Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Harry Slater'
Apple deals a blow to app store scammers
The number of scam apps on the App Store has been on the increase, and Apple hasn't really been doing much to protect their customers from them. That is until now, with new rules going into force over night. One of the ways scammers got around Apple's vetting process was to submit an app with the correct screenshots, name and description, then change everything wholesale once the app had passed review. Thankfully that's now a thing of the past. In a short statement on their developer blog, Apple had the following to say: "Beginning January 9, app screenshots will be locked in iTunes Connect once your app has been approved. New screenshots may be uploaded when you submit a binary for an upd…
Time Surfer slides onto iOS
The developer of the pretty impressive Bean's Quest, Kumobios, has released its next game onto the App Store. Called Time Surfer, it's a mix of Tiny Wings, saturday morning cartoons, and the end of the world. You play as the titular surfer and have to slide your way through the undulating apocalypse at the end of time, collecting gems and cake, and generally having a jolly old time before the fire at the end of the universe catches up with you and you blink out of existence. The big twist here though is the ability to rewind your mistakes. Grab enough gems and you can scroll back a few seconds, cancelling out a mistake and keeping your run going that little bit longer. There are special ch…
IGF finalists announced, Super Hexagon and Year Walk up for awards
It's that time of year again, awards season, and while the IGF might have had a shuffle round of their categories, dropping the mobile game section altogether, that doesn't mean there aren't iOS titles vying for some tltles. Four, in fact, have made the shortlists. Simogo's yet to be released, creepy looking adventure Year Walk is up for Excellence in Visual Art; LiquidSkitch for iPad is up for Technical Excellence; Terry Cavanagh's superlative Super Hexagon is up Excellence in Design; and musical tower defence game Bad Hotel is up for Excellence in Audio. It's certainly an eclectic bunch of picks, and it's sad to see that there are no mobile games up for the grand prize, although Sup…
NVIDIA announces new Android powered handheld console
CES 2013 is set to kick off today in Las Vegas, but we've already had the first big surprise of the show in the shape of NVIDIA's Project Shield, a portable, Android powered console that also streams PC games into the palms of your hand. Powered by the forthcoming Tegra 4 processor, which features a dedicated 72 core GPU as well as a quad core Cortex-A15, it's fair to say that Project Shield packs more punch than any Android device that's available on the market now. Couple that with a five inch screen that runs at a resolution of 1280x720, giving it a PPI of 294, and the fact that using a wireless connection you can stream games from your NVIDIA powered PC direct to your handheld, and you…
Om Nom: Candy Flick brings Cut The Rope to real life
If you've ever wanted to see what Cut The Rope would be like in the real world, then Zeptolab has answered your slightly strange prayers with Om Nom: Candy Flick, a new augmented reality game that puts everyone's favourite candy obsessed green monster centre stage. You print out an image that the game provides and when you point your camera at it, Om Nom magically appears. It's then up to you to flick lumps of delicious stripy sugar into his waiting, gluttonous mouth. It's unlikely that the game is going to revolutionise the AR genre, but it's nice to see a developer branching out with different ideas rather than just focusing on rehashing the same concept over and over and over. Th…
Hundreds arrives on the App Store
If you're looking for a puzzle game with a unique style and a pedigree that most titles on the App Store can only dream of to guide you through January, then you might want to grab your iOS device and start downloading Hundreds. The game is a collaboration by Semi Secret Software, who created the wonderful Canabalt, and Mikengreg, who brought you Gasketball, and it tasks you with pressing on circles until they fill up to a hundred. Once you've tapped a circle though it becomes hostile, so you need to think quickly, otherwise it'll be game over before you've managed to count to ten. Throw in an impressive soundtrack and a style that's unlike anything else out there and you're on to a winner…
Indie horror Home heading to iOS in the future?
