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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Kingdom Rush: Frontiers [Ironhide Game Studio] - $2.99/$4.99 [HD]

Last year the Tower Defense game Kingdom Rush took the iOS strategy gaming world by storm. Fans of the genre couldn’t get enough of it and many consider it the best TD game on the iOS, some even consider it the best on any gaming platform. That’s some insanely high praise right there, especially considering the high number of quality Tower Defense titles that are out there. Now fans of the very well received original can experience the sequel and it’s everything you’d expect a sequel to be. Kingdom Rush Frontiers takes the original’s gameplay and adds quite a bit to it while keeping the basic mechanics and gameplay in-tact.

If you’re not familiar with the original Kingdom Rush, it’s a cartoonish/comic looking hardcore Tower-Defense title that strives to put strategy and player involvement over anything else, unlike most TD titles where it’s basically ‘place your towers and watch the level for the outcome’. You’re given 4 types of towers, Archers, Knights, Mages and Cannons, each of which can eventually be upgraded and turned into a ‘super’ tower; Knights can become Assassins, Archers can create a Crossbow Fort, Cannons can become a DWAARP, a Dwarven supertower that slows all enemies down and the Mage tower can be upgraded to an Archmage tower with charged bolts. Each of these ‘super’ towers also has special abilities which can have devastating effects on the opposition. 

For each of the levels there are 3 different gameplay modes to try and tackle, each also having 3 difficulty levels to choose from. Classic Mode puts you up against the enemies with all of your towers in-tact and the ability to upgrade them to their full potential. You’ll also be able to employ your Hero who can run freely throughout the stage helping you take out baddies whenever needed. This is the main mode, and includes a great storyline along with it. Heroic Mode gives you 1 life (if one enemy breaks through the barrier, you loose) and puts you up against 6 waves of elite enemies while maxing out your towers at a lower level and no hero. The last mode is Iron Mode, putting you through 1 super wave of enemies with 1 life, a set limit to the max level of your towers, no hero and also only gives you 2 towers to work with. With all of this, including Casual, Normal and Veteran difficulties, there’s quite a challenge to be had by gamers of all skill-sets. 

Frontiers contains all of this along with new enemies, new terrains and environments, new heroes, new abilities and new super towers. Like the original, you’ll earn gems alongside hero and upgrade points which can be distributed among your towers and to make your hero an even stronger force to be reckoned with. Gems can be spent in the shop to purchase special items like extra health points, dynamite that can take out a very small grouping of enemies, a frozotov which can freeze a small group of enemies, a super bomb that can wipe out every enemy on the screen, a gold bag which gives you more gold for a stage and a chill wand which freezes all the enemies on the screen for a short period of time. You are able to purchase more gems from the game’s IAP shop, but this is not necessary to complete the game. The game is also not directly pushed towards purchasing these gems even though it might feel that way with the heightened difficulty of the gameplay, each stage can be completed without using any extra items. You can also purchase extra heroes from the shop with prices ranging from $2.99 to $4.99 and even a $6.99 hero. Just like gems, these are not required to complete the game, and you are given 3 free heroes to choose from while playing, but they are there if you’re interested in supporting the developers or just getting a stronger hero to help you through the game. 

While there will be some that are turned off the by inclusion of IAPs I feel that I should say this. There still is a lot of strategy involved. Going through a stage and getting your butt kicked and then changing your strategy and playing through the stage again and again is something that’s still here in KR Frontiers, especially if you’re striving to complete the game on Veteran difficulty with a 3 star rating on each stage and completing the extra modes. There’s a crazy amount of gameplay here for the entry price of $2.99 ($4.99 if you want the HD/iPad only version), and that feeling of completing the game perfectly is still a great reward within itself, especially if you do not drop extra money into the game to make it easier. The only reason you should feel the need to purchase any of the IAPs is to support the developer, to make the game easier (which is a tough one to say here, especially since Casual Difficulty is meant for first-timer TD players) or to experience playing the game in a new light with a new hero, kind of like a modified version (which it basically is when you unlock an IAP hero). So unless you’re totally against IAPs in your video games, it shouldn’t be an issue at all here. 

