Space Invaders Infinity Gene

Since 1978, Space Invaders has been an icon for the gaming industry. Representing video games to people all around the world, Space Invaders has blasted its way into our collective hearts. It’s time for a change and developer Taito brings a revamp of the legendary video game. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a great sace shootem up which looks and plays great, yet stays true to its origin.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene evolves. Every facet of the game changes over the course of the game. Heck, even the main menu grows over the course of the game. For starters, the game takes you on a Darwinian quest from the first Space Invaders game, as the first level, to its conclusion 18 stages later, with a few extra stages in the side. The first level looks just like the original game, and plays like it too. After you beat it, your ship evolves, and gains an ability. Over the course of the game, you evolve many times and gain a bunch of abilities. Thankfully, one of the first is omni-directional movement. As a result of these evolutions, the game-play gets better and becomes more intense. Your enemies also evolve. Initially, the enemies line up in columns and rows and look and move the way they did 31 years ago. After a while complex groups of enemies and bosses come after you shooting from all directions on a moving board that changes color and…… you get the point, it keeps getting crazier.

There are lots of weapons in the game and each is unique. The weapons feel different, each one requiring a different strategy to succeed. For instance your rapid shot weapon shoots only in front of you but your line weapon will track the enemies movement to an extent. While blasting away, you’ll often see UFO’s. UFO’s are the power-up carriers. Blast them and they will drop a molecule looking thing. Each weapon levels up a few times to become more powerful. Combined with the level-changing evolutions, choosing the weapon you’re best with becomes important. Actually being good with all the weapons is important.

The enemies also are varied and unique, yet all still maintain that great vintage look. Even the bosses look great. They attack in unique ways and you will have to think about how to take some of them down. The patterns which even the most basic of enemies enter and shoot get more complex. Taito even throws walls at you. Portion that you have to navigate like a canyon. Other parts are like great fields of harmless cannon fodder. Really excellent variety.

The controls of the game are pretty solid and standard. you can touch anywhere on the screen and move your finger to move your ship in that direction relative to the ship. It works nicely, You’ll get used to it pretty quick and then no think about it. The game offers easy, normal and hard mode, with the latter being unlocked after a play through on normal. The hard mode is hard. it is challenging but the game allows you to choose how many starting lives you have so its flexible in its difficulty. Because the game play is so good, the higher difficulty levels will keep you coming back for more. Also worth mentioning, the Music mode lets you play a level generated after you select a song in your library. The whole song plays through, and then starts again for a boss battle. Its so much fun that I will listen to music when I don’t normally just to play a level.

Since no game is perfect, there are a few minor issues with this game. There are times when larger enemies come swooping in and such and it looks like if you touch them you’ll die and then you don’t and there are other times when you do die. If Taito could make it more discernible what can hurt and what cant that would be better. Another thing is, I wish there were more evolutions, I had so much fun changing in this game, I was very upset when it was over and there were no more to be had. Also, some might consider it a bit short length-wise , but neither of these issues cant be fixed with an update.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene Has super slick retro-style graphics. Ever-changing game-play, keeps the game fresh throughout and will keep you engrossed. There are lots of unlockables and the Music mode alone makes this game, priced at $4.99 (USD), worth the investment. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is the clear descendant of Space Invaders from 1978, and on nearly every account does the game proud.

Rummikub: Superb Tile Swapping Action

Rummikub for the iPhone is a recreation of the classic tile based game that has been played since its invention in the 1930’s. You will need all your neurons firing and all synapses active if you hope to master this game. A combination of rummy, dominoes and chess, this game will keep you entertained if you let it. So whats the deal with this game? I’ll tell you.

Rummikub is based on the official rules for the ‘real world’ version of the game. Each player in the game (2-4, single player only) draws 14 tiles from the pool and places it on their rack. The pool is made up of four sets of numbered tile ranging from 1 to 13 and an extra two jokers, 54 tiles total. The object is to clear your rack of tiles. To do that you must combine your tiles into sets of sequential numbers or matching numbers of different colors. If you can’t do that on a turn you have to draw another tile. There are other rules involved but the game provides them within. I would have liked to have seen an interactive tutorial though instead of or in addition to the rules being displayed as text.

The translation to the iPhone has been handled well in certain aspects and poorly in others. The dedication to bringing the beauty of this game to the iPhone has been marvelous but it seems perhaps someone may have forgotten what iPhone gamers expect out of their paid apps. The price for this game at the time of this writing is $4.99(USD). The game offers only a single player experience, which can pit you against 1 to 3 CPU’s. There is no multiplayer, no bluetooth connectivity, not even pass-n-play. However, I have yet to get bored of it, though eventually not having multiplayer will hurt a lot more. The Single player experience can be tailored to three difficulty settings though and they do scale quite nicely. Also you have the ability to change the time limit for each turn.

