Gamezebo
Open main menu
Search

Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.
  • Thor: The Dark World Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Thor: The Dark World Review

    By

    If ever there was a Marvel superhero crying out for an awesome video game, it has to be Thor. I mean, we're not talking about some guy in tights; he's the freaking Norse God of Thunder! A really good Thor game should make you feel like you could put the tablet down and go lift Mjolnir yourself. I'm sad to say that despite a game effort by Gameloft, Thor: The Dark World does not quite prove itself one of the worthy.It's hard to say exactly what kind of game Thor: The Dark World is supposed to be. Sometimes that's good, as coloring outside of the normal genre lines is always welcome. It's not so good when the game is hard to categorize because the parts don't all fit together. In this case, there's a narrative, nicely animated and voice acted. No problems there, as the production values are first rate - and they should be, because this game is taking up a lot of memory for a mobile game. Loki is scheming for the throne of Asgard, as always, but there's also a threat from a group called the Marauders (not the X-Men villains, alas). Thor is on the case, and he's got help.Maybe too much help, honestly. Yes, these are Asgardian threats menacing five of the Nine Worlds and not Earth criminals, but Thor gets a ton of assistance. Some comes in the form of allies like the Warriors Three, Sif, and Heimdall. There's also the Asgardian answer to cannon fodder in the Einherjar, consisting of NPC fighters, Valkyrie, and other Norse warriors you can spawn to fight alongside you.
  • Echo Prime Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Echo Prime Review

    By

    It's been said that in space, no one can hear you scream. Supposedly it has something to do with science. But there can be echoes in space, at least according to Echo Prime, a sci-fi action game by Robot Entertainment. The echoes in this case are much cooler than simple reflections of sound, helping to make an otherwise run of the mill slash-and-blast fest into something a little more enjoyable.Though there's nothing immediately memorable about the protagonist of Echo Prime, he at least sports a character model that appeals to the little kid in all of us. Or as an actual little kid (my five-year-old son, to be specific) put it, "He looks like a guy in a robot suit with a gun and a sword!" His job is to set things right for humanity, or something of that nature, and fend off enemies called Slivers.The laser pistol and sword come in pretty handy for doing that, but the real alien-dispatching fun comes from Echoes, which are beings from another dimension who grant your hero special abilities thanks to a weakened barrier between planes. These can be passive or active and come in just about every flavor: simple buffs, heals, additional attacks, the whole enchilada.As your space warrior levels up, he can take more than one Echo into battle at a time, and they can be swapped out before each stage. On top of that, one extra Echo can be tapped into from another random player or a friend, adding both extra strategic options and an organic way to make the game more social. Other game developers, please take note.
  • Real Steel World Robot Boxing Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Real Steel World Robot Boxing Review

    By

    The Hugh Jackman flick Real Steel made $85 million domestically with its "What if Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots was a real thing?" concept. That may or may not be enough money to warrant a sequel, but Reliance Games feels there's more life in the franchise to make Real Steel: World Robot Boxing for iOS and Android. It's free-to-play, simple to learn, and full of cool visuals, but some unfortunate design decisions keep it from being a knockout.Set after the events of the movie (and knowledge of the film is absolutely not necessary), World Robot Boxing features Atom, Noisy Boy, Midas, and some of the franchise's other stars, but also expands both the scope and the cast of characters. Your ultimate goal is to dethrone Zeus, the WRB champion, by fighting your way through multiple increasingly difficult circuits of robot fighters. Three bots are yours to choose from to start, with a fourth available if you can convince a friend to play too."Let's get the obvious part out of the way: boxing robots is just a flat out awesome idea, and one that appeals to the five-year-old boy or girl in all of us. This game doesn't disappoint in its efforts to bring those clashes to life, sporting better graphics than the first Real Steel mobile game and some creative robot designs. The themes are great - there's a football-inspired fighter, one with a blackjack motif, a cowboy bot with arms shaped like six-shooters, and more.Pitting them against each other is fairly straightforward, with a virtual d-pad on the left and buttons on the right. Boxing is a strictly 2D affair here, which limits you to punching and blocking, but there's still some strategy required as you look to counter when your opponent's guard is down. The game doesn't explain this fully, but pressing the pad while hitting the light or heavy attack buttons throws a slightly different kind of punch for each direction, so there are more options than it may initially appear.
  • CSR Classics Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    CSR Classics Review

    By

    Kids these days, they just don't appreciate the classics. Well, CSR Classics is going to teach those whippersnappers about the oldies but goodies - and in a slightly more suspect lesson, something about racing in the streets as well. It's all in good fun though, as this free-to-play follow-up to the original CSR Racing challenges you to both drive fast and fix up classic cars. Now get off my lawn!Born from the same companies that brought you its predecessor (namely Boss Alien and NaturalMotion Games), CSR Classics sticks pretty close to the same formula while adding an additional focus on restoring once-beautiful older rides to their former glory. That's because you can acquire cars in either "Loved" or "Unloved" form, with the latter option costing considerably less but also giving you a vehicle that needs some work in pretty much every area: body, engine, tires, you name it."Fortunately you begin play with enough cash to snag a Tier 1 car, providing you with your introduction to the apparently hot world of underground street racing between classic car aficionados. The guys and gals in the crews you have to defeat even talk like they're still living in a previous decade, and they scold you if you show up in a beater.Of course that's basically what you're doing until you master the gameplay and have a few wins under your belt. Since these are drag races, you don't have to worry about pesky things like steering or braking. Going fast is strictly a matter of timing and reflexes, as every vehicle has optimal launch and shift points, and tapping the gas or the paddle shifter at the perfect moment is the key to victory. There's also nitrous for a little extra boost, though I don't think that came standard in mid-20th Century cars. (Note to the GZ editors: please have one of our interns check on that!)
  • Dead Man’s Draw Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Dead Man’s Draw Review

    By

    Nothing's quite as much fun as when a developer surprises you with something totally outside of its normal comfort zone. Like, how much fun would it be if Rockstar made a casual party game? Okay, maybe that's not the best example, but Stardock did something almost as intriguing by taking some time off from 4X strategy games to create Dead Man's Draw. If pirates had iOS devices in the golden age of seafaring, it's easy to imagine them playing this card game that tests your wits and nerve in equal amounts.The object of Dead Man's Draw is deceptively simple: have more points than your opponent once you finish drawing cards and the deck is gone. But this is no ordinary deck. It's got 10 suits, all of which are suitably piratey (if that's a word) things like treasure chests, hooks, cannons, and mermaids. Each suit contains only the numbers two through seven, and only the highest card that you hold in each suit at the end of the game counts toward your total score."On your turn, you can draw as many cards as you want, provided no two are from the same suit. Doing that immediately ends your turn and sends everything you've drawn to that point to the discard pile. Stop in time and you add all of the cards you've drawn to your collection, with your score changing to reflect any high cards in each suit.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War Review
    Reviews
    Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War Review

    By

    It seems sort of blasphemous to say, but old Captain Jack Sparrow got overexposed. Sure, we all love Johnny Depp's eccentric rogue; it's just that he wears on you after seeing him in four movies, video games, and everything else Disney has devised. Ironically, Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War could use more of Captain Jack or his friends to keep it from turning into just another social RPG/builder with a pirate theme - which it does a little too often.The shame of it is that the game starts out with oh so much promise. Right after we learn that Isles of War is set before Curse of the Black Pearl, we get a quick reintroduction to Sparrow while we're learning the click-and-drag controls so we can navigate the high seas. In classic Pirates fashion, Jack ends up deciding that discretion is the better part of valor the first time there's trouble, forcing the "Two Brave Heroes" chapter to become "One Brave Hero" as he heads the other way. With the familiar music from the films playing in the background, it sets the perfect tone as you begin your adventures."A double cross ensues, naturally, and without giving too much away, let's just say you end up in need of a ship and Sparrow possibly requires rescuing. That's when we get down to business learning the builder side of the game, as you set up shop on an island that needs your aid as much as you need its resources. There's really not much new to see here: you build structures to increase your stores of lumber and iron, while erecting defenses on the island and researching new ships and cannons.
  • Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    • PC
    Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign Review

    By

    If the Marvel super heroes knew all they had to do to defeat all kinds of villains was to beat them at match-3, they'd probably be a lot less angst-ridden. To date, no comic book writer has actually decided to act on this idea, but Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign comes close. Taking the core gameplay from Puzzle Quest and fusing it with the video game version of an actual comics storyline might sound strange, but it actually comes together pretty well.Taking the baton from other Marvel mobile and social games like Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Marvel Puzzle Quest takes place after The Pulse, which sounds like something from Dimension Films but is actually a mysterious event that introduced the world to Isotope-8 (or just ISO-8, for short). The new element can make super-powered folks even stronger, and is thus coveted pretty highly by the forces of evil.Though you only get a cursory introduction to all of this if you haven't played the other games, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been keeping tabs on ISO-8. The new twist here is that Norman Osborn, the artist formerly known as the Green Goblin, has wormed his way into a position of power, and his H.A.M.M.E.R. organization has booted Nick Fury and company out of favor with the world's governments. This can all be a little overwhelming if you aren't versed in the source material, which might be the game's most glaring weakness.
  • Fates Forever Preview
    Upcoming
    • Android
    • iOS
    Fates Forever Preview

    By

    If it's possible for a wide-eyed dreamer and a logic-minded pragmatist to coexist in the same brain, you can find them in the mind of Jason Citron. You can hear both sides of this seemingly oxymoronic arrangement emerge when listening to him talk about his current company, Hammer & Chisel, and the game he's hoping will have core gamers logging hours of play on their tablets, Fates Forever.Citron's status as a visionary in the mobile gaming space is undeniable. As the founder and CEO of Aurora Feint, he was a bona fide App Store pioneer, getting the game of the same name into the very first wave of apps to hit the storefront. He's probably even better known as the developer of OpenFeint, the late, mostly lamented social platform that was purchased by GREE in 2011 only to be shut down 20 months later.With time and money to plan his next venture, it wasn't long before Citron got the itch to dive back into gaming. But as a self-described core gamer, he has a different goal in mind for Hammer & Chisel. He wants to prove that the same kind of experience that people have come to expect from consoles or PCs is possible on tablets.