Droid Gamers

Old school style brawler Combo Crew smashes onto Google Play

AndrewH — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:14:37 -0400

We've talked about this game a couple of times in the past and now we get to stop talking about it and you get to now go and play it. Developed by The Game Bakers, the fine folks the brought your the Squids series of games, Combo Crew has arrived onto Google Play this morning.

For those of you who have missed our past coverage, Combo Crew is an old school arcade style brawler where you get to go around and beat the crap out of everyone that comes at you. What makes this game rather unique though is the fact that there are no onscreen controls at all. Instead all your moves are executed by using a series of taps and swipe gestures. So you will be doing things like using a one-finger swipe to punch and kick, tap to counter attack, and two-finger swipe for special combo moves.

Combo Crew Features:

• Fight with your fingers: slash enemies to trigger crazy combos, tap to guard. A modern beat ’em up with no virtual D-pad!
• The first mobile brawler with asynchronous multiplayer across devices. Rescue your friends, or be rescued by them!
• A true arcade experience with a great combo system and super moves.
• Several heroes with unique combat styles and more than 80 moves to master.
• Hundreds of missions - complete them solo or compete for high scores against online friends.
• An endless scoring mode, unlockables, and collectibles - a ton of replay value.
• Log in to sync automatically between your devices.

Players will also be happy to know that there is also multiplayer available in Combo Crew. While you and a friend will be competing for high scores, you can also revive your fallen comrade should they get overwhelmed and subsiquently get beat down themselves.

If you're ready for some old school brawler action you can pick up Combo Crew off of Google Play for $2.30. You can also check out the game in action in the video above.

Google Play Link: Combo Crew

Jawfish Games launches their impressive real-time multiplayer platform for mobile gaming

AndrewH — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:54:29 -0400

Following the recent official announcement from Google last week regarding Google Play Games services and all that entails including real-time multiplayer gameplay and match-making features, another company today has announced that they are launching their own real-time multiplayer platform for Android and iOS as well.

The company's name is Jawfish Games that is being created and ran by a a former professional poker player and the engineering team that built the Fult Tilt Poker site, one of the premier online poker sites for awhile before legal issues pertaining to online gambling made things a little difficult for Full Tilt Poker. Well this new team and their real-time multiplayer platform for Android, iOS and the web will be able to host up to 100,000 simultaneous players at any given time in real-time tournaments and no we are not talking about playing poker with this new platform.

The company just finished raising $3.65 million in funding to ensure that real-time multiplayer gameplay won't be suffering from what a lot of other games that try to pull off real-time multiplayer gaming do which is just handling the sheer amount of data being transferred and the connectivity required to handle it properly. Nothing sucks worse in a real-time multiplayer game than lag or disconnections. According to Jawfish Games, their ability to have over 100,000 simultaneous players and to host 1 million tournaments will be doable for less than $10 in bandwidth.

Jawfish Games originally partnered with Big Fish Games for some initial titles to help give their platform a good starting point but now the company is ready to bring on plenty of other games from other publishers including their own in-house developed games. Since the head honcho of Jawfish Games used to be a champion of the World Poker Tour, one of the first games to come from the company will be, of course, a poker game.

It won't all be casino-esque games either, since Big Fish doesn't have a whole lot of those anyways. There will be multiplayer word puzzle games, one of which is also already launched in partnership with Amazon called Jawfish Words, which is basically like Scrabble on steroids with some bonus goals players can try to accomplish but are incredible hard to pull off. Since this platform revolves around tournaments, you can expect plenty of leaderboards being available for each game that comes to Jawfish's multiplayer platform.

Basically what we’re looking to do is to take games that people know and love and reinvent them for multiplayer real-time tournaments. That’s exactly what we’re going to do across a wide spectrum of games. - Jawfish CEO Phil Gordon

Big Fish Games' Match-Up

Jawfish haven't completely opened up their platform just yet to third-party developers and when they do eventually open up that ability, it won't be made available for just anyone. In fact it will be curated heavily with only the most popular and top-tier games being made available for it. As for when Android will start seeing titles running on Jawfish's platform, no exact date has been released but iOS already has Big Fish Games' Match-up (which is actually a collection of a few different games) and Jawfish Poker available so we shouldn't have to wait too much longer.

Needless to say there could be some pretty big potential with this platform and multiplayer games. It all depends on how Jawfish Games goes about things and the games they allow to use their platform.

Developer Website: Jawfish Games

Website Referenced: Techcrunch

Gameloft releases a dev diary for the making of Dungeon Hunter 4

AndrewH — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:28:15 -0400

Even though the game has been available for a short while now, Gameloft has decided to release a video to give everyone a look into how Dungeon Hunter 4 went from an idea and a few sketches to a fully realized game that, for the most part, managed to successfully makes its way back to its roots with a new actual storyline and a much more familiar feeling to the game.

After the first Dungeon Hunter game, the franchise slowly started to lose sight of what it was that people really enjoyed about the games. This included the storyline itself, actually crawling through dungeons and things like that. By the time Dungeon Hunter 3 had rolled around, it was more or less just an arena fighting game. Gameloft did hear the fans of the series and all their feedback that they had received and while Dungeon Hunter 4 isn't perfect and still has some issues, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Check out the video below to get a more of a deeper looking into the making of Dungeon Hunter 4.

