• Format: iPhone (version reviewed), iPad, Android
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: DNA-interactive
• Developer: DNA-interactive
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.dnadpk.com/dna-interactive/legacy/

Ever since the humble beginnings of the likes of Tetris, it has been proven that a certain type of person will find immeasurable pleasure in lining up shapes for points. Slightly more recently this same simple notion carried over to what is referred to as the ‘match-three’ genre, the most well known of which probably being Popcap’s Bejeweled games. In the same vein as the aforementioned game, DNA-interactive’s Legacy Mystery Mansion is a match-three title available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and also on Android phones.

The setting is pitched thus: you have inherited an ancient mansion from a distant relative (which may or may not be haunted to no discernible end either way) and must restore the building to its former glory by piecing together shattered antiquities. The entirety of this plot is given to you in the form of a letter when you begin the game, which admittedly isn’t exactly clear on what or how you are supposed to do much of anything. That isn’t to say that the match-three game type is complicated, just that it is not put forward in a conventional way.

When you are greeted with a grid based game board filled with four or five different types of object (which you can shift one space in any direction to try and create a row of three) you might instantly be inclined to aim for as high a score as possible like Bejeweled or others. However this is actually not the goal here. Scattered amongst all these shapes are unique parts of an antique, and the real goal is to funnel these pieces down to the very bottom of the board so that they are collected.

There isn’t clarity to explain this goal, nor is there any regarding the dice in the lower right (which mix up every panel on the board) or the brooms (which you can collect and use to erase a whole line in the grid). It feels like a couple of extra bits of text just mentioning these things would have gone a long way.

The mansion is broken into five areas, each having a different theme to the objects that appear in the game board and each of these areas have five total puzzles for a total of twenty five. These boards are varied well enough and colourful to a point, but the music feels like it drones on a bit and isn’t varied enough. Assuming only liberal use of the dice and brooms it can be quite challenging to get the antique pieces where they need to be – though it’s also safe to say that without using either you can frequently get stuck in a situation which you cannot win.

The game is clearly aware how important using the brooms can be, as you can buy them – as well as time boosters – from the in-game store for real money if you are so inclined; though we couldn’t possibly fathom why you would be. As an example: three brooms cost the same as buying the game.

Where fault can also be found is in the overall presentation of the game – it just comes across as boring. You might presume that if you are not a huge fan of the match-three genre this could be said for all of them, but it is obvious when an effort has been made and when it has not. Bejeweled is a colourful, loud, effect-laden match-three game with obvious goals, special gems and more to keep the player addicted. Even going further off the beaten track, effort can be found in a match-three game like Puzzle Quest which offered more by building an RPG structure on top. Legacy Mystery Mansion is as basic as it comes, isn’t fun enough, and perhaps worst of all misses the goal of creating the need to keep playing on.

Sadly, we struggled with some technical issues also. On iPhone (3GS model) the game would constantly slow to a crawl, stutter, and movements of the finger would struggle to be tracked – forcing a restart to fix it for a little while. The cause of this could not be pinned down, but we should point out that it did not seem to be present in the iPad version which we also tested.

Legacy Mystery Mansion is available for only £0.69 which is a reasonable price for a game which will not keep you coming back over a long period of time. However, compared to other superior match-three games also available at that same price it falls utterly short and should be avoided unless you are looking for a far more relaxed game within this genre.

Steve Jobs, the visionary chief executive and co-founder of techonology giant Apple, passed away earlier today at the age of 56, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jobs is credited with turning around the fortunes of Apple with the release of the iMac all-in-one computer. He then went on to revolutionise the music industry with the iPod, and shook up the mobile market with the iPhone – and the introduction of the App. Later he made the tablet computer popular with the iPad.

A statement released by Apple says: ”Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

A message on the Apple website says they have “lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being”.

RIP Steve Jobs 1955-2011

If we told you that we recently had a chance to play an open-world post-apocalyptic first-person shooter with an emphasis on RPG elements and bloody combat, you’d likely ask “Which one?” In this case it would be id Software’s very own Rage, available to play at QuakeCon 2011 and a title that has every chance to shoot itself in the foot. We had about an hour and a half to get acquainted with Rage, and despite the initial sense of unpleasant regurgitation, we had a good deal of fun.

