Title: rop Developer: Gamebra.in Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $0.99 --- Don't be fooled by rop's early levels. It's quite fitting that the game's network of ropes and nodes resemble the threads of a web, as those beginning challenges introduce the core idea and mechanics before entangling your brain in tricky head-scratching puzzles.
Rop's set-up is deceptively simple. The screen is divided in the two parts: the top half depicted a figure, the bottom of hexagonal grid and a network of interconnected ropes and nodes used to replicate the above figure. By manipulating the ropes, you're able to mimic triangle, rectangles, and other shapes. But soon those simple shapes grow increasingly complex and you find ropes connected and crisscrossing in odd ways. There's no time limit here, no move counter, no pressure or need to rush; rop is a calm test of your spatial aptitude, challenging you to consider the effect of every move you make. Thankfully rop is simple to control; manipulating ropes is tactile, fun, and easy. It's satisfying to see your figures take shape as you drag and shift nodes across the grid.
Rop offers a wealth of challenging puzzles built around a simple core mechanic and minimalist presentation. The developer is currently working on a second level pack which will introduce a new gameplay element. You can purchase rop for $0.99.
Title: Dark Echo Developer: RAC7 Games Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $1.99 --- What do you envision when you think "horror game"? The jump scares of Five Nights and Slender? The otherworldly dread of Silent Hill? Or perhaps the nightmarish monstrosities of Dead Space and The Evil Within? The recently released Dark Echo boasts the most minimalist of visuals, instead conjuring horror from the unknown and unseen and an atmospheric soundscape.
Massively expanded and improved from the developer's Ludum Dare entry You Must Escape, Dark Echo is a sound-based horror game. While that may sound similar to other IOS games like Papa Sangre and The Nightjar, Dark Echo is very much a visual experience while those were audio-only. A black screen, with your white footprints the only color amid the surrounding dark. Every level in Dark Echo begins this way. Move forward and lines emanate in all directions, the sound of your footsteps visualized, bouncing off the walls and revealing the environment. Without sound, you are blind. Your goal is simply to find the exit. However, that task is easier said than done, because you are not alone in these passages. Things lurk in the darkness, drawn by the sound of your movement. Hunting you. What's most impressive about Dark Echo is how it builds on its core mechanic of seeing through sound. The beginning levels lay the foundation: walk around to reveal the surrounding, stomp to send out a larger wave of sound that lets you see more of the level. Soon you're introduced to the creatures that are attracted by sound, followed by the fact that you can tap slowly to take soft silent steps and throw stones as distractions, turning Dark Echo into a tense game of cat and mouse where sound is your only means of sight. Water that amplifies your footsteps and slows your movement, switches, crushing walls, deadly terrain, and more add to the challenge and complexity of later levels.
Dark Echo is a masterful execution of minimalist design. Each step is tense, drawing you forward through the necessity of sight and the need to explore. The visuals, stark lines contrasting against black, are simplistic yet work so well, reminiscent of splattering paint to reveal the world in The Unfinished Swan. But it's the sound design that truly sells the game's atmosphere. Your footsteps, hollow against stone and squishing against undergrowth. The guttural growls of those things lurking in the dark. Water splashing and sloshing, or dripping overhead. Flies buzzing in agitated swarms, croaking frogs. Heavy locks and groaning doors.
Listen to the game's advice and play this with headphones, in the dark, alone.
Title: Sunburn! Developer: Secret Crush Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $2.99 --- This is it. Your spaceship, in pieces after a catastrophic asteroid impact. Your crew, drifting helplessly through the void, doomed to die a slow death as their oxygen depletes. And you, their captain, with a jetpack and final promise to keep: no one dies alone. That's Sunburn in a nutshell.