Developer Website: Gameloft

Dark Tonic updates Wall Street Titan with a fix for the ad problems

AndrewH — Thu, 23 May 2013 03:11:39 -0400

The developers of Attack of the Wall Street Titan have heard everyone's feedback regarding their new game and have pushed out an update that fixes the one major concern everyone has had with the otherwise rather enjoyable game. Dark Tonic has heard your cries for help regarding the ads appearing right smack in the middle of the gameplay.

This was never an intentional action to happen with full sized ads suddenly appearing during gameplay which would cause some serious problems at times, especially if you were on a really good destructive roll. How the ads were supposed to work, as Creative Director of Dark Tonic Eric Boosman explains, is that they are only supposed to show up in two places - once when you first start up the game, and once at the end of your play session before your score starts counting up. The only other pop-up that should happen, which isn't an ad at all, is when you start the first level which is meant to explain that once you get 3 stars the all levels, the ads are removed for good.

Somewhere along the line a bug crept up where if a player died and hit the "Reboot & Continue" option too quickly, the full screen ad would load but it would take longer than it should, making it appear during your next play session and not when it was intended to appear which is right before your previous score stats getting totaled up.

The good news is that Dark Tonic has pushed an update out now that has fixed this issue along with a few others. Here's the changes that have arrived with today's update:

- Removed ad on the reboot/continue screen, which was causing ads to show up late during gameplay under some circumstances
- Removed banner on scoring screen
- Set device Back button to pause the game
- Fixed 1280x800 resolution display

So there should be no more ads popping up during gameplay or during any other time that there shouldn't be any ads. The update is now live so feel free to download it at anytime off of Google Play.

Google Play Link: Attack of the Wall Street Titan

Mediocre Games releases a new trailer for their upcoming Sprinkle sequel

AndrewH — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:22:54 -0400

Mediocre Games have been teasing on and off regarding a sequel to their rather popular water-based physics game Sprinkle. Up until now the sequel has simply been known as Sprinkle 2 and from early game screenshots we got to learn about a few new game mechanics that would be introduced into this game such as having to get from island to island to save your friends.

Well Mediocre Games decided to give the sequel a much more fitting name and it is now called Sprinkle Islands. The main goal of the sequel is the same as the original, putting out fires before they consume your friends huts. The only difference is, everything is bigger, more complicated and more challenging when it comes to putting out the fires.

Right now we still don't know a whole lot more than that. We do know that development is almost done for Sprinkle Islands and Mediocre Games has a June release time frame for when the game will hit Google Play. Until then, check out the trailer above to see the game in action.

Developer Website: Mediocre Games

Heavy Sword Review: A retro-inspired platformer that borrows heavily from the classics

Craig Maxwell — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:03:03 -0400

Heavy Sword is a new retro-inspired platformer from Monster Robot Studios. The game combines great modernized SNES-era graphics with traditional platforming elements to create a solid game that is worth playing. The game borrows heavily from the classics in the genre, but does this end up helping or hindering it from being a must play experience?

The Story

Heavy Sword starts out with a brief cut scene showing a group of goblins kidnapping a princess from her castle. Your follows in fresh pursuit, with the clear intention of bringing the princess back home in one piece. The storyline is typical for the genre, and it works for a game that is trying to be a throw-back to the past. It may not be anything special, but really, who plays this type of game for the storyline anyway?

The Gameplay

If you have played a side-scrolling platformer before you will have no problem jumping right into Heavy Sword. You have arrow keys to move your character either left or right, and you also have a button to jump and a button to attack. Heavy Sword rarely deviates from the traditional framework laid out by classic games in the genre.

The combat in Heavy Sword stands out as a bit different though. Rather than jumping on your enemies heads or shooting super-charged lasers from your arm-gun you will be heading into combat with a variety of swords. You start off with a small sword with basic attributes, but throughout each stage you will come across power-ups that will give you a bigger and fancier swords. Not surprisingly, the bigger the sword means the higher the damage you dish out.

Though the combat mechanic is unique to the genre, I felt it was also one of the weakest aspects of the game. Since most of the combat is done through melee attacks, you will have to physically stop at each enemy, and then start hacking away at them. Unfortunately, tapping repeatedly on the attack button isn’t a whole lot of fun, and since most enemies require a fair number of slashes to be defeated, it really slows the pace of the gameplay. Near the end of the game I found myself avoiding as many enemy encounters as I could just to reach the end of the level quicker.

Fortunately, the controls were spot on the entire time, which was a huge plus for the game. While the gameplay in Heavy Sword is mostly well done, it was a bit hard to not find it a bit lackluster at times.

