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. 

Read More

Ronin [Bulwark Studios] - $0.99

Endless Runners don’t usually stay on my iDevice’s for extended periods of time. There’s not many that really keep the gameplay interesting enough, or have that special little hook that keeps me coming back to them over and over again. I will say that there are a few that will never leave my device; Polara, Cuddle Bears, Solipskier and Ski Safari are just a few. Well, luckily, there are still developers out there pushing the fun factor of Endless Runners to new heights. Case and point; Bulwark Studios, and the title, Ronin.

Ronin is simple, to say the least. But along with it’s simplicity, there are great leveling up, experience, score multiplier, objective and skill systems that keep the game insanely addictive. Starting off, you’re given one skill, the ability to turn into a wolf, allowing you to zing past enemies and further your distance. Along with this, you’re able to swipe up to jump, swipe down to slide and swipe right to bring out your katana and do some damage. You’re also able to use your sword while in the air, and while sliding.  

On top of this, there are 5 enemies. That’s right. 5. And that’s all the game needs. Two of the enemies can be dispatched simply by slashing at them while your character is automatically running along the path, those these two enemies are not exactly the same. One will come charging at you once you‘re within a certain distance of him, while the other sits and waits for you to come to them. This leaves 3 other enemies which you’ll need to dodge their attacks before taking out. One is an archer that will fire one arrow at you that you’ll need to dodge either by jumping over, or sliding under, before attacking. Another is a high level samurai that you’ll need to slide into and attack from below in order to take out, and the last enemy you’ll encounter is a large fellow that smashes the ground, sending a shockwave towards you which you’ll need to jump over, taking him out before you land and carry on your merry way. What makes the game challenging is the way that these enemies are mixed and shuffled together, resulting in you maybe having to jump over an arrow and then take out two basic enemies before encountering the archer, followed by the high level samurai, which you’ll need to quickly slide into afterwards. 

While doing all of this, you’ll need to be collecting orbs which will charge your skill bar at the bottom of the screen. Once you have collected enough orbs, you can use your skill by double tapping anywhere on the screen. The game is also split up into sections by objectives. You may need to free some innocent and captured townsfolk by slicing at the baskets they’ve been enclosed in, or to avoid the blackened orbs that will deduct from your score and take away collected orbs from your skill bar. You might also just need to collect a shopkeepers missing sake bottles or make it through a section without having any skills activated. 

As you level up, you’ll be awarded skill points which you can use to unlock various skills and perks. Among them, the already mentioned wolf skill, a daze skill that makes some enemies incapacitated, extra HP and more. There are also some skills which are upgradeable, making them more powerful, and allowing for you to make it further and score bigger. Also growing as you level up will be your reputation. This is where the score multiplier comes into play. As your reputation goes up, so will your score multiplier. However, you’ll only be able to enable the score multiplier if you disable some of your skills. Some skills will take away up to 2x from your multiplier, while others only .5x. As you level up, you’ll be able to pick skills while still keeping a multiplier active, but the only way to truly score big is to disable all of your earned skills and activate your full multiplier. This means playing through the game with only 2 hit points, and no active skills. 

The graphics and animations in Ronin are top notch, and with the beautifully crafted background moving at just the right speed to give you a true sense of progressing through the world, combined with all of the skills, multipliers, and objectives, it all comes together perfectly to provide an outstanding gameplay experience. The background music is also a huge plus for the game, adding to the feel and atmosphere of Ronin’s world. GameCenter is also supported with 3 leaderboards, one for your Best Distance, one for your Total Distance and one for your Highest Score. There are also 30 hard to complete achievements that will keep completionists on their toes and busy for a while. Lastly, the game includes iCloud support which seamlessly transfers data between devices, and gives players 3 separate save slots so that more than one person in your household can enjoy Ronin from start to 100% completion, and then some. 

