Another week another image-heavy, content-lite post from ol' Mr. Mech. Just been kicking along and letting the thoughts simmer in that noggin' of mine so for the time being let me introduce you to a new series here on TDMJ: What's Playin': Mobile Edition.
In this series I talk about games I'm playing at the moment. As you might surmise the "Mobile Edition" part means these are basically the games I'm currently playin' on my mobile devices.
Let's get to it!
First up is Inferno 2 by Radiangames. I played this first on the Xbox 360 a few years ago via the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. Inferno 2 is essentially what they call a "twin-stick" shooter, as in you control movement with one joystick on a controller and shoot with the other.
As you can see it's sparse and abstract but colorful. You play a ball that shoots other balls with smaller balls that tag along and shoot with you like the "options" from Gradius. As you kill enemies and advance through the games stages you gain experience points that you use to upgrade your weapons and abilities.
Here I'm dead because I play Inferno 2 on Inferno, the hardest difficulty level. The game throws lots of enemies at you and it gets chaotic pretty quickly. Difficult but very satisfying to clear out a level. It also has a light secret element in that some walls can be destroyed with missiles and lead to bonus exits, which take you to secret stages.
This is Jack n' Jill. I don't know who makes it but I get the feeling it's probably just a single person. Jack n' Jill is clearly a labor of love. It's a free game that you can pay a buck or so to remove the banner ad that displays at the top of the screen. The genre is of the "one-button" platformer type.
The little dude in the middle is you, Jack, and your goal in each stage is to navigate the level's obstacles to find Jill at the end. You tap the screen to start moving, and tap it again to make Jack jump. That's it as far as your mode of control. That pad to the left of Jack up there makes him bounce really high, which you use to reach those platforms above. Those cracked blocks crumble after you touch them and those spiky blocks up there kill you.
Jack can grab that shoe to go faster for a little bit but it wears off. In order to change direction you have to wait for Jack to hit a wall. You can also climb but wall jumping. Basically Jack n' Jill is a deviously simple to learn yet difficult to master platformer in which you simply tap tap tap to direct Jack through the obstacle course, picking up pellets for points, on his way to Jill. The game has several worlds each containing about 20 individual levels. As you can see I've only made it to 3-5 so far so it's possible there are even more tricks and traps and things the game hasn't shown me yet.
This is Helix. It's a game by a fellow named Michael Brough who is apparently a big deal in some circles in the indie scene. This is the first game of his I've played because another fellow I know from the internet, Andrew Toups, did the music and sound design for it.
Helix is an endless game but it has an ending, if you can wrap your head around that. Basically, the whole hook is encircling enemies. You're the little eye-ball thing and the enemies are everything else. Encircle an enemy to destroy it and gain a point. Gain enough points and you'll encounter a boss type character. Defeat that and survive long enough and you'll encounter another boss, and so on, until you finally beat the game. At which point it'll loop back to the beginning.
This is what the beginning of Brog Mode looks like. Brog Mode is the first of three modes, the others being Terror Mode and Vortex Mode. I'm still discovering all there to discover with this one but in Brog Mode the enemies aren't quite as numerous or as aggressive early on.
Some of the enemies are just passing through while others actively seek you out. Some of them are just there. You want to ignore the ones passing through while avoiding the ones that seek you out and try to grab the ones just there for easy points. It's all a fun dynamic. The other two modes feature slightly different takes on the same basic twist I just outlined, only they're harder and they have different music.
Helix has a badass soundtrack. Each mode is basically a different track. You can listen to each one here, here and here.
This is Limbo. Limbo is a puzzle-platformer with an evocative black and white aesthetic. This game first appeared on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace four or five years ago but now it's on a number of different platforms.
In Limbo you play as a little boy, or rather the silhouette of a little boy, with glowing white eyes as you make your way through the dark and frightening limbo world. You have to push boxes, hit switches, avoid monsters and try not to die by whatever environmental hazard you're about to encounter next.
I'm pretty far into the game but haven't quite finished it yet. As you get further in the puzzles get harder and harder to figure out. At the point I'm at I have to figure out how to get that box up there across an obstacle by flipping a set of switches that reverse the gravity in that particular area. It's a real trip alright.
This is a wonderful game called Goblin Sword. It's an action platformer designed purely for the touch screen smartphone device. In Goblin Sword you play an adventurer who must conquer the stages of each world: the forest, the castle, the cave, etc.
Each world has about 18 levels with one boss level and one secret level. Each level has five secrets to uncover: Two chests full of gems or other items and three chrystals. The gems are worth coins, which can also collect, which you use to buy new weapons or armor from the merchant.
Goblin Sword has a wonderful aesthetic style. Old school 16-bit style graphics but with great animations and music. You slash with your sword and press the jump button while in the air to do a double jump. In addition to lots of secrets the levels are also filled with traps like spiked platforms that rotate. It's a very addictive game to go back to "just one more time" to try and clear a level of secrets.
Finally we come to Xibalba. I don't know who made this but I am pretty sure it was just a single person. I read about it on the internet while researching different game development programs to develop mobile games with.
Xibalba is an FPS with an old school Doom type aesthetic. You move by moving your thumb around on the left side of the screen and look using the right, while tapping to shoot. It's a simple game and a simple formula but the action works and the animations are nice.
These screens are just from the first few levels, which take place on the bottom floor of the pyramid from the title screen. As you move up the floors they get a bit more sci-fi looking until you reach the boss at the top, which has a bit of a puzzle solving element to beating him.
Along the way you collect a shotgun to go along with your assault rifle, as well as a rocket launcher. You can pick up ammo and health packs along the way and there are probably six or so different enemy types.
If you want to know if any of these games are worth paying for to play I would give a resounding yes! I paid for all of them, except Xibalba because it was free and didn't give me an option to pay, and I haven't regretted a one of them. They're all excellent quality games in each of their respective genres and worth a spin any time you want take a big bite of quality gaming on the go.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
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