Wake The Cat iOS Review

Originally posted on PixelBedlam

Who doesn't love kittens? If you’re saying “I don’t!” right now then I put it to you that, just like a fine wine, you just haven’t found the right one yet (of course, if you’re allergic you get a free pass here). Kittens are adorable little creatures. Well, they are when they're asleep anyway.

Wake The Cat is first project from new indie developer Halfpixel Games (published by Chillingo) and has the greatest element needed in mobile gaming, a simple premise. In this case, it’s chuck a ball of wool at the sleeping cat and wake the little blighter up. The mechanics of the game will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a mini golf game before, press on the ball, drag your finger to indicate direction and strength then release to action the shot. If you hit the kitty, she wakes up and if you miss she purrs on and you have another go.

Cute is the name of the game here. Right from the off we are presented with a loading screen showing a little cartoon kitty that looks awfully happy to have been disturbed from its slumber. In the game actual, all the objects are designed to appear realistic with a slight over exaggeration in colour to appeal to your senses. Add to this a plucky soundtrack that isn't overly offensive.

What's interesting about this particular game is the range of obstacles and actions you have. In the beginning you have only a few objects in your path that require a few easy bounces to get your goal. After a few levels you are introduced to blue objects, all of which can be altered to some degree with a quick touch (trains can stopped, fans can be turned off, barriers can be lifted and so on) and red items that cannot be affected in anyway. Soon after getting the hang of these, slippers are introduced and act as a portal to a matching slipper. Before you know it, you'll be attempting to navigate each level in flurry of timed touches and well aimed shots.

Each level is scored on both time and shots taken, but you'll get a three star rating on a given level by waking up that lazy mog in one shot (a task not that hard as you can restart the level easily enough once you have the feel for it). So if you want to be in with a chance of being high up on the leaderboard, you not only have to be accurate, you have to be fast. Here's where the games replay factor kicks in, it's incredibly annoying when some chump is 10 points higher than you on GameCentre so you want to go back and attempt a few levels a bit quicker.

At the moment there are only 60 levels on offer and if this writers’ experience was average, most of you will be able to tackle all of them with three star ratings in a few sittings. I'm not saying it's too easy, but it's hardly headache material for the adult mind. Still, at present there is at least one more level set on the way so hopefully more will follow in due course. I for one love it when games are supported months after release with new updates.

It’s fairly difficult to find much fault with Wake The Cat. Saying it’s too short seems somewhat premature when updates will buff out the experience. It is true that none of it feels particularly innovative or original, but it is enjoyable enough for that to be forgotten.

Fury Of The Gods iOS Review

Originally posted on PixelBedlam

I can’t precisely remember which Tower Defense style game I played first but I can remember the one that sapped many hours out of my youth when flash based browser gaming was becoming huge. Bloons is that culprit. A time waster like no other, the possibilities for air filled carnage were endless and it was a constant battle to beat my friends scores. It’s fair to say that I will probably judge any game that classifies itself as tower defense squarely against the joy I once gleamed from the lost time of yester-year.

Enter Fury of the Gods on iOS platforms, from Chillingo and developed by Spectral Games. Billed as ‘tower defense on a godly scale’ I have to admit to being initially skeptical as my brain took me back to the days of paragraph one. But this is not subjectivegaming.com/badreviews, this is PixelBedlam so off comes the Shroud of Nostalgia and on goes the Objective Cowl of Truth +1 lightning damage.

The opening video shows a series of events that lead to the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades all pissing off their subjects. The humans have had enough of the gods bullshit and decided to do something about it, namely tearing down the temple of their respective deity. Obviously, the all-powerful immortals aren't going sit back and watch this insolence take place, which means its up to you to use a decent array of divine powers to smite any hapless peasants who deem their lives unfair.

