Burger Time -- connect 3 gameplay linked with assembling orders... Hmmm... Beginning was too easy, later it's way too hard. It's not balanced properly, IMHO. Extra stuff distracts rather than adds to the gameplay. It's not as good as it could be.
Crash Nitro Kart -- Crash Bandicoot must race for the fate of the universe again, in a bit-mapped 3D (think Outrun) way. You also get weapons and traps (and shields) and boost pads and nitro charges (1 per lap). The point is the get most points for the championship. it's okay, but only 9 courses? Hmmm....
Armageddon Squadron -- 3rd person 3D WW2 aerial shooter comes to mobile. Think "Heroes of the Pacific" or such 3rd person flight sims, but on a mobile, with some anachronistic stuff like guided AA missiles, and modern aircraft carriers, and you got AS. Looks good, only got past first set of missions so far.
Mobile Battles: Reigh of Swords -- combination of simple unit battles similar to Warlords, with massive online play. Play on the PC or the mobile (or both), finish the single player campaign and challenge rival players as you carve out your own fiefdom using variety of units. Upgrade them with the spoils of war, and see how far you can go! Can you unite the 12 kingdoms for King of Carronne?
Mobile Game Review of "Brain Tester 24-pack"
Digital Chocolate joins the fray of "brain tests" with Brain Tester 24-pack, that promises to test you in Memory, Logic, Spatial, and Perception. There's also the "Stupid Test". With stat tracking, 30 achievements to unlock, Gold, Silver, and Bronze level for each of the 24 tests, is this the ultimate in brain testing? Or is this more of an also-ran? I'm afraid it's more of the latter than the former.
Basically, you are given 6 tests in each of the four areas: Memory, Logic, Spatial, and Perception. The six tests are progressively harder, but the controls are usually very simple... left, or right, usually a Yes / No answer, or "choose left or right" answer. A perception test would give you three objects. The object in the middle could be a mirror of the object on the left, or right. Pick one, quickly. Spatial would have you guess if asteroids will go through the clouds, or hit the "buzzer" to intercept the bug crawling under the leaves. You have to hit the buzzer at the right time, not too early, and not too late.
While tests are usually pretty good, the spatial tests have some problems, as they are usually "make only 1 pass". If you hit ONE wrong move, it's pretty much all over. As is any interruptions such as incoming calls. The rest of the tests are merely average, and does not use the larger screen size vailable on the LG VX9900 enV. It also does not explain how the score is calculated, what depends on speed, what depends on right vs. wrong choice, and so on.
The game does have stat tracking. You can take a full test, which randomly picks a test from each of the four areas. The score goes into the "Hall of Fame". However, it isn't much fun if you don't know how you're scored. I can barely get up to 67%, even on my best days. On some of the tests I am scoring correct answer per second, which is about as fast as this can go, yet I can only score a SILVER medal. I think the timing / scoring in this game is messed up somewhere.
And the "stupid test"? It's more of a joke. And a few of the achievements was scoring differently on the stupid test. Whoopie-doo.
Sorry, but if I want my brain blasted I'd have more fun doing the Harry Potter School of Magic test than this one.
Overall: 6.5 out of 10 -- last of imagination, some tests MUCH harder than others
Basically, you are given 6 tests in each of the four areas: Memory, Logic, Spatial, and Perception. The six tests are progressively harder, but the controls are usually very simple... left, or right, usually a Yes / No answer, or "choose left or right" answer. A perception test would give you three objects. The object in the middle could be a mirror of the object on the left, or right. Pick one, quickly. Spatial would have you guess if asteroids will go through the clouds, or hit the "buzzer" to intercept the bug crawling under the leaves. You have to hit the buzzer at the right time, not too early, and not too late.
While tests are usually pretty good, the spatial tests have some problems, as they are usually "make only 1 pass". If you hit ONE wrong move, it's pretty much all over. As is any interruptions such as incoming calls. The rest of the tests are merely average, and does not use the larger screen size vailable on the LG VX9900 enV. It also does not explain how the score is calculated, what depends on speed, what depends on right vs. wrong choice, and so on.
The game does have stat tracking. You can take a full test, which randomly picks a test from each of the four areas. The score goes into the "Hall of Fame". However, it isn't much fun if you don't know how you're scored. I can barely get up to 67%, even on my best days. On some of the tests I am scoring correct answer per second, which is about as fast as this can go, yet I can only score a SILVER medal. I think the timing / scoring in this game is messed up somewhere.
And the "stupid test"? It's more of a joke. And a few of the achievements was scoring differently on the stupid test. Whoopie-doo.
