Jason Roberts

Stories By Jason Roberts

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  Reviews By Jason Roberts

  iLands is a decent substitute sandbox game

  iLands is a free game for iPhone and iPad that's available for iOS 4.3 or later. However, iLands Premium is available as an in-app purchase for (US $3.99.) If you're not wanting to drop $6.99 for Minecraft - Pocket Edition, then this is your game. You start with a fresh block world to build on and customize however you chose. The graphics are pretty decent in comparison to Minecraft - Pocket Edition, but they could be much better. The D-pad on the left side of the screen that allows for strafing, moving forward and backwards. Moving around using the D-pad can become somewhat frustrating at times. The sensitivity takes a little getting used at first, but it's bearable for the most part. The control on the right side is solely for jumping up and worked pretty well. When navigating the terrain, the experience was a little jerky when hopping over obstacles in your path. Sometime the touch targets would not respond unless I tapped them a few times. For instance,when using the X to bust up grass, dirt, or blocks, it would take a more than two taps. The game crashed frequently while I was right in the middle of building and exploring my Solo world. You're allocated a base of building materials that range from sand, grass, bricks. The steel skeleton cubes are unique to iLands because I had never seen anything similar to them in Minecraft - Pocket Edition. The steel skeleton blocks are awesome because you can build a solid structure and still have a view and daylight unlike building with solid blocks. I enjoyed building with the cobblestone to construct houses and roads. The materials with locks can be unlocked by purchasing the full version. For this review I only played the free version. If you're looking for the survival mode similar to Minecraft - Pocket Edition, you will not find it in the free version of iLands. I'm unsure it something like survival is available in the full paid version. I tend to play in creative mode all the time in Minecraft - Pocket Edition anyway, so I didn't mind that in iLands. Overall, iLands is worth the free download if you love building with blocks in a virtual world like I do. I'd be interested in learning what all the paid version of the game allows the user to do, aside from unlocking building materials. I enjoyed creating buildings and whatever else my imagination decided to dream up.

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  Reviews By Jason Roberts

  Touch Racing 2 is a lot of fun to play

  Touch Racing 2 is a free game for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It requires iOS 5.0 or later, and is optimized for iPhone 5. Touch Racing 2 gives you the option to participate in speedcar, offroad, and boat ladder races against seven other computer controlled radio controlled vehicles. The user interface is one of the coolest for a racing game I've ever played. I liked the use of your fingers, positioned on each side of your screen, to drag the path for your R/C vehicles to take. It was a lot easier to control than the typical directional pad controls. This allows you to have a great advantage over the rest of the field, and a much better chance at finishing in first place. Cornering your R/C vehicles can be a bit difficult at first, but with enough practice you'll be drifting with the best of them. The speedcar ladder races rocked as you're allowed to whip around corners drift style, and earn nitro boosts throughout your two lap run. The offroad ladder races are a bit more difficult, but they are blast. The boat ladder races are a lot of fun because they're much different than the speedcar and offroad races. Daily races are extremely competitive, so bring your A game each day. It's a great way to quickly pickup more gold coins. The daily races feature the fastest speedcars, offroad, and boats. I preferred the speedcar races because I did the best at them. I didn't play the multiplayer head-to-head races because it required me to log into Facebook, so it could search for other Touch Racers to compete against me. I admit, this is a clever way to get other people hooked on the game. There are three different boss races where you face the speedcar boss, C.J., offroad boss, Norma, and boat boss, Wade. Make sure you've participated in enough daily races etc so you can earn gold coins to upgrade each one of your vehicles, or else you won't be able to compete against the bosses. Diamonds can be picked up a lot faster if you race and defeat the bosses. Touch Racing 2 offers up four tiers of excitement. You can only advance to the next tier if you've defeated the boss of each race with each R/C vehicle. When you earn gold coins and diamonds, you'll be able to upgrade the chassis, engine, body, tires, spoiler, and customize your R/C vehicles. Diamonds can be used to earn special items in the prize machine. The trick is you have no idea what you will receive. If arcade style R/C racing is your thing, then this is your game. Make sure not to overlook Touch Racing 2 for free in Apple app store because you won't regret it.