With Ronin priced at only $0.99, being Universal and void of IAPs, giving everyone a level playing field on the leaderboards, not only is the game a steal, it’s a real rarity in the AppStore these days. Bulwark is on hand as well, responding to player feedback and issues on their Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as on the Touch Arcade forums. If you’re a fan of runners, Ronin is one game you need to get. The game also contains enough skill based gameplay to keep veterans of the genre busy for hours on end while still remaining simple enough to entertain even the most casual gamers. With there being not one thing that I can negatively say about Ronin, it’s an incredibly easy game to recommend and we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on Bulwark Studios, and hope to see a lot more from this insanely talented developer down the road. 

Read More

Polara [Hope This Works Games] - $0.99

As time moves on, the Runner genre is getting more and more interesting. Considering most running/auto-running platformer games out there only have one or two button controls, the amount of complexity that can be found within the genre is very impressive. Hope This Works Game’s newest title, Polara, definitely falls into that impressive category. Since we saw the trailer for this Ikaruga inspired runner, we’ve been incredibly psyched about it’s release, and now that it’s out, and we’ve got our hands on it, we haven’t been let down. In fact, it’s even more impressive than we thought it would be. 

Polara’s story follows Agent Lara, a tester for a new type of suit that can pass through the city’s defense system. While testing this suit, Lara is contacted by the outside rebels, learning some potentially disturbing news, and decides to help them in their cause. Now, I should let you all know; I’m a huge sucker for cyberpunk/near future/down with the establishment type stuff. Larry Niven, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, I eat their books up like an addict, always wanting more. So, I know that has a pretty big influence on how much I’m enjoying the story and setting for Polara. But even aside from that, it’s a fantastically challenging and well designed game offering up some great gameplay and multiple modes to try and master.

 In fact, there’s 7. 7 different gameplay modes - The Campaign/Story and 6 more endless modes; Random Normal, Random Hard, Random Insane, Gravity Wave, Super Speed and Switch, each offering different mechanics to mess around with and try and conquer, not to mention the GameCenter leaderboards for each of the 6 endless modes that you can try and climb. 50 levels are included in the Story Mode, with story scenes and bosses every 10 stages. As you make your way through each level, you’ll need to change the color of Lara’s suit between Blue and Red, matching the lasers, projectiles and other objects that are thrown at you throughout the game. Polara also keeps track of how many deaths you’ve had in each stage, with GameCenter achievements for making it through 10, 25, and all levels flawlessly. Controls are handled by tapping on the left side of the screen to change between red and blue colors, and the right side to jump, which can also be switched in the options menu. 

Once you complete a level, you’re able to go back and collect the letters POLARA and a Special Item. Doing this will require some quick thinking and fast reflexes, as you’ll need to match the color of the letters in order to collect them, almost always switching colors multiple times while in the air to do so, and almost always making a jump that would otherwise result in certain death to collect the special item. With the mix of rotating multi-colored rings, enemies that fire various projectiles, objects that increase your speed or send you into a super jump and many more hazards and nifty objects to weave and switch colors through, it can get incredibly challenging and difficult, though never frustrating. The controls are incredibly responsive, and every time you die, you’ll be cursing yourself for not being quick enough, never at the game. 

As you complete the Story Mode stages and go back to collect the POLARA letters and special items, you’ll start to unlock the various other endless modes. Random Normal is already unlocked once you start the game for the first time, but Gravity Wave unlocks after you collect 8 special items, Random Hard unlocks after collecting 10 POLARA’s and reaching 2,000 meters in Random Normal and Random Insane unlocking with 40 POLARA’s and 2,000 meters in Random Hard. The last two modes will unlock once you collect between 20 and 30 POLARA and 16 to 24 special items. Each extra mode focuses on certain objects and hazards from the Story Mode, with Random Normal comprised of all of the regular hazards and mechanics from the Story, Hard is full of all of the harder to get through sections, and Insane is one long string of the hardest sections in Story Mode. Gravity Wave is one section of gravity shifting parts after another. Having your suit change to blue switches gravity, while red makes gravity normal. Super Speed contains all of the sped up sections and Switch, well, you guessed it, requires a WHOLE LOT of switching colors. 

