Best Park In The Universe [Heavy Boat Games + Cartoon Network] - $2.99

One of our favorite beat-em-ups/brawlers here at The App Shack has got to be Grumpyface Studio’s Mutant Fridge Mayhem. Published by Cartoon Network, it contained the gameplay that previous beat-em-ups promised, but couldn’t deliver. This wasn’t too much of a surprise, as Grumpface’s previous releases (Bring Me Sandwiches!, Wispin and Super Mole Escape) are all top notch titles on the platform. But what Mutant Fridge Mayhem did for us was open our eyes to Adult Swim’s fledging gaming brother and since it’s release, we’ve been keeping a close eye on Cartoon Network’s releases. Earlier this week another brawler came out of the Cartoon Network studio and this time it’s developed by Heavy Boat Games (developers of quite a few Cartoon Network games; Ben 10 Hack, Pickle Farmer, Copa Toon Champions, Toxic Targets and many more, most of which can be played on Cartoon Network’s website - they're also the developers of Jumping Finn Turbo, available in the AppStore) and is set in the world of the popular Regular Show titled Best Park In The Universe. 

Mr. Maellard and Benson are called away to a Park Management Conference, leaving Mordecai and Rigby in charge of the park. Benson promises that if the park is clean when they return, everyone will get some days off. On the other hand, if they screw up, they’ll get fired. Deciding to impress Benson, Mordecai and Rigby call together the whole gang to upgrade the park. While they’re starting work, a strange man comes up and says that he has what it takes to turn the park into the best park in the Universe. Deciding to trust him, Mordecai and Rigby make the deal. Once they shake the stranger’s hand, a huge portal appears in the sky and ends up swallowing the entire park. Now it’s up to the two mischievous characters to save their friends, the park, and still show Benson and Mr. Maellard that they know what they’re doing. You’ll face off against aliens, monsters and strange park workers while you tag team between Mordecai and Rigby making your way through 15 stages spread across 3 crazy worlds. 

Similar to the recent release of another brawler, Combo Crew, Best Park In The Universe uses a series of swipe gestures instead of virtual controls. To move your characters, all you do is tap on the screen where you want to move to while attacks are based on swiping gestures that can be done anywhere on the screen. Swiping left has you attack left, while swiping right attacks right. To change characters, all you need to do is tap the character icons in the top left corner of the screen. Each character also has a special attack which can be used once your special meter is filled up, and is triggered by tapping two fingers on the screen at once. 

As you make your way through the game, you’ll gain experience by defeating enemies and picking up items that are scattered throughout the stages. Each time you level up, you’ll be given a point which you can use to upgrade your characters. The upgrades are a great addition and done in a branching tree format. Unlocking these upgrades will either increase your characters hit points, the amount of damage you can take, the amount of damage you dish out and add more attacks, allowing you to swipe up and down in the middle of a combo to pull off special moves. By the time you upgrade your characters completely, you’ll have quite a few different swipe combos at your disposal adding some depth and complexity to the gameplay. 

The first couple of stages are not very big, but as you progress, the levels do start to open up, with multiple paths to explore, and even though there is only one ‘right’ path to each stage’s exit point, it does help add to the variety within each stage. Also adding to the variety are the world’s backdrops. In the first world, you’ll be fighting your way through the park while the second world has you battling it out beneath the park and the third world is a station in space. Graphically, the game looks almost identical to the cartoon, and the animations are incredibly smooth and quick, complimenting the responsive controls. 

Although GameCenter is supported, there’s no scoring system, which means that there’s no leaderboards. However, there are 15 achievements to help to drive the game forward. However, unlike most brawlers the lack of leaderboards and a scoring system does not take anything away from the game. While it could help add to the replay value, that’s not the driving force behind the gameplay, which is actually kind of a refreshing change of pace. You’re not required to beat every single enemy in a level in order to progress, and you don’t have to visit every stages branched areas to complete them. It does add a more casual feeling to the game while the gameplay still provides a nice challenge for those who are willing to try and beat down every enemy and visit every area in a level. But I doubt many of us would complain if leaderboards and a scoring system were added in an update.

