iPad
Universal Review 
Podgamer Recommended
by J Nash (November 9th, 2010 at 11:21 pm)
One of splendid outer space deflection puzzler No, Human’s finest elements is the atmospherically perfect soundtrack of uncluttered, slightly melancholy classical piano pieces. Once again exhibiting the grasp and sensitivity that made Thief the Musical a byword for unscalped tickets, three unemployed louts from Exmouth have transformed the new game’s 80 zen levels of hypnotically replayable high score asteroid flinging into a rock opera that’s already enjoyed very nearly a run in very nearly a theatre.
We contractually present an excerpt of what leading critic Preddington Quatt is already calling in sick to avoid. Continue reading this post…
Universal Review Podgamer Recommended
by Nathan Grayson (November 9th, 2010 at 8:46 am) WITH SPECIAL GUEST STARS
I’ve fallen in love with iThing “worm” games of late, and you all have to suffer for it. Yes, even you. Especially you. The latest one’s called Death Worm, but apparently it’s the original while the less intimidatingly named Super Mega Worm is the knock-off. Is PlayCreek LLC telling the truth? Or have giant world-ending worms figured out time travel, thus kicking off an eternal duel of Internet message board “first!” style one-upmanship? No idea. Both options seem equally likely.
What I do know is that Death Worm’s better. Well, mostly. For one, it’s made the giant, helicopter-gulping leap from NES-era graphics to something more befitting of, say, the Super Nintendo. And this comes only a month after Super Mega Worm. Score one for the time travel theory. Also, you get to pick and choose your pink, wriggly powers and stats as you level up, which – while not enormously game-altering – adds a degree of customization to your apocalyptic exploits. Long and fast or hard and strong? The (incredibly phallic) choice is yours!
Continue reading this post…
Universal Feature
by RevStu (November 6th, 2010 at 3:28 pm)
It’s generally accepted by most sane people that if you want to make money out of something – particularly if it’s something that costs almost nothing to physically produce - you sell it cheap. The mainstream videogames industry is almost alone in continuing to resist this reality.
Despite comparable businesses like music and film having slashed the unit price of their products by something like 50% over the last decade (I still remember when new-release music CDs fetched £13.99 or more, and new movies on DVD went for £20-25), the price of games has edged steadily upwards since the advent of disc-based media, with £45 the normal RRP for new Xbox 360 or PS3 games. Some premium titles push that already-horrendous sum up by as much as another £10, plus there are numerous comedy “Special Editions” aimed at the super-gullible, charging as much as £30 or £40 more for discs or books full of screenshots, or little plastic toys.
Now, of course, there’s another way.
Continue reading this post…
Universal News
by NEWS ROBOT (November 5th, 2010 at 8:36 pm)
++ OBSERVATION: iPHONE/TOUCH VERSION BRIEFLY FREE ++
++ OBSERVATION: iPAD VERSION £2.99/€3,99/$4.99 ++
++ OBSERVATION: BALLISTICALLY PROPELLED SEWN COMPANION CRUELTY SIMULATOR ++
++ OBSERVATION: GUNPOWDER HURTLESQUEAK ++
++ PODGAMER NEWS ROBOT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HUMANS ++
++ SAD ++
++ SAD ++
++ SAD ++
Universal News
by Craig Grannell (November 5th, 2010 at 7:04 pm)
Ah, Sunday afternoons with an 8-bit computer, a text adventure and INSTANT DEATH. What could be more fun? If your answer is “nothing, sir” and not “beating myself to death with a spanner”, you should probably download the rather spiffy, universal and suddenly very (but probably temporarily) free Frotz right this second.
Frotz is a Z-Machine interpreter, enabling you to play more text adventures than you can shake a stick at (including the original Zork). And if you’ve some Z-Machine files lying about on your (“Legally purchased compilations” – Ed), you can upload them via FTP.
Even better, because Frotz is universal, the iPad interface gives you a keyboard that doesn’t make your thumbs want to die after you’ve been playing Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy for five hours.
Universal News
by Nathan Grayson (November 5th, 2010 at 6:14 am)
The zombie apocalypse is played out. Old hat. And I’ve come to terms with the nuclear apocalypse, so long as it makes the world exactly like Fallout: New Vegas. Point is, the end of the world is looking mighty anticlimactic these days. I need something new. Something different. Something like… a giant spiky worm? Sure, why the hell not.
