Slayin [Pixel Licker Games + FDG] - $0.99

The iDevice is home to many bite sized games that are surprisingly incredibly addictive. It’s also a refuge for retro graphics trying to find their core audience. Mixing these two aspects together, Pixel Licker Game’s new title, Slayin, published by the very respectable FDG Entertainment, has already risen to the top of the iTunes paid charts, sharing the company of Bad Piggies, Minecraft, Temple Run, Angry Birds and others. If that’s not enough for you to check it out, there’s also a flash version of the game which was released in late 2011, and can be played on Pixel Licker’s homepage. But still, here’s (hopefully) all the info you’ll need about the iOS version.

Slayin, on the surface, is a simple endless retro RPG title. Each stage is screen sized, meaning that there is no side-scrolling involved. Enemies either drop down from the sky or come up from the ground, and you’re job is to kill them, collect the items they leave behind, purchase upgrades, defeat bosses and get the highest score you can, earning Fame Points which can be used to permanently unlock more features like extra characters and gameplay modes, among other things like cosmetic skins and designs/items for your graveyard. However, the more you play, the deeper the game gets with some very nice mechanics.

Control wise, you’re given two directional buttons and an action button. Depending on your character, the action button is either used for jumping, or attacking. With your default character that is unlocked at the very beginning of the game, it’s used for jumping. Now, the directional buttons might not work exactly how you might think. Your character will always be moving, never coming to a complete stop unless running against the side of the screens. The directional buttons are used to simply change the direction that your character constantly moves in. This means that if you want your character to stay in one place, you’ll need to quickly slide your finger back and forth between the left and right buttons. Luckily, staying in one place isn’t really something that you’ll be trying to do too often. 

Two of the three characters will always be attacking, at least in one direction. Your first unlocked character, the Knight, will be able to attack in the direction that he’s facing with his sword. Even though he is holding a shield in his other hand, it’s only cosmetic, and anything that runs into his shield will actually harm him. However, each of the characters do have different attack, defense and luck stats, and the Knight’s defense is the strongest of the three. The second character is the Wizard. She is the only character that, instead of jumping with the action button, attacks with it. When the action button is pressed, she will quickly spin around for a few seconds, killing anything she comes into contact with. There is a short cooling off period after attacks so that you can not just spam the action button and never be harmed, but her attack is also the strongest of the three. The last character you can choose is the Knave. This dual-knife wielding character can attack characters from both sides, meaning that any characters that run into his back will be instantly killed. However, he has the least amount of defense, but the best luck, which does come in handy after the first couple of levels. 

Now, you are able to purchase health from the NPC shop character that drops down midway through stages as well as right after every boss battle. But sometimes things just get so hectic that that’s not going to be enough. This is where one of the cooler gameplay mechanics comes into play; silver, gold and all of the little trinkets and diamonds that enemies drop do restore some health. The more rare an item is, the more health it restores. As you build up your hit combo, you’ll eventually hit 30, which starts enemies dropping gold. Build up your combo even more, and they’ll start dropping gold chains, goblets, diamonds and more. Not only are these used to restore a little bit of health, but also help add to your score. Tied in with all of this is your combo’s no-damage multiplier. Kill enemies and keep that combo up, and your multiplier will grow and grow until you do get hit. One hit though, and it’s back to 0x, however, your combo that builds up for gold and item drops keeps building until you do not kill an enemy quickly enough, and the meter empties. It all adds quite a bit of depth and a heavy risk/reward aspect to the gameplay. You’re also able to purchase stronger weapons and special skills from the shop in-game. Though they are not permanent, they will definitely be something you’ll be tossing in-game currency into left and right if you’re a high-score chaser or just want to get further into the game. 

