2D platformers are very popular on mobile devices.  One might say it is over-saturated but the truth is your game just has to stand out to be noticed.  Shiny the Firefly, an Android game from Headup Games, did hog the spotlight at first but flew under the radar after some time.

You control an adorable firefly named Shiny.  He may be cute and small but he definitely has a big heart.  He’s the kind of parent that will do anything to rescue his babies.  Yes, the objective of this casual game is to help Shiny locate his children scattered in the gardens.  How did it happen?  Well, it was sort of an accident as the babies were playing in the backyard when suddenly the sprinklers turned on.  How unfortunate!  To successfully save them, you have to fly through beautiful grounds, fight those deadly mosquitoes, watchful wasps doing rounds, starving frogs, long centipedes and other little garden occupants like spiders and bees.

Shiny The Firefly features an easy to understand controls.  If you are familiar with point-and-click adventure games, you will feel at home.  Just tap on the area you want to go and Shiny we’ll gladly follow.  His pace is a little slow so if you need for him to hurry up, simply double tap and watch him burst.  You could also use his ability to good use by breaking walls and pushing rocks.  Along the way, you collect coins and solve tricky situations like having the need to plug a water hole for you to advance or to fight off the waves of mosquitoes.  This just gives you additional challenge in each level.  You could also pick-up seeds which you can throw at your enemies.  Throw the seed easily by touching Shiny and then drag your finger to the direction of the insect you want to kill.

Pay attention to the leaves with an exclamation point as it gives useful tips.  Also, monitor Shiny’s health as he only has three hearts.  He can get hit (including his babies) by the insects or water droplets.  Restore his health by finding heart in the garden.  When you are able to find your babies, click on their respective bubble and tap on Shiny to light him up.  In that way, his children will stick to him.  Finish the stage by returning the babies to their home via a plant that sucks your reunited family in.  At the end of each level, you will be graded with stars which will depend on if you rescued all the babies, got rid of all the insects, and if you beat the stage in a shorter period of time.  You may not need to rescue all of the babies, by the way.  There are four young fireflies in each level and you just need to save two.  If an ill-fated thing happens, like a wasp stinging one or two of your babies, you can still move on to the next stage.  Replay value of the game may be high if you want to get three stars in each level.

The puzzle adventure game boasts great animation as you can see Shiny showing his feelings.  If he’s happy, you will see him smile.  If he’s tired, you will see an exhausted look.  Also, the gardens are so beautiful you might mistake it for the ones you see in movies.  Yes, it has gorgeous graphics which are detailed up to the smallest part and really lovely that you might even compare to a Pixar film.  Further, it has an addictive gameplay in which you have to navigate three unique worlds spread out in 33 levels.  Fight a ton of insects, bosses and solve puzzles to help you reach goal of saving your kiddos.

What I didn’t like about the game is its pace.  I would understand if it’s slow for the early levels but I think it needs to pick up steam in the subsequent stages.  Moving around the gardens is tedious.  I just hope that Shiny doesn’t get tired easily.  Sometimes I felt like it was a chore just moving him from one place to another.  Kids and teens might like the pace but adults certainly could use a little more oomph.

Even with its flaws, I still think Shiny the Firefly warrants a try.  It really looks good on the surface thanks to its high-quality graphics but Shiny’s charm, though it attracted me in the beginning, quietly faded in the end.  Nevertheless, it is still a good puzzler that you could waste some of your time on.  Test your reflexes, timing and wit in this Android game.  Grab it now as it is currently on a 50% discount for only $0.99 (it has the price of $1.99 before the sale).

King’s Bounty: Legions comes with a lot of history, and almost lives up to it. The original game was released back in dawn of time circa 1990, and laid down a lot of the ground rules for what would evolve in to the long running Heroes of Might and Magic, a series which has eclipsed it’s predecessor. A Russian publisher, 1C  brought back the franchise eighteen years later, with the excellent PC game King’s Bounty: Legend and it’s direct sequel, Armored Princess.

I played both of those compulsively for weeks, so when I saw that there was King’s Bounty game available on android I jumped at the chance to to return once more to the world of Endoria and see if it was possible to recapture some of that turn based strategy magic.

Initial impressions of Legions are hampered somewhat by the loading times. I normally wouldn’t make much of a point of this in a review, but here they are excessively long. If you’re planning to have a quick skirmish on your daily commute, forget about it, you’ll have arrived by the time you set foot on the world map. If you do get that far, make sure you have a WiFi connection because this game is “always on.” When I noticed that the game was permanently connected to a server I rejoiced as I thought that this might be multiplayer game. It would certainly suit battles between real opponents as a key part of the game is building up your own personal army and getting the strategic balance between ranged and melee fighters just right. Challenging other players to see who had the best squad would have been a novel twist to the format, but alas it soon became apparent that this was a “digital rights” issue. Legions is a single player only experience.

