Bite Review: Castle of Magic (iphone & iPod Touch)

Castle of Magic is a wonderful platform game for the iPhone.  You control a young boy who inadvertently releases a evil wizard out of a treasure box. The wizard kidnaps the boy’s sister and locks her up in the ‘Castle of Magic’. CoM plays like a crossbreed of Super Mario with the ‘ring system’ of Sonic but in this case jewels, meaning as long as you one jewel in your inventory, you will not die. Each world (a total of six) has it’s own unique theme, power ups and puzzles. In the forest world you can get the archer power up that let’s the boy become ‘Robin Hooood!’ In the snack world the boy can eat cake, grow fat, and become invincible for a short period of time. The graphics are in lush 3D and is one of the best looking platformers available for the iPhone. Control are virtual buttons you ‘press’ on the screen and are a bit iffy at times but work altogether. The only criticism I can give about Castle of Magic is it’s short length which can be finished in 4 hours. Boss battles are on the very easy side and feels like simple memorization test instead of testing your skill. Only the final boss felt like a boss battle. Castle of Magic is a fun game and I recommend this to all platform gamers.

Quick Bite : Classical Music Master Collection (iPhone & iPod Touch)

At first this collection had the ridiculous price tag of $1000 dollars but a couple days later it was lowered to a more realistic $.99. CMMC has a great selection of classical music but only passable sound quality.. most music was performed in the 50′s so I question if they are public domain but still at $.99 you get 700 songs so it it still a good value. As long as they keep the price low, it is a good value. The Interface needs some work though.

Quick Review: GloBall (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Globall is a fun hybrid of a block breaker, labyrinth, and adventure game. you guide the globall with the accelerometer only, there is no other buttons to press. Touching the screen will pause the game. The goal in each level is to destroy all the blocks. Globall starts simple enough but traps and enemies are a consecutively added the farther you get. Thankfully powerups appear that allow you to destroy more blocks and defend yourself from certain enemies.  Graphics are clean, and pleasant to look at and have a almost vector look to them. Globall has no music, which is the most disappointing aspect of this game. Also the game is too short, a average gamer could breeze through Globall’s 70 levels in about a hour. Still for $99 cents you can’t go wrong.

Quick Review: Pac-Man Championship Edition (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Hmm. Didn’t realize I purchased a DEMO. That’s what Pac-Man CE feels like when you browse through the menus. Heck, the Challenge mode is not even playable with out forking out more money (Four bucks!) to the Namco empire to buy the full game…ahh-em I mean expansion back, SO WHY IS CHALLENGE MODE SHOWN ON THE PLAY LIST IF YOU CAN NOT PLAY IT! Why is the ‘expansion levels’ even shown on the lists until you purchased it?!. Still Pac-Man CE w/o the expansion has all off the levels featured in the Xbox 360 version plus 20 missions for 1/10 of the price ($99 cents). Contols are decent, and the graphic’s look exactly like the Xbox version except you squint your eyes. A five dollar game impersonating as a dollar game.  In a couple of days I will see if the expansion is worth your time and money.

Quick Review: Totemo (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Totemo is not your standard puzzle game.  Totemo is not your standard match three jewels game. The goal of Totemo’s eighty levels is to remove 2 (or more depending on the level) pieces from the board adjacent horizontally or vertically. The order you remove the pieces is imperative. If you remove all the pieces, you go to the next level. If your fail to remove all the pieces you must redo the level. Like most good puzzle games it starts out simple but becomes mind numbing toward the end due to new pieced being added to the board requiring you to change your tactics. During the beginning of each level a shaman will great you and will tell you the story of his tribe or Bukka. I find it silly but it gives the game indispensable charm. Totemo also includes a wonderful ambient soundtrack.  I recommend Totemo to people who love puzzles and casual gamers.

