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iOS Gaming August 2015 | Last chance to play your favorites before iOS9 breaks them

Carton

Gold Member
Anyone else with an iPad (air 2) and cannot load the OP of this thread? :/

No, it's loading fine for me in both mobile and desktop mode (using safari on iOS 9 beta 5), and actually the scrolling performance is very good with minimal to no rendering lag.

But speaking of iPad Air 2 performance: I've been playing Geometry Wars 3 on it, and it suffers horrible stutter on all but the simplest of maps. These same performance issues don't seem to be present on the iPhone 6 plus (iOS 8.4), so i'm wondering whether it's an iOS 9 issue. I wouldn't think the resolution difference between the devices would account for such a performance drop given the markedly superior GPU/CPU in the iPad Air 2. Would anybody on iOS 8.something and iOS 9 care to comment?
 
Learned about a super under-the-radar puzzler that is supposed to be excellent:
Manowar - http://itunes.apple.com/app/id965680122
https://vimeo.com/122967714

Learned about it from the Twitter acount of Nicola Salmoria, who is a puzzle game dev himself and wrote a blog that was my favorite source of under-the-radar puzzlers. I discovered great puzzles games like Euclidea, Membrane, and Chess Light from his site

So if he says a game is beautiful and has some of the best puzzle design he's ever seen, I tend to listen.

6p-5.5-2-b16.jpg
6p-5.5-3-g13.jpg
 
Deathwatch on HEROIC is brutality made video game.
I used to breeze during Act 1 but damn....just completed the Act...the game really keeps on your toes.

Sounds like fun, I just best the Carnifex on vet and he was a nightmare. Although first time I fought him he had a perk that meant to regenerated 30% health every turn which basically made him invincible. Glad that particular mutation didn't come up again.
 

PittaGAF

Member
Sounds like fun, I just best the Carnifex on vet and he was a nightmare. Although first time I fought him he had a perk that meant to regenerated 30% health every turn which basically made him invincible. Glad that particular mutation didn't come up again.

For enemies with the 30 regen you must be sure to be sble to take them down in one turn as soon as they enter your LOS.
I use a plasma cannon overcharged to the max with all possible damage modifiers, not the crit because he is immune to those (6 AP on a master crafted weapon usually do over 7K damage).

It's a encounter you don't easily forget.

I'm already scared about encountering him at heroic...I've read things...

Anyway yeah, heroic is super fun.
By then you will have everyone maxed out...so it plays like an RPG.
And believe me...you will use EVERYTHING even in the first levels.
 
Quick question, is the English version of (LINE) Wind Runner gone? o.o I haven't played it in ages and now when I tried to redownload it on my new phone I can no longer find it in the store :/
 

ShowDog

Member
Has anyone else noticed that random sales have pretty much dried up on the App Store at this point? I used to be able to add all my games to appshopper and count on picking them up at a 50+% discount within a few months. I have received comparatively few notifications over the last 6-12 months.

I understand why they don't do it anymore, but it's a bummer all the same. With a backlog it's hard to justify paying "retail".
 
Has anyone else noticed that random sales have pretty much dried up on the App Store at this point? I used to be able to add all my games to appshopper and count on picking them up at a 50+% discount within a few months. I have received comparatively few notifications over the last 6-12 months.

I understand why they don't do it anymore, but it's a bummer all the same. With a backlog it's hard to justify paying "retail".
IMO, better that way. Always was frustrating to see a good game have to go free or down to $0.99 after a few weeks or months.
 

okno

Member
IMO, better that way. Always was frustrating to see a good game have to go free or down to $0.99 after a few weeks or months.

100% agree. It was always so sad, although satisfying, for a game to go on sale right after release. The store is at a far healthier place now, and that's a good thing. Keeps me from buying too many games at once, now!
 

RM8

Member
I just noticed Super Monkey Ball 2 Sakura Ed can't be bought anymore :( Maaaan, this is one of the best mobile games ever, and I never bought it because I bought it back when I was on Android. I hate when games get delisted like that, now I'll never have it on my phone.
 

awp69

Member
I just noticed Super Monkey Ball 2 Sakura Ed can't be bought anymore :( Maaaan, this is one of the best mobile games ever, and I never bought it because I bought it back when I was on Android. I hate when games get delisted like that, now I'll never have it on my phone.

Yeah, unfortunately a lot of older Sega games were taken down and probably will never come back. I actually wish they'd make a whole new Super Monkey Ball game. Ball rollers are one genre I like on mobile with tilt controls.
 

awp69

Member
IMO, better that way. Always was frustrating to see a good game have to go free or down to $0.99 after a few weeks or months.

