroid.

This game is a high-scoring affair from the start, and the scoring system is pretty decent. You can get combos for killing enemies in quick succession, and there’s also power-ups, some of which give you a faster firing rate, or more points for each kill. There is only one mode, and that’s the endless wave mode. There’s also no options available, making this a bare-bones kind of game.

But what is here in Space Trooper USA is an action filled dual-stick gunning rampage with great looking visuals. The game is not supported by retina display, which is pretty upsetting, because the dark and atmospheric asteroid is constantly being destructed by your plasma shots, meteors, and exploding enemies, and reconstructed with a power-up that makes you invincible and restores the asteroid to it’s normal state, and these destruction and reconstruction physics look great, even without HD graphics. The music and effects also add quite a bit to the atmosphere of the game, making it even more intense and dark.

The enemies increase in difficulty as you progress from wave to wave, and there’s a lot of variation with them as well. The artificial intelligence for them isn‘t really anything special, they really just follow you around and go to the point where you‘re standing, but with the rate at which you can kill them, and they‘re spit out of the mother enemies, you will constantly be backed into a pack of enemies by another pack coming right at you. It gives the impression that the aliens are working in packs against you.

The power-ups in ST USA are great, and have quite a bit of variety. There’s 7 different power-ups, each of which are permanent, except for the invincibility/asteroid regeneration upgrade. There’s health, plasma shots, fire rate and speed increases, shot power increases, and score increase power-ups. Each of which effects how you play pretty significantly. Each time you kill a mother enemy, a power-up is dropped, and it will be one of 3 groups of power-ups, which change every couple seconds to a different power-up. Getting to the power-ups before they disappear can prove to be very dangerous later in the game, and grabbing the power-up you want can be even more difficult because you might have to wait until it changes into the power-up you’re trying to get. Bento Studio did a great job with this, as it does add quite a bit of strategy and tactical gameplay to Space Trooper USA.

Controls are your typical dual-stick controls, they are very responsive, and work extremely well. To use a plasma shot, you double tap your right stick, charging the shot, and then aim with the stick, and release to fire, and regeneration of the asteroid is done by holding down on the right stick as well. This lets the game flow really well, and you really don’t need to think about what your fingers are doing while in the heat of battle.

All-n-all, Space Trooper USA is a solid dual-stick shooter that could use some options, more info on the story, and maybe another mode or two, along with an HD graphics update. Though none of this really hurts the game much, they are things which would be great additions for future updates. With the game only being $0.99, it’s well worth the purchase, as a pretty hectic high-score battle has already started on the GameCenter leaderboards. If you’re looking for an intense, dual-stick, action-arcade game, Space Trooper USA will get your heart pounding, and give you hours of great high-scoring entertainment.

I’m giving Space Trooper USA a score of 8/10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-trooper-usa/id439890015?mt=8

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Treemaker - 0.99 (Mikrotie Ltd.)

Treemaker is a new casual puzzle game from Mikrotie Ltd that isn’t set up like a traditional puzzle game. In it, you will swing your character from platform to platform, using it’s long rope-like arms, collecting all of the yellow orbs in each level that let you grow trees. Getting from point A to point B, but always requiring you to use your head to get to the last orb using the least amount of rope moves you can.

There’s no time-limit in Treemaker, which of course, makes it more casual. But the difficulty is still pretty high. You are given unlimited rope connections, shown in the top left corner, but in order to progress though the game, you will need to get 2 out of 3 stars on every level. To do this, you need to have 2 rope connections left, giving you an end result of 2 stars. If you make it to the end of the level, collecting each of the yellow orbs, with 3 possible rope connections left, you’ll get 3 stars. So you’ll always be trying to find out which platforms are the best to connect to in order to get to the end of the level.

The controls are simple, touch where you want to fling your rope-arm to, having it automatically connect to the platform, then tap again to let go, either using your momentum to fling yourself forward, or waiting until you stop swinging to drop directly down. In conjunction with the physics of the game, these controls work very, very well. Where most rope-connecting/swing-to-get-to-the-end-of-the-level games fail in this aspect, Treemaker executes it flawlessly. The physics are done amazingly well, and the controls are perfect, making it easy to land exactly where you want to. You can also pinch the screen to zoom in or out, in order to see more or less of the levels.