The opening kicked off with a large meteor crashing into the earth (a flash of pre-apocalyptic action, we suppose), followed by chaos. Hiding in some sort of stasis pod seemed to be a logical move in this situation, and the protagonist did so. Upon emerging from the chamber, however, it was discovered that this was no silly episode of Futurama: the world was smashed up, blew up, and beat up with reckless abandon. We took control at this point but stood no chance against the mutant forces of awfulness, so it was a lucky break when a survivor took pity and helped us out.

He and a small band of resistors lived out their days in a junky yet welcoming gas station (also smashed up, blew up, and beat up) and invited us to stay. The offer of companionship and a chance to go kill lots of bad guys suited us just fine, so we wasted no time in loading our pistol and driving a four-wheeler into the unknown.

If this situation does not look appealing, Rage might not be for you.

Our buggy was faster than a man with a mutant on his tail (we would know), especially when the boost was activated. Flying up ramps and launching the poor driver into walls was exhilarating, but the controls felt a little squirrelly, especially when using the all-too-sensitive brakes. Still, it got the job done, and we roared our way through the semi-open world with eager anticipation.

The mini-map pointed the way via a handy dotted line, and we were soon in enemy territory; only a pistol stood between us and a horrible death as angry survivors attempted to murder us. The shooting felt both responsive and fluid, rewarding us for paying close attention to our foes. They hid behind cover of all sorts, sometimes taking us on with blindfire, to make good use of the grimy environment. The bolder ones (including those with flaming bats) charged us with all their might, but a sound smack to the head sent them spiralling away. However, they used melee attacks of their own, so spamming the punch button did us no favours.

The animation was a highlight of our experience. Enemies limped away when injured or even fell to the ground and tried to shoot at us from their prone position. Of course, gore flew every which way, specifically when grenades were in use. We also found ourselves a shotgun and some sharp blades that could be thrown through the air, upping the count of beheadings substantially.

It's not the muscles, the scars, the belt of grenades, or even the tank tattooed on his chest; that mustache commands respect.

Rage wasn’t very tough on Normal difficulty, but when we did finally go down, a mini-game was there to pull us from death’s icy grip. By dexterously aligning the thumb sticks and nailing the timing on some button presses, our health was refilled relative to our (sloppy) performance. Whether or not this skill can be abused as an easy way out remains to be seen, but it’s a neat addition on its own.

While Rage’s combat certainly hit the spot in terms of solid, tried-and-true shooting, there wasn’t anything especially original about it. There are, however, some light RPG additions to spice things up: for example, junk can be salvaged and combined to make brand new items. We made ourselves a device to break locks and a nifty scope for our pistol, both of which came in handy right away.

We sold the extra contents of our inventory back at the base, purchasing some healing kits in exchange. The locals were also willing to teach us how to use certain weapons and hand out missions to complete, the latter of which move the story forward. Tips during lengthy loading screens told us to head off the beaten path and explore, but most of these excursion ended with dead ends or invisible walls; often both. These early parts of Rage might be more confined than later portions, but we didn’t see a whole lot of open-ended opportunities.

Many mooses died for this manly costume to live.

For such a thoroughly apocalypsed world, Rage managed to look spiffy. Character models were detailed to an impressive degree, set in a dusty land under a glorious sky. It’s often ugly, sure — but that’s the point. Our main concern was the texture pop-in that plagued even the nearest of surfaces. We only had access to the PS3 version, but it could use some polishing up before hitting store shelves.

We weren’t blown away during our time with Rage, yet the intense fights kept us pushing forward and yearning for more. Ninety minutes was hardly enough time to dig into this promising game’s many layers — we didn’t even touch the racing or multiplayer — but it’ll have to work hard to dig itself out of the potentially stale genre pit. Keep your eyes open and your Acme Mutant Repellent at hand as we rapidly approach its October release date.

With Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime not long ago railing against the cheapness of mobile games (how dare they offer entertainment at pocket money prices!), an unofficial rivalry between Android/iTunes gaming and Nintendo handheld gaming has arisen. But where’s the best place to start if you’re bringing your first portable title to market? That’ll be Nintendo’s DS, according to V5 Play studio.

“DS has 150 million users, so it wasn’t too difficult to choose that console. The path to market on DS is more difficult than the equivalent on iTunes. But once a DS product reaches the shelves, I think it’s more likely the efforts will pay off than on iTunes.

Of course, we didn’t neglect the mobile and online market. At the moment, we’re porting the game to PC/iPhone/iPad and getting ready to try out in the iTunes lottery.”

They were talking to us about their upcoming debut May’s Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville. We’ll be publishing the interview in full within the next 48 hours, so watch this space. Find out, for example, what steps they’ve taken to accommodate players who aren’t keen on the hidden object and rhythm mini-games included; and why they currently have no plans to develop for the 3DS.

If you’re a fan of violent futuristic sports games based on Amiga classics brought to Apple devices, or think you could possibly be interested in such things, today is your lucky day.

Speedball 2 Evolution is now available on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It is the latest in the Speedball series that first landed on the Amiga in 1988, offering an updated, portable version that aims to retain all the hallmarks of the original but with fresh, new content bolted on.

“This great game just got a whole lot better,” says Jon Hare, the games creative director and CEO of Tower Studios. “The Bitmap Brothers classic is now available to a whole new generation of gamers. Retaining its intuitive, quick to learn brutal playability, the gameplay is as fresh and impressive today as ever. With all-new teams and competitions, plus multiplayer mode and a 10-season career mode, Speedball 2 is also deeper than ever before.”

There are two control methods on offer: the first being a joypad that replicates the original controls for all of the sport hardened veterans out there, and a new ‘tilt-the-device’ style of control that plays to the technology in your iDevice.

You can grab Speedball 2 Evolution from the App Store now for 59 whole pennies.

• Format: iPhone, (version reviewed), iPod Touch, iPad
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Revolution
• Developer: Revolution
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.revolution.co.uk/broken-sword2-ios.php?id=112

The original Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror was released in 1997 on PC and later on the original PlayStation. This Remastered edition on Apple’s hardware follows on from the successful release of Beneath a Steel Sky, and the original Broken Sword on iOS. Indeed Apple’s hardware lends itself very well to the ‘point-and-click’ graphic adventure game genre. So, does the Smoking Mirror update translate as well as previous titles?

How are you going to get out of this, with only a lipstick and a pair of ladies panties?

The Smoking Mirror reunites the original game’s protagonists George Stobbart and his girlfriend Nico Collard, in an adventure that spans several continents and involves a conspiracy surrounding Mayan folklore and a forthcoming eclipse. Basically the enemy of the story is trying to resurrect evil Mayan God Tezcatlipoca, and it’s up to our hero’s to make sure Tezcatlipoca stays trapped in the aforesaid Smoking Mirror.

The gameplay is a classic point-and-click adventure, with the player combining items to solve scenarios that the characters find themselves in. The scriptt is well written, with several memorable characters and plenty of humorous exchanges to lighten the mood. The sleazy General in particular is guaranteed to make you chuckle. The problems that you need to solve to progress are, for the most part, quite clever – and with a bit of thinking you should be able to solve them. There are however a couple that push logical thinking a bit too far, and we required the use of the built-in hints system to progress.

The artwork has been updated for this new Remastered version.

The hints system is a great addition to the game and stops any frustration that might creep in if you get completely stuck. You get four hints which give you clues on what to do next. The first one is subtle, but the final one basically tells you what you need to do. It works really well, and keeps the game flowing whenever you run into a brick wall, and are left trying to combine ladies panties with a poison dart!

While the problem solving is well utilised, we felt that there weren’t many actual puzzles to solve, with only one ‘proper’ one towards the end of the game involving two wheels and some Mayan symbols. This puzzle really tests you, a lot more than the earlier problem scenarios, and even with the hints system can be quite tricky to solve. A couple more of these types of puzzle would have been welcome.

One thing that annoyed on playthrough was that the touch screen controls didn’t work as well as we would’ve liked. There were several instances where we clicked the ‘action’ symbol and nothing happened; this was also prevalent when we pointed to where we wanted our character to walk, and again we were left cursing at our motionless avatar. It’s not a game breaker, and hopefully an app update will remedy this in the near future.

The characters find themselves in all kinds of trouble.

This new Remastered edition brings several enhancements including the hints system and improved graphics with fully animated facial expressions, along with high quality music and a diary. The game also allows you to play the game on other iOS devices, with your game save transferring over via Dropbox. Game Center integration is also included with achievements, which is a nice addition. The all-new interactive digital comic from well respected artist Dave Gibbons is also a nice touch, and is a fitting intro to the main game.

The Smoking Mirror is a great game, with a well crafted plot that keeps you playing, and some unforgettable characters. If you own an Apple iOS device then you really should give it a go. It’s heartening to see these old point-and-click adventures coming alive again on these new touch screen devices, and we hope that Revolution and others are encouraged to create new adventures through their continuing sales success.

