I finally caved and picked up a new full-sized iPad this week, so it stands to reason that this Week in Gaming Apps be bigger and higher resolution than the last, with a plug that doesnāt fit any other the ones that came before it.
Iāve only had the iPad 4 since Monday, and Iāve already filled two pages with games, thanks to a robust crop of new iOS releases this week. We finally got Real Racing 3, which I wasnāt quite as pleased with as I had hoped Iād be. We also got a new Alien Vs. Predator title, which put the recent console release to shame, not that it was a particularly difficult feat.
But wait, thereās more! Thereās a new Toy Story game, a little Hello Kitty (if youāre nasty), and an excellent opportunity for me to include a picture of my cat in the Week in Gaming Apps. Iām calling it a success.
Hereās what weāve played this week!
Android
MegaFlux ā Free
A cool little take on pipe-type puzzles, directing power to processors in nano tubes.
Ant Raid ā $.99 [also on iOS]
Arcade strategy at its smallest and finest. How have I missed this game?
Ark of the Ages ā $1.99
A full-on 3D dungeon-crawler type RPG from the folks at XSeed. Swipe-based combat is a blast!
Hello Kitty Seasons Beauty Salon ā Free
Shut up.
iOS
Gravity Duck ā $.99
A pixelated puzzle platformer featuring a duck with the ability to manipulate his gravimetric field. Challenging and fun!
Toy Story: Smash It! ā $.99 [also on Android]
Itās like Angry Birds in 3D with Toy Story characters. This is a good thing.
Up in Flames ā $.99
More Angry Birds-ish destruction, only this time thereās fire involved. Everybody loves fire.
Slingshot Puzzle ā $1.99
An incredibly pretty little physics puzzle game involving a brass slingshot and 126 levels of ball-bouncing goodness.
Spellstorm ā Free [also on Android]
Another card-collecting battle game, but this one has some great animations instead of just making you watch numbers appear on the screen.
The Silent Age ā Free
The first episode of what promises to be an amazing time-twisting point-and-click style adventure saga.
Minakoās Style ā Free
I just picked up this one to take pictures of my cat.
8 Ball Pool ā $.99 [also on Android]
An online pool game in which one player wins because the other leaves when they realize this is an online pool game.
App Reviews for the Week of February 23 ā March 1
The Most Terrifying Game Iāve Played In Ages Is Not Technically a Horror Game
Death is coming, and itās coming large. This grim reaper needs no dark shadows or flickering lights. There is no slender ghoul lurking just outside the periphery of vision. MoreĀ Ā»
I Swear, Backflip Madness, I Will Throw You Out The F**king Window
You control a man in very fetching leotards. Youāve got to make him backflip. And thatās it! Sound easy? Hahahah. Hahah. Hah. No.
No, it is not easy.
Requiring a similar level of timing and ārhythmā to something like, say, QWOP, the whole trick to the game is that you control each aspect of the⦠MoreĀ Ā»
https://lastchance.cc/qwop-is-one-of-lifes-hardest-activities-5716089%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
https://lastchance.cc/let-your-ears-be-your-guide-in-this-fantastic-musical-p-5987226%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Let Your Ears Be Your Guide In This Fantastic Musical Puzzle Game
Music is enough of a puzzle already. Youāve got your parts, your sections, your structure. Then, you have to make those parts fit a into whole, and get them to make sense together. MoreĀ Ā»
Real Racing 3 is a Beautiful Game Strangled By Freemium Nonsense
In 2009, Australian developer Firemint released Real Racing for the iPhone, stunning mobile gamers with amazing visuals and setting the standard for realistic mobile racing games. MoreĀ Ā»
https://lastchance.cc/burt-destructions-difficulty-gets-in-the-way-of-a-good-5987614%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Burt Destructionās Difficulty Gets in the Way of a Good Joke
Full disclosure, I know one of the guys who worked on Burt Destruction, which landed on Android and iOS stores a couple weeks ago. Jeff Reitman is the CTO of RunWilder Entertainment, the gameās maker. MoreĀ Ā»
For What Itās Worth, AVP: Evolution is the Best Aliens Game Released This Year
Other than the eponymous xenomorphs, general bugginess and some laughable artificial intelligence, Angry Mob Gamesā AVP: Evolution from iOS and Android has absolutely nothing in common with the train wreck that is Gearboxās Aliens: MoreĀ Ā»
https://lastchance.cc/from-dream-to-disaster-the-story-of-aliens-colonial-m-5986694%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
https://lastchance.cc/a-fascinating-point-and-click-adventure-bogged-down-by-5987760%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
A Fascinating Point-And-Click Adventure Bogged Down By Crap
Cognition is a frustrating game to play.
Not just because the fundamentals are frustrating-and they are frustrating-but because thereās so much good stuff buried underneath them. MoreĀ Ā»