Strategy games tend to be the best on PC, but with today’s technology, the game is tailored to the controller with ease. This year saw some great strategy games, but only a few really stood out from the rest. A great strategy game doesn’t so much as need a good story, but easy to use menus, lots of useful units, and a way to use them in a tactical and useful way. Upgrading and acquiring new units is key and also needs to flow and tie into the game.
Total War: Shogun 2
This was an easy pick mainly because it completely changes the way people thought about the last game, being this is a new game all on its own. With great units to use, tons of excellent DLC, and great visuals to boot Shogun 2 is a heavy hitter that stays true to the genre and that’s what put it on top.
Samurai II is a great-looking game but also sports brutal combat. It has a very generic revenge story, so don’t expect anything interesting there. Now, this combat isn’t very deep, but the strategy is key thanks to the select enemy variety, and each one has its own unique moves. As you move through the chapters, you will encounter more powerful enemies and bigger and bigger waves. Each section of every level will block you in an area, and you must defeat waves of enemies. Each wave may have different enemy types like archers (defeat these first), yellow dual sword guys (save for last and dodge a lot), as well as some blue samurais, red ones, and big heavy guys.
The game could have just thrown random things at you and made you hate the game, but thanks to each enemy sticking to a specific move, you can use strategy to defeat each wave and stick with that strategy through the whole game. Once you get to chapter four, you will encounter every enemy type, so from here on out, it’s just about staying alive. You can upgrade up to 8 combos, but there is no magic or power of any kind, and I didn’t like this. You have heavy and light attacks on the chain, so combat is very shallow. The only thing going for this game is the visuals and strategy in combat.
The game looks like Okami with excellent watercolor visuals, yet the overall design is pretty bland and generic. Every so often, you will get sections that give you obstacles to dodge, but the game is really simple but great in 5-minute chunks for on-the-go gaming. The only thing resembling a powerful attack is that at random, the game will slow down and you will do an instant kill, but with this being random, you can’t use it when you’re in a pinch. There are also no health pickups, so you have to stay alive through each wave. Overall, Samurai II is very simple, but it carries great visuals and has a great on-the-go pace.
“Endless” games are really popular on phones, but they are only fun for 10–20 minutes and then tend to get boring. They are time killers to their core and aren’t really meant to be taken seriously. Super Mega Worm is probably one of the best out there in the sense that it keeps dishing out new stuff for people who keep on trucking. Unlocking new powers, and each level has a different goal to beat.
The game has classic 16-bit graphics with some gory humor thrown in for good measure. You start out by hatching from an egg underground, and you leap in and out of the ground, eating everything above it. You have to maintain eating objects, or your health bar will run down. You will eventually earn more pieces of your body to make you longer and faster (and reach people higher up in the sky). You have a boost button to give you some extra air, but it’s in the later stages that things get super fun and chaotic.
After a while, you’ll earn an EMP burst, which slows down time and kills all vehicles on the screen. You can bounce off ground vehicles to create combos by eating groups of people before burrowing underground again. The enemies get tougher to kill, but you don’t have a health bar. Instead, you have to rely on skill to eat enemies up high once they start running out on the ground. Some goals require you to survive a certain amount of time, and other times you have to eat a certain number of people.
SMW has some humor injected into the formula thanks to funny speech boxes, screams, and all the body parts flying around in a gory mess. To keep the frustration down, you keep your power-ups if you die, but it’s slow to get back up to speed. Super Mega Worm is an excellent and addictive endless game that is well worth its price point. Just don’t go into this expecting gobs of deep gameplay, story, or characters.
Physics games on portable devices are a dime a dozen, but the ones that truly shine have unique gameplay ideas, cute characters, or interesting ways to manipulate objects. Another thing that is mandatory for a great physics-based game is fun objects to manipulate. Cut the Rope is a very unique game in the sense that it’s based on skill rather than luck. You have to time things just right, and you actually feel like you’re manipulating the physics.
The main goal is to get a piece of candy to drop into the mouth of a little creature. To do this, you have to maneuver the candy by cutting ropes, blowing air, popping bubbles, etc. Elasticity in the ropes also comes into play, as does avoiding spiky bars and other obstacles. Some blue dots have a circumference around them, and if you get it in this area, it will attach a rope to the candy. Swiping your finger to cut ropes (sometimes having to use both fingers) is a lot of fun, as is tapping blowers to push them through the air (when they’re in a bubble).
Sometimes there may also be a spider crawling down your rope, so you have to cut it before it gets to it, so speed also comes into play. The reason why this game requires skill over luck is that it’s all about timing. Popping a bubble just in time to make it fall past an obstacle as it swings requires precise timing, so this game isn’t exactly for babies. It’s just so fun to make these candies fly, swing, and float through the air, and it’s so satisfying when you complete a complex level knowing it was all thanks to your skill and not dumb luck (Peggle?).
Cut the Rope has sharp, charming visuals that look great on the iPhone 4, and there are so many levels to play that you won’t get bored. Not only does the game have varied game elements, but it’s also very responsive and feels great to play. Cut the Rope is great for hardcore gamers (if you want to collect the three stars in each level) or casual gamers, and I think “casual” games need to have this kind of balance.
Didn’t the 3G Touch just come out last year? It did, but this new iPod reflects the next-generation hardware of the iPhone 4. With the Retina Display (more on that later) and a new 1GHz processor, it trumps the 3G in every way. The addition of two cameras and a mic brings the iPod to a whole new level for Apple.
