Android – Iphone – Applications

There has to come a point someday that every Match-3 idea that can possibly be made, will have been made. I mean, how many different ways can you match three or more things together and keep the game fun?

Well, Ponk seems to have found another way to keep things exciting in the Match-3 world, and have even come up with a fun and exciting addition for Match-3 games on a touch screen.

The way Ponk works is that it throws colored balls at you at a rapid pace, all of which you must organize into neat little color coordinated patterns. The patterns can be constructed any way you choose, so all you have to worry about is three or more things of the same color touching each other. The difference maker in Ponk is the control scheme, which lets you drag and hold balls with simple swipes. Instead of being constricted by order and speed, you can just fling the balls wherever you’d like or hold on to certain ones so you can think about the placement for a bit.

To make things difficult, Ponk throws the balls at you at an unrelenting pace, and then ups the quota to an insane point at the end of every level. There are a number of items to help you, including mass color destroyers, bombs, and a freeze button, but things do get hectic quick. If you are looking for a Match-3 game that will have you playing a single level for a long period of time, look elsewhere. Ponk is unrelenting, and the game lengths reflect the tough pace.

If you are looking for a difficult Match-3 game to satisfy your insatiable urge to color coordinate, look no further than Ponk. I’m sure there are more difficult games in the genre, but I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head.

[ Ponk Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by gunturbabu \\ tags: Application, balls, Game, insatiable, iphone apps and games, itchy mitshi, overall-rating, price, review

The crew over at Armor Games has a real knack for making addictive, simple games that manage to pile on the fun. Hedgehog Launch is one such title, and its appearance as an app is truly a welcome one. This little game is big on charm, gameplay and entertainment value.

As the title implies, Hedgehog Launch is all about launching a hedgehog, preferably into space. Players start with a catapult and must fling their furry mascot into the sky, bouncing him off platforms and picking up coins in order to upgrade their flying abilities. Additional cash lets you upgrade your hedgehog’s launcher and thrusters, and eventually you can purchase a radar that helps you scout your surroundings, parachutes to slow descent or secondary thrusters that improve your elevation. The ultimate goal is to get the hedgehog into space in the fewest number of days possible, and the whole experience is an absolute treat.

What Armor Games has done so well is provide an experience where players want to come back again and again to beat their best scores without even realizing how much time they’re sinking into the game. A single round can last only ten minutes, but it feels like it goes by in a flash and suddenly you look up two hours later and wonder where the time went. It’s amazing how a game this simple can suck you in so easily.

In addition to all that the title also boasts Game Center support, complete with Achievements and a Leaderboard to see just where you rank in terms of your hedgehog flinging prowess. As if there weren’t enough reason to keep playing for your own edification, the game also lets you check out how well your friends are doing and try and best them.

As I probe looking for a weakness in this title I really can’t find anything bad to say. It’s bad form for a reviewer not to find some fault with an app, but the developers deserve credit for putting together something really special. The game is easy enough for anyone to play yet deep enough to keep you coming back, and the super-low price tag makes this an easy impulse purchase. This is a terrific app, and one you’ll likely enjoy substantially.

[ Hedgehog Launch Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by Debra \\ tags: armor-games, friends, Game, hedgehog launch, overall-rating, price, time

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is hardly a new game. This RPG, featuring a match-3 battle system, has made it to plenty of platforms – consoles, handhelds, and of course, iOS. With Puzzle Quest 2 about to hit iOS in both iPhone and iPad flavors, Transgaming thought it was about time for iPad users to get a native taste of the original Puzzle Quest on their platform, thus Puzzle Quest HD was born.

The gist of Puzzle Quest is that it’s an RPG where you fight an enemy using a variety of spells to cause damage and other effects, where you collect experience points to level up, and gold to buy items, and you travel across the land taking on quests to advance the story. This sounds like a lot of RPGs, yes, but Puzzle Quest’s battles take place on a match-3 board, with gameplay similar to Bejeweled, where you swap gems on a board to make matches of 3 or more. There are 3 types of gems – red, blue, yellow, and green – that give you mana to charge up your spells, gold and purple gems that give you additional gold and XP, and skull gems that do damage to your enemy. You and your opponent share the same board, adding additional strategy to the typical Bejeweled mix.

Puzzle Quest’s use of match-3 gameplay is ingenious, particularly in the way that it isn’t just about making random matches; there’s strategy in the matches you make, from getting extra turns by matching 4 or 5 pieces at once, or aiming for specific color matches to benefit you or hinder your opponent. It makes it feel a lot more involved than the typical match-3 game. As well, the game comes with a very long play time, so you will get your money’s worth out of Puzzle Quest if you keep on playing it. In some ways, it’s almost too long, as you really have to stick with it to even get near the end.

Puzzle Quest’s story, setting, and characters are all comprised of generic fantasy elements, none of which are memorable even after hours and hours of playing. As well, the match-3 gameplay sometimes lends itself to wild swings of luck in battles, and sometimes victory is best achieved by constantly retrying until you win. The interface, particularly with checking item and spell effects outside of battle, is very glitchy and is hard to check without unintentionally equipping the spell or item.