Now despite the morbid tone, Sunburn is actually a whimsical lighthearted platformer about diving into the sun. If I had to compare it to the other games, Sunburn would be akin to a precision platformer meets Lemmings, with a dash of the movie Gravity. Each level consists of planets and other hazards around a red sun(s), and it's your mission to reach your fellow crew members so you can die together. Rescued members trail behind you, linked by an elastic tether; it's not long till you have a lengthy tail of astronauts in your wake as you weave between fiery asteroids and escape black holes. Levels grow quite complex and sprawling, with obstacles such as glass orbs that break after a few impacts, rotating lava planets with patches of safe ground, and rocky planets that drift when you land on them. Using your jet pack, you must navigate through zero g, while also keeping track of your limited oxygen meter; each jump costs oxygen, forcing you to consider the most effective path between planets. Thankfully, the controls are simple and responsive, allowing you to rotate and boost effortlessly around hazards. The colorful pixel art and humorous dialogue from your stranded crew members round out this fun challenging experience.
Sunburn is a fun physics platformer, turning what could have been a dark morbid premise into a bright cheery game, complete with great level design and solid controls. You can purchase Sunburn for $2.99.
Title: Zengrams Developer: Andreas Boye Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $2.99 --- There are numerous puzzle games about manipulating colors, and many games about forming and reshaping figures, but Zengrams combines those two concepts to deliver a fantastic minimalist puzzle game, perhaps the best I've played since Blek. Zengrams excels at taking a simple mechanic and exploring it in myriad challenging ways. Each level provides a collection of shapes and an outline of a figure; you must manipulate the shapes to fit the outline. Where Zengrams stands out is its use of color. Overlapping shapes of different colors results in each shaded area becoming its own shape, while like-colored shapes merge together, allowing you to seamlessly combine and split shapes into new figures. Honestly, the GIF below demonstrates the concept in a more succinct fashion.
'Simple to understand, difficult to master' aptly describes Zengrams' puzzles. Not only must you be mindful of how and where you place shapes, you also have a limited amount of moves for each level. The early stages ease you in, but soon the challenge ramps up, due to shapes merged or offset in tricky ways or the number of moves you can perform. It's the kind of game where you'll spend 30 minutes on a puzzle, trying it this way and that way, and then came back an hour or a day later with a fresh approach and realize the solution was staring you in the face this whole time. The obvious solution isn't always the correct one, forcing you to think of more concise and efficient ways to complete puzzles. Each new level invokes that sense of "Is this even possible...", and finally solving a particularly challenging level feels so rewarding.
Zengrams' minimalist presentation is merely a stylish facade hiding the challenging nature of its puzzles and the seamless way shapes merge makes each of the game's 70 levels a satisfying experience. You can purchase Zengrams for $2.99.
Title: Framed Developer: Loveshack Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $4.99 --- I've been anticipating Framed for a while. It's the kind of game that encapsulates everything I look for a quality mobile experience: an interesting concept, smart use of touchscreen that goes beyond an UI cluttered with buttons and icons, a compelling aesthetic. And thankfully Framed lives up to the hype, delivering a polished puzzle game. Yes, Framed is a puzzle game first. There's a wordless noir narrative and it's an engaging wonderfully artistic experience, but it's first and foremost about the puzzles. The concept is so simple and yet explored masterfully; a man fleeing the police through the panels of a comic, briefcase in hand, and you must rearrange the panels to change the context and help him escape. Run headlong into a cop? Order the panels so you turn a corner or climb a ladder first. There are constants - ladders and stairways make you descend or ascend when you reach them, approach police from behind to avoid them or knock them out, etc. - and new elements such as rotating panels and reusable panels add complexity. The puzzles hinge more on trial and error and experimentation than hard logic, but the trial and error in Framed is fun, due to the seamless permutations that result from different panel orders.
Framed is a short experience (my playthrough lasted around 90 minutes), but don't let that brevity dissuade you. Framed is a shining example of quality over quantity, between its atmospheric art style, jazz soundtrack, ingenious design, and challenging puzzles.
Title: Phantom Rift Developer: Foursaken Media Platforms: IOS Universal, Android Price: $2.99 --- I'll be honest, I'm somewhat biased towards Foursaken's games. From Block Fortress and Heroes & Castles to Bug Heroes 2, I've enjoyed all of their unique genre-blending experiences. I didn't think Bug Heroes 2 would be topped any time soon, but I was wrong. Phantom Rift is an excellent mix of twitch action and tactical strategic gameplay. You're a wanderer among the tiles of the Rift, journeying across its portals to defeat the powerful bosses that control each realm. Phantom Rift is a sprawling adventure, its hub world alone fraught with danger and secrets and merchants to purchase new gear and magic. Each area feels unique, with new enemies to face and environmental features, from the misty darkness of the Rift itself to the deserts, lava, ice fields, and more of the other levels.