The graphics and animations are fantastic. The cut scenes are made up of beautifully hand painted artwork, helping to set the scene and atmosphere perfectly for the gameplay and story. The background cityscapes look amazing as you’re running past them and the dark color scheme helps to add to the dark feeling of the game while also helping to make the blue and red lasers stand out incredibly well. Animations for Lara, the lasers, enemies and bosses are also great, with multiple animations for jumping along with very smooth animations for slowing down and sliding across surfaces. 

GameCenter includes 32 achievements, most of which will provide a great challenge for 100% completionists, and the 6 leaderboards definitely help to drive the replay value for the Endless Modes. There is no board for the Campaign, but trying to get through each of the 50 levels without dying will take most players multiple playthroughs, not to mention the POLARA and Special items that you'll be able to collect on your second time through each level. In short, there's endless replay value, and score-chasing opportunities within a great amount of content. 

There are ads in-game, but only on the loading screens, and only for Hope This Works other title, Kunundrum. You do not have to exit the ads to progress, and they do not pop up anywhere else in the game. The addition of the Kunundrum ad has helped to keep Polara priced at $0.99, and considering it contains absolutely no IAPs and is Universal, it definitely stands out within the genre. With all of the content and crazy amount of replay value, not to mention the polish within the graphics, environment and story, but also the smoothness of gameplay, even on lower end devices, this $0.99 launching price is a fantastic deal. If you’re a fan of runners, or auto-running platformers, and yes, there is plenty of platforming that can be found in Polara, this is definitely a game you need to pick up. Even if you aren’t a fan of, or use to be a fan of runners, Polara has the potential to make you a fan, or bring you back to the genre. The color changing mechanic and way that it’s used (not feeling like just a gimmick in any sense) adds a ton to the otherwise over saturated genre. 

Read More

Amazing Runner [Freyr Games] - $0.99

Freyr Games, the studio behind the addictive title Star Warfare: Alien Invasion, has just added another notch in their gaming belt with the release of the Endless Runner, aptly titled Amazing Runner. Created using the Unreal Engine, you can pretty much bet on the graphics being great, and the controls being fairly simple. With the gameplay from their previous title, Star Warfare, the expectations for Amazing Runner are pretty high, but, like most games, there’s quite a few things that will dictate whether or not it’ll be worth sticking around for in a genre that’s incredibly over-packed already.

Diving right in, Amazing Runner has one gameplay mode, a Store containing upgradeable items, consumable items, characters and gems via IAP and a Stats menu containing the 20 achievements that can be found in GameCenter. Like most runners, Amazing Runner is all about getting as far as you can, chasing high scores and collecting as many gems as you can so that you can hopefully better your score the next run. 

Now, with there only being 1 enemy type, right off the bat it feels like Freyr Games designed the game around trying to make complex environmental designs that would check your reflexes instead of sending wave after wave of enemies your way to see if you could dodge or kill them. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, in fact, I love fantastic level designs, but the way that it’s handled here isn’t too impressive. There’s 6 separate sections that are put together randomly. A left or right turn with a jump right after it, a straight-a-way, a loop, a section of platforms on the left and right sides of the screen, another section of platforms on the top and bottom of the screen and the end of ‘level’ tunnel. 

Making your way through these areas isn’t particularly difficult. To jump, you swipe up, a tap on the screen will let you slice through enemies, loops are handled by drawing a counter-clockwise circle on the screen about 2X the speed of your character, and jumping to platforms on the top, bottom and sides of the screen is also handled with swipes in the appropriate direction. 

