Each month, the iOS GAF community hosts a thread for new game releases, rumors and discussion that define the fast-moving world of iOS gaming.
The OP will contain games that released both towards the end of the previous month and games that have released during the current month -- all games which have been highlighted by the GAF community in one way or another. This way you can keep tabs on the best games and at the same time curate an excellent resource to look back on to find games you may have missed.
Also keep an eye out for the ‘GAF iOS Challenges’; events where GAF battle it out on the Game Center leaderboards of a chosen game for both fame and fortune (prizes donated by members of our community).
A rhythm-music platforming game. Run through fantastic environments, using brand new moves, to a rich soundtrack as you run, jump, slide, kick, and soar toward the goal!
• 30 Normal levels. Everyone can play!
• 12 “Challenge” levels. Are you good enough?
• 15 “Retro” levels. What a blast from the past!
• 8 amazing characters to play as. Including a pickled pickle!
• 40 unlockable costumes
• 3 exhilarating “Boss” battles
Just played a few levels, but if you like endless runners you should buy it! It's not a real endless runner because it's split into levels, every level has some objectives to get a "perfect", so it's very replayable. Also leaderboards, many achievements, characters and costume unlocks etc.
On my 5S runs fine, it's quite sharp and colorful. Also doesn't seem to drain much battery, which is a plus.
WTF?! 0_O bit Trip Runner is on iOS?! Holy shit how did I not know that!
Appstore, here I come (both literally AND figuratively)!
• The sequel to awarding-winning Anomaly: Warzone Earth and Anomaly Korea
• A massive story-driven campaign with alternate endings to uncover
• Multiple ways to play with over one million tactical combinations and transforming troops
• Online multiplayer — tower defense vs. tower offense across five maps
None yet
Marvel’s biggest heroes and villains join forces with Puzzle Quest, the award winning match-3 puzzle adventure franchise for an amazing new way to experience the Marvel Universe.
Head into battle with fast, tactical reaction-based gameplay, or select specific heroes whose special abilities complement each other to strategically plan each encounter.
Collect Comics to unlock new characters, change the various talents of the your team, or improve a character’s current abilities.
GAF Game OT here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=87852478
I must have logged in 30 hours already on Marvel Puzzle Quest
I have to say that as far as f2p games go this is the most "generous" I've ever played on iOS.
Still haven't spend a dime, having lots of fun. Too bad it looks like crap (besides the characters portrait/panel) and the whole thing sometimes feel suspiciously rigged vs AI exactly like previous PQ.
Still, the first PQ is still the best (rocked the DS version for like 150hours) but the Marvel paint on this one really helps in my enjoyment of the game, Versus mode and Weekly Featured Tournament are super addicting multiplayer modes, even if they aren't balanced matchmaking-wise. Really solid game, hopefully the final release (it's still on Beta, this one's marked as "Preview Edition") will see the, add more polish UI wise and make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing.
i couldnt get into marvel pq because of how it looks... so damn cheap. Like the poorest of web flash games.
Thought that too now I'm hooked.
I ended up dipping my toes (a lot) into the PVP aspect of it. It's actually pretty essential if you want to earn more purple crystals to level up your characters for the SP campaign. Plus you get a few free cards along the way.
It has the same problems that all F2P PVP games have. At some point, no matter how good you are, you are going to run into people that have spent more/played more than you. They try to remedy this by allowing you to attack people 3 times. The HP of their characters remain static, so you can about whittle anyone down if you wanted to.
I found out a way to cheese the health timers. In the early levels of the Venom SP chapter, you fight alongside a three-star Spiderman. He has an ability (yellow) that will heal the whole party. He also has a ridiculous amount of HP (800) that can sponge all the damage Venom deals while you are healing up. So, you can bring along your hurt heroes, heal them up and then collect whatever prize you may get in that round and move on to other things. You can whip through it in about 5-9 minutes.
It's pretty important once your characters get more levels/hp as the health timers can become an hour (or more.)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the game for what it is. It's a nice time waster that isn't annoying with IAP. I actually am having more fun with it than I did with PQ2, which I had to will myself to complete.
Anna wakes up in a castle on a remote island, with little recollection of how she got there. All she remembers is an unusually unpleasant doll.
Why are there two identical castles on the island? Who is the mysterious man in the bowler hat? And above all, what is the purpose of the tests Anna is put through?
