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One Arm Battle

Susie Ochs — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:49:02 -0600

The computer is beating us by $1,000 right now, but we just hit Bop Till You Drop, so we're about to rack up a huge risk-free score.

It's you against your phone, racing to bank $5,000. You first roll a goal and then spin the slot machine's reels. When the reels stop spinning, you click on individual reels to hold those points, and then either tap the Stop button to end the turn and bank those points, or the Spin button to re-spin the reels you haven't held. So in that way, it's like a cross between a slot machine and video poker.

If the slot machine shows no points on any reels after a spin, you lose that turn. So it's a gamble after every spin: You either tap Stop and bank any points into your permanent total, or keep spinning to increase your points but risk losing the turn and not getting any points at all.

If you "sweep" the machine, or score points on all 6 reels, you usually get a bonus. Most of the goals, in fact, are to sweep the reels and get a bonus, and you can stop the turn and bank your points anytime. Other goals change things up a little, offering huge bonuses but not letting you stop.

For example, Bop Till You Drop keeps spinning the wheels until no more points can be scored, but you can't lose the turn—all the points will be banked, even when the wheels don't show any more points at the end of a spin. And the Grand Force goal will give you a 1,000-point bonus if you sweep, but you can't stop the turn so if you don't sweep you get nothing.

Tap the Pay Table button for a reminder of how that particular slot machine awards points.

The game has multiple slot machines you can play—they look the same but offer different scoring and bonuses. You start with one and then unlock eight other machines as you play. When playing, you can tap the Pay Table button to see a list of how that machine pays out. And a scrolling information bar gives you prompts on what to do if you ever get stuck or confused about if it's your turn or not.

I dug One Arm Battle. The music is cheesy, but we just turned off the sound effects and went back to listening to our iPod tunes -- if you leave the sound effects on, they'll play right over your music. It'd be nice to be able to play single-player, maybe in a timed race to a certain dollar amount. Or to play against a friend, either with two devices connected via Ad-Hoc, or by passing one device around.

The graphics aren't jaw-dropping—they reminded me of a dressed-up version of the pocket-sized casino videogames my dad used to get in his Christmas stocking and play at the breakfast table. But the gameplay is fun and has moments of real excitement, like when the computer-controlled player is up by $3,000 and you hit a huge winning streak and catch up in one turn. We did experience occasional crashes, but the game saved our progress every time, so it wasn't too annoying.

A Great Game...If You're About to Reformat Your Hard Drive

J Keirn-Swanson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:40:14 -0600

The rules of the game are simple, as simple as the game's title Lose/Lose. Here's how creator Zach Gage describes the game: "Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted."

Posing as questioning our assumptions about our behavior when we "are given a weapon an [sic] awarded for using it, that doing so is right, " Gage's game also seeks to get users/viewers to think about what it means when we begin to prize our virtual possessions, our data, as much as if not more than actual physical possessions. Part meditation on virtual data, part philosophical tweaking on shooter game mentality, the game is considered plenty dangerous by many.

lose/lose from zach gage on Vimeo.

Even the creator reacts that way: "I'm surprised anyone has played it," Gage said. "I'm shocked."

While the game clearly spells out in multiple steps prior to installation and prior to playing what the game will do to your files and your hard drive, apparently there are people who are curious or dumb enough to install the game and play. Enough concern has been generated that the game has attracted the notice of Symantec, Sophos and Intego, who dub the game malware, each of them calling it a Trojan.

According to Kevin Haley, Symantec Security's director of product management, "We are concerned that somebody could take this and modify it in some way where users aren't aware of the consequences." While we admit that that is technically possible, at that point the file in question isn't Gage's, nor can we see how the security firms came about their classification of Trojan.

Now, having said all that, any takers? Who's up for a quick round? Anyone? Anyone?

Luxor

Susie Ochs — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:17:17 -0600

Some of the App Store’s 12,000-plus games are new ideas conceived expressly for this new platform, while others are retreads of more familiar fare. Overnostalgic for the Neon ’90s, we were excited to play two recent remakes of classic puzzle games.

Combining elements from Zuma and Breakout, Luxor has you firing your own colored balls at advancing chains of other colored balls. You’re trying to remove balls from the chain by matching three or more of the same color. The chains move along tracks that twist and turn and double over each other, so you can’t always get a clear shot. And if you don’t clear them fast enough, they reach the end of the track--and you lose.

Luxor's marble-matching gameplay is set against an Egyptian background.