Sorry, but if I want my brain blasted I'd have more fun doing the Harry Potter School of Magic test than this one.
Overall: 6.5 out of 10 -- last of imagination, some tests MUCH harder than others
Mobile Game Review of "Sushi Samurai"
Sushi Samurai hs you running a restaurant, cooking 30 different Asian dishes, from simple sushi to complicated Chinese and Asian dishes. You need to remember the ingredient list (in the proper sequence), then perform each of the minigames properly in order to create the perfect dish. There are five dishes per level. You start as a zero-dragon level chef. The objective is to be the best cook ever... the only one that go beyond 5-dragon chef... for the title of... Sushi Samurai!
The actual ingredient list is mostly based on reality, but also includes some oddities like "dragon oil" and "glacier water". At least the dishes are real sushi and Asian dishes, from tuna roll to cho-cho beef. The minigames are cutting (slice something in 2 equal portions), boiling (high / low / medium heat, or stir), stir-frying (up , down , left, or right) , barbequing / grilling (down, but not too far down to the fire), sprinkling (spicing), scooping (rice), and rolling (sushi or spring rolls).
So basically, you play a series of minigames with the ingredients, one at a time, until you assemble the whole dish. You are graded for each step. As long as you score above a certain threshold, you'll get the medal... jade (70-79), ivory (80-89), or gold (90-99). If you get 5 out of 5 dishes right, you'll get that dragon rating.
The minigames are well organized, appropriate for the ingredients and recipe, but it's all on reflex. The action is simple. Most are simple timing games... push OK when the knife appears to be over the cutting line, and things of that ilk. There is also a bit of memorization as you get to look at the ingredient and recipe ONCE before the start. You can peek once or twice later if you really need a reminder, but it'll cost you a penalty in the rating.
The animations are nice and clear, and cute. The music is okay, sounds vaguely oriental. The judges are all dressed in Japanese ceremonial robes, but they look like caricatures... appropriate for the genre, I guess.
All in all, Sushi Samurai is a non-violent game that is a combination of short memorization and combination of several reflex-based minigames, and a cooking theme. It is a bit of fun as you memorize ingredients and recipe, and play the various minigames in order to construct the dish. However, once you made it to the top, there's little reason to continue playing. And being all reflex-based game, it's not that interesting in the long run.
The game rates a 7.0. While the game itself is fun, with varied challenges, the challenges are all reflex based and very little memorization or strategy.
The actual ingredient list is mostly based on reality, but also includes some oddities like "dragon oil" and "glacier water". At least the dishes are real sushi and Asian dishes, from tuna roll to cho-cho beef. The minigames are cutting (slice something in 2 equal portions), boiling (high / low / medium heat, or stir), stir-frying (up , down , left, or right) , barbequing / grilling (down, but not too far down to the fire), sprinkling (spicing), scooping (rice), and rolling (sushi or spring rolls).
So basically, you play a series of minigames with the ingredients, one at a time, until you assemble the whole dish. You are graded for each step. As long as you score above a certain threshold, you'll get the medal... jade (70-79), ivory (80-89), or gold (90-99). If you get 5 out of 5 dishes right, you'll get that dragon rating.
The minigames are well organized, appropriate for the ingredients and recipe, but it's all on reflex. The action is simple. Most are simple timing games... push OK when the knife appears to be over the cutting line, and things of that ilk. There is also a bit of memorization as you get to look at the ingredient and recipe ONCE before the start. You can peek once or twice later if you really need a reminder, but it'll cost you a penalty in the rating.
The animations are nice and clear, and cute. The music is okay, sounds vaguely oriental. The judges are all dressed in Japanese ceremonial robes, but they look like caricatures... appropriate for the genre, I guess.
All in all, Sushi Samurai is a non-violent game that is a combination of short memorization and combination of several reflex-based minigames, and a cooking theme. It is a bit of fun as you memorize ingredients and recipe, and play the various minigames in order to construct the dish. However, once you made it to the top, there's little reason to continue playing. And being all reflex-based game, it's not that interesting in the long run.
The game rates a 7.0. While the game itself is fun, with varied challenges, the challenges are all reflex based and very little memorization or strategy.
Mobile Game Review of "Sid Meier's Civ IV: War of Two Cities"
Technically speaking, this mobile game has NOTHING to do with CIV4 on the PC at all. Instead, this game is a combination of Armor Alley (or for those who remember that far, Rescue Raiders), and Scorched Earth. On the other hand, this is one of those directions that the mobile market has not gone before, so at least they deserve some points for freshness.