But that’s what I came here for and I was keen to jump in. King’s Bounty: Legions much of the role playing aspect has been stripped away to focus more on the turn based combat. It’s no great loss as the battles have always been the core experience, but it would have been nice to have had at least a story to follow. The tutorial eases newcomers in nicely, explaining the army management and combat itself. You’re given a few basic units to start with; weak but numerous peasants and a hand full of archers. Battles are played out on a hex based board, with opposing armies starting at opposite ends. Your units are represented by a single instance of their type, and how many of each you have effectively become their hit points. The more hit points you have, the greater the damage done, which makes healing characters very important. From the start, you can either choose to attack if you’re in range, or move your men (and beasts) around the battlefield. Careful players will learn how to do both, and even put a unit in to defensive mode to delay their turn and gain the advantage over and advancing enemy.  It’s basically like chess to the power of ten, where you have to remember the unit specific moves and advantages. Knights are powerful but have limited range, peasants are cheap cannon fodder. With the sheer number  of available units to discover throughout the game, it’s never as simple as as choosing from a range/tank/heal delta; many units have attacks that cover a wide area, or use poison. Others can avoid the automatic counter-attacks or enter a rage mode at the expense of defense. The combinations are limitless and it’s up to you to find the army that works best for your play style.

The world map is where you’ll get quests which are governed by that mainstay of the free to play game, enery points. Every quest requires you to spend a few of these point from a limited, but slowly replenishing, reserve  You can of course opt to buy refills or “auras” which negate many of the inbuilt limitations. The game is fair when it comes to it’s monetization and you can have a decent run at it without spending a dime.

An interesting addition to the formula, connected to the game’s rebirth as free to play, is a crafting system. Rather than loot new armor and and weapons you can either purchase them or build them with materials awarded in combat. It adds an extra layer to the strategy and is something I would like to see included in the PC games.

It’s telling of the quality of the game that I’ve waited so long to talk about what it actually looks like. Even if this was a muddy grey mess of a game, rendered with all the creative skill of  roadkill, it would still be a compelling and thoughtful game. However King’s Bounty: Legions looks great. It’s bright, colorful and very well designed, using all of the assets of it’s PC big brother. The unique animations for the troops are fantastic and the whole thing just smacks of quality. Which no doubt accounts for he long loading times; there’s just so much to cram in to this game.

Great Big War Game is the third in what many consider the gold standard in turn based strategy games for mobile devices. The first two, Great Little War Game and its expansion Great Little War Game: All Out War still represent some of the best traditional war gaming on Android more than a year after their release. While the second game, All Out War was more of an expansion pack than a true sequel, Great Big War Game has been billed as the true next step for the beloved franchise. Unfortunately, as great as the game is, it still holds to much to its past and utilizes too many assets from the previous games to feel like a true sequel. Great Big War Game ends up feeling like yet another expansion, albeit one that includes one of the most sorely missed features from the last two games, online Multiplayer. Fortunately, this is enough to make the purchase a wise one for most strategy fans.

First, for the uninformed. Great Big War Game (and its predecessors) are turn based strategy war games, meaning players are tasked with raising funds, buying and deploying units, with the goal of conquering the map by destroying the headquarters of the other players. At their disposal players have eight infantry units (plus one more available in the DLC) ten vehicles, four planes/helicopters and six different ships. Spread throughout the map are oil fields that can be captured and are the primary source of income in the game, each player’s headquarters and a few barracks, factories, seaports and airports for building units.

So what does Great Big War Game offer war gamers? Everything has been brought to the next level with a MASSIVE single player campaign and a huge amount of maps for multiplayer or skirmishes against the AI. As if playing through the 40+ hour campaign and conquering the computer on land, sea and in the air in the nineteen skirmish maps isn’t enough, Rubicon has also packed in multiple DLC packages with more maps that can be played online or off. The amount of content here is almost overwhelming even if you discount the online multiplayer and only play offline. Great Big War Game is massive and will keep Strategy nuts busy for weeks, if not months. The online aspect, however, makes Great Big War Game’s replayability nearly infinite.

While Great Little War Game included pass and play multiplayer (don’t worry, that feature has made the jump) Great Big War Game finally takes it to the next level by allowing you to jump online and battle people across the globe and across platforms. The online community is vibrant for a mobile game and even now, months after its initial release, I had no problem finding a game even at 2am.

There is, however, one issue with the turn structure. Turn based online games have the convenient ability to not require gamers’ full attention. Great Big War Game takes full advantage of this and has no turn time limits. Not unlike Words with Friends or Draw Something, you are free to take your turn when you want, hours or even days after your opponent has moved. This works fine for the most part, since you can have multiple games running at once to keep you busy. However, and this may be my own personal preference, I like to stick to one game and concentrate on that one battle. Like trying to play multiple chess games at once, I often forget my plans and strategies while trying to juggle multiple battles, resulting in me making some pretty silly mistakes.

Leviathan: Warships by Paradox Interactive is another online, cross platform turn based strategy game, the way they dealt with the waiting issue was by providing multiple options for turn limits, from fifteen seconds to seven days, allowing players to set their own pace. Great Big War Game could have benefited greatly from a similar feature, as it stands its often more like playing a game by email than it is like playing someone in the same room as you. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a great feature and turns a great strategy game into an even greater one, it just isn’t as great as it could have been.