Revolution Software have just announced that Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered is now available to download from Apple’s App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The Smoking Mirror is the sequel to the hugely successful Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars.

The graphics have been updated from the original and look stunning

Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered features an exclusive interactive digital comic from Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons, as well as enhancements to the original game that include enhanced graphics and facial expressions, a context-sensitive hint system, and diary. It also comes with Dropbox integration, and a cloud-based save system that will enable players to continue their adventure on iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad simultaneously. The game also includes Game Center compatibility, with a raft of in-game achievements and many other enhancements to the original classic adventure game. Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered is available now for £3.99 on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

• Format: iPhone (version reviewed), iPad
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Epic Games
• Developer: ChAIR
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.epicgames.com/infinityblade/

Infinity Blade has seen substantial success since its release just over a week ago, selling a reported 1.7 million in just four days. This was probably helped by the hype created by the free tech demo Epic Citadel released a month or two ago. They set the stage for what iPhones/Pads were capable of, giving the player a beautiful castle powered by Unreal Engine 3 to freely explore. Does Infinity Blade live up to what was promised?

The story is a little thin on the ground when you first start up. For whatever reason, your character has decided he wants to defeat the God King. Sadly, he dies fighting the God King’s bodyguard and then the story skips ahead 20 years to your character’s son looking for revenge. This then begins an endless cycle. Whether you achieve revenge or not you will always go to the next bloodline and face the God King again, with enemies getting stronger to match your increasing level and equipment.

To get the obvious out of the way: Infinity Blade is a very good looking game. It’s the best visuals on the iPhone/Pad for sure and runs smooth for the most part. In some ways it looks even better than Epic Citadel did, though it uses far more visual trickery. For one; you can’t free roam and must click certain sections of the screen to move into another area, and can only pan the camera around each area to search for hidden items.

The crux of Infinity Blade is in the sword fighting gameplay. There are a few side paths you can explore, but getting to the God King takes under 20 minutes. Clearly ChAIR were aiming to cut out the filler and just offer up sword duels in easy to handle chunks.

Using your trusty finger you can attack, parry, or press highlighted buttons on the screen to defend and dodge. The idea is to parry, block or dodge enough to get your opponent into a break state where you can then slash away without them being able to block.

The sword fighting is as intricate as you can get considering you are using a finger. To parry you can’t just slash at the time your opponent does – it needs to be in the direction that makes sense. You also can’t rely on blocking too much as your shield has a limited number of points that are reduced by each successful block within the battle. Thrown into the fighting mix are magic spells which require tracing of symbols on the screen, and a special move which basically gives you a free stun.

Were we to find fault in anything it would be small nit-picks. The buttons for dodging (at least on a phone screen) are very small and must be pressed exactly – if you slide onto or over them by mistake you will trigger a slash rather than a dodge and get smacked in the face.

The asking price for Infinity Blade is £3.59, which is fairly fair. A single playthrough will not take long, but it’s built in a way that encourages going back through, getting stronger each time. An update for it adding multiplayer, more enemies and areas to explore is in production (whether this is a free update is yet to be confirmed). If you fancy yourself as a finger fencer and like stunning portable graphics, you won’t go wrong with Infinity Blade.

Research firm EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich talks to Critical Gamer about how the success of Move, Kinect and the 3DS is crucial to the future of their respective companies. We also hear his thoughts on the likelihood of Apple entering the console race, and what next year is likely to hold.

We’ve seen a lot of aggressive hardware price cuts, both online and on the high street. This time of year, of course, is when stores and manufacturers get most competitive; so could we finally be on the brink of seeing one version of the PS3 – consistently the most expensive games console on the market – retailing for £199/$199?

“Don’t hold your breath.” says Divnich. “Unlike the previous generations, the goal this time is to increase the value of the consoles over time. We’ve seen this occur already through the implementation of larger hard-drives, Wi-Fi, and various online services.”

It’s a sharp and perhaps, for consumers, disturbing observation. The Wii came in at a very low price point, but held its value across retail for years; the various SKUs of the PS3 and Xbox 360, while occasionally more affordable, have actually mostly been designed to sustain or even increase the value of the machines. This should perhaps come as no surprise, when you take into consideration the fact that console manufacturers aim to make this generation last longer than the last.

However, “Due to its target market and its technology, Nintendo will always operate on a shorter console cycle. Which isn’t a bad strategy. The problem Sony and Microsoft are having is retro-fitting all these new services/technologies on to their platforms. With Nintendo, they tend to focus more on the “here and now”, which has obviously worked out well for them.”

Could this mean that Nintendo will be first to market with a new console?

Divinch goes on: “Most console cycles last no more than five years, but with us approaching the fifth year of the current and with no end in sight, the success of the Move and Kinect are critical to the success of this elongated cycle.” In other words, if Move and/or Kinect fail, we could see a new console from Sony and/or Microsoft sooner than anticipated.

One thing that he is sure of is that next year will see a focus on expanding online gaming services. “Microsoft’s big focus right now (along with Sony) is trying to create differentiating online services. Look at 2011 to be the year of online services growth.”

On the other hand, Nintendo may be more nervous about the imminent release of their 3DS than they’re letting on…

“For any company, the launch of a new platform is always critical. For a company like Nintendo, where nearly 100% of their revenue is derived from interactive entertainment, failure is simply not an option.”

And finally, when asked about the possibility of Apple bringing a dedicated gaming machine to market, Divinch replied:

“Looking at the current landscape, I do not believe there is any room for another major competitor. Apple will always perform well among casual and hardcore gamers by offering bite sized entertainment snacks, but I just don’t foresee any possibility where Apple becomes a serious contender in the space.”

Jesse Divinch is the Vice President of Analyst Services for EEDAR.

• Format: iPhone, iPod Touch
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Elite Systems
• Developer: Elite Systems
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.elite-systems.co.uk/elite/htdocs/user_home.php

It was with a nostalgic tear in our eyes, that we downloaded the ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection from Apple’s App Store. With the C64 App doing good business already, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a ZX Spectrum emulator for the iPhone. Thankfully Elite Systems have obliged with this new collection of retro games, but how do these old games play on this new generation of gadgets?

Included in this App are six games from the ZX Spectrum library. For 59p you get Turbo Esprit, Saboteur, Buggy Boy, Frank Bruno’s Boxing, Harrier Attack and the classic Chuckie Egg. Sadly the games have dated pretty badly, and the rose tinted spec(cy)s were quickly replaced with sadness at how some of these once great games had become nigh on unplayable on Apple’s touch screen device.

In the good old days, games came on tapes. None of that digital download nonsense.

What doesn’t help is the ill conceived control scheme which gives you eight directional buttons and a ‘fire’ button. It just feels a little unwieldy, and anyone with large sausage like fingers will struggle to control any of the games included with the touch screen control scheme. Having said that though, the developers are working on a new 8-way joystick control scheme, which will be available with the next crop of games at the end of October/beginning of November, so hopefully that will sort out these problems.

Buggy Boy hasn't worn well at all, and is almost unplayable now.

Although the controls are flawed, the emulation is spot on, with all the old glitchy graphics and sound effects replicated perfectly. The only thing missing is the 15 minute wait while a game loaded, and the error message that, sometimes, appeared as the game had finished loading. The loading ‘static’ noise that was well known throughout the 80s, as you waited on your game to load is included, for that authentic Speccy experience.

Although most of the included games are not wearing well, Chuckie Egg has aged a lot better than some of the other games in the collection and plays just as we remember it, as you control Henhouse Harry in a pretty decent platformer. Fingers crossed they release the much improved sequel Chuckie Egg 2 in a future update. Buggy Boy and Turbo Espirit fare badly in comparison, with sprites not being particularly well suited to 3D driving games of the time. Harrier Attack, which is a side scrolling shoot em up, can also be annoyingly difficult to play, and is certainly no R-Type. Frank Bruno’s boxing is a button basher of a boxing game that is pretty average and Saboteur, a precursor to stealth games like Splinter Cell, is quite frankly boring.

Ah those old rubber keys, they don't work very well on iPhone mind you.

Although the initial line-up of games is a tad underwhelming, Elite Systems are planning on bringing a lot more games to the emulator, and the good news is that they will be free to all users of the app. The plan is to bring out several volumes of games, with around 200 earmarked so far. Elite Systems will also be adding an in-App shop to the emulator, so you can expect to see some of the all-time classics from the largest publishers of the 80s to be released in this way. So the chances are you’ll find your favourite games of yesteryear at some point in the very near future.

For 59p it’s well worth a nostalgic glance, but don’t expect it to drag you away from Angry Birds for any great length of time. But as the developers say themselves, the App’s a work-in-progress, and we’re hopeful the next update will solve the issues that we’ve mentioned, and bring classic Speccy games back to the masses for a new generation to enjoy.