Mobile gaming is becoming more and more commonplace but sorting through that junk is often pretty difficult. Writing full reviews for mobile games is often tedious and boring but we still want to be able to help you guys out when it comes to figuring out what is worth your time, so sorting through the crud is what Wandering Wednesdays is all about. Each week we’ll look through the app store and try out a few of the latest releases, letting you know if something is worthwhile or not. This week I go old school, play some board games, and kill vampires… twice. ~Chris
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Prince of Persia is a series of classic status. The original game is lauded as one of the best action-platformers of all-time and since then the series has evolved the genre in new and unique ways nearly every time out. Even with its pedigree though, Prince of Persia: The Sword and the Flame, a high definition remake of Prince of Persia 2 on touch devices had me somewhat concerned. After all, great platforming is reliant on super-precise control and touch devices aren’t generally hailed for that feature. I need not have worried though because after a slight adjustment period to the customized control scheme, The Sword and the Flame moved beyond great touch based platforming into great platforming in general.
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Complaints can for sure be levied against Square Enix for their handling of the mobile space but they do certainly deserve credit for continuing to be at the forefront of the mobile games industry with new and interesting gameplay concepts. Their latest endeavor is the Paris based, vampire hunting epic, Bloodmasque. Bloodmasque at its core is a fighter, similar to Infinity Blade, but it packs Square Enix’s penchant for dramatic over-the-top storytelling against a beautiful visual backdrop as well as featuring some great ideas on character customization and asynchronous multiplayer. [/one_half_last]
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While fast-paced action and puzzle games get most of the headlines, there is a strong contingent of deep board games available on the app store as well. A Brief History of the World is the latest in this strong line of board games. Taking players over the course of six epochs, the game has players controlling historical empires, raging war on surrounding territories and trying to become the richest empire going. Its a fairly simple game in concept, and allowed me to jump right in, but it also features some deep strategy that makes this the perfect fit for players that love games like Civilization and Risk. While the computer offers a competent challenge and is quite fun to play, the real fun happens when playing against other people. I wasn’t able to find any randoms to play against but the local play does support multiple users and the game works great as a pass the iPad kind of activity amongst friends.
A copy of the game was provided to us for this feature.
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Since Angry Birds, physics based puzzlers are all the rage. Finding a twist on the rather standard formula is becoming more and more of an effort for gamers but Hyperbolic Magnatism’s Lums is one that has that special twist, making it well worth playing. Lums is a light based puzzler, where you’ll control a variety of different lums as you try to illuminate the vampire menace and wipe them out of your home land. This could be anything from knocking over structures to using gravity to maneuver the environment or becoming an independent light source targeting the hiding vampires. All in all its a fairly fresh take on the Angry Birds style puzzler and quite fun to play.[/one_half_last]
Are you you sampling any mobile titles this week? What are you playing? Let us know in the comments below.
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