Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Peter Willington'
Hands-on with Beast Quest, Miniclip's huge new adventure
When you think Miniclip, you tend to think about well-presented but straight-forward arcade action games. Bike Rivals, Berry Rush, and the upcoming On The Run: they're all fun mobile experiences, but not exactly what you might call "ambitious". So I'll admit to being a little shocked when I saw the company's new (and massively impressive) action RPG Beast Quest at Pocket Gamer Connects. Here's what it looks like in motion...…
Beast QuestHands-on with Emma's World, the colourful new monster popper
Carpazzzi Soft's new game - Emma's World - has a gameplay mechanic that will be familiar to anyone who has had the chance to play Zuma's Revenge. It's a little derivative in that way, but it's all implemented well, and the little bonuses you use to level the playing field are fun to wield too. However, what I did really like about the game when I saw it at the Pocket Gamer Connects Very Big Indie Pitch was its presentation and a bigger emphasis on light-hearted storytelling. It's neat, so take a look at an early build in the video below.…
Hands-on with Elroy and the Aliens, the cross-genre cartoon adventure
Pocket Gamer Connects was great, and the Very Big Indie Pitch had a huge amount of quality games to see from indie devs around the world. Elroy and the Aliens was easily one of the best games at the event, demonstrating a fast moving point and click adventure, fused with a brilliant bit of auto-runner design, plus light puzzle solving elements, and fantastically well-animated characters.…
Hands-on with Tindrops, the super slick one tap puzzler
Tindrops is a casual one touch puzzle action game that blew us away at the Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects. The gameplay is incredibly simple to understand: just touch the indicated area on the screen, repeat. But the speed quickly ramps up, and pretty soon you're thanking your lucky stars that the visuals are so minimal and slick, as you'll need all that visual clarity to keep up.…
Hands-on with Progress, in which I make an absolute fool of myself for your amusement
With Progress, think the clever silliness of WarioWare, but presented in a wonderfully minimal style, and available for your tablet. This ended up winning out Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects, and deservedly so. So click play on the video below for a glimpse at a future favourite.…
Hands-on with Criminel, the dark and sinister sleuth-em-up
In Criminel you play a photographer in days gone by, snapping crime scenes in the hope of using the photographic evidence you collect to solve puzzling murder mysteries. We saw it during Pocket Gamer Connects, and were so blown away by the unique visual style and involving gameplay that we had to bring you this hands-on video.…
Hands-on with Earthcore: Shattered Elements, could this be your new CCG obsession?
Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon TCG Online, Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf, Hearthstone: seems like every other developer wants a taste of those collectible card game big bucks these days. Earthcore: Shattered Elements is the latest entry in the genre hoping to draw you in with its fancy art direction, high level of polish, and easy-to-understand yet deep mechanics. But it's hard too, and will absolutely test your card flinging skills when it's evetnually launched globally. Currently in soft-launch, you can check it out for yourself via the link underneath our impressions video. [App Store link]…
Hands-on with Satellina, the Divekick of bullet hell shooters
Remember Divekick? It basically stripped back 2D fighting to two mechanics, allowing players to master the move set quickly and get to grips with the truly exciting aspects of brawlers. Satellina does that too, but for bullet hell (or danmaku) shooters, allowing those not keen on investing dozens of hours in the latest shmup to experience the raw thrill of learning patterns and chasing scores through precision of movement. Take a look.…
We're back! (well, most of us are) - AppSpy's Sunday Service
It's 2015 and the AppSpy team is back. Here's a selection of what we got up to this week. The Big Stories 1. Nintend-who? These are the best Mario, Pokemon, Zelda etc alternatives on iOS. 2. Need For Speed: No Limits is free-to-play, a mobile exclusive, and... yeah, it's not bad... 3. PS4 and Xbox One game Flockers is coming to iOS, and we have the world's first gameplay footage. 4. What are the 7 biggest new iOS and Android IPs coming in 2015? These are! 5. Taichi Panda stars a giant panda beating the snot out of other bipedal animals. AppSpy Recommends Look at how bloomin' lovely Drop Wizard is. LOOK AT IT. This week Drop Wizard charmed us with its visuals and sound, then snagg…
Dead Dragons is about dragons who are actually not dead, but they soon will be, maybe
Imagine this: you're part of a big human empire that - over 100 years ago - managed to wipe out the dragons that once plagued your lands. Then you find out that they're not all gone after all, and that maybe humans and dragons have a lot more in common than you first thought. That's the situation that the protagonist of Dead Dragons - a chap named Will - finds himself in, and it's up to him (and by proxy, you) to uncover their dragon-y mysteries across dozens of hours of JRPG. It's from Kemco, has a lovely 2D anime visual style, an intriguing battle system, and is out now on iOS and Android. [App Store link] [Google Play link]…
Berry Rush is out now, is strong early contender for AppSpy's Best Butterfly 2015 Award
I played the soft-launched version of Berry Rush back in September, and you know what? It's good stuff. Essentially a cutesy auto-runner for kids, Berry Rush stars Strawberry, Orange, Raspberry, and the rest of the gang from the Strawberry Shortcake line of animations, gifts, and toys. It also features a flipping massive butterfly that I'm sort of in love with the idea of riding in real life, though I suspect that dream may never be realised. Sigh... Great... now I'm in a butterfly deprived funk. Just what I need! Anyway, Berry Rush has just gone global, the sweet new trailer is right underneath this sentence, and you can now grab it for iPhone and iPad via the link below said trail…
Hands-on with Area 777, in which the odds are always in your favour
[adult swim]'s new game - Area 777 - is a tower defence title crossed with slots. Obviously. It's incredibly well presented, the characters in it are brilliantly written, and the whole thing exudes charm, as you'd expect. But it's a very odd, very hands-off experience, as I explain in this hands-on. [App Store link]…
Hands-on with 1-bit Ninja Remix Rush, the endless (speed) runner
See, I say “endless speed runner” because this Game Boy visuals-adorned endless runner's moment to moment play feels a lot closer to playing the classics of yore as fast as you possibly can, than just your average auto runner. 1-bit Ninja Remix Rush is as tough as it is pretty, mind, so if you're thinking you can just download and beat the highscore in my video, think again.…
Hands-on with Castle Rider, where a small white blob must collect stars and avoid being frozen
Team Signal's Castle Rider has been out for a while now, but this “endless ascension” title only just got onto our radar. It's a straightforward but fun action game, in which you need to balance a white blob on a ledge, avoiding obstacles, and collecting stars. The levelling up system is quite compulsive too. I went hands-on with it to give you some impressions on how it plays, you can nab Castle Rider from the iOS App Store via the link below this video. [App Store link]…
Hands-on with Wheel & Deal, the neon-drenched car chase arena shooter
Pink neon, an eighties soundtrack, shooting at endless cops, game changing power ups, and huge amounts of overdrive: that's Wheel & Deal is all about. It's an arena shooter of sorts, albeit with some car chase mechanics thrown in there too, plus presentation that is equal parts Miami Vice and Tron. Wheel & Deal will be available 22nd January on iOS at an initial launch price of $1.99 / £1.49, here's what it looks like in motion.…
