Futuridium EP [MixedBag Srl] - $1.99

3D/behind the back arcade-based shooters aren’t really a thriving genre in the AppStore. But when one does come along, it’s usually worth checking out as there’s not many poorly designed titles in this little ‘underground’ genre of video games. Fractal Combat, No Gravity, Awesome Saucer, After Burner, all of these are definitely showcase titles on the iDevice. Yet, for whatever reason, more developers are not tapping into this widespread player base like you’d expect them to. But the ones that do take on the challenge have shown that they’re incredibly talented, and the release of Futuridium EP by MixedBag is no exception. 

Futuridium brings back memories of games like Star Fox and Space Harrier but brings a sort of puzzle feeling to the whole game. Each stage puts you up against a different battleship and you’re tasked with taking out blue cubes, turrets and mines in each stage before the core of the battleship is revealed and ready to be destroyed. What makes the game so much more than just your average behind the back space shooter are the scoring and energy mechanics. While you play, your energy gauge will be constantly depleting. If you crash, a large chunk of energy is taken away. Linking together chains of destroyed cubes will raise your energy gauge as well as your score multiplier and, while using the game’s nifty 180 degree flipping mechanic, each stage’s cubes can be linked together in one continuous chain resulting in the possibility of some insane scores. 

Now, there are only 13 levels, but don’t let that dissuade you from taking the plunge here. There are 2 difficulties at first, Easy and Normal, but there are also 3 more locked difficulties which can be unlocked once you complete game on the previous difficulty. There’s also a catch with the difficulties. Each one ramps the speed of the gameplay up a notch, and with this also comes more points per object destroyed. So, the higher the difficulty, the higher your score could potentially be. There is also a single level mode where you can play levels that you’ve already reached in the Arcade Mode in order to practice. This does come in handy, especially since the game’s difficulty, even on Normal, is fairly high. But if you’re willing to put some time in, Futuridium EP really opens up as one of the most challenging yet satisfying arcade shooter experiences you’ll have on your mobile device. 

The graphics are retro, minimal, slick and chic and definitely draw you into the world of the game. The dubstep and electro tracks selected for the game’s soundtrack are full of energy and definitely fit the adrenaline packed gameplay. There are no power-ups, no shields, it’s basically just you and your reflexes up against the game. Another plus? There’s no IAP in sight, putting everyone on a level playing field right from the get-go. All of this ties in together to form an incredibly immersive, quick moving package that’s a total feast for the eyes, ears and all out twitch reflexes that so many of us wind up seeking out when trying to decide what game we want to play when we’re looking for a challenge. 

Priced at an incredibly reasonable $1.99, being Universal and including GameCenter support with leaderboards for Hi Score and Cubes Destroyed along with 35 hard to snag achievements and plenty of little Easter eggs for you completionist’s out there to try and find, I really have no qualms highly recommending Futuridium EP. It might just wind up on our end of the year ‘Best Of’ lists for 2013 and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up on more than a few other sites Game Of The Year lists. If you’re still not convinced, you can download the game for free from the developer’s website to play on your PC or MAC. If that doesn’t add to the drive to support MixedBag, I don’t know what will. I’m definitely excited to see what comes out of their studio next. If this is any indication of what’s to come, there’s a good chance it’ll blow many gamers away.

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R.Type [DotEmu] - $1.99

DotEmu. Over the years they’ve built up a very solid and strong fan-base in the iOS and Android gaming worlds. And now, just the mention of their name will have a lot of gamers screaming ‘instabuy’ and ‘take my money’. Their ports are some of the best in the AppStore and the added little perks and different settings options have secured their place in the porting world as ‘one of the best’. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out their work, you won’t regret it. Raiden Legacy, The Last Express, King Of Fighters, Metal Slug and others are just waiting to be snatched up by eager old-school gamers like yourself. Now, if the mention of those titles do bring back unforgettable gaming memories, their latest release will need no introduction. R-Type is a classic in the retro gaming world. Released on just about every single old-school gaming platform there was back in the late 80’s and early 90’s and has also been ported to the PC, XBLA and has spawned numerous sequels. 

