Steve’s

Froggy Launcher by Invictus is a Free, vertical platformer with added RPG elements. The premise of the game isn't entirely clear, although it seems to have something to with a very floppy Frog trying to get as high as he can, whilst collecting pretty much everything he passes. I guess the reasons why the poor Frog suffers from Philophobia (Fear of falling), and compulsive hoarding don't really matter. It is a light-hearted, fun-based game after all. Graphics. (6) -Cutesy... Read More

Froggy Launcher by Invictus is a Free, vertical platformer with added RPG elements. The premise of the game isn't entirely clear, although it seems to have something to with a very floppy Frog trying to get as high as he can, whilst collecting pretty much everything he passes. I guess the reasons why the poor Frog suffers from Philophobia (Fear of falling), and compulsive hoarding don't really matter. It is a light-hearted, fun-based game after all. Graphics. (6) -Cutesy is the first thing that comes to mind. The Frog himself, blinks, waves, sticks out his tongue and generally flops about quite comically. -Two dimensions is plenty for this game. Backround, item and power-up artwork is crisp and colourful, without being garish. Sound. (7) -Cutesy again. Some of the sounds the Frog makes are actually quite funny. I won't ruin the surprises, as there isn't a huge variety, but they are suited to the game quite well and add an element of life to proceedings. -Options to play your own music and/or turn sounds off is great, but expected these days. Controls. (9) -Very responsive touch and tilt controls. Tap the frog to give him a small boost. Swipe upwards to use a rocket. Swipe to pause, tilt to aim him left and right. You get the picture. Simple, intuitive and it never leaves you feeling cheated. -The skill of aiming and tapping your character does require a very gentle learning curve, which is provided by the fact that dying doesn't really matter, and even a small excursion in to a spike is kind of satisfying enough to want to give it another go. I've seen a lot of games fall short on the iPhone due to the controls simply not translating well to a touch screen device. With Froggy Launcher, the controls and the touch screen make the game. I can't imagine it being much fun on the PC with a mouse, but on this platform, it works perfectly, and is a good example of how to translate a simple game idea in to a fun product. -One handed gameplay is comfortable, and the tap and release action allows you to spend more time looking at the screen, and less time looking at your thumbs. Replayability (8) -This is the major strong point for this title. Attaining certain heights unlocks new levels, each with their own graphical differences (Items as well as background) and varying affects on the characters atbility to suck objects toward him. Updates seem to be fairly frequent, so when Halloween or Christmas come around, there's normally a new background to unlock that comes with it. -The Frog himself is customisable to a large degree, most of which is astethic. New hats, sticks, pants and shirts. These are all nicely rendered in game, and add to the comic effect of the Frog flopping around your screen. -The item store it's self contains Game items, as well as clothes and levels. These can be unlocked with gems. Gems are earned in game either by completing daily quests (I'll get on to those in a minute) , or by collecting coins (10,000 = 1 gem). That sounds a lot, but you'll soon find them racking up. There's also random gems that appear in-game now and again, which is great if you manage to see them in time and catch them. The only in-app purchases available are gems. The idea being you can save time collecting and just buy your way to a full wardrobe. For a Free game, this seems a really fair way of adding in-app purchases. A player that hasn't purchased and gems can attain the same amount just by playing a lot more. I'd like to see more developers adopt this system. Hats off to Invictus for doing so. There are two daily quests per day. The first revolves around collecting the letters of a word. You'll find them floating around the levels, and you can can use items from the shop to help you catch them, such as a letter indicator, or a word quest helper, which again, you can buy with gems. OpenFeint is supported with leaderboards and twenty four achievements to collect. This too keeps you coming back for more. Some of the achievements will take you a minimum of months to achieve, Conclusions. A fun, easy to pick up and play game. Mindless, strategy-free gameplay and the sense of slowly building up your resources/character make it a satisfying game to keep installed long-term. Get it. Get it now. It might become your new addicton. Definitely not a thinking man's game, but definitely a laugh. Hopefully they'll add gamecenter support, and keep the new backgrounds coming. A few new items are always a possibility too. They have plenty of scope to keep it fresh. Advertising is unobtrusive (Disappears once you actually launch the Frog) and can be removed with any in-app purchase. Ratings are out of 10. Close

Posted April 25, 2011

Rodent Rage is a physics puzzle game with cutesy characters and a lot of blood and gore. It's in the Angry Birds mould and is fairly polished. The difficulty level is quite steep, and although the presentation is crisp and the graphics smart, it doesn't feel very well put together. The in-game items are all thrown in pretty quickly, with little explanation. The aiming is tricky, although there's a line of sight for the last shot to guide you. Objectives are solved with... Read More

