Finnish developer Supercell has a huge hit on its hands with Clash of Clans, and they’re releasing a brand new follow-up that looks surprisingly similar: Boom Beach.
In Clash of Clans, you build a base and defend it with your medieval warriors. You can also go out and attack other people’s bases.
In the trailer for Boom Beach, you might notice a familiar mechanic at work.
Penguins are pretty amazing.
Maybe you’ve seen March of the Penguins, and maybe you haven’t, but they’re brave little creatures who just happen to be food for some terrifying creatures. But they don’t let that get them down because they’re penguins, damn it, and that means something.
I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but Adventure Beaks is a really fun new free-to-play iOS game where you lead an elite squad of penguins through a platforming adventure for fortune and glory. And you can jack some seals up while you’re at it, so that’s like icing on the cake.
But it’s the Antarctic, so it’s basically all icing, but you get my point.
You know the drill: You’re up against an endless stream of foes moving toward you, and all you can do is move back and forth and shoot. They may be space invaders or enemy fighters or weird … animal things or something, but it’s always up to you and your single dimension of movement to stop them.
And then TriBlaster shows up and is all, “Pssssh, let’s double that.” So the developers added in a jump button, and suddenly things get completely different.
That’s right, people. Two dimensions. Welcome to the future.
This week, our intrepid Games Editor Rob LeFebvre brings readers of Cult of Mac Magazine all the news from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
There were dueling VR 3D headsets, discussions about sexism in the games industry, contests, awards and plenty of action on the show floor.
But the million-dollar question this year was: How do I make the next Flappy Bird?
Of the endless barrage of clones that emerged after Flappy Bird’s surprise success, Flapthulhu is the one that I go back to over and over again. Not only is it a clever parody of both the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the Flappy Bird phenomenon in general, but it’s a genuinely better game than Flappy Bird, with a subverseive sense of humor, fantastic 8-bit style graphics great style. Now, Flapthulhu has gotten better thanks to a version 2.0 update, which adds to major new features.
SAN FRANCISCO — We’re gearing up for our weeklong foray into the world of video games at the Game Developers Conference here. Cult of Mac will bring you the best of the conference, from heartfelt chats with independent developers to wacky schwag we find on the expo floor.
Stay tuned as we add real-time posts to this liveblog all week.
I don’t own a whole lot of Lego at the moment, and that’s intentional because if I did, I’d just sit around building things all day, and none of these reviews would happen.
Building something from scratch is satisfying, and if it has a function to perform and succeeds, it’s even better. Loco Motors plays on this by letting you build your own vehicle and then use it to complete tasks on a test ramp. It’s essentially two puzzle games in one: one in which you build a car that will run, and another where you let it loose on the track to complete specific tracks.
And luckily, it has an interface that lets you do these things both easily and quickly.
You never know how many words you know until a game or puzzle calls upon you to pull them up.
And you also never realize how many words you forget until the same thing happens. A good word puzzle is neither too obvious nor too obscure. It makes you think of concepts in different ways. And it lets solvers surprise themselves with their mental gymnastics.
Bonza Word Puzzle does all of these things, and it’s worth a look.
I like endless runners as much as the next person (which works out well considering how many I review), but I’m not opposed to a developer trying something new with them.
Dark Guardians is one such attempt, adding rhythm-game elements and arcade twitch play to the well-trod genre. And it’s an experiment that pays off big, resulting in an exciting and all-around fun title.
It’s also smart and good-looking. And the music is excellent. Basically, I’m a fan.
As great as it when a new game, specifically designed for iOS, makes its way to the App Store, just as good is the appearance of new ports of classic games.
The latter is what we have with the newly-released Shin Megami Tensei — only with the added twist that this classic game has never previously been officially released outside Japan.
People who were gaming during the late 1990s may well have fond memories of the long-dormant franchise RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise.
A series of construction and management sims that let you build and run your own theme park, developers Atari recently announced that they are creating a mobile version of the game called RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, which is set to debut on iOS very soon.
Alright, so I don’t know for sure that it’s a colon, but you’re definitely inside something’s guts.
And you’ll never get out because Microtrip is an endless faller in which you guide a blob down into the bowels of the bowels of a creature. It’s more pleasant than you think, though, because everything’s all cute-ified and cartoonish.
It’s also a lot of fun, provided you don’t crave variety
I really like it when a game doesn’t treat me like an idiot. It makes me feel smart and respected not to have to sit through a tutorial that explains the most basic tenets of the game like one character on CSI explaining to another what DNA is.
But this appreciation has limits, especially when the developer doesn’t even bother telling me what the backstory is and why I’m fighting these people.
Puzzling Rush is one such game, and while I know that I don’t need much of a refresher on how match-threes work, it’s still mostly up to you to figure out how the hell to play it.
Fancy playing a strategy game that takes you back to the heyday of the genre, with classic series like Heroes of Might and Magic?
Newly-launched iOS game Braveland is a turn-based game that lets you begin as a humble warrior’s sun and rise up, using your wits and skill, to become a commander of your own army.
Taking place on a hexagonal battlefield, it includes RPG style elements that allow you to evolve your hero and customize your army, as well as high definition illustrated cartoon art.