Luxor for the iPhone plays well, with 88 levels and sharp graphics and music. You can catch falling coins and power-up tokens that slow down or reverse the chains or give you more powerful ammunition. And Luxor supports the Plus+ gaming network, letting you challenge your friends on Twitter and Facebook.

See also: Bust-a-Move, another recent remake of a classic puzzle game.

Braid

Susie Ochs — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:56:05 -0500

A triumph of game design, Braid mixes 2D platforming gameplay, ingeniously crafted puzzles, time manipulation, and a melancholy story open to multiple interpretations, beautifully packaged in stunning hand-painted artwork. It’s not an incredibly long game, it doesn’t have a multiplayer mode or online play, but what’s here is more than enough to suck you in, keep you engrossed, and make you really use your brain.

Designed by Jonathan Blow with artwork by David Hellman, Braid took Xbox Live by storm in 2008, winning numerous awards from gaming magazines. It was later ported to Windows, and Hothead Games brought it to the Mac. The puzzles and story are the same, and the Mac’s keyboard controls couldn’t be simpler: arrow keys to move, the space bar to jump, and the Shift key to rewind time.

Just because you're progressing in the game doesn't mean you'll know what's really going on.

That rewinding-time mechanism is the game’s foundation. Each world starts by introducing a time-manipulation ability that you use in the world’s levels to collect inconveniently located puzzle pieces. The puzzle pieces are hard to get to, and figuring out how to access them can keep you confused for hours. Luckily, you don’t have to restart a level if you die or just screw it up somehow--thanks to the time-manipulation tricks, just rewind to a point before disaster and try again. The soothing music and the sense of satisfaction you get when a particularly tricky problem finally presents its solution kept our blood pressure low enough to keep playing--for the most part, anyway.

You can continue on to the next level without collecting every puzzle piece, and return later on to a level that’s got you stuck. But you do have to find all 60 puzzle pieces in Worlds 2 through 6 to unlock the final level, World 1. Why are they out of order? That has to do with the game’s enigmatic story line, which deals with love and loss, forgiveness and redemption, and possibly the creation of the atom bomb (seriously). We don’t want to give anything away--and the plot can be interpreted a few different ways--but after you’ve finished the game, Google “Braid ending” to read some eyebrow-raising theories. It’s mature for its headiness, but not necessarily inappropriate for kids, who might skip the story entirely and just play the levels. We’d feel comfortable letting a 10-year-old play.

Bust-a-Move

Susie Ochs — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:56:54 -0500

Some of the App Store’s 12,000-plus games are new ideas conceived expressly for this new platform, while others are retreads of more familiar fare. Overnostalgic for the Neon ’90s, we were excited to play two recent remakes of classic puzzle games.

Taito’s Bust-a-Move, also known in Japan as Puzzle Bobble, resembles the 1996 Mac puzzle game Snood. You fire colored balls at a puzzle of colored balls, trying to match three and make them disappear. The balls gradually move down the screen, and if they reach the bottom before you clear the board, you lose.

Bust 'em before they move.

Bust-a-Move has a totally forgettable story, plus bright graphics and two ways to fire the ball: with a simple tap or using a slingshot technique. We had a hard time aiming, but if you fail a level and retry it, the game inserts a dotted line to help you line up your shots better. Special pieces include cannonballs that wipe out everything in their path and exploding balls that take out an entire color at once. Plus, you can bank shots off the sides and even the top of the screen. Bluetooth connectivity lets two players battle in Versus mode (not supported by the first-gen iPod touch), and Challenge mode is a never-stopping barrage of puzzles.

See also: Luxor, another recent remake of a classic puzzle game.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Nic Vargus — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:20:12 -0500

The sixth Potter book's excitement is magically transformed into a linear collection of minigames.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince places you in Harry’s robes as he progresses through his sixth year at the famous wizardry school, Hogwarts. At its core, Half-Blood Prince is basically a well-polished minigame collection with flashy franchise backing. The graphics aren’t terrible, especially when bumped up to the highest resolution, though they may seem a tad dated. The terrific music is pulled straight from the film.

The game consists of three main parts: dueling, potion-making, and Quidditch. Each section is enjoyable at best and bearable at worst, but none are fantastic, and the best part of the experience is exploring the beautiful Hogwarts backdrop.

Players can join clubs to practice their skills and earn badges for outstanding performances. Of the clubs, Dueling is the most fun and arguably the simplest. You get five spells to choose from that either stun or injure your opponent. The combination of stun-and-charge attacks works almost too well, and seasoned gamers will quickly dispatch their foes.