On top of all of this, there is GameCenter integration with a whopping 72 achievements to try and unlock, and believe me when I say that this will take a while and require some replaying of stages. KR Frontiers has definitely raised the bar for Tower Defense games and is easily one of the best in the genre. Even if you’re not a fan of TD games, this is still one that you should check out, as it might very well make you a fan, or bring you back into the TD gaming scene. I really can’t recommend it enough. 

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March On Oz [City State Entertainment] - $3.99

I remember way back in the year 2000 when I encountered the game American McGee's Alice. It was bold and took a fresh point of view at one of literature's most beloved characters/fantasy world. Somehow playing through that game changed the way I look at, or imagine, Wonderland for the rest of my life. Now I feel nostalgic or reminded about those times having to come across March on OZ.

City State Entertainment's first title for the iOS is a game that transports us to their own rendition of the magical land of Oz. Here, you play an unnamed protagonist which you'll create/customize, that is whisked away by a tornado (like Dorothy) into an alternate version of Oz, only to discover that the realm is in dire peril under the invasion of the evil, mechanical looking, gnomes. Being convinced by the good witch Locasta to assemble and lead the Ozian Army of Resistance against the forces of evil, you march on a military campaign through the Yellow Brick Road towards the mystical Emerald city.

This is a strategy game that uses a lane defense system where you place an Ozian unit on a particular lane/area to stop a wave of marching enemies. Pretty much, the gameplay mechanic is quite similar to Plants vs. Zombies but offers more depth and flows at a much faster and exciting pace. In this game you can discover, or learn, battle formations that have a specific function and perk, summon a band of flying monkeys by using a magical golden flute to eliminate opposing units on a lane and have unique/hero like units that you can put on the battlefield once thus setting it apart from PvZ.

Each level of the game has a four star objective system for rating your strategic or gaming skills and 3 different difficulty settings. It also features unlockable content such as mini games, comic strips of the story and an encyclopedia of the different creatures/characters you'll encounter in the world. Giving it a lot of the replayability options which most of us yearn for. Being equipped with an online file saving interface you can also be rest assured that your progression is safe and can be revisited.

The narration of the story is set on a humorous tone with quirky animated characters to discover as you go along the way. With a beautiful BGM/soundtrack and a lush rendered 3D environment, it makes the game feel more alive rather than dull or soulless, thus making me feel engaged and emotionally invested towards the game.

My only critism about March On Oz is the level select section that's not fixed yet as you can only replay the tutorial levels, though the developers already said they are working on a fix that is to be uploaded soon. It's very hard not to love this game as it is very polished and exuberates with much artistry. The game also has a lot of  features we request and yearn for in the mobile gaming world and has no IAP offering what so ever, which is pretty rare nowadays. The developers passion for making the game is felt on every detail or facet you come across as you play on. If you are a fan of Strategy or Tower Defense games be sure to check this title out.

**This review has been contributed to The App Shack by Alister from the Touch Arcade Forums**

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Review Rewind: Anthill

Line Drawing Base Defense titles quickly became a favorite genre of mine after playing today's Review Rewind title; Anthill. Originally titled Anthill: Tactical Trail Defense, the TTD was dropped in an update, and it simply took the name 'Anthill'. After I got an iPad earlier this year, Anthill was one of the first titles I moved over to the device, eager to find out how the game played on the larger screen. And it's fantastic. If you're a fan of the genre, Anthill is definitely a title you need to pick up, and now with it's added Infinite Mode that was included in the Version 2.0 update for the game, there's endless replay value, challenge, and ant controlling, bug killing mayhem to be had. Anthill is another title that can be added to the list of games that will never leave my iDevice. 

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.1

Line drawing and tower defense genres really seem to go together quite well from the couple of titles that merge these two genres I’ve been able to check out. Phoenix Defense Force, Boom Brigade, A.I.R. Defense, Into The Blue, and the ever popular Axe In Face come to mind, and now fans of the genre have another game to add to that short list of incredibly well done line drawing/TD games; Anthill: Tactical Trail Defense, by Image & Form International. 

