Latest Reviews
IronWorm
It feels as if all the games I review lately are variations on established genres, so I was happy to find IronWorm, which seems to defy classification. In IronWorm (a remake of SwingWorm), you play a worm with a vendetta, and in his quest to chase down his nemesis, he has to climb and swing his way through increasingly complicated environments, with a gymnastic grace that deserves to be in the Olympics! His only weapon, and protection, is a mace-tipped tail, plus YOUR coordination and cunning.
iBomber Defence
iBomber Defence is the latest tower defence game for Symbian, and being my favourite genre of game, I jumped at the chance to review it. This is a title that has been ported from the iPhone, and Electronic Arts have done a great job. The problem is that tower defence games are a dime a dozen, and so to be great you have to introduce some new features to differentiate from the rest. In this review I investigate what new twists have been added to this title.
James Cameron's Avatar HD
Avatar was a 2009 blockbuster with a difference – it started the trend of 3D movies. So yes, if you hate the glasses then you can blame James Cameron. Anyway, there couldn't be a more natural franchise to have a 3D video game than Avatar. Fortunately, to play the movie tie-in you won't need any glasses. In our review, we ask whether the game has any novel features to offer or if we've seen it all before?
Peak Gold S^3
Today's game review is something of a 2D take on the real-world robotic grabber game. The story is that you're part of a mining operation for Gold ore, and you have to fulfil your quota before the lights go out. It's a test of reactions and timing. If you have what it takes then you'll be sent to mine deeper and deeper until you find the ever more massive diamonds.
Azkend 2 The World Beneath
If you’re a puzzle fan with a taste for adventure, then Azkend 2 The World Beneath might the game for you. It combines a hexagonal take on the Columns genre and wraps it up in an enthralling fantasy adventure. You'll have to think carefully and plan ahead, all against the clock. Repeated levels of the same puzzle could get boring quickly, but mini games and an on-going storyline will keep you coming back for more.
Word Tiles Multiplayer
Whether you’re a wordsmith or bookworm, you’ve probably played Scrabble or one of its online alternatives. Symbian has not been supported by the likes of “Words with Friends” and WordFeud – until now. Thanks to Word Tiles Multiplayer, you can put your vocabulary and spelling to the test against your friends and anonymous Internet players. So if you know your triple word score from your double letter score then this is a game for you.
Cut the Rope
What’s cooler than low-temperature physics? Physics-based puzzle games on your smartphone of course! Think of games like Worms and Angry Birds – see what I mean? Yes, we all love physics simulations, even if we don’t realise it. Cut the Rope is another massively popular physics-based puzzle game where you have to swing candy on a rope into the waiting mouth of your pet monster. Read on to find out how well the game translates to Symbian from iOS and Android.
Sheep Mania - Barnyard Dash
Pitched as "Succeed as the ultimate sports-sheep! Run in the top leagues, earn prize money and buy your way into sheep boot camp", what we have here is a one-button casual game that impresses for its presentation, challenge and sense of fun. While commendable, all this isn't enough to raise Barnyard Dash into the top flight of Symbian gaming.
Juice Rider
LowRiders bounce – apparently. I wouldn’t know about such things because I’m English, but I know enough to not drink while riding in a bouncing car. That’s exactly what Vimto’s latest ad-campaign is showing with its line of fruity characters – you know, the one where the fruits bounce their car until they smash together and shower everyone in Vimto? This ad-campaign has been turned into a game for Symbian, “JuiceRider”, where you have to shake your phone and quickly draw shapes. Will it make you work up enough of a thirst to pop out to the shops though?
Crystal Mountain
Keeping up their very high standard, the programmers at Arctica have produced something quite different to their normal (excellent) arcade fare. This one combines Sokoban with Labyrinth, with a touch of Doom-style 3D. Sprinkle in ice monsters and flighty rabbits, plus some mind mangling variations and you've got yourself a 3D treat for puzzle fans.
The Adventures of Tintin HD
Tintin, the Belgium reporter-come-adventurer, has been regularly refreshed in popular culture over the years; a case in point being the computer-enhanced “The Adventures of Tintin” movie. We recently reviewed the Java based game tie-in. However, even that game has had a refresh with this HD version. Do 3D graphics and a sumptuous John Williams soundtrack add to the original formula?
Air Strike
We're all too familiar with the 'huge-production-budget game that plays like a turkey' - Air Strike is just the opposite, a labour of love by the developers that's clearly produced on limited resources yet has gameplay that's both insistent and addictive. Ultimately, it just falls short of mass recommendation, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a blast during my review period, blowing up enemy fighters and warships.
Robo-E
Sokoban is a genre you probably haven’t heard of, but have played many times. The original was a Japanese puzzle that involved moving boxes around a room. Without planning several moves in advance you can easily box yourself in. Robo-E is a spin on this classic puzzle with a Sci-Fi theme; you control a garbage collecting robot that has become confused and needs your Sokoban skills to get his job done!
Drop It!
Although I'm a fan of casual games, there does come a point where a casual title can be just a little... too casual. Drop It!, with a total game time as short as a few seconds and as long as you can keep the main gameplay going (around a minute or so in my case), runs very close to this boundary but redeems itself with several physics options, a dash of strategy and a little genuine excitement.
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