Home » Articles and Reviews by 'Alex Beech'
Instantion Review
Like many of the best teachers, Instantion doesn't tell you the answers. From the very beginning, the 2.5D action puzzler is quite happy to leave you struggling with challenges, in the expectation that you'll eventually suss them out for yourself. This fits neatly with the game's virtual wire-frame world, which gives you the sense you're running simulated experiments under laboratory conditions. You have to hop your avatar over obstacles, and activate doors and bridges to get to…
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challengeTurn-based assassination game Hitman GO will sneak onto the App Store at midnight
Hitman GO, a turn-based translation of the Hitman series, is making its move on the App Store at midnight tonight. We have been keeping an excited eye on Hitman GO since it was announced back in February. Square Enix Montreal’s new take on the franchise sends Agent 47 on a number of hits, each one styled as its own board game. Each board sets the scene with diorama environments for the infamous assassin to advance through. Though this change in scene has shifted the gameplay to a turn-based format, you will have to plan the barcoded assassin’s route to his target, and decide whether to sneak in and shank your unsuspecting victim, or charge in for a full-frontal assault.…
Comic book racing game SXPD: The Rookie is coming to iPad this May
Blending a comic book story with fast-paced motorbike racing, SXPD: The Rookie is the new game from non-profit publisher OneBigGame. Directed by Earthworm Jim designer Dave Perry in collaboration with Little Chicken Games Company, SXPD’s gameplay draws inspiration from the classic ZX Spectrum game 3D Deathchase. Taking the handlebars of an SXPD police bike, you race through the streets of the new 52nd American state of New Royal, trying to take down outlaws with missiles and machine guns. The black-and-white 3D tracks that your bike speeds around could have fallen straight from a comic book panel, with occasional flashes of red and blue colour injecting some colour into the procee…
RollerCoaster Tycoon® 4 Mobile™ Review
Initital impressions of Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 are decent. As with previous entries in the PC series, you must build up your theme park in order to attract customers and their money. Any cash you make can then be poured back into your park, creating an endless but satisfying cycle of development and expansion. Constructing your park is simple. You select the desired building from a list, and then drag it into place using the touchscreen controls. Every building, be it a merry-go-…
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Try and survive Hopeless: Space Shooter on the App Store now
Upopa has just fired the latest installment of its arcade Hopeless series, Hopeless: Space Shooter, onto the App Store,. Hopeless: Space Shooter has a lot in common Hopeless: The Dark Cave. You take control of armed glowing blobs and try to stay alive as monsters attack. The difference here is that rather than being attacked in the dark of a cave, the blobs must try and survive the emptiness of space. You must tap the attacking aliens as they approach the blobs. The dark levels have attackers popping in from nowhere. Some take two shots, so you'll have to pay attention to what is attacking, as well as where they are coming from. It isn't all mindless trigger twitching, however, as th…
Reaction-testing endless runner Unpossible coming to the App Store on April 17th
Unpossible, a new Tron-styled auto runner from Acceleroto, will be dashing onto the App Store this Thursday. The game plays out on the back of a pipe. You have to dodge left and right past its various obstacles as you are propelled ever forward, testing both you reflexes and memory as you try and beat your previous best time. Spinning around the pipe in first person looks like it will be a disorientating and dizzying experience, but the stylish world and fast twitch gameplay seen in the trailer have caught our interest. If you like your auto-runners bright and stylish, then keep your eyes peeled for Unpossible when it hits iPhone and iPad later this week.…
Robots Love Ice Cream™ Review
Any dimension where ice cream can be used to save humanity is okay by us. Robots Love Ice Cream inhabits just such a dimension. With robots trying to steal vital dessert supplies, you must cruise the galaxy in your weaponized ice-cream truck, blasting mechanical agressors out of the sky. Each invading robot looks like it has been taken straight out of a toy box. Their distinct appearances make each one easily identifiable, even during hectic moments. This ensures that you can ins…
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Theme park management game RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile is out now