Set in the 22nd century, your mission is to take out the evil Bydo Empire. There’s not much more to it than that. After each stage is beat, the game will count up your score and you’ll go on to the next. What R-Type is probably most famous for is it’s difficulty. It earned a 7th position spot on IGN’s top 10 most difficult games, and while it can be quite easy for someone who’s learned the ins and outs of the game, actually getting to that level will take more than just a couple of deaths to accomplish. While this is now a staple of the SHMUP world, endless replayability because of heightened difficulties and score chasing, don’t let that turn you off if you’re not really a big shoot-em-up gamer. DotEmu has added an Unlimited Mode in this version, allowing for infinite lives so that you can learn the game and make it through no matter your skill level. 

There are 8 stages, each with a crazy looking boss at the end. One of my favorite memories of the first time I played R-Type when I was younger was how shocked I was at the boss’s designs and models. This, along with the mesh of organic and synthetic material in the level designs and enemies also give R-Type a distinctive feeling and atmosphere that’s hard to forget. To this day the whole graphic design of the game stands as one of the most original, interesting, innovative and visually appealing in the shmup gaming world. 

There are 4 different shot types that you’ll be able to pick up as you progress throughout the game; your original one projectile shot type, a 3 way laser, a beam shot that takes a circular pattern and a ‘wall shot’ which fires out of the top and bottom of your ship and crawls along the walls. While in-game, little robot orbs with feet will be mixed in with the enemies and destroying these will let loose a power-up. If you don’t have a power-up equipped yet, you’ll receive your ‘Force Orb’. This is one aspect of R-Type that really makes it stand out above other shmups of the time period. You can either equip your Force Orb on the front or back of your ship as well as have it maneuver throughout the levels on its own. Mastering the Force Orb is something that you’ll need to do in order to complete the game and adds another layer to form the very cohesive whole that is R-Type. 

There are two control options; Relative Touch and a Virtual Joystick. Both work exceedingly well, and while both have two additional icons, one for controlling an add-on power-up core and another for charging up your charged shot, everything can be moved around anywhere on the screen to fit your play-style and device. You can also turn auto-fire on or off while off will have you mashing on the charge shot icon to fire. There are two options for screen-size, full screen, or boxed and like most other DotEmu ports, you can turn the video filter on or off, making the edges jagged (original look) or smoothed out (more modern look) and add scan-lines to the game as well. Other awesome additions/features are 10 languages, Retina display (as well as on the iPad, since this new R-Type build is Universal), iCade support and an extra Insane difficulty mode that unlocks once you beat the game on Normal difficulty.

To top it all off, DotEmu has dumped the OpenFeint support that came with the older version and added GameCenter with 11 achievements and 2 leaderboards (one for Normal and one for Insane). All of this packed into a nice little package and with a price point of only $1.99, it’s insane to not recommend this to any and all shooter and retro gaming fans out there. Even if you own the old EA published version, this new version has enough perks to throw down the two bucks. If you’ve never played R-Type before, you’re in for one hell of a treat, as it has been, and always will be, one of my favorite shooters of all time. It’s not one to be missed.

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Fallen World [Oddity] - $2.99

Beat-em-up titles on the iOS are kind of hit or miss. Very few have really nailed the gameplay, mechanics, controls and action needed to keep fans of the genre satisfied, but those that have did an amazing job. Mutant Fridge Mayhem, Combo Crew and Best Park In The Universe are a few that stand out above the majority of the failings in the AppStore. And now, we’re pretty close to adding another to that incredibly small list; Oddity’s new post-apocalyptic brawler, Fallen World.

You take control of a cybernetic ninja who’s been tasked with protecting another cyborg that can take down and dismantle the machine army. Yes, it is a little Matrix-y, but for fans of the cyberpunk genre, that is hardly something that’s considered ‘bad’. 