There are IAPs included with a currency called Fame Points. But I was able to unlock all three characters, the Advanced Mode (which starts you out at level 80 instead of level 1) and the extra life item (which allows you to keep playing once you’ve lost all of your HP, but resets everything except your current stage progress back to 0) after playing for about 2 hours, which makes it not seem like so much of a grind. My best advice would be to unlock the Knave first, because you can earn more Fame Points with him and his high luck stat. But if you’d rather unlock everything straight away, you can get 5,000 FP for $0.99, 20,000 for $2.99 and 50,000 FP for $5.99. The Wizard is 3,000 FP, Knave is 5,000, Advanced Mode is 8,000, Boss Rush Mode (which is exactly what it sounds like, take on boss after boss until you die) for 10,000 FP and the extra life is 5,000 FP. 

Like most other iOS games, Slayin also has a massive amount of quests, or objectives that, once completed, will help you earn some extra currency. Things like ‘Defeat xBOSSx Perfectly’ ‘Get a combo of XX’ ‘Kill XX enemies with XX weapon’ and others. There are 3 different difficulties to the objectives, with the easy ones giving out 50 coins upon completion, the medium ones giving out 150 coins and the hard quests giving you 300 coins. On top of the extra characters and gameplay modes, there are skins for the controls which cost 500-600 FP, and items that you can decorate your fallen hero’s gravestone with, ranging from 500 FP to 5,000 FP per item. These gravestones are visible to your GameCenter friends who also have the game. There are also options for changing the movement buttons to the left side of the screen as well as adding scanlines to the game to give it that ‘official’ old-school vibe. There are 5 leaderboards in GameCenter, one for your highest score, one for each individual character and another for Boss Rush Mode. There are also 23 achievements to help add to the replay value and challenge of the game ranging from ‘Unlock the Knave’ or ‘Unlock the Wizard’ to ‘Finish all quests with the Knight’ ‘Reach Level 100’ ‘Get a combo of 222’ and more. 

Slayin, like many iOS games that started out as flash games, is a perfect fit for the iDevice. Games last around 5 minutes, the more you play, the more the game opens up and there’s always going to be a score to chase. Pixel Licker Games has done a fantastic job with Slayin, as well as with porting it over to the touch-screen. The controls are spot on, and the gameplay is incredibly addictive and reminiscent of old-school gaming. I really can not recommend this one enough, as it’s going to be a game that never leaves my phone. Slayin is also Universal, and plays great on the larger iPad screen with it’s very generous touch-spots for the controls. Priced at a buck, it’s definitely a game that every iOS gamer should have in their collection.

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Review Rewind: Neoteria

There's very few games that have been transferred over to my iPhone 5 that have not been updated to fit the 4'' screen. However, there are some games that are just so freak'n good that half-inch be damned, they're still worth having, even in their 3.5'' states. OrangePixel's games definitely fall into this category... and just about one year ago we happened to review their first SHMUP title; Neoteria. Even though we didn't find it as great as their trademark platformers, we still found Neoteria to be a blast, and gave it a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Now, it's today's Review Rewind, and if you're a SHMUP fan who doesn't own this one yet, you should... even if you only have a new 4'' device.

**NOTE** This review was written after playing Version 1.0.0

OrangePixel has proven, with their mobile game releases, that they are kings of the retro gaming world. Their lineup of Meganoid, Stardash, INC, Super Drill Panic and more now have another title that’ll eat up gamers lives; Neoteria, an arcade inspired retro shoot-em-up with the difficulty level fans of OrangePixel have come to love and respect. And really, OrangePixel development merged with shmup gameplay… a pretty hardcore fan of both couldn’t ask for more.

In the game, you’ll start off with only Easy Mode selectable. As you progress through the first world, you’ll unlock Normal Mode, and once you complete the first world on Normal, you unlock Hard Mode, which, if you’re familiar with OrangePixel’s games, is basically where the hardcore gamers will spend most of their time. You’re given little snippets of the story as you make your way from world to world. The outer mining settlement is under alien attack, and it’s up to you to stop them.

There are checkpoints throughout each world, set up kind of like levels. Each has 3 stars which you can earn by playing on all 3 difficulties. The first star is for beating the level on Easy, second star for Normal, and third for Hard. There are different paths which you can play through on your way through each world, with each path leading to the same end boss. You are able to go back and replay previously beaten stages if you’d like to power-up your weapon, which you do by collecting the blue crystals that enemies leave behind, or if you’d like to try and travel through all the paths in each world.