100% agree. It was always so sad, although satisfying, for a game to go on sale right after release. The store is at a far healthier place now, and that's a good thing. Keeps me from buying too many games at once, now!

Has anyone else noticed that random sales have pretty much dried up on the App Store at this point? I used to be able to add all my games to appshopper and count on picking them up at a 50+% discount within a few months. I have received comparatively few notifications over the last 6-12 months.

I understand why they don't do it anymore, but it's a bummer all the same. With a backlog it's hard to justify paying "retail".



I agree with less of the "race to the bottom". Certainly helps keep premium games alive IMO.

And there are still plenty of sales. In fact, Apple seems to organize sales on batches of games ever month or so.

I can't afford everything but, if it's something I really want, I have no problem paying full price. Games are cheap enough on mobile. Sales usually only push me over on games I otherwise probably would have passed on.
 

Khar

Member
Learned about it from the Twitter acount of Nicola Salmoria, who is a puzzle game dev himself and wrote a blog that was my favorite source of under-the-radar puzzlers. I discovered great puzzles games like Euclidea, Membrane, and Chess Light from his site

So if he says a game is beautiful and has some of the best puzzle design he's ever seen, I tend to listen.

Thanks so much for mentioning Non trivial games. I adore logic puzzles and I just spent an hour or so reading through his archive. What an excellent resource.

I just added half a dozen games to my backlog.
 

Voidance

Member
Is there a list/blog that keeps track of quality games that play in portrait orientation? I tend to prefer playing games like this at work and reserve landscape only for my iPad at home.

Thanks!
 

Matt Frost

Member
Finished To-Fu Fury, my final comments about it...

I liked: Level design is good*1, the graphics with that pseudo 3D effect, the new story*2 and all the new moves To-Fu does, including fighting baddies, walking, and flinging, they open up the possibilities and is fun to play with. And the levels are build around lets you play with these, a lot. The game is very generous and IAP is not needed. The new graphics are vivid and alive, they are a welcoming addition to the series, making it shinier and prettier than before. Fighting baddies is a lot of fun, and there are plenty. Boss battles, another new feature, also performs well and are somewhat varied for what you can do.

I dont like: Controls are the worst part of it. How many times I tried to react quickly and was let down by them? First, your finger covers a portion of the street. Second, when trying to speed run, there is a huge percentage of times that you lose grip on To-Fu and you lose the fling (dont know how to explain it better, sorry) while over-stretching, resulting in death. I believe is a combination of the pseudo 3D and stretching To-Fu too much. I had problems with loosing grip on To-Fu. Didnt any testers say something about it? I read complaining on TouchArcade about it too, I am not the only one.

Conclusion: Good game to complete, is fun and adds to the series with the new mechanics making it a true sequel in my opinion. Only that controls aren't up to the task and lets it down a few notes, particularly over-stretching To-Fu and losing grip.

Final Score: 7 out of 10. Bronze award.

1* Having played all previous To-Fu games, this is great, but the first one was better. I loved that you could complete the levels with just 1 shot. It was satisfying to do so. Also, levels where more diverse.

2*
Man, I finished To-Fu Fury and the "ending"-or lack of- IS disappointing, now I have to wait for the conclusion, on my 16GB iPhone 6, while this game takes a 1/10 of the available space?. Man, on the fence with deleting it forever.

Has anyone else noticed that random sales have pretty much dried up on the App Store at this point? I used to be able to add all my games to appshopper and count on picking them up at a 50+% discount within a few months. I have received comparatively few notifications over the last 6-12 months.

I understand why they don't do it anymore, but it's a bummer all the same. With a backlog it's hard to justify paying "retail".

All for the better my friend. This way people dont sit and wait for the app to drop, the developer doesn't lose money
-they just dont ask 5$ just because they want, is because it has a budget that needs to be covered and have profit, to pay rent, feed their children, eat AND make more games-. With a sale, they dont cover their needs.
People are way to used to sales, sales should end, maybe only once or twice a year like Steam. Developers should give value to their apps by not dropping the price so often. Retail should be the way to go IMO. Backlog or not.

People I met and my friends themselves get shocked that all my apps are paid and they cost around 3-5$, sometimes even more. And then they buy a bag of Doritos, a Crunch, and candies for 5$ without thought. Apps stays longer, entertain more than movies (Jurassic World, that is a waste of money and costs 8$), is healthier than eating the kind of junk you could spend on an app. In truth, 5$ for an app is nothing.
 

Matt Frost

Member
Finished Sunburn! One of the most genuine and great games of 2014.

I liked: Almost everything, from the spot on controls (along Boson X the best I seen on iOS) to the space platforming. Your ship suffered an accident and you are out in open space, left to die, so you and your crew decide to kill themselves into the sun. You have to navigate a level with a jetpack and pick up your pals along the way trying to reach the sun. Seems easy, but underneath it is a brilliant action platformer puzzler that shines with a light on its own on every level. 60 levels with no frills just pure awesome gameplay. NO IAP.

I didnt like: Some levels are... evil. Extremely hard. Definitely spikes in difficulty on three levels that took me more than the other 57 levels combined to advance. I like challenges but that is pure evil xD

Conclusion: The entire thing is made with a lot of passion and love for videogames. One of the most entertaining games I finished in a while. A favorite.

FINAL SCORE: 9 out of 10. Gold Award. EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED.
 

awp69

Member
Shadow Bug is accepting beta testers if anyone is up for it. Looks pretty cool. PG describes it as a cross between Badland and Shadow Blade...that's some great pedigree so I'm anxious to give it a go.

If you want to signup for beta testing, signup here:

www.shadowbug.com
 

vpance

Member
Hit the wall in Loot & Legends after a few hours. There's this fire demon surrounded by minions that you need to kill in 5 rounds and I haven't been able to do it. Guess I need to grind now but I haven't actually tried yet.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Hit the wall in Loot & Legends after a few hours. There's this fire demon surrounded by minions that you need to kill in 5 rounds and I haven't been able to do it. Guess I need to grind now but I haven't actually tried yet.

Are the levels the same as the PC version (that was also F2P btw)? Do you know what it was called (they say on the game cards prior to starting), perhaps look up a youtube of that level? There's a good chance if you've only played a few hours you're not really utilizing the strategies necessary.

Also the PC version is not a walk in the park, and the game is not supposed to be. There is not a single build that passes all the levels in the game, some levels require you to use certain types of damage to pass them (other types of damage will basically be useless), or different arrangements of characters in your party. You really have to mix up your strategies a bit from level to level and the game does get hard pretty fast, but it's supposed to be hard.

Edit: The PC version said the recommended levels next to each adventure as well, does the iOS version not do this? That'd be the easy way to know if you're up to the challenge (not that you can't beat a stage under-leveled either).
 

vpance

Member
Are the levels the same as the PC version (that was also F2P btw)? Do you know what it was called (they say on the game cards prior to starting), perhaps look up a youtube of that level? There's a good chance if you've only played a few hours you're not really utilizing the strategies necessary.

Also the PC version is not a walk in the park, and the game is not supposed to be. There is not a single build that passes all the levels in the game, some levels require you to use certain types of damage to pass them (other types of damage will basically be useless), or different arrangements of characters in your party. You really have to mix up your strategies a bit from level to level and the game does get hard pretty fast, but it's supposed to be hard.

Edit: The PC version said the recommended levels next to each adventure as well, does the iOS version not do this? That'd be the easy way to know if you're up to the challenge (not that you can't beat a stage under-leveled either).

I have not played the PC version so I couldn't say. But I was just able to beat that level I was stuck on by switching up tactics a bit and rushing the "boss" enemy. So far I haven't had to adjust my character builds all that much but I'm anticipating it, yeah. FWIW this was like the 7th dungeon.

To your edit, I don't see any indication of recommended levels. Are you even able to go back to previous levels to grind though? I read somewhere that that might not be the case and the arena is the only alternative.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Adult Swim has announced our latest collaboration with them, Monsters Ate My Metropolis, is releasing this Thursday.
 
Tried out Shadow Bug. Eh, besides the aesthetic and the mechanic of slicing enemies with katanas, the comparisions to Shadow Blade and Badland are mostly unfounded IMO. The game is nowhere as fluid or challenging, the levels are short and simple, it plays kind of slow because you walk left/right, and honestly just seems a bit dull.

It's kind of cool when you're chaining kills, but I wouldnt compare the game to Shadow Blade or Badland

Adult Swim has announced our latest collaboration with them, Monsters Ate My Metropolis, is releasing this Thursday.
That was sooner than I expected. Nice!
 

awp69

Member
Tried out Shadow Bug. Eh, besides the aesthetic and the mechanic of slicing enemies with katanas, the comparisions to Shadow Blade and Badland are mostly unfounded IMO. The game is nowhere as fluid or challenging, the levels are short and simple, it plays kind of slow because you walk left/right, and honestly just seems a bit dull.

