Home » Articles and Reviews by 'James Gilmour'
Hands-on with Grave Matters, the rusty puzzler in which you dig for dead robots
Philip K. Dick once asked if androids dream of electric sheep. We cannot answer that question. However, if new macabre puzzler Grave Matters has its facts straight, they do play Minesweeper with the rusted carcasses of their dead robot mates. Intruiged? Then we suggest you hit play on the video above.…
Hands-on with Reckless Racing 3, the souped-up sequel with pirouetting big rigs
If you're a fan of top-down racing in the vein of 16-bit classics like Micro Machines, then the Reckless Racing series has always been something of a shining light on iOS. It successfully marries the good looks of a quasi-realistic racing game with the crazy drifting and arcade fun of more outlandish titles like Outrun. Yesterday, Reckless Racing 3 skidded onto iPhone and iPad everywhere. The question is, has the wheel screeching carnage of previous games made its way into this newest installment? Watch the video above to find out.…
Reckless Racing 3Hands-on with Castaway Paradise, the Animal Crossing-inspired desert island adventure
If I had just been shipwrecked on a desert island, I'm not sure whether the sight of a talking pig in people clothes would be a comfort, or confirmation that I was suffering from a nasty case of the bends. This is precisely you find yourself in upon booting up Castaway Paradise, a new island-based Animal Crossing-esque life simulator. With nowhere else to go and surrounded by chatty animals who all need odd jobs done, you set about fixing fences, watering plants, and customising your new home as you see fit. Curious? Then simply have a peek at our hands-on video above.…
Hands-on with Pixel Boat Rush, the racer with big waves and big guns
When I started practising for my boat license, I never expected to be schooled by a shouty drill sergeant stereotype pulled straight from Full Metal Jacket. Yet that's exactly what happened when I fired up Pixel Boat Rush, a low-fi side-scrolling boat racer set to appear on the App Store tomorrow. Though the angry instructor is a bit obnoxious, his words are worth heeding, as there's more nuance to this extreme sport than you might think. Check out the video above to see what I mean.…
Anomaly Defenders Review
The Anomaly series made a name for itself by reversing the standard tower defence formula, and putting you in charge of the advancing force you usually find yourself repelling. However, for Anomaly Defenders, the final entry in the series, the studio has reversed its own genre reversal, ending its tower offence saga with a normal tower defence game. Has the move unlocked a new dimension to the sci-fi combat favourite, or is Anomaly Defenders one reversal too many? Pocket Gamer's Harr…
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Kapsula Review
What do you get when you combine a futuristic arcade racer with a match-three puzzler? The answer is Kapsula, a peculiar mash-up of genres and ideas from developer Beavl Games. In addition to making you navigate your vehicle around a minimalistic sci-fi cityscape, the game also encourages you to merge with other vehicles by crashing into them. You can then create chains of colour which must be wiped out for points. Pocket Gamer review Harry Slater was a bit bemused by the game, as y…
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Goat Simulator Review
Goat Simulator is a difficult game to review. On the one hand, it's a transparently broken game riddled with bugs, glitches, frame-rate issues, and optimisation problems. On the other hands, however, the whole game is a very conscious joke - one designed to poke fun at the subjective dullness of games like Truck Simulator and Train Simulator. As a result, it can be argued that the game is deliberately broken, and therefore cite its technical weaknessess as part of the joke. Harry Sl…
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Hands-on with Skullduggery!, the head-banging, bone-bouncing platformer
Skullduggery! is a game about banging your head against a wall. Not the frustrated 'I've just locked my keys in the car and now I have to walk to Shropshire' headbanging, you understand. No, Skullduggery! is all about tactically bouncing your bonce off of flat surfaces to navigate your way across side-scrolling levels. To reach the the pipe at the end of each maze you must pull back on your brain stem, before releasing your finger and launching your bony face into the great unknown. To see this macabre mechanic in action, check out our hands-on video above.…