As with other OrangePixel games, Neoteria is done in a retro style that looks fantastic. However, there is one little drawback. On the iPad, the graphics have a little blur behind them whenever objects are moving. This includes the backgrounds, environments, player ship, enemies, and projectiles. It’s not too much of an issue, because most of the time, you’ll be focusing on the crazy amount of enemies coming at you, and trying to survive, but it is there. I’m not sure if it’s there on the iPod, because of the smaller screen, but if it is, it’s not noticeable.

The controls for Neoteria aren’t really what you would expect from a shooter like this, and it’s where the arcade inspiration really becomes apparent. On the left side of the screen, you’re given two buttons for movement of your ship up and down, and on the right side, there’s a fire button, but you can tap anywhere on the right side of the screen to fire. There is no auto-fire, so you’ll constantly be tapping on the right side of the screen to shoot. Here’s where those quick tapping abilities all you old-school gamers should still have come in handy.

In the Controls Menu, you’re able to move the buttons around as you see fit, which definitely comes in handy if you’re playing on an iPad. However, the touch detection area is pretty small, and does not go outside of the buttons at all. This can result in your ship not going up or down because your thumb is the slightest little bit off. This is understandable, since you are able to move the buttons around, and could potentially have the up button pretty much touching the down button, and you wouldn’t want the detection area to overlap. Being able to make the buttons bigger would be a nice way of fixing this, especially since they go invisible after a short time, and obscuring the gameplay area wouldn’t really be an issue with it.

To top it off, it’s also iCade and Joypad supported!

Neoteria does not really have a whole lot of content, especially when compared to the insane amount of levels in OrangePixel‘s other titles. 3 worlds, each with 8 pretty short levels in them. I’m hoping that like their other games, Neoteria will get some nice content updates in the future. But like other shmups, the value is really in the replay value, not necessarily in the content, and Neoteria has it in spades. Yes, there are only 24 short levels in the game, but you’ll be able to play through them with each of the 3 characters, and finding out how to make it into the hidden paths could take a while.

There’s also the scoring system. At the end of each level, your score is based on the percentage of the level’s enemies that you wiped out, your shot accuracy, and the score you built up while playing through the level. This does add an extra level of replay value, as the first couple times you play through the game, you’ll probably be pounding away on the fire button, and then start trying to increase your score by getting higher accuracy percentages.

Neoteria is also supported by OpenFeint and GameCenter, with 12 achievements, and 3 leaderboards, one for each character (difficulty). So if you’re a high-score chaser, battling for a higher position on the leaderboards is sure to keep you busy for some time. Getting all of the achievements should also take a while, as a lot of them are for finding the secret paths, and 100% completing each difficulty.

Granted, Neoteria isn’t OrangePixel’s best release to date, but I’m ecstatic that one of my favorite development teams released a shmup, one of my favorite type of games (yeah, I’m a platformer/shmup/strategy fanatic). The developers have said that they’re working on another control scheme, as a few players aren’t really comfortable with the current set-up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it got a few content updates as well. OrangePixel’s other titles have also been known to get very fleshed out/extremely polished based on player feedback, so the distortion with the graphics, touchy controls, and any other issues that there might be, have a very good chance of being dealt with.

At $1.99, being Universal, having iCade and Joypad compatibility, as well as the crazy high replay value that comes along with shmups and games having GameCenter and OpenFeint support, not to mention, it’s ORANGEPIXEL, it’s a great buy.

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Gunslugs [OrangePixel] - $1.99

It’s no secret that we here at The App Shack love our retro games, and that OrangePixel is one of our favorite ‘old-school’ developers on the AppStore. Since the middle of last year, we’ve been anticipating their newest release, Gunslugs, sharing videos and info whenever they became available. Well, now all that waiting is over, as Gunslugs was released this Wednesday, and we’ve already put quite a bit of time into it. We should also mention, beforehand, that we are bias. OrangePixel has impressed and surprised us numerous times in the past with their previous releases, Meganoid, Stardash, INC and others and already, Gunslugs has done the same. 

