Aug 31, 2011

Madden 12 - A First Look

If I was the only team in the NFL then I'd be a lock for the Super Bowl. So even before I start my review let me just say you know it's not going to be bad. Being the only true football game in an empty field makes this the undisputed champion, but I'll try not to be too biased now that we have a foundation for Android football games.

Madden 12 is, well, Madden football on Android clearly isn't contending against its console competitors. It's only $7 for starters. Once downloaded prepare for another wait while resources are downloaded making the refund option, for those less than satisfied, a moot point and making the need for a review even more essential.

Madden features a variety of options. The first thing you will be doing is selecting your favorite team which will be used as a default for games you play so I selected my beleaguered Redskins. The game includes current rosters and that's reflected in McNabb being with the Vikings and Grossman being my starting QB. I know there's a challenge this year with the threat of no season in that football games are having to provide roster updates later in the season with all of the late swapping going on. Madden 12 also lets you trade players although it doesn't appear to be a franchise mode. Do I want Drew Brees instead of Rex Grossman? No problem... click, click, click... done.

As for game modes you can play an exhibition game, a season, or just the playoffs in its three modes of play. I wanted to jump right in so I did an exhibition game and was immediately matched up with my rivals from Dallas. Next is the coin toss. I can also choose between three difficulty levels and you can also choose between day/night games as well as sunny, rainy, or snowy weather. All the while the game is playing its music although that does sputter quite a bit. The game also provides three levels of graphic detail and on my now feeble Epic 4G, that already feels old after having it for just 4 months, it defaults to medium detail. Let me sidetrack now and talk about sputter. The game isn't perfectly smooth although I'm going to applaud EA for the fact that I suspect this is a game that scales with your phone. Have a new, high end device? I'm going out on a limb to say that your experience will be better than mine. Have a low end device? I presume the graphic detail will drop accordingly. Have a really low end device? Don't bother. I'm also disappointed that the game is unavailable for use on my tablet which I usually rely on for a "high end" experience.

Now it's time for the kickoff. I won the toss and opted to receive. I can choose a return formation and then the game relies on the usual on screen joypad that I so hate for controlling my player. I'll also note that controls and buttons are quite small. They pack a lot of info on the screen to the detriment of the size of the controls. There are also the usual bevy of buttons so that on a run (or a return) I can do a spin or burst to try and break free or to grab that extra yard.

Play selection is done from a list of predesigned plays and dragging back and forth on the touch screen is the means of finding a play. One surprising thing is that I start on one side and should I want to punt I have to drag all the way to the end versus just dragging back to the left. Once a play is selected I can audible based on the defense or I can customize my routes on the fly. It should also be noted that each segment of the game has a tutorial although it's more like a built in rule book. I'd consider a tutorial to be more along the line of something I interact with or, at least, follow along with. Here some instructions pop up and I can page through them. Still, complete instructions are present and that's a plus for a game with the depth this one has.

My first play is a simple pass play. Hike by tapping or pulling back on the virtual DPad. The QB steps back and my receivers are on their way. Red, yellow, and green squares highlight each of the receivers telling me how open they are. I can scramble around with my QB, but I have to plant (or be still) to pass which is done by touching one of the aforementioned squares. My first pass is a 29 yard completion and my fears that this is going to be an easy game set in although I am still on Rookie mode (later play dispels those fears and confirm that it was just a lucky first pass). My second play is a run play for a 3 yard loss. The virtual DPad is as imprecise as it is with other games.

Madden 12 is well done for Android. It's not perfect, but it's the best only American football game available for Android. If you like football then I really don't think you'll be disappointed with this mobile experience. If I had to name the things I'd like to see improve first it would be controls, and then it would be tablet support (although I suspect they'll release an HD version at a preium eventually). I'm quite pleased to say that while the game isn't perfectly smooth it's pretty solid there and hasn't crashed once. I only hope competition improves things over time. From what I read in iPhone land Madden 12 isn't much of an improvement over Madden 11. I'm going to withhold a numeric rating until I've had more time to play and digest all this game has to offer.

Madden 12 for Android arrives in the Android Market

Ok, I'll admit it that I'm a bit stunned and elated... Madden 12 finally makes it to Android. Now to download this, dig in to it, and give this $6.99 puppy a fair and balanced review.

Aug 30, 2011

Press Release: Virtual City will hit the Android Market on September 1st!