The Graphics

Graphically, Heavy Sword looks fantastic. The game sports a gorgeous SNES-era art style, while upping the level of polish to give everything a fresh and modern feel. There are a fair number of graphical similarities to Super Mario World here, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the backgrounds and level designs are surprisingly similar, and even the world map is clearly based off of the one in SMW. In a nostalgic way these similarities are pretty cool, but it's hard to not feel that the developer relied a bit too much on mimicking this classic game, rather than trying to create something unique to the genre. At least Heavy Sword has created its own unique enemy units, which all look nice, and have fluid animations. The graphics definitely received a great amount of polish, and are very close to being flawless. Unfortunately, I did find myself running into a fair number of frame-rate drops during my time with the game. These occurances were by no means game breaking, but they are definitely something worth mentioning.

The Sound

The sound design in Heavy Sword left me feeling a little disappointed. Though the rock/bit-tune combo sounds great, it sadly ends up hurting the game in the end. The music volume has been set too high, which completely overpowers and covers up all of the game's sound effects. I imagine Heavy Sword has some stellar sound effects in it, but without being able to toggle the music volume there is no way to really know. There is an option in the menu to disable the music all together, but then you are without the well made soundtrack. Hopefully some sort of volume control will get implemented in a future update.

Conclusion

Giving a rating to Heavy Sword is a bit difficult to do without comparing it to to other platformers. The game borrows so heavily from the the classics, which can be seen as both a good and a bad thing. In one way it is nice to feel right at home with controls that feel instantly familiar, but at the same time it is hard not wish that the game would have tried a bit harder to be something completely new and exciting. However, Heavy Sword does still manage to manages to be a solid platformer, and should be worth your time if you're looking for a throwback to the past. If you are expecting something that tries to revolutionize the genre, you will be in for some disappointment. All in all though you could do a whole lot worse than Heavy Sword.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles now available if you own an Xperia device

AndrewH — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:40:15 -0400

There is some good news and some bad news today for fans of Lego games as Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles has finally made its way to Google Play. This is great news actually if you own an Xperia device because you are the only ones who get to play the game right now as it is under a temporary exclusive.

As with a lot of the Lego games out on any platform, there will be some building involve. Players will be building their character and vehicles in order to fight the forces of the Dark Side. You will also need to solve puzzles and complete all the challenges in the game is you want to succeed in defeating the Dark Side.

The Yoda Chronicles Features:

- Quest with Yoda™ or Count Dooku™ to discover your destiny
- Battle and build your way through 8 iconic levels of LEGO® Star Wars™ action per side
- Create and control armies from elite Clone Troopers™ to powerful Starships
- Discover exciting mini movies that reveal the story
- Play exclusive bonus levels to rank up and upgrade your units
- Sign in with LEGO ID to save your progress

Players will be able to build and control not just your own hero but armies of Clone Troopers as well, man a variety of vehicles and engage in the enemy all while being in the world of Lego. You can grab yourself a copy of Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles off of Google Play for free if you own an Xperia device. Everyone else will have to wait until June 15th, 2013 before you can play this game.

Google Play Link: Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles

Fast & Furious 6 from Kabam races onto Google Play

AndrewH — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:13:37 -0400

In a strange partnership between Kabam and Gameloft that we reported on recently, their Fast & Furious 6 movie spin-off game has now arrived onto Google Play for fans of the franchise to enjoy. While this is a racing game, there also happens to be a few different game modes to work your way through.

While racing is the main meat of the game, players will also be pulling off heists to earn cash like what ended up slowly happening in the later part of the movie series. As you earn cash you will be able to upgrade whatever car you happen to be using at the time including the 1970 Dodge Charger that has made a few appearances in the movie series.

Of course there are plenty of achievements to unlock as well, plenty of racing involved in all of it and the storlyine does follow that of the upcoming movie as well. You can also compete against other people but not so much in a multiplayer mode and more in the form of leaderboards.

For those of you interested in checking out this game, Fast & Furious 6 is available off of Google Play from Kabam for free.

Google Play Link: Fast & Furious 6

Spicy Horse Games' upcoming Oz game will have zombies and steampunk

AndrewH — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:57:47 -0400

American McGee's, who developed the Alice: Maddness Returns game and owns Spicy Horse Games studio, has released a few more details about their upcoming new Oz game that we talked about only a few days ago. At the time the company didn't even know what genre the game would be in or what it would all entail. Now we know that there will a Steampunk theme meshed into it as well as zombies.

The game also has a name, Ozombies, which is a rather nice play on words. Ozombies will be coming to multiple platforms including tablets and as Spicy Horse Community Manager Kelly Heckman said:

This is not, in any way, shape or form, the title from 2004. It will be based on the entire Oz series – almost all 14 titles – so expect to see unique things not seen in previous incarnations.

Dorothy concept art

As for the storyline of the game, it is still up in the air but one idea that the company is toying around with is the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz going on a rampage across Oz because he's not happy with the brains the wizard of Oz happened to have gifted him, turning everything he can into zombies. The game will also feature cross-platform gameplay as well. Other than that, Spicy Horse Games still isn't sure as to which genre this game will end up in.

One thing is being worked on though and that is what the Kickstarter tiers will be which means the company is seriously considering hitting up the crowdfunding site for funding the game's development. If they go that route, hopefully we will learn more about the game itself.