But Phantom Rift's strongest element is its combat, providing challenging action that's both twitchy and tactical. Upon encountering enemies, you're whisked to a grid divided into your half and the enemy's half. Enemies are varied and diverse, offering a strategic challenge as they're able to steal tiles on your side and encroach your territory or perform attacks that affect certain tiles. Knowing how enemies behave and avoid their attacks is the twitch side of Phantom Rift, dodging arrows as hulking beetles charge onto your side and spear-wielding goblins steal tiles.
The tactical side is even more engrossing, and makes every battle of Phantom Rift a test of timing, positioning, and smart use of your spells. You're presented a selection of five spells from your spell pouch at certain intervals, allowing you to tailor your strategies to the foes you're facing and the play style you prefer. Would you rather steal tiles and attack up close? Or use range attacks that effect certain tiles? Or summon phantom helpers? Or buff your armor and deflect projectiles? And these strategies are possible with only a fraction of the myriad spells available in the game. Gear you equip, from gauntlets and helmets to robe and staffs, add more diversity, allowing you to improve your stats and grant you new abilities.
Phantom Rift impresses not only on a mechanical level, but visually as well. While the game certainly isn't the next Infinity Blade, it's charming and loaded with great details, from the lighting to the effects of your spells. My main gripe with the game - the slow walking speed that made exploration a slog - was addressed in the latest update and even that issue couldn't diminish Phantom Rift's strengths. You can purchase Phantom Rift for $2.99. (Android)
Title: Doppler Developer: My Go Studio Platforms: IOS Universal, Android Price: $1.99 --- Doppler is a multi-touch twitch game for IOS, that stands out by delivering a unique mechanic that's more than the usual dodge left, doge right style of gameplay seen in the genre. Doppler asks you to place your fingers on the screen. Do so and two gears appear beneath; your goal is to guide them along the undulating line between them for as long as possible. The catch is that you must keep these gears in close proximity to each other without touching the line, so they're linked by crackling energy. Stray too far apart or collide with the line and the energy dissipates. Your playthrough ends once the energy bar runs out. Doppler's multi-touch gameplay requires focus and synchronization, as you must maneuver both fingers carefully to thread the curves. It's more challenging than it sounds, especially once the speed increases. You can test your skills across three modes: Infinite, Extreme, and increasingly fast Time Attack levels.
Doppler offers a different and interesting take on twitch evasion and makes smart use of the touchscreen to create a challenging arcade experience. You can purchase Doppler for $1.99.
Title: Pentumble Developer: Helftone Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $1.99 --- Pentumble is a challenging precision platformer, that stands out among others in the genre thanks to its great level design and adhesive mechanic.
In Pentumble, you control a small spherical robot, equipped with a set of suction cup-esque legs that allow you to cling to platforms and travel up walls. Levels are short, usually only around 10 or more seconds to earn the three-star time, but require timing, speed, and precision to succeed; while the stages may start out relatively easy, soon you're dealing with flame jets, saw blades, moving platforms, spikes, and more. These hazards aren't static, but filled with spinning, shifting, moving obstacles, giving the platforming action a dynamic vibe. The 2.5D visuals and responsive controls make each level a joy to play.
Pentumble may be on the short side, but each of its 36 levels offer a fun well designed challenge for fans of speedrunners and platformers. You can purchase Pentumble for $1.99. (Currently on sale for $0.99)
Title: Spooklands Developer: Luderia Platforms: IOS Universal, Android Price: $0.99 --- The arena shooter is one of the more ubiquitous genres on mobile, from Radiangames' popular titles to Minigore and Infinity Field. Spooklands may not have the flashy screen-filling effects or varied modes of other games, but it more than compensates with its wonderful art style and unique gameplay. Across three arenas, each with its own diverse enemies, you evade and blow away the growing hordes. Rather than the familiar dual stick set-up, you maneuver your character by tapping the screen, your gunfire doubling as thrust. This unique control scheme gives Spooklands a different pacing than other arena shooters. You're not firing wildly while weaving between the hordes, but must instead be mindful of every gunshot, carefully clearing a path through the hordes and then being able to navigate that path. While other shooters are all visual overload and frenetic firing, Spooklands feels more subdued, as timing your shots and creating space to maneuver is as important as evasion. If you're not in control and just tap wildly, you'll likely just run headlong into an enemy.
