A mighty mustache is something that all of the manliest men dream of. Everyone knows that a mustache is the mark of a true gentlemen, so it’s no surprise that Charlie Hop is a game devoted entirely to the quest for the best mustache.

For generations, Charlie’s ancestors have grown mustaches bushy enough to turn other green with jealousy. The secret of their magnificent facial hair has been hidden away for years.. until now. In order to continue his family’s long-standing tradition, it’s up to Charlie to avoid the tricks and traps and solve the puzzles that hide the secret of growing mustaches. Now, trapped in a reality where  the laws of gravity have been pushed aside, Charlie Hop must use his new-found ability to literally turn the world upside-down to rediscover his family’s secret and grow the mightiest mustache the world has ever seen.

Charlie Hop features 3 worlds and 72 challenging levels of vintage, world-spinning action. Combining physics-based puzzles, unique and quirky characters and a 1930′s atmosphere, this is definitely a game you won’t be able to put down.

If you’re unable to grow a majestic mustache  of your own, or simply in the mood for some mind-bending puzzles, then Charlie Hop is the game for you. It’s available right now for Android for free over at the Google Play store. You can also show some love for Madarina, the team behind Charlie Hop, by heading over to their website and Facebook page and letting them know what you think.

Super Bomb Drop DX was the first in the ‘Minima’ series by one-man developer Take Two Tablets, and Inca Blast is the fifth. ‘Minima’ is more than just a series, it’s a concept — the idea being that games can deliver fun experiences with strong, simple ideas alone, without the need for technical bells and whistles — and the games in the series are an embodiment of this concept. As you’d expect then, Inca Blast is both thematically and visually simplistic, but that in no way inhibits it from being great fun.

Inca Blast‘s gameplay takes place on a boardgame-esque 8×8 grid, with eight differently coloured Incan statues aligned in rows on each of the four sides. Touching a statue prompts it to fire a missile of its color across the board, and the player’s objective is to clear the board of gem formations by shooting them. However, in solo mode, points are only rewarded if you strike the gem with a missile of corresponding color. Each time the board is cleared, a new formation appears and the time limit is extended. The game ends when time runs out.

This really puts your twitch skills to the test, and after repeated play you’ll soon be surprising yourself by how quickly you can destroy the gems after they appear. Inca Blast‘s solo mode isn’t merely a test of the player’s reactions though — the formations in which the gems appear are often fiendish, and require some degree of on-the-fly logic puzzle solving to determine the order in which they should be attacked. In this game, your ability to assess the situation quickly is just as important as the speed of your tapping, making the game less gung-ho and more cerebral than it may initially appear.

As well as the solo mode discussed above, developer Take Two Tablets  has also included a four player mode in Inca Blast which is particularly intriguing. For me, one of the best utilisations of  a tablet as a gaming device should be local multiplayer on a single touchscreen, but for some reason it’s not nearly thought of enough by developers. In four player mode, you and three friends position yourselves around the tablet and pick a color/side each, in an example of truly social gaming. Refreshingly, all of the color coordination from the solo game is stripped back for the multiplayer mode, and the game becomes an all-out score attack battle for who can shoot the most gems before the time runs out. The frantic nature of the game, coupled with the proximity of four players on a single touchscreen is surely going to provoke competitiveness and laughter in equal measure, and there are few other games out there for Android which capture the same feeling.

Let’s be realistic, the solo mode is what you’re going to be spending most of your time with — if you’re anything like me, occasions in which you have access to three friends and a tablet are rare — but the solo mode is great, so that shouldn’t be a worry, and on the occasions you do manage to get the gang together you’ll have a rip-roaring time.

Inca Blast is available on Google Play for a mere £0.61/$0.99, and is definitely one worth adding to your Android collection. If you want to try the game before buying the Android version, it is also playable in a browser via GameJolt. Finally, why not follow @TakeTwoTablets on Twitter for development updates.

While tapping on the glass of your aquarium might sound like a terrible idea in reality, it’s a much better idea in the video game world. Unlike real fish, the digital variety won’t panic or take any lasting damage from the vibrations caused by the tapping. That’s why, when it comes to taking care of fish, it’s better to play things safe and download Tap the Glass.

