I had first heard about Nidhogg back in 2011 when it was the recipient of the very first Nuovo Award. Every year at the Independent Games Festival, one title manages to rise above the rest and win the Nuovo for being the best abstract, shortform, or unconventional game presented to the judges that year. With a medal like that hanging around its neck, you'd better believe that I had to get my hands on it.…only I couldn't.Years passed, and as much as I wanted to try Nidhogg, the game remained an exhibition piece only. Friends and colleagues would go hands on at events and tell me how fantastic it was. I'd read articles that threw around terms like "perfect game." But at the end of the day, it seemed like Nidhogg and I just weren't meant to be.That all changed today when developer Messhof unshackled their game from its exhibition-only chains, launching Nidhogg on Steam for the masses. And yes - it was very much worth the wait.
Shiva: The Time Bender, the new endless runner from Tiny Mogul Games, works well as an introduction to the genre, but its lack of difficulty and shallow gameplay could turn off seasoned fans hoping for more substance.In Shiva: TTB, time may be the only thing on your side, as legions of enemies from history's most pitfall ridden locations do their worst in an attempt to thwart a punk rock caveman from capturing a plethora of crystal orbs littering the timescape…or something like that. The narrative isn't very important here, but it does tie in nicely with the game's main mechanic.The gameplay here is pretty standard stuff. Shiva - your player character - jogs, hops, and slays his way through time and space, all the while collecting brightly shining orbs that can be used to upgrade his appearance or weaponry by using the in-game market.The controls should be instantly familiar to anyone who has played an endless runner for a decent length of time: Tapping the left side of your touchscreen causes our green haired protag to hop in the air, and tapping the right side causes him to swing his mighty trident at any manner of foe that stands in his way. And what happens if he misses one of those swings or jumps? That's where the Time Bender mechanic comes into play.
Mechs Warfare is a first-person mech battle game created by GAME GRAFT INC. In it, you'll purchase new mechs, customize the weapons and equipment of your mechs, and battle it out against other players online. Gamezebo's quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game."
Surprise, surprise—a licensed mobile game conveniently released to coincide with the near-future opening of the film on which it's based has proven to be subpar. Such is RoboCop from Glu Games. You are Alex Murphy, a good cop and even better lover who was terribly injured and then six-million-dollar-man'd into a futuristic cyborg cop ready to police a world in which robot violence has become commonplace. And though it would probably be sweet if the city of Detroit just let you out on your own to, y'know, slay criminals, you're going to have to train via a series of incredibly lifelike simulations to hone your coppin' and killin' skills before you do any of that.For a film series that is, for all intents and purposes, over the top and god-awful, RoboCop is oddly beloved. As such, most of the buzz we've heard about the upcoming reboot has been negative and/or bewildered, but despite this and the obvious B-movie air with which the films carry themselves, trailers for the upcoming action flick look pretty damn cool. Sadly, this level of high-quality action set-pieces meets bazonkers plot doesn't translate so well into a game so clearly rushed to release in order to capitalize on the possible success of the film.Admittedly, the gritty, urban environments found within RoboCop are not bad. Certainly there are more beautiful games to behold, but for its stand-and-shoot mechanics, the look and feel of each area serves its purpose well. These are some of the better lighting effects and detailed character models to be found within the App Store's 3D shooter stable, and it is undeniably satisfying to line up and execute a headshot on some bespectacled (seriously, a lot of these dudes have glasses) enemies. RoboCop himself looks pretty detailed, but what kind of world are we living in when the hero of a game seems to have had more development attention than gameplay? I guess that this is actually not all that uncommon, but still…it's weird.
When playing a game for review, I frequently find myself asking "Why?" Why did the developers include or exclude certain features? Why are the controls set up the way they are? Why is my battery almost dead when I'm pretty sure I charged this thing last night? It's important to ask these questions, and receiving answers is necessary in developing a well-rounded view of a game. There are some instances where your ultimate answer will be "I don't know." Once in a while, this answer is fine. In the case of Mechs Warfare, it's the constant answer, and the game suffers because of it.Mechs Warfare (that is not an accidental pluralization) continues the growing trend of large vehicles of destruction battling one another for our entertainment. When I first started playing, I asked myself "Why mechs instead of tanks, spaceships, androids, or monsters?" I don't know why there are mechs. As I played, nothing made me think "Mechs were the best choice." The game is set up with two mechs on opposite sides of a circle. Each one walks on its own, while the players tilt their device to look around and tap each side of the screen to fire the respective side's weapon."It's both fun and challenging to aim with the tilt controls, but every battle is a challenge to see who can land the most shots first. The lack of any real defensive play is baffling. Certain power-ups help that, but not enough to change the game. Why does Mechs Warfare mostly ignore defensive play? I'm not sure. It certainly manages to make the core gameplay simpler without having to worry about movement. Sadly, the trade-off is a game that is quick to get boring. It's tough for me to want to play more than one round in a sitting.Helping to make Mechs Warfare feel more unique is synchronous multiplayer. The game plays well over both my mobile (4G LTE) and Wi-Fi connections, though the latter was much smoother. Synchronous multiplayer is a wonderful decision, but also the only one. There are no single-player or pseudo-multiplayer options as is common in mobile games. Why? I don't know. One of the most unique portions to the game also turns into its biggest flaw once you realize that you are solely dependent on other players to play the game.
