Like most iOS games, there is something sad about Rhythm Thief. Born from a 3DS game about the aforementioned thief, this is a music game where you complete various mini-games in order to progress in a unimportant story comprised of three blocks of dialogue that almost have no impact on anything, something that probably was more akin to cutscenes in the original version. Why have story at all? To do so, you equip allies and fuse items and request friends like in other iOS games like Puzzle and Dragons, you collect premium currencies, hold auditions to spin the wheel on random gifts and other things of the sort that just distract you from the actual music games that are actually okay.
H:SA might be full of Halo story and characters, it might have a few good ideas here and there, but it's not a good game. I've had a frustrating experience with bad mission design, innapropriate gameplay systems and weird AI that made me stop playing way before the end of the game. I love twin stick shooters, but certain kind of challenges are left to other genres of videogames.
S&PA is a sad game, it's sad because the core concept of fighting with poker hands is interesting, but it's sad because of timers, premium currencies and 99.99$ best values. It's sad because of facebook requests, it's sad because of things you could buy to make the game too easy. At least it's sad and I'm not saying it doesn't have merit at all.
I thought that Farm For Your Life would be more than what it actually is. It's a bit of harvest moon with a bit of tower defense and some fruit ninja and one of these kitchen games thrown in for good measure. It's not a terribly bad game but it lacks direction for what is supposedly a story mode and the weird barter system didn't draw me in at all, instead making me feel like it's taking forever to unlock stuff.
Dwarven Den is barely a puzzle game; while the earlier levels might seem clever and lure players in with a slow difficulty curve, the game becomes quite difficult past a certain point which left me wondering about what 'puzzles' are when maps are randomly generated, resources are scarce and of course, sold for real money.
Crimsonland is a top-down twin stick shooter where you fight very large number of enemies with various weapons either in a quest mode where the enemies are predetermined to create different challenges or in a survival mode where you get experience points for killing stuff and unlock perks as you level-up. I had a blast Crimsonland although I find it quite difficult, sometimes only because of random number generation.
Storm Casters is pretty amazing. It's an action RPG on iOS with collectible card mechanics, level-ups and a bunch of different weapons and items to play with. I had a ton of fun during my time with this game because it blends solid gameplay and does not mess too much with the freemium tendrils that could have been stuck in every aspect of the game.
BattleBlock Theater is a platforming game where you need to collect gems in order to complete sets of level with an ever increasing amount of mechanics stacking on top of each other. This game is pretty quirky with the way it tells a story and it's also in general pretty good, although I've found that it wasn't focused enough in the platformer way or the puzzle way for my tastes.
Colosatron is a weird thing. I'm almost tempted to say that it's barely a game because of the limited input you have on it. You don't control the main character - a giant robot dragon rampaging around cities - but you rather work to improve it by adding weapons on it and by sometimes using one of two skills you can unlock after destroying the first capital. I've had some fun with it, altough it was mostly mindless and I never felt challenged at all by any of it.
Shovel Knight is a great game, Shovel Knight is an important game. From the success Kickstarter story came this little retro platformer that merges many old NES games together and adds modern sensibilities in order to create a neat little package that I had tons of fun playing through. Although - as most games usually are - not perfect, Shovel Knight is the best mash-up of Super Mario Brothers, DuckTales, Castlevania and Megaman I can think of right now.
Paperma is an okay little puzzle game where you fold paper around in order to fill a certain area of the screen with it. You have a limited number of moves to do so and a percentage score that tells you how much of the area you've filled - and how much of the outside area isn't filled. If you get stuck, you can buy hints that reveal the next move you should do. It's one of these calm puzzle games where you can solve a bunch of time while taking your time.
WildStar was very disappointing because I felt that it improved very little over World of Warcraft-era gameplay and systems. Yes, it did add a few things, but nothing that prevented me from being either overwhelmed by content spread across huge maps, stuck with no quests left to do or confused by some design decisions and apparently simple oversights that were had over a few systems across the game.
Battleheart Legacy is a fine iOS RPG that has some of the mechanics from the older Battleheart game. While it's predecessor was a series of RPG fights in single-screen rooms, this game is more of a complete adventure where you move around, fight random and scripted encounters, learn passive and active abilities for various classes, buy gear and complete quests. It was a good time even though I've had a few issues with it's mechanics and the way it told part of its story.
I've been very disappointed by MagRunner: Dark Pulse, the stuff I read about the game made it seemed like it was going to be much like portal and then at some point become scary/creepy/gory in some way shape or form, or involve monsters of some sort. After playing it for a few hours and being stuck at some puzzle at the beginning, I decided that I wasn't ready for what was to follow and didn't enjoy my time at all.
Tales of the Adventure Company is a game where you have to go through floors of grid dungeons in order to fight a boss, along the way you defeat random enemies with various powers and weaknesses, collect new party members and find potions to boost them. I had a good time with this game, although there are a few bugs here and there like keys appearing out of nowhere and interface layers piling up on top of each other for no reason.
Don't Starve is a survival game where you spawn in a new world every time and you need to gather materials, fight creatures and craft new things in order to progress through the various technologies and magics, all in the name of not being killed and not dying of starvation. Depending of how the world starts, you might be able to quickly get gold and get right along with the science machine - or you might be stuck between tombstones and spiders and die.
Angry Birds Epic might be a good game, it might just be. I would have gladly paid 10$ for that same product without the free to play junk, the unbalanced enemies and the random popups to try and bait you into clicking on ads. ABE might be a good game in a parallel universe, but in this one, it’s a neat idea flawed with greedy intentions.
The question is quite simple, did you enjoy The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing? Because there is no greater question about your love for Action RPGs or certain kind of games, TIAoVH2 is a direct sequel in story and actual game engine to the first game, for better or worse. I completed it in a few days, so it wasn’t bad by any stretch, but the problems I’ve found in the first game were still there - sometimes even amplified in some way.
There is not much to say about Demons vs Fairyland as it reminds me of many other tower defence games with a few things thrown in there to try and change the basic gameplay structure. I can’t say that I’m a fan of some of these things and while playing on easy, I’ve found the game too difficulty - a fact that is only exacerbated by the pay-to-win items you can buy.
Forge Quest is early access, that means the game is not completed yet. It also means that some of the issues I have with it could be fixed when the final product will be released. I had quite a fun time with this little hack and slash RPG, but it ended in a frustrating dungeon experience, brought by procedural generation of rooms, always an interesting mean to create replayability with the caveat of lacking hand-crafted expériences.