Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Michael McNally'
Konami's Classic X-Men Sneaks Its Way Onto iOS
What's this coming in at a sneaky angle to iPhone and iPad? Why, it's Konami's 1992 arcade side-scroller X-Men. Even though Konami is presumably too preoccupied with E3 to publicise its release, we've decided to do their job for them today. Players of the original cabinet classic will know they're in for a treat, and those that don't should assume they soon will be. Utilising an on-screen joystick and button combo, X-Men invites you to take charge of mutant goodies Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, or Dazzler. As you can imagine, the aim is to bring down Magneto's naughty little scheme by blasting, teleporting, and, errr, punching your way through hordes of unwitting paw…
Retro Games Unleash Velocispider On iOS Population
In Retro Dreamer's Velocispider (its non-spritual successor to the fabulous match-three puzzler Linkoidz) you play a half-spider, half-velociraptor, err, thing. Yes, i know. Strangely, though, whatever skills you might presume this kind of mutant would possess are academic, since our hybrid hero elects to protect its eggs from a group of alien invaders with an armoury of shoulder-mounted laser guns. Control of your mutated creature is tilt-based, with firing automatic whenever you have a foe in your sights. Power-ups rain down from defeated enemies in the shape of faster fire, double fire, three-way fire, while Game Center support is included for when you go postal on the invading popula…
NaturalMotion's Icebreaker Slashes Onto iPhone On 2nd June
The release of Icebreaker, NaturalMotion's explosive new ice hockey sim, has been, wait for it...put on ice until next week. NaturalMotion's previous title Backbreaker Football cut away all of the fluff associated with gridiron to focus purely on the art of tackling. In doing so, Backbreaker Football picked up a 5/5 from AppSpy and sold 3 million copies. NaturalMotion will be looking to emulate that success with Icebreaker, where the overriding principle remains roughly the same: race from one end of the rink to the other, evade several opponents, and blast the puck into the unwitting goal. You can spin and dodge along the icy gauntlet, with more advanced techniques for scoring becoming…
Demolition Dash On App Store Now For 99c
Anyone with a interest in destroying everything in sight will be pleased to read that Demolition Dash is now available on iPhone. The anti-hero of Chimera Entertainment's is Zilla, a little tyke who must run, jump, and pummel through eight cities and 24 stages to complete his rampaging mission. Demolition Dash looks like it could be a helluva lot of fun, with Game Center achievements boosting its replayability and additional game modes promised by the developers in future updates. Release some of that pent-up anger and frustration via Demolition Dash at the introductory price of 99c. You'll feel so much better for it!…
iOS Slayer Vampire Rush On Sale At 99c
The wind whispers his name, villages hum with the trail of his wake, and vampires from American high schools to Transylvania tremble at the very thought of... Greg. Rubbishy - or possibly ironic - name aside, the protagonist of Chillingo's tactical Dracula destroyer Vampire Rush on iOS is back and on sale at 99c for a limited time. In essence, it's a mixture of upgrade-based tactical defence and up-close-and-bloody button-smashing, halting wave after wave of horrific fang barons from escaping into the overworld. If that combination makes you thirsty for blood and downloads, you can quench yourself by purchasing Vampire Rush from the App Store yesterday.…
Pix'n Love Rush Updated With Extra Mode
Pix'n Love Rush had us purring with nostalgic delight back in July 2010, thanks to its retro feel and banquet of available achievements. Well, Pastagames and Bulkypix's pretty platformer leaps back into our consciousness with a welcome update. In the newly released version 3.0, you can tackle a so-called hardcore mode called 'Rainbow Rush', which tests your survival skills to the limit. Hopefully, this additional gameplay mode will entertain us long into 2011, yet even if it doesn't quite manage that, who cares: It's free! And we all know what the best things in life are, don't we. (Stop that sniggering at the front.)…
Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting Prowls The iPhone
Japanese publication Andriasang has revealed that Capcom's PSP hit Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting will be battling onto iPhones in June. In this ultra-popular franchise, you engage in one-on-one fights with monsters from the series, evading and attacking by using a variety of sweaty-fingered moves. As expected, you move by sliding a digit in that direction. In addition, you have the ability to change items with the bottom-right icon, whereafter you can return to mashing the screen like some sugar-fuelled maniac. There'll be no need to envy the Japanese on this occasion, either. Capcom have revealed that Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunter will be a worldwide release. Check out the screenies b…
Playflo's Tap the Frog Lands Top Mobile Award
Ukraine upstart Playfo is jumping for joy this week as it has won two awards for its iOS prod-a-thon Tap the Frog. This colourful test of finger speed bagged the much coveted 'Best mobile game' at Flash GAMM 2011 in Moscow and swooped in, as frogs naturally do, for the 'Mobile of the day' award at FWA (Favourite Website Awards). Playfo's supreme commander Vitaliy Onishenko gushed: This is a great success of our game!...We decided to celebrate recognition and allow more people to enjoy our game - so we reduced price to $0.00 in App Store for few days! Clearly eager to air a sneaky pun, developer Mentals's lead producer Sergey Romanyuk added: Our froggy game hopped really fast into Top #…
Polarbit Take Another Crack At Kart Racing
'Cracking Sands' isn't an Englishman complimenting a beach, or anything like that at all, actually. Rather, it's the codename for Swedish studio Polarbit's new iOS kart racer. Polarbit do love their racing games, having already entertained us with Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart and more serious sims such as Raging Thunder 2. With a noticeably top-down perspective and the winning formula of cartoon characters, power-ups, and power slides, Cracking Sands looks to be gearing up for action very nicely. You'll get further details when we do, so sit tight. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the screenies below. Enjoy.…
Gameloft Unleash N .O. V. A. 2 Multiplayer Maps
Cartographers and N.O.V.A. 2 fans alike will be pleased to know that Gameloft have thrown us a lovely new downloadable map pack to scour, as well as a handful of bug fixes. If like I, you enjoy varied killing sprees, then your deep-seated urges are catered for amply with this expansion set. There are skirmishes aplenty to be had in one map in particular, Floating Rocks, while Aquarius Beach nurtures everyone's desire to pick someone off from a sniper nest. The pack for this highly acclaimed shooter is available now for $1.99 and... ...what's that? We get ten free XP levels for the multiplayer game?!? Bonus!…
Green Farm Ploughs Onto iPhone and iPad
FarmVille thief (just kidding, Zynga) Green Farm has moseyed its way on down to the iPhone and iPad all the way from Zuckerberg Alley. The good news for existing Green Farm ranchers is that you'll have no need to bellow 'GET OFF MY LAND!' into the digital darkness, like some mad, binary lunatic. This is almost entirely - in fact, entirely - because you can just log back into your pre-existing Facebook farm and carry on trowling there. If you are so inclined, you can purchase seeds, animals, and buildings to pimp your farm, or go green with organic plants and other imaginary renewable energy sources. Why not visit a friend's farm and play some mini-games, too, eh? Gameloft have promised…
