Another month has gone by, and as usual there is a need for a roundup. February brought a lot of interesting games, and there are a couple of gems found within the roundup worthy of your attention.

An Assassin in Orlandes – polished gamebook.

I remember “playing” gamebooks as a kid. Making the correct choices following the story is a fun diversion. Is it a game? I am not so sure about that. You get to create your character by throwing a number of dice for vitality, attack and defence. Tapping the screen or shaking your device does the dice throwing, and I am not too keen on the animation/physics of the dice. They feel clunky, and as I can’t affect the outcome I would rather have a quick dice option letting me speed up the game. When “playing” the gamebook you battle using these dice, and at times battles drag on too long. You attack, the enemy defend, and at times this can go on for 20 turns if the dice refuse to roll your way. The actual gamebook is really good with an interesting story. It is a fresh book written for this application, and I feel entertained going through it. Graphics are good, and create a nice mood. Achievements, multiple endings and unlockable art cater for replay ability. If you are looking for something new in the gamebook world definitely consider An Assassin in Orlandes.

Gamebook Adventures 1: An assassin in Orlandes $4.99
Version: 1.2
Seller: Tin Man Games Pty Ltd

Ghosts Attack – Fly around anywhere in the world

Ghosts Attack is based on a really nifty idea: fly around chasing enemies using Google maps. You pilot a rover aided by Karl the technician. The movement controls are tilt based, and there is a slider for power and a touch fire button. Karl gives you different objectives, and it starts off kind of slow. What sets Ghosts Attack apart from all other games of the genre is the fact that the game takes a map from Google, and transforms it into a virtual reality level. Roads become the open areas, and buildings become walls. It is really cool to fly around seeing road names on the floor. You can enter any address into the map screen, or zooming around the Earth. I have been out flying around my own town, and even taken some flights through central London. The game feels a bit devoid of story, and setting in part due to letting you choose your own map. Karl the technician gives you some heads up, but I didn’t get into the game. Reading the description on the App Store page I found that the story should be better implemented into the game. If you want to play a unique first person flyer definitely consider getting Ghosts Attack.

Ghosts Attack $4.99
Version: 1.01
Seller: Tarver Games

Landers Invaders – Stylish retro shooter.

Some games looks so compelling that I can’t wait to get into them: Landers Invaders is such a game. It is a shooter where you move your tank on the walls shooting inwards. You control Lea who has to kill the Landers invading. The tank can reflect enemy projectiles, and it can get really intense. The graphics and music are retro fantastic, and I love all the cool explosions and stuff flying around. Sadly though I am having a hard time with the controls. There are three different control schemes, and neither suits me. The accelerometer forces you to turn the iPhone/iPod all the way around, and I find it annoying when using headphones. The virtual keypad and the left/right slider suffer from being small and if you veer off it movement stops. It is also hard using the four way virtual keypad as it behaves strangely when I reach a corner I want to go around. The level structure of Landers Invaders is kind of hard to understand at first but as soon as you buy advice in the shop you will get a hang of it. I can’t recommend Landers Invaders personally but as other members of TouchGen enjoyed it I won’t write a review for it. Listen to TouchGen Unleashed – episode 51 to hear Matt’s and Justin’s take on the game (from 56 minutes into the episode).

Landers Invaders $0.99
Version: 1.o
Seller: BULKYPIX

My Li’l Bastard -  Tamagotchi from hell

In My Li’l Bastard you get the closest representation of a true pet. It is a real hassle, hates your guts, and wants to destroy your life. Well maybe not that close representation then, but if you own a dog you have had those days when you feel like that. My L’il Bastard is a blob, and it has some basic needs. The humour is true toilet humour with puking, pooping and some cute cruelty. The game has got a 17+ rating, and to be quite honest I don’t understand who will enjoy this game. I am 33, and renowned for my totally politically incorrect potty humour but I found nothing funny about My Li’l Bastard. There are a couple of minigames letting you throw knives at the little bastard, or win gold and poop at the slot machine. The touch controls work quite well, but there isn’t that much to do. I can’t really recommend My Li’l Bastard unless you are over 17, and yearn for some basic poop humour.

My Li’l Bastard $2.99
Version: 1.o
Seller: Turner Broadcasting

Woffo – What the heck is a Woffo?