Website Referenced: PocketGamer

Arma Tactics from Bohemia Interactive invades Tegra-based Android devices

AndrewH — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:26:01 -0400

We've written about this game coming to Android a couple of times in the past, mostly regarding it arriving for Nvidia's Android-powered handheld gaming system called Shield. Well Bohemia Interactive has gone ahead and brought Arma Tactics to Android but it is, of course, for Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 devices only right now.

Officially called Arma Tactics THD, we actually had our suspicions that this game was going to be released soon back in April when Nvidia was showing it off on their Shield unit. As you are probably guessing from the name, this is a tactics style game which means it's all about close combat and turn-based strategy gameplay, all of which is based off of the rather popular PC series of games.

You'll be taking control of up to four members of your squad and from there everything is up to you. It is almost an open world game in some aspects considering there really is no particular strategy given to you to use or path to take. All of those choices are up to you. This also means you'll need to decide how to approach your enemies and objectives, what weaponry will best suit each individual scenario and so on.

Should you manage to get through everything, unlock all the weapons and earn all the achievements the game currently has, have no fear as Bohemia Interactive will be bringing more campaigns to the game in future updates. For those of you interested and own a Tegra 3 Android device (or soon a Tegra 4 one), Arma Tactics THD is available on Google Play for $4.99.

Google Play Link: Arma Tactics THD

Forum Discussion: Arma Tactics discussion

Amazon's AppStore gets updated, now available in almost 200 countries

AndrewH — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:50:02 -0400

Back in April Amazon announced that it had some pretty big plans for expanding their AppStore to more countries, 200 or so of them actually. Well it looks like those plans have finally come to life with the AppStore's new update to version 5.0. This expansion doesn't just means you can look at the AppStore in awe and wonder but actually take advantage of all the features it comes with.

If you happen to live in one of the 200 countries Amazon's AppStore is now available in, you'll be able to take advantage of the 'Free App of the Day' which is actually usually a game and not an app. Other integrated features now available for you to use include Amazon's GameCenter, 1-click purchasing and IAPs. An example of some countries now with access to Amazon's AppStore include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Africa, South Korea, and even Papua New Guinea and Vatican City.

This also means that Amazon's AppStore application is now in version 5.0 and can be download if you happen to live in one of the newly minted Amazon approved countries. If you want to check and see if your countires is on the list, just hit up the Amazon Developer's blog as they have them all listed there.

Download: Amazon AppStore Application

Peter Molyneux's upcoming game Godus to be published through DeNA

AndrewH — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:53:17 -0400

We reported a few times in the past that Peter Molyneux's studios 22Cans, the folks responsibly for the Curiosity game, happen to be working on a new game called Godus. This particular game is sort of a mix between Populous and Dungeon Keeper with 3D visuals to round everything off.

Players will be playing as a god-type deity who will be will be shaping their kingdom and lands, while engaging into rather deep multiplayer combat gameplay that is more in the style of Dungeon Keeper but against rival gods (other players). The game's development is coming along just fine and it still has a way to go before it is done.

However news today is that 22Cans has signed a partnership deal with DeNA to have the company publish their game when it is done. This means it will arrive under the Mobage brand which is DeNA's social gaming platform. While this will help with social features and the multiplayer aspects, this also means it will be a free-to-play game. It also means that there will also be optional IAPs in Godus although we are not exactly sure right now what those will be.

As for when this game will be released, there is no set release date as of yet.

Developer Website: 22Cans

Pixel Press is an app that will let you draw your own game

AndrewH — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:36:05 -0400

A Kickstarter project is now up and running for a rather interesting, and conceptually amazing, application that will allow anyone using graph paper and a pencil to literally draw their own game. From the designs on the graph paper that you have drawn, the application will read that and convert it into a game which you can then share with your friends.

While the original goal of Pixel Press is for an iOS application, there are new and pretty small stretch goals that would bring the application to Android as well. At $125,000, the developers will make both an Android and an iOS version. If they hit $150,000 in funding, we can expect an Ouya version, upload graphics and images features, and alter physics as well which is pretty damn interesting in itself.

The entire process of drawing your own game takes four steps: draw a level, take a picture, design it, play & share. While there are some questions as to how much logic can be implemented into the game from within the application when it converts it to a game, the application will be ever expanding to include new mechanics and features for you to use when designing your levels with the tools the application comes with.

If you're up for ensuring that an Android version of this application comes to life, head on over to the Pixel Press Kickstarter page and toss a couple of bucks their way to help out. If you have any questions, the developers are actually holding an IAmA on Reddit all day today so head over there if you have any questions or concerns. You can also watch a demo video above.

Website Referenced: Pixel Press bKickstart

Offical Website: Pixel Press

Rovio begins teasing Tiny Thief for their upcoming Rovio Stars brand

AndrewH — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:10:59 -0400

A few days ago we reported on Rovio and the fact that they had officially announced that they had officially launched their third party publishing platform called Rovio Stars. In that post we had shown a trailer for one of the first two games that would be released under Rovio's new label called Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage. We now get a sneak peek at the second titles slated for release under Rovio Stars called Tiny Thief.

While Tiny Thief is a puzzle game, it isn't a physics-based one which Rovio tends to favor. Instead this is a medieval themed stealth-based puzzle game where the world you are in is interactive and contains plenty of characters to meet. While there isn't a whole lot of detail regarding Tiny Thief, we do also happen to know that there will be around 30 stages to sneak your way through and over 100 objects hidden throughout the game that you will need to find.

