Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Dave Flodine'
RAVENMARK: Mercenaries Review
About a year and a half ago Witching Hour Studios released Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion, a turn-based strategy game striving to bring the spirit of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars to the App Store. It featured some rewarding gameplay for strategy buffs, provided you were willing to meet it on its own terms. Ravenmark: Mercenaries does a lot better at easing a new player into its mechanics through a narrative-laced tutorial. That said, while the core game is relatively easy to pick up,…
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Beat Blocks is Powered by your Music Library
Now of course the upcoming Beat Blocks isn't the first game to turn your music library into a game, with Audiosurf, and Beat Hazard being popular releases with that feature, but it does seem to be the first game to forego the action and opt for a puzzle experience... well if you consider match-3 games to be puzzle games of course. Releasing as a free game, you will be able to play three of your own library tracks before the game requires a payment of $0.99 to continue. It looks to be a solid match-3 experience, and the inclusion of levels based around your favourite songs is always a draw. We'll see if the game delivers what it promises on July 22nd. In the meantime, ha…
Pacific Rim Review
Pacific Rim is a silly, but enjoyable summer blockbuster that involves giant robots punching giant monsters. Obviously, a movie tie-in game was inevitable, and the core concept of Jaegers vs Kaiju is perfect video game fodder. The developer of Pacific Rim on iOS decided to emulate the gameplay of Infinity Blade, which again is a really great fit for the combat-heavy subject matter. It's just a pity the execution failed live up to its potential. If you're familiar with Infinity Bl…
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Angry Birds Star Wars II Announcement
So not only are Rovio hoping to catch lightning in a bottle twice with another mash up of birds and pigs in a galaxy far far away, but the upcoming September sequel to this well reviewed extension of the Angry Birds franchise introduces a bit of a twist; Rovio are taking on Skylanders. This means toys. It also mean platforms upon which to place these toys. They're called 'telepods', but they function the same way as the Skylanders portals. Buy the licensed toys, use the telepods to transport them into the upcoming game. It's a shrewd marketing ploy, but only time will tell if it's at all successful. In the meantime, have a look at the trailer. It's got a wookie bird.…
Sprinkle Islands Review
What is it about the world of Sprinkle Islands that causes flaming garbage to plummet down on top of the landscape? It happened in the first game, and now in this sequel to the waterbased physics-puzzler, the combustible garbage has ruined the tropics. As a result, your little blue firefighter has to hose down the burning environment to keep this vacation hotspot pristine. Obviously it's a little more nuanced than that. Not only do you have to accurately redirect your water cannon, bu…
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Contra: Evolution Review
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. Most gamers who owned a NES are familiar with the Konami code. This familiarity is most likely due to Contra, in which the code would grant you thirty lives. While you could certainly become good enough at the game not to need this boost, it was always appreciated, and made this platforming classic a little more accessible. Now we have Contra: Evolution. Punchbox Studios has taken this seminal side scroller and not only given…
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The Shivah for iOS
After porting over their classic Gemini Rue to iOS, it's easy to ask whether Wadjet Eye Games would be porting any of their other intriguing and critically acclaimed adventure games to the platform. It turns out that they are, and the next on the list is their first game, The Shivah. The reason? Dave Gilbert has responded to the question by admitting that it's his company's shortest and simplest game, and seeing his wife has just had a baby, it makes sense. The Shivah is a rather unique tale putting you in the shoes of a Rabbi who looks to be accused of murder. From the trailers, he's certainly the most Clint Eastwood-esque Rabbi I've ever encountered. None the less, Wadjet Eyes's…
Sqwords Review
Sqwords refers to itself as a blend of Sudoku and crosswords. We would describe the in terms of creating the perfect board of Boggle, where each cluster makes a word both horizontally and vertically. This is easy enough to achieve when the boards are three by three. But, as you advance through four other boards, each growing in size, things start getting pretty complex. Obviously, the level of excitement you feel upon hearing the phrase 'word creation puzzle gameplay' will dictate wh…
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Colin McRae Rally Review
Disclaimer: I am not much a racing fan. Perhaps it's having to deal with crazy drivers on the road everyday, but watching high speed vehicles zoom around perilous twists and turns, seeing drivers taking their lives into their own hands... Well, it's just a little bit much. The one exception is rally driving. In this discipline, the drivers are competing more against the clock than each other. Ultimately, they are competing with themselves, trying to perfect each corner they take to se…
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Worms 3 Announced. Exclusive to Mobile
Well this is a bit of news! On the fourth anniversary of Team17 releasing Worms onto the iOS platform, they announce Worms 3, which will be exclusive to mobile devices. It introduces new visuals, new weapons, new missions, new customisation options, and a worm based class system. Obviously we know nothing outside of the press release (which can be found here), and while we usually like to have a trailer to show alongside game announcements, we felt this one was big enough to let you know about now. When a trailer does get released however, you'll see it here!…
Designing for a Touch Screen
Do you watch Extra Credits? If you have a deep passion for designing or examining games critically, you should. Week after week they deliver insightful discussion on areas of our industry, complete with some doses of humour for good measure. The reason I bring this up is the latest episode is all about designing for touchscreens, and how the strengths of the mobile platform require a fundamental change in the way developers approach control input. This resonated with us, as this point has often been raised in our reviews. It's an important topic, and it's nice to see others addressing the issue as well. If you wanted to take a look, you'll find the video below. With any luck, more iPhone d…
Savant
Move over Elevator Action, a new challenger has appeared to take the mantle of top action game primarily involving elevators. Savant releases on July 30th across the PC, Android, and iOS platforms. While the trailer below makes it look like an enjoyable action packed experience, most likely the footage is from the PC version, and we have to wonder with everything going on, if the touch controls will be a detriment to the experience. I guess we'll know upon release.…
Plants vs Zombies 2 Soft Launch in Australia & New Zealand
Similar to the release of Real Racing 3 earlier this year, Plants vs Zombies 2 is getting a soft launch in the Australia and New Zealand stores. The purpose is much the same. Popcap wish to test out not only the online functionality with the cloud saving feature, but also using a single account across all platforms. In addition, they wanted to witness how the monetization options were recieved on a smaller economic scale than that of North America or Europe (though one that operates similarly). This soft launch is set to take place over a number of weeks to make sure the final product is stable for a world-wide release. Now seeing that I live in Australia, I have already acquired…
Knightmare Tower Released on August 1st
[Edit: The developers have contacted us and aside from getting the price wrong (it will be $2,99), speculations about the control scheme are off as well. It will be a touch based game with tilt movement. That's sure to bring less of a headache than a swipe mechanic!] Juicy Beast are best known for their iOS of the PC Flash game Burrito Bison (our review can be found here), and for their next release on the platform, they're bringing across another popular game. This time it's an extended remake of Knightmare Tower. It's being released on August 1st for $2.99, and to be honest, it looks like a lot of fun. Watch the trailer and see for yourselves. It looks like attacking enemies…
The Color Gray
With the success of Telltale's The Walking Dead, and the increase of what I've come to call the interactive fiction genre (games like Dear Esther, To the Moon, Heavy Rain etc), we see that there is indeed a market for a narrative that puts the player in control, without the added involvement of gameplay. The merit of these games is highly subjective, but to deny their influence and the growth of this genre, would be foolhardy. The Color Gray announces in its trailer that it is an adventure game without puzzles. Little is known aside from a very science fiction themed world and the title of the game alluding to a handful of morally grey choices that the player must make…