Graphics-wise, Treemaker is beautiful. Available in HD, and Universal, we’re lucky enough to experience the game in all of it’s amazing graphical glory. However, the environments are not varied at all. You’re given the same basic background image, just colored differently in each world. Doing more with the background images would have made Treemaker absolutely stunning. As for the level design, it is very well thought out, and will test your reflexes and mind, but the platforms could have also used some more variation other than just some color change for the areas you can’t touch without dying. These circles that are under the platforms you’ll be trying to land on change colors as you change worlds, but other than that, there’s 4 types of platforms you’ll see in the game. Regular platforms, spring platforms, spinning platforms, and half-pipes, and these half-pipes only appear in two of the levels. More variation with the platforms would have been a welcome addition to the game as well. But with all of this, Treemaker still stands out as very polished and professional graphical eye-candy. It’s worth mentioning the music and effects as well, as it really helps fill out the calming atmosphere and feel of the game.

In the end, Treemaker is a casual puzzle game, that can be very challenging if you decide to go for 3 stars in each level. But there are only 18, very short, levels, and most players will be done with the game in an hour, maybe two if you decide to take your time. There is no GameCenter or OpenFeint integration, and no scoring system aside from the star rankings, so replay value and drive to get better star rankings for each level is kind of lost. Playing through the game once, you might not open the game again but once or twice. There’s also no in-game achievements, which is surprising, because Treemaker is a game that could possibly be full of achievements and challenges. It is only $0.99, and still well worth purchasing. Hopefully the developers will add some more mechanics, levels, online features, a scoring system, really, I’d just be happy if they added to it period. Mikrotie Ltd is obviously a very talented developing team. What they have given us shows their immense creativity, loads of potential, and anything they decide to add to it would only improve the game. I will definitely be keeping my eyes on Mikrotie Ltd, as they have earned a fan for as long as they keep making games.

I’m giving Treemaker a score of 7.5 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/treemaker/id451930892?mt=8

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Snorbies - 0.99 (Nepik)

Snorbies is a new bubble popper game from indie developer, Nepik. It’s your typical match 3 or more bubble popper, with some added items to make the gameplay kind of interesting. In the game, you’ll touch the screen to shoot awakened Snorbies at the sleeping Snorbies, making groups of 3, or in hard mode, 4, or more, to make them drop off of the screen. If you don’t make matches with enough of the shot Snorbies, more Snorbies come down from the top of the screen, pushing the big pile closer and closer to the bottom of the screen. If the sleeping Snorbies touch the bottom of the screen, it’s a game over. There are 4 items thrown in randomly with the sleeping Snorbies, grumpy rocks, happy rocks, cups of coffee, and roosters. Rocks fall when you wake up the Snorbie above it, and will wake up more Snorbies as it falls. Happy rocks do the same, but wake up more Snorbies than grumpy rocks. Cups of coffee and roosters fall down when the Snorbie above it is woken up, and are kept in the lower right corner to use whenever you see fit, cups of coffee wake up one snorbie, while roosters wake up a bunch.

However, these added items are only found in Advanced Mode. In Classic Mode, you are faced with clearing out the screen as fast as possible without any help from items. There’s also a Level Mode, which is more like a challenge mode, in which you are given 4 different worlds each with pre-made levels that you need to clear out, and try to get 3 star ratings in. These levels are initially very easy to clear out, but once you get in the later levels, and worlds, the shots that you need to make become increasingly difficult, and almost border on impossible. The items, rocks, coffee, and roosters are added as you progress throughout the worlds. It adds a nice challenge to the game, and is where most gamers who are already familiar and maybe worn out on typical bubble popper gameplay will spend their time.

The graphics in Snorbies are alright, a little fuzzy, but there are some cute yawning animations in the game for sleeping Snoribes. The Snorbies that are awake just sit there and smile with big eyes looking right at you. More could be done here, as the graphics don’t really stand out as a highlight of the game. They aren’t a deal-breaker, but as we all know, graphics are not something you can ignore for long. The scoring system is done exceptionally well though, growing with combos, and multiple hits. But it kind of gets lost in the game, as there’s no OpenFeint or GameCenter leaderboards. There’s also no music in Snorbies, and the constant ‘bing’ effect can get pretty annoying very quickly.

