Latest iOS games
Leif Johnson looks at the best new releases
This issue we’ve a little something to love for everyone, ranging from Roterra: Flip the Fairytale to the space-age adventures of Star Traders: Frontiers, or the one-finger hacking and slashing of Immortal Rogue. And if you didn’t got around to celebrating the newly arrived Year of the Pig, we strongly recommend you check out Spicy Piggy. Let’s see what treats we have in store, shall we?
1. Roterra: Flip the Fairytale Price: £4.99 from fave.co/2tRdFPt
Roterra: Flip the Fairytale begins with a princess fleeing from a king and his knights, and in her escape she plunges off the side of a cliff. But this isn’t a tragedy, as traditional physics don’t apply here. This is the world of Roterra, a cubical land that you rotate like a Rubik’s Cube in order to safely guide her to her destination.
Paths cascade along the sides of walls, only to right themselves when our heroine ambles over the edge. Blocks of land frequently look like dead ends, at least until you rotate them to find the proper patch. It’s dreamlike and calming, and it’s a bit like finding your way out of an M.C. Escher drawing. It even faintly reminds me of ARise, but Roterra proves that these kinds of adventures can fare just fine without the gimmick of augmented reality.
2. Tacticool Price: Free from fave.co/2NQ8Y1z
Tacticool is actually, well, cool. I didn’t expect a fiveversus-five multiplayer shooter to work this well on the iPhone, but I admit I find myself sneaking in matches when I probably should be doing other things. And I’m normally not even a fan of military shooters.
So many elements just work well. Take the quick matches, for one, which maintain a healthy tempo of action thanks to quick respawns. There’s the ‘money bag’, which provides another way of earning victory points besides merely slaughtering the opposing team. I especially like the vehicles with guns mounted in the truckbeds, both of which are powered with smart and intuitive touch controls.
3. Hit the Light Price: Free from fave.co/2VG5O33
Hit the Light is a Breakout-style game about throwing everything from bombs and shuriken at intricate neon signs and shattering their glass until you’re left in the dark. As you might have guessed, it takes its name a little literally.
It’s an appealing twist on one of the oldest genres in video games, and I like how Hit the Light sometimes shakes up the formula with other weapons such as dual pistols. The one downside is that it features your choice of an optional £3.49 subscription or annoyingly frequent ads that can last as long as 30 seconds. On the bright side, I find this adds a dose of catharsis to the game itself. After sitting through three such ads within 10 minutes, I’m usually ready to break something.
4. Backfire Price: £2.99 from fave.co/2EMyz8H
Screenshots make Backfire look a lot like Geometry Wars, and that’s true in the sense that both are about bustin’ baddies with a tiny ship. Backfire, though, shakes up the familiar formula with a twist: Your little ship can only fire from the rear.
It seems like a simple change, but it’s jarring enough to make you rethink everything you thought you knew about playing these types of games. Compared to that, the fact that you’re fighting off a demon who invaded an arcade machine doesn’t seem that weird at all. It doesn’t take long to get used to the different perspective, though, and I quickly found myself wanting to try out all of the many different types of ships and projectiles.
5. Alien: Blackout Price: £4.99 from fave.co/2tOP0uz
Amanda Ripley just can’t seem to get away from aliens. She’s the daughter of series favourite Ellen Ripley, and is back in Alien: Blackout, a short suspense game that kicks off after the events of 2014’s Alien: Isolation. In both cases, she’s running from E.T. The story isn’t all that memorable, but Blackout makes up for it by capturing the tension and horror associated with the series. Having nothing at your disposal besides cameras and motion sensors on a space station, you must guide four visitors away from the xenomorph that’s stalking them through the air vents. Sometimes, just to up the ante, the creatures come after you as well. Does Blackout ever match the excellence that was Alien: Isolation? Nah. But if you’re looking for an extra bit of time in the Alien universe, you could do far worse.
6. Immortal Rogue Price: £4.99 from fave.co/2NHKcR2
Immortal Rogue’s protagonist is a vampire that awakes after snoozing for 100 years and starts slaughtering people from different eras with the swiftness that some of us reach for our morning coffee. If the samurai or industrial workers he encounters manage to kill him quickly, he’s sent back to sleep for another 100 years to regain his strength. Good thing the story barely matters in this delightful roguelike hack-and-slash. It’s packed with commuter-friendly short levels, and its touch controls for movements, light attacks, and heavy attacks work so well that you can play the whole game with only one finger. Most levels are randomized, but you’ll fight some preset bosses on your way to Dracula himself, and Immortal Rogue lets you choose to kill or recruit specific foes for perks.
7. Boost Buddies Price: Free from fave.co/2VEBA0k
Boost Buddies begins with a cute kitty falling from the heavens, who then crashes at the bottom of a cave several meters below the surface. And so begins the Sisyphean mission of the cat and his unlockable friends: he boosts straight up with the help of a rocket (and taps of your fingers), carefully timing his boosts while evading spikers, lasers, and pendulums in order to grab a crown. And when he succeeds? Why, he does it again and again, but with ever more challenging obstacles between him and the golden cap.
Boost Buddies is wildly addicting. You’ll end up wading through a deep pile of ads, too, unfortunately, but happily it’s one of those games where these delays remind me of how eager I am to get back to playing.
8. Linn: Path of Orchards Price: £2.99 from fave.co/2VItHqN
Few genres of mobile gaming make the leap to art so easily as the platformer, and Linn: Path of Orchards slips into that tradition almost as easily as Monument Valley. Almost. Its visuals are memorable, its soundtrack is lush, but its gameplay involves leaping to spinning dynamic platforms that demand a degree of dexterity with double jumps and charged dashes. All the while, you need to collect shards that restore the light to a holy tree. It’s frustrating and meandering sometimes, and so I never felt myself slipping into the ‘Zen’ mode familiar from similar-looking games like Alto’s Odyssey. Fortunately, none of its 14 levels drag on for too long. Even its difficulty comes with its own beauty: When you complete a level and make every jump without a hitch, you may feel as divinely inspired as its priestly hero.
9. Star Traders: Frontiers Price: £6.99 from fave.co/2tN2Yxg
The Trese Brothers originally released Star Traders: Frontier for PC last year, but its appealing mix of strategy and roleplaying makes a fine match for mobile. And while there’s a lot to do here, it rarely feels overcomplicated. Its star shines brightly in part because of its personality. Other spacefaring games lean too heavily on familiar sci-fi tropes, but Frontiers presents a galaxy where space pirates conduct trade or hobnob with fellow corsairs while dressed like gunslingers or 18th century rajahs. Nor is this individualization merely for show, as each crew member plays a vital role in combat missions and planetary exploration. Free of strict devotion to existing properties, Frontiers is able to go places where few other mobile space sims have gone before.
10. Spicy Piggy Price: £2.99 from fave.co/2tQ5Zgf
Spicy Piggy is a platformer that only gives you options for jumping, sliding, and spitting fire. I’m glad it doesn’t have more than that, as you need to remember to use all this while Piggy moves relentlessly to the right. You’ll also need focus. The intensity quickly escalates, and soon our porcine pal is dodging spikes, evading heavy boulders, burning walls, and frying enemies within the span of the same 10 seconds. Checkpoints can make levels easier, but only if you’ve gathered enough peppers or watched enough videos ads. Like Volgarr the Viking or Super Meat Boy, it’s one of those platformers that’s as much about memorization as dexterity. Get the hang of the occasionally fiddly controls, though, and you’ll pig out on it for hours.