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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Evilot [Syrenaica] - $0.99

Since Plants Vs. Zombies hit the AppStore there’s been a whole slew of lane based defense games. There are a few that have stood out among the crowd, Total War Battles: Shogun, Defense Of Fortune: The Savior, Hero TacTics and others are pretty good examples of this. Well, last week another title hit the store, and it’s mechanics and the strategy involved make it another Lane Defense game that’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre; Evilot, from the development team Syrenaica. 

Evilot puts you in the shoes of the ‘evil’ mastermind, Count Dolfus. With adventurers and knights trying to come and steal away his gold and treasures, he’s forced to use whatever methods he can in order to keep from succeeding. Now, what really makes Evilot interesting is the way that you can combine your defenses in order to level them up. Placing 3 like-defenses on the gameplay area will make them all merge onto the area where your last piece was set. This can be done horizontally as well as vertically and while that in-itself is a pretty cool mechanic, if you’re not careful, you could wind up accidentally placing a defensive piece next to two others in the heat of the moment and wind up letting a group of knights through your barricade. However, once you get use to it, it’s something that definitely winds up setting Evilot apart from most of the games within the genre. 

As you progress through the game, you’ll be given more and more defensive pieces to work with. Starting off you’ll only have rats, but as you move on you’ll be given wooden barriers, skeletons, frogs, green blob things and more. While you’re not able to choose which pieces to use in each stage, they are mixed up from stage to stage, and depending on what you’re given, the strategy for each stage changes as well. 

The game contains 50 stages spread across 5 different areas with a boss battle at the end of each area. The graphics, while at first kind of seeming a bit dull when compared to other titles within the genre, have really grown on me. The gothic type look and feel of everything is something that’s not seen too often in the gaming world, and here, Syrenaica has done a great job of not going overboard with it, but still keeping it graphically appealing throughout the game. The comic-book type cut-scenes between each territory are very polished and well done, helping to add to the overall feel of the game while also injecting a bit of humor.

The user interface is simple to use as well. Placement is done by tapping on the piece you want to place on the bottom of the screen and then selecting the tile you want to place it. When a piece is selected, it’s icon at the bottom of the screen will be highlighted in green, making it easy to quickly glance down and know what piece you have selected. Defeating an enemy or having one of your own pieces defeated will drop a ‘card’ which you can pick up by tapping on it and then use again by placing it anywhere in the gameplay area. 

Unfortunately, there is no GameCenter support, so there are no leaderboards or achievements to go after. There are also no in-game achievements, all of which kind of takes away some of the replay value that can be found with other titles that do incorporate these features. But, with the difficulty of the last 30 or so levels, there’s always a nice sense of accomplishment once you do complete a stage and area and this does help drive the game along. It would also be nice to see some sort of additional gameplay mode, maybe something where you control the knights and adventurers and try and steal the treasures, or an endless mode, maybe even a hardcore mode where you can just jump straight in to some insanely hectic gameplay. With these things not found here, Evilot can, at times, feel like it’s lacking the overall fullness that would make it totally stand out within the genre, but the core gameplay is solid and the main campaign that can be found here is definitely worth the $0.99 entry fee. Even if more modes were only made available through IAP, I’d love to see this game grow in the future, and sincerely hope that it does. If you’re still on the fence about purchasing it, there is a lite version available for free in the AppStore. 

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Banana Kong [FDG Entertainment] - $0.99

FDG has been on our ‘list of publishers to pay attention to’ list for quite some time. Actually, since 2010 with the release of Across Age, one of the best Zelda-esque games available on the iOS. Now with their latest release, Banana Kong, they have done something incredibly special; Hit the #1 spot on the iPad Paid Apps list in iTunes! Now, it’s no secret that this is one of the most coveted achievements for an iOS developer, so the fact that Banana Kong has done it is, in itself, amazing, but behind everything that comes with the #1 spot on iTunes is a very well developed, entertaining and challenging game that has a pretty decent potential to be worth your money as well as the time you’ll wind up sinking into the game.