Completing specific high score goals unlocks new power-ups to use; these power-ups spawn randomly on the map, turning your default shot into a shotgun-like spreadshot or slowing time and allowing you to line up shots without moving or increasing the size of your projectiles. Holding the screen unleashes a powerful piercing shot so timing the use of these charged shots is vital to surviving for longer periods and clearing away the overwhelming numbers of enemies.
Spooklands' colorful and vibrant art style completes this fun and finely crafted game. Varied power-ups, tap to move controls that totally change the pacing compared to other shooters, and intense challenging gameplay makes Spooklands an addicting arcade action experience.
Title: Pako Developer: Tree Men Games Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $1.99 --- After ten seconds in the first stage, you know exactly what Pako is about. Control your vehicle in increasingly cluttered mazes of houses, streets, and other cars as a growing legion of cops close in. One collision into a wall, a police car, a light post ends your run. Only through deft evasion and skillful maneuvering can you achieve a high score and climb the leaderboards.
Pako’s gameplay is simple, but the game is never dull. Each area offers a new twist on that core gameplay seen in the first stage. You evade police in a small mall parking lot. You thread a hearse through rows of tombstones as zombies rise from the dirt. You weave between traffic on a freeway and dodge cannon fire from tanks in a rickshaw. The controls take some getting used as you adjust to the physics of each vehicle, but prove to be responsive, allowing you to pull off tight turns and donuts with ease. A great soundtrack and stylish visuals complement the action.
Through intense hair’s-breath close calls, fast paced evasion, and a varied array of stages, Pako delivers an exciting new addition to the arcade action genre. You can purchase Pako for $1.99.
Title: QB1-0 Developer: Can Factory Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $0.99 --- QB1-0 released in 2012. It received a Universal update in May, a new trailer in June. I just discovered the game today. Searching online, I couldn't find a single review and that's a damn shame. If you're a fan of arcade shooters, I recommend giving OB1-0 a try. At first, I wasn't feeling the game, mainly due to the controls. They're relative touch, but not your usual v-stick style. Instead, your ship is perpetually moving and firing and dragging your finger rotates your ship. It's definitely a different movement style that takes some getting used to, but the controls work well, revealing themselves to be very maneuverable and responsive, allowing you to spin on a dime. That level of maneuverability is key to survival here; within a wave or two, you're dealing with more than simple asteroids. Dangerous enemies begin emerging: quick homing rocket-spewing ships, slow ships that leave bullets in their wake, ships that unleash blasts of lightning that streak across the screen. The frantic action ramps up fast and power-ups that provide extra lives, upgrade your firepower, and more only add to the chaos.
QB1-0 isn't just a fun game, but a stylish one as well. There are some Geometry Wars influences, from the area backdrop warping beneath you and the geometric shapes, but in the midst of battle, with particles and projectiles and ships and asteroid debris flying everywhere, QB1-0 stands out as a visual spectacle. Adding to that spectacle is the fact that the arena is "open", with you, your enemies, projectiles all warping around the screen.
