MathewKumar
on - last edited on by
Rhombus
Some iOS reviews for you, including one of something that isn't actually a game but will help you access potentially hundreds.
Chess with Friends Free - Free
This is a Zynga product, which means I want to think "boo, Zynga is evil" but it's actually originally by an indie developer called Newtoy that was bought up by Zynga, who (in their favour) have spent a lot of time buying cool indies who do actually good stuff. And Chess with Friends is, you know, what it reads like... a Chess game that works like play-by-mail, you do a turn, then wait however long it takes for your friend to send you a turn in response. The system is good and you can easily hook up with other people through Facebook to play Chess with, but there is a problem with the version I'm playing... it takes an age for my games to update. I get a little notification that it's now "my move" but when I load it up, it takes five, ten minutes for the game to let me actually make the move! There are some pretty severe pop-up ads, too, which I wouldn't mind if the game was faster... and I don't feel like dropping $2.99 to see if it speeds the game up with the non-free version (and if it does, right back to "boo, Zynga is evil.") 2/5
Galaga 30th Collection - Free
I adore Galaga '88, one of the games on this collection, so I had to pick up this iOS title, which is "free" but confusingly only contains Galaxian when you buy it, with the other games costing $5 for the lot of them (which seems a bit pricey, I suppose, but I decided it was worth it.) The surprising thing with this collection is that all the games are worth playing, because not only have they put in some really extensive achievements (which are fun to get, because they are displayed in the game as badges) they've also changed the games up a little to better suit iOS/modern tastes. Ships respond to the slide of your finger speedily, and you can, rather than in the original game which featured slow bullets, hold off firing for a while to build up a "burst" of bullets that adds a really pleasing risk/reward to the games. Overall it's a pretty fantastic collection that on PSP or something would easily go for four times the price, so well worth grabbing on iOS. 4/5
Free-App Hero - $1.99
Sort of a strange thing to be highlighting, considering it is (essentially) just an application that tells you what apps are currently free, except it's probably worth the cost of $1.99 because not only does it do that, it also includes excellently written reviews so you know if you want to go to the bother of downloading them at all (the answer, of course, is not always that you should.) If there's a problem with it, it's that (frankly) it's an ugly app (especially that title screen, erugh) but it does what it says it's going to. 3.5/5
Beneath a Steel Sky: Remastered - $2.99
A classic point-and-click adventure from Revolution Software, this version of the 1994 (!) classic has been given a quick lick of paint before being chucked on iOS, and I mean "quick", there's some nice work done on the intro, but more or less this is the same game you may know (or not) with touch controls. The touch controls are a bit wonky to be honest (I struggle with the inventory, for some reason) and not being able to see all the hotspots on the screen without tapping randomly is... annoying to say the least. But if you're looking for a very traditional point-and-clicker... well I'll say I don't regret buying it again at less than a tenth of the price I spent on it in '94. 3/5
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