Labelling Castle Doombad as a tower defense game is simultaneously accurate and erroneous. On one hand, you're certainly defending a tower. On the other hand, it's not the well-being of the tower that ultimately matters. The real point of Castle Doombad is to protect its most precious cargo, its princess, from being rescued by meddling heroes.The awesomely-named Dr. Lord Evilstein has spirited away a generic princess and imprisoned her in his tower. Now he's being harassed by dozens of generic warriors that want to get her back. Dr. Lord Evilstein is safe in the uppermost floors of his tower, but if the princess is rescued and whisked outside his domain, he's finished.Castle Doombad is a tower defense game, but it has a few personality quirks that separate it from the gargantuan herd that already roams the App Store. Playing as a bad guy is just one difference, and it's admittedly a hoot. Who doesn't want to command a tower full of devious traps and evil minions?More importantly, you're able to mix and match traps, which truly lets you customize your play style. Your choices are auto traps, manual traps, and minions. Auto traps are traditional tower defense fare like spike floors and arrow launchers, though you can also opt for ceiling hazards like acid-drippers and alien tentacles. Manual traps, like a huge weight that drops from the ceiling, pack a powerful punch, but need to be activated manually and come with a long cooldown.
If anyone ever figures out how to make the mobile equivalent of the popular online game World of Tanks, they stand to make a boatload of money, possibly even with a capital 'B.' The thing is, no one has quite been able to execute that game's quality and precision on touchscreens. Battle Supremacy by Atypical Games and Revo Games is the latest to give it a shot, but despite some worthy efforts, it's still no mobile substitute for the real thing.It's certainly not for a lack of visual oomph. Battle Supremacy looks gorgeous, if that's an appropriate word for a game featuring rolling death machines. From the tanks themselves to the little flourishes like butterflies and snow, the developers did things right. The introductions and cutscenes during the solo missions are notable highlights, made to look like old war footage in all its sepia-toned antiquity.Yes, I said solo missions, which is something not all games like this have. The first one even serves as a tutorial, though you'll have to find it yourself as it's the first of many features that goes unexplained. Each mission gives you several AI partners to help you tackle multiple objectives. The lone drawback is that you don't know how long each mission will last, giving you no way to tell if you can go for broke or play things more cautiously.Completing solo missions gets you experience points to improve your rank - needed to unlock the game's eight tanks - and upgrade points to improve the main gun, armor, engine, treads and radar. You can see how each upgrade affects your stats before you buy, and the points are universal, so you can spend them on any tank you're able to use. Unlike World of Tanks, there's no real life equipment involved, simply boosts to the gear you've got.
Here's a timely lesson straight from the just-ended holiday season: empty calories can taste really, really good. Sure, you might regret that extra helping of stuffing or second desert, but not while you're eating it. Glu Mobile's Eternity Warriors 3 is something like that, a gluttonous serving of free-to-play action-RPG carnage that provides little nutritional value but tempts you to keep coming back for more.At the risk of stretching that opening analogy to the breaking point, one of the ingredients in the Eternity Warriors 3 recipe is a story. That is, there's a reason you're taking your Warrior or Monk and pitting them against hordes of enemies in Diablo-esque fashion. It's just not that important. Consider it a garnish, there for presentation purposes only."The real meat is in hacking and slashing your way through dungeons, and the game gets you into the action quickly, teaching what you need to know along the way. The controls are simple, and despite my general disdain for virtual thumbsticks, this one is responsive enough to deal with the fast-paced combat. A large button handles basic attacks with smaller ones for skills, which draw down your mana and also have cooldown timers.There's nothing subtle about what you're asked to do in each level, which is eliminate undead, demons, wolves, and other monsters in the shortest possible time - and you're actually graded on how fast you can clear them all out. Mini-bosses in the final zone of most levels are a little tougher, and the actual bosses of the three kingdoms provide nice challenges. Mostly though, it's quantity over quality, putting your reflexes to the test against waves of enemies.