Tap the Glass, as you’ve probably worked out by now, is an aquarium simulator for iOS, Android and PC currently in production by Red Tentacle Studios. As with owning a real aquarium, you get to decide what fish you’re going to fill it with, what decorations to use, and a whole lot more. You can even decide what kind of pebbles to use at the bottom of the tank, and what background you want to use.

Tap the Glass isn’t all scales and bubbles, though. There are plenty of mini-games to play and other activities to keep you entertained when you’re not playing with your digital pets. You can even earn coins to unlock more customization options and ensure that you have all of the decoration choices that you could ever need.

Red Tentacle Studios is planning to release Tap the Glass for iOS and Android on the 20th of June. But, if you can’t wait until then to start planning what fish you’ll be playing with, just head over to the Red Tentacle Studios website or Facebook page for a whole wealth of information on your fishy friends.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Tower Defense genre ever since the good old days of custom Warcraft III maps, so it’s always good to see a new game get released in this somewhat uncommon genre.

Fire with Fire is, as you may have guessed, a tower defense game that’s currently looking for funding for its Kickstarter campaign. As with several other recently released commercial tower defense games, Fire with Fire features competitive multiplayer. Each player picks 15 towers and 10 creeps to use against their opponent for the match before placing down those towers to form a maze. From then on, it’s your job defend your trees from your opponents creep waves while sending your own creeps out to burn down theirs.

Assuming the Kickstarter campaign is successful, Fire with Fire will be released for iOS and Android (as well as PC, Linux, OSX and Linux). Don’t worry, though, as Fire with Fire will be compatible across devices, meaning that even if you pick it up on Android and your mate gets the iOS version, you can still have fun burning each other to the ground.

The team behind Fire with Fire hopes to raise $6000 before the end of the Kickstarter campaign, so there’s plenty of time to head on over and pledge your support. Although Fire with Fire is planned to be released as a freemium title, there are still some great rewards on offer, ranging from early beta access of the game itself, to t-shirts, a copy of the soundtrack, and even the chance to design the levels, narrative and more.

Right now, arguably not a huge amount, certainly nothing groundbreaking or game changing. Though there’s no new hardware to speak of (at least not yet), iOS7 does sport plenty of new key features and functions, most of which are tailored for the general and business user. For gamers, though, there are two important updates.

Game Center itself has been redesigned, gone are the poker table like menu backgrounds and achievement lists. The replacements are in line with the overall iOS7 refresh, a much cleaner and crisper display and certainly more colourful. In terms of the refresh itself, the new iOS backgrounds and icons are brighter and more vivid than ever before, so that should make staring at your iPhone all those hours checking Facebook a more enjoyable experience.

By cleaning up the interface, hopefully that will entice users to check out Game Center more often, making it a more worthwhile app than how it currently stands. I, for one, rarely take much notice of the system during my time, but it will be interesting to see the response from both users and developers alike.

One thing of note is the new Sprite Kit framework, allowing creators to build and animate sprites, particle systems and simulate physics. There’s also the promise of greater support for leaderboards and high score uploads. More importantly Apple have added further support for MFi game controllers, providing developers a greater level of choice and refinement when choosing which controllers to design for. Hopefully that’s a positive step forward for all the indie hardware devs out there looking to expand their user base. There’s plenty of them, so it’s good to see the support from up on high is there.

We will have more on iOS7 in the near future before its release this Fall, but why not share your thoughts on our forums? Do you think it will have an impact? Is it all just pretty images and no substance? Let us know.

Welcome to Retroactive – a new series where we look back at some of the classic, forgotten or under appreciated mobile titles over the years. Keep an eye out for some familiar and not so familiar gems and, of course, if you have any suggestions of any titles we should review, why not shoot us a message on our forums.

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Always wanted to develop your own game, but not been clever enough? Yeah, same. But apparently you’ve been able to since 1997, it’s just that nobody really knew until 2010! What am I going on about? Well in 1997 Japanese game developer Kairosoft, launched it’s first title Game Dev Story on PC. Many fans of this game will have only discovered it on an iOS or Android device in 2010, myself included!

For those who are unfamiliar with Game Dev Story, you take charge of a game development company to unleash your video games out to the general public. As the head-honcho of your newly founded company, you learn the ropes of the industry; ranging from choosing the genre and theme of your next release, to delegating staff responsibilities and advertising duties.