As you make your way through each ‘level’ you’ll eventually come to a tunnel. Here is where your speed will be increased for the next ‘level’. Each level is handled by an environment change, bonus gems, and the addition of an enemy into the enemy pattern seen beforehand. The bonus gems start off at 50, and increase by 50 with each environment you make it to, and the enemies eventually start appearing in the middle of gem lines and back to back as well as placed in areas that will make you have to get out of the way instead of always just slashing through them. There is a bit of cool down after your character lands, making it very hard to attack an enemy right after landing, and you are unable to start an attack while still in the air, so you’re pretty much forced into weaving out of the way. 

Once you get comfortable with the 5 or 6 different sections of the game, you’re set. Aside from the change in environments and added number of enemies later on, once you’ve ran through the first ¼ of the first environment, you’ve basically seen everything the game has to offer in terms of level design. 

The shop does contain some basic items; 2X gem power-up, a magnet, shield, rocket booster and health upgrade, all of which, minus the health upgrade, will appear in-game once you purchase them, with a higher chance of appearing each time you ‘upgrade’ them. The 2X gem counter doesn’t double to 4X and the magnet, rocket booster and shields do not last longer. As far as I can tell, there are also no points within the game at which two items will become available at the same time. You do start off with 3 Hit Points, and are able to purchase 3 more in the shop bringing the total to 6. There are also consumable items like a revive kit that brings you back to life after dying and a headstart that gives you a boost at the beginning of the game, both available in single packs or packs of five. The characters that you’re able to purchase are pretty expensive, priced at 80,000, 100,000 and 120,000 gems, but do not add anything different to the gameplay and are only for cosmetic favorings. Lastly, the IAP gems. You’re able to purchase 10,000 gems for $0.99, 75,000 for $4.99, 200,000 for $9.99 and 500,000 for $19.99. The gems in game are given out at about the rate you would expect if you’re familiar with Star Warfare. Gaining between 500 and 2,000 gems per run would be about average, but you’re also given gems once you complete the achievements/objectives in the Stats menu. 

Priced at $0.99, being Universal, and running fairly smooth, even on a 4th gen Touch, especially considering it’s running through the Unreal Engine, if you’re a hardcore fan of runners, you might get a decent amount of enjoyment out of Amazing Runner. But if you’re looking for something with more randomness in the level design, more than one enemy and a game that will not require endless hours of grinding or a $10-$20 IAP purchase to snag just about everything in the game, you might want to hold off on Amazing Runner and see what  Freyr Games does with it in the future. Looking back at all of the updates that Star Warfare received after it’s release, I think it’s fair to say that Amazing Runner will receive quite a few tweaks over it’s lifetime. Maybe I’m burnt out on runners. Maybe I had expectations that were a little too high. I dunno, but I expected a little more from the developers of Star Warfare.

Read More

One Epic Knight [Simutronics] - FREE

Before I get started on this review, I should really let it be known that Temple Run - yeah, didn’t click with me. I tried to like it, I really, really did, but I just didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Needless to say, all of the Temple Run clones hitting the AppStore since, I’ve liked even less. That is, until now. Simutronics, developers of the awesome Tower Defense title, Tiny Heroes, have just released the free2play title, One Epic Knight, and I’m hooked. 

Following the typical Temple Run type gameplay, One Epic Knight’s theme is based more off of dungeon crawlers, with your main character running through a castle filled with enemies, traps, hazards, blockades, and of course, loads and loads of loot. The controls are done by swiping on the screen, being able to move left, right, jump and slide all by swiping in their respective directions. 

With One Epic Knight being free2play, like other f2p titles, I was worried about the IAP model the developers would decide to use. Would the game have ads? Would the items in the shop be incredibly high priced? Would I feel like players who bought currency through IAP had an advantage over me on the leaderboards? The answer to all of these questions - NO. In fact, I’m still surprised that Simutronics made One Epic Knight available for free. If I would have paid $0.99-$1.99 for it, I wouldn’t have regretted it at all. I actually wound up purchasing a couple dollars worth of currency just to help support the developers. Though, once I saw the IAP model, I was kind of caught off guard.  

