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Daily iPhone App: One Epic Knight keeps a Tiny Hero running
David Whatley has been making games on the App Store for a while now -- after an early hit with GeoDefense, he and his team released an antihero tower defense title called Tiny Heroes, and now they are taking on the Temple Run-style 3D endless runner genre with a recent game called One Epic Knight. One Epic Knight takes one of the Tiny Heroes and places him in an endless dungeon, running past obstacles, jumping over and sliding under gaps and challenges, and killing bad guys to collect as many coins as possible. You could argue that this is a pretty straightforward Temple Run ripoff, but Whatley has worked with Temple Run's developer Imangi in the past (his Critical Thought Games put together the Android port for the title), so really this is more of an "inspired by" title than what you might call "stolen from." And it does innovate on the genre a little bit: You can pick up weapons and shields as you run, and those items are then used to either attack or defend your knight as you play. The coins you pick up can be used to buy upgrades and spells, or even cosmetic costumes for your knight as he runs. Honestly, it's all fairly tame -- if you like Temple Run, you'll know how to play this, and if you think the endless runner genre is boring already, there's not a lot here to convince you otherwise. But the graphics are well done, the gameplay is solid, and oh yeah -- the app is free to download. At that price, it's worth a download and a play through to see what you think.
Daily iPhone App: Tiny Heroes
Tiny Heroes is a fun one from David Whatley, the mind behind the popular GeoDefense titles for the App Store (who's also, incidentally, speaking later on this week at the 360iDev conference going on here in Denver). This one is tower defense as well, but it's got a nice Dungeon Keeper-esque twist on the genre. Instead of defending from the invading hordes, you must shut down heroes, attempting to invade your dungeon for loot. The look and feel is a lot of fun, and the interface is smooth and well-done, very reminiscent of Plants vs. Zombies (always a good thing). As you move through the game's levels, you get more and more tools to stop the little heroes, including fun things like mimic chests and spike traps. There are over 50 levels in the game right now, with more coming later, and of course Game Center and OpenFeint integration extend replayability as well. Tiny Heroes is a lot of fun -- it's only available on the iPhone (right now) for US$2.99.