With Banana Kong being an Endless Runner, I know that there are plenty of you out there who are just sick to death of the genre, and really don’t want to give this one a chance. In fact, I was one of those people for a while. But I gradually got back into them around the time Jetpack Joyride and Ski Safari came out, and now, some of my favorite games being released these days are endless runner type games because, like just about every other genre out there, endless runners are evolving again, adding to the typical auto-runner gameplay. With that being said, Banana Kong doesn’t add anything new to the genre, which is strange considering it’s positioning on the iTunes charts, but I’m sure it’s the game’s simplicity that’s drawn so many gamers in. 

You’ll control Kong as he speeds through the jungle collecting bananas and avoiding various hazards. With each run, you’ll have the opportunity to complete 3 objectives which, in turn, reward you with bananas that you can spend in the game’s power-up and utilities shops. The controls are simple enough; tap to jump, hold while in the air to glide, swipe down to drop down from a platform or bounce harder on treetops and flowers, and swipe right to activate your boost, which is available after collecting 11 bananas. This boost ability lets you smash through rocks and other hazards and also allows you to enter the upper treetop area if you boost while swinging on a vine, or go down into the jungle caves if you boost into an entrance. If you fall into the lava in the cave system, or don’t bounce off of a treetop, you’ll be sent back to the main jungle area, however, if you run into an object like a rock or other hazard, it will be game over. 

In the power-up shop you’ll be able to purchase upgrades for the various animals that you’ll encounter like the giraffe (who can save you while you’re in the treetops), boar (who can destroy environmental hazards) and the toucan (which carries you over water, collecting bananas until you run into an object), magnets, special rainbow bananas worth 30 bananas and your glide ability. In the utilities shop you can purchase one time use items like extra lives, boosters, full dash bars and a water bounce which saves you once from falling into the water. These upgrades and utilities are fairly high priced, especially considering when you first start up the game, chances are you’ll be earning around 100 bananas per run and most upgrades start at 1,000 bananas while items range from 300 for a full boost bar to 2,500 for an extra life. Luckily, completing objectives will earn you around 100 bananas for completing them, and with the possibility of completing 3 per run, they will help you out quite a bit. 

If that’s still not enough bananas for your taste there are, of course, IAPs. Free bananas if you want to sign up for and go through the hassle of downloading more apps through TapJoy are available, and then 2,500 bananas for $0.99, 7,500 for $1.99, 15,000 for $2.99 and 50,000 for $7.99 are all available for purchase. This might bother quite a few gamers, but considering it’s an endless runner, and the whole point of the genre is to play over and over and over again while trying to beat your own, as well as others, high scores, it might not bother other players. If the upgrade/item prices were a bit lower, it might really ease the sense of the whole ‘pay to move up the leaderboard’ feeling that a lot of gamers will most likely have. 

Aside from the expensive items, Banana Kong is your typical endless runner that will appeal to both casual and hardcore fans of the genre. However, it is very well polished, and does have a certain amount of charm that will keep most players coming back time and time again. As you can imagine with the game hitting the #1 spot on the iTunes charts, there are quite a few GameCenter players (191,812 at the time of writing this review), so you can bet that there’s some pretty stiff competition going on in the score-chasing department. On top of the leaderboards for distance and number of bananas collected, there’s also 33 hard to snag achievements that will keep players busy for quite some time. 

Priced at $0.99 and being a Universal app, Banana Kong might not add anything new to the runner genre, but it could be a nice addition to any iOS gamers collection. So long as you don’t mind putting in quite a bit of time so you can max out all of the upgrades and then work on purchasing the one time use items, Banana Kong has the potential to give you hours and hours of entertaining, well presented, charming gameplay. 

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DemonSouls [Lakoo] - $1.99

It really feels like we’ve been reviewing quite a few RPGs lately. Maybe it just feels that way because I’ve gone back and re-played through Chrono Trigger, Vay, Symphony of Eternity, Fantasy Chronicle, Eve of the Genesis and Osiris Legends recently, also while playing through Lunar Silver Star Story and Dragon Knight 4. Well, another one caught my eye this week, Lakoo’s Demon Souls (not to be confused with the PS3 title, Demon’s Souls), and I couldn’t help but jump on it. Am I happy I did? Well, once I put my Pokemon hat on, yes, I am. 

