Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies
Chris Sutton | Dec 12, 2011 Games
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Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies by Activision Publishing, Inc ($7.49)
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
The Call of duty franchise is one that creates excitement towards the end of each year. This was always true for console gamers, but now the same can be said for us Apple enthusiasts. The second zombie title released exclusively for the ios, Black ops zombies takes a section of the console version and delivers an enjoyable multiplayer experience. The game isn’t without its flaws, though the entertainment value cannot be denied.
Starship Shooter HD
Tony Mei | Apr 14, 2010 Games
User rating: 
(12 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
(12 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5) Loading ...
Starship Shooter HD takes an established space action shooter formula and executes it right on. While the game does not stray too far from the ordinary and already established, it brings a refreshing, classic action-y space shooter chock filled with evil aliens, asteroids, frantic game play and a well executed upgrading system.
Game play involves flying your ship around the edge of the screen, forcing you to repeatedly strafe the dodge the on-coming fire and attempt to get a few shots in of your own. Enemies spawn in increasing waves, forcing you to constantly shift your strategy when different flavors of bad guys appear. Your ship is ‘locked’ to the edge of the screen, which seemed strange and awkward at first, turned out to be one of the major aspects of the game at sets it apart from the crowd. The two controls options: steering with a hand and firing with another, or steering by tilting and firing with both your opposable thumbs are both reliable and prove intuitive to the pace and style of game play.
Tags: $1.99, Games, shooter, space shooter
Ogre Hunt
Jacob Jones | Apr 14, 2010 Games
User rating: (7 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)
(7 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5) Loading ...
The Ogre Hunt experience from developer DGC can be summed up in two words: simple and frustrating. The instructions tab in the main menu failed to mention that the accelerometer is used to point your gun instead the single D-Pad on the screen. I spent a good minute wondering why my character was just going in circles instead of moving in the direction I was pressing on the D-Pad. Needless to say, the ogres that spawned in the starting area owned my ass with their hatchet things before I could get my bearings.
Tags: $.99, Games, Jacob Jones, shooter
Asland
James | Jan 13, 2010 Games
User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5) Loading ...
It’s hard to remember how I ended up in Pine City. Everything before the “Crash” seems like someone else’s life. People call it the “Crash” because they’re afraid of what it really is. Like just saying the words “zombie invasion” makes it real. Well, it is real. I’m scared too, but we need to face facts here.
It’s been at least a month, but again, it gets hard to remember. I spent some time in a department store with some good people, but they’re all dead now. When the zombie hoard broke through our barriers, I was the only one to escape. I holed up in the Pine City gun shop. Seemed pretty safe. That’s where I met Asland. He broke through my barricade looking for supplies. He was putting a force together to escape the city and he needed my help. I agreed.
We searched the city for supplies during the day and held off the zombies at night. I quickly learned how to shoot, although I wasn’t as quick or as accurate as Asland. We found another survivor who was killed the very same night during our stand. Asland didn’t even blink, he just kept shooting. So did I. We didn’t even know his name. I started wondering who were the real monsters.
One night, the zombies broke our barricade down and I ran for it, again. I left Asland there to fight alone. I’ll never know if he made it, but I’m fine with that. He never knew my name either.
———
Asland is a game about shooting zombies, searching buildings, shooting zombies, repairing barricades and shooting zombies. You can find new guns, survivors who help you in your fight, and traps that you can place on the field. You can outfit your survivors with the new guns that you find or keep them for yourself. The ideas here are great.
That being said, Asland is hard. I’m not sure if the controls are unresponsive or I’m just really awful at killing the undead. Perhaps it’s a mix of the two. That hasn’t stopped me from trying and enjoying the process.
If you couldn’t tell, I love the zombie theme. It seems to be “done to death” recently (sorry…) but my thirst for zombies is unquenchable. Keep it up Colorme(Beijing)Info Tech Co.,Ltd.
