Home » Articles and Reviews by 'James Nouch'
Smash Cops Goes Free For A Limited Time
Smash Cops's price has swerved off the road and crashed into a ditch. This over-the-top racing game is currently available from the App Store free of charge for a limited time. Playing out like an episode of World's Wildest Police Videos - sans the inappropriately gleeful presenter - Smash Cops puts you behind the wheel of a police cruiser and tasks you with hunting down suspects on crowded highways. To take a suspect into custody, all you need do is bash the heck out of his vehicle. Driving into them works just fine, but you can also boost into the perp to send him careening off the road. It suffers from a slight lack of variety, but we got a real kick out of Smash Cops's exaggerat…
iPhone Tower Offense Classic Anomaly Warzone Earth Currently Half Price
11 bit studios's tower offense classic Anomaly Warzone Earth is currently available at half its usual price. The vanilla iPhone app is down to just 99c (from its usual $1.99), while the fancy Universal app for devices with Retina displays is down to $1.99 (from its usual price of $3.99). In an inspired bit of role reversal, Anomaly Warzone Earth tosses aside the well-worn tower defence template aside and casts you as the attacking force. Assaulting a heavily fortified position, you'll need to think strategically, exploiting your units' strengths to destroy enemy defences and deploying power-ups wisely to press home your advantage. We simply couldn't get enough of Anomaly Warzone Earth's…
3-in-1 Brainbender PuzzleJuice Discounted In Half Price Sale
Stylish iOS puzzler Puzzlejuice is currently available at half price - down to 99c from its usual price of $1.99. Perhaps the only game on the App Store which promises to "punch your brain in the face", Puzzlejuice combines the block-dropping gameplay of Tetris, the letter-linking requirements of SpellTower, and then throws in some colour matching for good measure. The result is a frantic exercise in cerebral multitasking, which has you managing tetriminos, tapping colour chains, and searching for anagrams - all at the same time. It's stressful but satisfying stuff, and Puzzlejuice's smart twist on established puzzling templates made us feel all warm inside. That's a feeling we traditiona…
Minecraft - Pocket Edition Update Introduces Crafting To Block-Building Phenomenon
I must confess: we were a little underwhelmed by Minecraft - Pocket Edition. Its stripped-down adaptation of the PC phenomenon left us pining after more features to toy with, although Andrew noted in the conclusion to his 3/5 review that it might be worth a purchase if you wanted to "gamble on updates adding deeper gameplay content". Well, our resident soothsayer has once again proven his clairvoyance, for a substantial update has now added a wealth of features to the seminal block-building title, including the much-requested ability to craft items. You can now craft tools, weaponry, and other fancy gubbins by combining items in your inventory - using a brand-new interface especially desi…
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Dragon-Punches Its Way Onto the App Store On 25th April
A port of arcade classic Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has been announced for the iPhone, and fighting fans don't have long to wait. The game will tag into the App Store on 25th April. Boasting a cast of 56 playable characters - 28 from Marvel, 28 from Capcom - Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has you select a team of three fighters and throw down fisticuffs against three opponents. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is renowned for its nuanced tag team fighting system and breathless pace, so it'll be interesting to see how Capcom manage to cram this classic onto the iPhone, and how much control fidelity will be lost in the translation. The developers have decent form in this department, though. Street Fighter IV Volt's contr…
Musical Platformer Jazz: Trump's Journey On Sale For A Limited Time
Musical platformer Jazz: Trump's Journey has seen its price discounted for the first time since its January release. It's currently available to download for 99c, down from its usual price of $2.99. In this game, you are cast as Trump, a talented trumpeter pursuing music and love in early 20th-century New Orleans. The character and the injustices he faces are based loosely on the life of Louis Armstrong. This side-scrolling platformer has you jumping around its 2D levels with brass in hand, ready to use the power of Trump's music to solve environmental puzzles within each level. Jazz: Trump's Journey won us over with its evocative visuals, its jazz-smooth animations, and its refined platf…
Sega Bring Their Acclaimed RTS Franchise Total War To the iPhone
Sega's acclaimed real-time strategy franchise Total War has finally marched its way onto iPhone, with Total War Battles: Shogun allowing you to sample the series's trademark historical warfare for an outlay of $6.99. Built specifically for the iPhone, Total War Battles: Shogun offers accessible, short-form conflicts that don't skimp on strategic depth. The battles may be short, mind, but the war is long - Total War Battles: Shogun's campaign lasts over ten hours. Naturally, the entire Total War interface has been redesigned for touchscreens, which means that managing your armies should be a cinch. But, none of us will know for certain, of course, until our definitive AppSpy review is fil…
Paper Monsters Is Free For A Limited Time
