April 30 2013, 11:54 BST | By Scott Nichols, Gaming Reporter
Each week, Digital Spy rounds up the biggest mobile gaming releases with reviews and trailers. This week's games include the latest Marvel comics movie tie-in, rampaging unicorns, bouncing bunnies and a zombie shooting gallery.
Iron Man 3 - The Official Game Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android Price: Free
Just in time to for the blockbuster movie, Iron Man 3 arrives on mobile devices with an official tie-in game.
Unlike Gameloft's past superhero games, Iron Man 3 doesn't really have much to do with its namesake movie. Instead it is an infinite runner style game where players pilot Tony Stark as he flies across highways and aircraft bases dodging oncoming traffic and blasting robots.
A screenshot from 'Iron Man 3 - The Official Game'
Iron Man is controlled by either tilting the device or sliding your finger, the latter of which offers more precise movement since tilting tends to be a little too sensitive. Enemies will also fly in Iron Man's way, which can be dispatched Fruit Ninja style by tracing your finger over them.
The game constantly gives you new objectives to keep things interesting, all of which earn coins or crystals that can be used either to upgrade your existing armour or unlock new suits.
Each suit of armour has its own stats and score multiplier, making them more than just cosmetic changes, though the price to unlock any of them is clearly slanted toward using in-app purchases to get more crystals.
Iron Man 3 is a decent enough infinite runner, though slow progression holds it back. Comic fans will still get plenty of fun out of it though, with boss battles against classic villains like the Crimson Dynamo and even M.O.D.O.K. in daily challenges to keep players coming back.
The summer drought is arguably here, but that won't stop the entertaining Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon remixing one of 2011's best releases, and a hefty Vita exclusive in Soul Sacrifice.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Release date: May 1 (worldwide) Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, PC
This standalone downloadable spin-off is described as a "kick-Ass Cyber Shooter taking place on a bizarre open-world island crawling with evil", and offers crude animations and an electronic soundtrack as it relentlessly mocks '80s action movies.
April 28 2013, 15:42 BST | By Ben Lee, Entertainment Reporter
Each week, Digital Spy rounds up the biggest downloadable gaming releases with reviews and trailers. This week's games include an absorbing story that takes place in a Brazilian favela, a first-person shooter hoping to appeal to eSports and an unforgiving 'Metroidvania' title.
Papo & Yo
Developer: Minority Platforms: PC Price: £11.99 / $14.99
Papo & Yo is quite a conflicting game. It tells a rich and rather special story, but on the flip side, it falls a little short from a gameplay perspective.
The adventure title centres on Quico, a young boy living in a Brazilian favela who flees from his abusive alcoholic father and ends up in a dream-like world.
What makes the kid's fascinating journey work is that his story feels personal. Not long into the game, he encounters Monster, a seemingly kind-hearted giant who is susceptible to fits of uncontrollable rage if he is allowed to eat frogs.
Papo & Yo
The parallels between Monster and Quico's father are obvious and blunt, but the boy's hope that Monster's addiction can be cured is quite touching. It's really easy to emphasise with him, and you become invested enough that you're willing to overcome its shortcomings to reach the ending.
These shortcomings lie in its fair share of puzzles, which in short are bland and offer very little challenge.
While perhaps deliberately designed this way, the simplicity of them makes these sections feel like needless padding, particularly in the middle portion of the game.
It's a fairly short title, though, lasting only a few hours, and despite the parts surrounding the narrative being underwhelming, the story itself is impressively affecting and worth experiencing.
Developer: Nadeo Platforms: PC Price: £15.99 / $19.99
ShootMania: Storm is a multiplayer-only competitive first-person shooter. Anyone craving for bots or single-player content will be disappointed.
Instead, Nadeo's latest title is all about getting the upper hand against the opposition, presenting a few unique modes to show your worth from the pole-capturing 'Battle' to the tense 'Royal', a last man standing match where the map quickly shrinks in size.
The problem with ShootMania is that the core mechanics are a little dull.
