Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Peter Willington'
Hands-on with Pac-Man Friends, the game of balance, precision, and wakka wakka wakka
The little yellow disc is back for another mobile instalment. This time you'll be tilting the Man of Pac about different maze environments, collecting Pac-Dots to open the door at the end, and escape with your pals in tow. Each of your new allies has different properties that makes them unique. One's invisible, for example, and can't be hurt by the ghosts that are looking to ruin your Pac-Day. From what I've played so far, it's not too bad, with one of my larger concerns being the plain art that fails to capture Pac-Man at his best.…
Namco BandaiHands-on with Spooklands, the arena combat game where you throw awesome sneakers at gross spiders
Spooklands asks you to survive wave after wave of enemies as they encroach upon your precarious position, but only gives you one action with which to do that. Thankfully that action is “shoot”. Shooting also moves you across the screen, allowing you to dodge the hundreds of baddies coming your way.…
King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, and Blazing Star plummet in price on iOS
On the 25th August King of Fighters celebrates its 20th anniversary. This alone is enough to get excited. It's a great excuse to go back and play some of the greatest fighting games ever made, and bask in all of their quarter turn glory. What's better though is that SNK is joining in the festivities by dropping the price of every mobile and tablet game in its arsenal to an extremely tempting 99c / 69p, between August 22nd - 26th. The Japanese developer / publisher usually likes to keep its games premium, so considering they're temporarily available for the price of a bar of chocolate, this sale represents a great opportunity to net yourself a bargain. I've made no secret of my love of…
The best Square Enix JRPGs on the iOS App Store
We'll be the first to admit that Square Enix's JRPGs are a little on the pricey side when compared to other iOS games, but we'll also tell you that the entry price is tiny when you consider their quality and value for money. Still, we know that splashing out on a game you might not like is a daunting prospect, so we've gone ahead and made a video showing off the very best of Squeenix's JRPGs that have so far appeared on Apple hardware. If you're not up for the whole hour-long stream, you can click the name of the title you'd like to see more of below, and you'll be whizzed straight to the part of the video that we start playing. 1. Chrono Trigger2. Secret of Mana3. Dragon Quest VIII4. F…
Hands-on with The Firm, the game of profit or death
The Firm is darker than its premise. You're new at a big company that buys and sells shares. You must swipe left or right, depending on whether you think the company should purchase them. Get it wrong, or work too slowly and... Well, click the video to find out.…
Pac-Man Friends has launched on iOS and Android, here's the first trailer
Got an iOS or Android device? Well, obviously. Like arcade action games? Most likely. Fan of Pac-Man? Probably, those first few games were pretty cool, and Championship Edition was good too. If your answer was a resounding yes to all of the above, then you might want to check out Pac-Man Friends, the little yellow puck's latest adventure on mobile devices. Pac-Man Friends is an "original arcade-style action-puzzler starring gaming's most historic characters" according to the press release I'm reading. It has 95 levels across seven worlds, and stars the titular hero, plus Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde, and apparently some new characters too. You'll rescue eight allies, each with unique po…
Hands-on with The Ensign, the basic, brutal, and a bit brilliant rogue-like
The Ensign is the prequel to A Dark Room, and it shares its sense of style and difficulty. Screenshots on the App Store can't really do a game like The Ensign justice, because so much of its appeal is hidden behind crude ASCII characters, black text on a white background, and relentless difficulty. Look beyond that though, and you'll find a mysterious world to explore, and a rich narrative to weave together. Here's my hands-on with the game.…
PSA: Motorsport Manager is out August 21st and you should probably buy it