Starting the game up, it’s clear that DemonSouls very story driven. There are tons of story sequences, though you're able to fast forward through them. You take control of Thunder, a young fisherman/hunter who’s overly confident and dreams of bigger and better things. Living with a young women, River and her grandpa, Thunder helps to provide the village with fish and help out whenever he can. While out helping another village member, Thunder comes across a dragon and a mysterious man who gives Thunder the power to control the souls of demons with a demon soul jar in order to defeat the dragon. Cheesy? Yes, you could say that, but it makes for some pretty interesting gameplay. Once you have the demon soul jar, you’re able to capture enemies within the game by getting their HP down to a certain amount. Once you do, an icon pops up and you can then capture and use them in the future. 

DemonSouls is pretty much like your typical Action RPG. After going through story sections and while finishing quests and objectives, you’ll be mashing away on the attack button and using spells (or your captured demon’s in this case) to clear out monsters and raise your level. The controls in DemonSouls could use some tweaking. At the moment, there’s only 4 directional movement, up, down, left and right, and really, I can’t stress this enough; Once you’ve played a game like Crimsonheart, with it’s 360 degree movement, anything but just feels clunky. It doesn’t help that the game has a low frame-rate, adding to the jerkiness of the movement. With the 4 directional movement, you’re given one button for attacking and actions, with 4 icons around it which you’ll able to use to summon demons. An icon for capturing enemies appears only when you’re able to capture an enemy, and appears above the uppermost summoning icon. 

In the top left, your character’s HP, MP and XP are all gauged. Tapping on this takes you into the game’s menus where you’re able to allocate your earned points for leveling up, equip Thunder, use potions, go through your captured demon souls, merge items, forge items, go through your journal, check out the map and enter the settings menu, save, load, view the help file, check our your achievements or exit to the main menu. 

The demon capturing and forging systems are a bit of a saving grace for the game. Once you capture an enemy, you’re able to equip it and use it’s powers in battle. You can also sell these enemies at shops, or use them in conjunction with weapons to forge stronger weapons. There is also a pretty shallow elemental system, with enemies having either Fire, Water or Wood elemental bonds, and using opposite elemental weapons against them helps in defeating them quicker. With the game’s enemy capturing system, there’s pretty much always a new enemy to try and capture and use as one of your own, mixing in a sort of Pokemon-esque system to the hack-n-slash action. You’re also able to collect soulstones which let you create demons, though these are few and far between, and if you don’t save them, you might wind up having to purchase them via IAP if you’re wanting a new monster later on in the game. 

The graphics are decent enough, though there are items in the world that are outlined in blue, or that just don’t look like they fit within the area you’re in, and as mentioned already, the frame-rate does add some jerkiness to the movement, but it’s nothing as bad as Legend of Master 3, where the whole screen jerks when you move. The animations are designed nicely, but it would have been great to have more attacking animations included. The story is translated very well, but unfortunately, the text does sometimes reach beyond the screen, leaving the players to try and fill in a couple of words every now and again. On top of all of this, the music, though fitting for the game, isn’t looped correctly, and can be kind of distracting. 

Now, even with these little issues, DemonSouls has some interesting gameplay mixed in. The demon collecting adds a nice layer of depth the gameplay, and the story allows for multiple endings based on how you decide to interact with the other NPCs. This does help to make DemonSouls stand out in an over-saturated genre. Priced at $1.99 and being Universal, even with the 4 directional movement and slightly cheesy storyline, DemonSouls is definitely a game that fans of monster collecting and hack-n-slash gameplay should check out. Lakoo has done a great job of mixing the two genres together, and hopefully the game will get a boost in the framerate and some tweaks with the music looping in an update soon.

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Review Rewind: EnbornX

It's kind of strange that we haven't had many new shmups hitting the AppStore lately. With the amount of them that were being released about 6 months to a year ago, it's just weird that we haven't had but a couple over the last 3 or 4 months. Well, one that's been on my device since it's release is Latansia's EnbornX. With it's endless gameplay and fantastically randomly designed enemies, I was hooked from the beginning. Since it's release it's received a couple of updates, one of which added relative touch controls into the mix. If you're a fan of wild way out there huge ass robot anime bad guys, you'll definitely wanna check this one out.