As we mentioned in our release posting for the game, Gunslugs started off as a prequel to INC, which is probably why it looks pretty similar. However, it doesn’t exactly play the same. At the beginning of Gunslugs you’re able to choose from 2 different characters. As you progress throughout the game, you’ll be able to save 5 other characters which you’ll then be able to choose from as well, each starting off in the environment that you saved them in. 

We haven’t reached the end of the game yet (and, as Pascal, the developer behind Gunslugs has stated, there is no official ending to the game because ATM, it’s quite the ‘impossible’ task), but as you start, you’re given 3 ‘missions’, or stages, that make up each environment, to make your way through. The first two require you to take out buildings with beacons on top of them while the third is a boss battle. 

Making your way through the stage, you’ll come across a whole slew of enemies from the Black Duck Army, helicopters that drop off more enemies, and can also be taken out with mines and explosive barrels that litter the stages, ammo, gun and health will be dropped by enemies and can also be found in crates, tanks can be acquired and used for short periods of time - now, I say short because it depends on when you acquire the tanks; they can not climb up any inclines in the ground, so you will not be able to take advantage of them for too long - and better yet, coins that add to your score and that you can collect and use when entering various buildings that can contain either a mini-game, armor, an extra life or power drinks. The buildings can also house extra ammo crates, characters that will refill your health and princesses hiding from the evil army but willing to bribe you so you keep quiet. These buildings are also where you’ll be able to find the trapped characters that you’ll need to save in order to choose them as a playable character. 

The very mention of mini-games might turn some of you off, but if you’re familiar with OrangePixel’s past work, it shouldn’t worry you too much. The mini-games fit in with the gameplay of Gunslugs quite well, with one game throwing you onto the top of a moving train while you blast enemies away and jump from cart to cart while trying to make it to the front of the train. Another mini-game puts you in a Stardash (or Super Mario Land - GameBoy style) level, where you’ll need to jump on enemies heads in order to dispatch them, and make it to the end, while another is built looking kind of like Donkey Kong and has you jumping from platform to platform, taking out enemies and again, trying to make it to the finish line. 

Each of these mini-games has no real effect on your main game health or ammo, so dying just sends you back to the building that you found the mini-game in, but if you can manage to complete the games, they will help you rack up a huge score, and work your way up the leader boards. 

At first, the game does start off a little mindless. Throughout the first world, you’re pretty much able to run around holding down the fire button, blasting everything in sight, and wasting ammo as you go along. But in the second world, thing start to become a little more strategic, as running out of ammo is a real option, leaving you to fend for yourself with no gun, being chased by enemies until you can run over a mine, and blow them up, hopefully grabbing some ammo refills after the process, but obviously leaving you battered and broken after being shot at while running around trying to find a mine. Picking up a new gun, like a flame-thrower, grenade launcher, electro gun, two way gun, ect… and depleting its ammo will refill your main gun’s ammo though, and, as stated, ammo drops are all over the place so long as you don’t just run around with your finger on the trigger constantly, you should be fine. Even during boss battles, bosses send out waves of army troops so that you can recoup some of your ammo and health. 

Also, entering a building that does not have a beacon on top of it can only be done once, meaning that if you do not have enough coins to play the housed mini-game or purchase the extra life or armor, you will not be able to enter the building again. This does give a sort of risk/reward feature, as quite a few of the buildings have characters that give you coins or refill health, but you can also play through the stage, destroying everything and gathering coins, and then go back and enter the buildings in order to take advantage of their treasures. 

The controls, as you might imagine, are flawless. This is made even more apparent by the fact that Ravenous (yes that Ravenous, the ones who created League of Evil, the game that was so highly praised for it’s controls) has been saying for months that they are going to look into making their controls more comfortable for iPad play, but have not, and then released their new game, Infestor, on the same day as Gunslugs, only to have a horrid button layout, made even more apparent on the bigger iPad screen, while OrangePixel’s Gunslugs, as with all of their previous games, has fully customizable controls, able to be positioned anywhere on the screen when playing on any iDevice. 