Quick Review: Moonlight Mahjong (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Moonlight Mahjong is the best mahjong solitaire game currently available for the iPhone. The tiles are represented completely in 3D, you can rotate, move, and scale the camera in any angle you see fit. MM has 100′s of Mahjong Layouts (or Levels), including classics like the ‘turtle’ layout Activision made so popular as  well as some spacey ones. The tile sets leave something to be desired but the tiles available are pleasant to look at. Currently MM sell for a buck, which is a steal for a solitaire game of this quality.

Quick Review: Crusade of Destiny (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Crusade of Destiny is a RPG that has a lot going for it but the experience is tarnished by  level grinding. The story is simple, a good queen rules the kingdom. The queen’s sister get’s jealous, creates a dragon and causes havoc to the land. This is where you come in. You play as some elf who want’s to join the queen and save the day.  CoD is in 3d and played in a third person perspective. The graphic vary from location and feel’s like a tossup, sometimes it great and detailed another times it is empty and hollow. I am not a big fan of the character design and 2d artwork due to it’s sloppy and primitive look. The music is nice and fits in well as enhances the gameplay. Controls are adequate, with a virtual stick on the left and action commands on the right, altogether work for this type of game. Most villages feel empty, it would be nice to have more NPCs to talk to on the journey. The most annoying thing about CoD is it’s level grinding. It just expects you to level up for hours at a time before you can truly get anything done, and you might tire out before you finish the quest. The camera also messes around with you making it hard to orient yourself sometimes. Enemies will re spawn out of nowhere on the screen, which looks very unprofessional.  It is currently on sale for a buck, which is great if you like 40 hours of level grinding. COD is a enjoyable game but keep in mind these issues. I would recommend ‘The Quest’ as a stronger alternative.

Quick Review: Where's Waldo? (iPhone & iPod Touch)

It is nice to see the popular series make it intact to the iPhone . While it’s similar to other hunt and find games available for the device, Where’s Waldo has a certain charm in it’s cartoon style graphics and humor. Unlike the books you are required to find more than just Waldo but other objects and people as well. The locations of these items and people are randomly placed in this huge and busy map and your expected to find them all in a allotted time. Each of the twelve  maps are gigantic and have multiple objectives, and due to the randomness of the items, each map can be play multiple times. The only suggestion would be the ability to be able to zoom in or out of the map but there is currently no option to do so. The music is calm and non intrusive like a Kenny G album (lol). The voice acting however is cheesy at times, especially the Wizard’s voice “You’ve got the magic!”. Altogether, Waldo is a fun game I recommend to people who like to search for things.

Quick Review: Brave Dwarves (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Brave Dwarves
iPhone

Brave Dwarves is a lackluster platform game. You guide two dwarves though various levels collecting treasures and keys to open the door to the next level. This game is as generic as a platformer can get. First off the accelerometer controls are a joke and the on screen buttons are too close together! Worst of it is that it doesn’t save your progress when you exit the program or loose the game. Then next time you play you will be at level one. How can you save your progress? You must beat not one, not five, but TWENTY levels! Avoid until a real save system is implemented or you enjoy being tortured.

Quick Review: Gomi (iPhone & iPod Touch)

Gomi
iPhone

This is a bizarre but wonderful game that resembles a crossbred of Mario Galaxy and Katarmari. The goal is to guide Gomi, a lovable blob who seconds as trash disposer, to eat all the pollution and ugliness from the planet. Gomi will eat anything, but must first start with small objects and build himself up to bigger objects. Each level is completed by compleating  certain objectives such as eating all the camping equipment or racing to a area in the level. However you cannot die during these missions.The main highlight of the game is the boss levels, which are more detailed and you can die in. Later your Gomi is granted more powerful abilities such as dashing and growth. The music in Gomi is second to none, with it’s heavy use of synthesizers. There are some  issues with Gomi. One is not having  limited invisibity when he is hit, causeing frustration when Gomi gets hit by two objects at once and looses two lives instead of one. This happens allot in the final boss battle. Also the laser powerup is broken. Even with its short comings it is awsome and its epic quest will last you around 7 hours . Go buy it.