When the game starts, you will notice immediately the care that went into the recreation of the game. The tiles look beautiful and the sound effects are genuine, except for a few that seem somewhat spacey. The Computer is quick to move, you will never feel like there is a poor AI engine behind it because it keeps pace. Moving of tiles is as simple as touching on it and dragging it around. You can reorganize it on your rack, you can move it into the ‘build area’ where you can try to put sets together, or you can put it straight out onto the board to attach it to another set. There sometimes creeps up the problem of how can I see where I’m putting the tile if my thumb is covering it? Though this happens rarely and usually by the edge of the screen.

The game can get hectic really quickly, what with 10 tile maneuvers just to free up the red ten so you can match it your blue and yellow and then win. Rummikub® does a lot to help you along the way. During any turn, for every move, you can see where the tiles are going. The game doesn’t just show you the end result, it shows you how you got there, which leaves players a lot less confused. You can keep track of that yellow 12 as it is being moved around the board. The game also has sorting for your rack which can help you see sets you may have missed. Its as easy as hitting the menu button and picking a sort method. It can sort by color or numbers among other methods.

The game also comes up short in a few areas. For one, bringing up the menu doesn’t pause the game. Now, I understand this was a choice the developer made to keep the game going and not allowing people to pause and study the board without a time limit, but its almost instinct for a gamer to assume a menu button pauses the game and therefore it is a counter-intuitive design. I have drawn many accidental tiles by letting the clock run down. The game offers no customization of any kind. There is no option to change the tile color or playing surface or even the players names. All of these things are such a shame, because the game itself is rather good.

Oh, also there is no background music, which seemed like an odd choice at first but actually works quite well. The sound effects are pleasant enough to keep you interested in them and if you feel you need music the game can be played over your iPod app music.

All in all, If you enjoy the brain twisting mental exercise of Rummikub you will find more than five dollars worth of fun in this package. But considering it’s drawbacks with regards to the tutorial and the lack of multiplayer or customization, the casual iPhone gamer will find it difficult to justify the purchase. So for all those uninitiated out there who have yet give Rummikub a try but want to, Saddle up and draw your tiles.

Zombies vs. Sheep – Seriously

Every now and again a game will come along with just that right combination of unique premise, quirky presentation and solid gameplay. Zombies vs. Sheep by ClickGamer.com fits that mold perfectly. It is a western styled shooting gallery game in which you need to protect your sheep. This game is a serious amount of entertainment and is a genuinely pleasant surprise in the appstore.

Zombies vs. Sheep has you tilt to move your paper sheep left and right along the bottom of the screen. While doing that, you need to tap to shoot zombies and zombie-like enemy puppets who drop coins which you can collect and then use in between levels to upgrade various things. In the meantime, powerups may fall from the top; you might get an automatic rifle to shoot with instead of your classic western six-shooter or an extra life.

The gameplay is fantastic. Your sheep moves somewhat sluggishly in the begining but that is on purpose, seeing as how one of the upgrades is sheep speed. The tilt works wonderfully and the tapping to shoot is also spot-on and accurate. If you tap a zombies head they explode into a papier mache torrent of limbs falling. Really, killing any zombie in this game NEVER gets old. The game registers headshots, which is awesome, and it rewards you for shooting the head again on its fall to the bottom. The game allows you to access the upgrades menu at any point, which is nice. It is nt limiting you to their upgrade shcedule. If ou have enough money and absolutely need to get a larger clip, you can and don’t have to wait. The game can get very tense and very hectic, what with enemies of all shapes and sizes dropping in and popping down and guarding your sheep through all of it. there are also boss battles. The boss battles too are epic and tense. Kudos.

The presentation is also a highlight for this game. All of the game, in every aspect, animates smoothly. The enemies are colorful and varied, each having their own modus operandi to get you. The unique art style of paper puppets really is something special. The music only helps. Its western style guitar being plucked in the background, provides the perfect dichotomy of simuli. Am I blasting zombies? Am I doing it in the wild west? The music doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, it complements the gameplay wonderfully. Even the simple sound of the wild west bullet ricochet has been captured in this game.

I would like to point something out. I have found that at multiple times during gameplay, it so hectic that i actually had a lot of difficulty pointing out with my eye which of the falling debris was going to hurt my sheep. Perhaps if everything that hurt the sheep could be bordered in red or something. It just that sometimes it might get way too busy to notice something small and yo will feel like you died cheaply. Also I would like to see more variety in the static parts of the game., maybe in the shooting gallery background. How about different skins for the sheep?

Those minuscule gripes aside, Zombies vs. Sheep is an absolute blast that even my 57 year old mother picked-it-up-n-played. Its going price right now is $.99 (USD) and that is ludicrously low for so much fun. From the individually limbed enemies to the great presentation and eye candy, This is one of the best bangs for your buck.