However, we do have a couple of screenshots for us to check out the slightly twisted but cute art style Tiny Thief will be coming with. We also have a bit of a trailer as well which you can check out below. As to when Tiny Thief will be released, we don't know that just yet.

Developer Website: 5Ants

Attack of the Wall Street Titan finally arrived onto Android

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:09:34 -0400

The last time we talked about Attack of the Wall Street Titan it was back in December of last year. Back then we reported on the game's development and that is was coming along and should be released soon. Well it has finally arrived onto Google Play so now you can get to smashing evil corporate people who have been trying to subjugate the population.

However, these corporate people who initially built the big robot you will be controlling lost control of it when it got hacked and reprogrammed. Now the people control it and it is time to take out all those evil corporate folks. This is done with lasers, power-ups and sheer destruction of anything that gets in your robot's way.

Wall Street Titan Features:

- Physics based destruction
- Tons of fun mini-objectives
- Insane powerups
- Hit all the score targets and remove all ads for free!

This game is just a pure arcade game full of destruction and chaos, things that make games like this rather fun. For those of you who have been waiting for this game, Attack of the Wall Street Giant is now available off of Google Play for free.

Google Play Link: Attack of the Wall Street Titan

The Combo Crew will be smashing its way onto Android on May 23rd

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:44:04 -0400

The Game Bakers and their upcoming brawler called Combo Crew is a game we talked about back in April that would be heading our way this month. Well the developers have now released an official release date for this old school style brawler and you'll be happy to know that the game will launch next week on May 23rd.

For those of you who missed our previous coverage of Combo Crew, this game is an old school arcade style brawler that uses absolutely no onscreen controls, at least not in the traditional sense. There are no onscreen buttons or joysticks and instead you will have to use a combination of taps and swipe gestures to unleash your attacks on your enemies. So you will use a one-finger swipe to punch and kick, tap to counter attack, and two-finger swipe for special combo moves.

While playing these types of games solo is always fun, playing with a friend is always better and Combo Crew will be coming with Asynchronous co-op. In co-op mode you will be competing against your friends for high scores but you'll also be able to rescue them should they get knocked out.

Lastly if you finish the game or feel like just beating up enemies endlessly, there is an Endless mode you can test your survival and fighting skills in. If you've been waiting for the game to arrive, you only have to wait until next week to get your hands on it.

Developer Website: The Game Bakers

Vector Unit shows off multiplayer on Riptide GP 2 with Google Play Games

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:55:32 -0400

Vector Unit has decided to release a video showing off Riptide GP 2 and the game's multiplayer features. This game will be using Google Play Games services so players can log into their Google account and race against people in their circles. Another interesting point about this video are the devices they are using to show multiplayer.

Three people are racing in the video, one using Nvidia's upcoming Shield, one using a Moga controller with a Nexus 7 tabler, and one using a Samsung Galaxy S4 which confirms that Riptide GP 2 won't just be Tegra exclusive. It might be for a short period of time, but we can see it running just fine on a non-Tegra device so it may end up getting released for everyone right away.

Check out the video below to see it all in action.

Developer Website: Vector Unit

Herocraft releases Zombie Derby for zombie smashing fun

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:37:36 -0400

Herocraft has released a new game called Zombie Derby which, as you may be guessing from the name, has to do with cars and zombies. More importantly, players have to use cars to smash zombies, splattering their gooey infected innards all over the road and all over your car.

You also have a variety of weaponry attached to your cars because sometimes it is just better to shoot a zombie than to try and run them over. As you upgrade to better cars you will be able to collect more loot which, in turn, you can use to customize your cars with various upgrades.

Zombie Derby Features:

• 5 killer cars to drive
• 4 vast levels to explore
• Massively customisable vehicles
• Gory 3D graphics
• Compatible with HD devices

Upgrading your vehicle can take the form of better weapons, spiked armor, better engines and so on. Herocraft also kept all the blood that they could muster into the game so there should be plenty of splattering going on. If you're up for some simple zombie killing fun, you can pick up Zombie Derby off of Google Play for free.

Google Play Link: Zombie Derby

Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.7.0 update delayed a little longer

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:05:49 -0400

A lot of our readers have been leaving comments in our previous articles regarding the massive 0.7.0 update that is coming to Minecraft: Pocket Edition. We won't dive into a review of everything that will be coming with this update like normal as we've gone over it a few times already. However we do have news as to when the update will actually arrive.

Originally the update was slated for release by the end of April. This changed to around the first week to possibly the middle of May. Well that has now changed again as the team working on this update have one last issue to take care of before submitting the update to Android and iOS and launching the beta of Minecraft Pocket Realms.

In a recent update on Twitter, Johan has mentioned that they are hoping to submit the update sometime between now and the end of May. This is, of course, taking into consideration that everything goes smoothly. So while everyone is very eager to get this update for Minecraft: Pocket Edition, you unfortunately have to wait just a little bit longer. There is also a possibility of the update ending up coming in the beginning of June.