Read, listen and peek into three-dimensional photographs to solve the bizarre mysteries of DEVICE 6.
GAF Game OT here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=698575
It's wonderful, and the less you know going in the more you're likely to enjoy it.
Device 6 is mind blowing.
GO GET IT.
Also, already stuck
I SOLVED THE FIRST DEVICE 6 PUZZLE.
I AM IMMORTAL.
I got through the first puzzle earlier today.
This game and its format are amazing.
Wasn't a huge fan of Year Walk (didn't really get anywhere with it, to be honest), but this is really something else in terms of cleverness. Will keep playing, but if it keeps up the pace in terms of cleverness and writing, this might be one of my top contenders for game of the year.
Experience nine chapters of deceptive narrative and nerve-twisting gameplay. Unlock the bonus Survival chapter for endless score chasing delight. Replay any stage to perfect your movements and unlock over 25 Game Center achievements. This is a game that will test you. With air tight controls and gameplay that’s tuned to perfection Duet provides the perfect balance between challenge and pure gaming satisfaction.
With an outstanding handcrafted soundtrack by Melbourne composer and Gotye multi-instrumentalist Tim Shiel.
Duet is just wonderfully minimalist, a fun challenging game that tests your skills. It's always thrilling and intense and has a lot of content: a lengthy nine stage campaign, an endless mode, and then like Polara, replaying the levels challenges the player in a new way. It feels more like a puzzle game compared to games like Super Hexagon and Pivvot. It's really something how each stage takes such a simple mechanic in a new direction. And I love that there's an actual campaign and it's just not an endless mode.
While Duet is in the same spectrum of games as SH, it's very different. SH was very twitchy and about pushing your reactions to the limit
On the other hand, Duet is (so far) slow paced and more puzzle like. Levels aren't randomized so you're able to learn the patterns and actually feel a sense of progression. The game has a nice difficulty curve and each stage throws something new your way.
There's something so satisfying about this game, even more than Boson, SH, Impossible Road. How fluidly your spheres move, the graceful dance-like evasion between and around obstacles, the little narrative blurbs that hint at what's ahead, the contrast between your colorful failures and the white obstacles...it all just makes Duet feel even more special than those other games
One of the best IOS purchases I've ever made
Update on my Duet impressions: it's really, really fantastic. Devious, infuriating, and mesmerizing in the same way as Super Meat Boy and Super Hexagon are. It's the puzzle-reflex equivalent of Super Hexagon actually, with some of the maddening muscle-memory aspects of the "disappearing floating blocks" sections of old-school Mega Man games. And the chilled-out soundtrack is perfect. So, so worth the $3. I've only played through the scripted wave levels, but there's also two master-level waves that I have yet to even try, as well as an endless mode.
Finished up Costume Quest. Absolutely fantastic port! A must buy if you've never played it before
iPhone 5 impressions
First time playing this. Love the writing, and everything is just adorable. Controls are tap and drag to walk (Diablo style) and tap to interact. Combat is a bit challenging mainly because everything is fucking tiny on iPhone UI wise. font is tiny, buttons are tiny etc. But you eventually figure stuff out and its fine.
Framerate is mostly smooth, some hitches but its fine, probably even better on 5S and future iPads.
Fun game. Would probably play better on iPad, but iPhone is perfectly playable after a bit.
• Pokémon meets Zelda!
• A seamless blend of rogue-like adventuring, monster catching, creation, and role-playing elements!
• Rogue-like gameplay: the deeper into the wilderness you go, the better loot you find! Be careful, though - if you fall, you'll come back empty handed!
• RPG elements: level-up your monster, find and buy items, and more!
• Embark on quests and complete a variety of challenges!
• Play with your friends!
Monster Adventures could best be described as a roguelike RPG with loot, Pokemon-esque monster capturing, and arena battles. Through unexpected circumstances you find that you are a Kindred, able to bind with and command the various Monsters that roam the world. You send your Monster out into the random generated world to gather loot and new monsters and gain experience, all in the pursuit of raising up the ranks in the local arena. Capturing and defeating monsters allow you to change body parts and abilities of your own, from imbuing your monster with elemental skills to different melee and ranged attacks. But die out in the wilderness and you lose all that you've gathered on that run as well as half of the gained experience.