Another huge perk is that Gunslugs has co-op play. However, it is set up in a not too familiar way for a lot of people. 3 devices will be necessary, with one acting as the ‘console’ while the other two are used as controllers through the Joypad app, which is also supported by all of OrangePixel’s previous releases. But if you’ve got any friends with an iPad, the Joypad app is free, and only takes a second to download, so you could be playing with friends in no time, so long as they can physically sit next to you. 

To top it all off, Gunslugs is priced at $1.99, is Universal, supports iCade and has GameCenter support with a leader board for your highest score and a whopping 60 achievements to try and snag. There are also 3 objectives which you’ll be able to try and complete while running through games, adding even more action and difficulty to the game. 

If you’ve been looking for another hardcore run’n’gun title on the iOS, alongside Metal Slug and INC, Gunslugs fits in perfectly. It’s also a great representation of what OrangePixel is all about; retro graphics, perfect controls, great physics, hardcore gameplay and loads of fun and entertainment. While it might not appeal to the more hardcore platforming fan base, it is great to see OrangePixel deviate slightly from the typical speedrun platformers they’ve released in the past, and still holds up as one of their best games to date that should definitely be checked out by any and everyone even remotely interested in action packed, score driven gameplay. 

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Time Surfer [Kumobius] - $0.99

There have been quite a few Tiny Wings (or Wavespark, or whatever else you wanna say started it all) clones to hit the AppStore over the last year and a half. That’s not to say that there’s not a couple that are definitely worth checking out, but it seems like none of them really took the Tiny Wings type of gameplay and ran with it in any productive way. This is where Kumobius comes in with their newest iOS release; Time Surfer, which takes the whole Tiny Wings type gameplay and cranks everything up to 11.

I will admit that I never caught on with the whole Tiny Wings phenomenon, but I can see why people enjoy it so much. The simple yet challenging endless gameplay appeals to quite a few different types of gamers, and the production values were top notch. I’m not too sure why I didn’t catch on with it, but I didn’t. However, Time Surfer seems to tap into just about every single one of the mechanics on my own personal ‘mechanics that games need to have to be addictive’ list. Seems like the only thing missing is a complex scoring system with multipliers, combos and the like, and in all actuality, that wouldn’t really work here, so it’s hard to hold that against Kumobius. 

In Time Surfer, you’ll control Chronopi, a time surfer. While hanging out in space, he notices a huge bang. The beginning of the end of the Universe. Generally, these are dealt with by rewinding time in the specific region in order to contain and prevent this bang from happening. However, this bang is a ’Stage 6’ end of the Universe, which meant that Chronopi couldn’t handle it on his own. Realizing this, he needs to race to the Cosmic Sanctuary, where the other time surfers are so that he can warn them, get their help, and stop the Universe from ending. None of this is actually talked about in the game, but Kumobius was kind enough to share a comic strip detailing it all. 

Now, once you start off, you’ll be all on your own, racing through space to try and get to the Cosmic Sanctuary. Controls are simple, with the right side of the screen used to pull your character downward, and the right side used for turning back time. You’re given 3 objectives and once they‘re completed, your rank will rise and ‘pets’ will be unlocked. You’re able to take one pet with you on each run, and use their special powers to help you get further, avoid hazards, or get little perks. But you’ll also need to keep in mind that using a pet costs currency, in this case, cake. Cake can be collected in-game and is also given to you for each objective that you complete. You can, of course, also purchase cake through the game’s In App Purchase. 

As mentioned, you’re also able to turn back time. Chronopi is able to use gems in order to go back in time if there was something he missed, made a mistake, dies or just wants to nail that dip for a perfect jump. Gems are scattered everywhere in the game, so using the time rewind ability is something that you’ll be able to use, and use often, eventually mastering it, and being able to use it to your advantage just about every chance you get.  