The indie scene on the PC is full to bursting with exciting and innovative new games at the moment, with new twists on old genres and new ways of telling stories popping up left right and centre. One of the most interesting of those is Benjamin Rivers's Home. And thankfully, it looks like the branching horror adventure, which is affected by your in-game actions, is heading to iOS devices in the not too distant future. A new section of the Home website has just opened up allowing you to get in contact with the developers and let them know which mobile platform you're interested in seeing the game on. The game has sold more than a hundred thousand copies on Steam, which is pretty impressive…
Xbox Live Achievements come to iOS with Wordament
If you like word puzzles, leaderboard chasing, scoring Gamerpoints with your Xbox Live Gamertag, and want to do all three on your iPhone, then you're in luck because Microsoft has released Wordament for iOS. Essentially the game is a word search. You're given a grid of letters and need to find as many words within that grab within a strict time limit. Once you're done, your score it totaled up and compared against the rest of the world. Trying to inch your way up the leaderboard makes for a pretty addictive hook. The game connects to the same servers as the Windows version of the game, meaning if you've played on your PC or tablet you can take all of your stats over to the iOS version and…
Sega announces new online RTS Godsrule: War of Mortals
Yesterday, Sega let slip some details about their forthcoming collaboration with Icelandic developer Gogoic, Godsrule: War of Mortals. The game, which has just entered closed beta, looks to be a mix between an MMO, an RTS, and a freemium city builder. There are different factions to choose from in the wartorn world in which the game is set, and once you've picked a side you'll need to craft spells and train your army to ensure that you'll come out victorious if your homestead is ever threatened by another player. The game also offers cross platform play, so you can start a game on your iPad, then pick it up when you get home on your PC. You can link up with other players to form clans and…
Ravensword: Shadowlands arrives on the App Store
The follow up to Crescent Moon Games's critically acclaimed action RPG Ravensword: The Fallen King has finally arrived on the App Store, bringing with it a fantasy world of truly epic proportions. Shadowlands takes the template laid down by its predecessor, then pushes everything up a notch. If you're a fan of the Elder Scrolls games, then Ravensword: Shadowlands is going to be right up your fantasy street. There's a massive 3D world for you to explore, which some are saying is the biggest ever realised on an iOS device. Throw in first to third person perspective switching on the fly, a huge quest to try and complete, hundreds of objects to collect, and a deep character advancement system…
Real Racing 3 delayed until February
If you've been waiting with baited breath for EA's shockingly good looking race simulator Real Racing 3, then you're in for a disappointment. Speaking to Pocket Gamer, EA has confirmed that the console quality racer is going to miss its tentative 2012 release date by two whole months. The game was first revealed back in August at Apple's iPhone 5 press conference, and wowed the crowds there with some of the most impressive mobile graphics that any of the assembled throng of tech journalists had ever seen. In a statement to PG, an EA spokesperson said "our goal for Real Racing 3 is to create an experience that resets the bar for racing games on mobile, and we wanted to take some extra…
Dead Trigger gets violently festive update
What better way to fill your life with Christmas cheer than slaughtering hundreds of highly detailed zombies on your mobile device of choice? Well, that's exactly what Madfinger are offering in the latest free update to Dead Trigger. The new update, which pushes the game to version 1.70, features the obligatory North Pole level, where you take on hordes of the undead, most of whom are wearing Santa hats or reindeer helmets. 'Tis the season, after all. You'll also get to face off against Zanta, a new boss character who, if our word skills are up to scratch, is a big fat zombie version of Father Christmas. Looks like we're all going to end up on the naughty list this year. The update is ava…
Respawnables spawns on the App Store
Zynga has gone and done the unthinkable and released a game that actually looks like it could be snare in some hardcore players. Called Respawnables, it's a cartoon style third person multiplayer shooter. Taking its visual cues from the likes of Battlefield: Heroes and Team Fortress 2, the game also features plenty of weapons and pieces of armour to unlock as you play. This being Zynga there's items to buy with real life money too, but the core of the gameplay looks solid enough that you're not going to begrudge throwing a few coins down to get some better gear. The game is available right now from the App Store for the princely sum of nothing at all. So if you're a fan of multiplayer bla…
Space Hulk headed to iOS devices next year
Developer Full Control and Games Workshop have announced that an iOS version of the classic space-dungeon crawling board game Space Hulk is set to arrive on iOS devices in the new year. Featuring a 12 stage single player or cooperative campaign based around the Sin of Damnation Hulk from the thrid edition of the game, Space Hulk promises a turn based, tactical adventure like no other. A cross platform multiplayer mode lets you compete against friends in recreations of the classic Genestealers versus Terminators scraps of the original board game. “Since playing the board game decades ago I have always wanted to recreate this slice of Warhammer 40,000 as a computer game. Now we can fi…
Square Enix announces Final Fantasy IV for iOS
Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy IV is heading to iOS devices on the 20th of December. This is the 3D, enhanced version released on the Nintendo DS in 2008 though, rather than the SNES original. The game tells the story of Cecil, a Dark Knight determined to thwart the evil schemes of a sorcerer called Golbez, who plans to destroy the world using a bunch of crystals. It's expected the game will go on sale for somewhere around $20, which puts it in line with Square's aggressive App Store pricing scheme. To celebrate the forthcoming release, and the fact it's Christmas soon, Square has put some of its other iOS titles on sale, with Final Fantasies I through III all getting discou…