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.02

Shoot-em-up games have been making a huge comeback over the last couple years. Mainly because you can now play old favorites like R-Type, Earth Defense Force, Galaga and Battle Squadron as well as newer games, like Fast Striker, Deathsmiles, ESPGaluda and DoDonPachi all on a mobile device with touch screen controls that make previously hard to pull off with a joystick moves as easy as swiping your finger across a screen. Mixed in with these classics and new favorites, we’ve been given quite a few new and amazing bullet hell and shmup titles. Enborn-X, by Lantansia, is yet another example of this.  

This endless boss battle structured game is a blast to play. There’s two different control methods, both being tight and easy to use. One option is a joystick, while the other is relative touch control, and both have 3 different buttons for attack options. Each attack has it’s own percs as well as weaknesses. Your spread shot can cancel out certain types of shots from the bosses, while some projectile shots go right through your bullets, a laser that you need to charge while avoiding the onslaught of bullets coming your way, and an incredibly strong up close and personal punch attack that, well, you need to be up close and personal to use.

In order to max out your score against each boss, you’ll need to pick them apart, destroying them piece by piece. You can go straight for the middle of them, destroying them fairly quickly, but doing this will cause your score to suffer quite a bit, and in a high-scoring game like this, that’s a big no-no. For each piece of the boss you destroy, you’ll rack up points while shooting that piece, as well as get a bonus score for destroying it before moving on to the next piece. Starting at the edges and moving inward is essential, but also comes with quite a bit of risk. Generally, the edges of the boss are the pieces that shoot out the most bullets. This means you’ll need to get use to weaving in and out of them while attacking instead of staying in the middle and slightly moving to avoid the missiles and big lasers that you’ll usually find there.

The graphics and animations in Enborn-X are very exuberant, and it can sometimes be hard to focus when each new boss is spawned from the orb that you’ll be fighting. The animations for this are great, each bit being flung out of the last in true overdone anime style. In short, it looks awesome. The animations for your character are pretty typical of shooters, but match the style of the game very well. It would be nice to see one or two more moves incorporated to the melee attacking, as right now you punch twice over and over again, adding in a kick or super twirl punch or something would have been a great addition, but as it is, you’ll be focusing more on how much damage you’re doing with those punches than what your character looks like while pulling them off. The sounds and music go together with the anime style too, being full of energy, and adding to the overall feel of the game. 

Now, with the game being done in true anime style, it’s amazing that it’s only $1.99, as most anime entertainment is usually premium priced, and with the amount of replay value, and the sheer exaggerated amount of action that’s in the game, $1.99 is a great price. EnbornX is also Universal, and compatible with iCade, giving gamers even more reason to lay down a couple bucks for it. Of course, a high-scoring game like this wouldn’t be complete without OpenFeint and GameCenter leader boards, now would it? Highest score and highest stage boards are included, as well as having 15 different hard to snag achievements. Lantansia has proven that they can make an over the top game that fits within the growing genre as well as expands it. Hopefully we can see another mode or maybe more weapons and characters in future updates, but right now, if you’re a fan of the genre, Enborn-X is a great buy.

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Dragon Knight 4 [PNJ Inc.] - $2.99

Aside from Zelda, I was never really exposed to Action RPGs as a child. Luckily, these types of games have been flourishing on the iOS, and now-a-days we‘re able to pick from a vast array of Action RPGs in the AppStore. The newest one to hit my device? Dragon Knight 4, from PNJ. Now, I know I’ve said this before, but ever since CrimsonHeart set the standards exceptionally high for future Action RPGs on the platform, it’s been hard for me to really get into another title, but with PNJ having released quite a few nice titles in the past, I was pretty excited to dive into Dragon Knight, and so far, I’m pretty impressed with the amount of depth.

Dragon Knight 4 tells the tale of Rena, the king’s daughter, and her quest to save her family, and the land she’s never been exposed to, Eldoran. King Gestas, ruler of the nearby Keron, decided his people had lived in the shadow of Eldoran long enough, and deserved to rule over the land of Gaia where the two kingdoms were located. King Gestas couldn’t get the support of his troops or council, but came across Ide, a very powerful being, who promised King Gestas immense power and leadership over the land of Gaia. Now, the Demons and Angels from the Underworld will need to decide who to side with, and help their respective sides win the oncoming war of the land. Dragon Knight has a fairly heavy story driven adventure, with all of this happening before you even meet Rena, it expands, twists, turns and reveals itself more and more as you progress throughout the game. 

