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This iPad App Puts Discworld’s Finest City at Your Fingertips. I’d Wear Gloves.
“There’s a saying that all roads lead to Ankh-Morpork. And it’s wrong. All roads lead away from Ankh-Morpork, but sometimes people just walk along the wrong way.” That’s pretty much all you need to know about the central city of Terry Pratchett’s beloved Discworld books, but if you’re still ill-advisedly curious, there’s now an interactive…
By Mike Fahey -
Galaxy on Fire Strategically Goes Massively Multiplayer
The premiere mobile space sim, Galaxy on Fire and its sequel have pleased countless fans of Privateer-style combat and trading. Now German developer Fishlabs Entertainment prepares to open up the universe to colonization in Galaxy on Fire: Alliances Set in a remote corner of the Galaxy on Fire universe, Alliances is a free-to-play massively multiplayer…
By Mike Fahey -
Parkour-Powered Vector Races Gracefully to Android
Nekki Games’ stylish free-running platformer Vector is one of the coolest games on Facebook. In December it became one of the coolest games on iOS, and now it’s one of the coolest games on Android. Funny how that works. Vector for Android brings the smooth and sexy silhouette parkour action of the Facebook and iOS…
By Mike Fahey -
Two Foot Tall Metroplex Makes My Transformers Dreams Come True This Fall
When I first discovered the titanic Autobot Metroplex would be making an appearance in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, I experienced a brief rush of excitement—maybe Hasbro would make a new proper Metroplex toy! They’d reused the name for a silly giant from the Transformers: Cybertron line, why not? Eventually I convinced myself this would never…
By Mike Fahey -
Hasbro Lawyers Stable My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic Fan Project
Since the summer of 2011 a small group of fans calling themselves Mane6 have been toiling away at a fighting game based on the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Working from a rudimentary knowledge of 2D Fighter Maker 2002, they built the fan project into a phenomenon unto itself. They scouted sound-alike voice…
By Mike Fahey -
The Warm and Wonderfully Squishy World of the Week in Gaming Apps
Welcome back to the Week in Gaming Apps, a place where one moment you’re running over zombies with a train and the next you’re enjoying a motherly embrace with a globular pink alien. Thank you, mobile gaming. One of the joys of covering the mobile scene for Kotaku is the sheer absurdity of the games…
By Mike Fahey -
The Battle for Steam-Powered Tower Defense Supremacy Begins on Facebook
Why aren’t there more tower defense games on Facebook? Is it because they tend to be more difficult than the normal Facebook fare, or because they aren’t particularly social? Arcadelia challenges both of those notions with Apoteos: Steam Wars, a competitive multiplayer tower defense and attack game aimed squarely at the hardcore audience. With its…
By Mike Fahey -
After Just Six Months, Epic Closes the Studio Built on the Ashes of Big Huge Games
Following last year’s Kingdoms of Amalur financial disaster that resulted in the closure of both Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios and Maryland’s Big Huge Games, Epic Games swooped in and rescued a group of Big Huge refugees, forming Epic Baltimore, eventually renamed Impossible Studios. Today Epic founder Tim Sweeney announced the studio’s closure. “When former members…
By Mike Fahey -
ReviewsMobile Gaming’s Platforming Hero Returns — One Part Mario, One Part Sonic
In 2011 SilverTree Media introduced Cordy, a robotic platforming hero for the smartphone age. While other developers struggled with implementing traditional games using touchscreen controls, Cordy played as perfectly as the best console platformers, with more personality than most. Now Cordy 2 has arrived, and it’s easily twice as good as the original. Cordy is…
By Mike Fahey -
Feel the Love with Disney’s Free Where’s My Valentine?
Love is in the air, and it’s all musky. It calls for a shower, maybe a little spy work. Disney’s free Where’s My Valentine? update should do the trick nicely. Available now for free on iOS and Android, Where’s My Valentine? brings Perry the platypus and Swampy the crocodile and/or alligator together for 12 levels…
By Mike Fahey -
This Week’s iPad Charts: The Room, The Room, The Room is On Fire
It always brings a smile to my face when one of the games we consider the very best on a platform makes a comeback on the charts. The brain-twisting puzzles of The Room are on fire this week, and the galaxy is 2. The Room is currently on sale for $.99. Coupled with its status…
By Mike Fahey -
Cut the Rope‘s Latest Free Update is Magic
Available now in the iOS and Android versions of ZeptoLab’s candy-munching puzzle game, the Lantern Box adds 25 levels of teleporting magic to Cut the Rope in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? Get Cut the Rope for iPad, iPhone, Android phone and Android tablet by clicking…
By Mike Fahey -
From the Director of Rush Hour and X-Men the Last Stand: FarmVille the Animated Series
Oh calm down, FarmVille fans, it’s not like Brett Ratner is directing the upcoming 30-minute cartoon series based on your Facebook obsession. According to the Wall Street Journal he’s just producing the show, so it might still be good. Now before everyone jumps to Ratner’s defense, let me just say that I admire the man…
By Mike Fahey -
Robie Taught Me a Thing or Two About Brick-Breaking
As I played through the first few levels of Viral’s new Facebook brick-breaking game, Robie, I was annoyed by the game’s assumption that there was anything about the genre I was unaware of that would require interrupting my play for a tutorial. Then I learned how to bend the ball to my will. There must…
By Mike Fahey -
ReviewsThe Best Thing About This Dragon Breeding Game is Definitely the Vomit
It’s not the hand-animated visuals, crafted by artists whose resumes include My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Atomic Betty. It’s not the challenge of matching each dragon with their favorite treasures, collecting and combining items to create more potent pieces. No, it’s definitely the vomiting, followed closely by the rainbow pooping. East Side Games’…
By Mike Fahey -
This Week’s Windows Phone Charts: I Need Your Skulls
What does it take to unseat Angry Birds from the top of the Windows Phone game charts? How about something smart, sexy and exclusive? Skulls of the Shogun‘s stylish real-time strategy cuts a wide swath through this week’s top ten list. An exclusive iOS game is just another iOS game. An exclusive Android game is…
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Borderlands Legends is Better (and Cheaper) Than Ever Before
When making a mobile spin-off of a major console/PC game, one neat thing to include would be some equivalent of the most popular features of the franchise proper. There were no gun loot drops in Borderlands Legends for the iPhone and iPad. Now there are. Part strategy, part shooter and part action RPG, Borderlands Legends‘…
By Mike Fahey -
There’s Skylanders: Swap Force Gameplay Footage Here, and It’s Lovely
Activision doesn’t have to sell me on buying Skylanders toys at this point—I literally have a bucket full of them sitting not three feet from me as I type—but the games, entertaining as they are, could use a little work. The kind of work they’ve done with the new engine for Skylanders: Swap Force This…
By Mike Fahey
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