Harry's duels are far less bloody than, say, Zorro's. Today's kids are so coddled.

Quidditch is nearly as simple: You steer Harry through obnoxiously large, glowing stars as he nears the golden snitch. But Harry’s broom is gliding along a preprogrammed track--you need only wiggle the mouse toward the stars and let the game do the rest of the work. Hitting pumpkins or flying directly through the stars awards you with more time.

Potion-making is more complex. Players will feverishly shake potions to bubbling and drop crunchy green worms and rats into boiling cauldrons before the allotted time reaches zero. The most difficult potions come with a laundry list of ingredients and a merciless timer.

Though Electronic Arts opted for an open-world approach, Harry is shuffled from one quest to the next in a decidedly linear fashion, each mission unlocking the perpetual “next area” for exploration. Nearly Headless Nick ensures you can never get too lost, walking you straight to your next objective with the press of a button.

The game is short--expect to spend a breezy 8 hours beating the main story, while collecting everything Hogwarts offers could double that playtime. For many wizard wannabes, the game will satisfy and remain enchanting, despite its shortcomings.

RockBand Heads to iPhone/iPod touch

Cory Bohon — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:37:19 -0500

A mobile version of the popular music rhythm game franchise, RockBand, will be heading to an iPhone or iPod touch near you soon enough. TechCrunch is reporting that the game should be due out in mid-October with 20 songs (15 playable up front, 5 unlockable).

There's no announced price, but we do have some additional info about the game. It will feature Bluetooth gameplay, allowing 4 people to rock out together in regular Rockband fashion (vocals, drums, bass and guitar).

The gameplay is the same as what you might find in TapTap Revenge in that you tap on the notes to play them. The vocals are done the same way -- sorry, you won't be able to belt out your favorite tune while you wait for your bus. See the video above for a demonstration of each instrument.

Here's the full track listing:
“Attack” – 30 Seconds To Mars
“Girls Not Grey” – AFI
“Move Along” – All American Rejects
“Sabotage” – Beastie Boys
“All The Small Things” – Blink-182
“Hanging on the Telephone” – Blondie
“Learn To Fly” – Foo Fighters
“Everlong” – Foo Fighters
“Bad to The Bone” – George Thorogood & the Destroyers
“Hymn 43″ – Jethro Tull
“Bad Reputation” – Joan Jett
“Simple Man” – Lynard Skynard
“Ace of Spades ‘08″ – Motorhead
“Debaser” – Pixies
“Ladybug” – Presidents of The United States of America
“Give It All” – Rise Against
“Lazy Eye” – Silversun Pick Ups
“Cherub Rock” – Smashing Pumpkins
“Take The Money and Run” – Steve Miller Band
“We Got The Beat” – The Go Go’s

Video via MacRumors.

Pipe Mania

Susie Ochs — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:02:00 -0500

Pipe Mania doesn’t refer to a new kind of drug epidemic or burgeoning fad that has hipsters accessorizing with corncob pipes. It’s a classic puzzle game, first developed 20 years ago for the Amiga, and recently released for the Mac and iPhone by Virtual Programming. But even now, it’s got druglike addictiveness plus retro cool.

In each of Pipe Mania’s 70-odd boards, you lay pipe pieces on a grid to complete a pipe from the start point to the end point. After a head start, a bright liquid called Flooze emerges from the start point and flows along your pipe, so it better all be in place or the Flooze will leak and you’ll lose the level. Special pipe pieces, obstacles on the grids, tunnels, and even “hand of god” attacks make things more difficult as you progress. For such a seemingly simple game, Pipe Mania is hard. It starts being a major challenge about 7 or 8 levels in and never lets up.

Pipe Mania's addictive puzzles are way more fun than real-life plumbing.

Completing a level awards you points for how many pipe pieces you used versus how many you wasted, plus bonuses. Then you get a medal based on your score. And that’s it--but it was enough to compel us to replay almost every level looking for the elusive gold medal. You have to unlock the levels as you go, but you can skip around a little bit, thankfully, if one level is giving you major frustrations.

The old-school graphics look good on any Mac, with cartoony 2D pieces on brightly colored backgrounds. The sing-songy music can get a little irritating, but when it changed urgency before disaster struck, we really felt the tension.

Co-op and versus modes let another player get in on the action, one person on the mouse and another on the keyboard. There are also treasures to unlock, detailed game statistics, and bonus single-player modes after you’ve beaten the World mode. It’s enough to keep anyone playing for days.