Unfortunately, the English translation isn’t all that it could be. Like most RPGs on the iOS, Dragon Knight’s story can be kind of hard to follow sometimes, and all because of grammatical errors, words that are cut to fit the screen and other translation related errors in the text. But if you’re willing to read, and re-read the dialogue, which Dragon Knight lets you do, not progressing in dialogue until you tap the screen, you should be able to have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on. If you’d rather skip the story, there is a ’Fast’ button that will hurry through all of the story segments so you can get straight to the action.

Starting the game, you’re able to choose between 4 different classes for Rena, each having different starting stats depending on what their strengths are; Black Magician, which uses the power of darkness and has high intelligence, Sword Master, which lets you wield a huge sword and start with extra strength, Sorceress, using elemental magic and starting with high intelligence and lastly, Black Smith, who wields a large hammer and is given high strength. Dexterity and Vitality are also included, and dependant on what class you choose to play with, but there’s not much difference between the classes. 

One thing that immediately grabbed me once finally getting into the gameplay was that Dragon Knight has a nice amount of depth in almost every aspect. You’re able to collect crafting papers that let you know what materials you’ll need to create equipment, and then let you craft anywhere in the world so long as you’re not fighting a boss. To help you gain the materials needed, you’re also able to disassemble equipment in our inventory that you do not need. This will give you random materials that you can use in order to craft other items, or just sell in shops for more currency. 

At first, the enemies in the game are very easy to destroy. But even if you spend time grinding and leveling up, some of the stronger enemies that are mixed in with the week ones can give you a run for your money, and you could very easily wind up dead if you’re not paying attention. Like CrimsonHeart, you’ll need to figure out how these stronger enemies attack, and exploit their weaknesses, as running straight into them, hacking and slashing away will result in a massive loss of HP. 

Along with the crafting and disassembling of items, you’re also able to equip Spirits. These are shown as wings attached to the back of your character, and help boost stats, and give perks like upping your chance to find a rare item. The spirits will also gain experience, and level up, making them stronger and add even more perks to your character. The spells you’re able to choose are all split up and different from class to class, and set up in a tree, making you level up certain spells before unlocking more. There are also passive skills that increase your stats, helping to add to the attacks, defense and magic of each character. 

The controls in Dragon Knight are typical of Action RPGs, with a movement joystick, attack button, a section for quick select potions and spells and your menu buttons, like a quick save, quest icon, pause, and shop. The movement in Dragon Knight is great, allowing for 360 degree moves, which, after you experience it, and go back to 4 or 8 directional movement games, it’s very noticeable, and does add an extra level of smoothness to the gameplay. Dragon Knight’s shop consists of special items like revive berries, quality eggs for spirits, extra bags, treasure chests and more, all of which are only purchasable with coins, which are only available via IAP. 

The graphics are also typical of other Action RPGs; vibrant, and influenced by eastern animation. All of the women are incredibly busty and wear pretty skimpy armor with most of the men look like body builders, or covered from head to toe in evil looking armor. The special moves are bright and flashy, and the main attack animations are smooth, though there’s only one or two movements that each character will make while attacking. The equipment that your character wears will be shown in-game, which is always nice, and there’s loads of different types of enemies, all looking fairly polished. The boss designs are great, and they almost always look pretty badass. There are also quite a few different environments, helping the game not look too repetitive while button mashing your way throughout the game, which also helps. Bottom line? There’s nothing graphically that really sets Dragon Knight apart from other highly polished titles, but the graphics aren’t dull, and make the game fit in nicely with those other polished titles.

There really are only a couple of bad things that I can say about Dragon Knight 4. First, every time you start up the game, you MUST be connected to the internet, or else the game will not be verified, and you won’t be able to play. This is a big no-no, especially on mobile devices. Having the game verify your purchase the first time you play is just fine, but making the game do it every time you boot it up can be very frustrating if you don’t constantly have access to the net. Second, the game only has an iPhone/iPod build. There is no Universal or HD version, so you’ll be forced to play in 2X mode on your iPad. 