To start things off, the graphics and animations. I&F has done an amazing job creating some very vibrant and layered environments. You get an idea of this right when you get to the main menu. The very well done environments match the equally well done bug models and animations. It’s actually so well done that you might end up finding yourself just staring at the screen watching them move around. The bugs are also very colorful, matching the vibrancy of the environments perfectly. It’s easy to tell that a lot of time and effort went into making the movement, look, and flow of everything within the game just right. To top it off, the music is Disney-esque, and almost like something that would have fit very well within A Bug’s Life. It compliments the atmosphere and feeling of the game perfectly.

Now onto the gameplay. You start out looking down at an anthill, surrounded by shrubbery. The tutorial is well explained, learning the basic mechanics in the first level, and then new mechanics when new units are added. You’ll need to draw a line from the top of your anthill to your desired location, and then decide what units to send out on that line. You’ll need to constantly collect food in order to send out more units, and there is almost always a leaf close-by that you can snag about 100 food points from over a short amount of time. So to start things off, you’ll usually draw a line from your anthill to that leaf, and then decide to send out your collector ants on that line. They will go out to the leaf, and start bringing the food back to the anthill. Now, to keep those ants safe, you’ll need to drag your finger across the screen, or pinch to zoom in and out, to scan the area for enemy bugs that will kill your worker ants and deprive you of food. 

Once you find out where those bugs are coming from, or where they might come from, you’ll need to draw another line starting from the top of the anthill to an intersecting point between the bugs and the worker ants, and then send out your attacker ants. These guys will kill whatever bugs are encroaching on your territory, and leave their bodies for your worker/collector ants to pick up and take back to the hill. So after your attacker ants have cleared out an area of enemies, you’ll draw another line to their bodies, and choose the collector ants to pick them up, and take them back to the anthill for some major food points. Once you’re done with a line, you hold down on it, and select the “X” that pops up. You are able to draw as many lines as you want, but the more you draw, the more spread out our available ants will become, so it’s best to erase the lines you no longer need in a timely fashion. You can also use bomber ants, who fly out of the anthill, and drop goo wherever you tap on the battlefield. A direct hit with the goo can kill an enemy instantly, but to do this, you’ll need to hit a moving target who has the ability to change direction at any point in time. Which brings us to the AI. Each of the bugs behaves differently. This makes learning how each of your enemies moves, and attacks essential in taking them out successfully.

After each level, you’re given a star ranking based on how many points you’ve collected throughout the level. This is more important than usual because you can then use these stars to upgrade your ants. The speed of the collector ants, brutality of the attacker ants, and more. If you don’t want to battle it out to gain stars, you can purchase them through an IAP, 20 stars for $0.99, which can upgrade your ants quite a bit, but it’s not necessary, and the game isn’t pushed toward you buying the stars at all. The difficulty is set just right, and you can replay levels to earn stars that you didn’t earn the first time through. You can not, however, re-earn stars, so if you got all the stars available in a level, you can not replay it and earn those stars to use for upgrades again. 

Anthill: TTD is GameCenter enabled, and has leader boards for all 21 of the levels that are spread across the 3 different environments. There’s also a leader board for your total score, which combines all of your best level scores. Having a board for each of the levels, as well as a star ranking that gives you stars for upgrades does add quite a bit of replay value to the game, especially if you’re a high-score chaser. With the game at $2.99, and on sale right now for $1.99, and being Universal, it’s a great buy for the amount of content and gameplay you’ll get. If you’re a fan of line drawing or tower-defense games, this is one that looks beautiful, and has an insane amount of strategic elements. The controls are nice and tight, and really, everything within the game is so professionally done that it’s hard to not call it one of the best, if not the best line drawing tower defense title available for the iOS.

**Note: Anthill is now priced at $1.99

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Blade Guardian [Mistwalker] - $0.99

Mistwalker. Now, I know that there’s some of you out there who did not enjoy Party Wave, but there’s no denying that Final Fantasy, and other RPG titles that came out of Square while Hironobu Sakaguchi was the Director of Planning and Development have had endless influence over video games for the past 20+ years. And with all of the experience that’s collected within the Mistwalker studio, there’s also no denying that there’s infinite potential there. Well, it’s been shown again. This time, with the release of the Real-Time Strategy/Arcade Influenced Tower Defense title, Blade Guardian. Now, I know that there are many of you out there that are kind of burnt out on the TD genre, but Blade Guardian packs some pretty interesting mechanics, gameplay elements, strategy and scoring, all making it a very unique title within the genre. 