If Great Big War Game looks familiar, that is because it utilizes many of the same assets from the previous games, while that isn’t really a huge issue, it does detract from the “true sequel” claims made by the developer. Regardless, Great Little War Game is still one of the best strategies games on mobile platforms, and so it should come as no surprise that Great Big War Game manages to reach the same heights without really innovating on the structure set up by its predecessors. By adding online multiplayer they have included a compelling reason to buy the game even if gamers have played the first game and its expansion to completion.

Ultimately, if testing your strategic meddle online appeals to you, then there is no reason to pass on Great Big War Game. However, if you prefer to do your war gaming against computer opponents and you have already played through Great Little War game, you won’t find much here that you haven’t seen before, so it is up to you to decide if a new massive campaign and a few dozen extra maps are worth the asking price, and that probably depends on your burnout level with the first game.

As a follow up to the Game Woof review of the excellent 10000000 ,  Luca Redwood (@LucaRedwood) agreed to a short interview to explain some of the hurdles faced by an indie game designer when you’re the only one responsible for the game.

A sneak preview of the new update, ‘coming soon’.

GameWoof: What is your background in the games industry?

Luca Redwood: So, pretty much none. Before 10000000 was released and did so well I had a normal day job as a software dev. Even hearing it sounds a bit funny “In the games industry.” It’s always been my dream and I still can’t quite believe it.

GW:10000000 was an unexpected hit; will this allow you to continue developing games on your own terms?

LR: Yes, I think so. It’s done well enough that I can make some more games off the back of it and afford to experiment a bit, and I think that’s particularly useful – I don’t have to push something out of the door that I don’t think is ready or good. It’s a nice position to be in.

GW: Eighty-eight games is a one man operation, do you have any plans to expand your empire?

LR: I’m in two minds about that. On the one hand I think it would be nice because I’m deficient in a lot of skill areas. 10000000′s ugly retro look is more out of necessity as anything else, and I could probably make better stuff with other people – but I’m not sure I want that kind of responsibility, it entirely possible (probable?) the next things I do are terrible and I have to go back to a “real job.” I’m preparing myself for that but I wouldn’t want to do that to someone else. I can take some more risks if it’s just me.

GW: It took a while for the game to come to the Android, what are the challenges of developing for the platform?

LR: Ah, Android was a funny one, using Unity takes away a lot of the pain and makes it pretty easy. The problem was I never expected 10000000 to do well at all, I was expecting to coerce family and friends into buying  it and sell about 30 copies, so for the iOS release I took on a lot of technical debt and hardcoded a lot of assumptions, I had to go back and undo all of that. The main example of that is just catering to different screen sizes – point filtered pixel art, particularly text, doesn’t downscale well.

But, next time I imagine it’ll be much easier, I’ll be doing things in a more screen shape/size agnostic way. I was worried that all the myriad devices would behave slightly differently too, but that ended up not being a problem. I did a beta and fixed a few quirks, but generally it just works.

GW: Not having a publisher breathing down your neck, or being accountable to financiers has its benefits but what are the downsides of being solely responsible for development?

LR: Man, I’m so lucky, I’ve been given an opportunity that other indies would die for and in my opinion in many cases, deserve more. So I always feel bad about talking about the ‘downsides’ of living the dream, but they are there. I work harder and more than I’ve ever done in my life now, and a lot of time doing things that aren’t cutting code like marketing, support, necessary evils sure, but I’d rather be designing and developing every day. Also, I’m supporting my family with this venture so I’m still breathing down my own neck more than any publisher ever would. Even when 10000000 was selling well, I still had to make a decision “Do I go for this, or should I just take the money 10000000 made, and put in savings instead?” I’ve chose the riskier option so I really want to make it count.

GW: Phil Fish declined to release a patch for Fez, citing that the Xbox certification would have been too expensive. You’ve revised and tweaked the way 10000000 plays several times since launch, how easy is it for an independents to update their games on IOS and Android or even Steam, and would you consider making it available on consoles?

LR: To be honest, all the platforms are pretty good for this. I think Apple’s is supposed to be the worst with the opaque review system, but I’ve never had any problems with it. Steam is probably the best. So, for example, a player said they were having on the (Steam provided) forums, so I added him on Steam chat and had a talk trying to figure out the issue, I had an idea, did a build and within a couple of clicks had it uploaded to a parallel brand on Steam, I asked the user to switch to the password protected beta branch, he did and Steam automatically switched out some files, he told me the fix worked on chat so I promoted that fix to the main branch and suddenly all users had it – being able to do that is pretty incredible.

As for consoles (I was particularly thinking OUYA at the time), I tried to make it work with gamepad. It is such a timing sensitive game that I haven’t yet found a way to make it work, and I don’t want to release it half arsed. I think it would work on Nintendo portables or the Vita, but I’m not too sure how to get into that.

GW: What kind of help did Apple or Google give you and did this change when the game became successful?

LR: Well, I got some features from Apple which was great because I had done zero marketing so they didn’t even know about the game until it hit the stores and took off so that was great, I was featured in their best of 2012 lineup too which as great, but I’ve never actually heard from them. With Google, I guess I had a decent game going in so they ended up getting in contact with me and offered some good suggestions which was cool.

