Another Free iPhone Games Review
The New Years Blowout
Another batch of iPhone Appsters has gotten together for a combined iPhone App Store promotion. Unlike the Appvent Calendar, most of these are discounted instead of free. Let's take a quick look at the games that have been discounted for this New Year's sale:
Steam Holiday Sale!
There's an amazing sale going on right now at Steam. Here's my current shopping cart:
- Zombie Driver $4.99
- Lucasarts Adventure Pack $2.49
- Time Gentlemen Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Double Pack $2.49
- Evil Genius $1.99
- AI War: Fleet Command $9.99
- Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II $19.99
- Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned $6.69
- AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! $7.49
- Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 $7.49
- Trine $7.99
- Killing Floor $4.99
Killing Floor is one of today's specials so I'll have to pick that up today if I want it. The others I'll wait until the 3rd to see if they become daily specials.
The Sky is Crawling with The Sky Crawlers
The Sky Crawlers
Directed by Mamoru Oshii, this movie is definitely more cerebral than the typical anime that becomes popular here in the US. I find it hard to review movies after just one watching but I'm going to to my best.
As you can see on the cover art there to the left, Oshii is credited with bringing us Ghost in the Shell. In his works, the viewer is transported to another world like our own but different in a few key ways. At first glance The Sky Crawlers could be taking place in one of the theaters of World War II. The opening features a beautifully rendered dogfight between a wing and a solo planes of a nondescript make and model. As the story progresses, the viewer is treated to unfolding layers of secrecy that both the audience and some of the characters are unaware of.
With the exception of the motherly mechanic, most of the characters are flat and undeveloped. They have the bare necessities required to get their role in the story across. If you want a movie with interactions between complex characters you will probably be disappointed. That's not to say that there isn't character interaction; the relationships between the key figures in the fighter squadron is integral to the story. The blank expressions on the box art inform us of the mood that Oshii strives to display on the screen.
iPhone Appvent Calendar in Review
It looks like Blacksmith Games is done with their free iPhone game a day promotion. Today, December 23, and tomorrow are reserved for their own promotions and contests. Today is a character design contest for their new game Plushed.
So how did we fare? I definitely came away with a few games that I'm going to keep on my phone. The two big winners that I really enjoy are Green Thumbs and MiniSquadron. They're a lot of fun and fit my gaming preferences. iBlast Moki I already owned and that is a blast! There are a few that I'm going to keep to play once in a while but I may not have actually spent money on. iPharaoh, Blimp, Totemo, Samurai, and polyhedra all fit the bill there.
Be sure to check out the post for my impressions on the full list of games offered during the appvent calendar event!
The iPhone Appvent Calendar Review – Are the Free Games Worth it?
Blacksmith Games' Appvent Calendar
You might be thinking to yourself that a free game is totally worth it. I argue that isn't always the case. My iPhone's screens are pretty full, and although I'm fine with storage space, I can imagine there are plenty of 8GB or original iPhone owners who are running a little low on bits. Then there's the time you spend downloading and trying a game to see if it's fun for you.
As I'm writing this introduction, we're on day 8 of blacksmithgames' Appvent Calendar 09. As an advertising promotion in conjunction with other developers, they are dropping the price of a game each day till December 22 to $0, FREE for one day only. There also appears to be a random Featured Free Game in the upper left hand corner.
Continue reading for quick rundowns on the free games. I'll update this post when subsequent titles are released for free. This has to set some sort of record for number of iPhone game reviews in a single post.
Yah for Gunpla!
My good Hisui over at the Reverse Thieves briefly mentions his brief foray in to gunpla (usually refers to the building of Gundam Plastic Models). He went nuts in a good way and assembled a Perfect Grade original Gundam kit.
I've just started with my HG Guncannon kit. I saw it in the store and at around $20 fell within my impulse purchase range. It's pretty rare to see a Gundam kit this far north in New York State. Take a look at his assembly, it's quite well done! Eventually I'll post about my experiences with my HG kit. I quickly finished a Strike Gundam 1/144 scale kit and promptly murdered it with heavy acrylic paint.
Removed from my iPhone Today
With all these holiday promotions and sales for iPhone games going on, I've run in to the problem of maxing out my iPhone at a full 11 screens of icons. Deleting some of my web page shortcuts has helped a little, but I need to clean house.
Below are some of the games that I deleted today to help clear up some screen space. They were all free to me but probably cost $0.99 now that their sales are over.
Hammer of Thor
Coming 11/18/2009!
Well, Wizkids Games finally posted an update on October 21 in the form of a press release to HCRealms. In it, they confirm the November 18, 2009 release date for the latest Marvel Heroclix set: Hammer of Thor. This is good and appreciated news since not much has been heard from them over the summer regarding the impending release.
For those that don't know, a little history. Heroclix was the second game in the Clix line of collectible miniature games from Wizkids Games. Topps bought the company in 2003 and eventually closed them down in November 2008. After some efforts of former employees to purchase the properties, NECA officially purchased Wizkids Games in September of 2009.
This first new set under NECA was already designed and good to go before Topps shut Wizkids Games down, so there shouldn't be too many changes to the way the game will be played. There are some new things though.
Borderlands: Most Multiplayer Fun Since Left4Dead
The Windows release for Borderlands finally dropped on October 26th for those of us the United States. I managed to convince 3 friends to go in on the Steam 4 pack with me. That brought the price down to $33 and change for each copy. It's an amazing deal.
This game deserves a full review but I'm going to be as concise as I possibly can here.
Some Minor Site Tweaks and Updates for Super Amazing Number One
I wanted to try out some new technologies so I added some CSS3 styled buttons to the site. They're very simple and you can see them as the "Continue Reading" and comments buttons.
I also found and installed a plugin for social bookmarking buttons. Right now I'm only showing them when you view a single post. They made the site look very cluttered on the list of posts pages. If I ever standardize on a longer lead-in for posts then maybe I can leave the social bookmarking buttons on the lists.
Please leave some feedback on the site changes if you like.
Pages
Calendar
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Feb | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Latest Tweet
Recent Comments
phatbhuda on Copyright in the Digital Download Era
nate on Copyright in the Digital Download Era
betarayblog on Spiderman 4 Cancelled!
Blogroll
- Bill’s Beta Ray Blog
- Charging Star Comics
- Epic Proportions
- phatbhuda's Lists
- Reverse Thieves
- The Great Concavity
- Zach Gets A Life 2009