Mixed in with all of this, you’ll come across planets with rings that you can grind for a speed boost, speed boosters on the ‘track’ that you can use, power ups like extra gems, magnets and speed boosts, aliens and asteroids that you’ll be able to jump on and get a nice little speed boost and be flung upward a bit, but that also can stop you in your tracks if you just smash into them from the side or underneath, holes in the tracks and spikes that can both result in a game over. Not to mention the blast from the end of the Universe hot on your trail; slow down too much and it’ll eat you alive. Also included in the game is a Hell Mode, where spikes are everywhere and a challenge that’s off the charts. If you’ve played Kumobius’ previous title, Bean’s Quest, you know how challenging their games can be, and Hell Mode here is a perfect example.

Once you get a few pets unlocked, or just like being able to customize the look of your character, you’ll be able to use cake to unlock different costumes (like the Samurai, Old, Crystal, Retro and Platinum outfits), vehicles (like a Police Box, 80’s Future Car, Golden Vessel, Classic Rocket and more), different characters (The Monkey King, Future Assassin, Future Swordsman and more, even including Mikey Shorts) and ‘toons’ (like Emilio - the bean from Bean’s Quest - Clock Boy, Pink Unicorn and others). You’ll also be able to purchase different ‘Flair’ which changes the trail you leave behind you as you speed along. 

The graphics are basically the same as Kumobius’s other iOS title, Bean’s Quest (which happens to be FREE at the moment, in celebration of the release of Time Surfer), a ‘Modern Retro’ look with loads of colors, beautiful pixels and some great animations. The BGM was done by FlashyGoodness, who also did the soundtrack for Bean’s Quest, and fits the game perfectly. 

Priced at $0.99, being Universal, and supporting every device from the iPad 1, iPhone 3GS, iPod 3 and up, not to mention the GameCenter integration with leaderboards for both Normal and Hell Modes and iCloud support that transfers over all of your unlocked costumes, pets, rank and cake purchases, it’s one hell of a deal. The endless gameplay and replayability has the potential to keep players busy for hours on end. Even if you weren’t a fan of Tiny Wings, Time Surfer’s mechanics, pets, and powerups will have you hooked, especially once the time rewind ability ‘clicks’ with you. Kumobius has also said that more modes and costumes are in the line for updates, and with the way Bean’s Quest was treated, those features are just about a sure thing (baring some unforeseeable catastrophe). Time Surfer is definitely a game fans of endless gameplay, Tiny Wings, time rewind mechanics, retro games, arcade games, high-score games… basically that everyone should check out. 

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Raiden Legacy [DotEmu] - $4.99

DotEmu is definitely up there on our list of developers who do an amazing job with porting games to the iOS. R-Type, King of Fighters, The Last Express, Metal Slug 3, Blazing Star, I could pretty much list their entire catalogue when talking about great ports available in the AppStore. Their most recent release is no exception, and this time around they’ve brought another classic to the touch screen with Raiden Legacy. Not only have they ported over this must-own shmup, but DotEmu has also included 3 other Raiden titles in the package; Fighters, Fighters 2 and Fighters Jet. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Radien, now is a great chance to get acquainted. Not only will you be able to see where quite a few other shmups were influenced from, but you’ll be exposed to a hardcore shmup on par difficulty wise with bullet-hell titles from the likes of Cave and Doragon (Sunny Tam), as well as many other titles from non-iOS development studios. It’s always great when games can still hold their own after 20+ years. 

Not only does Raiden feature stages packed full of power-ups, loads of enemies and quick action like just about every other shmup out there, but it also incorporates some great features that help it to stand out, like bullet grazing, quite a few on-screen projectiles (at the time of it’s original release, it was known for having ‘loads’ of bullets, and even today is considered one of the first steps that brought shmups towards the bullet-hell subgenre) and a nice scoring system that includes the bullet grazing along with medals, two ‘secret’ items; the Fairy and Miclus, and end of level bonuses that multiply your remaining bombs by the number of medals you’ve picked up in the stage. There are also other little features that make the gameplay more interesting; various enemy projectiles, some of which can be ‘absorbed’ by your own shots, quick moving ‘grouped’ projectiles reminiscent of bullet curtain shots and a larger-than-the-screen play area that you can use to your advantage, like being able to avoid enemies as enemies that are not on-screen can not shoot at you.

