Fruit Pirate

Fruit Pirate caught my eye today as being a game with a high Market review score and yet being a game that I figured I'd tire of quickly. You're a pirate... you slice fruit... how long can the fun last? The answer is surprisingly long.

Fruit Pirate builds on WaveCade's successful library of Android games and is a nice addition to my collection. Simply enough... you're a pirate... although aside from the text expressions used (plenty of 'arrrrrs') I'm not sure how I'd know that. You also have a sword and apparently someone throws fruit up in the air and it's your job to slice and dice it. After you slice it you then try and slice it again for even more points. Yes, this is a nice, quick arcade game that will be over in a minute or two. The game features three modes of play: Express, Unlimited, and Relaxed and each has three difficulty levels. In Express mode you get 25 throws to get as many points as possible. In Unlimited mode you play until you have to 'walk the plank' allowing you to play forevfer if you're that good. And in Relaxed mode you play for a minute and there are no skulls to worry about so you can just slice away. Skulls? Why yes... along with fruit skulls and bonus coins fly through the air. Slice a skull and lose 'life points' (the heart in the upper right of the screen shot starts to shrink)... slice a coin and get its bonus such as points or a temporary slowdown of the game to make for easier and more accurate slicing. You'll also lose life if you fail to slice the fruit before it falls back to the floor.

Fruit Pirate's graphics are well done although they are a bit on the dark side. The audio is excellent with a nice, peppy musical score to listen to and good sounds for the slicing of the fruit. What really turns what could have been a miserable failure of a game into a resounding success is the controls. Nice, simple slicing. Slicing so good that they even used it on the menu... although I'd have preferred the more traditional push button (as it took me awhile to figure out that I have to slice fruit to choose menu items). The slicing is very accurate and I've never felt like a hit became a miss because of it... even when doing some of my new, fancy zigzag slicing.

The part of the game that will keep you coming back for awhile is the desire to hit the gold rating on each of the three modes. So far my crowning achievement is 'silver' on 'hard' for the Express mode of play. And the game is not easy with having to avoid the skulls.

At $1.99 this game is well worth your time and money. I see it as the kind of game you'll play incessantly for a couple of days and then now and again after that. It's also casual and cute enough that I'd guess the kids and/or significant other would enjoy it too. 5/5 stars.

Sinister Planet

Sinister Planet is an arcade shooter with a Market description that lumps it in with "Defender, Sinistar, Galaga, Asteroids, and R-Type". More accurately I'd say it's like Bosconian. It is a 2D top down shooter that places you in a sand box with the mission of collecting gems while surviving. I say "sand box" because, while the play area is bigger than my screen, it does have boundaries that I can bump into. Gems are found in asteroids and as asteroids are blown apart you'll be breaking them into smaller and smaller pieces, a la Asteroids (the arcade game) until eventually a gem is revealed. Unlike Asteroids, colliding with an asteroid doesn't cause your ship to blow, but instead you bound off of it. The game features several enemy types and one type actively seeks out capture of these gems before you can get them in order to mutant into a more ferocious opponent.

The game's graphics are good and feature opponents that look like they came right out of Galaxian. Who knows... maybe they did? The audio is adequate with basic firing sounds and such. The controls are purely touch screen based which is a bummer for those of us with keyboards. I guess I need to get used to more and more games ignoring my keyboard given how few Android phones include them. For me, it's a gaming necessity. On the screen you get the usual virtual DPad and fire button. You can fly your ship in any direction and the physics of slowing down and turning seem to be reasonably well emulated. You do have a choice of having the fire button in the upper right or lower right, but that's just cosmetic... tapping anywhere on the right side of the screen fires regardless of the position in which the button is displayed.

Your goal is primarily to collect gems and a gem counter is included in the upper left of the screen along with a power meter (shields) and radar. One you (or the enemy) gets all of the gems you move on to the next wave and have the opportunity to buy power ups such as a better laser cannon, better engines, ...etc with the money collected from gems as well as gold.

Issues? One issue I did have with the game is twice it ceased to load for me. It would get stuck on the startup screen. Granted I didn't wait half an hour, but I did try and wait it out. My ultimate solution was to go into Settings... Manage Apps... Apps and clear the game's data. That brought it back although the well done tutorial also game with that.

Sinister Planet isn't anything new. It's a good, old 2D arcade shoot 'em up just as advertised. And it does its job well. It would be nice to have better control than a touch screen can offer... perhaps accelerometer based control? The game also feels a bit too quiet when I play it. Other than that it's done very well and I do have to tip my hat to it as one of the better arcade shooters on the Android platform that I've enjoyed. 4/5 stars.

4 Player Reactor

As developers start to look outside of the box of traditional joystick/mouse/keyboard game development innovative titles that take better advantage of a Smart Phone's unique attributes are released. 4 Player Reactor takes advantage of the 'play anywhere' nature of such devices. The game itself is simple. Many minigames which rely on either quick thinking and/or speedy reactions which ultimately lead you to press a button on the touch screen when a given condition is true. Some examples include clicking when a color's name is displayed in said color, identifiying when a sad face appears on a screen packed with smileys, simple math like comparing the number of triangles to the number of rectangles in quantities of less then ten, or challenges as basic as clicking when the screen turns white.

