The story revolves around Ittle Dew, an adventurous young girl who washes up on an island and has to complete a number of quests before the mad shop keeper will give her a boat to sail off on.  Ittle Dew sets off with her trusty drunken flying fox companion and tackles castles, dungeons, caves and a slew of weird  and wonderful enemies.

Swedish indie studio Ludosity has done a great job of bringing back the look and feel of the classic Zelda whilst offering a fresh and funny spin on it.

I have added the trailer below to give you a taste of the game before I hit you with the negatives…

OK, now the downside…

I really enjoyed playing this game in the beginning  and I was happy to over look the slow load times and periodic stutter but I had to stop playing when I had to hit four diamonds to open a door. This is a relatively simple puzzle about 30 minutes into the game and has four diamonds that are timed to turn off after a certain time. Using the on screen joypad I found it very difficult to move my character fast enough and after 20 attempts I was still struggling. Frustrated I downloaded the Steam version of the game and found that the same puzzle was infinitely easier on a joypad and keyboard.

So whilst I would recommend the game ‘as a game’ I would probably avoid the iPhone version and try the PC, Tablet or even OUYA version in order to avoid the troubles of an onscreen joypad.

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The post Review: Ittle Dew | iPhone appeared first on AppTrawler.

More to the point, most of these games require a lot of time to enjoy and are the sorts of games you would only really play while relaxing at home. With that in mind, it makes far more sense to just play them on a PC or games console as they were intended. I soon realised that the sort of games that become fun and addictive to play on a phone are fairly simple in nature, use lots of quick levels, and have some sort of points system that are used to unlock later levels. They don’t necessarily have flashy graphics, but what they lack in visuals they more than make up for in playability.

I have found these to be the elements that make a smartphone game enjoyable and all of these elements are present in one of my favourite smartphone games available for Android and iOS: Blast Monkeys.

The concept is quite simple, even if it doesn’t really make much sense. You have a cannon which you use to fire a monkey called Moki up in the air. Once fired from the cannon you have no control over the monkey and have to rely on bouncing him off walls or platforms. Your objective is to capture three bananas on each level and then make your way to the finish point. Getting one or two bananas and reaching the end of the level is often fairly straightforward, while collecting all three bananas and making it to the finish point can very often be quite a challenge. Bananas are then used to unlock later levels, so if you don’t collect all of the bananas on each level you cannot fully complete that world.

The game is split into various worlds, each containing 25 levels and 5 “expert” levels which are more difficult. The worlds offer different themes, different graphics, and different challenges. For example, the snow world features levels that contain icicles which fall from above onto Moki and kill him, while the space world has strange vortexes that can transport you around the level in unpredictable ways.

Because of the short and quick nature of the levels and the fact that is can be so easy to almost complete a level perfectly and then cock the whole thing up, I have found this game to be extremely addictive and sometimes quite frustrating at the same time.

The short nature of the levels means this is the sort of game you can whip out and enjoy at any time. You could just have a minute or two spare while you are waiting for a bus, or for your drink at a coffee shop, but it is equally well suited to long stints while relaxing at home.

Levels often require you to act in stages. After firing Moki from the initial cannon to get the first banana you can often end up in a new cannon, a floating bubble (which you are able to pop at a desired altitude), or a block of ice that will move you to a new part of the level. It is this splitting of the levels into a few separate stages that makes the game addictive. The first stage may be quite difficult and require many attempts, but once you have managed to get the hang of it you are still not able to complete the level because the second or third stage results in your monkey dying. Not since playing Goldeneye on the N64 have I so much wanted to throw a game controller (in this case my phone) at a wall and sit in a corner rocking and back and forth.

This game is a couple of years old now and has already been enjoyed by over 12 million people on Android and iOS. Based on this success the developer behind Blast Monkeys, Yobonja, has released a sequel called Blast Monkeys Forever which comes with even more features and a new game concept called “infinite runner”.

Simon writes for UK money saving community Suppose.com

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The post Blast Monkeys for iPhone and Android | Guest Review appeared first on AppTrawler.

The objectives remain the same as the original, which is that players can build whatever reality they’d like, dealing with mobs of zombies, creepers, skeletons, pigs, cows and more. Worlds are finite like the Classic version, but there isn’t infinite water at the corners, which makes things a little more difficult. Otherwise, most of it is near the same, often being updated which is a plus to any mobile game.

Of course, the 3D game environment really drains the phone battery, so unless you are running on full charge or are plugged in, you might find your phone dying fairly quickly. For some, that’s enough to quit playing altogether instead of always compromising their phones uses.

Multiplayer is also an option and is cross platform from the Androis to iOS, but not between the demo and the full version. The cross platform ability is a huge pull, as it expands who you can play with to a better degree and lets you play with friends no matter what kind of phone they, or you, own.

Minecraft Pocket Edition is great for those who want to sculpt and create on the go. It is always being updated, which is more than can be said for most apps, and it is worth it for those who want to dabble before trying out the full PC or console games, or to whet fans’ appetites on the go.

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