Priced at $2.99, it is a bit ‘high’ compared to other iOS titles, but the amount of polish and entertainment value presented in the game definitely justifies the extra buck or two. Not to mention more characters, another world with 5 more levels, endless levels and multiple modes are planned, we’re incredibly excited to see how this game grows with future updates. If you’re a fan of beat-em-ups/brawlers, don’t let the Cartoon Network publication make you overlook Best Park In The Universe. Alongside Mutant Fridge Mayhem and Combo Crew, it’s very quickly become one of our personal favorites on the platform, and we really can not recommend it more.

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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. 

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BigBot Smash - 0.99 (Ayopa Games/Andrew Wang)

Full on destruction games are kind of a niche genre within the AppStore, there’s really only a couple of titles that I can think of using destruction as a core mechanic, Destructopus, Robot Rampage, and to a lesser extent, Blast Zone Mega, and Burn The City, which is really more in the line of an Angry Birds type physics puzzler, but you get the idea. It’s not a genre that’s been well expanded on. Andrew Wang, and Ayopa Games (W.E.L.D.E.R., Chicken Rescue) are giving us one more title to add to that very short list. Inspired by the classic arcade game, Rampage, and taking influences from The Simpsons and Futurama, as well as trying to incorporate the customization of Mechwarrior, BigBot Smash is now available for our iDevices, and fingertips that are hungry for destruction.

To start it off, the controls in BigBot Smash will take quite a bit of getting use to, but once you do, even more problems show their face. There are two different control schemes included in the game. The first control method uses the iDevice’s accelerometer, tilting to turn the world that you’ll be destroying. This can be extremely difficult to use, as you’ll need to turn your device completely around to turn your robot around, and tilt it in pretty uncomfortable ways to turn. Tapping on the screen controls your robots projectiles, and tapping on the robot will make it jump. If you tap on a building that is close to the robot, it will smash it with it’s fists. Here’s where it gets even more difficult. If the building is just a little bit too far away, you’ll shoot at it instead of smashing it, which takes up quite a bit of time, which can be pretty frustrating in the Speedrun Mode, but outside of the Speedrun Mode, it’s just bothersome. Tapping on your robot also does not always make it jump, sometimes it will jump, and other times it will destroy the building right in front of it. There are touch controls as well, which have the same sort of issues as the tilt controls, except you won’t be tilting your device in uncomfortable ways, instead, you’ll be dragging your finger on the screen to change the robot’s direction. However, this also has it’s own issues, as more than half of the time, dragging your finger across the screen is registered as a tap, and will result in the robot shooting it’s projectiles. It’s not so bad that you won’t be able to play the game, but once you hit stage 4 in the campaign mode, and the game gets a little more hectic, you’ll be constantly wanting to turn the game off out of frustration. The same goes for the speed demolition and survival challenge modes, once the game reaches that point where the action picks up, the controls become a real issue.

The graphics are decent enough, and the draw distance is great, especially considering how many objects are on the screen at one time. Even after you destroy a couple buildings, and the debris is laying all over the ground, the draw distance hardly suffers at all, which is very surprising.

If you can look past these, especially the control issues, which could be fixed in an update, BigBot Smash does have quite a bit of fun gameplay at it’s core. Using three different robots, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, you’ll smash buildings, blow up buses, police cars, squish people by walking on them or jumping onto them, and shoot them with your lasers, which will give you a nice little laugh when the sound effects for this go off, and you can hear the people scream when they die. In the campaign mode, you’ll need to destroy buildings, looking for pieces of your robot girlfriend. Within most of the buildings are parts that you can use to upgrade parts on your robot, along with some power-ups, and recharging items. In the speed demolition, you’ll need to destroy a set amount of buildings before the clock runs out, and in survival mode, you guessed it, you stay alive as long as you can. Both of these extra modes will have you collecting bits and pieces to upgrade your robots as well, but are not saved or transferred over to the campaign robot, so you’ll start from scratch every time you start to play in these modes.

For $0.99, it’s not a bad game by any means. The controls can be worked with, and might actually just have so many issues if you’re playing on a small screen. Gameplay videos on the iPad show the game in a completely different light, and since the game is Universal, you won’t need to buy an HD version to find out. There are GameCenter leader boards, though only for Survival and Speed modes, but do have 48 achievements to try and grab. There is quite a bit of replay value, and the core gameplay looks like it could be great fun. But until an update hits with some tighter controls, it’s hard to really give the game a fair play on my small screen, but I’m excited about having the opportunity to.

