If you are looking for a good handheld game that is not going to turn your children’s brains to mush but will actually exercise it – and even yours too if you do play with it, then the iball3 is a game you should definitely consider. [Read more…]
Review: ColorBuster for iPhone (From the Archives)
ColorBuster is a fairly simple strategy puzzle game that will easily keep you occupied as you guide Hect0r, your robot, through 50 levels of box-pushing. Don’t let the “simple” tag fool you, though. Remember, games like Tetris and Bejeweled are simple.
Gameplay
The game takes place on a variety of grids in deep space.
Your task is to pack all the crates of the same color into one crate, and then move them to a teleport. At the same time, you push radioactive boxes off the edge of the grid. Sounds simple, but as with all good puzzle games, the levels get harder to solve. There’s often only one way to complete a level and one wrong move could leave a block stuck.
There are two gameplay modes and two ways of controlling Hect0r.
In “Classic” mode your robot and colored blocks are “safe” — in other words, they can’t fall off the edge of the grid. In “Arcade” mode it’s possible for objects to fall off the grid. Hect0r can be controlled via four on-screen arrows (up and down on the left-hand side of the screen, and left and right in the bottom right-hand corner) or by swiping a finger in the direction you wish him to travel.
Sight, Sound and Feel
The graphics are pretty good and are perfectly acceptable for the gameplay. Granted, they’re not the most spectacular ever, but they clearly show all the vital components (ro-bot, blocks, hazards, grid, teleport). There’s a definite 8-bit / retro feel to the whole thing.
The audio, too, is pretty decent, with some interesting original music to keep you enter-tained through the levels.
It took me a little while to get used to the two control methods, but that’s often the case with any new iPhone application given that every developer has to find a new way of im-plementing controls on the touchscreen.
I wasn’t madly keen on having the virtual arrow buttons in different places on the screen. Personally I’d have preferred them closer together, perhaps as an inverted T as you’d find on a computer keyboard, in one corner. However, I know it would become second nature soon enough. Similarly, the swiping motions sometimes had me falling off the grid (in arcade mode), but I got better with practice.
One thing I really wasn’t keen on was the shading on the text. Perhaps I should’ve had my iPhone’s brightness turned up higher, but I found it a little difficult to read at times. No biggie, though, as there’s not much text except on the options and high score screens.
Overall
For $1.99 (and currently half price at 99c) it won’t break the bank to purchase ColorBuster, and you’ll certainly get plenty of gameplay from it. Don’t be fooled that the first few levels are quite easy, as the challenge soon ramps up.
If you like puzzle games that require you to think strategically and you’re not after some-thing fast and furious, it’s definitely worth a look.
Product link: ColorBuster
Video Game Deletes Files From Computer
lose/lose from zach gage on Vimeo.
Are you bored with your Wii, Xbox 360 or your PS3, and you want your video games to up the ante a bit? Why not try Zach Gage’s Lose/Lose?
You see, Lose/Lose is a game that plays like a traditional space shooter, but with a twist.
Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted.
Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player’s mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land?
Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?
I’m seriously scared to run the game. But if any of you are willing to actually tempt fate and give it a try, let me know how it goes down!
Championship Manager 2010 launches on “pay what you want” model
It seemed to work for Radiohead last year when they released their In Rainbows album on a “pay what you think it’s worth” model, and now software company Eidos Interactive is looking to do the same with the latest incarnation of its Championship Manager football game.
Championship Manager 2010 for PC launches today, and can be purchased online for as little as one British penny (plus a handling fee of £2.50).
SingStar Queen hits PlayStation: don’t stop me now
Sony has announced the latest instalment of its popular SingStar software for PS2 and PS3 consoles, with the addition of SingStar Queen.
Sony in London collaborated with the band to pack over 20 classic Queen songs into the package, including “We Are The Champions”, “Another One Bites The Dust”, “We Will Rock You”, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Under Pressure”.