Any week where you can punch a couple hundred bears in the face is a good week. Add the return of one of the greatest puzzle games of the original PlayStation generation, and you've got one slightly late Week in Gaming Apps.
I have to say, this is one of the best Week in Gaming Apps in quite some time. We've got a Picross-type game, the first official Dungeons & Dragons mobile title (and it doesn't suck yet), an inventive little puppy platformer and rare Raving Rabbids game.
The stars, however, are two very different titles. Fist of Awesome is a Kickstarted pixel beat-em up, only the 'em' are bears and you're amazing, so there. Dice Jockey, on the other hand, is a glowy dice puzzler based on the classic PS1 game Xi, AKA Devil Dice. It's so good. In fact, going to go play it some more right now. While I do that, check out...
What I Played This Week
Dice Jockey — Visionaries 777 — Android, iOS— $.99
One of my absolute favorite games on the original PlayStation was a dice puzzle game called Xi, or Devil Dice outside of Japan. It was a fast-paced game about matching die faces and creating combos. Stylish, kinda awesome. This is that game, for the most part. You have no idea how happy that makes me.
Here's a look at the game in action:
Get Dice Jockey on Google Play — Get Dice Jockey on iTunes
Paint It Back — Casual Labs — iOS — Free
Paint it Back is Picross, the game about using a series of numbers to fill in blocks and make a picture. Picross is an amazing game. So is this. Free, but in order to unlock more than two lengthy stages you have to pay. Well worth it.
Here's a look at the game in action:
D&D: Arena of War — Atakama Labs — iOS — Free
I was expecting a card-based D&D game, and that is not at all what I got. This, the first official game based on the storied tabletop RPG, is a game that has card, used to give your character powers, but is more about slingshotting your characters about a board — I guess sort of like — I don't really know. Odd, and free. Free works.
Here's a look at the game in action:
Get D&D: Arena of War on iTunes
Robo & Bobo — Nice Touch Games — Android, iOS, Windows Phone — $.99
I love robot command simulators. Pick your commands, enter the stage, and execute, all in the name of getting the robot to his teddy bear. It's logical AND adorable!
Here's a look at the game in action:
Get Robo & Bobo on Google Play — Get Robo & Bobo on iTunes — Get Robo & Bobo on Windows Phone
Fist of Awesome — I Fight Bears — Android, iOS — $3.99
The world has been taken over by bears. You have been gifted with a talking magical fist. It's time to punch those bears right in their stupid bear faces. Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds. Beating up bears. All day long.
Here's a look at the game in action:
Get Fist of Awesome on Google Play — Get Fist of Awesome on iTunes
Mega Dead Pixel — About Fun — iOS — Free
One pixel's quest to color the world. You are an ever-dropping pixel, tasked with coloring other sets of pixels by falling past them just so. Collect other white pixels to grow bigger and more durable, wear jaunty hats, and if you're lucky you might just become the mega pixel. Briefly. Then it's back to the grind. This is pretty joyous.
Here's a look at the game in action:
Rabbids Big Bang — Ubisoft — Android, iOS — $.99
This was a bit unexpected. Big Bang is a physics space puzzler with gravity and thrusters and a level of difficulty beyond that of the average fan of Rabbids hitting each other with plungers. They do though. Hit each other, that is. Kind of the point.
Here's a look at the game in action:
Get Rabbids Big Bang on Google Play — Get Rabbids Big Bang on iOS
Mimpi — Silicon Jelly — iOS — $1.99
What a lovely surprise. Mimpi is a platformer featuring a small dog, searching for its lost master. The twist is the player must manipulate objects on the screen to facilitate Mimpi's quest — move about platforms, tie ropes to cranks and pull land masses together, drop insects into hungry fishes' mouths. Very charming and thoughtful.
Here's a look at the game in action:
Tanto Cuore — Playdek — iOS — $2.99
A competitive card game about maid service, based on a board game, as Playdek does. Two players (or one against the AI) battle to gather the strongest maid service, sabotaging the competition and attempting to muster the most victory points by the game's end. This will surely offend someone. That someone is not me.
Here's a look at the game in action (via TouchGameplay):
There you go. Plenty of fun ways to completely waste your weekend. Kill it good, my friends, and should you have other diversions in mind, post them here.