The gameplay takes place in level form around the temple of whichever god you are playing. Each level has several paths by which creepers can get to your temple and start the destruction. Whilst the camera angle is isometric, the entire level can be navigated with ease with a standard pinch zoom that almost everyone is familiar with by now. In traditional TD games, the player would place towers of differing abilities around a set course and either have a wave countdown or a start wave button. Fury takes a more arcade route to gameplay, whereby you don't actually place many units at all. Most of the peasant smiting is done by either your default attack (the Almighty Finger, where you deal damage just by touching enemies) or the several unlockable special attacks (which range from lightning bolts to meteors and even whirlwinds). As you progress through each level, you can spend acquired points to buy some special creatures, like the cyclops, to stand in a particular spot and deal damage to any folk dumb enough to wander into its path. This can be a bit of a pain due to the multiple paths creepers can take, but I guess that’s part of the replay value. When not in play, there are several options to spend your silver on including upgrades to your finger as well as several god-specific powers that require leveling up separately.

Graphically, Fury performs well enough. Everything is in decent 3D and movements are smooth to prevent any issues with gameplay, though it is impossible to say it’s top notch when compared with the graphical prowess of Real Racing 3 for instance. Each god has his own themed stages with the relevant effects you might expect from their mythologies. Sound wise, it’s all what you might expect from a game based around Greek gods with dramatic title music and suitable noises to go with your powers in game.

My only real issue with the game was how you play. The nature of the game requires you have one hand free for tapping at all times. I tried several different ways to interface with the game. The most preferable of which was placing my iPad on a table to free up both hands, but that isn't always possible. Holding the device with one hand and tapping with the other soon game some wrist ache. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but Fury’s constant action in the later stages requires several minutes of concentration at a time. This problem is somewhat alleviated by the iPhone edition, though in that case the smaller screen poses problems of its own.

Score 7/10

Gameplay

+ Fun, fast action

- Uncomfortable after prolonged play

Graphics

+ Smooth 3D effect stages

+ Good element effects

Sound

+ Apt music and sound

Warner Bros Blogger Event*

*Originally posted on 7bitarcade.com

Entertainment giants Warner Brothers recently opened their London studio doors to a select group of bloggers and budding gaming journalists to showcase their latest games, movies and apps. 7Bit sent me down from the lofty heights of our Midlands Division to have a peek and report back on my findings.

Apps

Brought to you via Apple's AppStore, Warner have produced several apps based on their recent and upcoming films. Showcased on an iPad 2, I was shown the app for the Harry Potter films. Essentially, the freemium app is a bunch of bonus content with the likes of behind-the-scenes videos and photos as well as some trivia. There was also extra paid-for-content that, rather surprisingly, wasn’t unlocked for me to view.

I was allowed to play about with the app for a bit, but I found loading times on the videos and even photos quite lengthy and the content quite lacklustre. It’s the kind of stuff I would expect to see on a special features disc. There were some other branded apps on show, but these were carbon copies of the Harry Potter app and very little extra to talk about.

Movies

I think the most surprising element of the event was the selection of films on show, of which there was only one of note, Yogi Bear. We were allowed to watch a segment approximately five minutes long from the start of the film. It seemed your typical child friendly affair, lots of slapstick humour and some good CGI-FMV integration. I didn’t see enough of the film to review it, but adult fans of the original cartoon will probably want to give it a miss. The actors don’t seem to be have been trained on acting with characters who aren’t really there and deliver quite a poor experience, while the humour is aimed directly at kids with little or no adult fun included. On the plus side, the active 3D glasses and TV it was shown on looked fantastic.

Gaming

On show for the gaming side of things we had Batman: Arkham City, Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 and Lord of the Rings War in the North (all of which are now in shops and ready for purchase)

Batman: Arkham City

Rocksteady’s sequel to the massive success that was Batman: Arkham Asylum, B:AC sees the B-Man entering a newly cordoned off section of Gotham. The premise is simple, all the supervillians and their idiot cronies (plus a few political prisoners) have been banged up and Batman has to keep the peace. Fans of the first game, and Batman in general, are going to LOVE this game. Absolutely everything you liked about B:AA has been improved upon in some way or another.