Hands-on with Terra Battle, the RPG puzzler from the creator of Final Fantasy
Terra Battle is an RPG puzzler with a rare pedigree. Though it might not look like it at first glance, this tile-based fantasy experience is the brainchild of Hironobu Sakaguchi, the mastermind behind RPG classics like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. The game's combat system is based around sliding tiles alongside foes to perform attacks. Flank a foe with two heros, and you'll do more damage. There's a rock-paper-scissors dynamic at play which is dependant on whether your your enemy is weilding a sword, a spear, or a bow. This means you have to think about which hero is best equipped to fight each nasty, and how best to align and combine their powers with other members of your squad.…
Hands-on with Marvel: Contest of Champions, the surprisingly sprightly gesture-based brawler
Though we admit that there's plenty of Marvel games on iOS (or any platform, for that matter), it might be worth adding Marvel: Contest of Champions to your watch list. Soft-launched in Denmark only hours ago, the game is a gesture-based brawler in the vein of Injustice: Gods Among Us and Batman: Arkham Orgins. The thing is, where those games always felt kinda slow and gluey on iOS, Marvel: Contest of Champions jumps, spins, and zings around the screen with joyful, hyperactive energy. It'll probably be a while before the game is available worldwide, but check out our hands-on video above to see the game in action. …
Hands-on with Skylanders: Trap Team, the toy-powered platformer which may cost you a fortune
These days, a child-centric game franchise is nothing without a warehouse full of plastic toys to accompany it. Disney Infinity has its Jack Sparrow and Sully figure waiting to be teleported into the game via a magical portal. Even Angry Birds has a line of polypropylene models of its squawking stars which you can plug into the action via some clever camera scanning tech. However, the grandaddy of the toy / game hybrid is the Skylanders series. Centred around a race of weird warrior creatures, this kiddy-friendly franchise was encouraging parents to part with additional cash to stock their childrens' shelves with figurines before it was cool. This week, Skylanders: Trap Team arrives on…
TGS 2014: Hands-on with Chaos Rings 3, the surprisingly colourful new chapter of Square Enix's mobile RPG favourite
It's fair to say that Chaos Rings, the ongoing fantasy RPG series, has had a bit of a facelift since the last time we saw it. Just a quick glance at our exclusive footage of Chaos Rings III will reveal a sequel bursting with colour, 3D environments, and dudes with spikey hair. Though this cartoony boldness may be par for the course with an RPG like Kingdom Hearts, the Chaos Rings franchise has always been a little more gritty and muted where its colour palette was concerned. However, the graphics aren't the only thing that's new about Chaos Rings III. Watch the video above to learn more.…
Hands-on with The Banner Saga, the chilly RPG adventure with massive horns
The Banner Saga started life as a Kickstarter project. Unlike some of these crowd funded products, however, this one actually came to fruition, and turned out to be pretty good. Though it's been available on PC for some time, this story-driven action-RPG has only just appeared on iOS. I walk you through the game's storytelling dynamics and showcase the intricate combat in the video above. …
Hands-on with Hitman: Sniper, Square Enix's long-range assassination sim
We got our first glimpse of Hitman: Sniper at this year's E3, where Peter was able to sit down with a nice man from Square Enix and watch him run through a level or two. As of a few hours ago, the game is now live in the Canadian App Store, meaning anyone from The Great North with an iPad and an itchy trigger finger can download the game and start picking off Russian gangsters with cold detatchment. This is a soft-launch build of the game, so elements of the experience may be tweaked before it goes global. Those of you outside of Canada should check out my hands-on video above to see what Hitman: Sniper has to offer.…
TGS 2014: Hands-on with Space Pirate Popet, the super-cute animal matching chain-maker
Generally speaking, match-three puzzlers focus on a single variable: usually colours, sometimes shapes. Space Pirate Popet, on the other hand, lets you match tiles by both colour and animal type. What's more, you can mix and match the two, allowing to create uber chains filled with blue dogs and pink giraffes and other psychadelic bestial creations. Take a look at our Tokyo Games Show hands-on above.…
