The game that put Crescent Moon Games on the map, Ravensword: The Fallen King [99¢ / Free] is on sale this week for 99¢. Originally released in late 2009, Ravensword was incredibly anticipated on our forums, and we really enjoyed playing through it. Since our initial review, the game has been updated with more items and quests, and provides an incredible amount of content for a buck.
Give the lite version a shot, or swing by the thread in our forums which has been going strong since last November. Either way, if you're at all interested in open world RPG's, picking up Ravensword will probably be the best dollar you spend today.
Graveyard Shift [$2.99/Lite] is a new physics puzzle game where you are literally working a graveyard shift in a graveyard putting back skeletons that have inexplicably decided to pop out of their coffins. It features a charming art style that's Retina Display ready, a multitude of levels, and best of all some great level designs that are hard not to appreciate. It also doesn't hurt that the game is universal, and there's a lite to try before you buy. If you like games like Saving Private Sheep, Angry Birds, and Ragdoll Blaster, then Graveyard Shift should be right up your alley.
The premise is that you're a boy looking for a job to earn some extra cash, and you come to find that the local graveyard is hiring. For some odd reason, the skeletons from the graves have popped out of their coffins and perched themselves precariously amongst objects throughout the graveyard. It's your job to use the different properties of these objects and the physics in the game to get the skeleton back into their coffin homes. Some blocks can be touched to make them disappear, some must be touched by the same type block to eliminate them, and some just can't be removed from the level at all. There are also boxes of TNT that can be used to launch objects or the skeletons themselves to aid the task of getting them back to their eternal resting place.
The graphics in Graveyard Shift are nice, with lovely hand drawn backgrounds and crisp in-game elements that look especially great on the iPhone 4. The music is also very catchy and fitting, but the thing that really stands out about the game is the excellent level designs. Some levels are very straightforward, with the skeleton on top of stacks of blocks that must simply be cleared in order for him to fall into the coffin. But others are more complex, and almost Rube Goldberg-esque in their execution. For example, you may pop a box of dynamite that sends a ball rolling down an incline, that will then cause a latch that is holding back a giant pendulum to disappear. Gravity will then cause the pendulum to swing, and once it hits it's apex another box of dynamite is used to blast the pendulum further upwards into a platform where the skeleton resides, catapulting him into the nearby coffin. There's plenty of examples of situations like these during the game's 72 levels, and I certainly had my fair share of laugh out loud moments as I stared in amazement while the level played out.
As much as I enjoyed playing through Graveyard Shift, it's not without a couple problems. The biggest issue is the extremely finicky physics system. While it does create for some hilarious moments with the ragdoll skeleton, it can also cause objects in the game to behave wildly different from one play to the next. As a result, some of the levels can be frustratingly hard as you try to get things to do what you want them to, and completing each one is more luck than anything else. Somehow this doesn't really hinder the enjoyment though, and levels are easy to instantly replay at any moment, which you'll be doing often. The other issues with the game are very minor glitches where sometimes graphics don't display properly or levels load without any objects. These are easily fixed by simply reloading a level, and the developer is already working on an update to iron out these kinks.
Minor issues aside, I had a ton of fun with Graveyard Shift. The moments of figuring out how a level should work and then executing it, all while the ragdoll skeleton is flailing about the screen, brought a smile to my face every time. As an added challenge each level has a par for completion time and taps used, so beyond just completing each one you can also shoot for these goals. Unfortunately there's no sort of social network like OpenFeint to tie these accomplishments together, but at the very least it still adds replay to the game. If you are a fan of these physics games you should definitely try out the lite version of Graveyard Shift, and join in on the forum discussion for further player impressions and developer responses.
As we noted in our EA Hot For The Holidays roundup, the successor to the original SimCity for iPhone SimCity Deluxe [$6.99] is now available in the App Store. While not exactly a sequel, this new version is more of an enhanced version of the original iPhone iteration. From our preview of the game:
This sequel of sorts is basically little more than a makeover of the original SimCity [$2.99], it's a little disappointing that EA is releasing this as a separate game instead of applying these fixes to the existing one, but I suppose you could say the same about most EA sequels. SimCity Deluxe is going to have seasons (and disasters to go with each) as well as graphics that look a lot like SimCity 4 for the PC. In the game you will finally be able to modify the terrain with touch controls, which actually was a lot of fun. The new UI is also substantially less clunky, although still suffers a little just because there's so much you can do in the game and packing all those functions in to a sensible touch-based interface is never going to be easy.
After spending a little time with SimCity Deluxe, it certainly is an improvement over the original, and works rather well on the iPhone touch screen. If you have yet to own SimCity on your device and were thinking that the cheaper original version would suffice, that doesn't appear to be an option anymore. Curiously, the original SimCity for iPhone seems to have been removed from the App Store to make room for its deluxe big brother. I'm not sure if this is a permanent removal, but for the extra few dollars you're probably better off going with this newer version anyway.
Oddly enough, SimCity Deluxe isn't universal, and an iPad version of the game is nowhere to be found in EA's lineup of upcoming games that they've announced. The larger screen seems to be a natural fit for a game this complex, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that EA eventually realizes this as well.
This time we’re looking at the invisibleSHIELD full body for iPad which offers both top-side glass and bottom-side aluminum film protection. If you worry just as much about scratches on the back of your precious iPad as you do the front, full body is something to consider.
Peel off the screen film and apply liquid to the back
Place the skin carefully on my iPad
Squeegee out excess liquid, carefully blotting to keep it away from water sensors
Press out any remaining bubbles
Turn it over
Repeat the same procedure but the curved back can be tricky so go slowly and restart if you have to.
I use a big squeegee for the initial pass, the supplied smaller one for the details. I also made sure to put my iPad on a non-slip mat first so I don’t have to chase it around the table. (Basically what I did for the iPhone screen protector how-to, a little more conservative than Dieter’s approach).
We’ll be testing the invisibleSHIELD full body for iPad out for durability in the very near future, as well as comparing it some other films on the market. If you have any tips for applying them, or any questions about them, let me know in comments.
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