In case you have never heard of Armor Alley or Scorched Earth... Here's an explanation.
The "playing field" is 2D, almost like an antfarm. Each side's "base" sits at the respective end. You, the blue team, is on the far left, while the enemy, red team, is on the far right. In between are some mines (produce ores), some farms (produce food), some random forts, forests, and rise and fall of the terrain, dot the landscape.
The base gets a "city wall" that will stop any enemy, but it can be knocked down given enough damage. The objective is to get your unit to touch the enemy base, thus destroying it, and prevent enemy from doing the same to yours. There are also forts scattered around the landscape that can hold up the enemy, giving your artillery more killing power.
Your base can shoot its built-in artillery whenever the cannon bar (caused by ore build-up) is full. The more mines you have (and any bonus tech you have to improve mining) the faster the bar fills up. Similarly, the unit bar fills up at the rate that depends on by the amount of farms you have and what technology you have to boost food production. However, you get to decide how to use the bar by producing the three types of units: soldiers, shooters, and mobile units. Mobile units cost a LOT, but they will mow down ANY lesser unit. Shooters have a chance to kill anything at a distance (even mobile units) but are at mercy of soldiers. Soldiers are weak, but they are fast, and only they can capture farms and mines. You press 1, 2, or 3 to build soldier, shooter, or mobile respectively. As the "ages" changes, the actual units change, but the basic unit divisions remain the same.
Between battles won, you get to advance in technology, by picking one advance out of three separate areas... military, science, and engineering. They all affect something, from cheaper units, to units shooting further, to faster ore or food production (i.e. faster bar fill up), to tougher city walls, and so on.
You get four civs to choose from, each civ has a special bonus. Americans gets 1 bonus advance out of every 5 advances, while others have cheaper units, or starts with extra advances, and so on.
The battles are surprisingly tense, esp. on medium and hard levels, when the enemy artillery is more and more accurate.
The "trick" is to use your advantage in tech and exploit the advantage ruthlessly. If you have Feudalism, which leads to cheaper mobile units, then build more mobile units. If you have cheap infantry, build infantry, but keep an eye out on what the other guy is building as well. You can't win with your units alone.
All in all, while this game has very little to do with the Civ name, it is surprising fun to play and tense for the back-and-forth action as the line see-saws between the two extremes. If you like action-strategy games, you should give this at least a try.
I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10, for being different, and pretty good to play.
In case you have never heard of Armor Alley or Scorched Earth... Here's an explanation.
The "playing field" is 2D, almost like an antfarm. Each side's "base" sits at the respective end. You, the blue team, is on the far left, while the enemy, red team, is on the far right. In between are some mines (produce ores), some farms (produce food), some random forts, forests, and rise and fall of the terrain, dot the landscape.
The base gets a "city wall" that will stop any enemy, but it can be knocked down given enough damage. The objective is to get your unit to touch the enemy base, thus destroying it, and prevent enemy from doing the same to yours. There are also forts scattered around the landscape that can hold up the enemy, giving your artillery more killing power.
Your base can shoot its built-in artillery whenever the cannon bar (caused by ore build-up) is full. The more mines you have (and any bonus tech you have to improve mining) the faster the bar fills up. Similarly, the unit bar fills up at the rate that depends on by the amount of farms you have and what technology you have to boost food production. However, you get to decide how to use the bar by producing the three types of units: soldiers, shooters, and mobile units. Mobile units cost a LOT, but they will mow down ANY lesser unit. Shooters have a chance to kill anything at a distance (even mobile units) but are at mercy of soldiers. Soldiers are weak, but they are fast, and only they can capture farms and mines. You press 1, 2, or 3 to build soldier, shooter, or mobile respectively. As the "ages" changes, the actual units change, but the basic unit divisions remain the same.
Between battles won, you get to advance in technology, by picking one advance out of three separate areas... military, science, and engineering. They all affect something, from cheaper units, to units shooting further, to faster ore or food production (i.e. faster bar fill up), to tougher city walls, and so on.
You get four civs to choose from, each civ has a special bonus. Americans gets 1 bonus advance out of every 5 advances, while others have cheaper units, or starts with extra advances, and so on.
The battles are surprisingly tense, esp. on medium and hard levels, when the enemy artillery is more and more accurate.
The "trick" is to use your advantage in tech and exploit the advantage ruthlessly. If you have Feudalism, which leads to cheaper mobile units, then build more mobile units. If you have cheap infantry, build infantry, but keep an eye out on what the other guy is building as well. You can't win with your units alone.