Along with the original Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 and Raiden Fighters Jet are also included, all of which feature some of the same great mechanics as the original, including bullet grazing, medals and more. One of the major differences, aside from the graphical improvements, is the addition of numerous ships, each with their own strengths and weaknesses as well as some enhancements to the scoring system, charged shots and ‘slave’ ships that have a direct influence on the medal system. Needless to say, once you learn the ins and outs of each games scoring, they become a lot more difficult, as well as raise up the replay value and general fun factor of the games. 

Each of the 4 titles have the same game options. If you’re familiar with DotEmu’s previous releases, you pretty much know what to expect. You can change the game’s volume level (though you can’t change the sound effects and music volumes separately), turn video filtering off or on allowing for you to experience the games in their original pixilated graphics, or more ‘modern’ smoothed out graphics and switch the aspect ration between ‘original’, which puts a ‘dead zone’ at the bottom of the screen, and ‘full-screen’ which takes up the entire screen. You’re also able to adjust the controls by placing them anywhere on the screen, turn auto-fire on or off and switch between the original arcade ship speeds, adding quite a bit to the strategy and ship selection decisions, and fast touch, allowing for near 1:1 movement and speed. 

Along with the ‘typical’ DotEmu game options, you’re also able to choose between two difficulties for each game, Medium and Hard as well as play through the original Arcade Mode, Mission Mode which lets you play through single levels that you’ve unlocked by playing through Arcade Mode, and Training Mode, which gives you a chance to practice levels with unlimited continues. 

Of course, an iOS shmup isn’t really complete unless you’re able to chase other players high-scores. Raiden Legacy is supported by GameCenter and features 8 Leaderboards; two for each of the 4 titles, split up by difficulty. Along with the 8 Leaderboards there’s also 15 Achievements, most of which will take some pretty slick gaming to unlock. Along with all of this, Raiden Legacy also features iCade compatibility, giving players the opportunity to have an almost exact copy of the original arcade experience. 

There is one minor issue that I’ve run into while playing; starting the game back up after pausing it will give you a black screen for a second. During this second, the game has already started which can result in some very unnecessary deaths. But aside from this, Raiden Legacy is a near perfect port, as you might have expected coming from DotEmu. 

Priced at $4.99 and being Universal, Raiden Legacy is an incredible deal. If you told me years ago that I would be able to own Raiden for a mere 5 quarters, I would have laughed in your face. Shmup fans looking for a hardcore gaming experience up to par with the bullet hell titles available on the iOS would be doing themselves a favor picking this collection up. However, if you’re not very good at shmups, you should keep in mind that the Easy difficulty has been taken out of each of these games, so there just might be more frustration in here than you’re willing to deal with. With that in mind, it should also be said that DotEmu has done an incredible job in the past with adding tweaks and features to games based on customer and gamer feedback, so there is a real possibility that Easy could very well be added to the games in the future, so you just might want to keep an eye on the updates for Raiden Legacy in the future. Personally, I’ve got to put Raiden Legacy in my top 10 favorite iOS games of 2012, and it’s definitely a must-own for shmup lovers. 

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Review Rewind: Stardash

One of our favorite retro platformer developers is easily Orange Pixel. Ever since their breakout hit Meganoid hit the AppStore, we've been hooked, and every single game after has been must-own title after must-own title, especially for old-school gamers and fans of retro platformers. The level design, graphics, music, controls, physics, enemy and character designs, virtually everything about their games is top notch, not to mention that their some of the few Universal titles that support the Joypad app, letting you use a second device as a controller via wi-fi, adding to the retro feel of the gameplay. Alongside Meganoid, Stardash is in our top favorites from this amazing indie group, and if you don't have it yet, you can snag it for the low-low price of $1.99. Since it's release, it's received quite a few updates, adding more content, levels, and worlds, and considering it's one of the best retro platformers available for the iOS, it's a steal of a deal. If you need a little more convincing, here's our original review, written one year ago.

