ToG #224 – Goat Rider and Max Ammo

So, here you have ToG #224 for the week of Nov. 23, 2015

In this episode, Jared and Todd talk a bit of news. Seeing as though this is a holiday week, the news is a bit light as are the updates/upcoming releases.

We also talk about a slew of good iOS games that have now moved to Android. Chief among them are Call of Champions, Horizon Chase, Skeletomb, and Lifeline 2.

Moving on to games:

Todd: Goat Rider (Free, iOS, Beaver Tap Games). We were fortunate to be given an advance copy of Goat Rider this week. Todd enjoyed the gameplay for what it was…a test of reflexes during a high score chase with lots of, mostly superficial, unlocks. A fun game for a short period of time, Todd feels he probably will not beat his current high score so he will stop playing for now. Worth trying but the fun is fairly short-lived as the game just gets too hard after about the 45 second mark.

Jared: Max Ammo (Free, Mantis Shrimp, iOS and Android) – Jared really enjoyed his time with this cover based shoot. It looks great and plays well and just feels “right” on most counts. It can get a little grindy; although paying a bit of cashola will help with that if you want to go down that path. Recommended.

Todd: Tales of a Viking: Episode 1 ($.99 on iOS, Free on Android, MACE Crystal Studios/Dimitry Sadovnikov), This retro-inspired, Hoplite-esque, turn-based strategy game offers a ton of variety and interesting gameplay mechanics that help it stand out from the pack. It really ramps up what has happened in similar games of yore and it makes for a highly enjoyable, highly interesting little game. Well worth the price of admission if you enjoy turn based strategy rogue like puzzlers…with RPG elements. Grab it.

Jared: Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey ($8.99, Kobojo, iOS) – get ready…this game threw Jared for a complete loop. Never before has he had such a love/hate relationship with a mobile game. Brilliant graphics, great music, a genre-defining combat system, and decent game length battle it out with an extremely misleading app description, odd free to play residue, lack of auto saves (enjoy that phone call…you just lost 20 minutes of progress in the game), and a hit or miss UI. Overall, this one, at this price, needs to be approached with a “wait and see” attitude. The Dev says they are working on improvements and changes. Until then, hold off on purchasing this. With the right adjustments, this could be the best JRPG on iOS…but it is not there yet.

Todd: Super Dangerous Dungeons (Free, iOS, Jussi Simpanen) – A bit Spelunky. I bit just cruel, small scale platforming, this game looks nice, sounds good, and plays pretty well…but Todd could not quite get over the floaty jump and “fall” mechanics and he ended up getting frustrated after 15 or so level…and some Time Trial attempts. Nevertheless, this is free and if you like punishing puzzle platformers, this might be just the game for you…so try it and decide for yourself.

Jared: Brass ($6.99, Cublo, iOS and Android) Another board game gets adapted for mobile and Jared decides to try it out….and he really likes it. This is an “economic”/number crunching sort of game and playing on iOS speeds the gameplay up nicely. He is enjoying his time with it and thinks they did a great job porting it over…and that includes a stellar tutorial which is something that is sadly lacking from so many board game ports. Grab it today and challenge Jared to a game tomorrow.

Have a nice (U.S.) Thanksgiving.