GW: You’ve had unanimously positive reviews for the game, including on GameWoof; what were you expecting the critical reaction to the game to be?

LR: Hah! I wasn’t expecting any critical reaction, I think I would have even been happy with negative reviews, if it still means people were playing the game, so I was thrilled, and still very shocked by the response.

GW: Is there one thing above all else that you have learned during the creation of 10000000 that has informed the way you’ll make games from now on?

LR: Yeah definitely. I was on the hardest of deadlines – before my daughter was born – to get 10000000 finished, but I don’t think I’m a super skilled game designer, I bruteforced it; I tend to think up something I’ve decided is awesome and make it, then realise it is actually rubbish. When time is running out it gets harder and harder to throw away something that maybe I’ve just spent that last two weeks of evenings and weekends on, but it was always the right decision. I still find it difficult, but I’m getting more comfortable with that now.

GW:What can we expect from you in the future? Will there be a 20000000?

LR: Well the expansion pack – a big free update – is coming soon. I’ve been saying ‘Soon’ since about last October, so take that with a pinch of salt, but It’s actually really coming together now. It’s taking a long time because I’m still doing the thing of iterating and throwing stuff away, so I don’t really know when it will be finished yet, or even what it is yet. Still, these days the changes seem to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, so it looks like it might be firming up now. 20000000? 10000001? I’m not sure yet. I’d like to do something different at least after this update because I keep seeing tiles in my head.

Last week, I was flying quite high on Ouya excitement, but recent developments have cooled my jets a bit.  While I’m still pumped to play all sort of new games on the little box, I’m not as convinced about the system itself. Let’s go over the handful of worries I have about the console.

While I haven’t yet been able to play around with the Ouya, myself, some developers and backers have had access to their own for a while. So far, one of the chief complaints has been the system’s interface. It runs Android a reskinned version of Android 4.1 that certainly appears sleek and crisp, but even with the minimalist design, it reportedly moves between pages and loads items slowly. Obviously stuffing the box full of top-notch hardware wasn’t the point of this affordable home console, but whatever UI goes along with the low-cost tech needs to compliment it.  The Ouya doesn’t need to be really powerful, but it does need to feel modern. Slow is not modern.

Of course, interface issues can easily be addressed with system updates, but it might not get any better. The Xbox 360 gives us a good example of how UI improvements might look great, but actually make things chug along even slower and I’m sure you’ve also experienced some slowdown with your phone or other Android device after an update to the OS. Whatever happens, a little wait for loading here and there isn’t a deal breaker for most people, but it doesn’t help if it’s compounded on top of other technical hiccups.

If you’ve checked Gamewoof this past week, I’m sure you’ve already heard about the input issues with the Ouya controller’s joysticks. It was promptly fixed by a bit of code, anyway, but the question of the device’s quality remains. I’m excited to get my own two hands gripped around one of these things, but I’m nervous that I may just end up connecting my Xbox 360 or Ps3 controllers. It’s great that Ouya supports these other devices, but since the controller is the part of a system players interact with most, it’s important to get that bit right.

The unique shape reportedly doesn’t do much to cover what’s being described as a breakable feel. The thumbsticks move nicely, the  batteries hide well in the handles, and the trackpad helps with movement through the system menus, but if the controller feels like cheap plastic, the whole system is going to be thought of in that light. This piece of plastic also seems like it could be a bit confusing as the Y button is placed correctly, but the A button is in the usual B button spot and the O button is placed southwest of where the circle button is on a PS3 controller. This might not be an issue for first-time console owners, those who are adding the Ouya to a gang of boxes under their TV will certainly have that to get used to.

As the Ouya ditches the disc tray, the only way to get games is by downloading them from the store. Internet connectivity is so central to the system’s structure, then, that you’d think it would be fully-featured in that area. Unfortunately, it seems we will have to wait for friend lists, chat, and achievements to be patched in later this year. The turnaround for Ouya from Kickstarter project to retail product is an impressively speedy one, but launching without features that are now central to the increasingly connected hobby of gaming is kinda crazy.

The system will come with online multiplayer, but is it going to be fun to ply that way if I can’t chat with my friends and opponents? Am I going to have trouble getting games going with them when I don’t have them on any sort of list of friends? I prefer playing games with people who have joined me on my couch, anyway, but social features are a much bigger priority for some. Launching without them could scare some people away from picking one of these up before the next Microsoft and Sony systems steal consumers’ attention.

Speaking of new consoles, I’m not sure I want one every year. It might have been a misstep, letting people know the plan is to release a new revision of the Ouya annually. People much more knowledgeable about consumer habits than myself are certainly the ones who decided on this model, but it presents a few problems, or a few questions, at least. As newer hardware becomes cheaper, and makes it into the Ouya 2, are the games designed for the platform all going to work on both systems? When new tech gets built on, is it going to mean I need a new controller to go with the new box? Will developers who spend more than a year on their game be able to take advantage of all the power in the newest system, making it worth the upgrade?

