Price: $.99

Publisher: SteamPack

Reviewer: Nick Alfonse

Travel back in time to ancient Asia with SteamPack’s latest title, SamuraiTale, which tosses gamers into a story of vengeance and violence in traditional beat-em-up gameplay fashion. After the sword master, Detuka is murdered by assassins from Dark Crows, the young disciple Ryugetu sets out on a mission of redemption which is steeped in blood. Armed with just a samurai sword and his thirst for revenge, Ryugetu battles his way through the swarms of enemies in true hack and slash style.

SamuraiTale features our hero Ryugetu with his feet planted as if they were in cement, completely stationary like a statue in the center of the screen. Various enemies rush from either side, running at different speeds with unique attacks, requiring players to slash with precise timing in order to survive. A mistimed attack creates a delay where you’re left completely vulnerable, and with a strict “one and done” life meter, a single mistake pretty much means game over. Each of the four stages harbors a different boss character, with increasing difficulty and insane amounts of foes rushing towards you towards the latter moments of the game.

The animation is smooth and quick, with small spurts of blood leaping out from enemy assassin’s chests following a successful kill, as Ryugetu stands tall and poised in the face of death. In between levels, gamers are presented with some visual eye candy in the form of brilliantly drawn storyboards, accompanied with a few choppy blurbs of info about the story. As with many painfully obvious translated games, SamuraiTale has a couple English SNAFUs, including “Ryugetu finally gets the entrance of the castle,” or “Ryugetu finds that Dark Crows is not the only hit sqad (sic).” Seasoned gamers will know developers have been screwing this up since the 80s, but it’s still a clear lack of attention to detail, although not quite as side splittingly goofy as something along the lines of “All your base are belong to us.”

With a brimming soundtrack, SamuraiTale keeps the action pumping for as long as you can survive (which usually isn’t too long, unfortunately), and dots the background music with plenty of extra sound effects. The sound of enemy footsteps creeps up to Ryugetu, as a gritty slashing sound erupts with each kill, or a harsh metallic ping following a mistimed strike. Instead of recycling the same one or two tracks, SteamPack assembled a fairly full soundtrack, giving each stage and the menu screens their own dramatic, epic song.

Since Ryugetu doesn’t need to take a step in either direction, gamers will find themselves tapping up a storm in order to survive past the initial wave of Dark Crow assassins. Tap the lower portion of the screen on either side to attack low, and press the top part of the screen to strike high. Coordinating this is crucial, as certain enemies leap into the air while others charge on the ground, sometimes arriving within a split second of each other.

Grammar errors and jokes aside, SteamPack utilized the soundtrack and graphics to their advantage in an attempt to make a fairly one dimensional game more attractive than it actually is. In addition to the four stage story mode, there’s also an unlimited option which pits Ryugetu against a never ending onslaught of enemies, although the replay value here is pretty limited. However, for $0.99, I’m not exactly expecting SoulCalibur 5.

Overall Value for it’s $.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $2.99

Publisher: Chillingo

Predator is one of my favorite movies of all time.  Predator 2 wasn’t quite as good but still, it was pretty badass.  However, the movies that used the Predator name following those first 2 sucked.  I haven’t watch the newest movie but having just played the iPhone and iPod Touch game, Predators, I can tell you one thing for sure – it is a whole lot like the first two movies – in other words, it’s awesome.  The gratuitous blood, killing and weapons make this everything a Predator game should be.

Predators puts you in the position of a new recruit, but not of the humans hunting the Predators.  No – you are a recruit on the Predator home world.  Your mission is to kill every last one of those humans that have landed on your planet.  Luckily your elders give you all the training and weapons you need to do just that.  The game has about 25 levels that take several hours to beat.  The first five levels or so are basically there to teach you the basics of the gameplay.  In truth, this part of the game isn’t very fun.  Shortly thereafter, the real fun begins.

You begin with just the razor sharp Freddy Krueger looking blades that are attached to your wrists.  On the way, you will earn honor points for kills and different types of kills earn you more points.  These honor points will allow you to upgrade you weapons and make them even more powerful.  And all of the weapons from the movies are here including the throwing disk, the net gun, the plasma cannon, and more.  They all work brilliantly and give you a very real sense that you are a dominant predator on your planet.  As you rise in rank, you will literally be an army smashing force (as you should be) and it makes you feel powerful.  It’s a very good thing.

The graphics are a top down, 45 degree angle view.  All levels seem to be set in the jungle and unfortunately there isn’t much variety when it comes to the levels themselves.  You’ll notice a tree here or there in a different place but that is about it.  That being said, the graphics are very nicely done and chopping bodies in half or pulling a person’s head off (for a Trophy Kill) are all in the game.  If it sounds incredibly violent, it is.  But, if you have ever watched the first two movies, you should feel right at home.

The music is a jungle beat that is continuously looped throughout the game.  It does get tiring after a while but likely you’ll be so involved in the nonstop action that you won’t notice too much.  The rest of the sounds are very well done.  All of the weapons make the appropriate sounds and when it rains, you’ll hear excellent background effects as well.

Raining is actually one of the things the game creates to force you not to be absolutely dominant.  You see, you also have the Predator’s ability to turn invisible and use thermal vision.  Turning yourself invisible sucks out a bit of energy (you have a battery that powers up when you are not using it) but it makes it extremely easy to kill someone.  The rain however makes it so your ability to turn invisible is all but gone.  You’ll get maybe a second of invisibility as opposed to 15 seconds or so without the rain.  Many missions are done in the rain to prohibit you from cutting everyone down using your stealth generator (invisibility).

