Some people just want to watch the world burn. Others just want to shoot it up. If you fall into this latter category, you'll no doubt find the latest offer on Gamezebo Deals to be $4.99 well spent.For just a penny under a fiver, The iShooter Gamer Bundle offers Steam keys for Sanctum, Tower Wars, Cubemen and Bleed. Whether your idea of shooting is first-person, tower-based, or side-scrolling mayhem, there's a little something for everyone in this package.Trigger finger getting itchy? Pick this one up at Gamezebo Deals today!
Tonight's Twitch broadcast is a little bit later than usual, but hey - the only constant in life in change. If you haven't joined us before on a Thursday, maybe our evening edition will fit your schedule a little more conveniently! We'll be checking out the latest iOS game releases to hit the App Store today (Thursday's kinda popular for that), and would love for you to join us.Sit back, grab some popcorn, and jump in the chat. IT'S GO TIME, INTERNET FRIENDS!(and don't worry - if you miss the live broadcast, we'll be sure to share the archived version right here once it's over). Watch live video from Gamezebo on TwitchTVUPDATE: This week's show is over, but you can view the archived version above. Be sure to follow us on Twitch to be notified the next time we go live.
Sometimes the biggest explosions onto the mobile gaming scene come in the form of the newcomers. Wormhole Games is a new mobile development studio formed by two ex-employees and visionaries of Funzio, the studio responsible for smash successes like Crime City and Modern War before being sold to GREE last year in a multi-million dollar deal. I recently had a chance to speak with Jamil Moledina, CEO and Creative Director, and James Kelm, COO and Executive Producer at Wormhole Games, to find out about the studio's debut game, Tank Nation, and what it was like to start over from scratch with all of the vigor and innovation of a brand new startup studio.Now working within a small development team of only 12 people, Moledina and Kelm are embracing their new status as a startup company, as they prepare to release their first game into the world today. As they tell me, startup companies like Wormhole Games have an extra advantage being new to the scene: in that they are better able to take calculated risks, and to experiment with new and different ideas that seasoned companies might start to shy away from once a few titles get under their belts."But rather than trying to recreate something that's already been done, or copying the latest game to hit #1 on the App Store, Moledina and Kelm's goal with their first game was to take an already successful concept in gaming, and introduce it into a brand new area of the industry: in this case, the mobile platform. They point out Rovio's Angry Birds as an example of taking a gameplay mechanic like artillery firing and making it so simple that everyone from your grandma to your little nephew can understand it within minutes of playing. To this end, their first game would need to be broadly accessible, while still offering a long-term level of depth to satisfy the hardcore gaming crowd.
Why are you still reading this? Did you miss the headline? *Sigh.* Ok, for those of you who insist on an explanation, here it is:Oceanhorn is a Zelda-inspired mobile adventure that has blown our collective socks off here at Gamezebo. It's now available to the public ($8.99 on iTunes), and while we've been playing it for a few days, we don't quite have a review ready yet to sell you on why this is an absolute must-buy.Is it because we're lazy? Normally I'd say yes, but with Oceanhorn, it's because the game is just that @#$%ing big. I'm four hours in, and the game tells me I'm only 17% complete. A lot of that could be sidequesting and bonus play, but even so, story-wise it feels like I'm only a third of the way through. For a mobile game, that's a lot. That's like the App Store gaming equivalent of War and Peace."We have a review in the works. It's coming. But I can't do it right now - because I'm too busy playing Oceanhorn. Want a spoiler? You should be too. Snag it here.
Don't you just hate it when there are so many amazing new iOS games coming to the App Store all on the very same night that you can't possibly decide which one that you're going to play first? Sure, you can certainly download them all at the very same time, but you'll still be forced to choose one and only one to start with (unless of course you find some way to play three different iPads all at once, which in that case, the more power to you!).Well this always difficult decision couldn't apply more to tonight's amazing batch of brand new mobile games: from a magical adventure that rivals even Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda console games, to a highly-refined monster collecting RPG, to a mobile port of one of the most popular strategy Flash games that we've seen in recent years. There's no doubt that you'll want to be buying them all, but which one of these games will you be booting up first tonight? Be sure to let us know in the replies!
I've always been a big believer in the "short and sweet" mantra when it comes to taking anything in moderation. Who wants to watch a three-hour movie when they can watch a three-minute YouTube video instead? Who wants to read 80 pages of introductory content to this Replay Wednesday article when a slim three paragraphs will more than suffice?So in following this short and sweet fashion, this week's list may not have a lot to it, but everything it does have reeks of all sorts of awesomeness. This week brings a few new hidden object adventures for you to investigate on your iPhone and iPad, including Eternal Journey: New Atlantis and Dark Dimensions: Wax Beauty, and an epic strategy card game to engulf your PC in all sorts of might and magic (or mighty magic, if you prefer)."
We're big fans of innovation in mobile games here at Gamezebo, and Somethin' Else's Papa Sangre II not only made us use our smartphones and tablets in exciting new ways this past Halloween, but the game itself was unlike anything we've ever experienced before. A horror game that's told completely through the use of sound, Papa Sangre II has players putting on headphones, closing their eyes, and spinning around to face whatever sounds are lurking out there in the darkness. It is a truly fascinating thing to behold, and even more so when you try to imagine just how Somethin' Else went about creating this modern masterpiece in mobile gaming.I recently had a chance to interview Nicky Birch, the Head of Products at Somethin' Else, who served as the Executive Producer on Papa Sangre II, and also managed the internal marketing and promotion of the audio-only horror game. We discussed everything from the challenges of making a strictly audio video game, to working with actor Sean Bean, who provides the voice of the game's eerily haunting narrator. But as you might expect from a team whose game is shrouded in all kinds of darkness and mystery, not everything about Papa Sangre himself could be brought into the light over the course of this interview. After all, what fun would that be?"You can read the full interview with Birch just below this paragraph, and be sure to check out my 5-star review of the incredibly innovative Papa Sangre II right over here. And of course, I encourage everyone reading to give the game a spin for yourselves: that is, if you're not afraid of the unnerving scratches of the mindlice growing closer in the distance, or fleeing for your life (err, death) through the black recesses of your very own mind.
Video games have the ability to change a person's brain, but the myth is that it's for the worse. It has long been suggested that gaming negatively impacts our children. The press consistently focuses on the negative aspects of video games: the correlation with "rotting" the brain, encouraging aggressive behavior, promoting anti-social behavior and the list goes on. Must we always look at the downside of something we are not altogether familiar with?For countless reasons, parents and teachers are hesitant to use gaming technology in the classroom. As both a parent and veteran teacher of 14 years, I've had numerous discussions with colleagues who consider video games as simply "mindless" fun. But, those critics are unaware that the touchscreen taps, mouse clicks and joystick jiggles can help sharpen cognitive skills.Edu-gaming—a now-popular concept that integrates games with education—disputes the theory that video games will rot children's brains. A recent and compelling article by writer Nic Fleming discusses how educational games are proven to help people see better, learn more quickly, develop greater mental focus, become more spatially aware, estimate more accurately and multi-task more effectively.As the current lead for reading engagement innovation at Evanced Games (a company that designs influential educational mobile game apps for kids), I spend time each week playing edu-games with children in their school environments. This gives me firsthand experience with the benefits of video games. When played with a purpose, video games are important tools for helping kids take the skills they learn in school and build upon them further after the school day ends.