While Puzzle Quest HD is not a new game, and provides nothing new to veterans of the original game in the series (although the 3rd chapter of the game, which was DLC on other platforms, is included here), for newbies to the franchise, this is a great way to get acquainted with one of the best puzzle game adaptations of the last few years. If you haven’t played the game yet, and want an ingenious twist on the traditional puzzle game design, Puzzle Quest HD is well worth checking out.

[ Puzzle Quest HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: Games, ipad, ipad apps and games, match, overall-rating, platforms, price, puzzle quest, puzzle quest hd, quest, rating, transgaming, warlords

Sadly, another baseball season has just recently come to an end. If you miss the sport already, Gamevil has a fix for you in Baseball Superstars 2011. While iPad owners just recently got their hands on the 2010 model, iPhone and iPod touch owners (as well as those iPad owners willing to play in 2X mode, as this is not universal, nor is there an HD version available yet) get to play the brand new version of the game.

Baseball Superstars 2011 features a very similar feature list to the previous incarnation of the game: you have the standard exhibition and season modes, as well as the My League mode where you create a custom player and upgrade your stats by training every few games. Collect G points by completing events in-game and by completing missions, and now by purchasing them via in-app purchase. My main complaint about the first game, that the pitching was too easy, has been resolved in this one. Pitches come in at more realistic velocities and movements, and you can’t just strikeout 20 batters a game as easy as you could in the 2010 version. Leveling up is a lot harder as well, as you can’t just spam easily-completed pitching missions to rack up massive amounts of G points to get to max stats quickly. Now you can earn them by playing other game modes and doing things like getting strikeouts and home runs. Otherwise, the game is largely structured the same as it was in the 2010 version, for better or for worse.

The good news is that the game is still as addictive as ever, especially with the continuous character progression the My League mode provides. As well, the game’s increased challenge in pitching means you actually feel some satisfaction when you succeed, instead of it being assumed because pitching was so easy. Rewarding and addictive is a great combination for a baseball game to have, and it will take more time to master than 2010 did. The game also boasts a crisper visual look to it, and there are few if any occurrences of poor English in this game.

However, the documentation in Baseball Superstars 2011 is horrible. If an element isn’t immediately obvious through playing, it isn’t explained in the in-game help sections, or is only briefly explained in splash screen tips. Also, beyond the changed visual look, there isn’t really a lot changed from last year’s version. Also, it’s a shame that with Gamevil recently releasing an HD version of Baseball Superstars 2010 HD, that this couldn’t be a universal app, or that they couldn’t have held off releasing an iPad version of the franchise until the 2011 version released.

Baseball Superstars 2011 is still far from being a perfect game, and the changes in this year’s version are really only minor tweaks to the overall formula. But the minor tweaks add up to make this a better game, in some ways, even if the pitching is still far from perfect. Even everything else is at times an enigma, there’ still a fun arcade-style baseball game here. If you need another baseball fix, you could do a lot worse than Baseball Superstars 2011.

[ Baseball Superstars 2011 Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by iieevvn1 \\ tags: baseball superstars 2011, baseball-superstars, device-reviewed, documentation, Game, Iphone, iphone apps and games, price

Imagine that a bunch of wild animals—sheep, raccoons, squirrels, you name it—have moved in and started to eat all of your grass. Oh, no…what are the native Spikies to do? This premise, of course, lays the groundwork for an awesome platforming romp in which the Spikies ruthlessly plow down giant sheep and other furry enemies while navigating grassy platforms and perilous drops. Platforming games aren’t exactly new, but Spikies takes the genre made famous by Mario and adds its own quirky, vibrant energy.

The titular species are a quirky bunch—almost like colorful porcupines. In each stage, you lead your Spikie through the map, dashing into enemies to kill them and collecting balloons to free Spikies’ friends. There are fifteen stages, each with a well-designed map; you’ll need to time your jumps carefully, as Spikie continuously runs and the stages are filled with gaps, Spikie-killing sharp points, and enemies.

Speaking of jumping, the controls are straightforward: tapping anywhere makes your Spikie jump, while the dash button in the lower-right corner triggers a dash. You can dash whilst in mid-air, too. As you unlock more Spikies (there are seven in all) you get extra abilities—the first one you unlock, for example, prevents you from setting a high score but lets you place an extra checkpoint in the level.

Besides the core gameplay, the rest of Spikies is good, too. The graphics are good, though I could do without the blurry-cartoon effect, and the sound effects actually make the game easier to play. The level designs are clever, and there are enough extra challenges—like snagging all of the balloons in a level—to keep things interesting. Occasionally I had a problem with the game lagging, but for the most part everything worked. The difficulty level strikes a solid balance: checkpoints keep it from being too frustrating, but it’s still challenging.

Spikies is another entrant into the much-loved platformer genre. It doesn’t bring many new innovations to the table—but it delivers a cute, amusing experience with a perfect difficulty level and fun, fluid gameplay. It’s no genre-maker like Super Mario Bros., but for an iPhone game, Spikies is one sweet title. If you like platformers at all, be sure to give it a go!

[ Spikies Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by margs \\ tags: entrant, Game, Games, groundwork, Iphone, iphone apps and games, price, replay-value, spikie-killing, spikies, spikies-review, takes-the-genre, titular-species