$0.99 will get you 3,000 coins. That really isn’t much, considering once you pay about 2,000 to upgrade the loot in the shop, you’ll be able to easily snag between 700 and 1,200 coins per game. Not to mention the extra coins you get for completing objectives. The next amount you can pay? $4.99, and that’ll give you 20,000 coins. It just strikes me as odd that there’s no $1.99 or $2.99 IAP option, and that the amount given is so small. Granted, I still would have thrown down a couple bucks if it was just a ‘Donate’ IAP, but I really think increasing the amount of currency given, and maybe adding a $1.99 IAP would push players to purchase them more. 

Anyway, as you’re running through the castle, you’ll be able to pick up weapons and shields. As you encounter various enemies, like blobs of green goo, and insane hatchet wielding ghouls, you’re able to use these items to smash through them. Both of these items also increase your score multiplier, which tacks on points for running, collecting coins, and for destroying enemies and objects. After you upgrade both of these items in the shop, they’ll start giving you currency for each time you use them, which definitely helps to gather up some coinage. You’ll also come across lines of currency, gems and treasure chests, all helping you gain enough coins to upgrade items and purchase one time use items from the shop.

Also scattered throughout the castle are large chunks of meat and mana crystals. If you can manage to snag the meat hanging from the ceiling, you’ll go into Rampage Mode, which lets you smash through enemies, objects and hazards so long as you’re still eating the meat. Once it’s about to wear off, you’ll start flashing, and sparks will appear around you. If you can collect 4 mana crystals, you’ll go into Mana Madness mode which boosts you forward for a certain distance, blasting through all hazards and enemies. If you look hard enough, you’ll also be able to find hidden areas, usually behind broken walls, boarded up doors, and under small holes. Some of these areas contain an insane amount of loot, so it’s a good idea to keep your eyes open.

The graphics are cartoony, but fairly detailed, and the animations for each moving object are great. I was actually pretty surprised that the game ran smoothly on my 4th generation iPod Touch. I did experience some issues with some unresponsive controls, but this was only occasionally, and nothing game breaking, though, when it did happen, it was pretty frustrating because it almost always resulted in an unnecessary death. 

Priced at FREE and being Universal, there’s no real reason not to check out One Epic Hero, even if you and the Temple Run genre haven’t really clicked in the past, and if One Epic Hero does manage to grab a hold of you, there’s GameCenter integration including 38 achievements along with 5 separate leaderboards including boards for Highest Score, Longest Distance Traveled, Most Loot Collected, Most Critters Slain and Most Obstacles Smashed, all adding to the already high replay value of the game. It would be nice to see some more enemies, and maybe even some boss battles. A huge enemy that gets knocked back, spits loot and shields/weapons for you to pick up, and can either be hit or dodged, but needs to be hit a certain amount of times before moving on would fit in perfectly with the game. It also wouldn’t hurt to see more power-ups. But as it is now, Simutronics has done a fantastic job doing something different with the Temple Run model, and as I already said, I’m pretty surprised One Epic Knight is available as a free2play title. With Tiny Heroes and One Epic Knight now under their belt, I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.  

Read More

Mr. Dreamer [Strapped to a Meteor] - $0.99

Last year, one of the more interesting platform puzzlers hit the AppStore; Deo, from the development studio Strapped to a Meteor. Since the release, they’ve been hard at work coming up with another unique and original game for the iOS, and it’s finally hit the AppStore. What is it this time? An endless runner called Mr. Dreamer. If you checked out our preview of the game about a week ago, then you already have a pretty good idea of what the game is. But if you haven’t, here’s the scoop. 

Mr. Dreamer is a score-chasing, endless runner of sorts. On the main menu, you’re shown a strange little guy who’s stuck in an office cubicle with a stuffed animal by his side, pictures of his family on the walls, and the sounds of a keyboard clicking and phones ringing in the background. Looking bored and staring off into space, one you hit the ‘Play’ button, you’re off into a dream world, running up a two sided pathway in a dream world ripe with candy and sweets. 

