Appletell review - Cubis 2 for iPod

Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod, iPod nano, Features, Review Genre: Arcade/puzzle Format: iPod Game Developer: Fresh Games, LLC Minimum Requirements: iPod classic, iPod 5G, iPod nano 3G, iPod Software v1.2 Price: $4.99 ESRB Rating: N/A Availability: Now Here, then, we have a game perfectly suited to the iPod. It’s suited to the controls, and it’s suited to the small screen. What it may not be suited to is your schedule. If you only break out an iPod game when you’re trying to kill time before an appointment or while you’re waiting for your kid’s trombone lesson to end, the addictive nature of Cubis 2 may cause you to be late on more than one occasion. And actually, I hate using the term “addictive,” as it’s never accurate when speaking about games. Do people go into violent shakes when they can’t play Cubis for a few days? Do they sell the Renoir and the TV set to finance a new iPod classic or iPod nano when they’ve worn out the controls of the 5G due to intense Cubis 2 gaming? I imagine not. But if you’re into puzzle/arcade-styled games such as Bejeweled (also available for iPod), you will probably enjoy Cubis 2, and maybe even find it’s the more satisfying gaming experience of the two. The gameplay centers around the traditional task of lining up three or more cubes of matching colors. The cubes then disappear, allowing others to fall into their place. It’s like house cleaning, but with bright, happy colors and music, and no dog getting in your way. The twist here is that the board is laid down flat, and the cubes stack on top of one another. The 3D perspective adds an extra challenge with more possibilities for combo moves, and it requires some unique controls. Rather than just click directly on the cubes you want to match up, you fire a cube onto the game board from either the left or the bottom. This is done by lining up your shot with the click-wheel, then sending it into play by hitting the iPod’s center button. Smooth and intuitive, although sometimes difficult to land directly on the row/column you want. When you shoot a cube onto the board, it either pushes away the cube it hits (provided there’s room to do so) or it causes cubes to disappear if it creates a match of three or more like colors. If the cubes disappear, the cube above it will fall and crack, if there is one. Cracked cubes shatter and disappear if another cube is shot through it. Keep this up until the board is clear, and it’s on to the next. As is always the case with games such as this, the developers keep things interesting by having different cubes behave in different ways. For instance, there’s the Lift Cube which wedges its way underneath the first cube it hits, then becomes a regular cube. Although highly annoying at first, these cubes will help you set up better chain reactions (for more points) once you learn how to use them properly. There’s a Stone Cube that can only be removed with Lasers or a Bomb Cube, so, of course, there are Lasers and Bomb Cubes, amongst other things. You don’t know when you’ll get these various cubes (the three cubes “on deck” are always visible), and learning how to utilize (or, in some cases, deal with) them is what provides the game’s challenge. Oh. And there’s a time limit. Isn’t that always the way? To keep things even more interesting, Cubis 2 contains four slightly different play variations. Arcade Mode is pretty much what I described above, in which you have to clear a certain percentage of blocks from the screen. Puzzle Mode gives you specific tasks, such as clearing all of the star cubes within a certain amount of time. Then, there are Morph Modes of both Arcade and Puzzle Mode which add Ghost Cubes that float around and mess up your strategies, making the game more complex. Depending upon what type of gamer you are, that could be a problem with Cubis 2. It’s more difficult than other games of this sort. The multi-layered action makes for a steeper learning curve than you’d expect, and it’ll be a while before you’re able to develop strategies that...you know...work. As a result, easily discouraged gamers will bail on this early even if they’re succeeding, because they’ll have no idea why they’re succeeding. On the other hand, those that stick with it will be rewarded with a more satisfying gaming experience with a longer shelf life than most other iPod games. To help you along with this, Fresh Games includes a few different screen backdrops from which to chose, as well as different cube styles. The variations aren’t that drastic, but they do give you something else to look at every now and then. Even better, the music does a nice job of drifting into the background when you play. This is what music in games like this should do; if it’s noticeable, it would get annoying very quickly. There are multiple version of Cubis 2 available online for free play, so I very much recommend you check these out to get a good feel for the game. If you enjoy it at all online, you’ll like it even more on the iPod. There are other games you can download from iTunes that you’ll learn and get into more quickly than Cubis 2, but not many you’ll enjoy for longer. Appletell Rating: Buy Cubis 2 See other iPod game reviews. This review was originally published at Applelinks. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Appletell review - The Sims Pool for iPod

Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod, iPod nano, Features, Review Genre: Sports/sim Format: iPod Game Developer: Electronic Arts, Inc. Minimum Requirements: 3G iPod nano, iPod classic or 5G iPod (video), iPod Software v1.2, 31.5MB disc space Price: $4.99 I suppose it was only a matter of time before the Sims invaded the iPod as well. They should just rename the franchise “Invasion of the Platform Snatchers.” Every time I visit another household where someone’s playing a Sims game, I go to the basement to search for pods. Obviously, The Sims itself is far too complex to play on an iPod, so Electronic Arts has taken a pool game and thrown the brand on top of it. Well, that’s unfair, perhaps, as they have given some Sims attributes to it, but they seem to be more about justifying the branding than about contributing to gameplay. You start off by creating your Sim, which entails selecting a face, a shirt, your hair color, etc. What does this have to do with the game? Very little, as you don’t actually see your Sim holding his pool cue when playing. But it’s the kind of thing Sims fans enjoy, so...enjoy, I guess. Also true to the Sims genre, your player has aspirations beyond the pool hall. There’s money to be made, and as money’s made, you can get better pool equipment (fancier cues) to help you win games. And, of course, the more you win, the happier your Sim will be as he achieves his life goals and works his way up to being a pool shark. You don’t have to go this route if this isn’t your thing. There’s a Play Pool option that takes you right to the table without having to bother with putting on a shirt. Nothing you do here will affect the storyline you’re creating in the full story mode. If you’re more about the pool than the plot line, this is where you’ll be spending your time. Regardless of how you get to the table, The Sims Pool really shines once you’re there. Literally. The graphics are fantastic, rivaling those you’d see on the Nintendo DS, or even the Macintosh itself for this type of game. They’re bright, they’re crisp, and they’re very colorful. The animation is quite smooth, but that shouldn’t be hard to achieve considering it involves little more than a bunch of balls rolling around. Using the iPod click wheel to play pool may seem a bit odd at first, but its quite well implemented and therefore pretty easy to get the hang of. You line up your shot by spinning your pool cue around the cue ball with the click wheel. You then click the center button of the iPod to confirm the angle, and this can lead to some trouble; if you don’t pull your thumb straight off the click wheel, your angle can easily change a bit. This can get frustrating, but not enough that it screws up the game. Just realign and try again. Lines appear on the screen to let you know the direction the ball you’re hitting will go, as well as the rebound of the cue ball (helping you avoid a scratch). If you like, you can shut this feature off. After the angle is set, you can use the click wheel to put some “english” on the ball. This, of course, determines the amount of spin the cue ball will have. I can’t comment either way on the physics of this, as I didn’t really utilize it to its full advantage. As with real pool, I’m not good enough to worry about things like english and power and such; it’s enough for me to worry about hitting the ball straight. Once you’ve determined the spin, a traditional sliding power meter appears so you can adjust how hard you hit the cue ball. Hit the center button again and hope for the best. The abilities of your AI opponent will probably seem wildly inconsistent. In my very first game, he missed some fairly easy shots, and even hit in one of my balls. After I had acquired quite a lead, he suddenly sank five balls in a row to catch up, then missed a couple other easy shots to watch me win. Was I going to get hustled until my opponent took pity on me? I don’t know. This is a Sims game, after all. The computer opponent’s probably more worried about stealing my girlfriend or cleaning his kitchen than he is about playing pool. There are two games you can play in The Sims Pool: eight ball and nine ball. There’s also a trick shot challenge that’ll help you test and improve your skills, and it’s kind of fun after you’ve gotten pretty good at the game. You’re not stuck playing the computer, however. You can play other humans on a single iPod by passing it around. Unfortunately, there’s no option for playing doubles should you have, you know, more real life friends than Sim friends. Perhaps that would be a hassle, anyway; passing around the iPod is one thing, but passing around headphones is quite another matter. Technically, you don’t need sound to play this game, but the sound is so great I highly recommend you keep the headphones on. You can listen to your own music if you like, but I actually suggest shutting it off so you can more easily hear the pool hall ambient noises, which do a great job of pulling you into the game. Better yet, they’re not so repetitive that you can hear the loop. Very well done, but that’s the kind of thing you come to expect from Electronic Arts. Remove “The Sims” from its name, and The Sims Pool is still a great pool sim. That it’s this good on the iPod is very impressive, but not really surprising; Electronic Arts has made it quite clear they understand the iPod as a gaming platform, and what that should entail. The Sims tie-in isn’t needed here, but I suppose it does add an interesting element for those who’d otherwise tire of just playing pool. And if pool is all you want, you can bypass the Sims elements. That makes this a great game for the iPod that would actually be a worthwhile purchase on any platform. And that’s a good thing, as it’ll help keep your mind off those alien Sims pods in your basement. Appletell Rating: Buy The Sims Pool See other iPod game reviews. This review was originally published at Applelinks. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Appletell review - Mystery Mansion Pinball for iPod