ShootMania: Storm
Conceptually, it's pretty interesting. Everyone has the same rocket launcher-type weapon, which takes a couple of shots to kill. But the twist is, you only have an extremely limited amount of ammo that gradually recharges.
Fire your four shots in a matter of seconds, and you're at a major disadvantage. And because bullets travel pretty slowly, a lot of it is predicting where your enemy will run. There are tactical elements to the shooting, for sure.
It's easy to admire the back-to-basics approach, and the level playing field without classes and perks is commendable and refreshing, but it doesn't translate into a necessarily fun time. The gameplay feels a bit dated and it wasn't too long before we grew bored.
TrackMania was thrilling not only because the handling of the cars felt great but also because the community-generated tracks were imaginative.
It's too early to say whether ShootMania's custom maps will boost its staying power, but we're not sure if an inspired community can draw us back into the FPS.
Developer: GR3 Project Platforms: PC Price: £11.99 / $14.99
At first glance, La-Mulana is a side-scrolling 'Metroidvania' title. But it's slightly more than that. For one, it's at times insanely difficult.
The game follows Lemeza Kosugi, an archaeologist seeking treasures while exploring ancient ruins. These locations are heavy on enemies and traps - both a nightmare if you're careless - as well as puzzles.
Puzzles in La-Mulana are a bit of a mixed bag, because they're often confusing and will get on your nerves when you inevitably get stuck.
La-Mulana
There's also quite a bit of aimless wandering, backtracking and head-scratching. Clear instructions are rarely given, harking back to a much simpler time without generous quest markers to guide and keep you on the critical path.
The mechanics surrounding the combat are mostly tight. Lemeza begins with a whip, but along the way he can pick up an array of melee and projectile weapons.
However, you'll likely die often as the game is deliberately unforgiving and tough. But importantly, it's relatively fair, and so for that reason, it's not so frustrating when you have to reload a save after an untimely death.
La-Mulana won't appeal to the more casual players. Instead, it's for those who are masochistic with a fondness for 'Metroidvania' games - but even then, a high level of patience is required to get the most enjoyment out of this indie title.
April 26 2013, 18:41 BST | By Ben Lee, Entertainment Reporter
From Lucas Pope comes Papers, Please - a game that has recently appeared on Steam Greenlight - which the developer describes as a "dystopian document thriller".
On the surface, it sounds pretty dull. You're an immigrations officer at the border of Arstotzkan, responsible for approving or denying entry to people trying to enter the state.
Yet strangely, Papers, Please is a really engaging game, not least of all because of its distinct Eastern European feel and political commentary.
As the inspector, you must look out for any discrepancies
For each person in the queue, it boils down to one decision - whether or not to let them through. The pressure of getting it right, relying on your observational skills as you inspect all of the documents, is rewarding and not at all mundane.
It's varied enough to remain interesting throughout the beta, as after each day, a new rule is introduced.
Day one only requires you to check if their ID cards are valid - so things like photos, gender, their issuing city and expiry date - but it's not long before you have to worry about entry permits, work visas, authentic stamps and scanning for contrabands.
You can interrogate applicants if you spot discrepancies, but at the same time, you'll want to get through as many as you can before your shift ends at 6pm.
The more you process, the more you earn, and your salary is essential for providing heat, food and medicine for your family. It adds urgency to each shift, and you must strike the right balance between being thorough when looking at each person and being quick.
Goda Young? Or is it Mia Kostovski?
However, as interesting as the border patrol job is, it's difficult to have any emotional connection with the people you're providing for. It's a shame, though admittedly this is only a small part of the game and basically just a way to present the day's results.
There are also special events that happen while you're on the job. You'll read in the morning newspaper, for instance, of a wanted fugitive. Later that day, he might be trying to cross the border.
The odd moral choice comes into play, but in the beta, your decision seems to have very little effect aside from a newspaper clipping.
That said, there's a lot to like about Papers, Please, and we're certainly excited to see the full version of the game.
April 23 2013, 12:52 BST | By Scott Nichols, Gaming Reporter
Each week, Digital Spy rounds up the biggest mobile gaming releases with reviews and trailers. This week's games include time travelling candy, bouncing fish and zombies that give new meaning to roadkill.
