The whole premise of Quantum Legacy is to blow up enemy ships and to do it with style. The visuals enhance a great deal of the game and really shines. Whether it’s warping to the next encounter or in the middle of a firefight, I would say that it’s one of the best looking space game on iOS and even to par Infinity Blade II. While looking good is definitely a motivator to see all the game has to offer, unfortunately it’s as though the developer, Miles Godspeed, completely forgotten what other aspects go into making a game.

I highly recommend playing the game with headphones, for the fact that the game is voice covered. Unlike many of voice acted iOS games, the voices weren’t grating and were actually entertaining to listen to. Even though the game is entirely voice covered, I couldn’t detect any semblance of a story. I had to fly to different parts of the universe to fight nasty villains, but all the story levels contained the same enemies with only different names by the subtitles. It really would have been nice to have a fulfilling story since the voice acting is actually stellar.

There are only four campaign missions. In most games, this wouldn’t be a problem since a mission or chapter would usually last  from 30 minutes to a hour, but not in Quantum Legacy. I completed the whole game in about 40 minutes and all that effort resulted in unlocking the endless mode. I felt as though nothing had been accomplished in the story and the developer was holding levels back.

The actual gameplay and controls are simple enough. The goal is to shoot down enemy ships but if the ship’s shields are up then damage is unable to be dealt. The flying is done via tilt controls, but it don’t affect anything due to the fact that when the next fight is on the horizon, an icon will appear to tap that will auto-pilot the ship to the fight. That being said the tilt controls were precise when needed, although it would have been convenient if they were to be incorporated into combat. It would have been fantastic if the ship could simply dodge enemy fire instead of occasionally taking a hit while the ship’s shields recharge.

Upon beating the four campaign missions, an endless gauntlet is unlocked. This is exactly what it sounds like, but is surprisingly a ton of fun. I expected to be greeted with a boring infinite level, waiting to die. Rather, it was wave after wave of enemies and I actually had a great time destroying them. The gauntlet modes do everything right where that story mode did wrong. There is no convoluted story line to follow and the “sameness” of the enemies isn’t as annoying here. The core mechanics are the same and are gratifying as ever. The game still does work in the voice overs but in a humorous way that shows that it is an endless mode, rather than trying to work in a new plot twist. Playing the Endless Gauntlet will eventually unlock the Epic Gauntlet which is also a ton of fun. The only mistake made with the gauntlets is that they weren’t available to play from the start but rather only available after playing through the campaign.

Honestly, the game is definitely worth the download since it’s free. The better question is if it is worthy to stay on any iDevices. Overall, the game looks great is fun to play but the lack of a story really does drag down the game. Not to mention that it really doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been seen before but I just can’t help showing it off to friends just to show them how good it looked.

For more information on Quantum Legacy visit their official website. The iOS version can be found at the App Store, universal for the  iPhone and iPad for free.

Power Pets tried so hard to be a good old-fashioned RPG’s of yesteryear, but at some point in development the developer must have forgotten what it truly meant.  The game looks fantastic and just like a 16-bit game.  It made me nostalgic for games from years ago.  Although in reality, that is not what makes a great RPG, but what does make a great one though begins with the story.  Power Pets has a story, however ludicrous it might be, the premise is that an evil menace has turned everyone’s pets into monsters and it is the player’s problem to stop them all.  What this leads to is a disjointed story that makes no sense, in the long run.  I mean, why not just get new pets or even, what was the thing that caused the change in the first place? There is also a professor, somewhere in the story, that the player will receive texts from periodically.  The texts tend to deal with glowing rocks and are filled with miscellaneous information.

There are 3 locales but they all really feel the same.  There is the woods, cave, and abandoned mines.  The only real difference slight appearance changes.  They all play the same way, meaning that they are similar to short corridor experiences with branching paths.

Granted the levels get comprehensive, twisting and dangerous, but all this does is lead to the Power Pet‘s biggest problem, combat. Rather than a fulfilling combat system, the game provides a system that makes it feel as though the developer completely forgot what was fun about classic RPG’s.

The players simply waits for a bar to fill and the longer the player waits the more powerful the attack will become.  Attacks are unlocked at a seemingly random pace, I mean, I got them when I found a certain rock but then again I am not really sure.  The player starts out with a simple fireball attack and there really is not a reason to ever expand past that attack. The next best one was a lighting strike, but some of the others attacks were fireballs spinning around the player or a type of shield.  The problem with those attacks is while they are helpful, but for them to be effective, the player must wait for the shield to get as powerful as possible and then switch to an actual attack which usually lead to the shield being drained by the time the attack was ready to be unleashed.