The graphics of this game won't amaze nor will the audio delight, but that's not the objective. This is the type of game you'd slap down on the table in a noisy restaurant before a meal for some good, quick fun. The game does feature a one player mode for practicing, but really... would that be any fun? I'd tend to avoid practice as if you're tuned up on the game and kicking everyone else's derriere then you probably won't be much fun to play against. So, the bigger question with this game is how often do you think you'll have people to play against and situations in which to play.

I'm very happy to see innovative titles such as this one on the Android that provide a more social gaming experience. My only issue with the game actually has nothing to do with the game itself, but rather the medium. This game will be much better on an Android tablet as those make it to retailer's shelves. Four people hovering around a 4 inch screen is a tad crowded. Put this game on a 10 inch screen and that would be a marked improvement. Granted when that happens I'll want more sophisticated challenges that involved more than just a single button press. 4/5 stars for an innovative game that does its job well. Also note that the '2 Player Reactor' version is a Market freebie. Sample video of the game follows:

Current Games On Sale

Several noteworthy game sales going on...

Shopper's Paradise (25% off) [Awesome Android Apps] - $2.99
XGalaxy 2 [Design2Code] - $1.29
Backbreaker Football (50% off) [NautralMotionGames Ltd] - $1.49
The Movie Game [UMAI Development] - .99 Pounds or about $1.60
Critical Altitude 3D ($2 off) [Burning Bear Development] - $.99
Super Boom Boom [GAMEVIL Inc.] - $.99

Hungry Shark (reviewed this past week) is also on sale, but I can't see for how much. I've already bought it and the current Market software won't show me prices on purchased apps.

Panzer Panic 1.1

Panzer Panic was reviewed back in January. It quickly became one of my favorite games on my Droid and is among very few that, once installed, continuously made the cut whenever I had to dump games to free up memory so that I could try out new games. Today, roughly 8 months later, an update has finally been released.

The big change in the game seems to be that, in solo mode, instead of your tanks being on the left and the enemy on the right the your tanks are in the middle and the enemy comes from all directions. Little arrows point the way to encroaching tanks. The game may also have added some powerups as I got a 'speed boost' powerup in my first play after the update and I don't remember anything other than 'new tank' and 'repair' powerups from before. I'm not sure I think this is a huge change... it did make the game a tad easier as on my first play I made it to level 10 and I think my previous high, after countless plays, was level 8. The game is still a 5/5 for me although I admit sometimes the controls can be frustrating as the twitch nature of the game make touches that don't have the desired effect not good.

The other biggie, and I was surprised by this, is that it DOES let me move the app to the SD card now saving about 4.5 meg of space from the phone's internal memory. I'm surprised HandyGames can't be bothered to post what this update is all about... especially the latter feature as, unlike with new game installs, you do have to manually choose to move the game to the SD card.

HandyGames makes some great games and has consistently high quality from infeCCT to IQ Knights and they're back on my radar with some other Android releases that I was unaware of until recently. There are so many great Android games coming out that it's hard to keep up. My biggest problem with Handy has been that once a game is released they rarely update it. Could this update be a sign of change?

Glyder 2

Glu Mobile has taken an interesting tact with their recent Android game releases. First Super KO Boxing 2 and now Glyder 2 have been released with both a paid version and a free, full, ad supported version. Any guesses which versions are garnering more downloads? In fact it's entertaining reading some of the paid comments for Super KO Boxing 2 where people feel gypped because they think their paid game is now free as if Glu has done something wrong when they are just ignorant of the situation. I'd be interested in any information on how this method of game 'sales' is working out, but I have to think reasonably well given that they came back for more. Back to the review...

Glyder 2 is a pretty game in which you pilot a gal named Eryn with 'wings' collecting diamonds and other jewels in a variety of settings. Much like Super KO Boxing 2, for a free, albeit ad supported, game this is excellent and that alone should be enough reason to check it out. The controls are the usual tilt and rotate to control your direction and, as you glide, you have both an altitude and speed meter to contend with. You can easily pick up speed by diving. Your wings drop back and you soar downward. How do you gain altitude while gliding? Easy... there are several 'thermals' that force air upwars indicated by upward pointing arrows on the screen. Fly on in and get caught within the vortex to soar high once again.

The game includes 7 different, unlockable areas in which to play and also, as you collect stuff, you'll be able to upgrade Eryn's equipment. The graphics are good, audio enchanting, and controls reasonably responsive. There are times when I feel like I'm crawling along despite knowing exactly where I want to go and wish I could hit the 'speed' button to get there, but the game isn't about speed. It's about control... balancing your speed gained from dives with the need to get to your intended target jewels.