Compared to other games in the genre, QB1-0 is very bare bones. You won't find any extra modes, or upgrades, or different ships to unlock. You won't even find an options menu. But you will find a stylish frenetic arcade shooter with responsive controls, that fills the screen with particles and enemies and bullets, and for that reason, I think QB1-0 is worth checking out if you enjoy these kinds of games. You can purchase QB1-0 for $0.99
Title: Alphabeats Developer: Rad Dragon Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $1.99 --- Word games come in all shapes and styles on the App Store. From classics like Bookworm and Scrabble to genre blending games such as Word Mage and Spell Quest, it's a very well presented genre on the platform. Alphabeats offers a new twist on the word game, combining fast paced spelling with rhythmic evasion. Playing Alphabeats couldn't be simpler. Letters descend from the top of the screen in sync with the soundtrack, and you must catch letters to form words by dragging between columns. Swipe up once you're satisfied with your word to collect points. As you might expect, longer words equals more points; however this is where Alphabeat's twitchy elements reveal themselves. Longer words take up more space, and if you hit a letter that messes up your word (i.e. MAN to MANX), you lose all your letters and need to start constructing a word from scratch. Thus, Alphabeats becomes a game of reaction and focus, as you watch for letters to create words and move into position to collect them, while weaving between letters you don't want. Deciding between short words that allow you dodge more easily, or risking it all with a long word for many points, forms the core of Alphabeats' challenging gameplay. Powerups that let you shrink words, clear the screen, and provide a points multiplier add to the strategy.
Being a rhythm game, Alphabeats wouldn't be complete without a great soundtrack, and the mix of electronic, techno, and dubstep perfectly complements the twitchy word game fun. It should be noted that you only get five songs with your initial purchase; more songs can be purchased individually or as part of a $7.99 "Everything Ever" pack that provides all current songs as any future additions. You can purchase Alphabeats here.
Title: Super Scrapped Robot Developer: bureaubureau Platforms: IOS Universal, PC, Mac, Linux, Browser Price: Free --- Super Scrapped Robot wears its inspirations on its sleeve. The Game Boy-esque color scheme, the retro style, this is an experience that harkens back to games of the past and offers old school bullet hell challenge. Super Scrapped Robot is a dual stick shooter, dropping you onto randomly generated levels as enemies emerge from all sides. Survive the hordes, find the exit. While the gameplay is simple, it's the execution that make Super Scrapped Robot: varied enemies from charging foes that masquerade as rocks to ghostly melee attackers, weaponized hats that swaps your default weapon for a rapid fire machine gun or flame thrower, the tight controls. Limited health and a overheat mechanic encourages you to stay on the move; humorous dialogue and challenging bosses keep the player engaged.
Super Scrapped Robot is free to download and its IAP structure is unique among the IOS games I've played. Any IAP purchase unlocks a Rainbow Mode that changes the colors scheme, weekly Challenges, and a Cheat mode that lets you alter the gameplay in various ways, and you choose how much you want to pay, with tiers ranging from $0.99 to $4.99. You can download Super Scrapped Robot for IOS here, purchase it on PC through itch.io, or play the game in your browser.
Title: Causality Developer: unexpect3rd Platforms: IOS Universal Price: Free --- I discovered Causality last week, and unfortunately, it seems like another hidden gem has slipped through the porous cracks of the App Store. This is a quality puzzler with a hefty amount of levels and a wealth of interesting mechanics.
Casuality starts off simple enough. You're presented with a grid of two differently colored tiles. Tapping a tile swaps its color and the color of the tiles adjacent to it. Your goal is to make the entire grid one color and preferably with a limited number of taps. Through logic and planning, you can figure out which tiles to tap and in what order. But those are only the early levels. Soon, Causality begins layering on new mechanics, new twists on the rules and tiles every chapter. Linked tiles that swap with colors with each other across the grid. Tiles that only swap colors in specific directions. Tiles that disappear after use. Tiles that must be swapped a certain amount of times. Combine these added mechanics and the others that are introduced throughout Causality's 240 levels, and you have a fun puzzle game that's definitely not lacking in variety or challenge. The minimal design just adds to the great package.
Causality is worth checking out if you're looking for a challenging puzzle game with a nice amount of content, interesting mechanics, and minimalist style. The game is extremely generous; you get 120 levels for free, the rest available with a single $1.99 purchase or unlocked in chunks by watching ads.
Title: Cally's Caves 2 Developer: Jordan Pearson Platforms: IOS Universal Price: Free --- Almost eight months ago, I wrote about the first Cally's Caves. It was a game I considered to be a great hidden gem, with a cute visual style and fun gameplay. Now the sequel was just released and it improved on everything that made the first game so fun, bigger and better in every way. I can't really talk about Cally's Caves 2 without first commenting on the visuals. This is what the first game looked like:
It was certainly a game that put gameplay first, although I did find the art style quite charming. Cally's Caves 2 is a huge upgrade over the first game in terms of visuals, with a great pixel art style, a vibrant color scheme, and numerous enemies and weapons. Gameplay-wise, Cally's Caves 2 retains the same fun platformer-shooter action of the original, with a bigger emphasis on RPG elements and just more content.
