Any discussion of the games I've played over the past week is not complete without a reference to the humongous worm with sharp teeth that chased with such persistence I never even got around to writing it up.
But this isn't the place to praise Worm Run for the excellent sense of tension it generates. No, this is where we celebrate all of the gaming apps we touched but did not touch on this week. We raised butterflies. We killed virtual pets. We guided microscopic cells in two different ways. We rode a jet drill as an undead rabbit, an armed jalopy as a fleeing scientist, and a giant battle turtle as the sort of person that would do such a thing.
And then we ran from the worm some more. The terrible, terrible worm.
What We Played This Week
Android
Aralorn: Sword and Shadow — $4.99
A 3D action adventure game in the vein of The Elder Scrolls, which makes sense as The Elder Scrolls artist Mark Jones worked on it. Still early in the game, but I'm enjoying it!
Tamagotchi Life — Free
A misnomer if I ever heard one. It's amazing my children are still alive.
QuestLord — $1.99 [Also on iOS]
A fantasy adventure in the style of old first-person PC dungeon crawlers. Brings back memories!
Shellrazer — Free [Also on iOS — $2.99]
The slowest attack game ever, in a good way.
Yeah, I caved and bought it. It's not bad, kind of a platformer in bite-sized chunks.
iOS
Cyto — $.99
An adorable and challenging physics puzzle game on a microscopic level.
Pangolin — Free
It's part golf, part Pachinko, only the ball is a fish and the art style is wonderful.
Flutter: Butterfly Sanctuary — Free
It's Dragonvale, only instead of dragons you have butterflies. It's a cute little game.
The Gods: Rebellion — $.99
An Unreal Engine 3-powered action game that's a little like God of War if you turn your head just right. Controls take a little getting used to, but it's solid.
Hell Yeah: Pocket Inferno — $.99
A rather simple little companion to the excellent PC and console game Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. It's an auto-running platformer on a jet drill, with rabbits. I approve.
Turbolab Pursuit — Free
Another endless runner type of game, only this time you're in a car and the guys chasing you fire weapons. It's a good time, with plenty of costumes to unlock and car upgrades to collect.
Sporos — $.99 [Also on Android]
One of those stylish puzzle games that's easy to pickup and hard to put down, the kind with lovely music that makes you forget you've just spent an hour on the toilet.
West Legends — $2.99
A lovely hand-drawn path-drawing defense... they really need a definitive genre for these things. You trace lines from characters to their targets. That sort. Anyway, it's lovely and completely devoid of in-app purchases. Want to hug this one.
Worm Run — $.99
You're running through a series of underground caverns as a huge man-eating worm chases you. I didn't get a chance to write up a full review of the game yet, but get it. It's terrifying in the happiest way possible.
App Reviews for the Week of February 16 - 22
Cowbell Hero Takes the Joke Way Too Far
I admire Digital Hero Games' dedication. Over a decade after Christopher Walken and the cast of Saturday Night Live hilariously introduced the phrase "More cowbell" into the modern vernacular and years after the first cowbell-fueled parodies of Activision's Guitar Hero franchise appeared on the... More »
My New Girlfriend is a Space Pirate
I think what I love most about Sela the Space Pirate is her unwavering courage in the face of overwhelming odds. She masks it as madness-she's so good at masking it's scary-but when your life is nothing but maneuvering your finger-guided, auto-firing starship through level-after-level... More »
The Naruto: Ninja Storm Folks Build a Better Endless Runner
CyberConnect2 might be my favorite Japanese game developer. Not only is it the studio responsible for the Naruto: Ninja Storm fighting game franchise, the .hack role-playing games and the spectacular Little Tail Bronx series, its first stab at mobile gaming is a fresh new spin on the crowded... More »
Year Walk's Trippy Vision Quest Might Be the Most Ominous iPad Adventure Ever Created
Up until this week, I hadn't really played a game on my iPad that gave me the creeps. Games that made me laugh? Yeah. Games that challenged my brain? More »
What Sonic Might Play Like, If Sonic Were Invented in 2013
Magnets, man. They make you go fast.
Major Magnet looks like Sonic a little, even though Sonic is a hedgehog and Magnet's protagonist is a pudgy, big-nosed hero. More »