All in all, if you are a fan of the series, I don’t see how you wouldn’t like this game.  It is fast, ferocious, and full of violence.  You really feel superior to all of the enemies you face with their petty guns and knives.  Your ability to slice and dice them the way you want to really adds to the enjoyment.  And remember, if you feel bad about killing these guys, they are bad guys and they are invading your homeland.  As a Predator fan, I have had my share of disappointments in movie sequels and game adaptations.  This game awakened my old love of the series and I think that’s a very good thing.

Overall Value for it’s $2.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $1.99

Publisher: Chillingo

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As you might expect, in The Hero, you play a superhero.  Indeed, you have the ability to fly, an amazing physique and special powers that help you save one town at a time.  Loading up the game, the art and graphics instantly look like this one is going to be a ton of fun to play.  And it is, if you take it for what it is and not wish for what it is not.  This game has no real story and its missions are set at a blistering pace.  If you go in expecting to have a backstory, a strong nemesis, and realization of what it means to be a hero, you will be disappointed.  However, if you can go in and accept the game as a lightning fast action game with a hero shell, you’ll likely have a lot of fun.

The game begins in anytown USA.  As a hero, you need to ward off the bad guys, save the town from enormous insects, kill zombies and ninjas, among other enemies.  To do this, you fly around using your control pad and ram these creatures into oblivion.  Traveling at the speed of sound, you zoom around the map looking for flashing arrows showing you where the next danger is located.  The game is set on a 2d background with buildings that contain some of the citizens of the town (who all know who you are and are huge fans).  These fans help you keep your fame up which is what gives you your power.  Superman has the sun; you have a crowd’s admiration.  If you run out of fame, game over.  To keep your fame up, you need to destroy the bad guys, save falling babies, put out fires or give a hero worthy high five to your adoring fans who hang out of the building’s windows.

The graphics within the game are very well done.  Your hero looks like something straight out of Pixar’s The Incredibles.  Flying around the map certainly does give you a feeling of speed and power.  The animations are all well done for each type of enemy and overall, everything is extremely clean.  The sounds within the game, particularly the music, are also first class.  When it comes to presentation, this game is the tops.

The controls come in two varieties.  The default controls allow you to drag your finger in the direction you want to fly.  The alternate controls allow you to tilt your device in the direction you would like to fly.  In this case, the default virtual joystick controls work much better.  You also have 2 additional buttons that allow you to increase your flying speed and use your superhero power (of which there are 3).

Certainly this game gives you a lot of replay value.  15 different campaign levels, each of which have their own creatures to fight, a survival mode that is unlocked after completing a certain amount of the campaign, and 20 achievements that can be unlocked as well.  The only problem you may have with this game is that you want it to be much more than it is.  Someday I would love to see a superhero game on the App Store that allows you to go through a single storyline and save the day.  This isn’t it, but it is worth playing.

Overall Value for it’s $1.99 price point

Overall Value: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $9.99

Publisher: Capcom

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The Street Fighter series has made its first appearance on the App Store with Street Fighter 4 being released earlier this week.  It brings to the table all of the things you likely loved and/or hated about the series in the first place.  The old characters are all here including Ken, Ryu, Guile and Blanka.  The special combo moves are back as well including the phrases that go along with them.  That’s right; Ken’s “Ha-dou-ken!” and Guile’s “Sonic Boom” can be heard once again.  But for whatever reason, the magic behind the series just isn’t quite there for me.

Upon starting the game you have two different modes to choose from.  The first being Solo play while the other is Versus mode.  In Versus mode you have the ability to play head to head with another person using Bluetooth.  Solo mode is divided into several different categories.  In tournament play, you pick a character and fight your way through the A-list Street Fighter characters.  In dojo, you learn how to fight and use some of the special moves within the game.  The other 2 modes, free sparring and the training room, give you areas to practice your new found skills.

The tournament mode is the one I will focus on here because it is really the one the Street Fighter series in known for.  I started off playing with Ryu, who is a total badass.  I knew a few of the special combo moves and began fighting my way through the ladder of competitors.  Most of the controls within the fight are pretty well done considering you are playing on an iDevice.  However, when it comes to blocking a kick or a punch, or especially the dreaded special combo move, the controls can feel a bit sticky.  This game was really made for an arcade style controller and you can tell, but I think Capcom has mapped out the buttons as cleanly as possible.

The graphics within the game are nicely done.  They have certainly been upgraded since the last time I played a lot of Street Fighter during the SNES era.  However, I had hoped there may be some 3D thrown into the game but this is strictly a 2D game.  When you or the computer does a special combo move a cutscene is used and the camera zooms in very close on the character doing the combo.  Overall, this is a nice effect but it makes it hard for you to prepare to block for the move since you aren’t sure when the cutscene will disappear and you will be given back control of your character.

The sound within the game is really a mixed bag.  The music is fantastic; a nice techno beat that is played while in the menus.  I only wish it was carried over into the gameplay.  Instead we are left with awful one-liners from the characters after a win or a loss.  Playing as Ryu I must have heard 50 times (after literally every single round-not a whole battle, every round), “I still don’t have what it takes, I must train harder”.  What the hell?  Is this a Sega Genesis?  Do you only have a 4 Megabyte cartridge to work with?  You can play games on an iPhone/iPod touch that have all of the quality of a PSP game yet this game gives you the exact same line every single battle over and over again?  Yuck.

Overall, the game was a bit of a disappointment.  I guess I went in hoping that Street Fighter IV would not only let me relive the nostalgia of my youth (which it does), but also improve its gameplay since then in every other way.  It didn’t really do that.  This is a decent fighting game but some of the timing feels off and the controls feel a little stiff.  Still, when it comes to the iPhone or iPod Touch, you would be hard pressed to find a better straight up fighting game.  And it does have nostalgia going for it.  But for me, it’s not enough.  At its current $10 price tag. I would pass.

Overall Value for it’s $9.99 price point

Overall Value: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars