Smash Hit, ios: Review

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best games to grace Apple products are the simplest, and Smash Hit is no exception. With its crisp graphics, sharp sound effects, and uncomplicated gameplay, it screams addiction. The premise of the game sees you travelling through a series of glass obstacles in first person which you must destroy with a limited number of metal balls (that you can win back by destroying crystals). It is a concept that through their sheer simplicity breeds a brilliantly attractive and effortlessly engaging past-time with no waiting time, and no ads.

The basic foundations of the gameplay have allowed for the developers to easily create new challenges, keeping the game fresh with a wide variety of tasks presenting themselves as you move up levels. These obstacles may warrant a few attempts before being beaten, but most of them rely on quick thinking, timing, and aim. 

The premium version is required for picking up from where you left off last time, however this isn't so much of a downer as it first seems. Though the higher levels are more difficult and often pose a real challenge, the therapeutic simplicity of the opening stages and the game's compelling nature makes it a pleasure to retread your steps. This is improved by the changing dynamics of gameplay in the form of certain power-ups. Hit ten consecutive crystals in a row and shoot multiple balls at your targets, allowing a greater impact and wider target range, with the number of balls awarded correlating to the number of crystals you have hit. This ensures that no two plays are the same, greatly increasing replayability. 

The game is consistently enjoyable due to its ability to challenge the player with new levels and threats while maintaining the entertainment required to play the game enough to learn how to proceed. Even then, it only takes a few tries to break through tricky levels which are just as favourable as the first ones and easily defeated with practice. While there are ample opportunities to boost the number of balls at your disposal (hit an obstacle and lose 10 in a heart-stopping moment of red screen terror), it only takes a few mistakes to seriously set you back from even the most promising of situations.

The impressive physics establish realistic reactions and forces, however it is not 100% consistent as there are some instances when the player is able to travel through a sheet of glass despite the fact that the area smashed area was nowhere near where it needed to be. This happens rarely however, and is quite frankly a relief in times of frantic ball-flinging. 

The sound reflects the crisp graphics, with coolly calming music accompanying the satisfyingly sharp shattering of the glass. Hearing the impact of the initial hit and the echo of the crashing obstacles makes for incredibly gratifying gameplay. 

Overall, Smash Hit is an intensely addictive game with a beautifully simple design and infinite replayability. Managing to maintain an enjoyable balance between entertainment and challenge, all aspects of the game collaborate to create a thrillingly original experience... which is probably why it is currently featured on App Store Best of 2014.

Dead Trigger 2 Review

Dead Trigger 2 was released in October of last year and is now proudly displayed in the App Store 'Zombie' section. I say proudly because, even though I've only had a handle of good, long sessions with it, I can safely say it is one of my favourite games I have played on iOS. And it's free. 

I'm fairly new to the game, but my first impressions are that this is an iOS classic. It's fun and easy to dip in and out of but if you have the time you can easily lose a good few hours running the battery down on whatever device you choose - I've tried it on iPod but a bigger screen allows for less claustrophobic gameplay, but as a zombie game perhaps that's a bonus to iPod and iPhone play. 

Employing a first person shooting stance governed by two primary controls: move around with left and look around with right, the game is set around a series of search and rescue / fix this very important commodity missions with various in game rewards. From the map screen, select your mission (be it a side mission you encountered before, a new mission to progress, or a challenge of the day type battle), using your hideout as an hq of weaponry, health, and gold mining. The missions get heart-racingly challenging, especially playing on iPad - turning round after defeating a horde of pumpkin headed zombies (celebrating the game's Halloween-ish birthday) only to find one gnawing on your shoulder has sent my iPad flying after desperate attempts to shoot. 

The controls fit the iOS design - simply move to look at your enemy, line up the crosshair, and the trigger pull comes naturally. By this I mean the game shoots automatically. This kind of frustrated me at first - I couldn't line up the perfect headshot without already shooting the guy half a dozen times. But it's an easy way to get the look and feel of movement on a console game on an iOS device that requires a simpler set of controls, and it makes the game slightly easier, so you feel like a boss. 

The story-line isn't that developed - the main basis is that you have been dropped into a zombie apocalypse, saved, and taken to a safety base by a woman you met in a tunnel. After that, it's more the completion of missions set in an impressively large set of locations, the simple controls, and the thirst for zombie blood that will keep bringing you back to Dead Trigger 2. 

SUPERHYPER review

There is rarely a new iOS game that really brings my life to a halt. It took some getting used to, but once you've retrained your brain to swipe left, right or up whenever faced with any flash of an obstacle (because your thumbs do have to become blurs across the screen) you're in for a pretty damn fun time. In truth, the game is disgustingly addictive. Its simplistic design and feel force you to question all skill you thought you ever had in gaming and return to the days of just trying to get pixels to stay on the screen.

It's refreshingly simple but diabolically tricky. Swipe left and right to guide a ball down a track with various pitfalls and obstacles to overcome and watch your life fade away behind the screen of your phone. 

It really is a brilliant new release from Sets and Settings and one I will definitely be spending a lot of time procrastinating with. 

Surgeon Simulator 2014 PS4 Release Imminent!!

It's Wednesday 13th August next week, and that means it's the release date of the PS4 console port of Surgeon Simulator in a special 'Anniversary Edition'. Why is this exciting? Partly because Surgeon Simulator has been used as an appropriate form of anger management since its PC release in 2013 but also because this PS4 version will include all the best features of the Steam  and iPad versions. Not only that, but in this surge of Surgeon Simulator madness, the game will also be coming to Android on the 14th.

It won't be as difficult to part with the £8.99 or $12.99 required to purchase the game as it will be to pass even the first few levels without some hefty lawsuits (how is it even possible to be that clumsy AND shakey at the same time?).

Bossa Studios initially developed the game in a 48 hours period for the 2013 Global Game Jam, continuing afterwards for a further 48 days in order to create the terrifying ordeal we now call a game. After releasing a version designed for iPad with more features, the new PS4 console port will apparently include a previously unrevealed mode.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 - I have never spent so much time gardening

After I completed Plants Vs Zombies on ios all those months ago I felt the same deflated feeling that one would imagine pre-warns death. Like you've done everything you can and you just have to let go. But then my soul was resurrected when I heard news of Plants Vs Zombies 2 finally hitting the app store. It was a glorious day when I could hit that 'install' button on my iPod and hold in my hands a new lease of life for free. I was not disappointed. The game begins with a few instructions and tips concerning the new content - the power ups for example and the new plants that take seconds to master, before taking you on a whirlwind journey with Crazy Pete through Ancient Egypt and Pirate lands all in clear, bright graphics with colours and visuals that supersede the previous.



So, what's new?
- There are loads of new plants to play around with and choose from as well as the old favourites that just get the job done.

By far my favourite - I think he's
just misunderstood 

- A more challenging interface forces you to return to previous levels and complete individual missions to gain stars in order to continue the game. I argue that this feature is possibly one of the best of the game - giving you hours of interesting, unique gameplay which is often unheard of in a free download.
- Crazy Pete isn't exactly new but he's crazier in my opinion - and we all know the crazier Pete is the better the experience
- New zombies which you will learn to fear and counteract with only specific plants making gameplay a lot more versatile
- Plant food is now available to boost up your plants for a short amount of time. This has proved to be very handy in situations where there seem to be no way out until you notice, out of the corner of your panicked eye, a green glowing zombie's head roll across the board. You dive for the plant food that's now bouncing around the screen, taking a few jabs to actually catch the bugger until you have it in your arsenal and you can turn what was once a lowly little plant into a zombie thrashing machine and save the day. Needless to say, it has saved my lawnmowers many a game.
- Power ups have been introduced and are used when even the plant food can't save you. There's a bucket head zombie attacking your last sunflower on the left hand side and you can't lose any lawnmowers to get the star you've been working for hours for. What do you do? Obviously you just pick him up and flick him away. Simples. Why were you even panicking? Unless you have no coins. Then you're f**ked.

What's everyone else saying? 

Reactions are pretty similar to mine. We all love the new game and have probably lost days worth of work productivity to its addictive tower defense system. Some are arguing that the in-game costs have put them off a bit but as far as my knowledge goes the only costs you encounter are to purchase more coins or plant food and that's not necessary to the game, in fact it kind of ruins it a bit - like cheating. To be honest, they could have easily brought this game out at a £2.99 charge and still incur in-game costs so to download it free and receive hours of gameplay for nothing sounds pretty legit to me.

Overall, I love the game. It's new interface allows for more player control in terms of which levels you complete when and the star / key incentive to go back and repeat levels with unique goals each time will be bringing me back to the game for months, i can already tell. If your ios is up to it, it's a definite must-have.

Follow me on Twitter: @MusingsTwit

iPod Under Pressure

Now, i think i'm right in saying, and please, correct me if i'm wrong, Nintendo and Apple are on a par in the famous world. Apple are really trying to push a lot of their products at the moment as games consoles. I'm not opposed to a good old bit of technological convergence, but the quality of games played on an iPod or iPad just don't match up to the quality on Nintendo. This is because the iPod is primarily a music playing device, which ever way you look at it, back in the dark ages of iPod classic, before the word 'App' was really in common usage, people bought Apple products because that was the new MP3 player of the time.

But now that more and more games are being thrust upon the mighty iPod, people are expecting more and more, and their expectations can never be met for the price of £2.50, a few mega bytes and a 320/480 pixel screen. Soon, the iPod will have a huge mental breakdown, crumble under the pressure and start throwing itself off of docks across the world. There'll be a massive file sharing apocalypse and we'll all be left picking up the pieces, listening to those things we used to call CD's and buying radios.

Anyway, I see people constantly moaning about the lack of content or gameplay hours, or the storyline of a game that they bought online and paid about £2 for. You don't buy games for an iPod or iPhone to play heavily, they're good for if you have 5 minutes to kill waiting for the train, or if you're stuck in a particularly boring section of life, such as an assembly or Critical Thinking lesson. Help save the iPod and buy Nintendo games if you want to play hardcore - sort it out UK... not pleased...

:)

BYE