San Francisco, California – 8/30/2011 G5 Entertainment, known for its best-selling iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and PC casual games like Supermarket Mania, Mahjong Artifacts and Virtual City, today announced that players' favorite building simulator, Virtual City, will arrive on the Android Market on September 1, 2011.

Released on iOS platform one year ago, the game experienced enormous success - #1 Top Grossing Game in 17 countries including major EU markets, has been in Top 10 Grossing Games in 51 countries, has been in top 5 Grossing Strategy Games in all markets.

Virtual City will be available as a free download with In-App purchase to unlock the full content. The game is developed and published by G5 Entertainment.

About the game:

Build the city of your dreams!

Create a happy, productive city and maintain its growth. Fuel the city's economy by forming transport routes and developing public transit system. Explore five states on the US map - Colorado, New York, Montana, California and Michigan. Enjoy Free Play mode on five large Sandbox maps that open as you proceed in the game.

The difficulty increases with unexpected problems like fires, earthquakes, population crises and more. Find perfect balance between key parameters of your success: Time, Income, Environment, Population, and Happiness. Bear in mind how your actions will affect your city ... and make your dream city your peoples' paradise!

Aug 28, 2011

Finger Football

I'm on football season number 3 with an Android device and there still isn't a solid American style football game for Android. EA indicated Madden was coming almost a year ago... but when? And Gameloft hasn't ported their NFL title over either. Even more so, I'm kind of surprised nobody has stepped up to the plate to fill this gaping hole in Android's game library. We've got 5 decent baseball games.. but 0 when it comes to football? So it's no surprise that I've been thinking about this...

About 6 months ago I came up with an idea for a football game that would be unique and pretty cool (or so I felt). Apparently I wasn't the only one, because Finger Football is pretty much this same idea. It's a football game that takes advantage of a touch screen interface to provide you with arcade control of your team's players instead of the typical 'choose a play' style game. Finger Football drops the whole idea of defense, though, and is basically a 'score as much as you can' before you lose possession of the ball.

Ok, so here's the deal. You've got four downs and you've got to score. On each down you can absorb three hits before the play is over. At the start of each down you've got five seconds to quickly preprogram your offense, the ball is then snapped, and it's all real time after that. You can run the ball or pass the ball. Blockers will try to knock players off of their feet opening up running lanes. Likewise, you can hang out behind the line and wait for a clear pass although defenders in the way can and will block your passes.

The game plays reasonably well. The graphics aren't anything special, just X's and O's, and the sound effects consist of little more than whistle blows and crowd cheers. Controls simply require you to touch and play and drag to tell it where to go. Unfortunately the touch isn't exactly intelligent and often the first thing your player will do is a little jiggy dance before actually executing your intended path.

I don't want to be too hard on Finger Football. It's free and it's a work in progress. Originally it wouldn't run on my tablet... now it does. And you can check it out in the market to see the list of additions they've made and that there's a plan to add defense and such. Until then, this game isn't going to provide much long term fun. At first, it's tough while you get your bearings as to how the game works. However, once you start figuring out some plays that work then things go smooth and get easier. The game does increase the challenge by speeding up the action as you start racking up the TDs, but by then the realization that the other games don't have you design your plays from scratch each time sinks it. That quickly gets boring and there needs to be a way to design and save plays... and the defense needs to be smart enough to adjust to my plays instead of falling for the same old tricks.

In a nutshell, if you're a football fan then it's certainly worth trying this one out and even keeping an eye on it as it improves. There's potential here, but that potential is unrealized so far. 3/5 stars.

Stellar Escape is the Amazon Appstore freebie of the day

The excellent Stellar Escape is Amazon's Appstore freebie of the day. Grab is before the day is up (if you live in a supported area)!

Aug 20, 2011

Lane Splitter

Being a motorcycle owner and rider in real life I'm sometimes a sucker for any new motorcycle game that comes along.  I used to love the old moto gp games on the consoles and some of the newer side scrolling motorcycle games have been fun as well.  Lane splitter takes a different approach and gives us a top down view of our motorcycle and the road.  Once you're riding all you have to do is steer left and right with the accelerometer avoiding the cars and sides of the road as long as you can.  It's a fairly simple game that is well executed and graphically a treat.

