Bee Leader [Flightless Limited] - $0.99

It’s not too often a simplistic game completely blows my expectations of it out of the water. But Bee Leader, the new game from Flightless Limited, has done just that. I never would have thought that a game that revolved around controlling a bee and collecting nectar would have hit almost every single addictive cell in my video game obsessed brain, but with Bee Leader’s gameplay and insanely good all around package have changed my views of video games that, on the outside, look boring, and like they’re made almost entirely for prepubescent children. 

Throughout the game, you will basically be doing one simple task. Exploring each of the levels, looking for nectar, smaller bees to join you, and clocks which add more time to your day. You have from sun up to sun down to collect as much nectar as you can and take it back to your hive. There are, of course, hazards and enemies which you’ll need to avoid as you fly throughout the stages. Clouds with lightning and rain, trains that spew up steam, windmills and rocks which can trap you, birds, snakes, skull throwing eagles, and the dreaded hornets are only some of the hazards and enemies you’ll need to navigate around while looking for nectar. If you’re hit by a projectile, or by a hazard, you’ll wind up loosing quite a bit of your already collected nectar, and god-forbid you run into a hornet. They’ll wind up chasing you down and corning you, taking all of your nectar if you let them. 

Bee Leader stands out in almost every single aspect. The graphics are cartoony, but very polished, the music and effects are outstanding, control-wise, you’re able to choose between a freemoving joystick which appears whenever you touch the screen, a set joystick on either the left or right hand sides of your device, touch anywhere and drag, tilting controls, and an option to use another device as the controller with the Joypad app. The physics and inertia of every moveable object is great, animations are smooth and level designs are top notch. But what I really love about the game is the scoring mechanics. Every smaller bee which you collect joins you, and adds to the amount of nectar you receive from the nectar balls as well as flowers, so the more smaller bees you have following behind you, the more nectar you’ll be able to haul away. The flowers have a ‘sucking streak’ which adds to the amount of nectar you collect so long as you don’t leave the flower. Because flowers also stick to you for a short amount of time, you can extend this sucking streak by jumping from flower to flower without stopping the collection of nectar, which allows for some nice bonus points. There’s also a honey bonus when you drop off nectar at your hive depending on how much nectar you’re dropping off. All of this, combined with the subtraction of nectar based on what you come into contact with throughout the stage makes the scoring system in Bee Leader fantastic. 

Adding to the great scoring is GameCenter support. For each of the 12 levels, there’s a separate GC Leaderboard, as well as a total score board for when you complete the game. There are also 10 achievements, but these don’t really add much replay value, as they’re all centered around the ranks you get in the game by filling up your hives with honey. However, there are plenty of stats which help round it all out by being able to post these stats on social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and through e-mail. 

Bee Leader is priced at $0.99, and the developers have stated that more levels are coming in future updates, which is great, because after playing and replaying levels trying to get the best scores you can, you’re only going to want more. The game is Universal for those of you who have iPads, or both and iPhone/iPod and iPad, which is always great to hear. 

So, final verdict? I can’t believe a game that revolves around making a bee fly around a level to collect nectar before the sun goes down is this fun. Incredibly fun. Right now I’m still stuck in the first two worlds (6 levels) trying to best my score and move up the GameCenter leaderboards, playing and re-playing levels over and over again. The only bad thing I can say is that the game might be a tad too short. With only 12 levels, if you aren’t interested in besting your score for the leader boards, chances are you’ll complete the game fairly quickly. For a dollar, it’s a fantastic buy, and will definitely wind up being one of my favorite casual high-scoring arcade games of the year. 

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LostStar Tactics [James Pawliuk] - $1.99

Strategy Games are really hitting their stride in the AppStore, but one of my favorites has always been Tactical Warrior by James Pawliuk. Earlier this week, the two man team consisting of Mr. Pawliuk and Brandon Alter released their 3rd iOS title, LostStar Tactics, a turn-based strategy RPG with some great gameplay, nice graphics, and an interesting story to go along with it. But does it warrant purchasing when so much of the game is identical to Tactical Warrior?

When compared to Tactical Warrior, the whole set-up of the game and gameplay is almost identical. Moving costs stamina, unless you move to an orange tile and each attack or special ability you use costs stamina, while resting offers your character recovery of stamina. Each character, as well as enemy, has stats which you’ll need to learn so that you can know what attacks will work well, and what attacks will result in almost no damage at all. Even the party screen is an almost identical clone of Tactical Warrior’s. 

The character designs and environments, however, are fairly different. The characters have quite a bit of details, with some wielding some pretty badass looking weapons while the environments lean more towards lightly forested and murky areas, though the environmental objects still play a roll in where you’ll move your characters and how you attack with them. 

While exploring the outer reaches of space, you wind up finding something extraordinary. The planet Moridia, which legends say is home to mythical knowledge and treasures hidden in a mysterious ‘nebalua‘. An energy pulse takes your ship out while exploring, resulting in a crash landing on the unexplored planet. Now it’s up to you and your team to survive the attacking life forms, and find a way back home. 

Starting off, you’re able to choose between 3 different groups of fighters; Mechanic, who’s main focus is summoning - Warrior, who focuses on powerful attacks - and Councillor who focuses on flexibility. You’re also able to choose between Easy, Medium and Hard Difficulties. 

The game is set up kind of like a card based strategy game. Each character is able to equip various cards which allow them to perform different attacks as well as beef up their defensive skills. Once you earn enough experience through battles, you’re able to strengthen these cards up. Some battles will also give you cards as rewards, and sometimes you’ll be offered another character to add to your team. Each time you’re offered a reward, you’re given 3 choices to choose from. In the event of a new member being offered, you’re able to not add a member, and give some XP to your team. All of this makes the card equipping, leveling up, and even item equipping aspects of the game fairly deep. 

Aside from the cards, story and character design+environments, LostStar Tactics could easily be a sequel to Tactical Warrior. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Especially when I think about all the hours upon hours I lost because of Tactical Warrior. There’s also the price. $1.99. Hard to beat that, considering Tactical Warrior is $2.99, and worth every penny. But even with the fantastic gameplay, there are a couple of down-sides to the game. The game is not Universal, so those of you out there who hate playing games in 2X mode on your iPad will be pretty disappointed. There’s also no GameCenter, meaning no achievements to shoot for. Also, if there’s a player or enemy at the bottom of the screen underneath the text that says “touch a warrior to view his stats.” you’ll need to move the playing field in order to select them. It’s not a big deal, but something that kept on bugging me while I was playing. Actually, none of these ‘issues’ are really a big deal. LostStar Tactics is one of those games that’s good enough it’s very easy to overlook having to play in 2X Mode, and the lack of achievements or any online features. 

In the end, LostStar Tactics is a fairly deep turn-based strategy game with great RPG elements, also with a price that really can’t be beat. Hopefully it gets the attention it deserves so that more work will go into it, and hopefully we can get an HD or Universal version of the game. An online multiplayer mode would be amazing to see as well. But for $1.99, it’s a great buy if you’re a fan of turn-based strategy games. Even if you’re new to the genre, LostStar Tactics would be a great place to start. It’s easy to understand tutorial and simple gameplay that gets deeper the more you explore it is great for newcomers to the genre. 

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Dragon Evolution [Nob Studio] - $1.99

There’s no shortage of side-scrolling strategy games in the AppStore. However, there is a shortage of original and unique side-scrolling strategy games in the AppStore. Enter Dragon Evolution by Singapore based Nob Studio, an interesting side-scroller in which you control the evolution of a dragon, drawing inspiration from the team’s flash games, Monster Evolution and Nob War as well as Halfbrick’s Jetpack Joyride. 

You’re given 9 years to battle it out with tribal men who are stealing your eggs for food. Each year you get to choose an evolution for your dragon, each having a different effect cosmetically, as well as with your dragon’s stats. 

Starting off, your dragon will be fairly week, barely able to make it through one world in one year. But as you progress, adding different evolutionary powers, like fire, water, acid, claws, wings and more, you’ll be able to make it further and further across the land throughout each year. 

Basically, Dragon Evolution is a score chasing arcade game with strategy/RPG elements thrown in for good measure. As you take out the tribes men with your basic attacks, which your dinosaur does automatically, and special attacks, which you control by tapping on either the left or right sides of the screen, you earn points. There are also traps and big towers which you’ll need to fly over and avoid. This is done by holding down on both sides of the screen. 

As you use special attacks, fly, or are injured while going through each world, your energy bar decreases. Once you run out of energy, you’ll fall over and need to tap quickly on the screen to recover and keep battling it out. You do have a time limit of 60 seconds in the first world, but if you make it through a world, more time is added to your clock, 40 seconds for the first world, 35 for the second, 30 for the third, and so on. Also, your energy bar is completely filled up and you earn 100 points each time you complete a world. 

Adding to the drive of the game are objectives, which you must complete in order to build up your overall multiplier. The whole point being to get the best score you can by combining all 9 of your years scores together and evolving the best dragon you can. 

Each evolution gives different stats which effect how powerful your attacks are and how much energy you have. Fire, for instance, adds 3 attack points to your tribal man attacking power, but no points to your building attacking power, and no points to your energy, while the Claw Evolution adds 1 point to your tribal man attack, 1 to your building attack, and 10 energy points. It is also interesting seeing the effect the evolutions have on the cosmetic look of your dragon, with Claw, of course, changing the look of your dragons hands, while fire adds a big addition to your dragons head, water gives him hair on his head and acid adds spikes to his snout. However, each time you add another evolution, it has the possibility of completely changing the appearance.

All-n-all, with Dragon Evolution being priced at $1.99, having Universal and GameCenter support including leader boards for each year, as well as a total score board (no achievements are included in the GameCenter support), it’s not a bad purchase by any means. There is enough drive to keep players going and if you’re a high-score chaser, it’s easy to become wrapped up in completing achievements to increase your multiplier. Another mode, something like survival where you pick out 5 evolutions right off the bat, and get as far as you can before you run out of energy, or have a set time-limit to get the best score you can would have been a great addition, but this, currently, one man project, definitely shows the talent learned from working on previous games over the last 5 years. Dragon Evolution has hooked me for the time being, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for more Nob Studio releases in the future. There’s definitely some unique and creative thinking behind this bundle of fantastic graphics, action filled gameplay and drive for a high-score. 

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Squids Sequel - Squids: Wild West Announced

Squids, the action RPG from The Game Bakers, is getting a sequel; Squids: Wild West - to be released this summer for iPhone, iPod, and iPad. Players of the original Squids received an update yesterday that included 3 of the sequel's missions (along with a new helmet, new enemy and new achievement; Ninja Bluff). If you've yet to hear of this fantastic Action RPG, head on over to OUR SQUIDS REVIEW and find out why this amazing game got a score of 10 out of 10.

From the press release:

"SQUIDS follows a band of unlikely heroes who must protect their idyllic underwater kingdom from the destructive black ooze settling over the seas. Set in the western kingdom of Seawood, SQUIDS Wild West takes the group into deeper, more dangerous waters as they regroup against oily crustacean enemies and search for a fallen comrade. They'll help the feisty Calamary Jane save a besieged frontier town, explore native Squid lands and a volatile mine, and start to understand the evil they're up against -- but not without paying a terrible personal price.

SQUIDS Wild West will be a Universal App with more of the gorgeous cartoon art, jaunty music, and humorous storytelling that made SQUIDS a fan favorite. Like the original, SQUIDS Wild West combines tactical RPG-inspired gameplay with the convenient interface of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Although turn-based battles are easily fought using an Angry Birds-style "flinging" mechanic, SQUIDS Wild West provides a much deeper challenge than the average mobile game. Strategy and skill are required as players use environmental elements, the Squids' strengths, and enemies' weaknesses to succeed. With devious new enemies, four new playable characters, and nearly twice as many levels as the original SQUIDS, the upcoming sequel also has many fun gameplay surprises -- including seahorses that you can corral and ride into battle!"

If you've been on the fence, Squids has dropped in price from $2.99 down to $1.99 to celebrate the new update. It's hit the #1 spot on the RPG charts in 65 different countries, and has been downloaded over 1 million times, retaining a 5 star rating within the AppStore after thousands of iTunes reviews. Needless to say, it's not too often an iOS game has a 5 star iTunes rating after thousands of reviews, or hits the 1 million download mark. If you're a fan of adventure, RPG, action, or even physics games, chances are you'll love Squids. Be sure and check it out. And we'll have more info as the news becomes available to us about the sequel, as well as a review after it's released.

DOWNLOAD THE ORIGINAL SQUIDS ON ITUNES

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Pastry Panic [Underground Pixel] - $0.99

Arena Platformers seem to be making some pretty strong headway in theAppStore. Muffin Knight, Blast Ball, Scorched Monster and quite a few more have taken the whole Super Crate Box idea and ran with it. The latest addition to the genre is Underground Pixel’s title, Pastry Panic. A pastry chomping dinosaur who moves along conveyor belts and flings his tongue across the screen all done in retro graphics seems like a pretty good idea, but there’s quite a bit of drive lacking from the game for it to stick out among the other arena platformers that are available.  

Now, in Pastry Panic, there’s two modes; Mad Dash and Tongue Tied. In Mad Dash, you’ll move your dinosaur along three conveyer belts by holding on either the left or right side of the screen depending on which direction you want to move, and swiping up and down to move to a different conveyer belt. Each belt moves left or right and carries pastries and other goodies from one side of the screen to the other. It’s your job to collect as many pastries as you can while also collecting nuts, bolts, and other metal objects which act as your HP, powered up pastries, and letters spelling out SWEET.

The pastries are able to reach the other side of the screen without any harmful effects, but if one of the bits of metal goes un-eaten, you will loose a hit point. You start off with 3, and have 4 HP’s available, and collecting these bits of metal adds to the hit points so they can be replaced. 

There’s 5 different special pastries, each with a different effect; The Super Donut gives you one bolt (Hit Point), while the Devil Donut takes one away. There’s a lightning donut which speeds up the conveyer belts, molasses donut slows them down, and the swirly donut switches the direction of the conveyer belts. Along with the special pastries, mixed in with the regular pastries and metal bits, are letters spelling out SWEET. If you collect all 5 letters, you’ll earn 200 extra points. 

In Tongue Tied Mode, your dinosaur stays on a platform in the middle of the screen, and tapping on an object will make him fling his tongue out at it and end up being eaten. The special pastries, bolts, and letters are all the same, and have the same effects. 

Every 50 points, you’ll earn 1 coin. These coins can be used to purchase items in the shop. All of the shop’s items are purely cosmetic, and do not have any effect on the gameplay. There are 2 different characters which you can purchase, each costing 100 coins, and 15 different hats, and facial additions, each costing 50 coins. 

Aside from that, once you’ve played the game for about 5 minutes, there’s nothing more to see. There’s no objectives or missions like other games in the genre have, that keep the game moving forward. It is nice to see a development company not just follow suit and add objectives just because almost every other game in the genre has them, but seeing something that pushes the game forward would have been great. Without it, the game does get very boring fairly quickly. There are 12 achievements, but they don’t really push you forward.

Another thing missing from the game, that would fit in perfectly, is some sort of special scoring mechanic. Combos, multipliers, something along this line almost always helps to drive gameplay forward, and Pastry Panic is set up perfectly for something like this. 

I’m not saying that Pastry Panic should copy what the other games in the genre are doing, but without adding more to the game, it really feels like a bare-bones demo version of a game when compared to others like it. 

Pastry Panic is Universal, and right now, is 50% off, priced at $0.99. GameCenter leader boards and achievements are included, and if you play on an iPad, the two different gameplay modes have Hardcore Difficulties, which add 2 conveyer belts to the game. If you’re a huge fan of the genre, or score chasing games, and love retro graphics, Pastry Panic is a game you’ll probably enjoy, but chances are, you won’t enjoy it for too long. Hopefully Underground Pixel adds to the game, and builds on the mechanics that are already included. Pastry Panic could definitely turn into one of the better games within the Arena Platformer genre, but not until then. 

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Scotland Yard (Ravensburger + FDG) - $4.99

Board games are slowly but surely finding a nice, comfortable home within the AppStore. Classics like Monopoly, Life, Scrabble, Clue and loads more, along with not so well known games like Tigris & Euphrates, Catan, Tikal and others are winding up on iDevices, finding new fans, bringing back great memories and creating enjoyable family time without having to deal with setting everything up, cleaning up, or worrying about ‘misinterpreting the rules’ (damn Patriots). Now, another game that’s new to me, but that some of you guys/gals might remember from your childhood, is Scotland Yard. The original publishers of the game in Canada and Germany, Ravensburger (who’s also released FiTS, Ramses II and more on the iOS), is responsible for bringing Scotland Yard to the AppStore. 

