Review: ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX
February 24, 2010
Overview
ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX features 25 games for $0.99. This app is a good deal with multiple games to play, but some of these games are quickly designed and not worth replaying. There is an overabundance of titles in the ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX library that feature cartoon characters in violent settings. The idea of having multiple games in one app is a good one, and for this price, you can't really go wrong.Features
Here is our review game by game of the ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX library. They are scored at the end of each paragraph with 0 to 5 stars. We did go easy on these ratings, keeping in consideration that there are 25 games for $0.99. We hope this helps you find a few hidden gems! Iron Commando - A side-scrolling shooter with a virtual stick and shoot and jump buttons. This game brings nostalgia from original Nintendo
system games. Your enemies are both humanoids and square metal boxes with guns that track you and slowly fire, both of which are easily avoided and killed. You can find upgrades to your gun about every 15 seconds but lose them upon death. When you die, you have 3 seconds of invulnerability upon respawn and with a total of 3 lives. You might find yourself at the game-over screen quite quickly, but this doesn't take away from the overall fun feeling of this game. Iron Commando leaves lots of room to improve and hone your jumping, ducking, platform swapping, upgrade grabbing, bullet dodging, and shooting skills which means the replayability is pretty high. - 5 stars
Hired Gun - This sniper game hits the mark ! You are a 'hired gun' and given a picture of a target to kill (displaying different hat every level). You are in a city scape with cartoon figures walking within and without doors, windows, and on the street. When you see your target's hat you touch to zoom in then press the bottom right bullet button to fire. You have a total of one minute to get enough kills on your given target, and each kill will add 3 seconds or 6 seconds for a head-shot to your total time. You aim by moving your iPhone device. Hired Gun is super responsive and the controls just feel right, leaving you to enjoy your growing collection of head-shots! The graphics are simple but very stylistic and looks great. This game is not hard and you will find yourself quickly moving through the levels with a little concentration. - 5 stars
3-2-1 Jump! - A Doodle Jump replica. The graphics seem a bit out of focus but 3-2-1 Jump! takes the Doodle Jump idea and puts a whole new spin on it with really nice controls. There are upgrades available in boxes as you are jumping up such as rocket packs and springs but those question marks could also be hiding obstacles. I will leave it to you to explore those, suffice to say they are FUN to encounter! A surprise hit this game gives Doodle Jump a run for it's money. - 5 stars
iUFO Catcher - You control a claw just like the machines in the arcades with tilt control. The objective is to pluck cute stuffed animals from their moving platforms to gain points. This game is self evident and will hold your attention with bright fun graphics. One of the few light hearted games in the All-In-1 Gamebox library showing little to no violence. - 4 stars
iKungFu Master - A smooth running game with just enough leveling up and weapon upgrading as to not be annoying. With cartoon characters this game isn't much to look at but the gameplay is quite engaging. There are bosses at appropriate times and are actually fun to compete against then defeat. - 4 stars
Bubble Master - You play a little girl in a beautiful highly stylized dream world who has a grappling hook as a weapon to pop bubbles. The graphics are beautiful. There are other more difficult enemies in the sky that drop special bonuses when killed. The bubbles are hard to pop and it is easy to take damage from them especially since you can't fire and move at the same time, luckily this game has the redeeming quality of giving you a huge amount of life and lots of opportunities to grab huge chunks of life through bonuses. The background changes from day to night every 45 seconds with multiple color and scenery changes as you play. - 4 stars
AC-130 Spectre - You are aiming through the AC-130's gun camera with control of all 3 of it's super powerful weapons. This game has a super real appearance and even throws in some rag doll mechanics. If you are a fan of this airplane from it's multiple television documentaries or are intrigued by gun camera footage that flashes on the evening news, you might really enjoy this game. A main feature that adds a lot of accessibility is the option to control through either tilt or touch. The tilt controls are not very sensitive but acceptable and there is a field of vision limit that is not clearly marked. There are achievements that are seemingly not fully implemented and all 3 play modes are basically the same game play. - 3.5 stars
1945 Ace Destroyer - You are a pilot in 1945 destroying America's enemies in the world skies! This is a third person view flying game that has you tilting to maneuver your plane through waves of enemy planes coming at you and firing old school orange balls at you. The graphics are acceptable and the controls are very manageable. You have 2 weapons to choose from, a machine gun and torpedoes both of which never run out of ammo making this game accessible for a quick few minutes of casual play. - 3.5 stars
Robo Rush - Remember Mario Brothers for the Nintendo systems? Well, so does Robo Rush. They basically took the Mario idea and drew in some robots. You jump from under blocks to break them and gain their power ups, land on enemies to kill them, and jump over gaps in the side scrolling map. Despite the dreary colors, the familiar feeling will most likely see you replaying this title. - 3.5 stars
Hot Persuit - Your car rolls along the highway in this front scrolling game. You have access to all weapons right at the beginning but a limited amount of ammo. You are free to shoot any of the weapons in front of you and destroy enemy cars who shoot back at you giving this game an exciting overall feel. Hot Persuit is the exact same idea as 2009 Road Master but is light years ahead on gameplay and re-playability. - 3.5 stars