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  The Journey Down: Chapter Two is a must have

  The Journey Down: Chapter Two is a paid game (US$4.99) for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It requires iOS 6.0 or later, and is optimized for iPhone 5. It is a third person, point and click adventure game that is well thought out and executed. This is the sequel to The Journey Down: Chapter One that was released in 2012. The lead character, Bwana, along with companions Kito and Lina, head to Port Artue. Bwana explores the city, and he encounters some colorful characters on the second leg of his quest for Underland. The user interface is intuitive and allows you to create folders to save profiles. Make sure to keep a sharp eye peeled for random items in each scene. As Bwana collects items along the way, he gets to use them to help proceed to the next episode. You can drag and drop an item from the user interface screen to the active scene in order to use it. I appreciated the fleshed out characters, which made it easier to relate to them. I also found them humorous at times. Kudos to the casting as the voice acting talents were amazing. The voices matched their character, so it made the scenes and story that much more believable. There were three characters that stood out. Bwana befriends Andiswa, who works for the mayor in Port Artue. Andiswa assists Bwana because he gave her a calendar of St. Armando where she wants to eventually live. Another character, the bartender is an intriguing fellow that Bwana has some important conversations with. Finally, ride Reynolds is by far the coolest cab driver in all of Port Artue. Ride's personality is funny, amusing, and flashy. When Bwana encounters Ride Reynolds, he offers to barter for his services due to an urgent need for his ride. The graphics are absolutely beautiful and detailed. Port Artue is jaw dropping when you see it for the first time. The rain looks so realistic, along with the flickering firelight, and the wet cobblestone streets are just a few of the beautiful things you'll see along Bwana's new journey. The graphics help to immerse you in the world so you're completely hooked. I enjoyed the jazz fusion music soundtrack because it's pleasing and not obtrusive. I liked it so much that I decided to checkout music further on the Band Camp site I discovered. My favorite track is "Bwana, On The Run." I'll be honest, sometimes game music can be quite repetitive and annoying, but Simon D'souza does an excellent job of mixing it up so that does not happen. The visuals, gameplay, music, and story makes this game a must have for your iOS devices. If you loved The Journey Down: Chapter One, then you will definitely love the follow-up. I highly recommend you purchase The Journey Down: Chapter Two for US$4.99 because you will not regret it.

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  Reviews By Jason Roberts

  Ninja Bunny - The Bad Egg Adventure is a short lived trip

  Ninja Bunny - The Bad Egg Adventure is a free game for iPhone and iPad that's available for iOS 4.3 or later. It pits the hero, Ninja Bunny against the villain, Bad Egg and his army of robots. My expectation of this game was a little mixed after reading about it on the App Store. Ninja Bunny is dropped into various environments where he runs and jumps through an assortment of obstacles that never seem to stop coming at you. The controls only allow you to jump up and throw ninja stars at your enemies. The actual gameplay is short lived at times. I didn't like that it takes three taps to get back to the new game. It was tad bit confusing because you don't restart on the same screen you were previously on. Additionally, each time you die Bad Egg's annoying maniacal laugh can be heard. The amount of enemies and obstacles on the screen at one time made it difficult to progress, so a good amount of persistence and determination are necessary when playing this game. When you kill an enemy, you'll see a gold coin appear above them, so you have to quickly jump to collect them. When you accumulate more coins, you'll have the option to visit the coin store to load up on items to add to Ninja Bunny's arsenal. You can use coins to buy costume upgrades and weapon upgrades for Ninja Bunny. The costumes vary in color, but don't appear to give Ninja Bunny any powers. The weapons available for purchase are ninja throwing stars, ice, fire, steaming poo, and a piggy bank. As Ninja Bunny progresses, he gains power ups that gives him a crazy out of control ability such as Adrenaline Rush which speeds Ninja Bunny up so he can fly by the enemies. The downside to Adrenaline Rush is it typically ends in his demise due to lack of control because it makes it difficult to make the jumps in time. Ninja Bunny can smash through a crate, grab a tank, and he's unstoppable for brief amount of time. The tank is a lot of fun because it fires ordnance at the enemies and obstacles to help clear the path. I enjoyed the funny graphics of silly characters like the flying Dracula, a zombie dinosaur, flying robots, and a lot of other fast flying and running enemies you'll encounter. The various settings such as Total Recall, Ice Ice Baby, Wall of China, Ancient Scars, and The Evil Dead, are pretty cool that they drop Ninja Bunny into. Overall, I would recommend Ninja Bunny - The Bad Egg Adventure if you want to be challenged in short bursts and don't have time for a long drawn out game play.

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