Note** This review was written after playing Version 1.0

Platformers have been my favorite genre of games ever since I was 5 and introduced to the original Super Mario Brothers. That love affair carried on throughout the years with the rest of the Mario series, the Metroid series, Sonic, and really, too many more to name, but I can’t tell you how many hours I put into Super Mario Land and Metroid II on my GameBoy. Until recently, I figured those types of memories were long gone, never to be relived again. Enter - the AppStore. 

Retro styled plat formers on the iOS totally take me back to childhood gaming, spending hours upon hours of my life staring at a black and yellow screen. 1-Bit Ninja almost totally nailed it, but after about 4 hours, I found myself tired of it. Meganoid respawned something in me that had long been forgotten, and I really couldn’t thank Orange Pixel enough, but now they’ve released Stardash, and I feel like I owe them even more. They have captured the look of old-school GameBoy games, and modernized it in just the perfect way. The difficulty level is also pretty high, though not as high as Meganoid, coupled with the graphics, it takes me back to a time before I was a pimply, full of rage, teenager, when life was good, and all that mattered was getting home from school and playing video games with my friends.

Stardash is an awesome plat former game, and will most likely end up in my top 3 favorites for the year, if not snagging the number 1 spot completely. The controls are great. Not perfect, like, say, League Of Evil, or Mos Speedrun, but they work very well. You don’t need to pick up your finger to change direction, which is a big issue with some iOS platform games, as dragging your finger back and forth on the directional buttons is a huge part of platform gaming, and the jump button responds to how long you hold it down. You’re also able to save your jump, and use it in the air, for instance; I’m running, and fall off of a cliff, barely missing the next platform, but op, it’s okay because I can use my jump while in the air to make it onto that platform I would have otherwise missed. This is not to be confused with a double jump, because if you decide to jump off of a platform into the air, you can not jump again until you touch the ground. This approach to movement mechanics has helped Orange Pixel come up with some pretty sweet, and challenging, level designs.

Within each level, there is a hidden “temple key”. Collecting these in each world’s nine levels will open up a 10th, and extra challenging “temple” level. Each of these keys are hidden pretty well, usually in platforms that you would usually jump over or pass up. Yes, that’s right, Stardash has the same kind of “hidden opening” sections that those who are familiar with Meganoid will be pretty familiar with. Along with the keys, there are two stars available for each level, one for getting all of the coins in the level, and another for getting to the end of the level before a timer runs out. You can take as long as you like getting through each level, but if you take longer than the timer, you will not get the “Dash” Star. To get these “Dash” Stars, you will need to find the best route through each of the levels, pretty much having a perfect run.

Getting the Dash Stars, and finding all of the hidden keys should prove to be quite the difficult task, but that’s not the only challenging part of the game. As you progress, each level gets slightly harder than the last, usually taking more than a couple tries to make it through. You are given an unlimited number of lives, so you can die as much as your little heart desires. To top off the great graphics, and perfect difficulty level, the developers have thrown in an awesome Mario-esque soundtrack to make sure you’re completely immersed in childhood memories. 

Orange Pixel has proven that they know exactly what it takes to make a top notch plat former with the release of Meganoid, but they have taken it a step further here, and proven that they know exactly what top not plat former fans need to feel challenged and comfortable all at the same time. GameCenter and OpenFeint are also supported, giving players a global leader board, and 13 pretty tough achievements to try and grab. There are a couple bugs and issues that you might encounter while playing, like issues with the iCade controls, menus not responding 100% all of the time, and leaving a level you‘ve just reached while on the pause menu will re-lock that level, and some might find the game a little too difficult, but $1.99 for this Universal game is a great price considering you’ll be buying back a piece of your childhood. If you aren’t old enough to remember original GameBoy gaming, this would be the new title to grab if you’re interested in wondering what made a lot of us fall in love with gaming. It is hard, and with 40 levels, each requiring multiple plays in order to 100% complete them, Stardash should keep you busy for a while. Hopefully, like Meganoid, it will get a couple updates adding even more levels and gameplay to the mix, but even if it doesn’t, Stardash is a plat former all old-school, plat former, and challenging game fans should get as soon as possible.

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