Sounds complex doesn’t it? But it’s actually enjoyably easy, despite the many factors that make for a popular game. back when I purchased Game Dev Story in it’s 2010 release week, I remember the trials and tribulations of releasing golf/adventure and animal/simulation games; gaining notoriety for having no clue about winning game combinations.

The total number of genre and theme blends are pretty massive in Game Dev Story, allowing for widespread replay-ability throughout the game. There’s also a healthy number of ways to get the best out of your staff. First off, you can just spend loads of cash and get the best team members ASAP. But let’s be honest, that’s not going to happen early on!

Staff training and levelling up are also an option to help you create highly polished success stories. Fans of RPG games will love this, especially as all the staff have utterly suspicious names like ‘Gilly Bates’ and ‘Newb Ownerton’ (Not sure that one’s even remotely real).

Game Dev Story gives the player the chance to develop games for their favourite consoles too. Well, dubiously named reboots of classic consoles! I’m sure if I was to say that ‘Senga’ and ‘Ninvento’ are two such names, you can probably guess what other delightfully covert game consoles feature for your design pleasure.

Once you get a good handle on all the different factors, it can be easy to dominate the charts with your subsequent releases – subtracting some of the fun from the game and creating a slower pace until the inevitable star-studded end. There is some strategy involved though, moving into sparkly new offices can scupper you financially, so careful planning is essential.

Let’s stop here for a second and talk about a few little things that kind of bugged me in my Game Dev Story hey-day. Sometimes the menus feel a little unintuitive due to a lack of swipe controls, and you only get two save slots (much like many late 90’s mobile games). I guess this is excused by the integration of a high-score system that lets you look back at your biggest achievements though.

Another gripe, though only small, is the fact that the game doesn’t seem to utilise the full dimensions of the screen. Having black spaces round the edges makes it look like the developers were a tiny bit lazy in their port from PC to mobile.

I always thought that Game Dev Story tried hard to recreate a Pokémon-esque art style, but seeing as the first generation of Pokémon didn’t grace us with it’s presence until 1998, it seems it actually looked like this first! You learn something new every day…

Alongside the well-loved graphical style, Game Dev Story boasts an upbeat and cheery soundtrack that is evocative of Game Boy music from the late 90’s. The fact that many of the audio/visual features in the game remind me of my childhood gaming experiences, is probably why I love Game Dev Story so much!

One of the things I really love about this title is the way that your game can shoot to fame or plummet to failure depending on vast number of factors! The market really does feel quite unpredictable, giving a rich and varying experience every time you play.

So where are Kairosoft now? Having been described as “a genre in their own right”, Kairosoft have gone on to develop 19 further titles. These range from shopping mall management to Grand-Prix racing and even a game that sees you overseeing a beauty spa. One of the unique things about Kairosoft games is their unmistakable visual style, a trademark of an RPG that will keep you enthralled no matter its content.

Game Dev Story is one of those games that’s got a special replay-ability factor that I can’t quite put my finger on. No matter what you’re doing in the real world, you always find that you want to make “just one more game”, no just one more, oh go on then another! Definitely one of my all time favourite iOS games.

Start designing the video game of your childhood dreams now, with Game Dev Story available on the App Store and on Google Play. Don’t forget to check out the official website too!

As I’ve mentioned on several previous occasions, there are certain genres of games that tend to show up more often on mobile devices than others. While this might not sound like a good thing – variety is the spice of life, after all – this isn’t necessarily the case. The more often a certain genre shows up, the more opportunities other developers have to learn, and improve their craft.

Dumb Runner by Foggy Studio is the latest in a long line of endless runner games for iOS. As with most endless runner games, your goal is rather straightforward; simply run as far as you can without crashing into any obstacles. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, as you lack the ability to leap over the very literal hurdles in your path. Instead, you simply flip over to the other side of the path, running inverted for as long as you can before flipping again to avoid coming to a sudden and painful halt.

Dumb Runner features three difficulty levels, four characters, easy-to-learn controls and endless fun for fans of the endless runner genre. As you’d expect from any good mobile game, Dumb Runner has leaderboards to ensure that you’re able to rub your high score in all of your friends faces.

You can pick Dumb Runner up for free right now for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. To find out more about Foggy Studio, the company behind Dumb Runner, just head over to their Facebook page, or head directly to the Foggy Studio website.

Developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Run That Town aims to raise awareness of how census data can be used to plan for the future. It puts you in control of a town or district in Australia, to build it up as you see fit. For anyone who actually lives in Down Under, you can pop in your post code and take charge of your own area! Pretty nice touch eh?

So what’s the ultimate goal of the game itself? It’s simple – keep everyone else happy so that they don’t chase you out of town! This is done by approving or rejecting building proposals for play areas, prisons pubs and more. Before making a decision, you’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons of each proposal, and take into account public opinion. Throw in different demographics and the cost of building, and you’ve got a fairly detailed little city-building sim going on here.

There’s plenty of depth to Run That Town, mainly due to the range of census data available such as gender, age, marital status and many more! Every region you choose to play in is truly different as per the real world (circa 2011), pushing the player to really think carefully about their next move. It must be noted, however, that often you will find what seems to be a top-notch decision like building a pub and a bar and a casino in a single town, doesn’t always sit well with the locals (especially the elderly – they love a good moan!).

Sometimes the game can be a little contradictory too. I built a school which, for reasons unknown, the locals hated. So I bulldozed it to please them, only for the papers to slate me for ruining local education… make you’re minds up! All being well, though, the choices you make for the town should bring good publicity and positive public opinion. If it does fall too low, be ready for the newspapers to really go for the jugular. You might even trigger a local teen to steal a tram for a spot of joyriding, or a spontaneous mutant gorilla attack – who knows?

In terms of overall presentation, Run That Town has a pleasantly engaging style of 2D graphics and animation. It’s also got some hilariously sarcastic narration from Aussie actor and comedian Shaun Micallef. He often chimes in with words of wisdom and encouragement like “that was terrible” or the ever flippant “with you in charge, what could possibly go wrong?” Hear Shaun in action on the official trailer.

The only real downside presentation wise is the fact that you can’t take a step back and view the whole town as you envisioned it. Every new building you create opens in a separate window, so scrolling through your created city feels more like reading through a deck of cards than seeing a metropolis come to life. In itself, this makes for a slightly detached feeling as most fans of city-sims would like to exert control over where things go and how things look.

That said, it’s incredibly satisfying seeing how your actions pan out in Run That Town; even if you’re not an Aussie (but if you are, jump on in and see if you can improve your town and see what the results are like – Ed)

Run That Town can be downloaded from the App Store for FREE! Have a gander at the official website too.

Mobile device owners beware! Summer is practically here and it has brought you fear. It won’t even be safe to go in your own backyard. Monsters will be lurking everywhere; even in the chlorinated depths of your swimming pool. Their glowing eyes will shine back at you from under the cracked open lid of the gas grill; serving as a trojan horse. And pray that your Yard Gnome in you garden is really just a statue! Yes, vigilant Facebook gamer, while you were preoccupied playing Backyard Monster the battle has remobilized. Now, continue to lay siege during your travels and be overthrown with joy; Backyard Monsters: Unleashed launches this summer for all iOS and Android devices.

On Facebook, Backyard Monsters is one of the most popular MMO-RTS; racking up 200M+ hours played, and 20M+ game installs worldwide. This summer will mark the beloved franchise’s debut as a full standalone experience on mobile.

The mobile version of developer KIXEYE’s highly anticipated release Backyard Monsters: Unleashed will sanction players in raising the ultimate monster army. Participants will embark in an epic quest to build the most powerful backyard empire. You will be tasked with unlimited creative and strategic choices to construct an impenetrable fortress, repel invaders, as well as hatch, raise, and train an army of deadly monsters, flinging them into battle to get your revenge.

Additional gameplay features will include:

·       Battle real players for valuable loot

·       Train 11 different breeds of monsters, each with unique abilities

·       Customizable yard with 7 different buildings and 6 different upgradeable defensive towers

·       Replay battles to optimize a player’s defenses

·       Wage crushing attacks for sweet vengeance

·       Dominate the leaderboards and gain bragging rights by collecting experience medals

·       Form Tribes with friends, and fend off other enemy attacks with intense PvE action

Fortify your defenses once again, rally the battle roar, (oh, and uh, don’t feed burgers to the monsters after dark) and prepare to battle the enemy across backyards everywhere while on the go (to the store for another bag of ice.)