Wielding an array of powerful weapons and your trusty sword, you journey through the caverns below your home to rescue your kidnapped parents. Make no mistake; Cally's Caves 2 is a difficult game. You'll need quick reflexes and a quick finger to evade enemies and projectiles and deliver your own firepower. From charging wolves and spiders to gun-wielding foes and tanks, the variety in enemies is pretty impressive. RPG elements such upgrades and leveling up add to the mechanics in cool ways; using a weapon upgrades that gun, which not only grows more powerful but also changes appearance. Collecting coins and gems from defeated enemies and chests allows you to purchase sword upgrades, increased your chance to dodge attacks, unlock a triple jump, and more.
Cally's Caves 2 takes what worked in the original - the challenging gameplay, the fun weapons and upgrades, the varied enemies - and makes a bigger and better sequel, with an new art style, more levels, and new secrets to uncover. And incredibly, the game is free to download, with the only IAP being a single $0.99 purchase to remove ads, equip poison bullets, and make enemies drop gems.
Title: super ccatch Developer: Eduard Anton Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $1.99 (currently on sale for $0.99) --- Another week, another minimalist twitch game. And that's not a bad thing; I love the genre and the varied games it offers. super ccatch is my newest addiction, thanks to its great soundtrack and hectic gameplay. The IOS version of Anton's original browser game, super ccatch feels right at home on mobile. Your goal is drag your platform across the screen to catch like-colored shapes while evading shapes of different colors. This task starts out simple enough, but soon that beginning sprinkle becomes a geometric deluge, as shapes pour down from above. It's at the moment that super ccatch sunk its hooks into me, delivering a lightning-fast challenge as you weave between shapes to intercept the ones you want, with mere moments to react. As you catch shapes, the screens fills up, reducing the space and time you have to maneuver. Catch the wrong shape and your platform switches to that shape's color, forcing you to adapt in an instant. It's just an addictive frantic experience, and the game's minimalist style keeps the screen uncluttered from any distractions. The touch controls are responsive; your reactions may fail you, not the controls.
super ccatch delivers a fun frantic high-scoring experience, bolstered by a slick minimalist presentation and an awesome chiptune soundtrack. You can purchase the game here.
Title: Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake Developer: SleepNinja Games Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $4.99 --- Successfully Kickstarted over a year ago, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is a charming new puzzle game, the debut title of SleepNinja Games. While it shares elements with other games in the genre, Monsters stands out due to its colorful cute visuals, a narrative, varied mechanics, and just offering a fun polished puzzle adventure experience. While many puzzles games are simply a series of challenges, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake presents its brain-teasers within the framework of an interesting story and design more akin to a RPG than your usual puzzle game. You play as Niko, a young boy who wakes to find his birthday ruined when the nefarious Boogins steal his precious cake. This theft sets him on an adventure across the various areas of Gogapoe Island, where dangers and new friends await. Most puzzle games would be content with a simple string of levels, but Monsters lets you explore Niko's village, take with villagers for side quests, visit shopkeepers along your journey to purchase new items and outfits: a fleshed-out structure that adds purpose to your puzzle solving.
But the meat of the game is obviously the puzzles and in that regard, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake delivers a polished array of challenges. Niko and the monster friends he meets throughout his journey each have their own unique abilities, useful in their own way: pulling and pushing blocks, an obstacle- and enemy- crushing ramming dash, a shriek that destroys obstacles and stuns enemies, and more. You have to use these abilities in conjunction to open blocked paths, avoid or defeat the varied Boogin enemies, and collect coins, keys, and pieces of cake. The enemies also add their own puzzle element, as one must rush at you when you enter its line of sight, another may patrol an area, or unleash a shriek of its own that disables your special abilities. Figuring how to move through the levels, how you need to work together, timing and syncing your movements makes Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake a fun game, and special objectives such as not using a certain abilities or not killing enemies adds extra challenge and replay value.