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- Creepy title screen
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- The Zombie "Crash"
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- Tap them to shoot them
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- First few nights aren't too bad
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- Quite the arsenal
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- Things are heating up
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- Where to search next?
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- This isn't going well
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- Poor Asland
iTunes Link – Asland
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2
App Sale: Galactic Gunner
Michael (Admin) | Nov 14, 2009 App Sale Alert, Games
User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5) Loading ...
Galactic Gunner is on sale for free – normally $.99-$2.99
I’ve only played a little bit of this game and it’s pretty good, especially if you can get it for nothing! You play the part of the gunner on a fighter ship in some kind of epic struggle against bad aliens called Trepidoids. The game mostly involves a lot of frantic tapping as you try to shoot down the enemy, and Ezone did a nice job on the 3D graphics.
Galactic Gunner went on sale two days ago so it could start costing $$$ anytime now. Hurry up and grab it while it’s still free!
App Sale: Marine Sharpshooter
Michael (Admin) | Oct 8, 2009 App Sale Alert, Games
User rating: (6 votes, average: 2.83 out of 5)
(6 votes, average: 2.83 out of 5) Loading ...
Get this while it’s still free! Groove Media dropped the price for Marine Sharpshooter to zero on Saturday, and their sale prices never seem to last very long. Regular price on this game is $1.99.
Marine Sharpshooter puts you behind the scope of a really big gun as you try to pick off bad guys before they wack you good. It’s a sniper game with both story and arcade modes, and of course you also get to choose your weapon; some rifles are weak but can be fired fast, while others pack more punch but need more time before another shot can be fired.
Moving around and finding targets can be a little difficult, and one time when I was about to blow someone’s brains out the game mysteriously kicked me back to the beginning of the level I was on, but this is still a high quality game with great graphics and pretty decent gameplay. I’d probably be willing to pay $2 for it, and for nothing it’s a no-brainer if you enjoy murdering people!
iTunes Link – Marine Sharpshooter
Version 1.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1
Killing is my business, and business is good
iFighter
Michael (Admin) | May 14, 2009 Games
User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5) Loading ...
iFighter is on sale for $.99
If you’ve ever played the arcade classic Raiden, you already know whether or not you’ll be a fan of iFighter. Raiden was that scrolling shooter where you were endlessly tapping the Fire button to take down enemy planes, collecting powerups, and occasionally dropping bombs on the bad guys below.
Personally, I thought Raiden kicked ass and now I’m madly in love with iFighter. This game RULES!! The concept of flying a badass warplane through a scrolling battlefield may not be all that original, but the execution is top-notch and makes for a kickass iPhone arcade experience.
HotField
Swain Valasek | Mar 22, 2009 Games
User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5) Loading ...
Perhaps the next delightfully retro gaming genre set to invade the iPhone is the classic SHMUP, or 2D shoot-em-up for the unitiated. This is evidenced by the recent release of Sky Force Reloaded and now Hotfield from C2Matrix. There have certainly been prior entries such as rRootage, Space Deadbeef, Sentry Alpha and Sky Thunder but IMO none have offered the complete experience of the early 90′s arcade shooters…until now.
So HotField then is a vertical scrolling shmup in the classic style and with a whole bucketful of features, to whit:
- 3 ships to choose from with lots of weapon powerups
- 6 missions with unique graphics and bosses
- some actual 3D graphics
- 5 difficulty levels
- awesome chip-tune soundtrack
- the ability to record and playback your game, awesome!