Another problem is the lack of an upgrade system.  The attacks do in fact get more powerful throughout the game as noted by a little number next to the power but these upgrades also seem to come without rhythm or reason.  Whenever an attack’s number increased, I would try to figure out what I did so I could repeat, but could find nothing I would not have normally done.  It would have been nice to have experience points which could then be invested into attacks the player thought were worthwhile.  There are also the problems of upon a player’s death, all the monsters will respawn. That lead to be a grind, just to get back to where a player was when they died.  It is also quite difficult to tell in the beginning whether or not a game was actually saved.  (Hint:  The game can be left at anytime and it will remember where the player was.)  All that being said, the game is fun and a great time waster as the campaign is actually quite long.

For more information on Power Pets visit their official website. The iOS version can be found at the App Store for the  iPhone for $1.99.

Zombie Purge is a god-based game where each level’s goal is to either kill a certain amount of zombies, saving human survivors, or defending the safe house from zombies.  The game is “god-based” due to the fact that it takes an overhead perspective and the player has the ability to rain down terror below.  There are 40 levels but unfortunately outside of a difficulty increase they all stick to the same formula.

That being said, there are tons of content in this game.  There are four modes, and all you can do is watch time pass quickly.  Not only are there the 40 classic levels, there is also a survival mode where the goal is to see how long the player can protect a group of people. There is also Time Attack mode, which assess your skill to see how many zombies one can kill under a time constraint. Feed mode allows the player to spend their hard earned money and feed a zombie. As it grows in levels and weight, he will spout off tips to help the player.  It is an interesting idea and actually a pretty fun diversion.

I can only invest money into a pet zombie if I still have money to spend after visiting the game’s vast upgrade shop.  There are 14 different powers and only one is automatically maxed out, the simple lightning power.  New powers are gained by beating levels and can be used in any upcoming levels or previous levels.  Some powers can be leveled up to nine, while others only can be upgraded to five. Either way, it is a fantastic way to spend money and get stronger.  Not to mention, it is a fantastic way to be able to go back to previous levels and “three star” them.  The game also found a way to encourage going back to the game each and every day because every day the game will reward the player coins it starts off with small amounts like 1,000. By the fifth day and every day after that the player gains 10,000 coins which is a fantastic way to upgrade power ups and progress in the game.

There are some slight problems with the game, but most of these stem from repetitiveness, due to the fact mentioned earlier, that there are only 3 types of levels in classic mode which can led to me feeling fatigued at the end of the game.  That being said, they do pace the levels appropriately so there is rarely a time where the same general level type will be played back to back.  The other two modes, Survival and Time Attack, are not really meant to be played for long periods of time but rather only a round or two every so often which leads to a monotonousness gameplay.  The only other minor complaint I have is that there’s friendly fire.  I mean, the player is playing as God and shouldn’t he be able to protect his people at least a little from a stray shot.

More information on Zombie Purge can be found on the App Store where it can also be downloaded, universal for iPhone and iPad for $1.99.

Kale in Dinoland takes all of it’s cues from the classic platformers, especially from the era of the original GameBoy.  It even makes the player “put in” a cartridge and then simulates “ejecting” one too which only adds to the games homage of old-school gaming.  It nails the look from that time period and runs smoothly, but ultimately that is not enough to save the game from its biggest problems.

The game has two major problems although only really one of which was the game’s fault.  The first problem is that these sorts of games are best played with a physical controller in hand so that feedback is felt by the player.  Playing the game with a digital controller takes away from the classic experience, although it is not necessarily the game’s fault.  Not having that feedback though leads to yet another problem.  This problem is the games insane difficulty.  It took me almost three full days just to beat the first area.  This is due to a number of problems.  The first of which is that a whole area must be completed in one go as there is no saving ones progress until the area is complete.  While games, from the time period this game tries to imitate, had this mechanic it just does not hold up in today’s world and a simple saving mechanic after each level in an area would have been greatly appreciated.

The next problem is that there is only one chance per area that I found in which it is possible to gain lives.  Unlike in Mario where collecting a hundred coins will give the player one life there is no such mechanic here and not even the simple mechanic of collecting things is in the game.  The game is also plagued with shoddy level design for example after spawning into a new level if the player takes one step to the right there is a few pixel wide gap and the player will instantly fall through and be greeted to the loss of a life.  Kale has an interesting ability which is to control any creature that he happens to jump on, i.e., the heads of be these rocks, birds, or kangaroo type things.  While this opens the game to many interesting possibilities it also leads to more problems.  For instance, in the level of the second area, the player must gain control of a “kangaroo” so they can jump up to a new area.  Once they gain control of the kangaroo they are instantly greeted by three more which leads to the player losing health and falling of his steed.  This is especially troublesome when jumping over large gaps.

