The Week That Was: 09/04/10 – 16/04/10

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By now all the iPad euphoria has worn off and we are getting back into the swing of things. It seems as if the iPad has been out forever and it is already getting ignored by a majority of new releases. For the 80 million of us with iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s we are lucky to still be getting great games every week. While the big players didn’t release anything this week, it has allowed for the smaller indie and mid-sized developers to shine this week with some great titles. Now let me try to put down Warpgate for an hour or two while I tell you all about the best games I found this week.

Warpgate – $4.99

I had heard so many positive reviews of Warpgate on the iPad. When it finally came to the iPhone I picked it up because of the hype, not because it looked like it would interest me personally. The game is basically you travelling around for hours on end trading commodities between over 30 solar systems while avoiding Pirates and other factions that want to kill you. It doesn’t sound all that great but the missions throughout the game are really what involves you in the whole process, as you do many odd jobs and missions which require the rest of the game to become second nature.

Everything you do in the game affect your standings with certain groups. Attacking a faction will make your rep go down with that group but doing a mission to help them will raise your rep. The trading system immerses you into a deep world of a huge stock market almost as you buy low and sell high to make as much money as possible to slowly upgrade to bigger ships and take over the whole galaxy. I didn’t expect to be as hooked as I am to this game. You will find yourself with so many hours of unlimited fun with Warpgate, one of the best games on the App Store by far.

Saving Private Sheep – $2.99

Saving Private Sheep sounds like another corny title that is actually just some average game like the rest of them. I then saw the screenshots and a trailer for the game and my whole perspective on this game changed. Playing this game pretty much is the answer to all those dreams we have where we just wished that Angry Birds had sheep in it. This game is pretty much the love child of Implode! and Angry Birds and what a great combination that is. With over 100 challenging levels and some excellent graphics, this makes for yet another excellent puzzle game.

To play Saving Private Sheep you must blow up boxes by tapping on them. However you blow them up will affect how your sheep moves, but he must land on the landing area. Sometimes the sheep has brown ears (IMPOSTER!) and these pretend sheep, also known as wolves, must not land on the landing area to beat the level. This game will challenge you from the very start but keep you wanting more right until the very end. Angry Birds and Implode fans will absolutely adore this game to pieces. If you have half a heart you would buy this game and save the sheep already.

IMO: The World of Magic – FREE

I was pretty excited at the chance of playing what to mean looked like the first reasonable online MMO. The Pocket Legends game looked alright, but I just couldn’t see it reasonably being stable with all those people online in a fully 3D environment. It looked good in theory but I can’t see that game being able to support everyone and not being seriously laggy or crash repeatedly. IMO takes us back to a more traditional RPG style game that incorporates a large environment to fight and trade with people worldwide. If anything let’s this game down it is actually knowing what to do.

There are absolutely no tutorials in this game, which is strange. I have never seen an online game where they don’t tell you what to do beforehand. Not only does it stop newbies shouting “WHAT DO I DOEZ ERE?” at everyone else but it makes the game more enjoyable from the very start. Once you work out this game it is actually quite a bit of fun as an online RPG. This isn’t really the type of game I can see myself making friends on like some MMO’s, but it is certainly a great start for those looking for a bit of online hack n slash. It’s free so no reason not to check it out.

Other Notable Releases this week Include:

Stranded Mysteries of Time by Glu Mobile

Go Karting by Funmiller

Football Manager Handheld 2010 by SEGA

PBA Bowling 2 by Concrete Software

Scarface Last Stand by Starwave

Kick-A*S The Game by WHA Entertainment

R.O.S.M (Revenge of the Summon Monsters) – $1.99

Stay tuned next week for the 27th installment of ‘The Week That Was’. If you have any suggestions to improve the segment please either email me at damon@razorianfly.com or submit a comment below. Thanks! 😀