Friday, Friday, Friday...
so close to the weekend, but still full of work.
Luckily for you there's lots of juicy news, so lets get crackin' on the Friday News Wrap-Up
for the 3rd of August, 2012.
I wouldn't blame you for missing out on the incredibly fun Steam and Xbox Live Indie Games
darling 'Wizorb', what with you being so busy with iOS games and all.
Don't worry, because Tribute Games are bringing the Arkanoid-like RPG title to the iOS platform
- hopefully sooner than later if the screenshots are any indicator.
Here's a news piece near and dear to my own interests.
When Super Stickman Golf by Noodlecake Studios first launched, I was completely blown away.
Not only did it execute an often difficult to enjoy genre flawlessly, it did so while
adding completely new gameplay elements in to the mix.
The sequel was recently announced on the Touch Arcade forums, with features including asynchronous
multiplayer; fixes to the realtime multiplayer; and a new puzzle mode that will make you beg
for the basic stages.
The original is currently free for a limited time to celebrate and if you head to their
website (link below) you can enter a competition to remix their theme song.
Say what you will about Gameloft, the company knows how to pump out good artwork and they're
clearly ramping up the hype machine for their first Unreal Engine title.
Those who have been keeping track of the developer's past may remember 'March of Heroes' as being
slated to be their first Unreal title, but was subsequently cancelled.
For now I'm picturing a revival of the Hero of Sparta series, so file this one under 'more
than slightly curious to see how this turns out'.
After having recently announced that Firemonkey's new project will be Real Racing 3, the combined
studio has dropped a 'pre-alpha' video of what racing fans can expect in the final release.
There was a tense period of waiting to see what would happen after Firemint and Iron
Monkey put their heads together it, but the new studio is sticking to what they're best
at - and we can't blame them when a game looks this good.
Expect more magic as subsequent trailers are released.
If you told me I could pick up a game on the App Store that not only allowed me to play
as Batman and Superman, but also involved a chunk of the Justice League and their quirky
rogues gallery... then I'd say shut up and take my money.
However, pause for a moment before heading the App Store and grabbing JUSTICE LEAGUE
: Earth's Final Defense.
The licensed beat'em-up takes its cues from old-school titles, placing you against ever
increasing odds so you can unleash your super-hero's repertoir of powers with abandon.
Unfortunately the game suffers for its pairing with KRPG like mechanics to 'level up' your
character, doling out pitiful rewards for progress while placing high prices on not
only unlocking the rest of the heroes that are available, but also to level up the 'companions'
that unlock for each hero.
Experience is limited to individual heroes, meaning you'll need to grind the same levels
multiple times if you decide to play around with someone else.
It's hard not to feel as though your time is being wasted - especially when boss battles
feel more like a slow, monotonous dance of chipping away at their health than an epic
battle; the one payoff of levelling up should be glorious fights, but 'immune' enemies can
block attacks and harsh penalties are exacted for not grinding endlessly for a perfect score.
The cherry on the cake is that those of you who have jailbroken your iDevices will be
unable to play the game as it kills the game on loading.
If Justice League presented even a glimmer of a game worthy of its title, we'd let at
least some of the rest of its irksome features slide (from the poor controls to the stiff
model animations), but as it is all you can expect is a time waster that constantly asks
you to pour in more time with little reward for doing so.
After that pleasant reminder of what can happen when iOS games go bad, lets move on to what
happens when they go right.
Tentacle Wars is the kind of game people should expect of a developer when they aim to provide
a casual, but otherwise challenging re-imagination of a genre we've seen cloned shamelessly in
the past.
Although its roots may be settled in games like Galcon Labs, the 'tentacle' combat system
adds a much needed layer of strategic diversity, complete with tricks that must be learned
if you wish to 3-star it all.
An excellent pick up for fans of real-time strategy and puzzle games.
Thanks to some great releases this week we'll be postponing the Top 3 iOS games of July
till later in the week - possibly replacing the Friday Wrap-Up if we can't otherwise squeeze
it in.
Apologies in advance to those who love these videos - I love to make them too!
Until then, don't forget to spread the word and help AppSpy to grow - hit us up on Facebook,
Twitter and like and subscribe to our channel for more news, reviews and features.
Have a great weekend!