The following games were played and evaluated on an iPhone 6 Plus and/or iPad Air 2 running iOS 8.1.2.
Peggle Blast
2.0/10
Developer: PopCap
Price: Free (and if you believe that I’ve got a coat full of stuff I’d like to sell you)
My daughter and I have spent countless hours sitting in food courts, on mall benches, and in chairs outside of dressing rooms taking turns clearing Peggle levels while waiting the way husbands and kids do on weekend shopping forays. We’ve been aching for new levels for years.
Peggle Blast was supposed to be our salvation: A (long overdue) injection of fresh content into PopCap’s Plinko-like puzzle franchise.
Instead, it’s an object lesson in how to alienate fans of a once-great mobile game with constant prompts to spend money.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Peggle Blast has scores of new levels filled with some cool new ideas, such as ball-catching cannons mounted to the sides of the screen, keys that need to be struck in order to unlock strings of bricks, and bombs that have to be destroyed before they go off. There are plenty of great ideas here.
Problem is, it’s free. Which, of course, means players are targeted for in-app purchases. And they’re some of the most poorly-timed, pervasive, and frustrating cash grabs I’ve yet encountered in a game.
Fail a few times (easy to do in a Peggle game, where luck plays as big a role as strategy) and a level will lock up, forcing you to either wait about 20 minutes before playing it again or spend $1.99 to unlock it immediately.
Beat the final challenge at the end of a series of levels? Congratulations! Your reward is to wait six hours for the next map to unlock – or spend money to unlock it right away.
Encounter an especially difficult boss that requires you to beat five super hard levels in a row without failing? You can either try for days to do it (and likely fail) or spend money on extra balls and power-ups to cheat your way through.
Any enjoyment I might have derived from Peggle Blast was soured by visions of some suit-wearing dick with dollar signs for eyes barking orders at the game’s designers, commanding them to ruin their hard work with ill-conceived schemes to wring money from players.
It’s pretty much just the worst.
Sneaky Sneaky
7.5/10
Developer: Naiad
Price: $2.99
If you made the mistake of downloading the money-grubbing Peggle Blast (I feel for you) and need to cleanse your palate with something a bit less insulting, Sneaky Sneaky might do the trick.
Developed by Naiad – a studio founded, coincidentally, by couple of ex-EA and -PopCap designers (who one imagines must have grown disillusioned with their former employer’s icky mobile gaming business model) – Sneaky Sneaky trusts that players will pay a few bucks up front for a good gaming experience that promises to reward skill and never pester players with dumb in-app purchases.
It’s a stealth puzzle game. Players take on the role of a thief exploring small, gridded rooms teeming with roaming enemies, places to hide, stuff to break, switches to throw, and items to collect. Your goal is to sneak around these rooms, avoiding detection by wolves, skeletons, and other creatures while searching for a trio of red gems.
Just tap a tile and you’ll move to it. If a foe walks by a bush or haystack you happen to be hiding in you can tap to slash at them with your sword to perform a sneak attack. If they’re further away you can shoot an arrow at them. Or simply try to remain unseen. It’s up to you.
But be careful – if your attack isn’t strong enough to kill a foe outright you’ll be detected and a turn-based combat phase will begin during which you’ll need to either plan out a strategic attack or try to flee.
It can be a bit finicky at times. There are occasions when you’ll need pretty quick reflexes to get to hiding places when enemies aren’t looking or carry out sneak attacks before they spot you. And truly random enemy movement means you’ll sometimes wait a long time before finding a proper stealth opportunity.
But the puzzles are satisfying, the colourful, cartoon-like presentation is appealing, and upgrades and tools – such as increased attack strength and pick axes used to break path-blocking rocks – are empowering and feel worthwhile.
Perhaps most importantly, you’ll earn all of your victories through skill and strategy without being prompted to pay to win. It’s strange that such a simple thing ought to earn praise, but such is the current state of mobile gaming.
Vainglory
8.0/10
Developer: Super Evil Megacorp
Price: Free
I’m not much of a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) player, but the fanfare surrounding Super Evil Megacorp’s Vainglory caught my attention and made me feel obligated to give it a go.
Made by veterans hailing from Riot, Blizzard, Rockstar, and other triple-A developers, it takes full advantage Apple’s latest graphics tech – including the Metal API and new A8 and A8X chips – and aims to capture all the strategy, teamwork, and depth of games like League of Legends and Dota 2 via a touch-screen interface.
I’m not much of a MOBA connoisseur, so I can’t really say how well it channels the hardcore PC MOBA experience. But I can say that I’m enjoying Vainglory much more than most other MOBAs I’ve tried.
If you haven’t played a MOBA, they work like this: Two small teams of human players (plus some computer-controlled minions) battle one another along one or more lanes as they try to destroy each other’s defenses and make their way to the opposing team’s base. Players can level up their heroes, quickly earning upgrades and new abilities as the match progresses. They can also venture outside the primary thoroughfare(s), battling monsters and capturing areas that provide their heroes or teams with various advantages.
Vainglory delivers all of these elements, melding them together in appealing and empowering ways. It has a large – and growing – roster of distinctive heroes with unique abilities that look beautiful and animate splendidly (it’s maybe the prettiest isometric iOS game I’ve yet played). And its off-lane goals in what’s called the “jungle” – where you can battle miners to improve minion strength or fight a massive monster to get him to switch to your side – are challenging and have a noticeable impact on team power.
There are plenty of strategic options, too. Cohesive teams can dominate by sending just the right class of hero to important spots on the map at just the right time to overpower their rivals and retain an advantage.
Granted, it can be pretty intimidating if you jump into public matches straightaway, but Super Evil Megacorp provides several quick and efficient tutorial videos to bring MOBA n00bs up to speed, plus training and solo modes to let you get a feel for how things work before going up against experienced players.
And it’s worth noting the touch screen interface is terrific. Abilities are lined up nicely along the bottom, and smart application of multi-touch – such as holding a finger on the minimap to scroll to the area you want to go to and tapping with another finger to set your destination – lets players command their hero almost as fast they can think.
Bonus: Its in-app purchases are surprisingly inoffensive. Right now you can basically just buy currency used to unlock new heroes.
I doubt I’ll ever rank among the Vainglory hardcore, but right now I’m having a great time dipping into the arena for half an hour or so each evening.
Source:: National Post
