I have a couple of mini reviews, one news item, and a game preview for you this week. Goldenoid 3D builds on the old brick breaker clones with 3D awesomeness; Sledventure is a snow fort sliding/smashing block buster of sorts. You can grab them in the App Store for less than a $2 (a free ad-injected version of Goldenoid also available). Plus in this edition, some news on a new Kingdom Rush edition, and a YT preview of Cubemen 2. Let's dig in, shall we?
Goldenoid is an iPhone 3D brick breaker that features a playing court situated on top of a skyscraper in some nondescript metro, which would be a pretty freaky (yet cool) place to play a giant real-life version of block buster. Instead of the typical 2D view of the court, you get a head-on view of the blocks you need to bust. The ball bounces off the glass down-court as well as the blocks until they are broken out (or you miss and the ball smashes through the glass behind you).
Various powerups help you complete your mission of clearing out each level. It is a tad weird trying to estimate the distance and perspective. The ball also has a tendency to get stuck bouncing constantly in one location until you work it out of that spot. It's a strange but engaging twist on the old Arkanoid concept. Currently it's not a universal app, but it looks pretty decent on an iPad mini screen at 2X. I love the looping music and city scenery for ambiance, but you can't play your own tunes while playing the game (should be mandatory dev option in any game).
The second game I played this week is Sledventure. It's a little late in the northern hemisphere for a winter-themed game, but Sledventure is fun in any season (or any hemisphere). The premise is a typical knock-down physics style game—you launch an object at a stack of other objects, knock the key objects down, and then win, of course. In this case, your ballistic object is a sled, and you aim by crafting the correctly shaped ramp. The objects to knock into in each level are dynamically arranged snow-fort ice blocks (I think we played this game in real life when I was a kid), particularly the protected flag. The physics are well-programmed: the sled moves smoothly and realistically as it slip and slides around and launches off the ramp. The game loads up a bit on the slow side, but otherwise functioned perfectly through the first few levels I played.
Cubeman 2 is the second release of the hit game that takes 3D strategy to the next cubed-out level! I'll have a full review soon, as this game has a lot of awesomely cool bells-n-whistles I want to write about, but had to get the trailer up first (see above). Now available on iOS, the new version lets you play multiplayer teams, single player battles, and campaigns. It lets you move/upgrade units and towers and even create your own cool cube levels! Play as a knight, or a luchador. How freaking fun is that..?
Finally some news on the much acclaimed Kingdom Rush: Frontiers (see previous version review here). Released in early June, the new version adds levels, towers, heroes, enemies and much more Tower Defense flair (but admittedly some complaints over new pricey IAPs). Check out all these great titles at the links above. I not only played them this week, but think you might like them too.