We look at some of the low budget iPad games to hit the AppStore this week – EVAC, Moon’d, Blimp HD, Soccer Stealers, Ragdoll blaster 2, Cubetastic, and Shoot To Kill…
EVAC
This Pac-Man clone offers up a fresh take on the classic pill munching gameplay, and cool neon graphics and techno music to boot.
However, if your gonna try and beat PAC at his own game, then you have to at least get the controls down. Unfortunately, what we get are loose and unresponsive controls which result in a frustrating experience. 
Moon’d
No, not a game about showing off your peach behind. This is another wannabe game, this time attempting to replicate the success of Edge. You take control of a cube and must roll it along horizontal platforms and obstacles to collect coins. It sounds fun, but in practice it’s incredibly hard right off the bat. Consistently balancing the cube on anything but a flat surface is near impossible. If you want an Edge style game on iPad, then your best bet is playing Edge in 2x mode.
Blimp HD
This game oozed quality at ever turn on the iPhone. Beautiful to look at and great fun to play. Such a simple premise but executed incredibly well through great use of the painterly visuals, orchestral sound and tight touch or tilt controls, even the menu interface screams quality. This iPad edition is just as good, and sable looks even better on the big screen.
Soccer Stealers
This strange game of survival takes place on the football pitch. Playing the part of either a streaker, hooligan, ninja or pirate you invade the pitch and steal the ball off the the players. From here it’s a battle to keep the ball by avoiding contact with the players. Picking up power ups will help you allude capture, and successfully crossing the goal line will net you (get it?) some points.
It’s fun for the first few minutes but too soon it loses its goofy appeal with point scoring the only driving force to replay.
Ragdoll blaster 2 HD
This game does exactly what it says on the tin… that is, you blast Ragdolls. The catapult genre of physics puzzle games is becoming crowded, and what with Angry Birds being so popular it’s not easy to stand out. But Ragdoll baster 2 has enough charm and addictive appeal to keep you hooked longer than you’d think. Who knew tossing sack-boys at targets could be so much fun? This iPad version benefits from the bigger screen for accuracy, but the visuals lose some appeal enlarged.
Cubetastic
Those of you who are old enough (like me) will remember the 80s craze of the Rubik’s cube. Sure, it’s still around today, but back then you couldn’t escape it. Even our very own Nacho is a bit of a Rubik’s cube pro. Cubetastic takes the fundamental design of the Rubik’s cube and adds some extra elements of its own, where you must guide a light from one part of the puzzle to then other, the catch is that it can only travel across illuminated tiles of the cube, of which these are limited. What we are left with is a polished 3D sliding tile puzzle game that perfectly utilises the touch screen to create a brain-bruising, but addictive puzzler. Cubetactic by name, Cubetastic by nature!
Shoot To Kill
Trapped in hell itself you must ascend through six levels of screen-mashing action. For some reason your character is anchored to the spot of a pentagram, and you must fill each point with energy from the escaped souls of downed foes in order to ascend to the next circle of fear. Tapping the screen in any direction will cause your character to turn and fire, and you must do this in quick succession if you are to take down wave after wave of hell spawn. More powerful weapons become available later to deal with bigger and more badass opponents. Despite a few areas of variation – the blackout levels complete with glowing enemy eyes and the ascension to the next circle are stand outs – the gameplay becomes monotonous.