The new model is actually a bit smaller than the 3G, but just slightly lighter despite having more parts inside. There is one camera at the front and one at the back. The touch screen also feels smoother and sleeker and seems a bit more responsive. Also, thanks to iOS 4, you can now multi-task, so pulling up a walkthrough for your game in Safari won’t require you to completely shut down your game, so this alleviates having to save constantly. You can also just hit the home button, pull up your music, watch a video, or even jump into FaceTime, then go back into another app. Multi-tasking has come quite a bit late for Apple, but at least they’re catching on.
Under the hood, the device has the same GPU as the 3G, but the processor is a whopping 1 GHz, which is unseen on a phone, let alone an MP3 player. If you just listen to music, you won’t care, but this is what allows you to multitask and swap between apps without much slowdown. It makes surfing Safari faster, and game loads are quicker. It also shares the same amount of RAM, which is a huge 256 MB. The resolution has also been doubled to 960×480, which is still lower than most high-end phone models, but for an MP3 player, this is amazing. It allows for 720p video, so HD video watching has finally come to your iPod. The Retina Display is actually how the screen displays its graphics to you. Apple’s research showed that 300 PPI is the maximum amount the retina in the eye can see from about 12 inches away, and bumping the resolution up any higher wouldn’t make a difference to your retina.
The camera is pretty decent, but you have to have a lot of light or you will get grainy pictures. The video looks great, though, so this is perfect for people who don’t have high-quality phones or cameras. Despite these features, the iPod can also play next-generation iPhone games that have higher texture resolutions, better lighting, and just overall look really close to current-generation consoles.
There aren’t too many complaints about the device except for the power button. It used to be nestled right on top of the edge of the device on the left side, so it was just an index finger away. Now it’s on the right side and nestled on the curve, so it’s a pain to get to, and you have to kind of contort your hand to get to it. Was it because the camera is on the other side? Probably, but this was a poor design choice. Overall, the 4G is an amazing device and adds a ton of new options, making it well worth a new purchase.
Shooters probably take the most flak from gamers and tend to be the most hated. Most gamers don’t like shooters due to their true-to-life reenactments, or just killing people with guns doesn’t sit well with most. No doubt shooters helped push consoles graphics-wise, and have some great stories to tell, and excellent cinematic moments.
Black Ops not only has astounding multiplayer, but the single-player campaign is probably one of the best this year when it comes to shooters. Most shooters have shallow stories, but Black Ops‘ Vietnam/Cold War story is gripping, with some of the best set pieces seen in shooters. Excellent graphics, memorable characters, and awesome weapons make this a winner.
Puzzle games aren’t just supposed to bend our minds, but also offer unique ways to play puzzles we’ve grown to love. Some have stories, some require reflex, and some just make you think.
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Professor Layton brings puzzle games to life with a charming story, visuals, and deep clever puzzles. What sets it apart from the rest is the way puzzles are presented with the DS hardware and the way you think about them. Professor Layton has set the standard for puzzle games, and you don’t just have to have the quantity to make a puzzle game great.
Driving games are all about the cars whether it’s a simulator or arcade racer. A good driving game has responsive controls, slick cars, fun tracks, and customization options that suit the game.
While it has its flaws and was overhyped there’s no denying the attention to detail in GT5. With over 500 cars, tons of real-world tracks detailed to every crack, excellent tuning options, and a slick interface what’s there not to like? With the new special events, GT5 is oozing with awesome content for car lovers. So flaws aside it’s the attention to detail that won this over the rest.
Physics games tend to be very popular on the App Store, and Angry Birds is one of the best among them. The idea is to flick birds off a slingshot and have structures crash down around the evil pigs. There are various types of birds, such as one that spreads into three when you tap it, one that goes really fast, one that doesn’t do anything but cause damage, and a few other types.
At the start of each level, you get shown what you have to bring down, and then you drag your finger to move to the slingshot. You can’t see where the structure is when looking at the slingshot, so this provides a challenge but also a lot of trial and error. Trying to find the weakest points in the structures can be painful and tedious since you never feel like your birds are strong or heavy enough to do a good deal of damage.
You get rated at the end of each puzzle for how many birds you have left and how much damage you have caused. Once all the pigs are dead, you clear the level and move on to the next. It seems that there is no consistent difficulty increase, and it just seems to be all over the map. The art style is nice and it feels fluid, but the sounds are really annoying.
Overall, Angry Birds is an excellent physics game and well worth your dollar.
Doodle Jump is one of those perfect pick-up-and-play games. You are a little, er, doodle guy who is trying to make his way up an infinite ladder of platforms. You tilt the device left and right to move Mr. Doodle and tap to shoot enemies. There are various items on platforms to help you gain more height. These range from springs to flying hats, jet packs, trampolines, and more. Some platforms are wooden, so you want to avoid those. Some platforms move left and right and side to side. Your goal is to get as high as possible, but Doodle Jump has a unique marking system, so you can see your place marked every time you play, as well as that of your friends. The game connects straight to Twitter and Facebook, so you can see where your friend’s highest scores were.
The game isn’t much to look at, but it does have a certain charm to it. The background is grid paper, and everything looks hand-drawn, thus the doodle part of the name. Everything looks and plays simple, and for only a dollar, you get tons of fun out of this little game. This game isn’t good for long stretches, but it’s a good time killer. The game is also dangerously competitive thanks to its social-networking integration. If you love pick-up-and-play games, this is your dream come true.
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Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.