LotusLand Studios Inc.

Published: February 27, 2010 Comment         Another month has gone by, and as usual there is a need for a roundup. February brought a lot of interesting games, and there are a couple of gems found within the roundup worthy of your attention. An Assassin in Orlandes – polished gamebook. I remember “playing” gamebooks as a kid. Making the correct choices following the story is a fun diversion. Is it a game? I am not so sure about that. You get to create your character by throwing a number of dice for vitality, attack and defence. Tapping the screen or shaking your device does the dice throwing, and I am not too keen on the animation/physics of the dice. They feel clunky, and as I can’t affect the outcome I would rather have a quick dice option letting me speed up the game. When “playing” the gamebook you battle using these dice, and at times battles drag on too long. You attack, the enemy defend, and at times this can go on for 20 turns if the dice refuse to roll your way. The actual gamebook is really good with an interesting story. It is a fresh book written for this application, and I feel entertained going through it. Graphics are good, and create a nice mood. Achievements, multiple endings and unlockable art cater for replay ability. If you are looking for something new in the gamebook world definitely consider An Assassin in Orlandes. Ghosts Attack – Fly around anywhere in the world Ghosts Attack is based on a really nifty idea: fly around chasing enemies using Google maps. You pilot a rover aided by Karl the technician. The movement controls are tilt based, and there is a slider for power and a touch fire button. Karl gives you different objectives, and it starts off kind of slow. What sets Ghosts Attack apart from all other games of the genre is the fact that the game takes a map from Google, and transforms it into a virtual reality level. Roads become the open areas, and buildings become walls. It is really cool to fly around seeing road names on the floor. You can enter any address into the map screen, or zooming around the Earth. I have been out flying around my own town, and even taken some flights through central London. The game feels a bit devoid of story, Read More

As a tabletop board game, Hive has been around since 2001. It draws inspiration from classic abstract strategy games like chess and shogi but does away with that pesky board (see also: Tile Chess). The iPhone/iPod touch app [US$1.99, iTunes link] brings everything from the physical version to your pocket, and if clever placement of bug-decorated pieces is your thing, the game is well worth the download – at least for a short while. The Game The rules of this two-player game are entirely simple. Each turn, you either add a piece to the hive (you can think of the hive as the board) or, if you've already placed your queen bee, you can move a piece in the hive. The object of the game is to surround your opponent's bee and, like in chess, each type of piece (different kinds of bugs) has its own movement abilities, so knowing when to move where is a challenge and certainly part of the fun. Beetles climb on other bugs, the ant runs around the hive, and so on.The full rules are detailed in the app's tutorial, or you can watch a video review after the jump (or get the rules PDF). Read on to discover if these bugs are the kind you want invading your iPhone. A game of Hive goes pretty quickly, taking anywhere between five and 30 minutes depending on how good you are and what level you're playing against. The app can save up to eight games so you'll always have room for any game that gets interrupted. The App Since Hive, like chess and many other abstract strategy games where all pieces and options are known at all times, is a game of perfect information, it works wonderfully as a two player app. In fact, if your tabletop board game shelves are already full of abstract games, there's really no reason any more to shell out the $25 or $30 for the physical copy when almost the same functionality – with quicker set up – can be had for $1.99 in the App Store. Heck, just the 2007 Mosquito expansion costs $10 in a store. There's no way an iPhone can replace an entire board game collection, but in this case, it makes more sense to have the app than the box. While the app doesn't offer a way to playing with multiple mosquito tiles, the game's visual Read More

I had planned on settling in tonight, sifting through the tons of emails we've received from developers who are planning to or have put their games on sale, and forming some kind of massive list... Only to discover that TouchArcade forum superstar and all around cool dude Djflippy had completely one-upped me, not only posting a thread with a remarkably comprehensive list, but also alphabetizing said list. All of these games are either on sale currently or either have prices that are currently being modified or will be changed shortly. If something you're looking for isn't the price that we've published, just check back later: There are some serious bargains to be had in that list, and most of these sales are only going to last through the day with some of them extending over the weekend. It's probably not a good idea to wait on downloading any of these games if you've been waiting for anything in the above list to go on sale. And once again, Djflippy, we salute you.   #13   Today, 10:12 AM Senior Member iPad 2, OS 4.x Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 830 Quote: Originally Posted by Yeah, it is becoming "*****" alright Honestly I'm scared might this be the last good year of releases? With the way gameloft is going and EA make the battlefield 3 app free to play, its not headed in the direction I would like.   #1   Today, 08:58 AM Senior Member iPhone 4, iOS 5.x Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Dreamland, [NZ] Posts: 1,522 Quote: The Game is out in New Zealand. It should be out in US at about 11 PM EST and Europe at around 12 AM UK time. Size of the app is 14 MB. Price in NZ is $5.29 which should translate to USD $3.99 click to enlarge Dr. Reiner Knizia's FiTS is based on Ravensburger's board game of the same name. FiTs challenges your tactical skills, and your luck! The aim of the game is to fill the game board with 16 different tiles. You can play alone or with a friend on the same iPad. Your challenge: find the courage to leave gaps! The right squares should be left uncovered in order to score more points. You should nevertheless block as many free squares as possible. Flip your tiles, mirror them or discard them. With the right tactics, overcome many challenges Read More

Hive, the well known game by John Yianni, is on the iPhone courtesy Lotusland Studios, Inc. This board game comes with a huge difference from other similar games, for there is no board here. The board is formed when the pieces are added to it, so we sort of build up the game as we play it. The main objective of the game is to add pieces in such a way that we are the first to surround the opponent’s Queen Bee. The game pieces are made up by other creatures, and each has got their own unique moves. I confess that reading the game rules overwhelmed me a little, but I guess the developers are simply trying to give a helping hand. The cool thing is that there is an indicator about where we can place a certain kind of piece, so that should be a useful tip for first-timers. The Queen Bee can be placed anytime from the first to the fourth turn. Once that is done with, we can choose to either place the other pieces or move them around when our turn comes. The Beetle has restricted movement, for it can move only one space at a time. Its unique feature is that it can move on top of the hive. The Grasshopper on the other hand, can jump over other pieces, but only to another space that is aligned in a straight row. Just as the Beetle can move one space, the Spider can move three places at once, but it has to stick to that number only. The Soldier Ant is the piece with the most flexibility, for it can move to any other position around the hive. But my personal preference is the Mosquito which can take on the move of any piece it is touching, except when it is touching another of its kind. We need to adhere to the One Hive Rule at all times. This rule dictates that all the pieces must be linked together. Another rule is that pieces can be moved only when they have the ability to slide into another position. This rule is an exception for the Beetle and the Grasshopper which do not have a sliding movement. While on the subject of rules, the developers have also put in a Tournament Rule which states that the Queen Bee cannot be placed as the first move in Read More