You%26rsquo;re overworked and underpaid, with a desk littered with TPS reports and a bright red stapler. Your girlfriend cheated on you and you%26rsquo;re miserable%26mdash;until a pop-up on your work computer lets you know that you%26rsquo;ve won a fabulous tropical vacation! Naturally, this ends up being a series of narrow shark, sea urchin, and giant squid escapes as you deep sea dive your way to treasure and assorted errands like retrieving an old dive shop owner%26rsquo;s sunken exercise tape. But that makes a better game than lying on a beach anyhow. You may have missed The Deep when it first came out, but like most hidden treasures, it%26rsquo;s held its value beautifully.

Each deep sea diving spot has an open-ended 2D map with that familiar and beloved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night feeling. At each spot, which will gradually open up on your world map after completing a variety of objectives, you%26rsquo;ll find treasure, items, and portals to other linked maps. Underwater, you%26rsquo;ll manipulate a series of different-color levers to open their corresponding doors. Keeping track of which objectives I needed to accomplish in each zone, then backtracking to progress further to my goals, reminded me of Metroid in all the right ways. I instinctively reached for graph paper and a pencil to track the pathways, that%26rsquo;s how old school this felt.

You%26rsquo;ll control your nameless diver with a facsimile of an analog stick, which appears on the lower left-hand corner of your iPhone. Though clutch, jerking movements can be difficult when enemies come into close contact, the controls feel natural and responsive. Later on, you%26rsquo;ll pick up upgrades like the harpoon gun, which require simply button tapping on the lower left of your screen. This all works together very smoothly.

Collecting treasure underwater will enable you to buy upgrades at the dive shop on shore, which will help you move faster, light up the area around you, and %26lsquo;splode rocks%26mdash;just to name a few. You can also increase your oxygen capacity, which is tied directly to your health. Get hit by an enemy, and you%26rsquo;ll lose a bit of oxygen. Swim up to sea level (the water lightens up beautifully as you swim towards the surface) and your oxygen will fill up as soon as you break the surface. Naturally, the more you stay under, the more you oxygen will deplete, so you%26rsquo;ll need to balance deep-sea exploration with just how much your lungs can take.

The hand-drawn look of The Deep is definitely unique. Goofy, off-their-meds starfish give you wistful/intimidating looks from their reef perches, and mutated fish descendants of The Simpsons%26rsquo; Blinky roam the depths. The background and foregrounds of each level are densely populated with unique illustrations, which can be a bit busy. Overall, though, I%26rsquo;m thrilled by the monumental scenery, which has a scope that would be fully at home in a bigger-budget Xbox Live/PlayStation Network/WiiWare title. In which other iPhone game can you fully traverse a multi-level underwater Mayan pyramid?

Even after putting The Deep to bed, I kept returning to prod the edges of the ocean, searching for secrets I had missed or stealing one more glimpse at a shark so dorky that had it been the one to fight Richard Dreyfuss, they could have subdued it by throwing a graphic calculator overboard. You won%26rsquo;t regret spending your four bucks on this instead of getting 80% of the way to owning a Quarter Pounder with Cheese Extra Value Meal.

May 27, 2010

The post iPhone game of the day: The Deep is like an underwater Metroid appeared first on Game News.

“Evil scientists are joining forces. We call them the League of Evil. We believe they are developing weapons of mass destruction! You must eliminate these scientists by any means necessary!” And with that simple exposition, you – a white t-shirt wearin’, blue jean sportin’, cyborg-armed Agent – set about platforming and decapi-punching your way through more than a hundred micro levels.

League of Evil is as simple as it is frustratingly hardcore. Imagine a portable Super Meat Boy, but with a punch button. You double- and wall-jump over spikes, lasers, turrets, soldiers and more boobie traps that would put ACME to shame, in order to reach the end-of-level scientist. Reaching these evil-doers is as cathartic as grabbing the flag at the end of each level in Super Mario Bros. Except this time, you punch their heads off and admire the resulting pixilated explosion. Glorious.

Like many iPhone games, touchscreen controls are a little wonky at first, but surprisingly tight. You’ll fumble a bit at the start, especially considering how precise jumps need to be. But eventually your fears and second guesses will melt away and you’ll have only yourself to blame for every death.

However, for a game so dedicated to nuanced platforming, it’s surprising League includes a punch button. Granted you’ll barely use the thing and the inclusion is certainly a nice way to differentiate from similar titles, but slightly shifting your right thumb from jump to punch can nonetheless be the sudden jolt that causes your death.

Each level awards you a star-rating based on time completed and there’s a secret briefcase to collect. Additional episodes contain levels that are themed-based: a set of super difficult stages and an episode that is “block”-themed. Yes, block-themed. Don’t worry, the game does an excellent job setting up the complicated plot.

Apr 18, 2011

The post iPhone review of the day: League of Evil – its like Super Meat Boy with a punch button appeared first on Game News.

We know, we know – you’ve had enough of match three puzzlers, right? We admit, the gaming world is drenched with them. It is possible to do one of two things with the genre, though: Throw in a twist, a la Puzzle Quest, or take the basic formula and do it better than everyone else. The latter applies with Liqua Pop, which looks absolutely gorgeous and offers simplistic, addictive gameplay.

Liqua Pop is going to impress you with looks right out of the gate, so be prepared for that. As you can see in the screens here, the game offers visions of vivid green leaves and crawling ladybugs as the backdrop to your adventure. The concept behind each level is basic: colored droplets of liquid will fall into your play space, and to pop them, you slide your finger around the board to pull the similarly colored ones together. By doing so, you’ll form a great big droplet you can either leave to burst by itself or pop deliberately by shaking the iPhone.

The strategy comes in when you start to time the way your droplets pop. Each has a little timer as it gets to a certain size. You have control over this timer, which is pretty cool. As mentioned before, you can pop it early with a shake, but you can also reset the timer to the start by double tapping the droplet. Manage it right, and you can pop several at the same time, which will earn you bonus points. The way you measure your progress through each level is by watching a little tree frog (ironically named Toadie), who crawls up a reed on the left side of the screen as you pop away. Rack up enough points, and he’ll crawl right into the next level, spiriting you along with him.

Is that all, you say? Not at all. Liqua Pop dices up the mix by adding bugs inside of the droplets, and they have special effects. The rainbow bug, for instance, enables you to turn all the droplets around you to the same color when you pop what it rests within, so using that strategy to your advantage will prove highly useful in later levels. As the bubbles fall more quickly, you’ll have to work faster or be forced to start again. Other bug types unlock too (a total of seven in all), such as the bomb bug, which creates a small explosion when freed and pops nearby drops. You’ll need all these as the difficulty ramps up, so be sure to master them early on. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for bugs that leave stuff behind that you don’t want on your board …

One of the only failings we could find with Liqua Pop was a lack of Gamecenter support, but otherwise it’s really a lot of fun to pick up and play. Controls are so simple a child could master them, and the fluid look joins with that effortlessly and makes for a very pleasant experience. We know you’ve played dozens of match three games, but this is one of the most visually pleasing ones you’re going to find.

Mar 23, 2011

The post iPhone review of the day: Liqua Pop – stunning puzzler looks like Bejeweled sexed up a lava lamp appeared first on Game News.