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Devourer - 0.99 (Li Min)

Devourer is a new drag-collect-dodge arcade game from Li Min, in the same vein as Bit Pilot and Runaway UFO, but with more emphasis on collecting objects than dodging them, though the dodging element is still there. In Devourer, you’ll drag a black hole around the screen, sucking up all the green, blue, and yellow invaders, while avoiding the red ones. It’s a very simple game, but once you get into it, and understand the scoring, and start using the items in the shop, it becomes very addicting, and really, a very nice little arcade game.

The controls are set up nicely, using relative touch to control the black hole, meaning you can place your finger anywhere on the screen in order to drag the black hole around the screen. This makes it easier to see all the invaders around your black hole, and a whole lot more comfortable.

There are two different game modes in Devourer, Classic, and Survival. In Classic Mode, you’ll drag your black hole around the screen collecting the “normal”, or blue, invaders, which there are two different kinds, a regular invader, worth 20 points, and a type of super invader, worth 80 points, “bonus”, or green, invaders, which add 1 to your multiplier, and “bomb”, or yellow, invaders, that blow up everything on the screen. There’s also red, or “toxic” invaders. If you hit one of these, they will reset your multiplier, and drop you 100 points, along with coins that randomly appear on the screen, and give you 5 gold points. You’ll have 2 minutes to try and get the highest score you can, and can not die before the 2 minutes is up.

In Survival Mode, you’ll have all the same types of invaders, along with the random coins, and the goal is to not let any blue invaders escape the screen, and to not hit any red invaders. If you hit a red invader, or miss a blue invader before it disappears off the side of the screen, you’ll loose a life, and have 3 lives total. The amount of time you survive is your high score.

Both Modes let you use spells. Within the store, you can buy these spells, which can be equipped in the hotspots on the right side of the screen. Some of these include Shrink, which makes all of the invaders 30% smaller, Freeze, which slows down all the invaders, Slack, which reduces the rate of invaders by half, and many more. These power-up type spells will help out greatly when trying to achieve a high-score, though there are only a couple that will really, really get that high-score up when combined. For instance, I like to use Burst, which doubles the amount of invaders, Bless, which destroys all Toxic invaders, and prevents more from being spawned, and Double, which doubles the points. Using all 3 of these together will usually shoot your score up about 250,000 points, or more depending on when you use them. Each of the spells has a set amount of time that it will last, and you can only use the spells once after you buy them. This adds quite a bit of strategy to the gameplay, as you’ll need to find out what spells work best for your style of play, and when to use them.

The graphics in Devourer are done pretty well. There are movement animations for each of the invaders, making it look like they’re swimming through space. Along with the rock type soundtrack, it’s all got a pretty nice atmosphere. Considering this game comes from the same developer of Tap Burst, I’d say it’s quite a step up from the previous game, and has given me pretty high hopes for the future of Li Min.

With GameCenter and OpenFeint support, 2 leader boards, and 21 achievements that will take you quite a bit of time to unlock, and the two different game modes, Devourer has endless replay ability. The scoring system is set up very nicely, and the addition of the shop and toxic invaders add quite a bit of strategy to the game. It could use a bit more polish, and maybe more items in the shop, along with more enemy types, but for $0.99, it’s a great buy, packed with loads of action, and will give you hours upon hours of addictive gameplay.

Devourer is getting a score of 8 out of 10.

Links:

Full Version; http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/devourer/id461205872?mt=8

Website; http://twitter.com/#!/lihogames

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Acid Rain - 0.99 (Bal Rokko)

Acid Rain is a new swipe/tap casual arcade game from Bal Rokko. There’s only one game mode to play at the moment, called Flower. In Flower Mode, you need to tap or swipe on the drops of acid rain coming down from the sky, in waves towards the flowers, while trying to not hit the good drops of rain, or the lightning drops, which kill a flower if you hit them, letting them go down into the ground. The game is over when the gauge on the left side of the screen fills up with acid drops as they hit the ground, or if you hit 3 lightning drops, killing all 3 flowers.