On a side note, if you have a Minecraft account already you will need to migrate it to a Mojang account should you want to log into Minecraft Pocket Realms using that account. You can read up on how to do that here.

Website Referenced: Johan's Twitter

Have a say in how the GTA V inspired game Juonto City turns out

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:53:49 -0400

A indie developer going by the name of The W Games is current working on developing a game inspired by Grand Theft Auto V called Juonto City. This particular game will be an open world game like the Grand Theft Auto franchise is along with plenty of the game mechanics that comes with the series.

Visually Juonto City will be more in line with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City which isn't a bad thing at all considering GTA: Vice City looks pretty good on Android. Players will also have missions to complete, people to shoot, cars to drive and all the other good stuff to do just like you would in a GTA game. The city itself will be somewhat like Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto V as well.

The developers have hit up our forums asking for suggestions and feedback regarding the development of Juonto City so here is a good opportunity to have a say in how a game turns out. According to the developers a demo version should be available soon as well. We will be sure to get a hold of it and report back on how it looks and plays. We did find the PC trailer for Juonto City which you can watch above to get an idea of how the game looks.

Forum Discussion: Juonto City thread

Nvidia's Shield pre-order moved up and go live today

AndrewH — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:20:14 -0400

Earlier this week Nvidia announced that their Android-powered handheld gaming device called Shield would be going up for pre-orders on May 20th, 2013 except for those of you who signed up for the newsletters for Shield update. If you did that you were able to pre-order one at the beginning of the week.

Well for those of you waiting to pre-order a Shield unit, there is some good news today as you won't have to wait until May 20th, 2013 to do so. Instead you'll be able to pre-order one today since the company has decided to go live with the pre-orders now due to growing demand for the unit. Interested people can now pre-order an Nvidia Shield off of a few different retailer website, all of which we have linked below.

The shipping date has not changed and the Shield is still slated for shipping sometime in June 2013. As for pricing, it will still cost you $350 to pick one of these guys up.

Pre-order sites: Newegg | Gamestop | Computer Canada | Nvidia

Classic arcade game Karateka makes its way onto Google Play

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:28:24 -0400

One game a lot of people used to play back in the Apple II days was a game called Karateka. For those of you not familiar with this game, Karateka has been around for almost 30 years and is a side-scrolling martial arts action game. The developers have actually brought the game over in pretty much its original condition which should please the purists out there.

Of course there have been a few slight changes such as the fact that the controls are touchscreen ones. Players will control the hero of the game who is out to save the princess from the evil warlord Akuma. In order to engage enemies you will need to switch your stance from traveling to your fighting stance. Once in the appropriate stance you can proceed to beat the crap out of whoever happens to be standing in front of you.

While you do have a health bar for fighting, prospective newcomers to Karateka should know that a vast majority of the hazards will end your game right on the spot. Back in the day this game was pretty challenging and today it still is, even is all its limited color glory.

For those of you interested in picking up Karateka off of Google Play, it'll cost you a mere $0.99. Be prepared to get frustrated though, in a good way of course. Cheesy '80s haircut not included.

Google Play Link: Karateka

Forum Discussion: Karateka thread

Monster Robot Studios debuts with their action platformer Heavy Sword

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:42:20 -0400

A new development studio has debuted on Android today and has come out rather strong with their first game release Heavy Sword. This particular game is a retro style Action-Platformer that borrows some cues from games we used to play on consoles and PC.

Players will take charge of the game's hero named Pike who, as with any good retro platformer we used to play back in the day, has to rescue Princess Lucinda who is probably Pike's secret love. Pike will have to run, jump, chop, hack and kill everything standing in the way between him and the princess.

Heavy Sword Features:

- loads of exciting levels
- awesome power ups
- Bombs, Bows, Throwing daggers, Steam powered armor and of course the all powerful HEAVYsword!
- Unlockable extras like the Memory match Card Game

Players will also have plenty of hazards to avoid while no their quest to save the princess. If the fact that this game by itself is a great platformer to play, Monster Robot Games have added some rather cool little unlockable extras for people to find and play.

For those of you who are looking for a good platformer to play, you might want to check out Heavy Sword. Downloading a copy of this game will cost you $1.99. Hopefully we see more good titles come from Monster Robot Games, keep an eye of them.

Google Play Link: Heavy Sword

Crescent Moon Games releases their Qix inspired game called Dig!

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:05:40 -0400

Back in March of this year we talked about a neat little game that Crescent Moon Games was getting ready to publish onto Android called Dig!. This particular game was inspired by another arcade game called Qix and features a lot of the same mechanics but with a bit of a theme change to it.

Dig! plays out a lot like Qix does, but in this game you play as a guy taking care of his lawn. You'll be carving out chunks of your lawn while trying to avoid the random zombies that happen to be wandering around it. If they cross a line, the zombies will speed up and come after you unless you complete the chunk of lawn you happen to be carving out. There isn't just zombies though to deal with but plenty of different types of enemies that all do different things.

Dig! Features:

• Quick arcade action.
• Interesting areas to unearth.
• Power ups!
• Hats! (that give perks!)
• Unusual enemies; Nigel the mummy, moles with fezzes and many more!
• Artifacts to collect.
• Museum collections to find.
• Colorful 3D art.
• Great soundtrack.

The other interesting mechanic to this game is he hats that you can collect. These hats will give you different perks so you will want to wear certain hats during certain stages in order to gain a bit of an advantage. You'll also find other items like power-ups and artifact to help you out.

If you're up for a more fun style of Qix gaming then you might want to check out Dig!. You can grab a copy of this game off of Google Play for $2.99.

Google Play Link: Dig!

World War Z will be getting a movie tie-in game, arriving May 30th

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:34:35 -0400

Brad Pitt has a movie hitting theaters soon called World War Z and Phosphor Games has been hired to develop and publish an official movie tie-in game for Android and iOS which will also be called World War Z. We already know the kind of games this company develops so we can expect to see plenty of eye candy in this new one, especially because it is also being developed using the Unreal Engine.

While the World War Z doesn't have too many details released right now, we do know some of the content that will be coming with this game. Of course we can all expect plenty of zombie killing action but there will also be puzzles to solve and weapons/armor to find and upgrade along the way. There will be 28 levels to the game, at least when it launches. If you happen to finish the game, there is also an unlimited mode to play, testing your skills to see how long you can survive.

We do also have a few screenshots and a video trailer for the game which you can view below. If you're a fan of zombie games then you'll probably want to snag a copy of this when it launches on May 30th onto Google Play. You can also check out the full press release below.

Developer Website: Phosphor Games

EPIC ‘WORLD WAR Z’ GAME BITES INTO iOS & ANDROID

AS PARAMOUNT DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT TEAMS WITH PHOSPHOR GAMES

LOS ANGELES / CHICAGO – May 16, 2013 – Paramount Digital Entertainment and award-winning Phosphor Games Studio bring global apocalyptic panic to you in the newly announced World War Z game. Set to release on May 30, the game will launch on iOS and select Android devices.

Offering a fully immersive experience, players are dropped into the middle of the World War Z chaos. Casual and core gamers will both love the game’s action-packed first person experience and electrifying story. Featuring 28 visceral levels, intense combat, engaging puzzles, upgradable weapons and armor, an unlimited challenge mode, and a global scale, this game challenges you: play to survive.

“We loved the rich world that the filmmakers created, and are thrilled to tell a story that runs parallel to its film counterpart,” said Amy Powell, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment. “We wanted to give audiences a chance to truly live the movie in this story-based game.”

“We were excited to be able to use the cutting-edge Unreal Engine 3 to bring World War Z to life,” said Chip Sineni, Phosphor Games Studio Director. “Our goal was to build Paramount a AAA game, and with that came all our favorite bells and whistles, like ambient occlusion lighting, multipass blended textures, and hordes of enemies to fight.”

The World War Z game is available on iOS and select Android devices on May 30. World War Z, the film, revolves around ex-United Nations employee Gerry lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to decimate humanity itself. The film hits theaters worldwide on June 21.

Social game developer King to bring Pet Rescue Saga to Android this Summer

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:30:02 -0400

A game development company called King, who develop social games on a variety of platforms, has announced that they will be bringing Pet Rescue Saga to Android this Summer. You may already be familiar with King thanks to their rather popular game Candy Crush Saga. Their new game will follow in the footsteps of Candy Crush Saga and will be a cross-platform social game as well.

In fact Pet Rescue Saga isn't too different from Candy Crush Saga in that both games are Match-3 puzzle titles already available on Facebook. In this particular game you will be saving animals instead of eliminating different types of candy from the playing area.

Some of you have probably already played Pet Rescue Saga on Facebook and if you fall into that catagory then you'll be happy to know that the mobile version will sync up with the Facebook edition. Pet Rescue Saga will be arriving on Android sometime this Summer.

Developer Website: King

King Builds on the Success of Candy Crush Saga Unleashing its Top 10 Facebook Game, Pet Rescue Saga, on Mobile this Summer
King announces it now has more than 70 million daily players across all platforms and three top 10 Facebook games

San Francisco, CA & London, England – May 16, 2013 – King, the world's leading cross-platform, bite-sized games company, today announces that it is releasing its popular, top 10 Facebook game, Pet Rescue Saga, on mobile early this summer. The game, which is the third largest overall game on Facebook with more than 6 million daily players (DAU), will be available on iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and on Google Play for Android devices. Pet Rescue Saga becomes King’s third Saga game to be released on mobile and will further position the company as a leader in mobile games alongside their hit mobile title, Candy Crush Saga, which is one of the most popular titles across Android and iOS in many major markets seeing over 500 million gameplays a day on mobile alone.

The company also announced that has more than 70 million daily players across all platforms. The company currently has three top 10 Facebook games with Candy Crush Saga (15.5M DAU), Pet Rescue Saga (6M DAU) and Farm Heroes Saga (4.8M DAU). King’s games have taken the number one application and game slot on Facebook and top grossing app positions on iOS and Android, clocking over 21 billion gameplays per month across mobile, social and online.