Rodent Rage is a physics puzzle game with cutesy characters and a lot of blood and gore. It's in the Angry Birds mould and is fairly polished. The difficulty level is quite steep, and although the presentation is crisp and the graphics smart, it doesn't feel very well put together. The in-game items are all thrown in pretty quickly, with little explanation. The aiming is tricky, although there's a line of sight for the last shot to guide you. Objectives are solved with trial and error as easily as thought and planning, so the challenge wears thin rather quickly. Things that could help: -Upgradable weapons / ammo. -Bonuses to pick up. -A slower introduction and shallower difficult curb. -Accuracy related stats and points. -Achievements -More control over power and accuracy. Decent game dynamic, well made, but lacks direction. With a bit of work it could be quite addictive. Close

Posted April 16, 2011

They really covered all the bases with this. Tons of realistic slot machines to play. All the jingles of Vegas without the massive hit on the wallet. Presentation is very smart and all parts of the game are well polished. One thing that could be added, is more bonuses and collectables. A trophy room to view your progress would tie everything together nicely. Great game if you love slot machines.

Posted April 10, 2011

A large range of casinos and options, along with polished mechanics, smooth graphics and helpful features for beginners make this a very solid poker app. There's an optional voice over and indicator of your hand which really is a blessing for those starting out. Strong help options like this, achievements and the career structure insure that this becomes a deep, long-term game. The option to pick-up and play is there too, so you get the best of both worlds. Presentation is very... Read More

A large range of casinos and options, along with polished mechanics, smooth graphics and helpful features for beginners make this a very solid poker app. There's an optional voice over and indicator of your hand which really is a blessing for those starting out. Strong help options like this, achievements and the career structure insure that this becomes a deep, long-term game. The option to pick-up and play is there too, so you get the best of both worlds. Presentation is very smart. The backgrounds and menus carry the luxurious feel of casinos well, and combined with the slick interface, will have you feeling the pressure of the real game as you try your hand with a pair of jacks. One area that could be tweaked is the in-game controls. I'd like to be able to skip the A.I. decision making and get on with my next hand. While that may not be realistic, it speeds things up when necessary. Also, why is called Texas Hold-Em for iPad? I tried it on a iPod touch 4th gen and it ran smoothly and looked great on the retina display. The solid career, game center leaderboards and achievements will keep this one on my device for a long time. Great for anyone from noob to pro. Close

Posted April 10, 2011

First off, the presentation is great. Simple, easy to use and quick to navigate. Menus and achievements are easy to get to, or you can jump in to the action pretty quick if you want to. One thing that could be added is a brief explanation of each mode. Although they are mostly self-explanatory, a little sentence for each wouldn't go amiss. Graphics are classic arcade-football style. Nicely animated, and sharp throughout. The gloves graphic is perfect as it allows you to see where... Read More

First off, the presentation is great. Simple, easy to use and quick to navigate. Menus and achievements are easy to get to, or you can jump in to the action pretty quick if you want to. One thing that could be added is a brief explanation of each mode. Although they are mostly self-explanatory, a little sentence for each wouldn't go amiss. Graphics are classic arcade-football style. Nicely animated, and sharp throughout. The gloves graphic is perfect as it allows you to see where you are at all times, without having your finger obscure the action. This is a blessing for people with large digits who find some iphone controls a chore. The optional relative controls made things less tiring on my hands and I ended up dticking with them. Having the option of the two is great. They both work flawlessly, and it's a good job as the game relies heavily on sharp controls. The difficulty curve was just right for me. I can see my self spending a lot of time perfecting scores and techniques with this. All the modes were enjoyable and teh variety is great. Sometimes getting stuck on a game causes me to switch to something else. Games with alternate modes that I can progress in seperately keep me glued. The sounds fit well with the graphics and the arcadey feel. The optional GFX and commentary are well put together and varied enough not to become annoying. Still, if they do, you can just turn them off individually. It's this wealth of options, achievements, alternate modes and polished overall feel which will give this game a long life-span. The fun gameplay mechanic and endless shot variety will get you hooked in the first place. One thing i'd love to see in future updates is free-kicks. The added difficulty of a wall of defenders obscuring your view would provide even more possibilities to what is already a pretty broad title. VS Multiplayer onlne would be fan-tastic in this kind of game too. The turn based nature and pre-cripted graphics mean ping shouldn't be too much of an issue I should think. Close

Posted April 10, 2011