All these systems work together to provide the player with tons of customization and choice of how to develop their Monsters, from a ranged tank to a quick melee type and more. The focus of the game is actually the arena fights, as all the rogue-"lite" roaming is to build you up for these special fights. According to Foursaken, following the story that emerges across these trials will take from 12 to 20 hours and this doesn't count the co-op and PvP multiplayer options. Monster Adventure's colorful cute art style is wonderful and polished as the gameplay and nice
I've never seen level designs quite like those in Type:Rider. While the platforming and basic aesthetic may owe a lot to games like Limbo and NightSky, Cosmografik has developed a fantastic game with a style all its own.
You control a colon, which function as a pair of wheels, and travel through the timeline of typography from the earliest cave paintings to the computerized pixels of today. Each of the game's nine worlds is stylized around a font, from the origins of writing to Gothic and Garamond and beyond, with their own atmosphere and themed obstacles. Yet at the same time, the fonts and their history are the levels. You'll travel across the pages of the Gutenberg Bible, work your way through the innards of moving type and letter press, around and under the swampy world of italics, and more. Backgrounds are collages of information pertaining to the current font and you'll unlock pages that deliver short historic lessons about a font's usage, important figures of the time period, and other typographical elements. Each world is filled with collectibles to find, some harder to reach than others, which offers some replay value as well. [more in the post]
The world's first "Deck-Building 4X Strategy Game". EMPIRE is a quick, easy-to-learn yet difficult to master strategy/tactics game.
• Procedurally generated worlds mean that no two games will be alike.
• A unique take on the deck building mechanism similar to those in Dominion, Puzzle Strike or Ascension.
• A unique grid based tactical combat system. Use your Action and Spell cards to get the upper hand and destroy the enemy forces!
• Unlike traditional 4X strategy games which not only take hours, but tend to become slow and boring late game, EMPIRE is a quick, elegant knife-fight of a game.
As a NON Civilization fan (too much micromanagement for me between real tactical choices) I must say I'm really digging the game.
First, it's super polished, with a strong tutorial that rivals the best IMHO (best= Carcassonne and Lost Cities).
Second the game is really an elegant packed sized mix of different concepts, developed very very well: from the 3 cities max to the chess like fights, mixed up with deck building concepts.
I'm really digging the art used too, very mobile friendly too.
Two things I'm not that sure, from a personal point of view:
1) As it is now it's a bit of a rogue-like game, you fight for the score and the length of your empire... death is inevitable.
PERSONALLY I must be motivated a bit more, so I would like something like a campaign, or a mode where you actually CAN defeat the purple corruption.
2) While I understand it would require some changes... the fighting part and the 3 cities limit that contains the length of a game, could be adapted to an AWESOME async mode. I bet it would be KILLER.
I'm a Warhammer Quest addict, even if I have some great games to play like Infinity Blade 3, Shadowrun Returns and many others... Empire was the only one that I played besides WHQ this weekend, must mean something.
Echoing Pitta's comments, it's very well polished (fully voiced tutorial is a nice touch), the art is great, including the card art and it feels solid to play, I like that it runs portrait as well, always welcome on the mini.
All in all, recommended.
I'd wait and see till there's more content, too light right now and not worth the price.
BUILD
• Deploy bus and tram networks to grow sleepy towns into bustling cities.
• Lay cross-country railroads to keep industries supplied with precious resources.
• Construct massive bridges, dig tunnels and deploy earth-moving tools to carve a path through mountainous terrain.
• Build air and sea ports to transport cargo and passengers further and faster in an accelerating world.
EXPLORE
• A wide range of beautiful landscapes including deserts, forests, mountains, valleys and islands.
• A richly simulated world with changing seasons and working industries, farms and towns.
DESIGN
• Over 150 vehicle types allowing you to choose the ideal transport solution for every situation.
• Modify vehicles and stations and assign new routes to adapt your business in real time.
COMPETE
• Play through 49 scenarios expertly designed to suit all skill levels and playing styles.
• Try to stay one step ahead of advanced A.I.-driven competitor's companies.
My absolute favourite PC game of all time, updated and adapted to iOS with no IAPs. It's
thee business transport simulation game, which I still play ever so often almost 20 years after it originally came out. iOS UI looks well adapted. Just as an example of what craziness one can do with railroads, here's a video from OpenTTD:
http://youtu.be/vk8vdZ1AVj8
