Starting off a review with a rhetorical question might be a little passe, but here's one anyway: Can a game be unabashedly retro yet forward thinking at the same time? Actually that might not be rhetorical, because in Space by the one-man indie shop Ysty Games qualifies on both counts. It's a quirky space shooter that marries a minimalist aesthetic with challenging and potentially unlimited gameplay, pretty much taking less is more to a whole new plane.
In Her Interactive's 27th installment in the Nancy Drew franchise, we see our master sleuth investigating a cold case in the equally cold mountains of Colorado. Locked away in a Tesla-inspired laboratory are secrets surrounding the murder of a brilliant scientist, killed by a device with which Nancy must become incredibly familiar with along the way. The hunt for clues is on.
I love playing an iOS game that really embraces the strengths of the touch-screen interface, instead of trying to force other control schemes onto it. Sure, some of the dual-stick shooters or FPS games turn out fine. Heck, even a few of the platformers are good. But there's nothing like playing a game on the iPad that simply couldn't exist on another system, one perfectly suited to the device. Finger Tied is just such a game.
The puzzle masters at Kieffer Bros. (Aqueduct) would like to have a word with you...or maybe even several, if you think you're up to the challenge. In their upcoming Spell Rift - an all new word searching adventure for the iPad - you'll be dragging and dropping your way through A to Z on a quest to find secret words that are hidden in a jumbled, mystical alphabet soup. The longer the word you find, the higher your score, and the better your bonus.
As public domain, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland has been adapted many times. Over-the-top movies, theme park attractions, macabre games...we've just about seen it all. Despite their differences, however, there's one thing all creative interpretations of the novel seem to have in common: Alice is the star. Enter A Wonderland Story: a puzzler which reminds us that they don't call it the rabbit hole for nothing.
Lost in Night is one match-three game that feels odd from the very beginning. It entirely lacks an introduction or cutscenes, and instead throws you straight into one of three match-three modes. After just a few levels, it becomes clear that Lost in Night's attempted inspiration are the games in the Cradle Of Rome series, as your main challenge is to build a cute and whimsical town on a grassy knoll. However, with limited instructions and no real depth of which to speak, this is one experience that's hard to cradle.
Girls Like Robots. And nerds like girls. Robots hate pie. June likes bugs. Got it? Hope so, because in this simple yet challenging and surprisingly addictive logic game, it's up to you to keep everybody happy, and that means you have to keep it all straight.
Can friendship bloom on a battlefield? Maybe that depends on the battlefield and the type of war being fought. For example, a battle of wits and knowledge might not yield as many hard feelings as a battle of blades and bullets, but many of us still like our intellectual fights to have a bit of a nip. Battle Sudoku Against Friends from 6waves is a good compromise. It's built on the serene basics of Sudoku, but it throws in a dash of sabotage and a few land mines.