Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Dave Flodine'
Stay Alight HD iPad Review
Remember the years immediately after Angry Birds was released? You know: when almost every other game was a physics-flinger? We guess it's been a while since then, as playing a game like Stay Alight - which takes the mechanics that Angry Birds popularised and wraps them up in creepy yet beautiful world - is almost a novelty. The question is, can excellent presentation make up for all-too familiar gameplay? Stay Alight comes with an environmental message. Pollution is the source of thi…
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Where's My Mickey? Review
We'll give Disney its due: when they come across an award winning formula, they certainly know how to extract every drop of interest free from it. After Where's my Water?, Where's my Perry?, and other holiday and seasonal spin-offs we now have a version of 'Where's my' gameplay starring Disney's main mascot himself, Mickey Mouse. Who do they think they are, Rovio? We're just playing, of course. The truth of the matter is that in the world of bite-size physics puzzlers, the original Wh…
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Dark Nebula - Episode One HD re-release
Ah Dark Nebula, the review of your first episode takes us back to a simpler time in Appspy's history. A time when the videos were voiced by a young go-getter named Dave and the content and word choice of our writing had a lot of room in which to grow and mature. Go back and relive the memories if you dare. Now that this trip down memory lane has ended, you might be interested to know that Dark Nebula is getting a HD makeover with twelve levels of all new content. Not only that, but it's been confirmed that episode three is finally on its way. Have a look at the trailer. It is available on the App Store now for $0.99[App Store Link]…
League of Evil 3
The first two League of Evil games are known for popularizing the 'tough as nails' platformer on the iOS, and have been quite successful at it with their pixel style and strong controls. Now this week we see the release of the third installment, and suprisingly a whole new art style along with it. Have a look at the trailer. It looks to have a strong focus on character customisation, and it includes video replays that I'm sure can be shared. We'll certainly know more once the game is out and we review it.…
Gloomy Hollow Review
Welcome to purgatory. Welcome to Gloomy Hollow. What better way to spend eternity than by engaging in an action-RPG experience set in expansive worlds packed full of enemies, that's then broken down into small, manageable levels. Hell, if you find enough souls, you may even be able to buy your way back to the land of the living. Now, we've seen plenty of ARPGs on the App Store before. And yes, we've even seen bite sized levels before, but there's something in the design and presentati…
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Spiral Episode 1 Review
Spiral is certainly a strange beast. It features a very striking, and sometimes gorgeous visual style. It's got competent voice acting and an intriguing narrative. The gameplay not only offers variety, but incorporates touch controls relatively well. Saying all of this, the game plays havoc on your battery, and some of the aspects of the experience are not as well implemented as they should be. You play as Tempus, a young amnesiac who shares a body with a robotic arm called AVA. On co…
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Eden to GREEN
It's always nice to see console developers try their hand at mobile games. It can breed cynicism when they create a game in an established genre like tower defence, but iNiS (with such games as Gitaroo Man and Elite Beat Agents in their catalogue) are no strangers to creating odd yet enjoyable play experiences. Eden to GREEN looks to continue this trend. Now, even though the gameplay trailer below shows the game running on Android devices, it is also released for iOS and is available right now. Here's the gameplay video: It's a war of plants and machines. The game sprouts an interesting mechanic where you can only plant new towers in the radius offered by others, limi…
Blip Blup Review
Sometimes, one tap is all it takes. Well ok, often it takes more than one tap. But one of the goals of the amusingly named block puzzler Blip Blup is to fill up each stage's tiles with colour in as few taps as possible. Upon tapping any tile, a blast of colour will shoot out in all directions, surging forward until it is blocked by a corner or barrier There's a preview function to help you out while you're still learning the ropes. Before releasing your finger from the screen, the ti…
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Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Removed from App Store
It seems not only has Baldur's Gate: Enhanched Edition been removed from the App Store under the vague reasoning of "contractual issues", this has halted the latest game patch and development on the sequel as well. Hopefully whatever is causing this can be sorted out quickly. After all the hard work from the developers to polish up and port this classic RPG the last thing anyone wants is a legal issue tearing things down. We will have to wait and see what happens. [Website letter]…
CRUSH! Review
As a species, humans are great at many things. One talent we share is the ability to recognise patterns (sometimes patterns which aren't even there). This is handy, as Crush! is a game based entirely around pattern recogntition. Clumps of coloured blocks make their way towards the base of the screen. It's your job stop this column of cubes reaching the bottom. Tapping a coloured block will cause all blocks of the same colour to vanish, making the stream collapse upwards. However, a ne…
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Watch Dogs Live
Watch Dogs is one of the more anticipated games that will be released this holiday season, and as we head into the next console generation, mobile games are going to play a larger part in these releases. Watch Dogs Live is an app that is kind of like Foursquare or Geo Caching, but your involvement is rewarded not only with experience inside the game, but the ability to win prizes as well (including a car). You visit locations in your city, and the longer you control them, the more exp you gain, and the greater your chances to win are. The app is being soft launched in Canada but should make its way worldwide very soon.…
Where's my Mickey?
We've had Where's My Water?, and Where's my Perry?, and while both games got a lot of love here on Appspy, one wonders if another franchise based sequel is going to the well one too many times (I mean the well has to run out of water sooner or later). The game is full of new additions to the gameplay however, as well as some unlockable short cartoons featuring the famous icon. Have a look at the trailer. The trailer says "Out now" but it is not yet available on the App Store. If you're interested, check back later in the week.…
TITAN Escape the Tower Review
The original Titan on the Amiga was fairly innovative when it was released back in 1989. It took the brick-breaker genre's paddle and ball, and set them inside labyrinths which allowed the paddle much greater movement. This resulted in a new approach to the standard brick-breaking gameplay. Titan: Escape the Tower is both remake and homage. The question is, of course, whether this innovation is enough to create a great game - especially twenty four years later. When watching videos…
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Gloomy Hollow
Chillingo has been busy on the announcements lately. Gloomy Hollow looks to a mobile take on the Action RPG genre popularized by the Diablo series (although the art style of this game marks a closer comparison to the Torchlight games). Have a look at the trailer! The classes look interesting, and as long as the controls are solid, and the content is there, Chillingo should have a winner on their hands. The release schedule is apparently "soon".…
Fightback
I'm unsure what to think about this teaser trailer for the upcoming iOS game by Ninja Theory and Chillingo. On the one hand, the premise, and small glimpses of gameplay look very generic in terms of violence and mechanics. One the other hand, the trailer seems to have a tongue in cheek attitude to it, and if the fighting feels right, it could be a lot of fun. Have a look for yourselves and tell us what you think. The game has a planned release for sometime this year. We'll let you know more when we do.…