The scoring in Acid Rain is extremely good, you get one point for each drop of acid rain that you tap to pop, but if you swipe through the drops of acid rain without lifting your finger off of the screen, you get a combo score. After swiping through 10 drops, your score will double, and goes up with each 10 drops that you swipe through in succession. Hitting a regular drop of rain while in the middle of a combo resets it to zero, so you really need to be careful not to hit the blue drops of rain coming down. Having a perfect combo swipe gets you 3 stars at the end of the level, which is 10 points for the first star, 25 for the second, and 100 for the third, all added together. So, for instance, in the first wave, if you swipe through all 8 acid rain drops, you’ll get 8 points, then because of the combo, you’ll get 3 stars, which will add up to be 135 points. Add on the 8 points for the acid drops, and you’ll have 143 points. You also get points for each flower that survives each storm, and this score also goes up as you progress through the storms. So a lot of work has gone into making Acid Rain a game that’s really focused on combos and high scoring.

There’s also power-ups that really help you build your score. One power-up is a rainbow that goes all the way across the screen, and turns each raindrop that goes through it into a rainbow drop. Popping each of these adds to your combo bonus, as well as gives you 10 points per drop popped, and is a great way to make your score skyrocket. Another power-up is a 500 point ball that you just need to swipe through or tap on to get. These 500 point balls are also multiplied by your current drop multiplier. So if you’re swiping through drops, and you’re on your 35th drop, and then swipe through the 500 point ball, it’ll be multiplied by 4 making it 2000 points, all of this, again, adding a ton to the scoring mechanics of Acid Rain.

The addition of GameCenter also helps drive this high-scoring affair, and adds quite a bit to the replayability of the game. However, there are no achievements, which would have been very nice to see in this game, considering you’re getting huge combos, big scores, and an insane number of rain drops while moving through wave after wave and storm after storm.

The graphics in Acid Rain are great, very vibrant, even though you’re mainly playing in the rain and the sky is usually grey, the rainbow, rainbow drops, and green and blue rain drops really pop when they’re set against the grey background. The flowers also dance while you’re playing, and really are quite cute. The animation of the rain popping is really good as well, and there’s a line that follows your finger as you swipe across the screen. Some levels also include a wind mechanic that makes the rain drops swing back and forth. All of this really adds to the atmosphere and great polished look of the game. It is retina display supported, but not Universal.

All-n-all, Acid Rain is a solid casual arcade game that’s good for gamers of all skill levels, and all ages. Later in the game it gets pretty challenging, as they throw in 2 acid drops per row of rain, and I’m assuming there’s 3, eventually, but I haven’t gotten that good at it yet. It’s very polished, and there’s more content to come with future updates, which I’m really excited about. Especially the addition of the next game mode. At $0.99, it’s a great buy, and isn’t going to be deleted from my device any time soon.

Acid Rain is getting a score of 8.5 out of 10.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acid-rain/id412650688?mt=8

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Dust Those Bunnies - 0.99 (Gamers Rejoice)

Dust Those Bunnies is a new swiping arcade game from Gamers Rejoice. In it, you’ll be sweeping as many dust bunnies into a dust pan as you can in a certain amount of time while trying to avoid bomber bunnies and using power-ups. I should mention that this game was made using GameSalad. But it is one of only a couple GameSalad games that actually runs well on my 4th Gen Touch. In fact, I didn’t even know it was made using GameSalad until I read it on the Touch Arcade Forums. The load times are not bad at all, and the controls are nice, tight and responsive.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Dust Those Bunnies is the graphics. They’re black and white and look like a classic old film. They are done very well, and this decision to look like an old movie adds quite a bit to the polish of the game. The music sounds great, and with no sound effects, it adds even more to the feel of old silent films. There’s also a hidden sepia toned look for the game. We’re given two different game modes, one called Wage War, in which you’re given power-ups and 1:45 to get as many dust bunnies into the dust pan as you can. The other mode is called Commando, in this mode you’re given 1 minute with no power-ups to get as many dust bunnies into the dust pan as you can. Both modes are pretty challenging as you’ll need to keep an eye out for bomber bunnies that don’t look too different from the regular bunnies you’ll be sweeping up; one of their ears is a wick, and they have a different facial expression. You’re aloud to get of the bombers bunnies into the dust pan before they blow it up, and each one you do get into the pan takes away 25 points. If you manage to sweep them to the side of the pan, you’ll get 8 points.

The scoring system is pretty nice. You get one point for each small bunny you can swipe into the dust pan, two for medium bunnies, and 4 for big bunnies. If you sweep more than one bunny into the pan at a time, you’ll get an extra point for each bunny. For instance, if you sweep 4 bunnies into the pan at once, you’ll get 4 points, one for each, plus 4 points for the combo bonus, totaling 8 points. In Wage War Mode, there’s power-ups that will help you a lot with scoring, but that are clearly harder to get into the dust pan than the bunnies, being heavier and disappearing after a short time. There’s a disco ball, with which you’ll get 10 points for every bunny you sweet into the pan, plus the regular bonus points for sweeping more than one bunny in at a time. There’s also a dust buster power-up which will pick up every bunny you drag your finger over, including the bomber bunnies. Micro fiber cloths will help you out by making all the bunnies follow your finger, and a pocket watch will add 15 seconds to the timer. There’s also various items which will give you 10, 15, and 50 points.

Sweeping the bunnies into the dust pan isn’t as easy as it sounds. You need to get the speed just right. Going too fast will leave bunnies behind your finger, and going too slow will cause them to go in all sorts of different directions. In the loading screen before playing it says “This is sweeping, slow and steady sweeps will win the war.“, and it couldn’t be more true.

There are unlockables in the game as well. You can get new brooms, which unlock depending on how many total sweeps you’ve made, and each make it easier to sweep more bunnies into the dust pan. New enemies, each with a different maneuvering mechanic, are unlocked when you get a certain amount of total bunnies into the pan, and then there’s new areas to sweep on, each with different textures, and are unlocked based on how many total games you’ve played. You’ll also be able to unlock new music tracks as you progress through the game, and there’s in-game medals to try and snag as well. All of this adds a lot to the replay value of the game, as do the GameCenter leaderboards, One for both of the game modes.

With all of the content in Dust Those Bunnies, it’s a great game to get for $0.99. This is the introductory price, and I’m guessing the regular price will be $1.99. It hasn’t been said when the price will go up, but I’m guessing it will be like most introductory prices and go up about one week from the release date, which was August 25. It’s a pretty original game, which is something we don’t see too often in the AppStore these days, and it’s presented in a very professional manner. Given that it was made with GameSalad makes it even slightly more impressive. If casual arcade games that can be played by hardcore gamers as well is something you’re into, Dust Those Bunnies will be a great game to pick up. For me, it’s joining the ranks of Tiny Wings, Kosmo Spin, and other great casual games that bring along quite a hefty challenge. The only things I would love to see in the future is maybe another game mode, something like Endless Mode, mixing all of the different types of bunnies, the in-game achievements moved to GameCenter, and some more obstacles blocking your sweeping paths in the different environments you can unlock. Other than that, there’s not much room for improvement with this quality title from Gamers Rejoice.

Dust Those Bunnies gets a score of 9.5/10

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dust-those-bunnies!/id437429857?mt=8

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Zombie Slaughter - 0.99 (Tapkee Games)

Zombie Slaughter is a new swiping action game from Tapkee Games. In it, you will fight wave after wave of zombies. You’re given 3 difficulties, Easy, Medium, and Hard. On Medium and Hard Modes, you’ll need to figure out strategies to take out the hordes of zombies in order to beat the game, but in Easy mode, you can pretty much just learn the movements, and how to play the game without too much of a challenge.
There is no story in the game, and very little environmental change. As you progress through the levels of 3 waves each, the platforms you can jump on will grow, but apart from that, you won’t see much different between the levels. There’s 1 health pick-up for each wave you’ll go through, and once you reach level 2, you’ll be able to pick up a sword and slice away at the zombies for a limited amount of swipes. This lack of story, or extra modes can put some people off of the game, especially since there’s no online leaderboards, achievements, and actually, no scoring system at all.

This lack of content could very well be the downfall of the game. Which is sad, because Tapkee Games has built up a very decent base for a game. The rag doll physics work extremely well with the animations, and gravity + swipe physics of the game, and the random zombie spawning leads to different types of gameplay with each and every game. But it’s plat former aspect also makes me wish that the developer would have added some virtual buttons along with the current swipe controls, and Zombie Slaughter could also use some power-ups and maybe even a shop. If all of this was added, Tapkee Games would have one hell of a game on their hands.
The lack of content can be overlooked by the amazing, addictive, action-filled gameplay, but not for too long. The developer has realized this, and has mentioned on the Touch Arcade Forums that he will be adding more content, different environments, achievements, item-drops and more weapons, as well as an endless mode.

