Dead Trigger
Dead Trigger is a cracking first-person shoot ’em up from the folks at Madfinger who brought us Shadowgun. But while Shadowgun sags under the weight of a derivative storyline Dead Trigger simply invites you to shoot zombies in the head after a global undead apocalypse. This is easy in the two training levels as you have an M60 assault rifle. However, things get harder when all you have is a Colt 45 and your thumbs to gouge out eyes. The shambling flesh-eaters come at you in wave after wave – thankfully, there's a radar – as you try to defend positions, gather supplies or carry out sundry other missions.
The control layout is carried over from Shadowgun, which is no bad thing and the adventures can sometimes get genuinely panic-filled and scary. A week after I paid 75p for the game, it became a freebie: bad for me but good for you. The game does feature in-app purchase for faster access to bigger guns but you can ignore these with no real loss of enjoyment.
Reg Rating 95%
Elastic World
It’s the simple ideas that often are the best, Angry Birds being a case in point. Elastic World is, if anything, even simpler. What you have to do is tap the screen to make the various shapes expand or contract – one tap equals one fixed and screen-wide action – and so bounce a ball or balls to hit a star or stars. That’s it. The fun comes courtesy of a physics model that is a work of near genius.
If it was just a tad too sloppy or too tight the game would be dull and unplayable, but it’s just right. Bouncing the ball up and down, back and forth until you achieve the just the right speed, angle and height is surprisingly absorbing. This is the very essence of casual gaming and made all the more enjoyable by the bouncy-bouncy sound effects.
Reg Rating 90%
Next page: Machinarium
COMMENTS
Better than all the aforementioned games:
ScummVM and a bunch of old point and clicks. I really don't know why developers aren't making native adventure games for Android already, the ergonomics are ideal for it.
Machinarium
> but I found this puzzler extraordinarily difficult and was constantly rummaging about on the web for walkthroughs
Use the little book icon on the menu. You play a little maze game with the key in order to unlock the book which then gives you useful hints.
Don't be put off by the the fact that the game can be challenging; the music, the art work and the way the story is told is absolutley superb.
Missing a few points.
Some goodies on the list but your review missed massive factors.
Strike fleet omega is a freemium game, impossible to progress after a while because upgrades cost. You have to unlock mega credits (cube like things) and you get maybe 2 or 3 in later levels, if you are quick and good. However you need 40 or so to buy chepaest upgrades (try an artillery ship to level 3, or buy the advanced fighter carriers)
It is only thanks to peer pressure that replaying early levels unlocks 'material' allowing a replay value, otherwise you wouldn't be able to progress or upgrade either. And replaying early leavels actually require you to spend mega credits on the doomsday weapo as a demonstration on how to use it. Seriously bad game if you don't want to spend real money on a suppodesly free game.
Now I support free games, but I worked it out that it would be over 20 quid if you want to be able to upgrade and but enough to get the all the ships.
Radiant HD as well is a must purchase or you will struggle, half those turrets you show in your screen shot are a purchase only affair with unlock packs. Only a quid each or so, but there are 5 or 6 of them.
I thnk the main thing is...
I think the main thing for tablet/phone gaming is that it's something to fill dead time - "I have 40 minutes until my flight boards, what shall I do with this time?"
To that end, IMHO games need to be:
1) quick. I should be able to complete a game or two during that time
2) resumable - when they say "group 4 may now board" I need to be able to shut the game down without losing a great deal of work.
3) absorbing, but not too absorbing: it should entertain me but not keep me from hearing the previously mentioned boarding announcement.
It seems that many of the games in this article meet those requirements, which is good.
And another..
Don't forget 'Great Little War Game' and its follow-ups.
My girlfriend is always complaining that I spend more time playing this than talking to her. But then, pretty much anything is better than talking about fluffy kittens / pretty dresses / celebrities, or whatever the hell else it is that women talk about.
