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TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Office Jerk
I'm at the E3 video gaming conference, this week, where I've been asking the staff of our gaming-obsessed sister site, Joystiq, for some of their favorite apps. Managing Editor Justin McElroy told me he's gotten no end of amusement from Office Jerk, a free (ad-supported, though ads can be removed with a 99-cent purchase) download from the App Store. It's more than a little goofy -- the idea is that you have a boring office mate on the screen, and it's your job to playfully annoy him by throwing various objects his way, Paper Toss-style. Part of the game is lining up your various shots and trying to get longer and longer combos (despite the fan that seems bent on blowing your throws off course), and the other part is just laughing at your calmly irate office mate who only throws you a look of disdain, which you can then try to hit for extra points. It's simple fun, especially if you've got a wicked sense of humor. There's no Game Center integration or extras, unfortunately, but for a free download, Office Jerk does what it says on the box. I just can't recommend you become a real office jerk -- better to take out your workplace frustrations on this virtual co-worker.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Velocispider
Lord knows why you'd want to actually combine a spider and a Velociraptor, but developer Retro Dreamer did anyway, and the result is Velocispider, a fun pixelated shoot-em-up game that's out universally on the iPad and iPhone. The Araknasaur (as the creature's called) serves as your cannon for some wacky reason, and it's your job to tilt the iPhone left and right to control the little abomination of nature through waves of enemies of all kinds. The game's quite fun, and while it's pretty simple, the addition of power-ups keeps things interesting enough to chase your highest score. Once you hit a record, you can share it with Game Center integration as well, and then go back in and try to score even bigger. Retro tunes and really charming enemy designs (along with a skeleton story) make this a real winner. Definitely check it out -- Velocispider is available on the App Store for US$0.99.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Bumpy Road
Bumpy Road is a cute title for iOS and Mac. It's sort of a reverse platformer, where you control the platforms that a cute little couple in a car are running along and not the actual car itself. There are two modes to play. One is basically a Canabalt-style running game, with the goal being to get as far along the road as you can, grabbing some items for fuel along the way. The other is called "Sunday Trip" and has you traveling a fixed-length road in the fastest time, with items that can help your score at the end. Both are fun, allowing you place bumps and jumps in the road to push the car along. Another collecting meta-game, in which you grab pictures out on the road, helps build out a fun backstory to complement the great graphics and music. Game Center integration provides scoreboards and achievements, and the stylistic graphics look great on a Retina Display or the iPad's bigger screen thanks to universal compatibility. Bumpy Road is a simple game, but its simplicity is put to great effect by a lot of artistry and polish, making for a really solid, fun, and even emotional experience. The game's available right now for US$2.99 in the App Store.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting
The Monster Hunter series of games is crazy popular in Japan -- when a new version comes out, many workers and students will take the day off, just like when a new Halo or Call of Duty title comes out here in the US. And now the series has arrived on iOS thanks to Capcom's new Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, available on the App Store now for US$4.99. This version is surprisingly full-featured -- while it doesn't have any RPG leveling elements, it does feature the "kill, loot, and craft" cycle that's made the series so popular. You can hunt down various monsters in the game, loot items of increasing quality from them, and then use those items to make better and better weapons and armor, allowing you to chase and fight more dangerous monsters. Unfortunately, the controls have been tuned for the iPhone, and they're not quite as precise as a controller. The swiping scheme is reminiscent of games like Fruit Ninja and Infinity Blade, but nowhere near as responsive. Still, especially if you're a fan of the series, Monster Hunter is a nice take on the game, and Dynamic Hunting is a pretty good adaptation made just for the iPhone (Game Center and co-op play are even included). If you know what you're getting into, you can probably decide whether you want it at full price or not. If you're not sure, maybe wait for a sale -- it might be a bit too expensive to jump into a long-running series with this iteration.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Shadow Cities