One of the first things that you might notice about Blade Guardian after you start it up is that instead of having a set of levels which you need to progress through, with an end goal, it’s set up more like a high-scoring arcade game. The main goal of Blade Guardian is to get the highest score you can before the enemies take all of your HP. 

Starting off, you’ll only have access to the very first level, but once you complete that level and move on, you’re able to start off at level 2 or, depending on what level you reach, the last level you unlocked. Every time you start a new game, your score resets back to zero, but you’re able to keep some earned resources and HP. Kind of like the set-up in Space Tripper with your best score, most lives, and upgraded weapon loadout, each time you complete a level, you’ll be awarded a certain amount of HP and resources to build towers depending on how much resources and HP you ended the level with. In each new game, these resources will be available to you if you decide to start from any level other than the first one.

The game starts you out with all of the towers you’ll have available to you throughout the game, which is kind of strange considering it’s genre. But, with these 4 towers, along with walls, you’ll need to build up a pathway for the enemies to make their way through in order to reach your base and steal your HP. It doesn’t matter how big each enemy is, or what type of enemy it is, every enemy that reaches your base will steal one HP point. The 4 towers you’re given are; Laser Tower - attacks enemies at a distance with a powerful laser, Catapult - attacks enemies at medium range with projectiles, Freezer - slows down enemies, and the Cannon - attacks enemies at close range. Each tower has two available upgrades, each making it stronger. The wall pieces are able to be placed together in order to help create pathways to guide enemies along, and can not be upgraded. 

Along with these 4 towers you’ll be able to release Blades. These captured mechanical constructs will appear at certain times throughout each stage. Your weapons will fire at the claws holding the Blade, and you can tap on the claw if you have the resources. Each tap costs 1 resource point, and helps to free the Blade quicker. Once it is freed, the Blade drops down and lets off a fairly large energy blast, destroying all walls and enemies that are within range. After that, the Blade will make its way to the nearest enemy spawning point, attacking enemies along the way, and start to destroy the spawn area. You are able to tap on the Blade, and activate it’s roll ability, which damages enemies by running into them. Once this is active, you’ll need to tilt your device in order to control the Blade. Unfortunately, right now there are no sensitivity or calibration settings available, and you’ll need to hold your device flat in order to control the rolling Blade, which can get kind of frustrating. Fortunately, the rolling ability is something you’ll be able to live without until Mistwalker (hopefully) adds these control options. 

Graphically, Blade Guardian is very well done, with a dark, dry/metallic grey color scheme for the environments and all of the towers, and a more organic orange and yellow look for all of the enemies, the two tones compliment each other nicely. The animations are also well done, though the environments do bob up and down, kind of like their treading water, which can disrupt the placement of walls and towers, especially on the smaller iPhone/iPod screen. Musically, the soundtrack is pretty dark, with a slower tempo, adding a sort of cyberpunkish feeling to the gameplay, and helping to add to the immersion quite a bit. 

There are two modes, but making it to Nighmare Mode is something I haven’t been able to do yet. There’s no option to play it from the main or options menus, and is something that’s most likely unlocked after reaching a certain level in the regular campaign. Both modes have leaderboards in GameCenter, but, sadly, there are no achievements. 

Being Universal and priced at $0.99, with Blade Guardian definitely being a large step in the direction that most gamers and fans of Hironobu Sakaguchi were expecting coming from the Mistwalker studio, it‘s a game that fans of the genre should pick up as soon as possible. The strategic elements combined with the Real-Time Strategy provide a fantastic challenge, and the Score-Chasing/Arcade elements of Blade Guardian provide loads of replay value and help to appeal to gamers who are not Tower Defense fanatics. If the couple of issues I’ve brought up are dealt with, Blade Guardian has the potential to wind up in the top 3 best hardcore TD games available in the AppStore, and coming from Mistwalker, I have complete faith that the issues will be extensively tested, and the best results will be implemented.