“We are completely humbled to have three of our games among the top 10 on Facebook and seeing that our games are attracting over 70 million daily players and 21 billion gameplays a month across all platforms,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO and co-founder of King. “Pet Rescue Saga’s fun puzzle challenges have proven to be extremely popular since its release in October. The game quickly became one of the most prevalent games on Facebook and is one we are confident will translate well to mobile.”

Pet Rescue Saga will launch on mobile with over 72 levels, providing a seamless gameplay experience across mobile and Facebook. Players will be able to play the game anywhere, anytime – ensuring their leaderboards, scores and progress are fully synchronized regardless of device.

Pet Rescue Saga features more than 10 cute, animated pets in dire need of help from all kinds of mayhem across a fantastic Saga land that includes both fairytale and urban landscapes. Boosters allow gamers to clear columns or individual blocks in various ways to make their way through each episode, which includes 5-10 different types of puzzle levels. Players must remove the required number of blocks or save enough pets to move on to the next level. To play Pet Rescue Saga now on Facebook in preparation for the launch on mobile, please visit http://Apps.facebook.com/petrescuesaga.

Sega finally brings the original Sonic The Hedgehog game to Android

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:53:25 -0400

Sega has released, as a bit of a surprise, the original Sonic The Hedgehog game onto Google Play this morning. While this is the original game, the visuals have been remastered as well as support for widescreen resolution, sporting a smooth 60 frames-per-second or at least that is what Sega is claiming.

On top of all the original content that the game used to come with, this version of Sonic The Hedgehog will allow players to eventually unlock both Tails and Knuckles as playable characters. Aside from the remastered visuals, Sega has also gone ahead and remastered the original soundtrack as well.

Sonic The Hedgehog also comes with new leaderboards, achievements, and an all-new Time Attack mode in case you finish the actual game itself pretty quickly. If you're a fan of the blue hedgehog and his games, you'll probably want to pick this new game up. Sonic The Hedgehog is available for $2.99 off of Google Play.

Google Play Link: Sonic The Hedgehog

Nvidia's Shield already getting air time on TV in Modern Family

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:37:43 -0400

Nvidia officially announced the pre-orders were now live for some folks along with the $350 price and June shipping date only a couple of days ago. The company's Android-powered handheld gaming device has somehow already made it onto TV but not in a commercial. Instead the device has made a cameo appearance in a sitcom called Modern Family.

You can see the little boy sitting inside the RV as the family is driving somewhere, playing on the new Nvidia Shield device instead of his usual Nintendo 3DS. It isn't the easiest thing to see in the video footage but it is a Shield unit.

Check it out in the video over on Kotaku if you're interested in seeing the device being played on Modern Family.

Website Referenced: Game Usagi via Kotaku

Angry Birds Seasons portal filled update called Abra-Ca-Bacon has arrived

AndrewH — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:41:58 -0400

We've talked about this update a couple of times in the recent past and now we get to finally stop talking about it now that the new Abra-Ca-Bacon update for Angry Birds Seasons has finally arrived. In case you've missed our previous coverage regarding this update, the big feature to arrive is the inclusion of portal to the game.

Portals is a brand new game mechanic that you'll have to master if you want to complete the new levels and get three stars on each one. As you can probably guess, portals work just as they sound, letting you fling a bird into one portal and it will come out of another elsewhere in the level. The same holds true for any blocks you might be able to hit hard enough into a portal.

Aside from the new game mechanic, the Abra-Ca-Bacon update brings 30 new levels for you to play through with an additional 6 levels that can be unlocked in various ways. If you haven't downloaded the update yet, you can do so at any time now that it is live on Google Play.

Google Play Link: Angry Birds Seasons

[Updated] Here's a list of games currently integrated with Google Play Games service

AndrewH — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:22:09 -0400

So as the next couple of days pass by there will be more and more games getting updated with Google Play Games features. While at some point it will be impossible to list every game that gets integrated with Google's new service, for now we can at least keep everyone up to speed on what games already have it.

On our forums Maxorq has begun compiling a list of games currently available with Google Play Games integration. Of course this list will keep growing and we encourage everyone to help add to the list until it becomes impossible to do so. For now though, here are the games so far:

Beach Buggy Blitz (Free) (48 achievements)

Chip Chain (Free) (43 achievements)

Eternity Warriors 2 (Free) (29 achievements)

Eufloria (Free/$4.99) (? achievements)

Farm Invasion USA (Free/$5.20) (20 achievements)

Kingdom Rush ($1.99) (? achievements)

Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour ($6.99) (49 achievements)

Osmos ($2.99) (? achievements)

Plague Inc. (Free) (54 achievements)

Riptide GP ($1.99) (? achievements)

Super Stickman Golf 2 (Free) (60 achievements)

Triple Town (Free) (26 achievements)

World of Goo ($4.99 $0.99) (22 achievements)

Rocket Island (Free) (24 Achievements)

Save the Puppies (Free) (36 Achievements)

Townsmen (Free) (61 Achievements)

Farm Invasion USA (Free) (? Achievements)

Avabel Online (Free) (90 Achievements)

If you're up for helping find all the game currently featuring Google Play Games integration, hop on over to the forums and add to the list.

Forum Discussion: Google Play Games list