After conquering mobile devices in this time, Cut the Rope: Time Travel hopes to expand the series' popularity to include all of history.
The game remains essentially the same, as players try to cut ropes with finger swipes to get a candy into Om Nom's waiting mouth. The big change is that there are two Om Noms and two candies in each level, leading to unique puzzles where players will have to use multitasking and careful planning to feed both green creatures.
Following the time travel theme, the game is broken down into six time periods taking players from the middle ages to ancient Greece, the Renaissance, the stone age and more. Each time period incrementally adds tools and obstacles from past Cut the Rope games, like bombs, rockets and portals, which take on new uses with the two candy puzzles.
The 90 levels will go by surprisingly quickly for Cut the Rope veterans, though the promise of more levels to come and Zeptolab's history of updating its games gives hope that Cut the Rope: Time Travel will keep entertaining players with new puzzles for a long time to come.
April's closing week features the anticipated Star Trek tie-in game, the follow-up to zombie survival title Dead Island, the re-release of cult classic Deadly Premonition and much more.
Star Trek: The Game
Release date: April 26 (Europe), April 23 (North America) Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Set between the 2009 Star Trek movie reboot and the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, the co-operative shooter sees players work together as Kirk and Spock to defeat an enemy threat from humanoid reptile race the Gorn.
First Released: 1992 (Arcade) Now Available On: PSN, Xbox, PC (as part of the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection)
The early 1990s was a game-changing era for the versus fighter, a period when the genre exploded into the mainstream and was shaped into what it is today. Classic brawlers like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat led the charge, and it was the latter that stole all the headlines in 1992.
Developed and published by the now-defunct Midway Games, the original Mortal Kombat debuted on arcades before being ported to virtually every home format that was around back then.
The game was essentially Midway's answer to the powerhouse that was Street Fighter 2, but it was a far different animal to Capcom's opus. For starters, the title was built on a more realistic graphics engine based on motion capture technology and was a far grizzlier affair.
Mortal Kombat was a quintessential one-on-one brawler in many ways, with the object of the game being no more complex than reducing your opponent's health bar to nothing.
The game's headline features were its unique five-button control system, and of course those bloody fatalities. Mortal Kombat's finishing moves ranged from heads being torn off to torsos being set on fire, and this level of brutality struck a chord with some and caused outcry among others.
Mortal Kombat was as gruesome as it got back in 1992. Blood gushed from fighters every time a blow was landed and gore drenched the arena whenever a successful fatality was pulled off.
The game was at the centre of a series of public debates about violence in video games and its impact on society in the early '90s, headed up by Senator Joseph Lieberman and Herb Kohl.
With the backing of concerned parent groups and other public officials on their side, these talks were taken seriously, putting pressure on the games industry to introduce a rating system to ensure that software containing mature content was appropriately labelled. This led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Controversy helped boost Mortal Kombat's sales, but the game deserved its success on merit alone. It was as challenging a fighter as any on the market, with mastering special moves and the blocking mechanic key to becoming a seasoned pro.
Mortal Kombat's focus on strategy combined with a memorable roster of fighters made it an instant classic. The likes of Scorpion, Liu Kang, Goro, Raiden and Sub Zero remain just as popular today, as much for their fleshed-out back stories as their trademark special moves.
Considering the high quality of the final product, it may surprise some to hear that the game had a development team consisting of just four people initially, and a development cycle of less than a year.
Midway wanted to push a Street Fighter 2 rival out onto the arcade scene, and they tasked programmer Ed Boon and designer John Tobias with achieving this within a short time frame.
Mortal Kombat began life as an action game featuring the digitised likeness of actor and martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme, but the Kickboxer star dropped out due to his involvement with another video game that was ultimately never released.
Although the Muscles from Brussels was not directly involved in the game, the programmers paid homage to him with the character Johnny Cage - a Hollywood movie star who dabbles in fighting tournaments and has a penchant for punching opponents in the crotch, as Van Damme famously did in the film Bloodsport.