Section: iPod + iTunes, iTunes, iPod, iPod nano, Features, Review Genre: Pinball sim Format: iPod game Developer: Gameloft S.A. Minimum Requirements: 3G iPod nano, iPod classic or 5G iPod (video), iPod Software v1.2, 42.9MB disk space Retail Price: $4.99 Availability: Out now Fact: In movies, whenever there’s a battle against the devil, the heroes will be Catholic, and a good portion of the confrontation will take place in a beautiful church or some sort of holy ground with all manner of decorative crosses and windows and a life-size corpus with bleeding eyes. Another Fact: In video games, it’s okay if that same battle takes place in a mansion over a game of pinball, and your religion is irrelevant. Although, considering this game is constantly telling you, “I am the devil,” I wonder if Catholics aren’t maybe better equipped to hit multiple jackpots? Regardless, pinball fans may get a kick out of Mystery Mansion Pinball, as may iPod owners looking for a quick way to kill some time with a game that fits quite well within the iPod’s capabilities and control scheme. Pinball games generally require only two buttons, after all, and the iPod has two buttons. Well, you need three, actually; although you can use the left and right flippers simultaneously with the iPod’s fast forward and rewind buttons, you can also do this by hitting the center button on the click wheel. The center button also comes into play in the video mode mini-games, which I’ll get to in a bit. The board itself is fairly well designed, featuring items that could very well be found on an actual pinball machine. Aside from some electrical effects on the bumpers, everything about the gameplay is fairly realistic. Of course, there’s no plunger on your iPod, so the center button puts the ball into play, with the force determined by a sliding power meter (as you’d find in a golf sim on the computer). Game play itself is somewhat entertaining, with challenges are that aren’t too hard to reach. This is due in part to the decent board layout, but also to the easily identified targets, which make good use of lighting to call attention to them. Considering the iPod’s small screen, this is very important; a muddier layout with too much going on would’ve been unplayable. Game play is also both helped and hindered by the scrolling camera, which moves up and down to follow the ball. This scheme is used pretty much across the board in video pinball sims, as widescreen (and even full frame) displays simply aren’t conducive to the portrait layout of pinball tables, but it’s not always done well. Here, the ball sometimes moves too quickly and disappears from view before the camera can catch up. Therefore, you’ll often be hitting the flippers blindly, hoping your ball is actually nearby. Even worse, the camera mostly keeps panning during multiball, making it extremely difficult to see all the balls and therefore hit most of the targets (especially considering there is a third flipper at the top of the screen). When the ball does get moving too quickly, a ghost trail appears to help you follow it. This bugged me at first, but without it the ball could get completely lost on the screen, so I’m glad it’s there. I wonder if it doesn’t screw up the ball physics, though, as there were times when my flippers seems to hit the ghost trail, not the ball. The physics aren’t that good throughout, for the most part, as the ball takes some impossible bounces off flippers and bumpers. It also seems to have a mind of its own when deciding which lane to drop down, although this usually works in your favor. I’ve played extended games without a single drain down an outlane; good for scores, bad for realism, especially when the ball visibly hops from an inevitable drain over to the inlane. There were also a couple of points where my flippers stopped working completely for a few seconds. I’m assuming this is a programming error, as there’s nothing in the game to indicate why this would happen on purpose. As mentioned earlier, the gameplay is broken up by “video” games that play out as if on a pinball machine scoring screen. They’re well implemented and look cool, but a couple of the games are quite confusing. One in particular tells you to use the click wheel to position a beaker under the appropriately colored drop of fluid, but how do you use the click wheel? Spin it? Click in the direction you want to go? Click the button in the position of the beaker you want? I don’t know...I never got it to work. The final problem has to do with the audio. This “I am the devil” voice gets annoying very quickly, because it never quits saying it! After a couple minutes, I was just thinking, “Okay, I get it, you’re the devil. Now either shut up or go outside!” And the annoying laughter/cackling throughout the game is even worse. It comes in three or four variations, each of which is equally annoying (and loud). Pinball machines, by and large, always try to sound sexy in an effort to entice players to drop their coins. If this were a real pinball machine, not only would they keep their coins in their pockets, they would flee the arcade for protection. And so, in Mystery Mansion pinball, we get a well-designed board with some fun mini-games that’s hampered by bad ball physics and some incredibly annoying audio. What’s worse is that the two work together to prolong your agony...the bad ball physics make each game last too long, forcing you to listen to the audio for much longer than the human brain can withstand. Maybe that’s the terror of the Mystery Mansion. There’s only one way to find out for sure… Appletell Rating: Buy Mystery Mansion Pinball See other iPod game reviews. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Review: Spore Origins for iPod

Offering a distilled experience of the first part of the full Spore game, Spore Origins makes a surprisingly good debut in this version for third-generation iPod nanos, fifth-generation iPods, and the iPod classic.

