iOS Reviews

The combination of endless runner and driving game seems like a natural fit: put someone behind the wheel, and throw them into some gravel-flavored mayhem, upgrading cars and purchasing new rides along the way. It seems so simple: but as Muscle Run proves, a great idea does not a great game make. Despite a few interesting features and an intriguing gameplay design, Muscle Run never quite fills its potential; a fun, but short-lasting mobile experience.

You have no idea how difficult it is to be a snail. There are traps everywhere - hammers, spikes, pins, deadly drops - and that's before you even begin to think of falling rocks and the hot sun. It's not easy to be a snail, and so it helps to have someone around to strategically throw you around, protect you with pencils and help you avoid things that may just kill you.

So let's say you're a knight. Sweet gig, huh? You own your own land, have a squire to attend to all of the boring and trivial nonsense that you don't feel like dealing with, and all those medieval ladies think that you're just the cat's pajamas. But what do you do when some disgusting monster grabs all of the local Princesses and relocates them to some giant monster infested tower?

If you follow mobile games at all, you'll probably have heard of The Drowning. It's the latest first-person shooter to be brought to iOS and the one that the developers have promised us will revolutionize the control scheme for shooters on touch screens. On top of that, it's a game about some sort of crazy water zombies coming from the ocean to drown all human life.

There's a reason that Plants Vs Zombies 2 has the subtitle "It's About Time." It's become a global phenomenon, encompassing multiple platforms, books, figurines, plushies and more. That all of this has comes from a single game is remarkable, especially since it's not especially long, nor does it have some great RPG-like depth to it. It's just simple good fun.

Dubai, like many places in the east, is a city of opposites. Wholly modern but with tradition and history spanning millennia, it's one of those places that almost everybody has heard of, but many wouldn't be able to place on a map. It's a beautiful city but one that is often understood (partly thanks to strict control of their image), and that's partly why the developers behind Dubai Delivery decided to make their game. On some levels they succeed in painting a rich tapestry of life in Dubai, and I found myself learning things I never knew. But in all the ...

Le Vamp is another in a seemingly endless run of endless runner games on the App Store. Where many games put you in direct control of a character who has to run, jump, and/or fight for as long as possible, Le Vamp has you acting as the tiny vampire's protector, removing obstacles from his path as he runs from a crowd of angry villagers.

On its surface, the idea of making a 2D car combat game seems.... odd. The beauty of combat racers is the feel of being inside a course, smashing against walls and flying around corners on the way to victory. As a side-scrolling, 2D racer, you'd think Delta-V Racing wouldn't be able to capture the kinetic, drift-induced frenzies that its 3D counterparts are. But thanks to some smart level design and interesting implementation of popular combat mechanics, Delta-V Racing is a solid title, despite its over-simplicity in some areas.

Have you ever wanted to manage a company of interstellar mercenaries? Sure, who hasn't? Have you ever wanted to distill the act of managing that company of interstellar mercenaries down to a card game, complete with blind booster packs and rare cards? That...might be a harder sell. However, Rivals at War: 2084 does just that, and manages to be quite fun and engaging for a game that you don't actually play.

Upon releasing Mikey Shorts in 2012, BeaverTap Games suddenly found themselves at the forefront of handheld platforming, perfecting the speed run formula with impeccably-designed levels and controls in their debut iOS tit It was hands down one of the best iOS releases of the year - and as I often do these days with games and movies, I prayed the inevitable sequel didn't ruin my fond memories.