What I really like about this game is the polish.  Everything in the game just feels professionally done and for a free game that is really impressive.  The advertisements are shown at the bottom of the screen but not during game play which is really nice.  I did see a few foreign language advertisements but again these are not very distracting at all and if the developer can make their money this way I'm all for it.  Coming into the game presents you with a few options including "Play", "Scores" and "Options".  The options screen lets you set up the calibration on the next game run which is nice if you are playing laying down which might mean your screen orientation is different.  You can also tweak the handling here between novice and pro.  It actually makes a pretty big difference in how the bike handles so try it out both ways.  There's also a button here for turning the sound off.  I wish that you could adjust the music and the sound effects independently but it's all or nothing here.  Sometimes I just don't like a game's music track or get tired of it but like to hear the sound effects.  A little nit pick, but hey, this is a review, right?  Finally in the options there is a submit scores selection.  Here you can sync up the game with your Facebook account and battle it out with your buddies for the longest ride.  Unfortunately no one I have in my friends list plays this game so I wasn't able to test it out.  The global scores though are ridiculously high as usual, the top guy has almost 150k while I'm barely able to squeak out a 6k run.

Hitting play from the main menu takes you immediately into the game.  Your bike begins accelerating rapidly and the road starts whizzing by.  Your goal is to just keep it upright and not wreck.  You do this by tilting your device left and right to steer.  A press of the screen will perform a wheelie for as long as you hold it.  Your bike is much trickier to steer while in wheelie mode but you also score more points.  Did I mention there is no way to slow down?  The game also tells you how long you held your wheelie once you let it down so a side challenge can be how long you can hold the trick.  Unfortunately the game doesn't keep track of this stat so you'll just have to make a game of it yourself.  There are other ways to score higher as well such as getting closer to cars as you pass.  Hit something and it's all over but the shout.  Your guy will fly up in the air and the bike will crash and it's game over, no extra lives here.  At this point your score will be displayed and you'll have the option to change your high score name, play again, return to the main menu or post the score to Facebook. 

This game is addictive and fun.  It gets a LOT harder as you go along.  The bike speeds up every so often automatically, there are heavy traffic patterns and probably more that I haven't been able to make it to yet.  It's great fun, easy to play and the fact that I keep hitting play again tells me that this is a keeper.  Giving it away for free makes this one a no brainer.  Sure there are other features that would make it a more robust game but as is you simply must try it.  See if you can beat my current high score of 6865, I'm sure you'll bust it in no time.  Meanwhile I'll just keep hitting play again until I can do better and get a high enough score to warrant a Facebook post.  As a real rider my paltry score is a little embarrassing at the moment.  I sure am having a blast with it though!  I give Lane Splitter 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Aug 18, 2011

GameLoft has 6 of their games of sale for $.99

I complain enough about GameLoft's slighting of Android owners, but now they're offering six of their games for $0.99. The only minus is that you've got to get them through their goofy store vs the Android Market. Click the title for more details.

The games are:
  • Eternal Legacy
  • Ultimate Spiderman: Total Mayhem
  • Asphalt 6
  • The Settlers
  • Gangstar
  • Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles
As an aside, one thing that bothers me is whether if I buy a game is it tied to my device or can I always download a version for a different device at no additional cost. Anyone know?

Captain America

We all have biases and when I saw Captain America appear in the Android Market around the time the movie was released I think I created what the game would be in my mind. I figured that it would be a game about a super hero with puzzle elements to solve based around super human abilities. Oh, and I figured tossing my shield around to activate a switch and knock an enemy down here and there would be part of the mix. I didn't think it would be anything special, but I thought such a game had promise. THIS isn't that game so please forget what you just read.

Captain America is a game that upon playing it I was immediately reminded of Stellar Escape. It's a pretty straight forward running and jumping game with baddies thrown in for good measure. In true super hero fashion you start off with a mission to rescue three cohorts. However, you, being Captain America and all, don't need any help so you're going to do it all by your lonesome. Off you go. The game has a fantastic in game tutorial that explains moves only as you need them. I really love that kind of system as I can't stand games that require me to read an hour's worth of instructions before jumping in. I want to learn as I play. First up, swipe right to run right.

So now I'm running right. My first obstacle appears and the game pauses to show me that a diagonal southwest to northeast swipe will allow the Captain to jump. Then it's sliding. Then it's throwing my shield and beating the crap (not killing!) out of the bad guys. So how does this stack up to Stellar Escape? Well, there's a lot more to it in terms of moves, but it's also trying to be something a little (just a little) different.