This yearly hardware model has certainly worked for Apple and other device manufacturers without too much issue, but this is new territory for home consoles. Granted, the Ouya may only demand $100 from those who want to be running the newest system, but that becomes quite expensive over time. My Xbox 360 cost me a pretty penny at launch, but I’ve been able to play all the newest games for seven years now because of that large upfront payment. Gamers are constantly showing they’re willing to pay to be able to play, though, as long as the games are there.

My main concern over the newest of home consoles, though, is it’s lack of support. Ouya is unproven, and most developers are rightfully unsure about making games for a system that might not be in very many homes. The only way to fix this problem is time, but I’m not sure this little box will get as much as it needs to prove itself, especially if they want as all to re-up again next year. To sell, this thing needs to be more than the best and cheapest emulator; it needs a hit game. It needs a hit exclusive, actually.

Ouya, at some point, must get its Halo or Crash Bandicoot. It has to have something everybody is talking about and playing, something everyone can recognize when the main character is stamped on an ad. It won’t be a Mario, since it’s not likely be a first party title they’ve some up with, but someone has to make a game for  that everybody wants. The big titles on other home consoles won’t run on this little box, so simply being way cheaper won’t be enough. Doublefine throwing some ports onto the little box won’t be enough. Indie Darlings who meet their Kickstarter stretch goals adding support for the Android system won’t be enough. Someone needs to make a game for Ouya that people can’t get anywhere else, but finding a studio that can, and will, make a hit just for them will be tough.

Don’t let any of this keep you from investing in in this budget system come June 25th, but know what you’re getting for your hundred bucks. It isn’t a guarantee, for the reasons listed above and others, but that makes me as excited as I am nervous. The next Call of Duty won’t be coming to Ouya, but that means little studios that can’t compete with the big first-person shooters will. The hardware isn’t cutting edge, so those who create games to run on it will have to be really smart about what they do on it. Who knows what kind of creative, new ideas could come out of the smaller studios that adopt this little box for their game? I certainly don’t, but I’m eager to find out.

I’m not scared of the dark.  I mostly sleep with the lights turned off.  Horror stories, on the other hand, give me creeps.  Good thing, Emilly in Darkness is not a horror story.  This Android game is an old-school, top-down action-adventure title in which you control a female character named Emilly.  The story starts when she wakes up in a shady forest and was mysteriously shot by an unknown killer.  Luckily, she’s still alive.  She finds herself in a purgatory-type of environment where she faces demons, ghosts, skeletons, etc.  Your goal is to help Emilly find the answer by navigating her dark world – literally – as you only have a cone of light as your guide.  Find keys and get out of the labyrinth!

The gameplay is challenging in which you shoot blood, set traps, set off bombs and learn skills inside a maze.  Unfortunately, they could optimize the controls a bit.  Aside from the location of the buttons, joystick pad is on the lower left corner and an “A” and “B” button on the right, it is not easy to understand the other mechanics.  Aiming your blood against your enemies is tricky at first.  Also, I didn’t know that your next skill is setting a trap.  I thought that it’s just a marking tool to remind you where you have been since levels do not have any maps or indicators.  Further, you have the ability to detonate bombs though you don’t know which walls to blow up.  Lastly, you could talk with non-player characters (NPC), however, sometimes the translation gets lost with a little error and/or typo as well.  The dialog box also is a little small.  There’s one conversation where you couldn’t read the last line because of the text box.  I think a scroll button might help.

Emilly in Darkness features excellent graphics with unique hand-drawn visuals and nice cut scenes.  This Android game has spooky and somewhat eerie story that might pique your interest for some time due to a relatively short gameplay.

Back in the heyday of gaming (and by that I really mean my heyday) there were two seemingly universal rules to gaming. One was that if you couldn’t beat anyone else in a game, you could still beat your dad. The second was that licensed games always suck; but like Moore’s law, there has been increasing evidence that both of these rules no longer hold water. Gamers are getting older and for the past decade or so there have been an increasingly large number of quality games based off of beloved franchises. Batman games in particular have been a bright spot for gaming and it hasn’t hurt that this Renaissance has coincided with a string of Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan. The Dark Knight Rises for Android, however, is a good first attempt but doesn’t quite live up to the level of its inspiration.

Built ostensibly as an open-world adventure, The Dark Knight Rises is frustratingly linear. There simply isn’t enough for the Caped Crusader to do besides progress the main story by dutifully obeying the commands of Commissioner Gordon and Lucius Fox in pursuit of Bane, the dastardly villain of both the game and movie. This issue is further magnified by a battle system that sacrifices depth for accessibility and a story line that does little to make the player want to keep playing. That isn’t to say that there aren’t positives to The Dark Knight, there is a solid base to an entertaining game here, it just needed to ramp everything up one more level.

Gotham is large enough to seem like Gotham, which is important in any open world Batman game, and traversing the cityscape utilizing a combination of the grappling hook and cape is efficient and most importantly, is successful in making you feel like Batman. Getting from place to place is possibly the best part of the game, and seeing how far Batman could glide was one of the few side activities that was fun to play. The problem is when that thin veneer wears off you are left with an overly simplistic brawler with a few nice tricks and occasionally entertaining stealth elements.

