The Week That Was: 5/12/09 – 11/12/09

Posted on December 12th, 2009. Written by Damon.

Proudly sponsored by Chillingo Ltd.

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SEED 1: Rise of Darkness is out on the App Store now – $2.99

Intro

We have a brand new sponsor, Chillingo! Look out for this segment to be continued for months to come. Thanks guys!

This week we have been absolutely hammered by big releases that Apple are getting out of the way before the Christmas period. It was extremely hard to choose what titles to choose and feature for you guys so I basically put them in a hat and decided to feature whatever I pulled out. There were so many good titles this is the only way I could see it fair for the developers. I hope you enjoy what I picked out, but especially this week I recommend you check out all the titles featured below.

Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins – $4.99

Shaun White Snowboarding is a big hit game on the Wii especially, so it has big snow boots to fill when it was announced on the App Store. When I saw this game I thought it looked amazing, and it is. The graphics look good and are quite smooth, but there is one let down to this title, the amount of content. For $5 we get 4 characters and 4 tracks which take around 5 minutes to complete. This seems to follow the App Store’s history of very very short and lacking snowboarding games.

The game works very well using the touch controls effectively, probably the best on the App Store at this moment. But with no career mode or anything to unlock you are left with finishing this game and the only reason to return is to contest your high scores. I would loved to have seen this at 200mb and 16 tracks, even at $9.99 for a full blown game. If you really are desperate for a snowboarding game get this, but I would seriously considering leaving this genre alone until SSX comes early in 2010.

SEED 1: Rise of Darkness – $2.99

SEED is the latest RPG by Chillingo following their publishing of Dungeon & Hero. This time though their RPG has much more to compete with. Zenonia is still going strong at the same price as SEED and Inotia is being called better than both of them at $7.99. Don’t forget the 3D RPG’s Dungeon Hunter and Ravensword as well. SEED seems to hold it’s own quite well though with the believable storyline of young kid who goes on an adventure, gets into quite a bit of trouble and has to hack n slash his way out of it.

The graphics are quite good in this game, being just below Zenonia I believe. The controls I found to be a bit sticky at times, especially using the D-Pad to move quickly if an enemy is in pursuit. The RPG features of the game are good and it is your basic 20+ hour fighting adventure. Being called SEED 1 that must mean there are sequels to come so this is a game to pick up if you are interested in a game with an extended story line. $2.99 is a quite good price for this, it’s definitely worth a look for those RPG fans out there.

Scene It? Movies – $0.99

When Scene It? Twilight Edition was published by RealArcade I really hoped other versions would arrive that didn’t require you to be a Twihard fan. My prayers were answered when Scene It? Movies was released features classic modes as well as iPhone only questions. This game features hours of film clips and animations as well as questions that will challenge the most well researched movie buff. I was surprised at not only how much I enjoyed this version but at how much I knew/guess right about movies.

There would have to be easily 10 or more different types of questions ranging from answering questions about a video clip to matching the hero to the villain. I have played through the game 6 times and am yet to find a question that has been repeated. This game is heaps of fun and features mostly new movies so anyone can play along and be fairly successful at this game. For the special price of $0.99 and there is no reason why everyone (including Twihards, I found a Twilight question) shouldn’t buy this game.

Where’s Waldo? – $2.99

Back in the day when people used to read those paper things I would love to sit down and try to find Waldo (Wally in my case) and his gang of ultimate hide and seekers. Since Osama did a Waldo on us there hasn’t been much more in this franchise until now. All of a sudden we were hit with this cult classic that kept the kids quiet for hours of end all in a easy to use $2.99 app. But being from a large book, has Ludia managed to capture the classic feel for the books or has it been made too difficult?

Ludia has answered that adding a kids and adult difficulty setting to make this a perfect game for all ages. It plays basically like the Hidden Expedition games but what attracts people to this is the franchise behind it. With 12 great levels from the books itself you will find yourself scratching your head as to where that pesky dog’s tail is. Unless you had some serious issues when you were a child you won’t be able to resist this title. I suggest buying this before it spikes to a higher price and let this classic live on once again!

Red Conquest – $3.99

Red Conquest is the long awaited installment from John Kooistra, the developer behind the shooters Blue Defense and Blue Attack. All 3 of the games feature some groovy fluorescent graphics and the iconic Red v Blue space battle. In this game you are fighting for the red team in a more advanced title. I liked Blue Attack an incredible amount due to it being really simple but looking really awesome, so I was interested how this title would fair to my impressions of the Blue series.

First of all this game looks as good as always, but I received quite a shock when I got into the first level. Instead of getting straight into the shooting of the other team you have to be more conservative, slowly harvesting until you can raise an army worthy of going into battle. There is a lot more to get the hang of with this title, but this game has a lot more going for it compared to the previous versions. This is a must buy for fans, buy first timers should check out Blue Attack first to see if they like the general game style as it is quite unique.

Other Notable Releases this week Include:

Who Wants to be a Millionaire 2010 by Capcom

Cash Cab by Capcom

Twin Blades by Bulkypix

Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone by Com2Us

Dragon’s Lair by Electronic Arts

Driver by Gameloft

Low Grav Racer 2 by Cobra  Mobile

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X by Gameloft

Fallen EP-1 by 7th Sense Studios

Snow Moto Racing by Resolution Interactive AB

Blimp Attack by Psycho Turnip Games

Pac-Man Champsion Edition by Namco

Boom It Up! by Gamevil

Jewel Quest Mysteries by Electronic Arts

Stay tuned next week for the fourteenth installment of ‘The Week That Was’. If you have any suggestions to improve the segment please either email me at damon@razorianfly.com or submit a comment below. Thanks!