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Blue Libra 2 [Orator Games] - $2.99

Back when I was trying to get into the 4X genre, after purchasing Starbase Orion, I went through a nice little list of games that I picked out in order to try and help me understand the genre a bit better, and there are a couple that played a huge part in that; Vincere Totus Astrum, 9 Colonies and Blue Libra. All 3 of these titles are still on my iPod, and I wound up double dipping, getting both the SD and HD builds of Blue Libra after getting my iPad. It quickly turned into one of my favorite RTS titles on the platform, and when its sequel, Blue Libra 2, showed up in the AppStore, I was ecstatic. 

Now, like most sequels, Blue Libra 2 picks up where the original left off. This time, you’ll take command of the Libra II, the next step in technological engineering, and set off to exact revenge on the Alien Invaders that took over your homeworld in the last game. 

Blue Libra 2, also like most sequels, is basically, at it’s core, the same thing as Blue Libra, just with a couple more mechanics available to the player. For instance, you’re given more crafts, more objects to capture and a couple of cool new nifty mechanics including the ability to level up your ship, planets, and everything else you’re able to capture, making it harder for them to be taken away and captured by the opposing force as well as speeding up ship production, and mineral extraction. Which brings us to the second new mechanic, resources. Each object that you’re able to capture will contain minerals which you’ll need in order to produce ships. If an area runs out of minerals, you’ll be unable to build anything until more materials are synthetically produced or found. 

There is also a new researching aspect. Unlocking research is done in the same way as the previous Blue Libra, with credits given after completing levels, and then letting players use those credits to unlock research upgrades. The new research system lets you unlock these upgrades, but makes you choose to research them within each level in order for them to become active. I’m not too sure how I feel about the new research mechanics, but it definitely does add some more action to the gameplay, needing to focus on one more aspect of the game while conquering planets, bases and engaging in fleet combat.

Not only are there new gameplay mechanics, but there’s also an all new game mode. Online Multiplayer. That’s right, one of the most user requested features from Blue Libra has been added to this sequel, letting up to 4 players take part in Skirmish battles online. At the moment, there are not many online players, which makes finding a match pretty hard, but hopefully this will change in the near future. Don’t let that distract you from making a purchase though, because Blue Libra 2 contains a 32 stage single player campaign with 3 separate difficulties offering up hours and hours of gameplay to keep players busy until more gamers either pick up the game, or decide to move on to the online features. 

The graphics and animations are, like the original, nicely done, with loads of polish. You’re able to zoom in and out of the gameplay area, as well as scroll around with 2 fingers. With the game being retina enabled, the graphics look great, even zoomed in up close. Even with literally hundreds of ships on the screen at once, there’s no slowdown, even while playing on a 4th Generation Touch, which is becoming more and more rare these days. The music is fantastic and fits the mood of the game perfectly. 

The GameCenter integration, but unfortunately it does not include anything other than Multiplayer support. This means no leaderboards, and no achievements. For all of you achievement junkies out there, this might be a pretty big blow to the game, but considering the original did not include GameCenter support, it’s not really a big surprise. There’s also no real scoring system, so the lack of leaderboards isn’t really something to worry about, and although some added achievements would be nice, that’s nothing that’s required in a Real-Time Strategy title in order to drive the gameplay. 

Priced at $2.99, and being Universal, Blue Libra 2 is one game that fans of the RTS genre should definitely check out. It is strange that the game is priced at $2.99, considering the original Blue Libra HD is priced at $3.99, is not Universal, and does not contain Online Multiplayer, but I don’t think too many people will be upset about that, unless they want to experience the full story, and pick up the original as well. Though, priced together, it’s about $5 on the iPhone/iPod and $7 on the iPad, looking at it this way and considering all of the content you would get with both titles, Orator Games has priced them perfectly for the AppStore. Blue Libra and Blue Libra 2 are also available for the PC (the original is available for MAC, and BL2 is coming to MAC soon), and both have demos (available on the Orator Games Official Site) as well as lite versions if you’re interested in checking out the game before laying down the cash. But I’ve got to put Blue Libra 2 up there  with my other favorite RTS titles, especially now that there’s online skirmish battles included. If you’re a fan of the genre, it’s one game that’ll fit very nicely on your device. 

