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Game: Minotron: 2112
Price: $1.99/£1.19
Size: 7.9MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store:US/UK
Minotron: 2112 is the second App Store offering from Jeff Minter, the man behind January's enticing Minotaur Rescue and a 30-year industry legend credited with dozens of games (including the divisive Space Giraffe on Xbox Live Arcade). A remake of the 1991 Atari ST shooter, Llamatron: 2112, Minotron offers up Robotron: 2084-like action while maintaining the same kind of bonkers, retro-stylized aesthetic that helped lodge the previous iOS Minotaur Project title in our minds.
Actually, what makes Minotron: 2112 so memorable is how completely bizarre the content is. The Robotron-biting dual-stick approach is pretty familiar at this point, but with enemies designed to resemble Coca-Cola cans, boxes of French fries, British flags, light bulbs, and televisions – not to mention allusions to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Dark Side of the Moon – you'd be hard-pressed to resist cracking a smile while playing. And though Minotron's stages can be especially chaotic and daunting at times, it's hard to stay mad at a game that emits a ravenous Minotaur death rattle each time you lose. Plus, you can always restart at the highest unlocked stage, albeit with just one life in tow.
Minotron: 2112 includes additional play modes beyond the standard approach, including assisted, simplified, and hard variations – plus, you can play any of the modes in a one-life endurance option. Unfortunately, Minotron falls prey to some occasionally frustrating control issues, as the virtual stick positions aren't defined and lifting your left thumb (typically for movement) seemingly transfers movement to your right thumb (usually for aiming) and may lead to a quick death in these frenzied stages. But it remains a plenty entertaining diversion, and we're still pretty interested to see where the Minotaur Project goes from here.
Game: Land-a-Panda HD
Price: $1.99/£1.19
Size: 16.7MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store:US/UK
Could Land-a-Panda be the next Angry Birds-like App Store phenomenon? After playing for a couple hours, it's not hard to imagine the possibility. Like that world-conquering mobile sensation, Land-a-Panda trades in colorful aesthetics, uncomplicated gameplay concepts, and quickly toppled stages with more promised down the line. And just like Angry Birds, Land-a-Panda appears deceptively simple and easy upon first glance, but before long you're rage-restarting levels after a botched move and cursing the iPad gods for approving such a blasphemous app (but in a good way. Good curses. Those exist, right?)
In fact, the game seems so particularly anemic upon first glance that you might shrug it off as a cutesy kids' game. Give it a little time. Land-a-Panda depicts the time-tested challenge of reuniting adorable cartoon pandas – Yang Guang and his ladylove, Tian Tian – by launching the male through a series of cannons. Essentially stand-ins for the barrels in Donkey Kong Country, these cannons start the game in well-defined patterns, making it easy for you to just touch each cannon and launch Yang Guang to his destination, though his mate will throw a fit if he doesn't pick up golden coins along the way. Love, right?
But as you progress through the 80 stages, the cannons start moving, spinning, and spawning manual rotational controls; plus, the stages begin littering the paths with spikes and breakable blocks, along with cannon shots that require precise timing and angles amidst the aforementioned spinning and movement. In the process, Land-a-Panda quickly proves its worth with engaging puzzle scenarios that require smart decisions, trial-and-error actions, and even a tiny bit of luck – and the bite-sized stages are perfect for either iPad or iPhone (via a separate app). Hyper-adorable and entertaining, Land-a-Panda seems likely to stir up some further buzz in the coming weeks and months – though we'll see in a year or so if we're talking about board games, plush toys, and lunch boxes.
Game: Tapper World Tour HD
Price: $1.99/£1.19
Size: 155MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store:US/UK
It may seem hard on the surface to believe that iPad owners have been eagerly awaiting a game called Tapper World Tour, but once you dig a little deeper, it's easy to see why nostalgic gamers have been anticipating this release. Not only is Tapper World Tour a modernized, touch-enabled update on the arcade classic Tapper (a.k.a. Root Beer Tapper), but it also features characters and artwork courtesy of Don Bluth, the animation mastermind behind Dragon's Lair and several popular animated films from the 1980s.
But what's most important about Tapper World Tour is not its heritage or big name collaborator: it's that the game offers good, clean fun and works perfectly on the iPad's large touch display. As with the original retro releases, Tapper World Tour is built on a simple gameplay mechanic: slide beverages down one of multiple bars to keep customers satisfied, all without dropping glasses. Whether you're commanding three countertops or even five in this new iPad version, you'll be forced to contend with throngs of thirsty customers, some of which will send their glasses back for seconds if not fully satisfied. Letting an empty glass crash to the floor – or sending one too many drinks down the line – will cost you a life and could end the mission.
Keeping with its namesake, Tapper World Tour is controlled entirely with taps: you'll tap each keg to switch bars and send drinks down the line, tap the occasional stack of cash to collect your tip, and sometimes tap a sign to trigger a brief concert or other distraction to slow your customers for a moment. World Tour splits its action between brief missions in various locales – each with different bar arrangements, customers, and entertainment – and an endless mode in each venue that lets you compare your best times against the Game Center competition. Whether you have fond memories of the earlier versions or just need an amusing new iPad distraction, Tapper World Tour seems rightly suited to settle each desire.
Mar 19, 2011
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