Top of that list is the Riddler trophies, of which there are now 400. Each one could be simple to solve or require some pinpoint control to obtain the reward. There’s also a reason to finish them this time (bar gamerscore) as Nigma has kidnapped civilians and will kill them unless Bats gets his detective on.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7

I have been a fan of the Lego games since Lego Star Wars and have played almost every iteration released since then. It’s fair to say I know my way around the Travellers Tales franchise quite well. So much so that I managed to sneak the preview code into ‘free play’ mode (rather than the story mode everyone else was getting shown) without alarm bells being triggered. All the regular functions return with the same button set up that is tried and true. There are a few new powers introduced to show the progression in the young students skills and a few new characters from the books but the rest is largely unchanged. Indeed, even the old problems still exist. One major downfall of the series has been the inability of player two being able to unlock progression achievements/trophies with player one. Fans of the series will like it, everyone else won’t. But I think Warner Bros and Travellers Tales know that already.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North

Previous LotR games have been fairly poor. While setting an interactive experience in a world as rich as Tolkiens’ Middle Earth is always an attractive proposition - in reality its been quite difficult for the developers that have had the cojones to try.

For this iteration, Snowblind Studios have the reins (which is quite exciting for me as I was a massive Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance fan)and have decided to opt for a completely non-canon story. The first thing you notice is the age rating, receiving a 15 from the BBFC. That makes it the most adult themed LotR game to date, a fact that is translated to the screen from the off with bloody battle effects.

Gameplay sees you controlling one of three protagonists (a human, a dwarf or an elf) either offline with AI or online with two others. I think this will be the key to the enjoyment of a game that is otherwise another one button hack em up. The combination of skills across the roles should provide some tactical elements against particular foes.

The problem with the latter two games is they won’t be able to hold their own against the mass of heavyweight titles being released in the run up to Christmas. Still, at least they’ll be cheap in the January sales.

The drop in event came to an end for me around two after arrival, as by then I felt I had seen everything on offer. It’s a shame there wasn’t more there. Even so - in the gaming world anyway - there is some great stuff coming out of Warner in Q4 this year.

Where have all the good games gone?

The summer lull seems to occur almost annually these days. All the big developers are holding back their giant triple-A titles until the Christmas period. Nothing is being released, nothing is being announced. What can a gamer do with a distinct lack of new and interesting titles? If you’re anything like me, then you’ll be hitting the growing stack of unfinished games you’ve been accruing over the last few months. This blog post is dedicated to all the old games I’m playing at the moment that are seeing me through the dry spell until my next major purchase (Battlefield 3, Hoorah!).

Oscar Mike to the first game, The Tomb Raider Trilogy (alas only on PS3). This pack rams Legend, Anniversary and Underworld onto one Bluray Disc of glory. In addition, the former two have been given the HD treatment. Before I picked up the pack, I’d only really ever played the demos so I was shocked to find three great games for a really low price. Well worth a look for any PS3 owner!

I’ve also gone back to Mass Effect 2 to tidy up loose ends and complete all the downloadable content released in the games lifetime. One such mission, The Arrival, is designed to bridge the gap in story between ME2 and the 3rd instalment in the series due out next year. It’s been fantastic to get back into the game as it’s easily one of my favourite games ever made!

My girlfriend loves a game or two but it’s very rare we get to play together. I like driving games, she doesn’t. I like music games, she doesn’t. I like deep RPG’s, she doesn’t. But what we both like is shooting stuff in the face. Enter Borderlands, the highpaced openworld shooterRPG. The great thing about this game is the coop. We can work together if we like, or just run about shooting stuff. Many an hour has been sunk into world of Pandora and its vast amount loot and enemies with faces to shoot.

And finally, in lieu of what will undoubtedly be my game of 2011, I’ve been playing multiplayer Battlefield Bad Company 2. I’m not a massive fan of most multiplayer games as they make me angry and I REALLY hate to lose. For some reason though, Battlefield is different. It’s more strategic and team orientated than other shooters and it feels slightly more rooted in the real world. So if you lose it’s because the other team were genuinely better than you, rather than just opened fire from the hip at the right time.

Of course, as an alternative to the above, you could enjoy the summer snooze by putting the controller down and getting out in the sun. Ah hell, who am I kidding? Who needs sunshine anyway?

What do you have in your To Be Complete pile? What are you dying to have released?
Leave a comment below and let me know!