As we march further into February, you may have noticed a flood of interesting new game announcements and releases. If you haven’t, you’re in luck because we keep on top of it and would like to share with you our picks for this week’s most exciting App Store titles.
Click through for some racing, puzzling, tower defending and even adventuring fun!
Reckless Racing 2
Top down is an interesting perspective for racing games, and it’s probably best realized in Reckless Racing, the sequel for which hit the App Store this week.
Like its predecessor, you’ll be racing in a robust environment including many cars and tracks, very deep customization options, multiple control schemes, and both career and arcade modes. The improvements are immediately noticeable in the graphics department, especially if you’re playing on a newer device, and the customization options actually make a tangible difference this time around. Car feeling sluggish at first? Start tweaking it and you’ll soon have a vehicle that handles just the way you like.
The usual array of challenges, leaderboards and events make this an enjoyable game to pick up and play for hours, with or without your friends. Polarbit really know what they’re doing when it comes to racing games, so fans of the genre should not overlook this impressive sequel.
Gorilla Gondola
Proving once again that non-sequiturs make excellent game concepts, Gorilla Gondola is a fresh action puzzler whose protagonist is a gorilla riding a gondola. Not a bad way to travel, I suppose.
Although there are only eight levels, these are in fact more like environments because each time you play, the game procedurally generates a brand new actual level so you’re never stuck grinding through the same place twice. You’ll do all the usual jumping, stomping and food collecting and the game also makes excellent use of the motion sensors and swiping to provide you with a control scheme that’s as appropriate and dynamic as the rest of the game’s components.
Stunning art and audio contribute to a very positive presentation, and the polish becomes ever more apparent as you play and get a feel for the animations and gameplay. Gorilla Gondola is remarkable, and well worth playing.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Electric Pixel Factory Ltd
Download: App Store
Monster Mayhem
Your free time is toast with this one. Monster Mayhem is a button mashing, monster killing, crazy fun time in your pocket. The formula is simple: take fun weapons, tight controls, delicious visuals and juicy sound effects and wrap them up in an incredibly rewarding package to get a must-play title.
If you’re familiar with Plants vs. Zombies, you’ll appreciate the presence of a monster almanac that describes the various foes you’ll encounter. Where this becomes important is when you notice that each monster has particular strengths and weaknesses, so you’ll need to be strategic about which weapons you choose to assault them with. See? It may be a button masher, but it’s not mindless.
As you encounter bigger baddies, you’ll want to make sure to upgrade your weapons so you can survive the onslaught — especially those huge bosses. Be quid, be brutal, and be sure you have some time to kill before you pick up Monster Mayhem because it’s one of the best mobile gaming addictions we’ve seen in a while.
Price: Free (Limited Time)
Developer: Taplay Limited
Download: App Store
The Lost City
Time for another point-and-tap adventure game, and an excellent one at that. The Lost City is a mysterious tale about a grandchild’s discovery of a mystical city said to be built by a lost civilization that could control the seasons.
As the legend your grandmother spoke of comes to light, you’ll find yourself drawn into the story by the wonderful art and engaging puzzles. The pacing is smart and not overly difficult, with few frustrating puzzles and a good variety of gameplay elements to keep the experience from getting stale. There is a walkthrough built into the game if you get stuck too, but the game encourages you to explore and play patiently, and if you do so you’ll be more than equipped to solve everything without help.
The adventure game genre is particularly well suited to the iOS family of devices, and the fact that The Lost City is universal means that you can even enjoy it on the bigger screen of your iPad, if you happen to have one.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Fire Maple Games
Download: App Store
Spice Invaders
By now we all know that when a Chillingo-published game is released for “free,” the truth is that it’s often far from it. Spice Invaders, unfortunately, is an example of very exploitative use of IAP and has rightly received some solid criticism from gamers as a result. Often, this is enough to deter people from dismissing it as a stupid cash grab, but in the case of Spice Invaders, the pricing is hiding a truly amazing tower defense game.
Pricing aside, Spice Invaders is an exemplary title. eight-player multiplayer, 55 levels, tons of weapons (all upgradeable!) and a slick visual style all contribute to the impression of quality and fun that the game offers. Gameplay is tight and immersive, and features interesting scoring quirks like kills being more valuable the closer they are to your base.
If you’re into tower defense and don’t mind a little grinding (or shelling out some coin for in-game purchases), then you’ll love Spice Invaders.
What Have You Been Playing?
That’s a wrap for this week, everyone. Leave us your comments below and we’ll see you all next week with a fresh set of games. Oh, and happy Valentine’s Day!