Podgamer » Podgamer PS

Flamin series: Flamin’ NORA!

RevStu — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:03:35 +0000

Where, of course, NORA stands for “Numerous OpenFeint-supporting Redemption-style Arcade games”. Nicolas Robert‘s minimalist “Flamin” series is mostly based on those end-of-the-pier gaming machines that reward players with prizes either directly or by giving out tickets that you can redeem at a kiosk, but there are no prizes on offer here – not even Coin Dozer-type virtual ones. Happily, though, AuroraFeint’s popular high-score service has stepped in to save the day by providing an alternative goal-and-reward system, and everything’s worked out beautifully in the end. Hurrah! (Continued...)

Death Worm: Wormpocalypse, Pt. 2

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:46:38 +0000

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! (Continued...)

Zombies Ate My Baby: May cause indigestion

J Nash — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:39:27 +0000

I’m really not sure about this one. At first blush, Zombies Ate My Baby is brill, a centre defence tap shooter with imaginative flourishes like shopping trolley zombs and chapter-loot comics where each ish introduces a new boyf who’s immediately killed. You’ll blast away for quite a while, thoroughly entertained by the pile-up of arcadey chaos as machine-gunned zombs briefly remain slumped in the melee. Then you start noticing things. (Continued...)

Thieves operate in this area

RevStu — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:21:22 +0000

Although buying games in the App Store represents the best value for money in the entire history of the commercial videogames industry, it’s a bit like drinking in Glasgow on a Saturday night – there’s a lot of fun to be had, but you still better keep your wits about you if you don’t want to get mugged. There are several ways in which unscrupulous (“Business entrepreneurs” – The Government) will try to rip off the unwary iOS gamer, so let’s take a cautionary look at a few of them. (Continued...)

The most wonderful time of the year

Nathan Grayson — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 03:29:41 +0000

It’s nearly Halloween, and you know what that means, right? Well, do you? We actually didn’t know it meant this: iThing game sales. Like, an almost comical number of them. But hey, back in my day, Halloween meant choking down candy dispensed by creepy neighbors and praying it wasn’t laced with poison or – worse – raisins, so I’m actually pretty all right with the holiday’s desperate ploy to appeal to a new generation. Anyway, onto the gruesome price tag dismemberment! First up, there’s Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, which is only a few seconds old in App Store years, but has been chopped from £5.99/€7,99/$9.99 to £3.99/€5,49/$6.99. Our very own Pod Lord Stu – in between lashes of his cruel whip because we weren’t thanking him hard enough for whipping us – said it’s “pretty much what you’d expect.” Do you like predictability? Does it make you feel safe? Then you should probably buy this game. These games are cheap, but my undying respect is… entirely conditional. Hit the “continue” button or I’ll hate you. (Continued...)

Blue Defense: Second Wave! (Twist And Shoot)

Craig Grannell — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:24:00 +0000

Space Invaders was the first arcade game I remember playing. Due to my tender age, my dad had to lift me up to see the screen properly, something he instantly regretted, not least because I rapidly became hooked and I weighed quite a bit more than he realised. These days, I find Space Invaders about as much fun as being sandpapered, and so I’m not a big fan of Taito’s serviceable ports for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. The original Blue Defense was a different matter, its glorious twisty neon destruction rekindling the spark that had ignited when I was a kid. And the amusingly short instructions also helped: “Tilt to aim. Bullets shoot straight up”. Now Blue Defense has got its ‘second wave’—and I’m hooked again. (Continued...)

Luxor: The Capacious Magnetism Of Steve McQueen’s Bottom

J Nash — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:33:51 +0000

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT DESIGN ERROR BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

Duke Nukem free, but not forever

RevStu — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 22:08:09 +0000

Just an excuse for that joke, really. It’s a nice enough port, though, loaded with all the control options you could want – normal modern FPS style, legacy style, an utterly confusing “casual” digital-buttons option (pictured below) and even the choice of whether to aim at the monsters with a crosshair or just tap them directly on screen to fill them full of bad quips and death. Games don’t get any more free than this. Until tomorrow, when thousands and thousands of games will be more free than this. So hurry. But not until you’ve read the first in what will almost certainly become a long series of exciting PODGAMER STAFF LIVE DEBATES! (Continued...)