Snorbies is a decent bubble popper game, with just a few things missing. Polish on the graphics, some animations, online compatibility, and music, but at it’s core, it’s a bubble popper worth getting. For a dollar, and being Universal, it’s worth buying, as it has enough content to stay on your device for quite a long time. The challenge it brings with the pre-made levels/challenges is alone enough to make me want it. I do hope to see more done with it in the future though.

Snorbies gets a rating of 3/5 from me.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snorbies-full-version/id455972992?mt=8

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EDGE Extended, $0.99 (by Mobigame) (Universal)

     The original EDGE is a game I absolutely love, and not because its polished, innovative, fun and awesome, it was because of its brilliant platforming, clever puzzles and the ingenious gameplay mechanics. The perfect combination. The game surprised me a lot of time for its quality, its good and it should be in your collection, if you dont have it yet, I reviewed it a while ago, if you dont know about the game, i recommend you reading it first. So when I heard Mobigame was going to release a new version, EDGE Extended, joy and nice memories came to me in a instant. One of the best games ever for me on iOS (if not the best, serioulsy) was going to have a sequel. Perfect. Months went by and we knew nothing, until last week, when french indie developer Mobigame (based in Paris) announced the release date along with a single screenshot and tiny bits of information, which we have previously shared with you.

  EDGE have always been about brilliant and innovative gameplay, but the new one goes a step further, and the word Extended is the best description for this game, as it has been improved in every single way over the original. Sure all elements from the original are here, but they come side by side with a lot of new ones that will make you grin and drool over them. I dont want to spoil you the experience, so I will only tell you one new thing that adds a lot to the game, and its on the sixth level ...so im not spoiling much for you in the end, its all over the video below... there is another cube, a shiny black cube the pushes the game forward in exitement and will rush you quite a but, it will make you think even faster than the original game, and thats a lot to say. But of couse its always fun and entertaining. Discover the rest by yourself. Levels are bigger, with a lot more of hidden prysms and more terrain to explore, which is a fantastic addition and they are clever, made to perfection. Every single level, and there are 41 comletely new ones here for our amusement (and 3 more to unlock), something new this time, with all the prysms you unlock your ghost, for fans who wants to beat their scores.

   The game engine is completely new, adapted for the Retina Display and iPad 2 (and work even in older devices, as its compatible with ALL iDevices), and looks stunning. If before it was beautiul, now its completely stunning. A new feature has been added to the game, the “Vertigo effect”, which does what the name implies. Nice touch. If you are lucky enough to own an iPad 2, thats the version to get until the iPhone 5 is here. It runs at full antialiasing scale, up to 4xMSAA, and believe when I tell you it looks slender. And one last things, really important is that it runs at 6o frames per second and its a great improvement over the original... And believe me when I say its a lot faster than the original.

   Controls are also better now, being even more precise. There the same great control modes avaiable in the original: Tilt, Swipe and a Directional Pad. For me, the d-pad work wonderful and touch sensitivity has been improved even further, again I didn't think it was possible, but it is.

   But that is not the only thing new here, as the game comes with 22 brand new tunes for you to enjoy, all made with the same mastery as the original. A pleasure for your eyes that fits the game perfectly.

   The menus, achievements, scoring system, level selection and unlocables have been taken as they were from the original, but the feel more solid and polished here. And thats not a bad thing at all, as they were very minimalistic and simple. Thanks.
   

   I dont want to spoil you anything else beyond what I already told you, so make yourself a favor a buy this true appstore gem, you will thank me later. If you already are a fan you probably bought it right away after knowing its existence, but if you are new to the game, I recommend you starting with this one first, finish it and then buy the older one. I know you will, it will leave you wanting to play this game forever, and that a nice place to start doing so. For me, this has stolen the crown of iOS gaming and now stands above every other game there is. Buy it now, you will thank me later. Truly, buy it now...

Edge Extended gets a score of 5/5

iTunes: 99 cents, universal app

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/edge-extended/id455112100?mt=8

Official video:

You can also check the developers website to check their other amazing games: Mobigame.net

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