I'll admit that this kind of game doesn't do much for me. I'm not really into racing games nor the 'run around and collect stuff' games. This title clearly falls into the latter category. They get old, fast for yours truly. But this game is pretty enough that it makes a good demo as well as a good game for the kids (not that there aren't any adults that this style of play will appeal to). It's also quite a relaxing game to play almost to the point of being entrancing. If the 'collect the gems' style has any interest to you then you should be all over this one, but the reality is that it's worth a go just because of the free, full version. 5/5 stars for a game that is so well done that I can overlook my personal disinterest in the title.

Backbreaker Football Sale

Backbreaker Football is on sale until Sunday at 50% off (or $1.49). I don't know the 'reason' for the sale given that it's week 3 of the NFL's preseason and opening week of the regular season would have made more thematic sense, but at $1.49 I'll bite even though I own it on my iPod Touch. It also now supports Froyo's App2SD feature.

Edit: I'm a bit surprised by this, but the game only takes up about 600k of internal memory now that it installed most of its data to the SD card. This game is a must have for football fans with it's new small footprint.

GalCon

As I annouced a few days ago, GalCon is now available on the Android platform and, being a fan of the game from my iPod Touch days, that made me pretty happy. So far I've reviewed three similar games available in the Android Market with GalaxIR Star being the most recent and best.

To recap (only necessary if you are completely unfamiliar with this type of game) these games put a galaxy of planets on your Android's display. Each planet produces military units at a rate based on it's size... bigger has more resources and thus produces faster. You're goal is to take your fleets and conquer your opponent's fleets for complete galactic domination. The game is played in real time and thus many call it a "real time Risk".

Now that GalCon is here, do competitors need to quake in fear? GalCon is nice and IS the best of the bunch. It's professionally done and that shows as soon as the title screen loads. In contrast to GalaxIR Star, it has some neat graphical effects such as ships travelling around planets instead of through them. Necessary? Probably not... in fact you could argue that space is three dimensional so going 'through' them takes advantage of that.

GalCon offers ten skill levels all neatly displayed with basic emblems (instead of a drop down list). It also features five modes of play in single-player mode as well as multi-player support. The five modes are Classic, Vacuum (conquer as fast as possible with no opposition), Stealth (can't see planet strengths), Beast (the enemy is everywhere right from the beginning), and 3-Way (2 opponents instead of 1). GalaxIR actually has many of these modes available just in different places such as 3-Way being a choice of the number of opponents (and actually GalaxIR let's you play 4-Way) instead of a mode of play and Stealth being one of the harder difficulty levels.

Conclusions? After revisiting GalaxIR Star I was quite surprised how well it holds its own to GalCon... I really thought I'd be blown away by GalCon's greatness. It's also about a dollar cheaper if that matters to you. Unless I was a die hard GalCon fan I'd probably stick with GalaxIR Star if I already owned it... then again if I was a die hard (and I am) I'd want both just for some of the things (like 4-Way) that GalaxIR Star brings to the table. Once the dust settles, however, GalCon is the best GalCon by a nose and it earns a 5/5 star rating along with that.

Hungry Shark

Hungry Shark is a game that is almost therapeutic to me. I often criticize games in which I feel like there's little challenge such that the games can go on and on. That's somewhat true of this game if you stay close to the surface where food is plentiful, but yet it's such fun swimming around gobbling up other fish and the occasional swimmer. The feeling reminds me of the feeling I get in games where I'm charged with placing TNT and blowing up a building. It's such fun hitting the detonate button and seeing the structure topple.

Hungry Shark is a game that made the jump from the iPhone many moons ago and that has a simple premise. You are a shark with an insatiable appetite gobbling everything in sight. You use the accelerometer to guide your shark around and get a certain amount of boost to catch the fishies that try and swim away (activate by touching the screen anywhere). When you aren't busy eating you are gettting hungrier and hungrier until you either a) do eat again or b) die. While swimming and munching is fun I do realize that the thrill might wear off at some point. So there's more... there are lone swimmers, flocks of birds, ...etc to eat. The game is VERY cute as you gobble down a bird while the rest of the flock takes flight by displaying expressions such as (in this case) "in flight snack" and there's a lot of that going on while you play. But there's more... buried along the bottom are 10 treasures worth lots of points that you have to find. And as you dive there are other dangers. Some of the fish such as the jellyfish fight back and then there are mines to avoid.

The graphics rock and the audio is awesome. The underwater sounds playing throughout add so much to this game that other developers should take note of the ambiance that such fine audio introduces. The game has a 'work of art' feel to it even when you're gobbling down a swimmer, hear her scream, and see the water around her turn blood red. Ok, I'm getting sadistic, but even so it's so well down that it's just beautiful. And the controls feel good too. Easy twists and turns of your phone give you full control of your fish.

The game isn't complex. It doesn't, at all, give me that adrenaline rich feeling a fast paced shooter might, but instead feels very relaxing to play despite all of the 'death' in the game. But a shark has to eat, right? Plus it has that air of deep sea exploration although that's pretty light in this game. Now if only there was a way for me to eat that guy in the boat... he looks tasty (Edit: In the video they show that happening... I just have not been able to do it.). 5/5 stars for a game in which I would not change a thing.

Note: The screen shot and video are from the developer's website and are of the iPhone version, but represent the Android version of the game reasonably well.