Starting off, the tutorial does a great job of quickly and easily understandably explaining everything you’ll need to know about the game. Movement is controlled by tapping where you want to move to while attacking is done automatically by running into enemies. While this might sound like a turn off for beat-em-up and brawler fans, and believe me, it was kind of a turn off at the beginning of the game, but once you get further along [for me, it was when I hit stage 5], the controls really do wind up fitting the game, and having a brawler/beat-em-up that isn’t centered around button mashing is a refreshing addition to the genre. Along with the tap to move and auto attack controls, you’re also given 3 icons along the bottom right side of the screen. The first places a soldier and the second places a ‘Torrent Gun’ both of which are placed where you‘re standing at the time and both of which will help you to attack the onslaught of enemy waves. The third icon is your Wind Blast power. Your Wind Blast does a little bit of damage to the enemies, but its primary use is to clear the area of enemies, giving you a second to breathe. 

In each stage, you’ll need to fight off wave after wave of enemies that are split up into 3 phases. You’ll face off against machines and other cyborgs, each offering up a different type of attack. While this doesn’t really play into any sort of strategy as different weapons are not required to take out different enemies, it does help to keep the gameplay feeling fresh. While there are some enemies that will stand back and attack your soldiers and guns, placing them all over the stages is pretty much what you’ll wind up doing while you run back and forth, replacing downed allies and trying to take out enemies before they reach the center of the stage where the young cyborg you need to protect is housed in a protective shield. Beating down enemies will earn you ‘Purity’, which is used to place soldiers, guns and use your wind power. Whenever you earn enough Purity to activate one of these, the icons light up at the bottom of the screen and a little blue orb will start to orbit around your body. You’re only able to have 3 Purity orbs available at once though, so using them as soon as they appear is a good idea. However, also keeping one around so that you can use your wind attack if things get too hectic around the cyborg you’re protecting. As you progress throughout the game, enemies get more abundant as well as stronger. Luckily, you’ll also be getting stronger as you make your way through the game by spending earned experience points on upgrades and other special abilities. 

You’ll earn experience in-game by defeating enemies, but will also get a nice little chunk of experience if you can successfully complete each stage. These experience points can be spent in the upgrade shop to make your attack stronger, increase the number of enemies you can hit at one time or increase your movement speed. You’re also able to upgrade your soldiers, guns and wind attack as well as the center cyborg’s special missile strike that triggers automatically, her shield strength and the amount of ‘Purity’ which is earned each time an enemy is taken out. You’re also able to re-play previously beaten levels in case you get stuck and need some extra experience to level up a bit, which is always a nice addition to a game like this, especially given the gaming platform and audience. 

The environments do change as you make your way throughout the game which does keep it visually appealing. However, each area is the same size and shape (square) and do not have any sort of environmental hazards or structures that you’ll need to avoid while running around the ‘arena‘. The graphics and animations are solid and very well presented, with the brighter items like your sword, Purity orbs, fire and more standing out against the dark backdrops and atmospheres. The physics work well in conjunction with the controls, though at first, getting comfortable with your character running around like he’s kind of on ice is something that might take a while. Once, or if, you do get comfortable with it, it’s more like controlling a floating character instead of a running one. Tightening up the running physics would probably make the game feel better, but it’s not something that really takes too much away or distracts from the gameplay as a whole. 

GameCenter is not supported and there are no in-game achievements or leaderboards.  There’s no time limits or actual scoring system, but if these were added, as well as GC and leader boards (along with achievements, of course), it could definitely add quite a bit of replay value, difficulty and drive to the gameplay. While we’re bringing up the negatives here, there’s also no auto-rotate for the screen and the game displays ‘up-side-down’ (making you hold your device with the home button on the left side instead of the right). You can turn the music and sound effects on and off separately, and there is an option to clear your saved data, but aside from that, there’s no difficulty settings and no added control options. Priced at $2.99 and being Universal, it does seem a bit bare. However, within the brawler genre on the iOS, this isn’t really a rare thing and the polish and addictive gameplay does help to draw your attention away from it’s shortcomings enough to justify the reasonable price-point. Hopefully more will be added to Fallen World, as it shows an incredible amount of promise and could very well stand out as one of the better titles within the genre. A few little additions would go a very long way here. But as-is, it’s still a game that’s worth recommending. 

