May means summer’s nearly here, and that means cheerful weather and more time outside. But there’s always time for some gaming, so here are another few favourites of ours from the past weeks to fill up your spare time with.
Sword and Sworcery
Sword and Sworcery
After taking the iPad world by storm, Capybara Games’ strange and marvellous title, Sword and Sworcery finally made its way to the iPhone. The game, for those who haven’t heard of it, is something of a fantasy adventure, but the mood is closer to Braid than a dungeon crawler, and the whole thing is wrapped in a clever and enchanting framework of the game as a soul refreshment program delivered in stages.
In many ways, this game defies classification and description that can do justice to its charm, but what is easy to remark upon is the level of detail and love that has gone into producing the pixel art, the subtle background animations, and the absolutely stunning and immersive sound design. Gameplay alternates between walking around and performing various interactions with the environment, but you’ll find that it’s less about the action and more about the journey.
This is an unmissable game no matter how you slice it, and the range of emotions it evokes is impressive, even for those who are not normally fans of such titles.
Price: $4.99
Developer: Capybara Games Inc.
Download: App Store
League of Evil
League of Evil
League of Evil is a pixel platformer with more under the hood than most of its competitors.
The gameplay is pretty typical of the genre, but it feels particularly dynamic though because of the variety of movements that you can perform: beyond jumping, there’s the usual double-jump, but also wall jumps, wall hugs, and flips.
More than 130 levels scattered across various environments ensure that there’s plenty to see, and charging to the end of each level to punch the league of evil member in the face is truly rewarding, not to mention funny with the slick retro art and music.
Price: $2.99
Developer: Ravenous Games
Download: App Store
Secret Mission — The Forgotten Island
Secret Mission — The Forgotten Island
Hidden object games have, perhaps, narrower appeal because of their slower pacing and puzzle-based, detail-oriented gameplay. They nevertheless have a strong following and the best of them offer an excellent alternative to the action-oriented games that make up most of the App Store.
Secret Mission — The Forgotten Island is a very strong example of the genre, bringing Big Fish Games’ extensive expertise to the table to produce a polished and beautiful addition to their catalogue. There are plenty of puzzles to navigate, including some mini-games to break up the flow of pixel hunting.
The quality of the graphics and sound is up to the very high standards that Big Fish has set for itself with past titles, and the complete package is worth snatching up now while you can still unlock the full game for just $0.99.
Price: Free (Unlock full game for $0.99)
Developer: Big Fish Games, Inc.
Download: App Store
Destructopus!
Destructopus!
In a similar spirit to Super Mega Worm, GlitchSoft’s new title, Destructopus, is another kill-the-nasty-polluting-humans type game where you control the mighty Destructopus to unleash the wrath of nature.
What makes the Destructopus so much fun to control in the side-scrolling levels is that you can upgrade the various weapons at your disposal to launch increasingly vicious attacks against humanity. Several enemy types, environments, and good graphics ensure that the destruction is dynamic and satisfying, especially when you launch huge combos.
More monster types and weapons will no doubt be added as the game progresses, so now is a good time to get started and practice your monster skills.
Price: $1.99
Developer: GlitchSoft
Download: App Store
Spider Jack
Spider Jack
Wrapping up this week’s round-up is a fresh puzzler revolving around feeding things to some manner of creature. In this case, ClickGamer’s take on it involves a spider called Jack who tries to collect all the flies in each level.
You’ll find yourself swinging by a thread, Spiderman-style, and navigating around fans and lasers and all manner of other environmental hazards as you work out how to capture all the flies. The star rating system that first showed up in Angry Birds is back to give you some extra incentive to replay the 75 current levels if you’ve finished them, and in addition you’ll find that there are multiple ways of succeeding in most of the levels.
Spider Jack is a simple and easy to pick up puzzler with just enough substance to keep it from seeming frivolous. Plus, Jack is adorable to watch.
Price: $0.99
Developer: ClickGamer.com
Download: App Store
What Have You Been Playing?
Played any of these games yet? What did you think of them? Let us know what’s been keeping you busy lately and if we’ve missed any cool titles in the comments!