If you were to ask me "hey, Peter, what's been the best game you've played in the last 3 months" I would slap you in the face as hard as I could, screaming "did you not see my hands-on with Motorsport Manager?" Then I'd try to calm myself down, and later apologise to you for my outburst. Sorry about that. But that wouldn't make the sentiment any less true: Motorsport Manager is complex, accessible, beautiful, personal, and I honestly believe that any fan of racing or management games will adore it. The game is made by Christian West, whose credits include Joe Danger Infinity and Geometry Wars Galaxies, and the game's handsome tilt-shift visuals, combined with deep and compelling gamepla…
Hands-on with Max Gentlemen, where you can never wear enough hats
Quite often a game comes into the AppSpy office that you're really rooting for to be good, but winds up being a disappointment. Max Gentlemen feels like one of those. The visual comedy is spot-on, as is the soundtrack and audio FX, but the controls are awkward and the base gameplay just isn't that much fun. Take a look at my hands-on with Max Gentlemen in the video below.…
The Simpsons: Tapped Out goes all Clash of Clans in new update
The Simpsons: Tapped Out gets a lot of stick in the games press for being an overly simple, mindless game of tapping and wait timers, with no creative value whatsoever, and precious few original ideas to call its own. The bods at EA Mobile have gone ahead and added a whole new element to the game, no doubt to prove the haters wrong: they've brought war to Springfield. Extremely-heavily-inspired-by-Clash-of-Clans WAR! You can still do all the tapping you like, of course, but the new update allows you to raid other players, defend Springfield from attacks, and see how Homer and the gang would fare in fantasy warfare. If you're wondering just how inspired by Clash of Clans the new update…
Hands-on with Waiting Guile: Takareet Fighter II, probably the weirdest Street Fighter game ever
I... So... Okay. Waiting Guile: Takareet Fighter II is a crossover endless action game featuring Guile from Street Fighter and a bunch of characters from a niche anime called Eagle Talon. It's super weird, incredibly self-referential, and a little bit broken - the audio falls apart occasionally, something I captured in this recording. You might call it Kuso-ge. Obviously this is a Japan-only game for now, if you want to try it out for yourself, here's a guide on how to get yourself an iTunes account from any country you like.…
Hands-on with Dynasty Warriors Blast, the mobile Musou game you may never get to play
When I first heard about Dynasty Warriors Blast I was elated and really rather excited. Then I got in touch with Koei Tecmo and they said there were no plans to bring it to the west and I did a little cry. Then I thought “balls to it” and decided to bring you a hands-on with the game anyway, which you can see below (and play for yourself if you have a Japanese iTunes account).…
Destiny Companion now available for iOS and Android
The much anticipated spiritual successor to Halo - Bungie's new shooter Destiny - may not be out until September, but if you're an eager Destiny beaver you can go grab the companion app now. Destiny Companion lets you inspect your Guardian, compare your Grimoire score with others, and take a peek at the stats of others. You also get info on game updates, and have direct access to the Destiny forums. The eagle-eyed may notice that the app was released on 8th of June 2011, which is a fair few years before Destiny was announced. That's because it's technically a re-made version of the Bungie Mobile App, fact fans. The app will work regardless of whether you're playing on PlayStation or Xbo…
Hands-on with Foodie Yama, the pixel art chomp-em-up
With the App Store, it's very easy to judge a book by its cover, and that's definitely what I did as I downloaded Foodie Yama. I thought “oh this is cute and pixely and looks fun”, I'll definitely do a hands-on video for AppSpy of this. And I'm glad I did, because it is cute and pixely and fun. But it's also a bit derivative, as it's basically just Timberman but with a few extra bells and whistles. Here's what the game looks like in motion.…
Hands-on with Street Fighter X All Capcom, the ultimate Capcom crossover card battler
Here is a small list of some of the games with characters appearing in Street Fighter X All Capcom; Lost Planet, Viewtiful Joe, Asura's Wrath, Ghost Trick, Darkstalkers, Okami, Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Mega Man, Monster Hunter, Final Fight, and Street Fighter. So yeah, being a Capcom mega-fan, of course I had to do a quick hands-on with this currently Japan-only card battler. And here it is...…
