I’m sitting in a house surrounded by snow, ice and freezing cold temperatures. So it makes perfect sense to be reviewing Ray Marching, a game that’s all about controlling the rays of the sun.

Your job is to save flowers by directing the sun photons at the targets and, presumably, saving plantkind. To do this is simple, at least at first it is. Using your finger, you position the trajectory of the rays towards the targets. The problem is you can only do this in a straight line. The addition of arrows and other items makes for an easier task but the strategy lies in figuring out how to get to the target. While the game starts out very simply, you’ll quickly be stumped.

Points are scored for succeeding but also accuracy. The best scores come from hitting the bullseye of each target but sometimes this isn’t as easy as it sounds. Slightly oversensitive controls also contribute to this making it a little fiddly to be pinpoint accurate. Although at least this doesn’t affect the general enjoyment that Ray Marching brings.

It’s a formula that’s been used to similar effect many times before but Ray Marching is good fun. There’s 60 stages in all as well as achievements to gain, although sadly they’re not achievements linked to GameCenter or OpenFeint.

Ray Marching won’t set the world alight with its originality. It’s all business as usual really but it is an enjoyable experience and it’s very cute and charming. The opening levels provide an ideal introductory sequence so that you’re gradually guided through what can be done. Many later puzzles are challenging though and are bound to stump you for a while, providing plenty of longevity at a low price.

[ Ray Marching Review is a post from 148Apps ]

The original Tiki Totems has been a huge hit on the App Store, and at 2.5 million downloads and counting it stands as one of those games that practically everyone has played or at least knows about. Now developer Spokko has seen fit to provide us with a sequel, and not only does Tiki Totems 2 continue to perfect the formula set out in the first game, but the addition of a level editor and two new modes make this an absolute must-have app.

At it’s heart, Tiki Totems 2 is a physics-based puzzler which challenges players to remove all the wood blocks from a stage without letting their totem touch the ground. It’s a bit like Boom Blox spiced with a Japanese Daruma feel all set to an island rhythm. Classic mode sees players trying to balance both rectangular and round tikis, finding a safe landing place for their idols while getting rid of the oddly-shaped wood blocks. It’s a fairly traditional game type, but it’s still a ton of fun.

Altar mode puts a bit of a different spin on Classic by requiring players not to get rid of a certain number of blocks but rather demanding they land their tiki in a specific spot on the map. This greatly changes the approach to many of the puzzles and creates a refreshingly new way to play. Love mode is an even more substantial departure, as each level features two tikis which player must make touch each other before they hit the ground. Suddenly the chain-reaction of the blocks becomes the most important aspect of all and very careful thought is required in order to succeed.

Those with a creative streak will also get a kick out of the game’s included WYSIWYG editor, which can be used to create whole levels from scratch. When you think you’ve crafted a true work of art you can submit your creations to the developers, who will be choosing the most impressive levels to include in future updates of the game. While you can’t share directly with other players, at least with the devs acting as intermediaries there will be fewer penis-shaped levels. We’re not naive enough to believe there won’t be any such levels, just less of them.

Tiki Totems 2 expands on an already solid formula to offer an incredibly fun and thorough experience. I can’t think of any reason to not wholeheartedly recommend this app, so make sure to go pick it up ASAP and enjoy the hours upon hours of entertainment it will provide.

[ Tiki Totems 2 Review is a post from 148Apps ]

I want blood, blah! It’s a little late in the year for a vampire themed game, but FunOnYourCell has created a arcade platformer that will probably please the masses of pasty skinned, sun deprived gamers.

Why blood runner is a vampire game and not a turkey based game (for Thanksgiving) or a Santa based game (for Christmas) is lost on me, because the game really doesn’t need to have a theme at all. You play as a little vampire critter who must jump (and double jump/wall jump) around the screen to get to his coffin before the time runs out. With a thirst for blood, the only thing that keeps him going/extends the clock is blood droplets that you find all over the map (think coins in Mario). To make your journey home difficult, each map consists of a large area filled with spikes, water, and various other traps and obstacles that progressively get tougher to pass as the game goes on.