iSniper - This game has very precise manageable tilt controls and is really a breeze to control. The graphics however are poor. The background is out of focus when you zoom in and the enemies respawn in front of you then don't walk. This sniper game almost had it all with the perfect controls but has lost us with the lazy graphics. - 3 stars
Ancient War - You are in control of an army, clicking on which unit to build. As the food meter raises, you gain food points to spend on new units. The units come out and fight without any prompting from you. The objective is to break the other tribe's totem pole. When they are out of units you get to start to do damage to their home base totem pole. The only way to reach this is usually by using the "special" which rains meteors down and wipes out the offending army. There is a world map where you choose which tribe to battle next then select the difficulty, unlocking harder modes as you progress. You also gain money which you spend on access to new units slightly raising the replayability on Ancient War. - 3 stars
Star Marine - There are some cool features in this one. You are again a cartoon character but this time on a flat plane with all sorts of creatures moving quickly around you. The controls on this game are pretty unique and not immediately apparent. You need to hold down the fire button while spinning it around to adjust your aim, the movement button on the bottom left is your X Y axis movement. The guns grow in power quickly as you progress. This game also allows you to level up. With every level you need to click on the flashing number representing your level in order to upgrade your speed, power, and other upgrades. This game is a bit tough leaving room for skill. - 3 stars
Get Rich - Tilt to move in a stationary screen. You are a guy wearing sunglasses who runs around collecting money that is falling from the sky by letting it land on him. The coins fall faster, the hundred dollar bills have a varied fall speeds. There are also bad things falling out of the sky, avoid those stock crash charts at all costs or it's game over ! Interesting idea and well executed. Reasonable game play and no obvious control flaws. - 3 stars
Archer 3D - You lift your bow by holding down a virtual button, draw your arrow by holding another button and have about 3 seconds to aim with tilt controls. The problem is that this aiming circle is bigger than the target making this game difficult and on top of that you need to consider wind. You aim by moving your iPhone device but the game is not very responsive to your movements. As levels progress the targets get farther and farther making it even more difficult. Even though it is super satisfying to hit the bulls eye your time might be better spent with other games within the All-In-One Gamebox title. - 2.5 stars
Operation Wolf - A side scrolling first person shooter, possible? Yes. You will find yourself slowly walking along engaging enemies a both far and close distance. The controls are pretty nice and you can reasonably quickly acquire and destroy the enemy targets. The overall gameplay is engaging but the enemy has quite an advantage with distance and your ammo goes faster than your gun can land hits. You take damage from seemingly nowhere leaving you no recourse which is a terrible feeling as a gamer. - 2.5 stars
Hell Flyer - Another cartoon based side scrolling grappling hook game. Swing yourself through hell amidst reasonable graphics aiming to grapple on to floating blocks that all are the same shape and size, but don't miss a flick of the finger or you will burn in the lava for an instant game over. - 2 stars
Jail Breaker - This is a fast moving side-scroller. You are a cartoon figure who has to either jump or slide to avoid death as you negotiate bland obstacles. The high difficulty of this game might have you frustrated fast. The longer you hold down jump, the higher and farther you will jump, giving a bit of room for skill. Some people might find some fun in here but there is huge room for improvement with Jail Breaker. - 2 stars
Knight's Odyssey - This side-scroller has your cartoon character hacking through enemies as you take damage from catapults constantly shooting at you. You are held back until you clear your enemies then get an "onward" notification, but watch out for those spiky obstacles! You cannot attack and move at the same time making this one tough to play. The art in this game is better than most others in the ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX library. There are wizards and melee enemies but the over abundance of non kill-able obstacles makes Knight's Odyssey frustrating to play. - 2 stars
Bowman Defense - A base defense cartoon character based game. You are the last archer protecting the last castle, pretty cool story line. A shame that the game doesn't follow up with exciting game play. The controls have you pulling your finger across the screen over and over towards your character in order to fire and aim. There are weapon upgrades but the recharge time on the cool weapons is too long to make them effective and too short to make switching weapons feasible. - 2 stars
2009 Road Master - Responsive tilt controls is the only thing that makes this game worth opening. The screen scrolls by very fast and there is an overabundance of random unavoidable obstacles that will bring you from 200 m.p.h. to 0 and interrupt the flow of game play, not to mention waste one of your three total lives. With some major improvements this game could shine but for now it's a crash and burn. - 2 stars
Tomb Evader - Doodle Jump in reverse! Too bad the tilt controls are not very responsive. Your cartoon character drops down to avoid a ever falling spiked ball. There are random obstacles like conveyor belts and bats that will fly away. This game is lackluster from the over all look to the slow responding controls. - 2 stars
Climber - Another installation in the cartoon character series found in the ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX library. You will find your cartoon hero using a grappling hook to pull himself at a breakneck game-play speed upwards through a world of lackluster graphics. The only reason to play Climber for any amount of time is if you are a huge fan of the color red as that is the only background color you will see. - 1 star
iSign 365 - Now an independent app and is no longer playable through ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX despite still being shown as the last game. - 0 stars
