This has been a great week for gaming, and in the aftermath of last weekend’s magnificent PAX East convention, we can safely say that there will be no shortage of awesome titles coming our way this year.
This week, we feature some more fresh games that we’ve been hooked on, so click through and join the fun!
8-Bit Ninja
An exemplary demonstration of zen-like simplicity, 8-Bit Ninja is a free and fantastic game with an uncanny level of addictiveness and a strong, no-frills gameplay environment.
Though on the surface it looks reminiscent of Fruit Ninja, you actually won’t be actively slicing the fruit that come tumbling at you on the screen in the same way; instead, your job is to dash about the dojo, avoid getting squished and collect dragon hearts, coins and useful ninja weapons while you’re at it. Your ninjas (you can unlock more!) will level up by gaining more experience the longer you survive, and you can use those coins and dragon hearts to purchase useful tools and neat swag from the shop.
If you like, you can also purchase currency via IAP, but it’s not necessary. The one advantage of making a tiny purchase is that any IAP you make automatically disables the in-game ads, which are subtle but nonetheless present and an unnecessary drain on the battery. 8-Bit Ninja is incredibly engrossing, despite its relative simplicity, and makes the perfect quick fix for those brief gaming moments.
Price: Free
Developer: Dogbyte Games
Download: App Store
Bounty Bots
How about another freebie? Bounty Bots is the wild tale of a West that never was … a retro future shooting bonanza with excellent graphics and some of the best multiplayer action we’ve ever seen on the App Store.
As you might imagine, you’ll be playing as a robot in the West-inspired frontier town of Deadbolt. The bot you play as can be customized extensively, as can the weapons, which offer a number of satisfying solutions to the problem of pesky opponents. Each session is a frantic coin collecting, bank depositing, robot shooting affair among friends.
Keeping in mind that you need an active Wi-fi or 3G connection to play, this game manages to almost entirely keep you from feeling any of the usual concerns associated with multiplayer: lag, dropouts, crashes, etc. MunkyFun clearly spent a lot of time and effort polishing the mechanics behind the scenes to keep things running silky smooth. Go scratch that western itch, robo style, with Bounty Bots.
Price: Free
Developer: MunkyFun, Inc.
Download: App Store
Amoebattle
While there is no shortage of RTS games in the App Store, few manage to feel as welcoming and effortlessly native as Amoebattle does. When their microscopic world comes under attack from a raging infection, the amoebas venture forth to save their world from harm.
Much of the criticism levelled against other RTS games that have shown up on the iOS platforms have mentioned the awkwardly desktop-influenced control schemes that made gameplay tough to manage. Amoebattle addresses this with an interface that facilitates play while managing to also feel welcoming to those who are new to the genre. This is all well and good, but an RTS rises or falls on the level of its strategic depth, and this is where Amoebattle truly delivers.
Not only are there multiple units, enemy types and environments, but they interact and influence each other in meaningful ways — including subtle things like certain environments boosting the power of certain types of units. The 25-unit squad cap keeps things manageable and concise, and the tasks you’ll perform during missions are significant and not just time wasting fetch quests. Even without a skirmish mode (for now), Amoebattle establishes itself as one of the finest RTS games on the App Store and is well worth your time.
Price: $4.99
Developer: Grab Games
Download: App Store
Gunman Clive
Returning to the wild west, we find ourselves playing Gunman Clive. This unique platforming shooter is immediately recognizable from its distinctive hand-sketched, sepia-toned art style, but it sets itself apart with solid gameplay as well.
The levels provide an exciting variety of situations, and the game’s bosses are a lot of fun to fight, offering enough challenge to feel satisfying when you finally defeat them. The structure is fairly straight-forward, but the execution is so smoothly successful that one can only hope development continues so that more levels and gameplay options become available.
For now, Gunman Clive remains a notable side-scroller with a lot of personality and a charming take on the western theme.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Bertil Horberg
Download: App Store
Skylanders Cloud Patrol
Surprisingly, Activision has decided that they’re going to bring their rapidly growing Skylanders franchise to the iOS ecosystem with Skylanders Cloud Patrol. What’s more surprising though, is how legitimately fun the game is, despite the stigma we generally associate with games that are tagging along with a franchise.
In Cloud Patrol, you’ll be zapping trolls and executing wicked combos to rack up points and polish your skills. Depending on how well you do and how many goals you complete in each area, you’ll also earn a number of gems that can be used to unlock more Skylander characters, as well as helpful magical items that might give you an edge. Perhaps the coolest feature, at least for fans of the franchise, is that you can use your web codes to unlock and use your existing collection of Skylanders if you own some of the toys. This immediately makes the experience more personalized and is a great way to tie into your existing Skylanders adventures.
If you’re new to the world of Skylanders, then Cloud Patrol does a good job of introducing you and perhaps getting you interested in the rest of the games. Either way, it’s a simple and fun combo-based action game that sports a fine presentation and the best troll hunting fun you’re likely to find on your phone.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Activision Publishing, Inc.
Download: App Store
What Have You Been Playing?
Played some of our picks? Found a few other gems? Talk to us in the comments!