You're a terrible person for simply looking at this screenshot, so just go ahead and buy the game.
Super Mega Worm‘s message is one I think we can all identify with: stop littering or a giant worm’s going to devour you. It’s a powerful and thought-provoking indictment of our current environmental policy – one that becomes all the more chilling when you consider that our wriggly pink Doombringer gains the power to blast lasers out of his mouth at level three.
Which is all to say that it’s wicked fun. Launching yourself out of the ground and skewering the squishy, screaming blood balloons otherwise known as human beings on your 32 rows of teeth is nearly as gratifying as it is sociopathic, and any game that uses live cattle as its central source of health is all right in our book. And hey, the full version’s only 59p/€0,79/99¢ right now, so why not? Plus, how can you say “no” to that face? The answer is that you can’t, because by the time you can see that face, it’s already too late.
Universal News
by Craig Grannell (November 4th, 2010 at 6:52 pm)
Imagine a developer really liked Magical Drop, but thought (rightly) that Magical Drop for iOS was akin to a pile of fetid dingo’s kidneys. Imagine that developer then created a similar game that worked really nicely on iOS, boasting great controls and graphics, then turned it into a universal app, and then gave it away entirely for free!
Well, you’ll have to imagine that for a bit longer, because the rather spiffy Linkoidz isn’t free, but it is just 59p/€0,79/99¢ right now and very much worth the cash. Unless you hate Magical Drop, of course, in which case GO AWAY, FOOLISH PERSON LACKING IN TASTE.
iPad News
by RevStu (November 2nd, 2010 at 10:30 pm)
I always wanted to get into a Rogue game, but every one I ever tried was so hideously, impenetrably complex that I gave up within minutes. Then I tried Sword Of Fargoal, and was so impressed with its lemony whiteness that I bought the company. (By which I mean I bought a Twix. Mm, Twix.)
Anyway, the only thing I don’t like about Sword Of Fargoal is that it’s a teeny bit cramped on the iPhone screen, which makes moving around the dungeon slightly more strenuous than it would be in a perfect world where men lived alongside men in peace and harmony and Twixes grew on every tree.
So it’s exceptionally good news that the enhanced iPad version, Sword Of Fargoal Legends, has just had its price all slashed – presumably with said sword – from a fearsome £3.99/€5,49/$6.99 all the way down to an absurdly bargulous 59p/€0,79/99¢. If you bought it now, you’d have enough money left for a whole bag of Twix Treatsizes at the supermarket tomorrow. Mm, Twix.
Universal News
by Craig Grannell (November 1st, 2010 at 10:59 am)
Hello, viewers! It’s time to take an exciting time-travel journey!
*SFX: WIBBLY SCREEN THING AND SPOOKY SOUND EFFECTS*
Oh my! It’s 1991. Picture the scene: a C64, an avid gamer, and a copy of Sensitive. A broken joystick, having been smashed on to the desk, due to aforementioned Sensitive—a brilliant but demanding and frustrating puzzler that tasks you with moving a metal doughnut over yellow blocks that vanish when you move off of them. Path-planning deviousness. Awful music. Addiction.
OH NO! We’ve been hit in our flux capacitor by 1.21 gigawatts of power, and we’re being hurled through time, against our will, back to the (“Present” – Legal Ed).
Continue reading this post…
Universal Review
by RevStu (October 29th, 2010 at 12:59 pm)
…you’ll have finished Story mode. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
This is an interesting one. After modest beginnings with unremarkable gravity game Blast Off, Halfbrick Studios exploded all over the App Store with their second game, the wonderful Fruit Ninja, and consolidated their success with the very decent running-man effort Monster Dash. The latter two games were both simple arcade titles that did exceptionally well at the 59p/€0,79/99¢ price point, but having made a name for itself the developer has now created something slightly more substantial and released it into the significantly more premium £1.79/€2,39/$2.99 range. How’s that going to work out, then?
After much discussion in the Podgamer offices and a methodical process of elimination, we concluded that by far the most sensible way to find out was to download Age Of Zombies and give it a play.
Continue reading this post…