It's kind of cool when you're chaining kills, but I wouldnt compare the game to Shadow Blade or Badland

Yeah, it doesn't belong in that high esteem. Honestly was bored at first, too slow and easy. But the levels do get considerably more challenging where you have to really react quickly to avoid being killed. It's decent but not a must have.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
I have not played the PC version so I couldn't say. But I was just able to beat that level I was stuck on by switching up tactics a bit and rushing the "boss" enemy. So far I haven't had to adjust my character builds all that much but I'm anticipating it, yeah. FWIW this was like the 7th dungeon.

To your edit, I don't see any indication of recommended levels. Are you even able to go back to previous levels to grind though? I read somewhere that that might not be the case and the arena is the only alternative.

In the PC version, you can repeat the dungeon encounters once per day. This isn't solely to grind as it is to level new characters (you can't exactly throw a level 2 party in late game content), and also I suppose to give yourself the challenge of beating the levels with different configurations of party members.

It sounds like they're a little different. Here's a pic of the map screen on the PC, where you can see the numbers next to each stage - that is the suggested party level. It's also shown on the stage entry, like this.
 
Anyone check out Pixel Dungeon?
https://itunes.apple.com/app/pixel-dungeon/id1002210090

It's a really popular roguelike that was a hit on Android, and came to iOS in June

RockPaperShotgun did a good review of the PC version here
I dread to imagine how many hours I’ve spent playing the game on my phone and tablet. It will definitely be edging toward a hundred of them. I first discovered it on a flight back from GDC in 2014, thinking I’d give it a quick go, and then spending most of the ten hours in the air failing to get any further than level 4. (The game was tougher then, I swear. And it didn’t help that I was insisting on playing as the weakly mage or vulnerable rogue.) But despite this incessant failure, I never grew frustrated, and kept wanting to try again and again. I haven’t stopped wanting to since, and I’m pleased to say I’ve seen levels in the high teens before being whomped.
Had to pick it up, and it's excellent. Any self-respecting mobile roguelike fan should have it in their library. It absolutely nails that sense of mystery and discovery and risk vs reward that make roguelikes so fun.

The functions of potions, spell scrolls, etc. are unknown until you try them out. There are secrets galore, from hidden doors to barricades that might burn down if you only hadn't used that fire potion earlier

 

awp69

Member
Anyone check out Pixel Dungeon?
https://itunes.apple.com/app/pixel-dungeon/id1002210090

It's a really popular roguelike that was a hit on Android, and came to iOS in June

RockPaperShotgun did a good review of the PC version here

Had to pick it up, and it's excellent. Any self-respecting mobile roguelike fan should have it in their library. It absolutely nails that sense of mystery and discovery and risk vs reward that make roguelikes so fun.

The functions of potions, spell scrolls, etc. are unknown until you try them out. There are secrets galore, from hidden doors to barricades that might burn down if you only hadn't used that fire potion earlier


Yep. Picked it up on Android a while back. Great game. Need to play it more.
 

vpance

Member
In the PC version, you can repeat the dungeon encounters once per day. This isn't solely to grind as it is to level new characters (you can't exactly throw a level 2 party in late game content), and also I suppose to give yourself the challenge of beating the levels with different configurations of party members.

It sounds like they're a little different. Here's a pic of the map screen on the PC, where you can see the numbers next to each stage - that is the suggested party level. It's also shown on the stage entry, like this.

The world map looks different but the stages seem to be in a similar placement, and you have to go through a set path on iOS. The stage cards are the same minus the party levels. Each individual member does has a level though.

I was stuck on Ruby Demon Portal but now I'm passed the Kobolds. I guess the game could be a bit streamlined on iOS, but from what I've played so far the challenge is decent. I'm still stuck with the same 3 party members now, but I guess that opens up later? I do like the fact that the party management is simple and I don't need to spend much time there.

Maybe I'll play this longer than I did Sword & Poker or Terra Battle..
 

pixelpai

Neo Member
Hi,

i've posted in the July-thread about my game PixelBoom!, which got released on the 30th of July and now I'd like to share some promotional codes with you:

pixelboom_defgav_banner.png


AMKMTK9EA3A9
6FRJFWPXHHNY

already grabbed:
HJMMF4XXXRHK
9MA6WF7FMNLL
E36YR7A3KEWY

The game is iPad only and you can find it here: PixelBoom!
 

colinp

Banned
Hi,

i've posted in the July-thread about my game PixelBoom!, which got released on the 30th of July and now I'd like to share some promotional codes with you:

pixelboom_defgav_banner.png


AMKMTK9EA3A9
E36YR7A3KEWY
6FRJFWPXHHNY
HJMMF4XXXRHK
9MA6WF7FMNLL

The game is iPad only and you can find it here: PixelBoom!

Grabbed HJMMF4XXXRHK, thanks!
 
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