Graphically the game has a nice 3D style engine, despite the action being 2D, and the sound effects are of professional quality. I like the fact that they didn't try to incorporate an on screen DPad or on screen buttons to move Mr. America and really appreciate the gesture system although throwing your shield does require use of an on screen button. The game plays smooth. Each step of the mission is reasonable short and takes a couple minutes to play through making this is a decent game to bite away at a chunk at a time.

qrcodePricewise the game is an enigma to me. It was initially launched at 80% off during its initial weekend and priced at $0.99. Here we are a month later and it's still $0.99. At that price this is worth every penny and it's a great game for a buck unless you abhor running and jumping games. Will it ever actually go up to $5? Do the people at Marvel Entertainment have some sort of 'super hero' calendar they use? At $5 the purchase becomes questionable given other games that are available at lower prices (or even free).

I like Captain America. It does a good job of what it tries to do. It plays well, it's enjoyable, and I have no reservations in recommending it at a buck. It even plays well on my tablet. 4/5 stars.


Aug 17, 2011

Press Release: Beer Pong HD adds online multiplayer mode and Android Central table!

Edit: While the name Beer Pong is a bit of a turn off for me, personally, I still need to check this out as I like Pong and it's got great ratings. However, my focus has shifted to reviews of paid games unless there's a stand out freebie as there's no risk in trying a freebie.

Rotterdam, The Netherlands, August 12, 2011 - Beer Pong HD, the most realistic and free beer pong game for Android devices, gets its most important update. The game now has a much requested online multiplayer mode! Besides the ability to battle online, the game also has some new challenging OpenFeint achievements. And the great people over at Android Central have made their logo available for the latest Table of the Month!

The most requested feature for Beer Pong HD is here, and it is here to stay! Beer pong players from all over the world can now play against each other with the newly added online multiplayer mode! The time for true beer pong champions has come! In addition, we’ve updated the ‘Table of the Month’ feature with an exclusive ‘Android Central’ beer pong table! New achievements have been added to the game as well, including multiplayer achievements that will heat up the competition between the best beer pong players worldwide. Cheers!


Peter de Jong, CEO of Codeglue:

"The success of Beer Pong HD doesn't seem to be stopping! It's the best rated Beer Pong game on the Android Market and players scored over 1.5 million cups together in less than four weeks! Wow! We want to thank all the players for turning this game into a such success and for their great and valuable feedback! We really hope everybody will enjoy the new online multiplayer mode and we can't wait until those 2 million cups get scored and a new mystery table is unlocked! Of course we will keep updating the game with cool new features in the future, so make sure to follow us on Twitter!"

Spirit HD

Spirit HD caught my eye as part of a 50% sale that Jakyl is having. It looked to have cool, vector style graphics and made me curious. The game play is a simple, arcade style experience. You quickly drag your finger on the screen and Spirit will follow surrounding its enemies in a bubble that quickly absorbs them into oblivion. The game actually features three modes of play. The second simply increases the difficulty while the third requires running over things instead of circling to make these encapsulating bubbles.

qrcodeThe graphics and sound are beautifully executed. I might even say that's the high point of the game. The controls are simple touch screen swipes with the problem being that my giant finger is always in the way of the heavy visual action. I also tried this on my tablet and the experience with the large screen was much better and I felt that I had much better control. Let me clarify that... controls are great in the game, but such precision is required that a small screen leaves something to be desired. However, on a tablet the game has one glaring problem... there's no way to quit. Apparently the game assumes we all have physical buttons for home, back... etc and Honeycomb tablets do not. Consequently, once I'm done with a session of Spirit I am forced to physically turn off my device and reboot it. It's like the PC's of 1982 all over again.

There really isn't much more to say about this game. It's pretty. It plays well. And it gets old fast. It's pure arcade game, but it just doesn't have the addicting qualities of a Pac Man or Defender. Or maybe I'm just older and wanting more. For $1 it's a nice show piece in my collection of Android games, but I just don't see people hammering away for more than 10 minutes on this game dreaming of coming back for more later. 3.5/5 stars for a well executed title with limit longevity.




Edit: Just a quick email from the developer although I haven't had a chance to check it out.

We just wanted to point out that on Honeycomb tablets, the “action bar” is always available to go back. In Spirit, the bar appears on the right hand screen (as three dots) because the game is naturally portrait. During game play, the bar is in what Google describes as “lights out” mode and appears as three dots, but you can tap on it at any point to reactivate it, and that then gives you access to the usual ability to go back. If you hit go back from the main menu, you will exit, just like any other Android app!

I’ll chat to the developer of the game and see whether he thinks it would be worth adding an additional exit button although I think the idea was not to clutter the screen!

Aug 16, 2011

Press Release: The Mystery of the Crystal Portal debuts on Android on August 18!

Players' favorite hidden object adventure is set to debut on the Android Market.

San Francisco, California – August 10, 2011 G5 Entertainment, known for its best-selling iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and PC casual games like Supermarket Mania, Mahjong Artifacts and Virtual City, today announced the upcoming hidden object game for Android,The Mystery of the Crystal Portal.

This game is the winner of the first annual Great Game Awards (Seattle, July 2009) and has been massively popular on multiple platforms. The Mystery of the Crystal Portal HD has been in the Top 10 grossing iPad games in 61 countries, has spent over 1,000 days in Top 10 charts of the leading PC casual game portals, and is the finalist in the About PSP Readers' Choice Awards for the Best PSP Minis Game of 2010 category.

The free trial of the game will be available on the Android Market with In-App Purchase to unlock the full version. The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is originally developed for PC by Artogon Games.

Carcassonne

Carcassonne is among the ealier Eurogames that have achieved great popularity and is among a handful of 'gateway games'. The term 'gateway game' simply means it's a good choice when introducing someone used to playing the amazing amount of bland games that adorn the shelves of WalMarts nationwide to 'designer boardgames' or Eurogames which typically rely far more on strategy and good decision making instead of dumb luck. So what is Carcassonne all about? Simply put, it's a tile placement game in which you are building a landscape of castles, roads, fields... etc while taking ownership of these adornments in an attempt to score the most points.

I don't want to delve too deep into the rules of the game, but I do want to give more than a brief overview as to what kinds of decisions you'll need to make to maximize your score. First, you have a limit of 7 meeples or pieces with which to take ownership. Several things such as roads are either scored at the end of the game or when completed. Consequently, you'll want to try to place pieces and get them scored so you can place them again and score more points with the same figure. Likewise, the big points are racked up with things like large fields which only score at the end of a game. If you place in a field and get cut off (i.e. end up with a small field) your piece won't score many points yielded wasted potential. Furthermore, every tile has a variety of different placements and you'll obviously want to choose the placement that offers the greatest benefit to the pieces that you have already placed.

Carcassonne relies entirely on the touch screen for play. Every turn you'll receive a tile to drag onto the board and be able to rotate it into position if applicable. The game clearly highlights spots in which a given piece can be played. Once a tile has been placed you can then click on a spot to place one of your pieces if you have any available. The game will then auto score if something such as a road has been completed allowing you to always see up to the second score tallies. Furthermore, once a tile can no longer be placed spots are darkened as dead spots that have no hope of a tile placement clearly illustrating that something may never be completed.

Graphically Carcassonne is excellent for a board game and its thematic audio certainly adds atmosphere. You can easily zoom in and out with the standard pinch control. The game does do some auto zooming that I don't particularly like, but I can see the reason they do it. Carcassonne supports up to 5 players and supports hot seat play although network play, a highlight of the iOS and XBLA versions, is mysteriously absent. And instead of 'easy' and 'hard' difficulty levels there are 12 AI personalities to play against with descriptions that tag the characters with keywords such as 'dense' or 'sly'.

qrcodeAlso included is a free expansion pack from among the countless expansions that have been released for the game in 'The River II'. You might think that 'The River I' would be the pack in, but you'd be wrong. In a nutshell, this expansion changes the starting landscape from a single tile to a river of tiles from which to build off of.

Carcassonne is a solid board game adaptation with few real flaws. The absence of network play has to be the biggest disappointment as the AI only goes so far. I'd consider myself an average player and I didn't even have to brush up on scoring to win my first game against two computer opponents (the default setup). It's also too bad that there's not a demo version of the game as its over $5 price tag will scare some away from trying it. 4.5/5 stars for a well-crafted board game that's still short on some of the details.



Aug 10, 2011

Airport Mania 2: Wild Trips

It bummed me out when I saw Airport Mania 2 arrive on the iPhone before it made it on to Android. After all, Amazon Digital Services would seem to have an interest in providing an Android version in their App Store first especially with plans to release their own Android based tablet. But it was not to be. I was pleased to see it make the jump a few weeks later and see that they've also skipped an Android Market release so far.

I loved Airport Mania so this was a must play for me. The time management of landing planes in the original provided many hours of fun. So what's new in Airport Mania 2? Sadly, not much. The only major difference I can see (and by major I exclude things like a new set of levels with new background artwork) is luggage as an additional event you'll be alerted to load on your plane (in addition to fuel and repairs).

Game play is the same. Touch to land, unload, take off... etc. Graphics looks to be the same. Cute little planes with big eyes. In fact, I'm disappointed that there's not more of a change. I had been wondering why the description in Amazon's store was more forthright with new features... that's why. There's not much to say over the original.

If you like Airport Mania and want more then this is your ticket. Actually that fits me perfectly as I loved the original. But if not then you can skip this and move on to something new. And if you're just reading about Airport Mania for the first time and are wondering if you should start with the original then I'd have to say 'no'... this does offer some improvements and it's the better, albeit slightly, version so get this one. Just don't enter the airport thinking there's going to be a lot new. As for a review score... 3.5/5. That's lower than the original despite this being better, but I just don't deem it worthy of having the '2' in the title.

Deadly Dungeons

Edit: It's been two weeks and it seems like ages since I last posted a review... I've been busy with paying the bills and a mini-vacation at Gen Con 2011. Still, I've decided to maintain a focus on writing 'real' reviews with some depth vs just trying to get new content up every day. I've also had a little help with the reviews, but am always looking for more. The perks? Review copies of games (as I have far more than I can handle) and your name in "print". Contact us if you're interested in helping out...

Deadly Dungeons is a review I've been working on for months. The developer provided a review copy several months ago and has since provided an update in response to some of the challenges I've had with the game... most notable being the difficulty, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Simply put, Deadly Dungeons is a 3D dungeon crawler much like some of the old PC (and Atari ST/Commodore Amiga) games like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder. It's missing the party system (although it does allow you to create your own character with a point allocation system) and provides some back story as to why your character has gotten into this predicament by himself. When you regain consciousness you are in the dungeon with escape being your sole objective.

Deadly Dungeons provides a smooth scrolling 3D perspective of your surroundings. You can also drag on the screen to look around. The game is 'cell' based meaning you and your monster 'friends' always occupy a given square on the map. The graphics are nice and smooth although there's not too much too look at in these musty old caverns other than approaching monsters and the treasures they leave behind. Audio is excellent with music appropriate for a dungeon crawl and the squeaks of rats just as they bite your legs.

The game offers four difficulty levels which is a somewhat recent update: Casual, Normal, Hardcore, and Nightmare. In casual mode you can wander around and have no fear of death. In normal mode you will die and have to load your last save game to resume play. In hardcore your save game will be deleted and it's time to start over. And in nightmare mode your Android's operating system is reflashed to the original Android 1.6 OS when you die making it incompatible with this game... yes, a joke... nightmare mode is actually the same as hardcore more with added difficulty. For me, normal mode presented more challenge than I could handle and I had to revert to casual mode for the bulk of my play. This game is Hard with a capital 'H' and those game mode are more reminiscient of a 3rd person shooter than a dungeon crawl.
The game's interface relies entirely on the touch screen. There are four movement arrows for moving forwards, backwards, and turning left/right. There are also four 'quick access' slots for things like healing and mana potions. You also have your icon to access your character's paper doll and adjust the weapons and armor that you are using.

One challenge I have with the game is picking stuff up. Usually I find myself having to do a machine gun barrage of finger taps on and around the object I want to grab. Early on that was very frustrating before I discovered my 'barrage' secret as I would tap and nothing would happen. With my barrage of finger taps and confidence that the 'treasure' really is there it's all good now.

The game also offers little in the way of 'help' to get going and thus that can be a slow process. Early on I'd keep getting knocked down and not really understand that I had to tap the screen repeatedly to get back up. There is a page on the game's website that offers some basic instructions for the game:

http://deadlydungeons.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=11

qrcodeI did eventually learn that I had to keep an eagle eye on the map in order to keep track of where I was going as everywhere pretty much looks the same in this rather drab cave. Clearly the monsters need some better carpeting, furniture, and fixtures to spruce up the place a bit. I also find that the game progresses rather slowly which isn't dissimilar from other 'rogue like' games. There is lots of repitition in the name of both character enhancement and finding that next great item. At $4.95 this is among the higher priced Android games. Fortunately there is a demo version for you to try before you buy.

My take on this is that it's an outstanding dungeon crawl game. It's quite immersive albeit a bit repetitive as are most dungeon crawls, and it's really the only game of this type I've found for Android (feel free to correct me if you know of another). The developer is also quite response and has continued to work to improve the game and I hope that continues as the foundation is here for greatness. As for me, I really like it and am half a star away from loving it. 4.5/5 stars.