Atari’s new mobile entry in the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, has just come screaming onto the App Store. Keeping the franchise's core theme, RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile has you building your own theme park and thrilling roller coasters in order to attract digital punters. The new touch interface is intended to make this easier than ever, letting you place your snack stands and haunted houses exactly where you want them in the game’s isometric landscape. The mobile game comes with 20 pre-designed coasters, but also offers you the chance to design your own. Unlocking new materials will let you build taller, longer, and faster coasters…
Harmonix announces music-powered auto-runner Record Run
Rock Band developer Harmonix has announced its new free-to-play runner, Record Run, is expected to hit iOS in May. Revealed at PAX East, Record Run appears at first glance to be a pretty standard runner. Where the game differs from other runners on the App Store is that you can import your own music to generate levels, with the song's beat dictating the pace. Once you've completed a level you can share your highscore with the world, and give other players the chance to purchase and download the song to challenge your leaderboard dominance. In his PAX East panel, Harmonix’s studio head Alex Rigopulos said that Record Run is just one of several “very different" mobile gam…
Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff Review
Our feelings towards Family Guy as a show oscillate wildly. While at times its offensive jokes can seem cruel and almost bigoted, when they hit their stride the writers and performers can deliver big laughs. What Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff manages to do is strip away any uncertainty, handing you a package containing the show's worst aspects in a box that looks remarkable similar to the one which houses The Simpsons: Tapped Out. The game is predicated on rebuilding the…
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Age of Empires: World Domination is planning to conquer touchscreens this summer
Klab Inc. is bringing Microsoft’s real-time strategy franchise Age of Empires to iOS this summer in the form of Age of Empires: World Domination. The mobile reimagining of the RTS classic will bring with it a number of changes. If you were a fan of the series on PC, then the most important of these alterations will be the touchscreen controls. Removing the quick clicks of the mouse controlled originals, Klab Inc’s are promising intuitive gesture controls and a "revolutionary battle system". Like the original games, World Domination will feature the ability to build your empire from history's great civilizations. Your choice of faction will dictate the structures available whe…
Arcade shooter Robots Love Ice Cream has just invaded the App Store
Everyone enjoys ice cream, but none more so than the robots in Ayopa Games’s new shoot-‘em-up Robots Love Ice Cream. Blending Galaga with Defender, Robots Love Ice Cream asks you to protect planets from mechanised marauders intent on stealing all of their chilled snacks. You will have to shoot the invaders from the sky by driving your ice cream van armed with weaponized Mr Whippy around each of the games tiny 2.5D worlds. You can upgrade your tasty arsenal of popsicles and hot fudge fundays by collecting Sprinkletonuim from fallen enemies. These will help you build your combos and highscore as you try to complete the game’s many challenges. If Robots Love Icecrea…
Word Monsters Review
Rovio's latest addition publishing adventure is the fiendishly tricky word game Word Monsters. Developed by Raketspel, this free-to-play puzzler blends wordsearch gameplay with gravity manipulation, creating a game that demands fast thinking and forward planning. You have to find all of the words in each of Word Monster's tile puzzles. Each round has a theme - one may have you searching for animals, while another will be spent locating girls' names. This does make things tricky at fir…
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Trials Frontier Review
Trials Frontier wastes no time getting you into the action. There’s no title screen as you load the app - instead, the game begins with an onscreen prompt showing you how to start your engine. Before we'd even seen the title card, we were scudding along the 2.5D path towards an explosive finale. The game's first three tracks lay out all the controls. Your right thumb controls acceleration, while your left thumb manipulates your rider’s center of gravity, letting you j…
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Endless-run-and-gunner John Mad Run is available for free on the App Store
Happymagenta’s new endless runner John Mad Run has just dashed onto iPhone and iPad. You take control of John as he runs for his life through a series of industrial levels. John is wanted dead, not alive, so you'll have to slice, shoot, and burn your attackers without remorse if you want to survive. As the trailer below shows, John Mad Run follows fairly a standard endless-runner formula. You must jump between three paths, avoiding or killing enemies as you see fit. Footsoldiers are occasionally accompanies by larger enemies such as tanks, so you'll need to rifle through your arsenal to find something sturdy enough to blow the tracks off a Panzer. If that sounds like your pa…
