The Week(s) That Was: 13/03/10 – 26/03/10

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Cogs is out now on the App Store – $0.99

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After an extremely slow week last week I decided to hold TWTW until this week so we had enough good titles to fill up this segment. Luckily for us the second week has come out with some excellent titles as well as some games that are doing extremely well in the charts but have a questionable theme to them. I decided to cover all options though to find out what they are really like. So sit back, relax, finish harvesting your We Rule crops and enjoy this weeks segment.

Flick Bowling 2 – $2.99

Flick Bowling 2 is a quietly released sequel to the hugely successful Flick Bowling. This game by Freeverse utilizes the Plus+ network as well as adding in many cool features that stopped Flick Bowling from being a complete game. The most notable update to the game is the option to play through a quite bizarre, yet entertaining story mode. You must travel back in time to play some of the most famous people in history at bowling to save your friend from some weird random guy basically. The mode will take an hour or so to complete and is quite a fun thing to do.

The other great thing about Flick Bowling 2 is the option to play someone else via Bluetooth, which was something lacking in Flick Bowling with the pass and play method only available. The graphics look great in this game, with a large step up in content and variation with more characters and lanes to choose from. I feel like they have focused too much on looks and less about making the physics perfect with the bowling, but this is a great casual game to have a blast with. $2.99 + possibly more for DLC is quite a fair price, there is no reason why you won’t enjoy this game.

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/flick-bowling-2/id339549515?mt=8&uo=4" title="Freeverse_Inc-Flick_Bowling_2"]

Justin Bieber Revenge – $4.99

When I first saw this game on the App Store I asked one question. Why? I wondered why Tapulous, who are known for great music games, brought out an app that features some girly 16 year old boy singing songs that excessively repeat themselves. I then realized that just because me and most of the iPhone community I’m in contact with hate his guts, doesn’t mean those screaming teens and people constantly talking about him on Twitter won’t love this game to pieces. So when you think of this move from Tapulous’ point of view it’s actually a pretty damn smart one.

Bieber Revenge features 11 of his tracks from his My World and My World 2.0 albums. This is one of the only themed Tapulous games that does not feature a boss level that needs to be unlocked in each difficulty. Instead of this they have given players 3 or 4 different themes throughout the game. This isn’t a bad move as playing the same Gaga Theme 30 times does get a bit old, but it also makes those boss levels that little bit more special. While the artist featured isn’t to my personal liking, Bieber fans will have an absolute ball with this game and in the end that’s all that counts.

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/justin-bieber-revenge/id362617294?mt=8&uo=4" title="Tapulous-Justin_Bieber_Revenge"]

We Rule – FREE

We Rule is the latest game by freemium gods Ngmoco, giving us a near perfect alternative to Farmville. We previously featured Astro Ranch in TWTW, which is a great 3D option that isn’t played in real time, but if you want the classic farming experience you can’t go past We Rule. Firstly the game is free so you can play without paying unless you feel the need to. We Rule also uses Plus+ so finding neighbors should be no hassle, especially when you can link to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The only thing I can find that isn’t fixed yet in this game is the downtime.

As Ngmoco try to improve the game we are experiencing many hours of downtime which can really throw out harvesting if you harvest just before you go to sleep. Apart from this the game seems to work pretty well now some bugs has been fixed. The game adds more onto the Farmville we all now and love with businesses that make you money, as well as the ability to make something that looks awesome and like a town, not just a pit of crops. This game has taken over from Farmville for me now, because it’s casual, fun to play and on my iPhone!

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/we-rule/id339274852?mt=8&uo=4" title="ngmoco_Inc-We_Rule"]

Chop Chop Runner – $0.99

Chop Chop Runner is the one game you probably didn’t hear of this week. I took a look at it and was very interested in trying it out because it’s meant to be similar to Canabalt. I never got Canabalt mainly because it looks average so I wanted to see if the genre was actually any good. I found Chop Chop Runner to be quite fun, with some easy to learn controls and excellent cartoon graphics. The aim of this game is to get as far as possible while avoiding obstacles and killing anyone in your way, which is actually quite fun.. for a while.

The one thing that keeps this being a great game is the lack of game modes. There is only one way to play this game and after getting an A ranking, which won’t take you too long, there is really nothing else to see. The genre for me just isn’t so addictive that they can get away with only one game mode like Doodle Jump, so there needs to be more content if this wants to be played again in the future. If you really enjoyed Canabalt then this game may provide some fun for you, but first timers like myself may find the game a bit dry. $0.99 is a small risk though.

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/chop-chop-runner/id362345760?mt=8&uo=4" title="Gamerizon-Chop_Chop_Runner"]

Other Notable Releases this week Include:

MonsterTruck Rally by XLab Technologies

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/monstertruck-rally/id362583283?mt=8&uo=4" title="XLab_Technologies-MonsterTruck_Rally"]

Tradewinds Legends by Sandlot Games

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tradewinds-legends/id362550915?mt=8&uo=4" title="Sandlot_Games-Tradewinds_Legends"]

Zombie Smash by gamedoctors

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/zombiesmash/id349095099?mt=8&uo=4" title="gamedoctors-ZombieSmash"]

Frogger Inferno by Konami

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/frogger-inferno/id356754454?mt=8&uo=4" title="Konami_Digital_Entertainment-Frogger_Inferno"]

Gameloft Sports Pack by Gameloft

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gameloft-sports-pack/id359161801?mt=8&uo=4" title="Gameloft-Gameloft_Sports_Pack"]

Babeorella by Kuju Entertainment

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/babeorella/id344091486?mt=8&uo=4" title="doublesix-Babeorella"]

Robin Hood – the Return of Richard by Nordcurrent

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/robin-hood-return-richard/id362799279?mt=8&uo=4" title="Nordcurrent-Robin_Hood_-_the_Return_of_Richard"]

MLB World Series 2010 by MLB.com

[itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mlb-world-series-2010/id363899486?mt=8&uo=4" title="MLBcom-MLB_World_Series_2010"]

Stay tuned next week for the twenty-fourth 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! :D

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