4 new minis this week.
In a surprise move, 4 new minis have been released this week, developed by Sony themselves. It looks like they are going to support their brain child after all.
Unfortunately, after spending a little time with each game I not sure I’d recommend any of them. And that’s despite their low price. Maybe this will change if I spend more time with them. Maybe not. So on one hand it’s good news Sony are starting to home-brew some minis, but on the other hand they aren’t setting a good example for the quality level.
Stay tuned for a reviews soon.
Here’s the release list:
*Red = New worldwide
US Minis
- * Digi-Tiles ($2.99)
- * Earthshield ($2.99)
- * Legend of Kunoichi ($2.99)
- * Smashbreak ($2.99)
- Vector TD ($3.99) – Review
European Minis
- Nothing…
Oceania Minis
- Nothing…
It’s been a while coming, but finally minis have their own superhero. Age of Zombies’ square-jawed wise-cracking zombie head-splatting foul-mouthed heartthrob Barry Steakfries doesn’t just have the best name in the world, ever, he’s such an all-round badass he could probably kill zombies just by looking at them, but instead he chooses to blast them with his boom stick, just for giggles. If Ripley from Aliens and Duke Nukem had a baby, it would probably be Barry Steakfries.
Halfbrick, how we do love you. First you give us intriguing and ethereal puzzle minis such as Echoes, then you give us floaty space stuff like Blast Off, and now you’ve clearly gone stark raving mad with the utter joyous lunacy that is Age of Zombies. A game that not only makes me laugh out loud and shout “Barry Steakfries FTW” at regular intervals (note to self: don’t play on public transport), but is also probably vying with Dracula: Undead Awakening for the best top-down shooter mini.
There are two gameplay modes, the main story mode and Survival Mode. In Survival Mode, you just get one life and have to keep going as long as possible in the levels which have already been unlocked in the story mode to see if your high scores make it to the high scores table.
Read the rest of ”Age of Zombies Review – Barry Steakfries FTW!” »
Some great detective work by Polish PSP website PSP Team has unearthed details and possibly a You Tube video of a forthcoming new mini to be published by BreakQuest developer Beatshapers. PSP Team has spotted a PEGI rating for a PSP Go game called Normal Tanks by Beatshapers, which is rated for ages 7 and up by PEGI, and which is “an action packed overhead shooter” according to the game’s website. There’s been no official confirmation about Normal Tanks from Beatshapers so far, but a little Ukrainian birdie may have hinted to us that the PSP Team story is right on the money. 
Either way, expect an announcement soon from Beatshapers about a new mini, which may possibly involve tanks. Normal ones.
If the idea of number puzzles actually makes you feel a bit queasy, if you get headaches simply from looking at the Sudoku pages in the newspaper, if you don’t even know what the heck Kakuro is, well I’m here to say, don’t be scared by this mini! This is actually a fun mini to play even if number puzzles are not your thing. I never thought I’d ever enjoy playing Sudoku or Kakuro (once I learned what it was!), but this mini totally converted me, no mean feat!
Sanuk Games has had a couple of minis out so far, Spot the Differences, which was very “niche”, and Telegraph Crosswords, which comes from the same family as this Sudoku game of course and is another great game for puzzle fans. Clearly, these sorts of puzzle games are what Sanuk excels at, especially in conjunction with the UK’s Telegraph newspaper which is renowned for its crosswords and number puzzles.
What I really like about this mini is that it does the basics so well. If you don’t know how to play either game, the “Instructions” section via the Pause Menu outlines the rules very clearly, explaining that the aim of Sudoku is to fill the grid so that every row and column and every 3×3 box contains all numbers from 1 to 9, and that the aim of Kakuro is to enter a number between 1 and 9 in the empty squares without repeating a number.
Read the rest of ”Telegraph Sudoku & Kakuro Review – Polished Number Puzzler” »
1 new mini this week.
Age of Zombies, from Halfbrick landed this week. Thirty minutes spent with the game made it clear that not only has Halfbrick met there quality standard, they may have even raised the bar a little. As far as top down “twin stick shooters” go in the minis range it’s easy to say Age of Zombies is the winner. The range of weapons, enemies, locations and bosses is unmatched. If they weren’t already, this game cements Halfbrick as the top minis developer in my mind. I sure others will agree.
Stay tuned for a review soon.
Here’s the release list:
*Red = New worldwide
US Minis
European Minis
- * Age of Zombies (£3.99/€4.99)
Oceania Minis
- * Age of Zombies ($8.45)
Retro – Cave Flyer is the second of Big Head Games’ iPhone games to be ported across as a mini, with last week’s The Terminator being the first. The two couldn’t be more different though, with Retro reminding me a lot of Halfbrick’s Blast Off. Although it has its limitations, it’s a challenging little game that takes a fair degree of skill and practice to master.
The game is set in the near future, with the sun about to go supernova after being de-stabilised by pesky meddling scientists. Earth is being evacuated, but there are lots of stranded scientists who still need rescuing from science stations carved into moons throughout the solar system.
It’s therefore up to you to float and thrust your way around the moon caves in your spherical space ship, landing and picking up scientists and taking them back to the mothership. As you navigate the narrow passageways and twists and turns of the rocky caverns, you must take care not to bash your ship about too much or you’ll damage the shield, and you must also remember to refuel at the green fuel points.
Read the rest of ”Retro – Cave Flyer Review – More Floater than Flyer” »
