I hope you all had a good xmas and are going to have a good new year. Sorry for the lack of posts over the holiday period but here is some info about upcoming posts.
Game Review: Resident Evil 4
App Review: Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth
Movie Review: Alan Partridge Alpha Papa
Board Game Review: Settlers of Catan
If you have any requests about anything you would like reviewed then let me know and I will get onto it. Many of you will have got new consoles, devices or money for xmas and will want to know what to spend it on so if you want me to act as a tester for games for you, your kids or your friends then let me know what you want reviewed.
Happy New Year to all and keep pressing play, start and select.
The Skylanders brand has become extremely popular over the past few months with toys from the range being in high demand on the playground and Skylanders being a topic of great excitement for kids. I think it is this generation’s craze just like Pokemon was for mine.
Discovery: I first discovered this app on the top downloaded free app charts on the Google Play Store. Although it is free to play it does have many points for purchases just like most free apps on the market there has to be an area for monetisation. But parents do not fret about missing this, when first installing the app it lets you know that there are in-app purchases.
World Map, darkened islands around the edge can be unlocked through gaining levels and completing tasks
Gameplay: Players have an island which they have to build structures on, customise and create a home for their Skylanders. Spyro is the first Skylanders which many parents and kids will recognise from the highly successful Spyro games. For those of you unfamiliar with Skylanders it is based around Spyro’s world with the Skylanders being various other weird and wonderful characters who fight against evil.
Downloading: The app is quite a large download so ensure you have enough space on your mobile device otherwise you’ll have to do what I did and remove some installed apps to accommodate this one. The game starts relatively quickly after downloading all it needs to function and a tutorial guides the player through the story and gameplay. The narrator guides the player at every step for the first 15 minutes of the game, this is helpful for children in order for them to grasp the point of the game and the navigation between various menus and options.
Story: The story involves players rebuilding the kingdom on the lost islands after the War of Kaos destroyed many skylanders’ homes. The story and tutorial allow for players to become engaged and activated in the game in only a couple of minutes.
Aesthetics and achievements: The graphics and music is of a high level especially the graphics of the Skylanders heroes. Heroes are unlocked in the store at each level they progress, levels are gained through experience, and experience come from completing tasks set by the characters in your world.
Similar games: The game is similar to the Simpsons Tapped Out in that it involves players building their own world with familiar characters and sending them on quests. It is also similar to Farmville in that players must grow resources to complete tasks and speeding up growth, construction or tasks costs an in-game currency.
Difficulty: The game is set at an easy pace which makes it simple and quick to follow, and a levelling up system gives players a sense of progression.
Social: Players can share their achievements and the world they create through connecting to friends via Facebook, but as Facebook becomes less popular with teens and younger ages only time will tell to prove how successful this is. And with this game being set at a children’s level and Facebook having an age limit of 13 it doesn’t seem like a good social match-up.
Spending: Now for the dreaded spending section, the one’s parents hate the most. The various sources of in-game currency like energy, gold, and gems means that there are plenty of areas for Skylanders to monetise their audience. Buying 100 gems costs around £1.50 but 100 gems won’t get you too far, each Skylander hero costs at least 300 gems. As the Skylanders characters are the main attraction for this brand especially with boys it means parents will be pleaded with by their kids to fork out around £4.50 for a new hero.
This game will keep getting their kids to come back for more through tasks taking time to complete so like many games with a time-lapse mechanic going on this game aims to be a daily thing with players returning to complete tasks, send Skylanders heroes on adventures, grow crops, design their world and clicking Play, Start and Select.
Like many of you out there I loved the Batman Arkham games, even though I am yet to play Arkham Origins, so the prospect of another DC superhero based game which isn’t made out of Lego was a big draw.
The console game of Injustice Gods Among us is a Mortal Kombat style fighting game where players have the choice to play as one of any number of DC superheroes and villains. For those of you unfamiliar with DC this includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Lex Luthor, The Joker and many other bad-ass comic book characters. Fighting takes place in many stages where players can interact with various parts of the stage like pressing buttons or activating any other special features of a level to destroy your opponent in cinematic and epic ways.
Nightwing uses a power move against Deathstroke in gameplay footage.
So with this in mind and after seeing various video reviews on youtube pre-release I was pumped when I saw there was an app version too, and for free.
The app includes much of the same characters, but with a lot of elements simplified and dumbed down for the mobile game. Something which you would expect from a mobile game with limited control interface and limited game complexity due to platform. The controls are very simple tapping the screen to attack, swiping for combos and holding 2 fingers on the screen for a block form the basic 3 ways to control your character.
You have a choice of 3 superheroes and villains to join your team for one of very many 3 v 3 fights. The game allows simple switching between characters and combos and power moves are easily gained and each have a certain amount of cinematic execution. For example playing as Sinestro (from Green Lantern) when executing a power move a boulder flies down from the sky and hits your opponent’s body. The power moves are charged by rapidly tapping or swiping when prompted.
This game is a great teaser for the full game on PC or console and its basic interface is easy to follow and makes executing combos and power moves easy. As a free game it easily draws in fans of the comic book franchises and seems more action packed than the comparable Marvel games. After a while the gameplay does become repetitive and like other fighting games it becomes a button basher, but in this case a screen tapper and swiper. But I may be too early into the game to judge this.
Monetisation: This game encourages the buying of credits to unlock new characters instead of having to wait to unlock them via play or through the laborious task of collecting tokens per match. Happily this game doesn’t constantly prompt the player to buy every 5 minutes and doesn’t have any annoying adverts to click past. Although this is good for the player I’m not sure how much a draw there is for players to give the publishers Warner Bros their money. But it is an element which we have yet to see, I imagine unlocking Superman and Batman will take many many hours of slogging in the game if you want them for free.
Return loop: Injustice: Gods Among Us doesn’t seem at this early stage of playing to have any real draw for players to return. Whereas some games like Angry Birds offers free gifts every 24 hours or Candy Crush which has a time lapse mechanic to stop users from playing until they have waited half an hour or bought another life. The return loop of this game seems much like the console game, just return when you want. But with many users experiencing technical issues in their comments on reviews I doubt many players will return at all.
Progression: The game involves a simple levelling up system where the player can level up characters by gaining experience points each time they use a character in battle
Single Player: No multiplayer features are yet available but they are something, if possible, we would like to see with this app’s next update
Big: This app is fairly large, meaning that download can take a few minutes as opposed to more simple games. But you are downloading and loading a very detailed and great looking and playable app.
What they are missing: The ability to play against friends would be a great way to get people to want to come back and fight. Getting users to build their ultimate team to pit against strangers or friends, much like Clash of Clans. But I think this game is trying to stand out with its very simple and relaxed style as many of us will have had far too much of time lapses, adverts and constantly being told they need to spend money on the game.
Verdict: This game is a refreshing step away from simple match the colour games and ones which shove constant reminders or barriers you way to play. The graphics are great, fully using the mobile devices graphics capabilities to produce a beautiful app. But I am concerned that it’s relaxed and single player style will not draw the crowds and result Warner Bros with a rather tepid game on the market.
But it has potential, lots and lots. So download it and give it a try, after nearly a day of having this game I am already hooked constantly Playing, Starting and Selecting my new DC hero and villain team mates. I’m looking forward to see what new updates this app will release if any
Play, Start, Select 