Personally I think Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake controls well; you simply draw your character's path and double tap to activate your abilities. The game is easy to play, allowing the visuals and overall polish to shine. From the character bios in your journal and the notes you find along the way, to the charming aesthetic, to the varied puzzles and the game's RPG-esque elements, to the story framework that ties it all together, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is a complete wonderfully-crafted package.
You can purchase Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake for $4.99.
Title: Trigger Developer: Spelkraft Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $1.99, currently free till July 20th --- On one hand, I love finding hidden gems on the App Store; it's always cool to discover an fantastic game you never heard of. But on the other, it speaks volumes about how hard it can be for IOS developers to find an audience or exposure and attention for their game. I hope Trigger gets the attention it deserves, because it's a fun colorful game and the best same-screen multiplayer game I've played since Wrestle Jump. Trigger is a simple game to control. Each player has a button in the corner of the screen and controls a small tank. Tapping the button simultaneously rotates your tank 90 degrees to the right and fires a projectile. This simple control scheme makes what could have been mindless arena combat into a hectic game of skill, positioning, timing, close calls, and near misses as you evade enemy shots and plan out your movements. Various power-ups appear through the arenas, granting you abilities such as laying down mines in your wake and bouncing projectiles. Getting hit isn't the end; instead you find yourself on foot, forced to race back to an vacant tank. Besides the fun gameplay, Trigger stands out thanks to its colorful charming art style, as you fight among pencils, erasers, and other everyday items. These objects aren't static; they can move, pencils can break in half, balls roll around if pushed, making the arenas feel dynamic and interesting.
Trigger can be played solo against bots, but the best experience is with friends. I recommend checking Trigger if you're looking for a fun multiplayer game or just something fast and hectic to play when you have a few minutes to spare.
You can download Trigger here. It's currently free till July 20th (usually $1.99)
The Day of the Totems is a puzzle platformer. Now there are a lot of puzzle platformers on IOS, but Day of the Totems stands out due to its cute style and interesting gameplay.
Your goal is to reassemble your scattered totem and reach the exit platform. Each level contains four totem pieces, and while the early levels are straight forward, easing you into the mechanics, soon the game becomes quite tricky. With each piece you collect, your character becomes taller, preventing you from passing through openings that you could jump through before. Figuring out where you need to move the totem pieces and which order you need to collect them so that you can gather all four pieces and still reach the exit can be challenging, especially once mechanics such as portals, pressure switches, and movable blocks are introduced. At one point, actually in the first few levels, I was stumped on how to collect all four pieces, until I had a great "aha!" moment, which allowed me to see new solutions I hadn't considered before. Moments like that is what makes a puzzle game surpass others in my opinion, and The Day of the Totems has no shortage of those.
Cute colorful visuals, a nice amount of levels, solid controls, and a fun puzzle mechanics makes The Day of the Totems a puzzle platformer worth checking out.
Title: Ion Bond Developer: Smiling Bag Platforms: IOS Universal Price: $0.99 --- Ion Bond is the newest game from developer Stewart Hogarth. You may know him thanks to his indie I Am Level, which mixed platforming, pinball, and retro visuals to craft a fun hidden gem. Ion Bound is neither a platformer, a pinball game, or retro; instead it's a slick, stylish puzzle game, one that constantly new mechanics and offers challenging scenarios that test both your mind and skill. Rather than ions and particles, it's easier to think of the game as about magnets in zero gravity. Same-charged nodes repel each other, differently-charged nodes attract. By linking nodes, you can manuever them around the screen, to both collide like-colored nodes and to collect the three pick-ups in each level. It's all about figuring out how to use the bonds and different node charges to your advantage and when to break bonds and conserving momentum. The chapters start out simple enough, and each adds a new mechanic, from particle-destroying dark matter surfaces, neutral white nodes, static unmoving modes, undecided nodes whose charge can be changed, and that's only the four out of the six chapters. The mechanics are simple but when combined, allow for a variety of challenging puzzles. Ion Bond may sound complex, but in fact it's easy to control, only requiring you to drag between nodes to link them together and tap on these links to separate nodes.