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Samurai Shodown II [SNK + DotEmu] - $8.99

When it comes to iOS games, there’s a select few that can be described with the words ’hardcore’ ’insane’ and ’difficult’. Well, last week ushered in a new contender for the ‘hardest game in the AppStore’ title, SNK and DotEmu’s Samurai Shodown II. And while most fighters on the iOS’s touch screen are difficult because they don’t have the tactile feedback that most of these games scream for, they are still playable, manageable and beatable, even more-so if you’ve got an iCade and can play with the tactile feedback that the games were meant to be experienced with. But SSII has ramped up the difficulty so incredibly high, even on it’s lowest difficulty setting, that after 5 hours, countless continues and an immeasurable amount of frustration, I’ve only made it to the 3rd opponent. 

That’s not to say that I dislike this game. The virtual controls are about as good as they can be, considering. If you’re familiar with the controls from Street Fighter or King Of Fighters and are comfortable with them, you’ll feel right at home here. Like any other DotEmu port, you are able to move the controls anywhere on the screen, which helps to make the game play comfortably on most devices. However, on the iPad it can be hard to reach the buttons and parts of the directional stick. Hopefully a resize option will be added, or at the very least, that the controls on the iPad will be adjusted in a future update. 

You’re also able to change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 (widescreen) or windowed mode (which has the gameplay area take up about half of the screen, which actually looks very nice if you’re playing on an iPad or iPad Mini). You can also set the video filtering on or off, giving the edges smooth curves or having the original pixilated graphics in all their beautiful glory and set scanlines to 50 or 100%, as well as leaving them completely absent. Along with all of the typical DotEmu settings and preferences you can also choose to play the game on 1 of 8 difficulties. That’s right, at the beginning of each game you’re given the option to change the difficulty setting from 1-8.

Now, just because I haven’t made it past the third opponent doesn’t mean that I haven’t been having a blast playing the game. Is it frustrating? Yes. Is the difficulty set too high? Probably. Am I left feeling like I’m getting better with each game that I play? Most definitely. While I do remember playing Samurai Shodown II at the local bowling ally every weekend when I was about 12 and blowing $5 worth of quarters in 20 minutes and being able to almost make it through the entire game, I do not feel that the touch-screen controls are why I’m having such a hard time with this game. Tactile feedback for many gamers is a must when it comes to this genre, but for others, being able to slide your fingers along the smooth surface of the iDevice can make pulling off some of the more complex moves easier than with a physical controller. And, as mentioned already, SSII does have iCade support, so those of you who are lucky enough to own an iCade can have a near perfect arcade experience. But the difficulty settings, even on the lowest option available, could use some tweaking. 

Aside from that this port, like all DotEmu ports, is perfect. The framerate is improved from the original and the gameplay is insanely smooth with no hiccups or drops in framerate (unless intentional) to be found. All of the characters from the original arcade title can be found here as well as all of the little mechanics that make the gameplay slightly deeper than most fighters; backward and forward rolling, ducking, small hops and parries/offensive blocking, The fatalities have also been thrown in for good measure. All of this showing that Samurai Shodown II can still hold it’s own among the best of the best fighters in the gaming world almost 20 years since it appeared. 

Like most iOS ports of classic games, GameCenter leaderboards and achievements have been added and do help to add some drive to the already insanely high replay value of the game with 15 achievements and 3 leaderboards fleshing out the gameplay. While some players might be turned off by the crazy high difficulty or the virtual controls, if you’re familiar with KoF’s controls, you’ll pretty much know what to expect here. I do hope that a transparency gauge is added, because as it is now, the controls begin to fade away after you touch them, and then go back to full view fairly quickly, usually blocking the gameplay area, unless you’re playing in Windowed View. But priced at $8.99, being Universal, including widescreen support, and also having Bluetooth 2-player gameplay, along with being one of the best fighters ever, make Samurai Shodown II a very easy game to recommend.

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Issues

Hello all...

Alright, for some reason, only a couple of posts are showing up on our main page. You can access our past reviews by selecting 'older posts' underneath the last posts on this page. I have no idea why Blogger is doing this, I've tried adjusting and/or confirming all of our settings, and the layout is still messed up. I apologize for the inconvenience here, and I'll try and have it fixed ASAP.

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