Welcome back to Game Friday, everyone! For those of you who aren’t out scrambling for last minute Mother’s Day gift ideas, we’ve collected some of the App Store’s newest hits — and rising stars!
Check them out after the jump…
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Out on the iPhone at last, Harry Potter’s final years in Lego form have gone mobile. If you’ve played the previous title, then you’ll feel pretty comfortable with the later years on display here, though there are some important new things to take note of.
First of all, the controls have been overhauled, which has been almost universally criticized for being a step backward. Though they’re certainly not as comfortable as years 1-4, they’re not unusable and it’s to be expected that an alternate control scheme will make its way to the game in an update. Beyond that, the visuals and gameplay are terrific and the famous sense of charming humour that the Lego series brings to franchises is happily intact.
Fans of the series and of Harry Potter in general will find lots to love here, so long as they can have a bit of patience with the on-screen controls.
Price: $4.99
Developer: Warner Bros.
Download: App Store
Reiner Knizia’s City of Secrets Pipes
While we wait for the sequel to the critically acclaimed City of Secrets, the folks at Aidem Media have prepared a stopgap solution for us in the form of a re-imagined board game known as City of Secrets Pipes.
Pipes is a challenging puzzler about repairing a steam ship’s broken piping system. It plays a lot like Aqueduct (remember that classic, from the “old days” of the App Store?) but offers extra complexity in the form of graduated scoring based on the size of pipe you use to connect the source pipes to the exit ones. There are thin and thick pipes, and each source and exit pipe has an assigned point value that doubles when you connect to it via a thicker pipe. Even with the extra layer of complexity, the game is accessible and rewards patient play without being too hard on casual folks.
Very much in the spirit of City of Secrets in tone and presentation, Pipes is a welcome extension to the franchise that reminds us of why we love developers who care about their products and customers, trying to achieve the best possible result for both. Keep an eye out for City of Secrets 2, and fix some pipes while you wait!
Price: $2.99
Developer: Aidem Media
Download: App Store
Dark Legends (3D MMO)
With the MMO genre gaining some traction on the App Store, one of its most successful pioneers, Spacetime Studios, has brought a third game out in their fantastic Legends series. Following in the footsteps of Pocket Legends and Star Legends (the largest mobile MMOs), Dark Legends offers a new story of a vampire nation.
After hiding in the shadows for generations, the vampires of the world are uniting and rising and you get to participate. Like previous Legends games, Dark Legends is free to play, and while there are in-app purchases present to help you along the way, your experience of the game won’t be too severely hampered if you choose to earn things the old fashioned way instead of paying to fast-track.
Despite being fully 3D, the game’s online nature is robust and allows access from WiFi as well as all manner of mobile speeds, including lowly Edge connections, surprisingly enough. We didn’t encounter problems with server stability or gameplay, and can easily recommend Dark Legends as the culmination of what a good mobile MMO should strive to be like.
Price: Free
Developer: Spacetime Studios, LLC
Download: App Store
Robbery Bob
As noble as it is to recover lost items, rescue kidnapped princesses, and retrieve stolen artifacts, there’s something about theft that makes for fun games. Robbery Bob reminds us why Grand Theft Auto was so fun by putting us back in the shoes of a thief, though the circumstances are different.
Bob is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and while he’s eager to put his life of crime behind him, there are a few last jobs he needs to do to earn his way out. If you imagine the sneaking minigames from other titles and polish them into a complete puzzle game driven by a humorous story, then you’ll understand what Robbery Bob is all about.
The game isn’t overly long, but there are a number of different environments to steal things from, and you’ll find that missions send you after an amusing variety of items, both valuable and mundane. If you’re in the mood for a light-hearted stealth game, then Robbery Bob will delight.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Level Eight
Download: App Store
DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop
Even though it’s been some time since the film came out, this game tie-in to the popular DreamWorks animated film, How to Train Your Dragon, was worth waiting for.
DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop, despite its incredibly clunky name, is a joyously fun game that combines beautiful presentation with a core gameplay mechanic that will appeal to fans of iOS puzzlers in general thanks to its variety. Like arranging objects to solve puzzles? It’s got that. Like flinging things at other things? It’s got that too. Like smashing things with a dragon tail? Right this way. Your mission to save the scattered sheep is a dynamic one, set across more than 40 levels, and the game’s intelligently designed controls will help you make use of all the various skills at your disposal without getting lost.
An uncommon thing, TapDragonDrop is an independently compelling film tie-in game that offers its own rewards and merits attention without falling back on the strength of its franchise roots. Both for its strong presentation and extremely varied gameplay, this earns an easy recommendation.
What Have You Been Playing?
Go forth and game, friends! And when you’re done, come back and let us know how you liked our picks and what’s been keeping you busy in the App Store this week. See you next time!