As far as platform gaming goes, BloodRunner offers some thrills, but doesn’t have any of those magical levels that put it over the top. Once you get the hang of the jump mechanics, each level just becomes a slightly more difficult version of the one before it. Each of the 30 levels are well designed and look quite nice, but there isn’t anything in the game that will really wow you. I liken Blood Runner to an above average game that you would find on Kongregate or Armor Games – good, but not outstanding.

In a nutshell, if you love platform gaming and can’t get enough of trying to beat the world in high score challenges, BloodRunner is probably the game for you. I really don’t understand why they haven’t done Christmas overlay for the Holiday season (there’s still time!), but I am only an app reviewer, not a consultant.

[ BloodRunner Review is a post from 148Apps ]

They say that the average person knows 5,000 to 6,000 words, though the number of words in an abridged dictionary averages at around 50,000. However, there’s always time to learn a few new words or brush up on those you forgot you knew in the first place, and Wordstr is a fun way to do just that. The straightforward game is quite addictive, but if you don’t already have a rather robust word roster you may not find it all that entertaining.

The game itself is as simple as it gets. Every round you have three minutes to deduce a random four or five-letter word. Every time you enter a guess the game tracks how many letters you managed to get right and lights them up on the keyboard. Thus, stages become a race to eliminate all the incorrect letters while unscrambling where the correct characters go. It’s a bit of a mix of Hangman and TextTwist, but without the frills and thrills. While there are bonus rounds where you can try and decipher anagrams of the round’s secret word and the ability to challenge your friends’ high scores via OpenFeint, that’s really all there is to it.

The lack of any visual panache also hurts the app, as the absence of any interesting backgrounds or entertaining themes leave a rather bland palette. Maybe some catchy music would make Wordstr more entertaining, but you’re better off listening to your own iTunes collection than the game’s included soundtrack. Ultimately, the whole presentation package is a bit of a letdown.

The gameplay of Wordstr makes it quite addictive if you enjoy this type of game, and once you’ve developed a strategy for weeding out letters and figuring out the secret words it’s very satisfying to run through multiple rounds and rack up incredible scores. This is a title clearly aimed at a more cerebral audience though, as the lack of any sort of hints or tips system means it won’t coddle folks who don’t happen to be gifted wordsmiths. This is an app meant to appeal to the Scrabble crowd, but then why would that group need this game? Wordstr can indeed be quite fun, but the niche genre it’s meant to appeal to might already have all their vocabulary-testing needs fulfilled elsewhere.

[ Wordstr Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Football games, in the minds of many, just don’t seem to work on the iPhone. Games like Madden and Gameloft’s NFL series sure do look neat, but they don’t seem to stand the test of time. The controls are too complex, the gameplay tends to be too choppy, and gamers long for something simpler. Enter the Backbreaker Football series. Instead of jumbling up the screen with players and plays, Backbreaker keeps it simple, concentrating on breaking tackles… and now tackling.

The original Backbreaker Football was a fun tackle breaking experience, but it grew old fairly quickly because of its lack of depth. After juking, spinning, running, and showboating around increasing numbers of defenders, there just really wasn’t much to do. The very reason sequels are created though is to take a great idea and make it bigger and better… and that’s just what Backbreaker 2 does.

Instead of limiting gamers to one play mode, Backbreaker 2 has two modes, a mode that pits you as the runner and one that pits you as the tackler. The same concept applies to both (although in the tackle mode you have to tackle a player after avoiding the defenders). The game fields are also much more complex, not only graphically, but in the amount of stuff going on. There are bonus score patches on the field, barriers that you have to hurdle over (yes, you can jump!), and objects that you have to duck under using the truck button (yes, you can truck defenders!). Even the celebrations are more complex, allowing for a base celebration and a super celebration that really pumps up your score.

At the end of the day though, after all of the glitzy graphics (they really are quite impressive), the great added moves, and the new obstacles to boost the game mechanics, the core of the game really is just about the same… not that that is a bad thing. If you were a fan of the first Backbreaker Football, you’ll absolutely love Backbreaker 2, and if you didn’t like the first one, I’d recommend giving the new one a chance, although the basics are pretty much the same. It’s obviously limited in scope, but the new additions to the game really do make the whole experience considerably better.

[ Backbreaker 2: Vengeance Review is a post from 148Apps ]