I have fond memories of waking up Saturday morning, pouring myself a bowl of Marshmallow Mateys (because Count Chocula was out of season), and plunking down on the couch to watch my favorite cartoons. And then, when the cereal was gone and the show was over, I opened my laptop and cranked out that review of Demolition Crush that went up Monday.
I am not an adult, is what I’m getting at here.
Glorkian Warrior: The Trials of Glork is a collaboration between developer Pixeljam and comic-book artist James Kochalka. It feels like a mashup between classic arcade shooter Galaga and Adventure Time, which means that it hits all the right notes for people whose favorite breakfasts still end in bowls full of chocolate milk.
Titanfall has been the biggest and best reviewed game to hit the Xbox One in 2014. So many people have been gushing about the gameplay all over Twitter, I nearly rushed out to buy an Xbox One to try it but according to a report from Polygon, it might be coming to the Mac soon.
Faif is a weird game.
It’s kind of like Bejeweled, only you’re not trying to match anything. And it’s kind of like a role-playing game, except you’re not really on a quest (or are you?). It’s sort of like gambling, but you don’t win anything, and it’s a smidge like a free-to-play game, but you don’t have to pay real money for the in-game currency.
All of these kindas and sortas add up to a unique experience that I think I enjoy, but I’m honestly not sure.
ALIENS ARE DESTROYING HUMANITY.
CAT MUST STOP THEM. WITH MIND BULLETS.
CAT MUST REMEMBER: AIM FOR THE BRAINS.
CAT MUST SURVIVE.
Seriously, do you need more from the press release than that? You do? Really?
Ok, fine. Ignoring the fact that you already knew your cat had mind-bullets, Team Chaos announced Wednesday that its latest free-to-play iOS game, Cat vs. Aliens, is live and in the App Store.
Ever since the first Angry Bird flapped its wings back in 2009, Rovio has been only too happy to churn out sequel after sequel with slight variations on flinging birds with slingshots, but for its next act the video game studio is introducing a turn-based roleplaying game for the Angry Birds world.
The second season of The Walking Dead: The Game is well underway, with the launch of Episode 2, “A House Divided” on the 4th of this month. It’s ready for download as an in-app purchase on the Mac version of the game via Steam as well as through the iOS version of the gritty adventure game based on the award-winning comic book of the same name.
Publisher Telltale Games has just put up a slick-looking trailer for the game, with a haunting new song that plays over the end of the video. You can download the song over on the Telltale Games site for free as well, in case you’re longing for the old-timey feel of the thing after you watch the trailer below.
The cosmos has a bunch of ways to kill you, and in Out There, one of them will probably succeed. And it’s just as well, really, because I have it from a reliable source that it’s lonely out in space.
But if you insist on surviving, you’re in for a challenge because this game is as cruel and random as life itself. You play the role of a lone astronaut who wakes up from cryosleep to discover that your circuit’s dead, and there’s something wrong. And now, you’re stuck in uncharted territory with limited resources.
It’s up to you to get the stranded hero across the map, but it’s not at all easy.
Gameloft has released the trailer for its forthcoming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 mobile game.
Timed to coincide with the build-up to the movie sequel of the same name (which hits theaters Friday, May 2), the game will land in the App Store sometimes in April.
If you’ve been anxiously awaiting your turn to play Hearthstone, the new free-to-play digital card game from World of Warcraft developer Blizzard, now’s your chance. The fast-paced strategy game plays like a simplified yet strategically challenging Magic: The Gathering, and it’s available for your Mac immediately.
The game is free to download from the Hearthstone website, and will install easily and quickly to your Mac.
Once downloaded, you’ll hop in-game for a quick couple of tutorials, and then you can either play AI opponents to hone your skills and learn the various hero classes, or you can jump right in to playing other human beings via Blizzard’s Battle.net game matching service, one of the most robust around.
I’m a sucker for MMOs, and a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise. If you like both, you might want to know that a fantastic combination of these two great things is ready to play on your Macintosh.
Now you can get your Federation thrills on in Cryptic Studios’ Star Trek Online MMO. First launched for PC only in 2010, the game is now available as a free-to-play download on your Mac, letting the rest of us play this thrilling extension to the Roddenberry-created universe that first graced television sets back in the 1960s.
“Star Trek fans have been asking for Star Trek Online on Mac since we launched in 2010. Thanks to the tremendous success we’ve had with the game, we’re excited to be expanding the galaxy again.” said Cryptic Studios’ Stephen D’Angelo. “We know there’s a large gaming community that thrives on Mac and we’re thrilled to finally be able to let them experience Star Trek Online. It simply looks amazing on Mac widescreens.”
Wave Wave reminds me of the end of a story called “Blind Alleys” from an old Tales from the Crypt comic. It’s about the residents of a home for the blind seeking revenge on their unscrupulous caregiver by setting him loose in a maze lined with razor blades with a starving dog. He’s running from the beast, slashing himself to ribbons but still staying ahead, “And then some idiot turned out the lights.”
Why does this twitchy arcade game remind me of that sadistic story? Because it hates me in the same way, starting me out at a disadvantage and then continuing to throw in sudden changes until I lose.
It’s a random, cruel, mechanical bull of a game, and you should absolutely play it.