What makes Mr. Dreamer unique, as well as challenging, is the flipping mechanic that the game is centered around. Once you start running up this pathway, you need to keep the character up-right. If he happens to go up-side-down, a gauge at the top of the screen starts to drain. Luckily, you’re able to re-fill this gauge by collecting the candies that litter the path. 

The game is split up into different level-like environments. Once you’ve completed one, the game will pause for a second while it loads the next one, and you’ll continue on your journey. This does, unfortunately, take away from the flow and smoothness of the game, but it does keep the original loading time down to a minimum, and the game running as smoothly as it can, though I have experienced some jitteriness while playing, even on an iPad 2. As you make your way up the path in the clouds, you’ll come across special candies. Collect 3 of these, and you’ll speed up, having all of the other candies drawn to you as if you were a magnet, and being up-side-down for this short period of time does not drain your gauge. After the first couple of levels, the game gets even more challenging by introducing bombs that sit on the path. If you’re unlucky enough to run into one of these, they’ll wind up draining quite a bit of your health/up-side-down gauge. Once the gauge is empty, it’s game over. 

The graphics and animations are very well done, as you might expect coming from the developers of the wildly entertaining Deo. The sounds as well as the music fit the game perfectly, and the dreamy graphic look creates a great atmosphere. Sadly, there’s only this one gameplay mode, no other power-ups, no unlockables and no special abilities. Having a more difficult timed mode, or more power-ups along side the special candies would have greatly increased the gameplay, as well as the replay value.
But priced at $0.99 and being Universal, Mr. Dreamer is something the endless runner genre has yet to see, and for that fact alone it’s definitely worth picking up for the dollar, as coming across a unique runner these days is something that hardly ever happens. GameCenter is supported, but unfortunately, at this time, there is no leaderboard, and no achievements to collect, though I’m sure this will be fixed in a future update. Strapped to a Meteor has definitely kept with creating something out of the ordinary with Mr. Dreamer, and after the little issues get ironed out, will be a game that (hopefully) winds up pushing the genre forward with new and interesting ideas sprouting out because of it. 

Read More

Babel Running [Bulkypix] - $0.99

Endless runners are a dime a dozen in the AppStore. However, it’s not too often you come across a runner that gives you a character and features that you’re already familiar with before hopping into the game. Bulkypix latest runner, used primarily as a promo for the sequel, is Babel Running. A runner where you’ll control a little guy just trying to get bricks from one place to another, while being ambushed by forces he doesn’t quite yet understand. 

As with most runners, the gameplay is simple. Tap once to jump, twice to double jump. Leave the rest up to the game. You’ll encounter tsunamis, snakes, spikes, lightning, fire, crocodiles, and more and you try to collect the rocks scattered throughout the world and take them to different stations, cashing in your points. Once you collect three of these rock pieces scattered all over the place, you’ll earn a stone, which you’ll need to try and carry to the next station. However, if you get hit, it’ll cost you one stone, and once you’re out of stones and get injured, it’s game over. 

Unfortunately, other than the GameCenter/OpenFeint leaderboards, Facebook posting and 23 trophies, there’s not much to the game, and with so many runners taking advantage of the platform, and going a little crazy with their gameplay, aside from the familiar settings and offerings of Babel Running, it doesn’t really stand a chance to stick out in the crowd. There is a Bonus Mode, which you can purchase for another $0.99, offering up bonus items throughout the gameplay, shields, and the like, but it still doesn’t do much to change the outcome of the game. There’s nothing really driving the gameplay, and nothing really keeping you coming back to it.

But if you’re looking for a familiar runner from a well known publisher that offers up a decent challenge; Babel Running is definitely one to check out. It’s $0.99, and Universal, and for all of you Babel fanatics out there, should hold you over until the sequel to Babel Rising comes out.

Read More