AppAdvice Game Of The Week For August 31, 2012
Every week, our staff will handpick a game from the past two weeks that we believe is a must-download for your iPhone or iPad. These games will always be from a wide variety of genres, but they are chosen because our own staff members love it and can’t quite put it down. So here are this week’s picks! Enjoy, and happy gaming!
Mikey Shorts
Everyone loves a good platformer, right? Our top game pick for this weekend is one of the best we’ve ever played: Mikey Shorts!
With Mikey Shorts, we’ve come to perfection for games based off of the old-school retro games of yore, like Super Mario Bros. What makes the game so good? The superb controls have a lot to do with it. They are placed perfectly on the screen, though you can move them if you want, and are the most responsive of any platformer game on the App Store. There are two buttons on the left for movement, and a jump and slide button on the right hand side. The controls are even perfect on the iPad as well.
Mikey Shorts features two game modes: Story and Challenge. In Story, your goal is to finish the levels as fast as you can. You will collect coins and hidden golden shorts along the way, and make sure to touch every statue that you come across, since you need them to break through the barriers. You get a star rating depending on how fast you finish.
Challenge mode just has a time limit and you must get to the end of the level before you are out of time. You can grab coins on the way, but it’s not necessary (and will probably slow you down). A lot of memorization is required for this mode, just like the classic titles.
And what can you do with all those coins that you end up hoarding? Spend them in the shop to get new faces, eyes, and head items for Mikey. If you have to run, you should do it in style, right?
Game Center is integrated for leaderboards and plenty of achievements. With the ability to compare your scores with your friends and strangers from all over the world, there’s definitely the competitive spirit here.
Our staff has become addicted to this amazing platformer, so we definitely recommend checking it out this weekend for some platforming fun!
Check out Juli’s original review here.
Honorable Mention
Lost Cities
Our Honorable Mention pick this week is Lost Cities, the new game from the fine folks that brought us Carcassonne. Unlike their first hit, Lost Cities is a card game that is similar to that of solitaire.
Lost Cities is a two-player card game that can be played with a computer opponent or another person through Game Center. Each player will have five lanes that are color coded for the lost city that they represent. There will be eight cards in each hand. To start an expedition, you will have to place the lowest possible card onto the game board — the lower you start with, the more cards you can add to that lane’s stack. Once a lane has the number 10 card in it, no further cards can be added.
Each lane will start with negative 20 points. As you add cards to an expedition, it will generate positive points. So, if you can plan it out, the points should end up being positive as you add cards. To make it even more challenging, there are wild cards that will double the value of each card placed in the lane, but it will add another negative 20 points as well, so be careful, as it is a double-edged sword.
The game will keep track of your wins and losses and other statistics. Even if you play with just computer opponents, it will prove to be a real challenge at times. Winning a game is dependent on drawing a good hand from the start and strategizing a plan. You do not need to play all five lanes either. But the real fun is playing with friends or strangers.
We’ve been playing this game quite often during the past week, and have been having quite a time with it. If you are a fan of strategy and card games, then give Lost Cities a try.
Check out Lory’s original review here.
For video coverage of these games in action, make sure to check out Robin’s AppAdvice Daily below!