Appletell review - Bomberman for iPod

Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod, iPod nano, Features, Review Genre: Action/Arcade Format: iPod Game Developer: Hudson Software Company, Ltd. Minimum Requirements: 3G iPod nano, iPod classic or 5G iPod (video), iPod Software v1.2 Price: $4.99 I somehow missed out on the entire Bomberman franchise, but I know of many gamers who swear by it. The game can be traced back to 1983, when it appeared on a bunch of computers I’ve never heard of. It was when it showed up on the NES in 1987 that it really took off, and variations of the game have been developed for numerous systems since then. In Bomberman, you play a robot who has grown bored working at a bomb factory, and wants to get out. You know, because he’s every man’s Bomberman. Who doesn’t get bored with their daily job and tries to flee 20 levels to the open outdoors? The difference between us and Bomberman, however, is that we don’t have to navigate mazes, bomb enemies, find secret doors and battle bosses to leave our jobs. Well, except for Wal-Mart employees. Female employees, anyway. Like nearly every maze game before and after it, Bomberman has you navigating a little character through a top-down view of walled rooms. You’re being chased by an assortment of bad guys who get progressively faster and sneakier. Unlike other games, however, you don’t eat or shoot your enemies, you bomb them. Power-ups will help you on your way, but it’s otherwise just you and your bombs throughout. And the bombs aren’t just for killing; they also blast holes in the walls to help you work your way through them, and to reveal the secret exits to the next level. This all starts off fairly simply, as the monsters are slow and dumb. After about the fifth level, however, things change drastically; the monsters become much more motivated to prevent Bomberman’s escape, and the mazes become harder to navigate. You’ll need to find power-ups and learn how to properly use them if you want to survive. After every five of the game’s twenty levels, you’re presented with a minigame: bowling, a whack-a-mole style game, and one that has you jumping over bombs. They’re fun enough as diversions from the main action, thereby serving their purpose as minigames. You can go back and play them on command after completing them, but I’m not sure there’s a compelling reason to do so. I should point out you can do this with the game’s standard levels, as well, but again, why? Bomberman looks and sounds great on the iPod, taking advantage of the nostalgic character by presenting nostalgic graphics and music. I’m glad to see developers are not trying to force too much into the look and gameplay of iPod games, and are instead embracing it for what it is. The result here is a sharp, fun, diversion game that’s perfect for killing some time here and there. Unfortunately, no one seems to have an answer for the control problem. Using the click wheel to control Bomberman isn’t the exercise in futility that Sonic the Hedgehog is, but it can still be frustrating. To move Bomberman, you either rotate the clickwheel or lightly touch it in the direction you want to move. Hit it too hard, and you’ll leave the game without warning. Pressing the center button drops the bombs, meaning you’ll either have to stop running to drop bombs, or you’ll end up thumb wrestling with yourself while trying to control Bomberman with both. Thankfully, the pacing and movement options don’t require anything too complex...at least, not until the later stages. Still, Bomberman is currently about as good a game as you’re going to find on the iPod. It’s sophisticated and challenging enough to be a legitimate gaming experience, while retaining controls that are mostly manageable. I’d like to see games of this stort continuing to come our way, but the iPod click wheel will only take you so far before you’ll want to...well, bomb it, man. Appletell Rating: Buy Bomberman See other iPod game reviews. This review was originally published at Applelinks. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Appletell review - Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes

Section: iPod + iTunes, iTunes, iPod, iPod nano, Features, Review Genre: Tactical RPG Format: iPod Game Developer: Square Enix Minimum Requirements: 3G iPod nano, iPod classic or 5G iPod (video), iPod Software v1.2, 129MB disk space Price: $4.99 ESRB Rating: N/A Availability: Now I recently wrote an article for Appletell in which I wondered if the App Store / iPhone combination would kill iPod gaming. In the article, I opined that it will, and probably should, but that it saddened me to say so. For one reason or another, developers just never figured out how to program games for the click wheelbinterface, or what games to port over to the iPod. A few games stood out, a few were terrible, and the majority were simply mediocre. Then, suddenly, along comes Square Enix. Square Enix of Final Fantasy fame. Square Enix of Valkyrie Profile fame. Square Enix of Dragon Quest fame. Square Enix has released some of the best and most beloved