- a boss mode so you can just fight bossses if you like pain
You can control the game in 2 -ways: using a touch interface or virtual d-pad. In my experience the d-pad was basically unplayable but I applaud the effort of its inclusion nonetheless. So for me that leaves the touch interface which fortunately works fairly well. Touch or drag your finger onscreen and your ship will follow; firing is thankfully automatic. Putting a second finger on the screen and holding charges up your limited-use mega-laser and when you release it’s good night bad guys. As expected, certain combinations of destroyed enemies release powerups that will beef up your main weapon, increase your health meter or grant a free life. You can also pick up ‘star points’ left behind by downed enemies and when using the mega-laser (which converts enemy shots to star points), enough of which can also get you a free life. You also have a bullet-time option, accessed with a double-touch-and-hold, which slows everything down but you for a short time. Beyond that it’s total blast-a-thon goodness, shooting absolutely everything that moves until you reach the infamous boss fight. Boss fights get progressively harder and all provide the now-ubiquitous ‘bullet carpet’ where you have to dodge waves of bullets that change regularly in pattern. Also in classic fashion, bosses take forever to kill (sigh).
The game has an amusing anime-inspired story (really just banter between 2 big-eyed opponents) which plays out as you go that’s nothing deep but nonetheless entertaining. The gameplay is well-paced and the bosses difficult, pretty much right on par with the classic shmup formula. The graphics and sound are a dead ringer for 90′s retro shmup’s and the BGM is an excellent selection of chip tunes that definitely enhance the period feel.
However, I have some gripes. Whereas control with the arcade shooters was spot-on, this is unfortunately where HotField falters. In general, there are 2 schools of thought on how to handle ship control in an iPhone shmup. First is a 1 to 1 scheme where the ship follows your finger movements instantly, like a mouse pointer for example (think rRootage). Second is a relative scheme where the ship is a few milliseconds behind, basically intentionally trailing your finger. HotField takes the latter stance and unfortunately the overall effect can best be described as ‘laggy’. This is only amplified by the fact that the game very often gets bogged down in graphics rendering, slowing everything down which makes controlling the ship a chore and leads to ship damage/deaths that wouldn’t normally happen. Also an issue with the touch interface is that your finger is very often in the way, especially if you’re fat fingered. I wouldn’t normally fault the game for this since it’s not their fault the iPhone uses a touchscreen but the game inexplicably features enemies that come up from the bottom of the screen and this simply becomes much harder than it needs to be as a result. Adding to this problem is an overlay status bar at the bottom of the screen that will actually cover up your ship if you move to the extreme bottom, adding even more unnecessary difficulty.
If I could only make 1 suggestion, it would be to instate a 1 to 1 control scheme, at least for the boss fights. Since I can make as many as I want though, I also ask that the game be further optimized to reduce the render lag and fix the bottom status overlay thing.
As it is, the game has everything a classic shmup should and is lots of fun. If the developer will pledge their support with some updates to address the issues above this game will be best of class; as is it’s still recommended because of all the other things it does right.
Version reviewed – 1.0
Reviewed on – iPhone 3G 8GB 2.2.1
Global scoreboard – yes
iTunes music support – no
Lite version available – no
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- D-pad control = not so good
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- I defeat you haha! No, I defeat YOU haha!
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- Some elements are truly 3D-rendered
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- Respect the bullet carpet yo
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- Megaaaaaaa....LASER! SHOOM!
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- Suck it down, boss
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- Yikes, this boss is a real butt-kicker
Tags: $2.99, hotfield, shmup, shooter, Swain Valasek
2079
Swain Valasek | Jan 17, 2009 Games
User rating: (4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5) Loading ...
The iPhone receives another winna and it’s called 2079 from Eric Tong. This fast-paced game will make you realize you no longer have that 17 dex you once took for granted (c’mon who really had a natural 18). The goal here is to stay alive and shoot everything that moves while obtaining as high a score as possible. You do this by piloting your spaceship with the accelerometer and shooting in any direction with an onscreen D-pad. This is a very nifty control scheme and gives me daydreams about the possibility of Robotron or Space Dungeon (for the true old-skoolers) on the iPhone. Getting back to the review, unidentified powerups appear randomly and you have to shoot them several times to see what they are then cruise over them to activate. A limited quota of ‘blasts’ will clear the screen of enemies with a shake, perfect for rushing out to grab powerups. The longer you stay alive the harder it gets until you’re eventually obliterated in a cloud of fail and can then see how you rank on the global scoreboard.