All those little problems build up to one of the most challenging games I have ever played on any of my iDevices.  I was recently waiting in line at the hair dresser to get my hair cut when I figured I might as well try to advance in my play through of the game.  All this resulted in was me almost throwing my iPod across the room and incessant muttering under my breath for over twenty minutes.  I ultimately could never get past the second area and for my sanity had to put the game to rest.

For more information on Kale in Dinoland visit their official website. The iOS version can be found at the App Store for the iPhone for $0.99.

Hypership Out of Control was originally part the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace, unfortunately it didn’t find much success and the developers decided to port it to the App Store.  Lucky for us that they did so because the game is fantastic in almost every way.

The 8-bit theme appears as though any arcade worth its salt in the 1980s would have this Hypership as a prominent arcade cabinet.  The player’s ship will constantly be shooting and only controls that the player has to worry about is the direction the ship is going.  That being said, the gameplay is fast paced and polished.  As the title states, the ship is out of control, meaning the ship is always getting faster and the gameplay will never slow down.  Some levels appears to be a bit sparing, due to how fast the ship is actually moving, shown by the fact that obstacles will be moving quickly and will seemingly appear out of nowhere.  All in all, the loss of a life is simply accepted and will be greeted by the player thinking how they could have changed the outcome.

Hypership is packed to the brim with four different modes consisting of: Normal, Hardcore, Coindown, and Super Speed.  They all offer

a unique little twist to the already solid gameplay.  Normal and Hardcore are just different difficulty levels of the standard game, nothing really new is done here.  Coindown is interesting if only for the fact that there is a constant “timer” counting down.  The timer is made of coins and the only way more time can be added is by collecting coins which leads to some tense situations when no coins are in site.  Super Speed is where the speed of the ship is constantly increasing and never maxes out for each level, just make you don’t blink if this mode is attempted.

Not to mention Hypership is fully compatible with GameCenter and is handled quite well by the developer.  The achievements feel perfectly spaced and some defiant ones require work to meet the requirements.  The leaderboards are unfortunately a little sparse with just over 10,000 players having recorded scores, but that does not take away from the never-ending of fun of beating someone else’s score.

There are some slight problems with the game though.  It would have been nice if there was an endless mode where the levels just kept going rather than having all the different game modes max out at level ten.  There are also six different ships available to choose from before each new game and granted they look amazing, it would have been nice if they each had a different ability.  The tutorial that most games force upon gamers their first time in opening up a game is nonexistent here.  It does actually exist, it just takes some to navigate to it and the game would have benefitted greatly from the tutorial automatically.  When I started a new game I expected to be greeted with at least a basic control overview rather I was greeted with raw gameplay and had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

You can find out more information on Hypership Out of Control on the official website. The iOS version can be found at the App Store for a mere $0.99!

The game is composed of 25 “caves” of increasing difficulty.   The caves slowly start to unveil new mechanics that are added as the player progresses although they never mess with the control scheme.  The game is rather intuitive as well.  For instance, when a loop-de-loop or a sharp left/right turn is coming up, a little box will show up showing the layout of the obstacle but won’t obstruct the players view of the game.  There is no tutorial because everything is self-explanatory, but some things will take a few tries to get used to.

The game is one of the most beautiful games I have seen on iOS.  The game has a simple look to it but always looks fresh and new.  The colors can be vibrant and dark, with a majority of the hues used being various blues and blacks, except when crossing the finish line in which case you will be greeted by an array of warm colors.

There is a story for those who are interested, although that was not my motivation for beating the game.  Even without my interest in the story, the conclusion was still shocking, ended with a twist I had no idea was coming.

Even though for the majority of the game was smooth sailing, I still have a few gripes.  One of these would be that every so often I would have to restart my device due to the fact that the game kept crashing.  This was rather annoying because oftentimes it would crash near the end of a level.  I only had to do this twice, though.  Also, (I believe it was on cave 24) there was an instance where there was a loss of gravity, meaning that it sucked me towards the wall, which would usually be fault, and then take me through the wall and out the other side to a floating void.  This happened a few times on that level, but never occurred on any other level.  The only other complaint I have is that when you die it shows what direction to hold the screen, which is a fantastic idea except when it does not go away causing me to be unable to see any of the notifications warning  me of oncoming obstructions.  This problem also only occurred a few times.

Overall this game is fantastic.  If you are willing to play a game with an entirely method of controlling your character, then this it!  However, if you don’t like accelerometer controls, then this is not the game for you. However, the good strongly outweighs the bad. The cons of this game are just bugs that can be easily smoothed out through updates in the future, while the pros include great visuals and interesting controls that make for trilling gameplay (once mastered).