App of My Eye » Marvel

Undercroft

Art — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:21:53 +0000

Nowadays, time is of the essence: there’s just not enough time to do everything we want to do, especially after we do the things we need to do so that we do the things we love to do… Confused? Tell me about it! With work and family, I hardly have time for myself like I did when I was younger. Why is it that the older we get, the less time we have for leisurely pastimes? For me, other than video games and basketball, it was playing paper-and-pencil role playing games. Obviously, just like most people, Dungeons & Dragons was my entry into the world of gaming followed by Twilight 2000 and then Steve Jackson’s Car Wars. However, as evidenced by picking up Iron Crown Enterprises’ Middle Earth Role Playing on an impulse buy at the local comic store, I always kept coming back to fantasy. While this has held true over the years as I played Talisman in college, Magic: The Gathering post-college, and most recently, Dominion, I’ve noticed that the games have gotten shorter and shorter in duration to accommodate busier and busier schedules. Intending to not give up the dream by extending my gaming experience on other platforms, I picked up Rake In The Grass’ Undercroft on the iPhone, which has been a perfect fit. Boasting 20 hours of gameplay with the promise of ‘great replay value,’ encounter over 60 enemies and attempt to collect the over 750 items divided into quests and side-quests as you build a band of heroes from among the five hero classes, which include the usual suspects: warriors, sorcerers, thieves, clerics, etc. Completely turn-based, the overall polish of the game in terms of functionality, graphics and sound is pretty impressive. Plus, Undercroft does all the little things that makes you feel it’s worth every penny. Highly recommended. Price: $4.99.

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Taxiball

Art — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:18:55 +0000

While Taxiball didn’t really need our help to make a Top 50 (under Games/Arcade), I’m glad that it did drop out temporarily so we can give our own special brand of accolades. First, upon checking out its iTunes page, the first thing that came to mind is the old Marvel Comics’ What If…? series from 70′s and 80′s. But instead of What If Dazzler Became A Herald of Galactus (yawn), the cover in my mind read What If Katamari Damacy & Crazy Taxi Had A Baby? Sure, the game in its most basic form is a marble maze/labyrinth, but one can still dream, right? As the name suggests, you control a taxi via accelerometer, aka ’tilt motion’, that’s shaped like a ball, which you roll around picking up fares throughout a city shaped like a labyrinth. While some areas require unlocking, others require using the mechanisms at your disposal. Yet, although there are puzzle-like elements in the gameplay (it’s a labyrinth after all), the most important thing is getting your fares to their destinations in time and intact. Sound familiar? Boasting maps for nine cities, in-game awards, global online leaderboards, friends list, auto-save feature, and an all beatbox soundtrack, this game has lots to offer, especially replay value, all for a very low price. Plus, with the promise of updates in the near future, it’s a no-brainer to at least check out the free version. You won’t be disappointed. Price: 99¢.

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Crazy Turtles

Art — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:56:57 +0000

When I saw this game, I was reminded of a t-shirt over at Shirt.Woot!, which started me down Memory Lane. It was about 1984 and my friend and I went down to Comix and Comics (now Ed Hardy’s Tattoo City) in San Francisco, located just past Chinatown and about a couple of blocks south from the old North Point Theater (the current location of Viz Media). We liked mainstream comics from The Big 2: Marvel and DC Comics. But on that day, we weren’t interested in The Uncanny X-Men nor The Dark Knight. Instead, we were there to check out the first issue of something called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Needless to say, we each bought a copy even though we had some reservations about the content: black & white, weird paper stock, and raw graphics. Yet, after thoroughly reading that issue, we never regretted it and I guarantee that you’ll feel the same way when you play this game. Crazy Turtles is a challenging puzzle game using tiles with either the front or back half of four different colored turtles on each side. Correctly match each tile into a matrix of 9 in total. If necessary, rotate the tiles to get the correct solution. Boasting 200+ puzzles, it’s worth it. Price: 99¢.

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comiXology

Art — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:30:21 +0000

I used to collect comic books. You have no idea how hard that is to say, but it’s true. I just can’t hang around the local comic shop every week anymore. So now, I just buy complications in trade paperback. But even that tends to be problematic since I’ve gotten into more indie comics, which have less reliable ship dates than Marvel and DC Comics. So it’s been a blessing to find this app, comiXology, that provides a list of new releases in detail with covers, previews, and news. Also, create ‘pull’ lists, filter down to desirable publishers, and have access to a weekly podcast. A must-have for comic book fans. Price: $1.99.

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