Aside from that, Dragon Knight 4 is a great story driven Action RPG that fans of the genre should enjoy. It’s fairly depthy equip, crafting, leveling up and spirit systems definitely make it a game that can suck you in, and keep you constantly looking for better items and more loot. Right now, Dragon Knight is on sale for $2.99. I’m not sure what the price will go up to once it’s launch sale it over, but considering the constant verification and lack of an HD or Universal build, it might seem slightly over-priced. However, it is pretty hard to find an Action RPG that’s as story driven as Dragon Knight, or that’s as mechanically deep, so if you’re willing to shell out a couple dollars more than you initially think you should, you’ll definitely be rewarded nicely. 

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Review Rewind: Commander Pixman

There are quite a few platformers that stick around on my device well after I've completed them. Not many get updated with new levels, but Commander Pixman seems to have grown quite a bit since it's original release. If you haven't played it yet, it's in the same vein as League of Evil, except your character has a jetpack which he uses to reach platforms and make his way over gaps, which does take a little bit of messing around before it'll become comfortable. But if you're into speedrun platformers with bite-sized levels, Commander Pixman is a must own. 

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.0.0

I’ve said many times before that Metroidvania games are my favorite types of games, but right under it is, of course, platformers. Before playing Super Meat Boy for the first time last year, I hadn’t come across any speed run platform game, and since, only a couple made for the iOS; League Of Evil and Mos Speedrun being the first two, and then the recent release of Stardash added to that little list of mine. Now I have yet another speed run plat former to drive me crazy and go nutzo over. 

Commander Pixman is this new addition, developed by One Minute Games, and is their 2nd release in the AppStore (preceded by Quad Pong). First off, I should say that if you’re expecting another LoE, Mos, or Stardash type game, you will probably be disappointed once you start up Commander Pixman. The physics take a little getting use to, as do the controls, and the main character has a gun. However, once you get use to the controls, thinking of the jump button as more of a jetpack thruster button, the controls and physics come together nicely. If you completely avoid using the gun, you’ll make it harder on yourself to get through the levels, but you’ll be able to get through them quicker once you figure out the right path, which will take you numerous re-tries, which is to be expected in the genre. Though taking your time, and using your gun to destroy all the enemies in a level will earn you a badge for that level.

The graphics are 8-bit retro styled, which in itself has become more modern than old-school over the last couple years, though here, it fits. The difficulty and ‘learn the controls’ feeling you’ll see from the beginning of the game through to the end completely screams old-school inspired. The soundtrack is also done in chip-tune style, and helps add to the overall feeling of the game.

Each of the 80 levels (65 regular levels plus 15 unlockable ones) contains hazards and obstacles for you to jump over, through, or avoid while trying to make it to the end of the level as quick as you can. The faster you make it through each stage, the higher star rank you’ll get at the end, while a perfect run will give you 3 stars. There are 20 different hazards/obstacles, including spikes, laser doors, rotating chainsaw blades, mines, various monsters, moving platforms, disintegrating platforms, sections of the floor that boost your jump, and in the later levels, portals that transfer not only you, but your momentum, and more.

To unlock each of the 15 bonus levels, you’ll need to complete different objectives. To unlock the first bonus level, you’ll need to get reach level 20, and to unlock the second bonus level you need to kill all enemies in level 22 in less than 13 seconds. 

Now, even with it centering around collecting badges and getting the quickest time you can, there is no online leader board or achievement support, which does kind of take away from the drive of getting 3 stars in a level, or getting the best time you can, and collecting all the badges. Also, you can not run off of a platform that has a spike sticking off the 90 degree edge of it without dying. I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but it does. The left and right directional arrows are kind of too far apart as well. But aside from these things, Commander Pixman is a very competent speed run plat former, with controls that work very well once you get use to them, and great physics. There’s also portals with the nice physics attached to them, and that does add a ton to the gameplay. Right now it’s on sale for $0.99, but only for a limited time, after that it’ll be $1.99, and with all the content within the game, even without online support, is well worth the price. There’s also more content promised in future updates, so if you’re a plat former fan, speed run fan, or old-school game fan, Commander Pixman is definitely worth picking up.

**Commander Pixman is still priced at $1.99, but now also has a lite version available for free.

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