RPG franchises—be they action, tactical or what have you—on pretty much every platform worth mentioning since the NES. And now, with the release of Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, they’re on the iPod. Just having this company acknowledging the iPod is big enough, that they’ve also released arguably the best iPod game yet makes it all the more satisfying. Song Summoner is a tactical role playing game, meaning players control warriors one turn at a time, positioning them on a battlefield grid and having them attack their opponent (or not), before moving on to the next soldier. And although Song Summoner will draw many comparisons to Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Tactics, it actually plays more like Fire Emblem in that you move all of your soldiers before the computer gets a turn. These battles take place on a fixed, isometrical battlefield. The battlefield designs are somewhat uninspired, but they’re at least very colorful. The graphics in general are quite nice; along the lines of what you’d expect to see on the Nintendo DS. The sprite-based characters look good enough, but it’s the small battle animations that make the graphics work. They’re not going to win awards, granted, but they come together in a cohesive package that indicates the developers understood the strength and weaknesses of the device’s graphics capabilites, and worked with them accordingly. In games of this type, you’re usually presented with characters that you level up throughout the game, giving them access to greater weapons and abilities as they face greater foes. If Square Enix had been content to bring Final Fantasy Tactics to the iPod, that’s what we would’ve gotten. Instead, they decided to embrace the iPod for what it is—a music player—by letting you create Tune Troopers based on your music. You can create soldiers from any song in your collection, and that character will get its capabilities from the song’s characteristics (check out Jenni Lada’s Four Tips for Sturdy Tune Troopers). The ability to create your own soldiers is pretty cool, but not as intelligent as it sounds. I found that songs of similar styles could create wildly different characters. On the other end, you’ll also find yourself with quite a few characters who are extremely similar in capabilities despite being made from wildly different songs. And, of course, there are only around 50 character designs programmed into the game, so it’s not as if your soldiers can be truly customized based on your choice of music. These Tune Troopers don’t level up like characters do in standard tactical RPGs. Rather than gain experience trooper by trooper, battle spheres are earned at the end of a fight, which can then be used to beef up your army. However, each Tune Trooper has a limited number of uses (determined upon its creation) before it’s gone for good. This obviously will play with your use/level-up strategies, and can be frustrating for those used to dumping experience points onto characters in an effort to make them very strong by the end of the game. Here, that work can be for naught. On the other hand, it does force you to create more warriors, which leads to more fun with your music collection. Square Enix’s use of the click wheel is quite effective, as they chose to stick with the spinning motion for selection and execution instead of relying on the more cumbersome left/right button approach. The menus and battlefield are all circular, so you can just drag your thumb around the wheel to make your selections. This may take a little more time, but it allows for simple, one-handed play, and feels quite natural. In fact, the only annoying decision Square Enix made was apparently based on the assumption that we’re all fans of Pink or Avril Lavigne. The majority of the characters are exceptionally bratty, and are based on the “attitude = funny” equation that’s just really, really not true. The story is exceptionally dorky, too; evil robot guy rids the world of humans and music in order to control the planet with his mechanized “network,” and one lone rock and roll rebel must lead the fight against him. This idea was dorky was Styx used it for a concept album, it was intentionally dorky when Queen used it for a musical, and it’s just as dorky now. But, it’s fun. And honestly, this is the first iPod game that rises above the casual gamer audience to appeal to hard core gamers. It’s not enough bring it up to the level of the iPhone or Nintendo DS, the latter of which already has dozens of games such as this available to anyone willing to look in the used section at GameStop, but it does show that a great, ambitious game can be made for this little MP3 player if developers know what to do with it. Hopefully, now that Square Enix has shown them the way, more will be willing to make the journey. And hey, speaking of Journey, I wonder what kind of Tune Trooper “Stone in Love” will give me… Appletell Rating: Buy Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes See other iPod game reviews. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »