I was somewhat excited to try out Frima Studios’ Zombie Tycoon 2: Brainhov’s Revenge. Usually, any of the small number of games that I have tried with the word “tycoon” in the title have been a source of entertainment for me¹. The only factor that gave me pause in this case was how well this RTS would play on a console/handheld rather than the PC (which has the benefit of having a keyboard and mouse). Surprisingly, the controls were never an issue; unfortunately, what started out as a fairly fun concept quickly shambled to a halt due to other issues – making this game a balancing act comprised of great parts, and not-so-great parts.

Orville Tycoon is bent on world domination – for no other apparent reason other than that’s just what he likes to do. He’s in a good place: his slow-but-steady zombie army is growing and things seem to be going his way when all of a sudden his nemesis (and old boss) Archibald Brainhov shows up with his own undead army – an army which happens to be speedy and deadly in the face of Orville’s shambling herd. Will Orville be able to overcome this threat to pursue his dreams? The single-player campaign will determine this!

Zombie Tycoon 2′s single-player campaign follows an all-to-common formula that I have mixed feelings about: give you a whack-load of power for the first mission and then take it all away for the following missions. It’s nice because you get a taste for how great it can be; but it sucks because you have to rebuild from essentially nothing. This method works well when the pace and difficulty are decent, and if the rewards and upgrades trickle into your toolbox fairly regularly (enhancing your abilities as the resistance ramps up). Unfortunately, due to the slow speed of the units, the relatively large maps, and a good deal of back-and-forth in-level “missions”, hitting the ideal pace is not something that is easily attained – which makes getting back to that level the power (experienced in the first mission) an arduous climb.

Protect this at all costs!

In terms of the units themselves, they are well-designed. There are the usual: bruisers (strength vs. speed); scouts (speedy self-healers that can turn invisible when they stay still); engineers (to capture buildings). Then there are the…er…unusual: cleaners (neutralize chemical waste); scavengers (ranged attackers); samurai (awesome). Not only can you eventually create these units, but you also have access to monsters, who function as hero units that gain experience and powers (mapped to the D-pad). In addition to the monsters, you can conscript a force of NPC zombies by taking over enemy houses. Every house provides an NPC zombie that will perform basic functions (although I found that for me they tended to simply roam around the map sometimes attacking enemies). As a harrying force, these NPC zombies are quite handy when they happen upon enemies – but their real value is proven during the “Dead Rush”, which is essentially a rallying cry to send a tidal wave of all of your extra zombies against a target that you specify.

Even with these awesome units and tactics, you can’t just hurl your units around the map in hopes that you will dominate – you have to be sharp and use some decent strategy to overcome a few difficult points. One of the first obstacles that you will face is the fog of war that prevents you from seeing everything. More often than not, the fog hides some fairly nasty surprises that will give your forces a really hard time. The second major thing that you have to contend with is defending of your mobile spawning unit. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the game due to the fact that everything ends if Orville’s command center is destroyed. There is a tendency for the vehicle to be attacked fairly often, making this possibly the largest RTS escort mission ever.

Orville regretted giving his zombie army a night off to pain the town red…

And so, I spent the game being ping-ponged back and forth between elation and frustration. Overall, despite some of the annoyances, I have to say that I really did like this game. The cartoon-like nature of the characters and the lack of spoken dialog from the majority of the cast elevate the tongue-in-cheek humour that runs rampant throughout the game and loans a certain charm to the production. While the game has a fairly small number of chapters, they are actually quite lengthy (with some being downright hard), giving the game some legs. Also, the replay value is actually decent due to the number of trophies that require actual work to attain.

Fast and frenetic multi-player is an additional feature that increases the re-play value of this game. While skimpy on options, the action is pretty crazy and allows you to pick wither Brainhov’s forces of darkness or Tycoon’s shambling superstars. Finally, Cross Buy, Cross Play and Cross Save combine with the positives to make this game a pretty good value – especially since it’s only $10!

My love of DJ Hero is known to many¹; and during my all-too-brief interludes with the game, I fancy myself to be quite the star. While I know I’ll never be spinning platters at an actual club, I frequently browse through products for my devices that might allow for some fun ways to play music when I host parties at my house. Urbanears has produced a neat little free iOS app called Slussen that fits the bill quite nicely. Even more interesting: they have also created an inexpensive adapter that puts the “extra fun” in “extra functionality”.

Urbanears was kind enough to give us the peripheral to try out; since I was already going on a family vacation, and was booked for a direct flight with no amenities, it seemed like the perfect time to play with the app. I really enjoyed it – so much so that my wife was quite amused by the look of child-like happiness on my face. The interface is very simple, with everything you need to manipulate your music placed in what I believe to be a very organized fashion. Colours are simple, the layout is easy to navigate, and the font is quite readable – even on an iPod Touch 5.

A fair amount of control with a simple interface.

There is an equalizer for each of the two platters, as well as a “Kill EQ” button for each side that allows you to reset your settings for each track. Additionally, there are beats-per-minute (BPM) controls, a crossfader and a sync button. Songs may be cued up and the user can easily choose which part of the song can start playing. Obviously, this is easier to do on an iPad given the larger screen real estate (and thus, more precise control over the position within the waveform of the song); but I didn’t have too much difficulty using my iPod Touch (holding the unit vertically results in a single-platter display; the other platter can be accessed by swiping a finger across the screen). The most fun part? You can actually “scratch”, too!

The Slussen adapter is a little U-shaped doohickey constructed with a rigid plastic shell, and is currently available in one of four colours. It has a 3.5mm plug sticking out one of the “arms” that fits into the headphone jack of your iOS device (this can also be inserted it into the protective cap that is included; this cap can be attached to a keychain for easy access). The ends of the Slussen adapter house 3.5mm jacks – one for your headphones and one for your speakers – denoted by raised plastic symbols. These two sockets split the signal between the two outputs, allowing you to preview the next track on your headphones before you slice and dice it into the mix. It’s a neat function that helps you make a coherent amalgamation – but at the cost of converting your beloved stereo stream into two mono ones².

Solid little piece of hardware.

I found load times to be pretty quick (although some of the features function better when the waveforms are fully loaded, which takes a little bit of time), and I didn’t notice any glitches. I had read some other reviews before and noted that there were some problems – but version 1.05 (the version of the software that I was using) seems to be pretty stable. The sound quality is not bad, given you are dealing with mono streams. The instruction booklet is simple, but contains enough information to get you started; really, the package is pretty intuitive so you shouldn’t have any trouble. My only complaint would be the fairly high chance of accidentally touching something other than the intended button. However, being careful usually mitigates this problem.

I had a lot of fun playing around with this little app. The Slussen adapter is around $15 USD, making it an affordable way of adding a bit of a buffer for those who like to know what kind of tracks that they are getting into. Really, if you are familiar with your music, or if you have a good sense of what works with what, you probably won’t need to bother with the Slussen adapter at all (allowing you to use the app in Stereo). Overall, though, I’d say that it’s not a bad purchase. I’m hoping that Urbanears works on one that doesn’t bork the Stereo signal. Both the app and the adapter are great!

It’s DLC time again¹ for the latest in the Gears of War franchise! This time around though, unless you bought the season pass, it’s not free and will instead set you back 1000 MSP. So what does your 1000 MSP get you? A surprisingly decent amount of value. There are three new multi-player maps, six weapon and armor skins, and my personal favorite: a new multi-player game-play mode called Master at Arms.

Let’s start with the boring, and work our way up.

Weapon and Armor Skins

That’s right, fancy new skins.

New Multiplayer Maps

The new maps, Blood Drive, Boneyard and Terminal take place in a hospital, memorial grounds, and a train terminal respectively. These maps apply to most (if not all) of the versus and survival modes in the game and add some well-needed variety to the original maps that were included with Judgment at launch.

“¡Ay, mi estomago!”

Master at Arms

All you need to know is that this new multi-player mode is difficult, addictive, frustrating and awesome. Master at Arms is a versus free-for-all mode where you battle to be the first to twenty kills². Sounds simple enough; but the kicker is that for every kill you have to use a unique weapon. The sequence of the weapons (lancer, gnasher, boomshot, …) is the same for each match to make it fair for all parties involved. While this doesn’t sound particularly difficult, be warned: because of the structure of the match you have to factor in strategy (tactics based on weapon and map), luck (run and gunners are going to potentially ruin it for you as they will allow the elite players to quickly progress through the weapons), skill (no relying on team members as you’re on your own!) and speed (hiding and waiting for the perfect opportunity to complete a kill will allow the more efficient players to leave you in the dust).

Finito

For the Master at Arms game-play mode alone, I recommend that you pick up this DLC. I enjoyed it that much, and I’m not typically a DLC person³.

Every once in a while, something flies into the airspace of our attention span that causes us to raise an eyebrow. Of course, during these times there is the potential for disagreement among the Thumbs – but healthy discourse is always good to flesh out potential videogaming goodness. Will Pwn 4 Food is one of those topics that polarized opinions within our shop. What is Will Pwn 4 Food? Well, it’s a startup that removes the inconvenience of travelling around with your computer to compete in tournaments by presenting you with a portal with which to log in and play games! What’s interesting about it (and what has caused a bit of a stir in our shop) is the fact that Will Pwn 4 Food lets gamers compete for actual cash and prizes around the clock – seven days a week.

Currently, one game is available on their website: Dodgebots. Essentially, you and a bunch of other players are placed in a circular arena under the watchful eye of a human-controlled turret. The turret fires upon the players, and since there are no places to hide, the only option is to run for your life! The game follows a “last man standing” model, but in the nightly freeroll tournaments, the top 10 players get a cut of the prize!

Games follow the typical lobby model, where you wait in a queue and then get thrown into a game. Prior to the game starting, you have the option to purchase up to 3 upgrades: speed, size and dodge. Each of these enhancements are self-explanatory, and they come in useful. During the game, you will dodge normal and timed projectiles – but once you get smashed by a dodgeball or bomb blast, you are done. Players do have the option to buy back in using credits; however, each player is limited to 5 tries and each buy-in gets more expensive – oh, did I mention that you only have a few seconds to decide your course of action?

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod…”

Our resident skeptic, Rituro, immediately started wondering aloud if something like this was legal – which is a perfectly valid train of thought. He was also concerned about the business model.

I, too, was wondering about the legality of such a venture (just as a knee-jerk reaction). The fact that this program has emerged from the University of Waterloo’s prestigious VeloCity Program made me feel a little more comfortable with it. Still, we had questions that needed to be answered. Luckily, James Baldwin, Marketing Manager for Will Pwn 4 Food, agreed to chat with us.

Question and Answers

TT: So, James, how do people know they are in a country that allows this service?

JB: We currently support all Canadians and most Americans (not every state has the same views on skill-based gaming). If a user tells us that they’re in a country or state we do not support for real money play, a message will pop up informing them of this. Otherwise, our free-to-play games are open to all locations around the world. We have plans to expand into Europe next where we have a bunch of fans, so hopefully that’ll be announced sooner rather than later.

But how do you know? What prevents people from spoofing?

For the most part nothing at all. Our Terms & Conditions outline where players are legally allowed to play from and if they decide to either spoof their IP or lie about their location, then we won’t stop them from playing. However when they wish to cash out, the verified Paypal account they use must match their records, including their IP before we’ll authorize the withdrawal.

We also ask for proof of government I.D. that will show us their name, address and age before we authorize the withdrawal. This also helps stop people from cheating in a game since we retain Paypal information and proof of I.D on every single account.

The best strategy is to hide behind someone else.

I’m going to assume that this has all been cleared by the Provincial Government and the Feds?

Yes, in all locations where we allow real money play, our legal team has done their due diligence to ensure we’re compliant with all laws including both federal and provincial/state laws.

What kind of skill balancing do you have? Or is it totally random? Our concern is that people who are consistently good will end up acting as the “house”, if you take my meaning.

Since DodgeBots is not a player-versus-player game similar to the likes of Call of Duty or League of Legends, we don’t need skill-balancing. Yes, experienced players will likely have a better strategy and place better in the standings more often than not, but our game gives new players a chance to compete on a completely even basis with the “pros”, every single time. There are no levels, no perks, no RPG elements at all. With the exception of the optional upgrades (that all players have access to), every match starts with all players on a completely even basis.

Our freeroll games have been going on for a while now and it’s amazing how often you see the leaderboard change every night. Sure, we have regulars who place in the top few spots more often than random people jumping in for the first time, but we still see first timers giving the regulars a run for their money more often than you may expect.

What order of magnitude of money do people win for the most part?

It really depends. In theory, the maximum payout on a $1 game is $32 to the winner. Now don’t get me wrong, you won’t likely see that much; but even at half that amount, you can see how well it can scale. We also have our $100 daily freeroll tournaments where, like in poker, players pay absolutely nothing to enter – but they can win actual cash for placing well.