This excellent shooter does a whole lotta things right, let’s see:
- Global scoreboard
- 2 camera settings for a zoomed-in (nice as you can appreciate the gfx) and fully zoomed-out experience
- Accelerometer calibration available at all times via an onscreen button
- Starts easy and gets very challenging in true arcade fashion
- Well-drawn graphics, nice fx and butter-smooth gameplay
- Can resume from interruption (call coming in, putting phone to sleep)
- Nicely implemented pause function (dim icon ever-present onscreen)
- Thoughtful and consistent UI throughout
Gripes and suggestions…hmm thinking…not much as this game is quite complete. Shooting was a bit of a problem as I often died in a frustrating fury while madly trying to get my ship to shoot in the right direction. You have to be fairly accurate in pressing a narrow ‘ring’ of activation within the d-pad to fire in the expected direction as presses just outside or inside this sweet spot yield unpredictable results. Perhaps this could be tweaked a little for large fingers. I did eventually change my style of play to focus more on watching my finger on the D-pad to compensate and this improved my scores greatly at the expense of a bit of immersion. Even so, venturing away from the sides of the screen Rambo-style was always instant death for me so best to stay along the edges and just dart out for the powerups. Oh here’s a suggestion, please save our name so we don’t have to re-type it for every score we want to submit. That’s about it gripe-wise as this arcade shooter delivers sights, sounds and action by the truckload, oozes professional polish and is hella fun! Perhaps best of all you will want to keep this game on your iPhone, a fairly rare quality on the app store these days!
The author promises a new game mode and option for left-handers (like me!) in a future update so clearly there is devoted support of this app which is a win for users. Other touches showing the author is passionate about this game that did not go unnoticed: the animated starfield on the title and game screens, the way the credits button caroms around when you tilt and the ’babyv on board’ sign that swings along with tilt in the credits. Good stuff.
Version reviewed 1.0.2
iTunes music supported – yes
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- A+ for presentation
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- Props where due
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- Fully zoomed out mode if you simply must see everything at once
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- Normal zoom where utter panic can rightly ensue
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- Sweet triple-shot powerup if I can bungle my way over to it
Tags: $1.99, 2079, Games, shooter, Swain Valasek
Q&F: Space Deadbeef
Splash Jackson | Dec 14, 2008 Games, Quick & Free
User rating: (24 votes, average: 2.79 out of 5)
(24 votes, average: 2.79 out of 5) Loading ...
I would give the game ten stars just for the name alone! I mean seriously, any app that has the word “beef” in the title gets my attention (unless the app is named Beef Hunks Photo Finder, then we’re barking up the wrong tree). Nonetheless, I.D.P.’s Space Deadbeef is way more than just a flashy name; it is an absolutely addicting space-shooter game!
It works like this: start off blasting small enemy ships, incinerate larger enemy ships, obliterate more powerful enemy ships, and then go head-on with the master snake ship. Rinse and repeat, only at a slightly more difficult level. In terms of variety, you won’t see much; in terms of difficulty, you will get wiped off the face of the planet in later stages. In order to control your ship, you have to touch the screen either above or below your ship to move it up or down. This can be tricky at first since you also use the same finger to shoot your gun or launch missiles. A good optional update would be to have the ship controlled by the accelerometer (though I kind of like the current method of gameplay).
What really makes this game rock is the sweet, sweet satisfaction of launching limitless amounts of homing missiles at your enemies! I drool every time this happens! If you play this game with good headphones on, you are treated to a bumping soundtrack with amazing sound effects that compliment the game. So, when Mistress Deadbeef calls, you say “yes, ma’am, may I have another!”
Commence drooling ... NOW!
Tags: awesome, free, shooter, side scroller, space