The game, right now, is $0.99, the perfect price for a “let’s check it out” kind of attitude, and it is worth checking out. The developer has given me 5 promo codes to share with our readers, so if you’re slightly interested in the game, and are one of the first to be reading this review, you can try and snag one of ‘em;

3XEMKTR477N9

NHN4H3A7LF4W
6EP4LTPN4WJY
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I am looking forward to future updates, and hope that this game gets more content. As it is now, I’m going to give it a rating of 2.5/5, but it has the potential to be a 4 or even 5 star game if the developer keeps working on it like he’s promised. Here’s hoping this game doesn’t fall into the huge bundle of games that have been forgotten by developers over the years.


Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zombie-slaughter/id457408130?mt=8

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Draw Slasher: The Quest - 2.99 (Mass Creation)

Draw Slasher: The Quest is a new side scrolling slice-em-up from Mass Creation. In it, you’ll take the awesome monkey, Hanzo, from Draw Slasher: Dark Ninja Vs. Pirate Monkey Zombies on a quest to defeat the evil demon lord that has attacked your village, and kidnapped your family and master. Along with the Quest Mode, Mass Creation has also included Challenges, Endless Modes, and Online Multiplayer.

Draw Slasher: The Quest is a huge step up from the first Draw Slasher game, giving us a stamina bar under our health bar that drains as we draw slashes on the screen. This allows for more slashes at once, and coupled with a quicker moving Hanzo, really adds to the amount of carnage you can dish out quickly. This makes the gameplay a lot better than the first Draw Slasher game, because if you remember, you could only have one slash on the screen at a time, and Hanzo wasn’t the quickest moving animal out there.

In Quest Mode, you’ll go through 6 stages of bloody mayhem, tracking down the demon that burnt your village and kidnapped your family and friends. Each of the stages has a boss battle, and an ability that you unlock after defeating the boss. These abilities are all upgradeable with experience points that you gain while slicing up monkeys and collecting the red orbs that are randomly spit out of the bodies of your enemies. You can also upgrade your health and stamina bars, each upgrade helping you a little more in your quest to save your loved ones. Mass Creation has also added quite a few new types of zombies. A Chef, slicer monkey, little zombie monkeys, interesting bosses, and ghosts of zombies, each needing different techniques to take out.

The Challenge Mode is filled with 25 different challenges, all unlocked from the moment you start up the game. Not having to finish one challenge to move onto the next is awesome. You’re also able to keep your upgrades from the Quest Mode, making Challenge Mode even more interesting as you progress in the game. Each challenge is different, and will test your slashing skills, and help you master new techniques. Getting 3 stars in each challenge will be quite a task, one that only the most skilled zombie slashers will be able to accomplish.

Survival, or Endless Mode, is set-up just like Dark Ninja Vs. Pirate Monkey Zombies. You’re given 3 options, Tower, Waves, or Hardcore, each having different scoring mechanics, and in Hardcore Mode, you’re given only your base health and stamina, making it extremely difficult. These modes where a great deal of time will be spent after you complete the Quest Mode, especially if you’re interested in climbing online leaderboards, as each mode has it’s own board in GameCenter. Online play is comprised of Survival and Competitive play. Here, finding a match with GameCenter’s Auto-Match can be kind of difficult, as there’s not usually people online waiting to play. But if you have friends on GameCenter who have Draw Slasher: The Quest, playing against them will be loads of fun.

The graphics are awesome. Slicing up the bosses in Quest Mode is pretty graphic, as each final blow is done in a sort of clip mode, where you trace lines on the screen, then watch as blood flies everywhere, and their limbs fall off. Throughout the game, the screen is almost always full of zombies, which means the screen is almost always full of blood and the zombie’s body parts. The animations are also very well done here, adding immensely to the atmosphere of the game. It’s also Universal, meaning retina and HD supported, so you’ll be able to see all the blood and gore the way it’s meant to be seen. Music and effects are pretty much the same from Mass Creations first Draw Slasher game, but I’m not complaining because they fit the game perfectly. The controls are also flawless, making gameplay very simple to understand and master. There’s two control options, a tap setting and virtual buttons, able to be set in the right or left bottom corners. With the Survival and Online Modes, along with 4 online leader boards, and 44 GameCenter achievements, there’s pretty much endless replayability. This is a top notch title easily worth the $3 asking price.

I’m giving Draw Slasher: The Quest a score of 5/5, and can easily strongly recommend it to adventure and action fans. Gamers who loved the first Draw Slasher game will love The Quest even more.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/draw-slasher-the-quest/id455087584?mt=8

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