In the few short months of doing this, we have paid out a few thousand dollars in real cash to people playing in our tournaments and expect this to grow at an exponential rate moving forward. In the coming months, we plan to start holding major cash tournaments where players will buy into the tournament with real money, but compete for a very large cash prize. Keep an eye on our blog for more details on this.

If only I had borrowed the Predator‘s cloaking field before I entered the arena…

Thoughts

After chatting with James about Will Pwn 4 Food (and Dodgebots), I felt a lot better about shining a spotlight on the site. There have been a fair number of initiatives that we have encountered over the years that are not quite above board. The last thing we want to do is send our readers into murky waters with no life jacket. Our initial comparison to a casino is probably not really fair, given the structure of the venture. Given that the folks at Will Pwn 4 Food have taken steps to ensure that the site is legal, and seeing as how they have gone to great lengths to foster conditions that promote equal opportunity to win, it’s a safe bet that you can check it out and perhaps try it for yourself!

Given the frenetic nature of the game (and the difficulty), matches don’t really last a long time, allowing you to preserve your own schedule, for the most part. Also, customizable robots and the promise of even more games in the future make this an interesting prospect. Obviously it’s important to be responsible when using real money, but the freeroll tourneys that are going on give you a chance to get your feet wet without actually spending anything! For those that are still skeptical, you can also check out the free-to-play version in which there is no money on the line at all.

Could this be the start of a new kind of trend? One that is actually positive? Time will tell!

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that, despite the title, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is not a hardboiled tale about a cop taking down a criminal syndicate from the inside, and the moral struggles he willingly subjects himself to along the way. Rather, this is the story of Chase McCain – a fresh-faced policeman in a colourful, violence-free haven, whose official duties involve schlepping around to various parts of town, and volunteering to take on various odd jobs. A more appropriate title would be LEGO City: Temp Worker.

The Chase Begins is the 3DS prequel to the recent Wii U LEGO City title, and it has commendably tackled the same open-world formula on portable hardware – a first for the 3DS. Despite initially presenting a convincing facsimile of the console experience, it’s unlikely to engage all but the least discerning gamer to stick it out throughout the course of the campaign.

Chase’s daily grind is a bit of a snoozefest;-a series of plot contrivances send him from one end of the city to the other (enduring hefty load times of up to a minute long as he crosses between boroughs), where he’ll meet some dubious character who’s happy to let him put in a day’s work, provided that he dresses up like one of the staff. Donning different outfits grants Chase with special abilities – farmers can water plants that sprout platforms to reach higher levels, construction workers can dig holes into water springs to reach higher levels, and astronauts can use jet-packs to reach higher levels.

Chase gets a little friendly during a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Even if the goal is always the same, these unique skills could be novel were it not for the fact that each of these activities can only be triggered by standing on a dedicated spot that’s specifically labelled. The missions consist of some rote platforming, broken up by some of the least interesting hand-to-hand combat that I have ever experienced, followed by regular demonstrations of label-recognition prowess. It’s not a satisfying design – in fact, considering how clunky it is to toggle between the 7 available outfits, it’s a frustrating impediment to progression.

A coherent plot could provide incentive to progress through the campaign, but little effort has gone into providing a noteworthy story arc for any of the primary characters. Voiced cutscenes bookend game chapters, but a few goofy sight-gags and dad-jokes are little reward for the amount of bland, repetetive gameplay on offer. The eventual conclusion is very abrupt, utterly underwhelming, and it exposes that the mission is the only part necessary in this prequel story.

LEGO City is rammed with secrets and collectibles, so unlocking abilities and entering previously inaccessible areas initially feels rewarding; but a sensible player will quickly realize that the collect-a-thon should wait until all of the abilities are available. The endgame is a more rewarding experience, since it affords the player a sense of exploration – but it’s ultimately the same dull game of Simon Says, rather than a test of a player’s ingenuity.

“Hmph. You’re not our normal safe repair man…”

Despite the amount of criticism – this is a lovingly crafted game. While there are framerate hitches and a preponderance of fog, each section of the city has its own vibe, with enough traffic and pedestrians to bring it to life. The combat (which features practically no striking – only overly dramatic judo-stye throws, and an emphasis on counters) employs frequent slow-motion flourishes and somewhat cinematic zooms to punctuate each encounter.

My issues with the game are borne of TT Fusion’s apparent desire to not present its target demographic with frustrating roadblocks, so if you have younger kids that are happy to go through the motions, this may well be the game for them. If you’re looking for something that’s fun for the whole family, you might be best served looking elsewhere.

I once thought that the Saw movies were the coolest things in the world. I honestly believed that they could make a sequel every year – and I’d be happy with that. Then one Halloween I saw Saw 3D in the theatres and I was done with the series. It become a tired, bloated mess of strange continuity and unbelievable traps. To me, the Saw series just overstayed it’s welcome, and that’s where God of War enters the picture. I was more than ok with the over-the-top violence presented by the God of War series and was salivating for more. Then, I played God of War: Ascension and I felt the same sense of finality that permeated my mind when I watched Saw 3D. I was done with the series.

Review

Don’t get me wrong here, Ascension is a well put-together game. It has all of the regular things you would imagine a God of War would have: beautiful graphics, solid controls, and gallons of blood flying everywhere. The problem really lies within what seems to me to be the lack of care that went into making it. Strong words? Perhaps; but hear me out.

The combat sections presented in Ascension are very lacklustre, only serving the purpose of making the game longer. Combat feels more like a horde mode than it does anything else. When a combat section begins you’re closed off in a small area and tasked to kill a bunch of people. Then, a new wave of people will show up for you to kill. And then some bigger guys will show up and you kill them. Once everything is dead you move on to the next closed off area to kill more waves of enemies. Previous God of War games had used similar mechanics but they were created in a completely different paradigm of game design. Ascension, by using these old tropes, has dated itself and has shown a lack of progression in terms of design.

“I’ve always wanted to be in show business! Ha-cha-cha-cha!”

The lack of creativity extends further into the game and infiltrates itself into the level design of the game. To be honest I don’t think I have traversed as many empty halls in any other game as I have in Ascension. The closest that I have come to in regards to a game that feels this devoid of “life” was when I played Final Fantasy 13. This was a large factor in the boredom that I felt while playing Ascension; other factors that contributed to this feeling was the layout of the levels, and the way that they felt as I played.

In Ascension you do some pretty cool things, but they never feel big and epic like events from the previous games. One particular moment that comes to mind: you are riding a giant mechanical snake as it travels through some mountains. I understood that this was wicked, and I really tried to like it but as I played I couldn’t wait to get off of the snake because it was nothing more than empty pathways leading to closed off battle areas. I didn’t feel a sense of scale or power; I just felt like I was moving forward to the next fight. I wholeheartedly believe that Ascension could have been saved with a hot injection of creativity into its design. It would absolutely save it from the dull corridors and battles. Really, I feel as though a lot of the creative man power that could have been spent on the single-player experience went towards shoehorning multi-player into the God of War experience.

I’m going to say right off the bat that multi-player in the God of War series is an odd choice, and one that I didn’t fully support; but I was willing to give it a chance. The multi-player bit pits Spartans against each other in an attempt to win the favour of the gods. The combat is essentially the same as the single-player game – save for some small differences that have been introduced, to make things more balanced. Fights with actual humans don’t take very long; in fact, they’re usually over within a minute or so. This keeps the game fast and frantic; but the constant re-spawning wore on my patience after a while.

Lothor’s fart defense allowed him to just barely clear the swing of his enemy’s sword.

The biggest issue I had with Ascension’s multi-player mode was with the size of the levels. Each level is fairly large and features a lot of things happening, and in order to capture all of this the camera has to be pretty far away from the action to capture everything. This zoomed-out view makes reading the screen difficult. I practically had to use binoculars to see what my character was doing. Once you add in the rest of the crazy things happening, you have what amounts to a very confusing multi-player mode in some areas more than others. Ascension probably could have done without this mode, I think.

Is God of War: Ascension a bad game? In short, no it’s not. To give you the full answer it’s a game that has a lot of potential, but it’s lost within uninspired ideas. If you’re the kind of player that can mash a bunch of buttons and be content in just killing time, then I feel that Ascension will satisfy this need. For other players who need a little more meat to their games, I don’t think Ascension is for you. I almost feel as though this game is a bridging point between the old God of War games and a brand new reinvention of the series – and that alone excites me. I really hope that following Ascension, Sony can breathe some new life into the series and not go the way of Saw 3D. I love Kratos and I want him to be happy and successful, but damn, does he need some new ideas.

Collector’s Edition Gallery

The review is just our opinion. If you’re new to the series, or if you’re a die-hard God of War fan, there is a good chance that you might like it. Whether you’re an experienced God of War franchise nut, or if this is your first foray into the fray, you might be interested in the Collector’s Edition. This box is a pricey one, but it comes with a number of goodies that might make it worth your wallet’s contents: Premium steelbook case, Official digital game soundtrack, PS3 dynamic theme, PSN avatar pack, Multiplayer XP Boost Unlock, Pass for future DLC content and an exclusive 6″ Kratos statue (which is pretty cool, as you will see).

Click here to check out the God of War: Ascension Collector’s Edition Gallery »

Recently, Toronto Thumbs was invited to the Spearmint Pelican Showroom in Liberty Village to check out a Fall/Winter 2013 Media Preview of various apparel, footwear, swimwear and tech! While the clothing was really cool, we were there to chat with Desmond Hill, tech dude and all around nice guy who was showing off listening hardware! On display were new and established devices from Urbanears and Coloud, as well as new pieces by Molani

Molami

If you have never heard of the term “blinging in your ears”, then you haven’t experience a Molami product. For those of you with an eye for design to go with your ear for sound, Molami is an attempt to combine great sound quality with innovative and stylish visual concepts. My biggest regret in regards to these products was that I didn’t ask to listen to any of them. With a fairly hefty price tag (and some attractive, minimalist packaging), I was somewhat intimidated. After reviewing the sound specs, I’m definitely sad that I didn’t ask Desmond for a test drive. There were three different pieces on display: Bight, Twine, and Pleat.

The Molami Bight headphones are stylish and light – great sound with avant-garde design.

Bight is the pee-wee of the group. These elegant earbuds felt very comfortable to the touch, and are constructed using soft, Napa leather and are accented with gold or silver. Bights sits just outside the entry of your ear using the EarClick system, which provides two points of pressure that keeps the piece in your ear while not being uncomfortable. This also allows you to detect sound in your surroundings, ensuring that you maintain a connection to those around you.

The Twine is an interesting device that wraps around your head. Speakers on either side of the Twine sit against your ears, supposedly providing you with a comfortable listening experience. Finally, the Pleat is a set of over-ear headphones that appears to have been designed in Rivendell. The literature says that they have been constructed in such a way as to complement the bone structure of your face; given the artistic lines and interestingly-shaped earpieces, I can see how they would appear unobtrusive and quite stylish.

All three earphones feature a built in microphone, remote, and a standard 3.5mm plug for maximum compatibility. The Bight sells for around $150; the Twine retails for $200; and the Pleat goes for $300.

Coloud

On display behind Desmond were various Coloud headsets. We previously reviewed The Boom on Toronto Thumbs and we found them to be pretty amazing. To be fair, if you were to pick them up and give them a try, they would probably not be the best headphones that you had ever used. However, when you consider the relatively low retail price, the value for this piece of hardware goes way up.

Other earphones that cost slightly less are definitely miles behind The Boom.

The Urbanears Bagis earphones now come in even more funky colours.

Urbanears

While the Molani line brought the bling factor and the Colouds screamed practicality, Urbanears definitely dominated the display with their various lines of listening goodies. The Zinken (my go-to headset on the go) was present along with the “mini-version” called Bagis (both of which are going to be available in new colours for the Fall and Winter).

New to us were the Urbanears Medis. These interesting headphones were not quite in-ear and not quite over-ear. Really, they sat in the middle – in terms of the style and physically. That’s right; the Medis uses the same EarClick system as the Molami Bights. Like the other headphones from Urbanears, the Medis include an inline mic and remote that allows you control over your listening experience.

EarClick keeps the sound in without causing discomfort.

Last, but not least, was the Slussen. This after-party weapon is a combination of a free iOS app and a special adapter that plugs into your iOS device. This special connector allows you to plug a headset and speakers into the same port on your device (using a dual 3.5mm jack system), giving you the ability to pre-listen to your mix before it “goes live” using the free app. It is a pretty powerful combination, and it puts a lot of power into the user’s hands. Basement DJ’s can use this to take their acts on the road, perhaps?

We’re going to be trying out the Slussen over the next week or so and will report back as soon as we can.