Shadow Cities is an interesting title from Finnish developer Gray Area. It's a location-based MMO, in that you level up a character while fighting with other players and claiming territory, all of which is based on the real world around you and your iPhone. The game allows you to cast spells with special gestures, which are resource driven and set up to play long campaigns in small bursts of time -- it's designed perfectly for the iPhone and its various interfaces. I found the game a little confusing when I saw it at GDC, but that was an earlier version. Even if the game is a little complicated, it's rewarding when you figure out exactly what's going on. And it's even more rewarding when you have fellow players around you -- if you're in a city such as New York or San Francisco, you'll probably be in luck finding some competition in the local area. Everyone else will still have neutral forces to fight against, but the game's more fun when you participate in the overall PvP campaigns. You can "beacon jump" to other cities, but things are much more fun when you're fighting for a home base. At any rate, Shadow Cities is currently free in the App Store, and at that price, I can't help but recommend you check it out. A lot of people have tried location-based MMOs already (and I bet we'll see even more of these in the future), and while Shadow Cities isn't exactly the easiest game to get into, it does offer some good innovation in the quickly growing genre.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Duke Nukem Forever Soundboard
Bad news if you got your hopes up about that Duke Nukem on iOS rumor a little while back. The game is indeed spreading to our platform of choice, but not in the form you wanted. Instead of a port or a separate game title, we've got a free soundboard app designed to kick up a little excitement for the release of (finally!) Duke Nukem Forever. There are over 25 included audio catchphrases from Duke himself, featuring tamely offensive gems like "Anybody mind if I take off my pants?" and "I've got balls of steel." If you're a Duke Nukem fan, this kind of humor probably appeals to you more than others, and the low price of free should make it easy to pick up. Still, it's too bad we didn't get a real port of Duke Nukem Forever for iOS. The game's gone gold master, but maybe there's still a chance we'll see an actual game (or related tie-in) for this big title coming later this year.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Touchgrind BMX
Illusion Labs' Touchgrind was one of the first iPhone games I ever saw in action. Honestly, it wasn't very successful as a full game, but using the iPhone's multi-touch screen to control a fingerboard was fun. Now, Illusion Labs is bringing the brand back with Touchgrind BMX, a game that changes your mode of transportation to BMX bikes, and opens up the view a bit. One of the big issues with Touchgrind was that, because the camera was top down, you had a hard time seeing exactly where you were going. Illusion has fixed this in Touchgrind BMX by moving to a more from-behind view, and setting the bike along a path rather than letting you freely explore. But you still control the bike with two fingers, flipping the handlebars around with one, and spinning the bike's body with the other. It still takes quite a bit of getting used to, but it's much friendlier than the original Touchgrind interface. There are plenty of extras to find and explore, including goals and scoring medals and challenges, along with a nice replay mode that even lets you send videos off to YouTube and Facebook. There's no Game Center integration, strangely, which would have been nice for leaderboards and achievements. But if you're interested, the app is now available for US$4.99 on the iPhone.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Parking Dash
I've posted about the "Dash" time management games before -- traditionally, they're just basically tap-and-wait titles that have you managing a diner or a spa. But Parking Dash, out today on iPhone, is the most involved one I've seen. The app still has a plucky female heroine (these apps tend to appeal to women, a fresh moneymaking audience on the App Store) working for more and more pay. This time, some parking-style puzzles make things more fun for hardcore players. You're still just tapping and waiting, but now you're also tasked with parking colored cars, and combo-ing colors in various spaces can earn you lots of points, lending a little bit of strategy to the mix. I like it -- like the other Dash games, the gameplay is colorful and ramps well, and pulling cars in and out of their spots is a lot of fun. I like the direction of these time management games -- originally, they were basically cheap repeats of popular PC titles (and there are certainly still plenty of those to go around -- Parking Dash itself originally started on the PC). But more and more, the games are being designed for the App Store and the iPhone's audience and UI, and I think the genre as a whole is improving because of it. Parking Dash is available now for US$2.99.
