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Well, the Labor Day sale has come and gone (as well as my B Day) and I am spent. I picked up a lot of great games and am looking forward to many a long gaming session. However things certainly didn't turn out the way I thought it would. Hm, that was a bit ambiguous. Let me be more specific. While I did receive an iTunes card as a gift, it was a $25 card instead of a $15 card. Add that to the $8 credit that I already had and that adds up. Couple this with the awesome Labor Day sale (tons of .99 cent games) and I nearly had a brain hemmorage. Anyways, here are the games (in no particular order):
Paid Games
Across Ages - It's billed as a Zelda-clone, but is really just another KRPG. Fun, but not Zelda.
Silent Hill The Escape - a touch-centric title that I do not like. Out of the lot it is the only one I regret buying. Luckily, it was only .99 cents.
Zenonia Series (1, 2, and 3) - I had so much fun with part 3, I ended up buying the first two. All are fast-paced Secret of Mana-style games.
Illusia - another great Gamevil title, this one a Popful Mail-style game.
Dead Space - only .99 cents, and one of the best new gaming experiences I've had all year. It makes me want to grab the console titles.
Hyper Crush - A Mario-type platform based around an electronic band. I can barely describe it.
Zombie Infection - a Gameloft third-person shooter with zombies. I like killing zombies, and it was .99 cents.
Resident Evil 4: Platinum - I've read it's not the full game, more like a greatest-hits version. It controls well and was only .99 cents.
Vay - surprisingly, this was the only traditional JRPG that I picked up (and $5 at that).
Shadow Guardian - another Gameloft third-person game, this one clearly modeled after Uncharted. Fun, and .99 cents.
Gangstar: Miami Vindication - the second Gangstar game, this one quite good looking and fun. It was not on sale, but I had so much fun with the demo.
SNES Player - this isn't a game, but rather an app that allows you to listen to spc and rsn files (direct sound rips from SNES games). What can I say, I'm a dork.
Noise Entertainment System - plays nsf (NES) and gbn (Gameboy) sound files. Very cool.
Free Games
Aurum Blade Free - Yep, free. For the whole game. Cutesy-Diablo/Secret of Mana game.
Inotia 2: Eternity - Like Zenonia 3, there is a free and paid version of the game. Unlike Zenonia 3, there are a ton of ads in this game. If it turns out to be good, I'll buy the full version (like I did with Zenonia 3).
Guardian Saga - I must have picked this up the single day it was free, because it is now $1.99. It's basically a Dragon Warrior game, 8-bit graphics and all.
Fallen EP-1 - Third person survival horror with traditional controls and some touch-centric actions scenes (bashing open a glass window with a fire extinguisher). A bit annoying, but still fun.
Near Misses
GTA Chinatown Wars - Basically a port of the PSP version, but with touch. While I did buy both versions of this game (DS and PSP), I decided against this one. Not really for any problems with the game, but since I've already bought it twice...
Bug Panic - you wonder around a forest, blasting giant, cute bugs with bombs. Great controls, lock ons, and charging attacks make this game stand out. I would have bought it if was cheaper and had more content.
1112 - an episodic touch-adventure game. It was clearly made more for the iPad than the iPhone/iTouch, but it still looked nice. Far too short (from what I hear), a relatively large price tag, and the fact I kept getting stuck in the bathroom kept this one away.
Well, that's it (for now). I'm knocking around an idea for doing a semi-regular feature about iOS and Android games (I'll be getting an Android phone in October) to maybe give some more love to some of these great titles. I don't know. It'll depend on how bad my online class gets.
I feel kind of funny writing this. See, I started writing this article about six months ago, when I purchased a 4th Gen iTouch. At the time I was just getting dipping into that iOS had to offer and was not impressed. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing I was interested in outside of a few touch-centric titles (Angry Birds). My iTouch was used to stream podcasts, listen to audiobooks, and a few other choice utilities (organize grocery lists, alarm clock). I found myself disliking long-winded discussions about iPhone/iTouch gaming, and would skip entire podcasts if I felt they focused too much on the platform. Oh how things have changed.
I'm still not sure when it first started, but I found myself downloading random games, sampling them and (more often than not) deleting them, trying to find a happy medium between the style of game played and the offered controls. I felt like a velociraptor in Jurassic Park, attacking parts of the electrified fence to find a weak spot. Okay, that was a bad analogy. How about: I was trying to find my niche. That is better. Now to business.
The word is that I'm getting an iTunes card for my approaching B-day, which I want to spend entirely on games. The plan is to sift through the Games section of the App Store, buying those that catch my eye. I'll test when possible, and give precedence to those that are on sale (saving the names of those I'll have to pass up due to price). What I hope to have is a nice bunch of games to play along with a goodly amount of games to purchase later. I already have about $8 in Apple bucks, so I'll be able to get a few games if I so wish.
Now in the past week I've already picked two games (although I only paid for one). The first is Zenonia 3by Gamevil, an excellent Secret of Mana-type game with a ton of content (four character classes, items to combine, multiple quests, a multi-floor dungeon called the Execution Room, skill trees, and more). There were two versions, paid and free, so naturally I got the free. So far the game is excellent, and the amount of stuff to do is staggering considering the price of the game (.99 cents and free). I cannot recommend this game enough to lovers of the genre.
The second game is Aralon - Sword and Shadow by Crescent Moon Games, an Oblivion-style third-person action/RPG. Naturally with these types of games (as with all touch-screen games, I reckon) there is a question about the usability of the controls, but in this case it is all for naught. The controls are fine (though they would be better on an iPad), and more than enough to get one through the game (or at least the hour that I played). I have to be honest, while there are other Oblivion-style games on the App Store, this one was on sale for .99 cents (down from $4.99).
I've still got a couple bucks (and more coming) so I'll follow the breadcrumb-trail of App Store and Youtube links to find some great games.
[UPDATE] Apparently a bunch of companies in the App Store are having a Labor Day sale, so I'll check those out either tonight or tomorrow. Also, Aralon is back up to $4.99.
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This is bombatomba's Blog.
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So I'm an odd ball. So I am usually the last to post on a blog/forum. So I only post about weird games on weird platforms. So I have a strange relationship with commas and parenthesis. So what? Hey, at least you don't have to car pool with me to work, right? So have a heart, eat a blueberry, and don't forget to drop the empties in the box on the way out. I get deposit on those. |
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