Charming 2.5D platformer Paper Monsters is currently available free of charge from the App Store for the first time since its January release. Mixing 2D side-scrolling and 3D environments allows the developers of Paper Monsters to play with perspective across the game's 16 expansive levels, which see you warping between the background and foreground in search of collectible goodies. As you guide your cardboard character through the four distinct game worlds, you'll explore the oceans, take to the skies, battle gigantic bosses, and probably unlock a couple of Game Center achievements along the way, too. We enjoyed Paper Monsters's quirky aesthetic and cheerful atmosphere, awarding it a sol…
Ace Driving Sim Real Racing 2 Enjoys One-Day Price Cut
Firemint's superb driving sim Real Racing 2 is available at less than half price today, reduced to $1.99 from its usual price of $4.99. Boasting a collection of real-world vehicles, multiple game modes, and outstanding graphical fidelity, Real Racing 2 is the comprehensive racing package for iPhone gamers. And, most importantly, its tilt and touch controls are precise and highly customisable - a real blessing when you head online to compete against 15 human opponents. If our gushing tone hasn't tipped you off already, you'll be pleased to hear that Real Racing 2 scored a big ol' 5/5 in our AppSpy review. What's more: it also earned itself a spot on our top 10 games of 2010 chart. Bravo.…
Mass Effect Infiltrator Receives Mass-ive Update
Mass Effect Infiltrator on iPhone has just received a substantial update, which adds a bonus mission and a host of tweaks to the tie-in sci-fi blaster. In Infiltrator's campaign mode, you play as a veteran agent of Cerberus - a shadowy humanity-first organisation which has been trafficking aliens for medical experimentation. In the newly added bonus mission, you take control of one of these captured aliens, and you're naturally pretty keen to escape the facility's medical bay before your body is 'donated' for scientific research. Thankfully, shooting your way out should be a little easier than before, for the new update delivers improved aiming and the option to disable the game's divisiv…
Infinity Blade II Price Cut For Limited Time Only
Chair's swipe-to-slice blockbuster Infinity Blade II is currently available at the knockdown price of $4.99 (it usually retails for $6.99). Building on the superb foundation laid by Infinity Blade, this sequel boasts an additional three combat styles, a massively expanded world, and a global network of slashers with whom you can team up to defeat titanic enemies. And while Infinity Blade's innovative combat system remains intact in this sequel, it's been refined and tweaked to near perfection. The character levelling and customisation has also been lovingly buffed to a high sheen, and now offers significantly more depth than its predecessor. If you remain unconvinced by that feature list…
Max Payne Hits the App Store At Midnight Tonight
Remedy Entertainment's third-person shooter Max Payne is out now on the New Zealand App Store, and will be slow mo diving its way into other territories at midnight tonight. Launched in 2001 to critical acclaim, the console version of Max Payne cast you as an undercover cop with a silly name and a murdered family. And when Max's best friend and DEA colleague is killed, things go from bad to worse. Payne is the prime suspect for his friend's murder and his mob cover is blown, leaving Max to fight a war on two fronts. Fortunately for us, that war is jolly good fun. Max Payne on iPhone has you spraying slow motion bullets at all manner of nasty men, while Max's moody internal monologue prop…
Sponsored Feature: Reviving A Classic With Avernum: Escape From the Pit HD
High-definition remakes are a dime a dozen these days. Guilty pleasures, these HD revamps have their sights set on our nostalgic weaknesses, dragging us by the wallet to revisit our gaming pasts for better or for worse. When Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel decided it was time to bring the well-aged PC hit Exile: Escape From the Pit to a new generation, a soulless, quicky cash-in was not an option. "I redid everything," Vogel says. "There is not a single item, line of text, or design element that was not evaluated and redone. It involved about as much work and writing as a whole new game would entail, and it feels like a new game. There's a lot of labour of love in there." Escape From…
EA's Easter iPhone Sale Kicks Off Today
You can't spell Easter (or four-day weekend, or over-eating) without EA, and the publishing megacorp is celebrating this holiday season in its time-honoured tradition - by discounting loads of games. Among the spring bargains to be had is the recent Mass Effect tie-in, Infiltrator, to which we awarded a solid 4/5 in our review. It's seen its price cut from $6.99 to $4.99. Not bad for a game that's only a month old. There are some AppSpy favourites on offer, too, in EA's sale: Dead Space, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Real Racing 2 are all tempting propositions given they carry our 5/5 seal of approval. These offers are only valid over the Easter weekend, so why not make time between s…
Saturday Morning RPG Brings '80s Nostalgia To the App Store
Saturday Morning RPG, a role-playing game inspired by '80s children's cartoons, has launched in New Zealand, meaning it should hit local App Stores at midnight tonight. The game casts you as Marty Hall, an Everyday Joe who finds himself with magical powers. Unfortunately, before Marty has a chance to exploit his powers for wealth and influence - and let's face it, we all would - he attracts the attention of dastardly villain Commander Hood. It's up to you, then, to control Marty in a series of role-playing episodes that see him battling evil and overdosing on '80s nostalgia. And rocking out the occasional keytar solo. Saturday Morning RPG should be available to download from your local…
