Games that have bad control options....

Hate em.

Review: Justin Smith: Realistic Summer Games (free+iap iOS)

Pros
Ridiculous premise that is worth the weirdness!
Brilliant/terrible graphics.
The funniest physics ever made!

Cons:
Serious players look elsewhere this is
As much an idea brought to life as a pure game.
Brilliant/terrible controls depending on your preference to quirkiness....

Justin 'Enviro Bear' Smith is nuts and that is what makes this as good as a really great comedy sketch and as fun as u hoped a shambling 'intentional' mess of a game could be.

Terrible but stupid funny pixel art with the most 'unrealistic' physics make for a puzzle game about wrestling with the bonkers controls. The satisfaction of keeping the naked guy on the horse or the poor non stop canoe guy from paddling himself off the boat is priceless.
You've done it again Justin, another beautifully shambolic masterpiece. Roll on the next one! (8/10)

Review: Steam Rush (Free(ish) iOS)

Pros:
Errr, looks kinda nice....when it's not moving.

Cons:
Dullness, ads, dullness, ads, du.....

A very ill conceived and simplistic copy cat game that looks nice in static photos but it's isomeric style creates hopes for more interesting 3d platforms. You keep hoping it will get better, but it really doesn't. What a shame. (3/10)

Review: Six Guns (Freemium, iOS)

Pros:
Top flight presentation
Clever controls
Large play area
Day/night & living/dead enemies

Cons:
nagging...
Glitchy Zones in play area.
Strange overpowered Grizzly
Bears that are unfair and placed
To remind players to spend
money on upgrades.... Mmmm.

Summary:

A bold attempt at open world play in Gameloft's usual 'photocopy' style of game development. Its clearly Red Dead Redemption with an extra evil dead mechanic to keep the lawyers at bay.

The pin sharp presentation is nearly enough to forgive all the plagiarism, but incredibly naggy Freemium reminders take the shine off what is a good, solid console style experience.

Saddle up with caution, but do take it for a ride, as you may just end up playing for the shear spectacle of it all. (7/10)

The other one

Games that were 'the other one' meaning ones that were overshadowed by more popular games but deserve the same level of credit.

beginning with the popular game then 'the other one'....

F-Zero - F1 Exhaust Heat (snes)
Super Mario World - Plok (snes)
Sonic - Castle Of Illusion (megadrive)
Advance Wars - Robot Teisen OG (gba)

Jetpack joyride.....so far

Was going to review this fully now but currently deep into actually playing it. So far so awesome! Its a kind of survial run,  achievement heavy, rpg levelling, one button 'em up. Confused?... Well its a simple skill arcade game with genius ways of keeping your attention through classy power ups and silly but fun challenges. Never has such a simple idea been made so interesting. Thankyou Halfbrick Games. Already great so far but bordering on classic...

My iPod - a year on.

So I have been the proud owner of an iPod touch 4g for the past year and I must say as a gadget it's been off the charts awesome!

It's managed (and still does...) to play and run every game and app I threw at it with great speed and very low crash rate. I have also on my possession an Htc Desire Z which has been equally a total joy of a phone, a good non iOS partner to the mighty pod.

Only quibbles I have with it is iTunes connecting/sync annoyance and the fact it's fully capable of screen mirroring to hd tv but they locked it out so only a few apps and video sources can be shown this way???!!!! It's the apple way and I'm not going to split hairs about the tired old story of apple domination woes here...

In summary the iPod is the ultimate pocket media gadget under £200 and the HTC phones are well worth a go for the £300+ bracket. Happy tappy times shall continue......