For those of you, like me, who aren’t familiar with the game, it’s a simple premise. You either play as Mr. X, who is running from Scotland Yard, or as Scotland Yard, who is chasing down Mr. X.  The board is made up of different stations, each linked together by colored lines. These colored lines show the means of travel between each of the stations. Taxi’s are yellow, busses are red, and the subway is blue. You’re given a certain number of tickets for each of the different means of travel, and use them to move about the city. 

Mr. X does have a couple of advantages. He is hidden from the Scotland Yard pawns, except for on specific turns, when the other players will be able to see where Mr. X is. The game shows you what means of travel Mr. X is using, and the police will have to use that to try and track him down. However, Mr. X is also given a certain number of invisible tickets, which let him travel without the game showing the police is he’s on the bus, a taxi, or the subway. He also has a couple of double moves, which let him move twice in one turn. Along with those perks, Mr. X can also travel in the water if he hits certain spots next to the river. Combining all of these special abilities will be necessary to escape Scotland Yard.

As you can imagine, Scotland Yard is set up perfectly for online multiplayer games, and it is included. Async multiplayer via GameCenter along with Wifi/Bluetooth modes are available. You can also play with more than one player on one device. There is also solo local play with Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties.

With Scotland Yard being Universal, and with all of the multiplayer modes, the price-tag of $5 is very fair, especially when the original physical board game can costs anywhere between $25 and $40, and involves all of the setting up, clean up, and trying to find players who can sit around the board with you. Adding to the gameplay and replay value are 15 GameCenter achievements, some of which will require some very skillful gameplay. So you can add Scotland Yard to the list of board games that play fantastically on the iDevice, and cost a fraction of the price of the physical versions. The enhanced graphics, easy to learn gameplay, and high replayability make it a game that has the chance of staying on your device for as long as you own it. Also, being released by Ravensburger and FDG (Clear Vision, Cover Orange, Blueprint, Beyond Ynth, Tentacle Wars, and more) - you can be sure that it’s a high quality game, and that if any problems arise, they will be dealt with ASAP. Scotland Yard is highly recommended if you’re a fan of the genre, or if you’re looking for a game that the whole family can play. 

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Kemco's fantastic Cyberpunkish RPG Eve of the Genesis drops down to $0.99 for a limited time!

One of our favorite Turn-Based RPG developers, Kemco, is having another sale on one of their fantasticly crafted titles. This time around, it's the cyberpunk-fantasy Eve of the Genesis. The story takes place in the Empire of Gadalia. It’s kind of a matrix type story, with humans battling machines that ruled the empire, but were defeated 2,000 years ago. Now they’re back, and somehow able to travel through space, seemingly appearing anywhere they want to attack. Your characters are on a quest to try and find out how the machines are able to just appear anywhere they want, and eventually find a way to stop them from taking over the empire yet again.

If you're a fan of Kemco's titles, then you already know the quality of their games is fairly high. Eve of the Genesis is one of very few games here on The App Shack to earn a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. If you've never heard of Kemco, well... they're comparable to the Square (Enix) of old, with their titles bringing back memories of playing Final Fantasy titles 3 through 7. The writing is fantastic, and the translations are just shy of perfect. There's usually some pretty interesting equip or leveling up mechanics, and exploration for special items is something can be found in all of their titles.

So if you haven't picked up any of Kemco's titles yet, or have yet to pick up Eve of the Genesis because you've been busy playing one of their other great RPGs, now would be a great time to, with the price dropping from $8.99 down to $0.99. It's definitely a Turn Based RPG that will have you hooked until you complete it, and have you ready to jump into another fantastic Kemco title.

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Because We May - Huge sales on popular games Starting May 24th!

In a few days, a collection of developers who sell their games directly through the AppStore will be lowering the prices of their games. It's to celebrate the fact that these developers have complete creative control over their games, and their pricing, as well as being able to have 100% (minus what Apple takes) of the money you pay for their games to go straight to supporting the developer.

So, from May 24th to June 1st, a great list of games will be dropping their prices significantly. Games like World Of Goo, Eliss, Bean's Quest, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery, Osmos, Waking Mars, Spirits, EDGE, Eufloria, and many, many more.

If you would like more information on this celebration, you can get it from the Because We May Website - Games for the Mac, Android, and on Steam are also going to be dropping in price, making this a HUGE all around video game sale. Make sure you don't miss out on this week long event!

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