Mortal Kombat's success in arcades led to a series of home ports in 1993. The game arrived on four platforms initially - Mega Drive, SNES, Game Boy and Game Gear - all of which received it simultaneously as part of the Mortal Monday campaign.
The ports were something of a mixed bag, with the SNES edition arriving heavily censored and the handheld versions having to make major concessions due to hardware constraints. The most faithful home conversion was the PC edition, which arrived some time later.
The game's popularity endured and Midway capitalised on this with the release of sequels in the ensuing years. Hype around the series peaked around 1995 when Mortal Kombat was adapted for cinema by Paul W.S. Anderson.
Like most video game adaptations, it was a stinker, but one good thing did come out of the project. The Immortals provided a hard-hitting techno soundtrack that captured the game's adrenaline-fuelled battles well.
Mortal Kombat was exactly what the fighting genre needed in the early 1990s - a gritty alternative to Street Fighter 2 with the ability to match the Capcom brawler on the gameplay front.
There have been some forgettable sequels over the years but the decision by NetherRealm Studios - who inherited the development torch from Midway - to take the series back to its roots with the latest instalment has helped it recapture some of its former glory.
Do you have any fond memories of Mortal Kombat? Post a comment below!
April 19 2013, 15:51 BST | By Ben Lee, Entertainment Reporter
Evoland, recently greenlit on download service Steam, is a fun throwback to old-school RPGs targeted at those who have been playing games in the genre for years.
It begins with your character in an 8-bit monochrome world, limited to one-directional movement. But by opening treasure chests, the game evolves feature by feature in a nostalgic way.
Treasure chests also contain collectibles
At first, chests will add colour, basic enemies and free movement, but it's not long before you'll unlock a world map, random encounters, towns and Mode 7.
The first couple of hours are a cross between Final Fantasy and Zelda. The first dungeon sees classic turn-based RPG tropes such as experience points gradually thrown in, while the next one is extremely reminiscent of Nintendo's beloved franchise, with trap rooms, pushable blocks and even camera zooms when opening chests being introduced.
The game continues to evolve, but to spoil any more would be wrong as the best part about Evoland is uncovering new features and seeing the game advance through generations before your own eyes.
'Evoland' includes numerous nods that longtime RPG enthusiasts will get
However, take away the nostalgia and you're left with a title that is rather bland. It lacks a strong narrative, and the RPG elements are implemented at a very basic level, meaning the game lacks depth and is quite repetitive.
Random encounters, for example, get extremely tiresome as there is little strategy involved.
Evoland is a novel experience for RPG veterans, but newer game fanatics will have a difficult time appreciating what it offers.
Evoland is available to buy from the Steam store for £6.99 / $10 for PC and Mac.
April 16 2013, 10:54 BST | By Scott Nichols, Gaming Reporter
Each week, Digital Spy rounds up the biggest mobile gaming releases with reviews and trailers. This week's games include a free-to-play action RPG, a peg-loving purple alien and an action hero who is all out of bubblegum.
Dungeon Hunter 4 returns to Diablo-style dungeon crawling on iOS. The game lets players pick from four traditional RPG classes and embark on a sizeable adventure across various caverns and ruined temples.
Everything is in place for a standard hack and slash RPG. As your character levels up he or she will learn skills, both new attacks and passive abilities, to help mow down the constant stream of enemies.
Unfortunately, Dungeon Hunter 4 embraces in-app purchases a little too aggressively. While there is a store to buy equipment with the gold you collect from monsters, certain special items and weapons will appear right in your inventory at all times, ready to be unlocked with real currency.
There is also the matter of health potions, where the game gives you three each day, and any additional potions must be purchased with real money. Considering that many dungeons consist of gauntlets against waves of enemies, health potions are a pretty important part of the game.
There is absolutely no way to obtain more health potions without paying up or waiting until the next day, making the game either impossible to progress in or very expensive very quickly. Either way, it's a broken design and should not be played by anyone with respect for their own time.