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FireJumpers [Redblox Games] - $1.99

I haven’t really gotten into fireman/firefighting games in the past. Sprinkle, Ah! Save Me, Chickens BBQ, Against The Fire, Jumping Frenzy, Air Fire Rescue, ect., they’ve never really grabbed me, which I guess could be considered strange since my uncle and cousin are both firefighters, and I have intense respect and admiration for both firefighters and fire. Recently, all of that changed when I grabbed Serious Games’ Emergency, even though there was still that extra something missing from it all. Redblox Games’ first iOS release, FireJumpers seemed to knock it out of the park. 

Like so many other iOS releases, FireJumpers is a port. Originally released as a Flash game, FireJumpers made its way over to the AppStore and GooglePlay a couple weeks ago. Now, after having spent a decent amount of time with it, it’s easily the best firefighting game I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, and is the first firefighting game that‘s actually grabbed me, though, FireJumpers is set up like a Real-Time Strategy game and that’s probably a huge reason why I’ve been enjoying it so much. 

FireJumpers starts out with a 5 level Tutorial section that can take some time to complete. Thankfully, there’s a 2X button, making everything go along a little quicker, though it would be nice if there was also an option for 4X speed. The main goal in FireJumpers is, of course, to contain a fire. However, how it’s done is pretty unique, and can require quite a bit of thought once you get through the tutorial and into the main game. 

You’re given 4 different units in order to contain the fire; a helicopter that can both carry units, and civilians, to other parts of the map as well as pick up and drop large buckets of water, a cut team that builds firebreaks, either stopping the fire from progressing, or making it jump over the break, hose teams that can spray water around a relatively large area and lastly, water bombers, which require a cool-down in order to use, but can drop a lot of water across the whole front end of the fire. Not all of these units are available in every stage, and when they are, you’ve only given a certain number of units, so figuring out the best way to use them, and where to place them is essential in containing the fire before it burns up the whole map. 

Right now, FireJumpers contains 15 levels, not including the 5 training levels. There is a second world with a coming soon mark, so hopefully we’ll be able to see more in future updates. Now, 15 levels might not seem like much, but with each stage having a possible 3 star ranking and taking up to around 20 minutes to complete, 15 levels should keep players busy for a while. There’s also the randomness of the fires. Each time you start a level, the fire will start in the same place, but how the fire reacts to everything, and how it moves will always be random, giving the game a bit more replay value. 

Controls are done with line drawing. To move a unit, just tap on it, and draw a line to where you want it to go. Each area that the unit interacts with will zoom in so that you can place units precisely where you want to. However, this doesn’t always work as it should, especially on the smaller iPod/iPhone screens. Having a magnifying glass above where your touching, zooming in under your finger would be a great addition instead of the large pixilated box that only appears in certain areas, but also some sensitivity options for dragging speed would be great, and help to get rid of the jitteriness that you’ll sometimes encounter. 

For a helicopter to pick up units, you just need to draw a line from the helicopter to the unit, and it will pick them up automatically. Dropping them off is done the same way, drawing a line from the helicopter to the area you want the unit to start off will take them there, and drop them off automatically. Once you do that, you can set your helicopter’s water pick up area, and then direct it towards where you want it to start dropping water. It will then automatically return to the water to refill the bucket. 

The game does move kind of slow at first, but once you get into the mid and later levels, you’ll probably start taking the 2X speed option off so that you can control each unit in real time, making sure you save all of the civilians, and contain the fire as quickly as possible. Right now, there is no background music, which kind of does take away from the immersion of the game. There’s also no GameCenter support, taking away from the drive to replay levels for a better score, as well as having no achievements. 

Even with the couple of issues with controls, lack of music and GameCenter integration, FireJumpers is still, easily, my favorite fire related game. On any platform. The RTS type gameplay and mesh of units needing to work together in order to contain fires, as well as the randomness of each fire, just makes FireJumpers feel right. Where as every other fire related game I’ve played just felt cheesy, and too unrealistic. Priced at $1.99, it’s a great game to pick up, and hopefully we’ll be able to see World 2 in an update, as well as GameCenter, and maybe even an HD or Universal build. Also, 1% of all sales will go towards the Canadian charity, Firefighters1st, that supports volunteer firefighters with equipment, training and education. Though it’s not much, every little bit helps. 

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