Woffo is a word game combining gameplay elements from crosswords and boggle. You play on an 18-tile board, and the aim of the game is to create 3,4 and 5 letter words. You have to create horizontal and vertical words using a deck of 64 letters. There are also 8 wildcards there to boost or spoil your word plans. Once the 64 letters, and 3-5 wildcards, depending on the level of difficulty, have been used the game is over. Woffo is a high score game with a global leaderboard, and ability to post scores to Facebook. Like most simple word games it is easy to get hooked on Woffo, and that is key to enjoying the game. There is no music, and only sparse sound effects in the game. You can play your own music instead. There isn’t much separating Woffo from other word games, and if you already have loads of them there isn’t much point getting Woffo. If you feel sick of Boggle, Moxie and WordFu Woffo might be a good place to go. For me it is quite nice to play a word game without any kind of timer, and that is my main reason for recommending it. A Woffo is when you fill the four columns or rows with four letter words, there now you know what the heck a Woffo is.

Woffo $1.99
Version: 1.0
Seller: Gold Brothers

Spellunker Pro – Wordgame goes adventure.

Finally a wordgame has arrived that can actually hook me beyond the quick break. Spellunker Pro combines the ordinary wordgame with a bit of story, and strategy. You choose your avatar of choice: Ava or Ace. Your little character is seen on a large playing field filled with letters. The goal is to guide Ava or Ace to find the treasure, and get to the door to the next level. Letters have to be cleared to make a path, and then you can simply tap the clear ground to move your character. It is really fun, and strategic. It is always imperative to think a couple of steps ahead as it is possible to mess everything up, and get stuck. By shaking the iPhone you can scramble the letter, but not their positions. Getting lonely letters is not good, as there is no way to get them connected to other letters. Building words is easy, just tap the letters and then tap the word to submit it. It is easy to get addicted to the gameplay, and I have spent quite a lot of time with it. The presentation is quite poor though, and could do with a layer of polish to the graphics. There is no music, but you can play your own. Try the lite version to see if you enjoy Spellunker as much as me.

Spellunker Pro $0.99
Version: 1.01
Seller: Xenopi Studios
Spellunker Lite

Hive – Boardgame starring bugs.

Hive is a boardgame that combines strategy, bugs and a lack of board. I had never played the real life Hive but thankfully the iPhone game comes with a good tutorial. The aim of Hive is to capture the enemy Queen Bee by surrounding it with lesser bugs. You can use a hex grid to make it easier to see where you can place your army of ants, beetles and spiders. The different pieces move differently, and you get to move them about when all have entered the fray. As a rookie it is hard to see all the finer aspects of the strategy, and I can’t really speak for the level of the AI. It beats me quite rigidly, but whether it is because I am bad or the AI is clever is hard to tell. There are four levels of difficulty, and I win about half of the bouts on the easiest level so far. Pass n play multiplayer using one device is a nice addition. The presentation is a bit simple, but so is the game it is based on. I still think the tiles could look a bit better with sharper bugs on them. The music is good with nice ambient vibes from John Tennant. You can play your own music as well. Hive is a nice boardgame with a clever AI, and the ability to play your friends on one device. Just like chess it takes some dedication to get good at it.
Hive $1.99
Version: 1.11
Seller: Lotusland Studios

Caveman Test – Are you smarter than a Caveman?

Well I am not apparently… In Caveman Test you get to play “sticks and stones” against Ufkah. He beats me most of the time even though I think that I am getting ahead in the game. In Caveman Test you take turns with Ufkah placing a stone. The aim of the game is to dominate the board with your stones, and you have to push away Ufkahs stones to succeed. It seems to be such a simple game with just 16 positions to place the stones, but it is quite complex. Each turn consists of a place stone segment, and a knock stone segment. It is imperative to be able to both defend, and attack during the same turn. The presentation is nice, and Ufkah looks like a true caveman. And getting abused by a caveman for not being able to beat him on “sticks and stones” feels infuriating, and funny. Just one more go ensues but I have still to beat him. Once you start finding working strategies you will be able to beat him most of the time. But finding those strategies takes quite a lot of time, and I refuse to seek aid from other players. Definitely a game for people enjoying Connect 4, Othello and other dominance board games.

Caveman Test $0.99
Version: 1.3
Seller: 123 Syndicated Puzzles

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

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