All in all, while this game has very little to do with the Civ name, it is surprising fun to play and tense for the back-and-forth action as the line see-saws between the two extremes. If you like action-strategy games, you should give this at least a try.
I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10, for being different, and pretty good to play.
Preview of some upcoming games...
Some mobile games being played, but not far enough along for a full review yet...
Turbo Jet Ski 3D (Gameloft) -- race jetskis around the world, participate in acrobatic events, perform rescues, and some special challenges. Unlock more characters, outfits, jet skis (each handles differently), and other events, as well as a "cup mode" of play.
Brain Tester 24-pack (Digital Chocolate) -- another variation on their brain test games... Test four aspects of your brain with 8 games in each area. Track your progress, then take "The Stupid Test!" and see how well you do!
Sushi Samurai (Skyzone) -- slice and stir-fry your way to 5-dragon rating by preparing various oriental dishes, from simple sushi to complicated dishes by playing various minigames, including chop, boil, scoop, BBQ, and more. Know the ingredients!
Sid Meier's Civ IV: War of Two Cities (Floodgate) -- action strategy featuring a combination of Rescue Raiders (or Armor Alley) and artillery (think Scorched Earth), with tech levels leading to production bonuses or reduced costs for units.
Turbo Jet Ski 3D (Gameloft) -- race jetskis around the world, participate in acrobatic events, perform rescues, and some special challenges. Unlock more characters, outfits, jet skis (each handles differently), and other events, as well as a "cup mode" of play.
Brain Tester 24-pack (Digital Chocolate) -- another variation on their brain test games... Test four aspects of your brain with 8 games in each area. Track your progress, then take "The Stupid Test!" and see how well you do!
Sushi Samurai (Skyzone) -- slice and stir-fry your way to 5-dragon rating by preparing various oriental dishes, from simple sushi to complicated dishes by playing various minigames, including chop, boil, scoop, BBQ, and more. Know the ingredients!
Sid Meier's Civ IV: War of Two Cities (Floodgate) -- action strategy featuring a combination of Rescue Raiders (or Armor Alley) and artillery (think Scorched Earth), with tech levels leading to production bonuses or reduced costs for units.
Mobile Game Review of "Mystery Case Files: Agent X"
Go see my review of "Mystery Case Files: Agent X" on IGN Mobile Gaming
Mobile Game Review of "F-16 Air Fighter"
In-Fusio's own pages are filled with Flash stuff so I can't link to the page directly. I had to link to press release instead.
In-Fusio's F-16 Air Fighter is basically... Galaga with F-16 skin. It is both ridiculously unrealistic (chain gun, bombs, missiles, guided missiles, and a "wave weapon", each with 4 levels of "upgrades") and while still attempts SOME semblances of reality as it touts its license from Lockheed Martin, makers of F-16.
It's basically a 2D shoot-em-up in the most basic sense... Your chaingun fires automatically, and you have to use your other weapons to kill various other targets, both on the ground, and in the air. The enemies are at least portrayed somewhat convincingly... Lots of MiGs, choppers, tanks, cities, and more. The problem is it couldn't decide whether it's a sim or a shoot-em-up, and ended up as neither.
Music is boring, graphics are okay, except you sometimes launch from aircraft carriers (!). Though usually you try to air-refuel by flying behind a tanker and try to snag the fuel basket. Basically the mission gets tougher by adding more enemies, but usually I'm too bored about this game to notice.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
In-Fusio's F-16 Air Fighter is basically... Galaga with F-16 skin. It is both ridiculously unrealistic (chain gun, bombs, missiles, guided missiles, and a "wave weapon", each with 4 levels of "upgrades") and while still attempts SOME semblances of reality as it touts its license from Lockheed Martin, makers of F-16.
It's basically a 2D shoot-em-up in the most basic sense... Your chaingun fires automatically, and you have to use your other weapons to kill various other targets, both on the ground, and in the air. The enemies are at least portrayed somewhat convincingly... Lots of MiGs, choppers, tanks, cities, and more. The problem is it couldn't decide whether it's a sim or a shoot-em-up, and ended up as neither.
Music is boring, graphics are okay, except you sometimes launch from aircraft carriers (!). Though usually you try to air-refuel by flying behind a tanker and try to snag the fuel basket. Basically the mission gets tougher by adding more enemies, but usually I'm too bored about this game to notice.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Mobile Game Review of "Critter Crunch"
Review of Critter Crunch is on on IGN. While the game was available elsewhere, it only became available on Verizon last week. It was worth the wait though.
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