A Batman brawler isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact Batman seems like a comic book  designed to be adapted into a beat-em-up, but the fighting system is simply too shallow to hold up over time. The biggest problem is the lack of variety, there is only one attack button in Batman Rises. That, a jump button, occasionally a gadget button, a grappling hook button, and a counter button that flashes when an enemy is about to attack are the only buttons available to players. The counter button is where the battle system is supposed to have some depth beyond just mindlessly tapping the attack button. Unfortunately, it actually has the opposite effect.

Other than guns and missiles, the counter will always work. It doesn’t matter how many enemies are around Batman, what he is doing or which way he is facing, when he is about to get attacked the counter button will appear on the screen and tapping it will always result in Batman countering the attack and turning his focus onto that enemy. What this boils down to is that once the enemies with projectile weapons are taken care of, players can simply mash the attack button without paying any attention to what Batman and his foes are doing and just wait for the counter button to flash and then tap it as quickly as possible. More often than not this is what I ended up doing. Fighting larger crowds of enemies didn’t mean the fight was going to be any tougher, it simply meant that it would last longer. I would carry on conversations with the people around me while fighting goons in The Dark Knight Rises because it was just so easy and repetitive.

Graphically The Dark Knight Rises is a mixed bag. While Batman himself looks impressive and as mentioned Gotham is sufficiently large, there is an alarmingly large amount of pop-up in this game, a fact only slightly negated by the fog and gloom of a Gotham under siege. The character models besides Batman also leave a lot to be desired. While it isn’t necessary to make every NPC as detailed as Batman, when Batman looks like a testament to the graphics engine but other major characters standing next to him look like they came out of a game made twelve years earlier, it is clear there are some balancing issues.

Open world games, however, are rarely known for their battling mechanics, or their graphics. It is the freedom they provide and the vast amount of activities available that makes them appealing. This is where The Dark Knight Rises falls flat on its face. Other than a variety of collectibles that require too large of a number and too low of a reward to make them worth collecting and a few achievements, there are only a few side missions for Batman to perform in his liberation of Gotham, and even those side missions are slight variations of the same thing.

While traveling around the city Batman will be given optional tasks of either disarming bombs, freeing hostages, sabotaging equipment or simply beating up all the goons in an area. Disarming the bombs and freeing the hostages are almost identical in their function but they at least require a bit of stealth and surprise that, at least for the first couple times, provide some challenge and enjoyment. Conversely, the other mission basically boil down to running around beating up groups of identical bad guys until Commissioner Gordon says the area is safe again. Making matters worse, the missions aren’t actually optional at all. Right before the final showdown with Bane, the game forces players to fly around the city performing the side mission multiple times in pursuit of Bane’s “generals.” It is obviously a cheap trick to increase playtime and it really takes the air out of the final battle with Bane.

Not that the battle itself would have been impressive. With the grappling hook, a variety of gadgets and the counter button, there was ample opportunity for epic boss battles that would have provided some spice to the otherwise mundane fighting elements. Unfortunately, the boss battles in The Dark Knight Rises are just as bland as fights against regular goons. When fighting some of Bane’s captains, I wasn’t even sure which particular character was supposed to be “the boss” since he looked and acted just like any other goon. Even the last battle boils down to the same “mash punch until you win” formula that will be an old hat by the time players get there.

The storyline, including the lead up to the final battle, does little to hide the more serious issues with the game. It is supposed to follow the movie’s storyline, and it does intersect with it at points, but there is hardly a narrative here at all. To its credit, the whole game is voice acted, and the artwork that connects the storyline together isn’t bad and is preferable to having the game’s atrocious in-game character models trying to act it out. Still, it is a barely serviceable storyline, meant to connect sections of action. Unfortunately that action just isn’t that good.

It isn’t that any aspect of the game is horrible, it is just that a mediocre storyline can’t carry sub-par action, and sub-par action can’t carry a mediocre storyline. Both elements are decent enough to be a part of a solid game, but neither element is strong enough to carry a game. If there was some variety here, and if Batman didn’t always seem like an errand boy for his Butler and the Commissioner Gordon, The Dark Knight Rises really could have been a welcome companion to the movie, as it stands its a sparsely populated GTA clone with a thin Batman facade.

At first glance, Drop 7 would appear to be just another tile-matching game. While this puzzler does involve placing tiles in such a way that it and others might disappear, it is completely set apart from the large crowd of lookalikes. Whether you like the somewhat mindless fun matching 3 or not, the things that make this game so unique might just win you over.

Originally developed by Area/Code Entertainment, the Drop 7 now carries the Zynga brand name along with the team that created it. Unlike other titles stamped with that little red dog, this one isn’t hampered by microtransactions or unnecessary social hooks. It’s three bucks, which seems steep for such a straight-forward puzzle game with so little flair, but the price of admission is worth it, if you like a good challenge

Demanding much more of your brain than most of it’s kin, the game asks players to drop number numbered circles onto a grid, one at a time, attempting to place the tile in a spot where either the row or the column it lands in will then have the number of tiles in it that matches the one in the bubble. For instance, if you’re given a four, you’ll want to try and drop it in a place where it can land fourth from the bottom of the screen or touch a group of only three sequential tiles of any sort in the same horizontal line. As difficult as Drop 7 is to explain, it’s far more difficult to master.

If you drop a six on the board and it doesn’t end up in a line of six going any direction, it just sits there. If you eventually clear or place other numbered bubbles in such a way that it has exactly six sequential neighbors, it will then disappear. When a number tiles is removed this way, Any gray circles around it get popped once. The second time a gray tile is popped, it turns into a random number tile.

Gray discs are randomly handed to you, instead of numbered circles, for you to drop where you’d like, but a whole row of them also appears at the bottom of the grid every time the player reaches a new level. Each level has fewer and fewer rounds, as the game progresses, so gray rows keep coming faster and faster. All these mechanics combined will end the first few games of anyone lacking a superhuman IQ pretty quickly. The setup allows players with experience to set up crazy combos, chaining together tons of disappearing circles and greatly increasing the score value of each.

In addition to striking the necessary puzzle game balance of easy to learn and  difficult to master, the systems at play also make the beginning of a round feel almost like a completely different game than what comes many levels later.  At start, you have room on the board to set up combos and focus on placing numbers where they go best. By the end, even though you still have all the time in the world to think about where a certain number should go, it becomes a game of survival as you hold back the oncoming unnumbered bubbles. They’ve crept up and stolen a large portion of the screen, by this point, and the barrier of small numbers stands between you and the gray horde, nearly impossible to delete  en masse. The game is slow and must be played methodically, but that makes every numbered tile feel important, even the ones falling on a nearly empty board at the start.

There are two additional modes that differ slightly from the main one, but each plays the same, just with a tweaked set up.  Hardcore gives you no gray bubbles to drop, but each level has a lot fewer turns, so more gray comes up from the ground quicker. Sequence acts as a scripted version of Normal mode, presenting every player on any device with the exact same stream of colored discs. Neither of the extra ways to play feels all that unique, but it allows for different scores to compare with others, in case you’re into that sort of thing. You can also connect to facebook to post scores, but this feature doesn’t shove itself in the faces of those who don’t care either.

Though three dollars may seem a bit expensive for such a minimalist puzzle game, it’s unique enough that I would still recommend it. The simple art and sound design compliments the complicated puzzle strategy in a way that each disappearing bubble feels like a big win. There’s not any crazy modes or bonus features, but the difficult puzzle at the core is unique enough to keep this one on your phone’s home page for a long time. If you’re browsing the Google Play Store for puzzle games, looking for a brainy challenge that matching three just can’t provide, look no further than Drop 7.

You know what has eluded me in human history?  Why we decided to take something as difficult to get into as the coconut and thought “We should eat this”.  Now, I’m not saying I’m not grateful to our long lost ancestors for thinking this (I love me some coconut), but it’s still baffling to me.  Anytime I’ve ever bought one whole, I feel like I end up using power tools to get into it.  However, it appears Mr. T has a relative in Panama who has solved the riddle of the coconut; just open it with your teeth. Yes, a cab driver in Panama who dresses exactly like the aforementioned member of the A-Team has been opening coconuts with his teeth since the age of 11. Wow, that simply amazing.  I can barely open a plastic bag with my teeth, let alone even attempting to open a coconut.

I bet the fine folks behind the OUYA wish someone on their staff could open a coconut with their teeth, as it appears someone isn’t doing their job.  Really, at this point, I think the OUYA just needs some sort of positive news.  Maybe a coconut gnawing staff member might distract people from the OUYA’s latest issue; its controller.  Gamewoof’s own Ian DeMartino got the scoop with the latest problem with the OUYA controller not exactly having a full range of mobility.  According to members of the OUYA development community, including Eric Froemling, the problems lie within the firmware, making only %60 – %70 of the controller’s range of motion accessible.    However, like our coconut friend, Mr. Froemling has developed a way to fix this issue.  OUYA’s representatives also claim to have remedied this issue, though at this time, it still appears controllers have a problem working totally.

But, it seems there’s a price to pay for pre-lease hype when it comes to Android consoles.  If you’re Nvidia however, that phrase is taken quite literally.  Earlier this week, Nvidia announced the price point for its “Project Shield”, now just known as Shield, at a whopping $349 for it’s little device.  While the Nvidia Shield will not assemble the Avengers, it does have some impressive specs, including the Nvidia Tegra chip.  Its 5″ screen and controller combo can also play both Android and Steam games on it as well, though the steep price point, judged by internet reactions, isn’t going to warm over many consumers.

However, that doesn’t mean everything in the Android sphere is all bad.  Just this week, it was announced that Android developers will now be able to respond to comments left on an app or game in the Google Play store.  Gone are the days where consumers will leave comments, suggestions, opinions and the occasional intelligent commentary on a given Android app without the developer being able to respond outright within the comment fields, only to be able to idly stand by while the denizens wonder if said developer got their hopes and dreams.  Worry no more my fellow Android users! This move was made in hopes for devs to establish a better relationship with the user base, including letting users know when certain issues have been corrected or being addressed, reply rationally to good or bad remarks about the app and plenty more.

While were on the subject of Android developers, it seems EA has opened a new DICE studio in Los Angeles.  In addition to that news however, it also sounds as though they are bringing their popular Frostbite engine (used on many of their Battlefield titles) to the mobile platform.  There is a team specifically working on this engine, bringing titles to the iOS and Android platforms, calling this new version Frostbite Go.  This comes on the heels of EA making a giant push into the mobile platform.  We can only hope more big name developers follow suit!

Aiding in the development of games, mainly the gaming experience for users, were some big pieces of news coming out of the Google I/O conference.  The biggest, and the one that will impact Android gamers the most, is the announcement of the Google Play game service.  This new service will add leaderboards, cloud saves and even cross platform multiplayer.  Yes kids, that means Google is allowing you to decimate your iOS owning friends in multiplayer games shared between the two platforms.  Unlike achievements on Xbox live for example, however, Google isn’t making participation in the game service mandatory.  As of press, there are already games implementing this brand new service.

To expand on the cloud save idea, Google is also addressing the complaint via those cloud saves that users haven’t been able to take their saved game from their Android phone, for example, and continue from that point on, on whatever Android tablet they may own.  Now Google is allowing cloud data syncs between all devices with your account, which not only will eliminate having 80 notifications on your tablet that you’ve already cleared with your phone, but allowing you to save games to the cloud, allowing you to pick them up on any Android device linked up with your Google account.

And there are a couple of games coming out in the near future, hoping utilizing these new services from Google for Android:

• Elevator Hero
• Runescape 3 (as was mentioned last week)
• Little Green Archer
• Quadropus Rampage (which GameWoof will be reviewing!)

GameWoof caught up with Jesse Venbrux (@BitAteBit), head of Bit Ate Bit, the maker of an awesome platformer in the Play Store.  We reviewed their Android game, They Need to Be Fed 2, and our 4.5/5 Woof review made us want to find out more about the developer.  Get to know his thoughts on retro games, game development, self-publishing and their plan to release on OUYA.

First, could you tell us a little bit (no pun intended) of history of Bit Ate Bit?

We haven’t made much history yet!  When we started this year, we needed a company name, and my audio guy came up with “Bit Ate Bit”.  I think it’s a pun on “8 bit”.  We both like retro games, (although I think pixel art is often used just to appear cool – but I like the spirit and simplicity of old games), and I went with the name because I just like the logo with a dot eating another dot.  Maybe Dot Ate Dot would have been nice too.

Please tell us something more about yourself?

I grew up in a small town in the Netherlands, born to parents who met at an art academy.  I was always writing stories, making comics, board games, and later video games.  This hobby stayed with me because I enjoyed all the reactions from the internet so much, and eventually I would study Game Design & Development at the Utrecht School of the Arts.  I also took an interest in Japanese culture near the end of high school, travelled there a few times (+student exchange) and got a job at Q-Games in Kyoto after graduation.  This was a really great time, but I wanted to do more travelling and become financially free, so that is what I’m working on now.

I made the original They Need To Be Fed while doing my studies and published it together with YoYo Games right before joining Q-Games.

What made you decide to get into game development?

I was excited about games and game development in high school.  It allows me to be creative, and it is an ever changing market which is interesting to follow.  When I had to decide on a study I figured getting into this new field would be a great opportunity.

My other 2 ideas were to become an architect or a comic artist, but I wasn’t too experienced with either.  As a comic artist I was guaranteed to make little money, and as an architect I imagined it would be hard to unleash all my creativity (not every architect gets to build big amazing buildings).

What can players expect from They Need to be Fed 2?

A solid and innovative platformer game.  And it looks pretty slick.

The game looks to be very well polished. You used which game engine, btw?

The game was made with Game Maker Studio.

Before, They Need to be Fed was published by YoYo Games.  Now, it was published under Bit Ate Bit.  What did you do differently this time?

At the time of the first game, there was no option yet to self-publish with Game Maker (which is being developed by YoYo Games).  I worked together with YoYo Games to be part of the first couple games they released.  Since last year, the possibility exists to self-publish so I’m doing this to have full control over my work.

The epic mode is really epic.  What was the thinking behind the game mode?

I like very challenging and difficult levels myself, but I also wanted the game to be playable for all sorts of people.  The Epic mode is for advanced players.

When the sequel was being put together, was there anywhere else you looked or took inspiration from?

Like the original, I looked at existing platformer games such as Mario and Sonic, and looked for things I could use in my 360 gravity based gameplay.  You can see an enemy resembling the Thwomb from Mario and the little plants that shoot you far away are based on the springs in Sonic

How was the feedback so far?

Feedback has been excellent.  Some players named it their favorite mobile platformer, and I’m very happy about that.  Reviews have been very positive, with a couple critical ones as well, saying the game was a bit easy.  However, I know that for some players it is still very difficult, so it really depends on how seasoned a gamer you are.  It is hard to strike the right balance there.

Can we expect updates in the near term?

I am planning a version for PC/Mac, as well as the OUYA.  I want to include a new mode or new levels.  I am not sure yet what, but I hope to bring the new content over to the Android version later as well!

What do you think of the rumored Google Play Games, Android’s answer to Apple’s Game Center?

I think it’s great!  If it comes out I will be sure to implement it when I can.

What are your future plans for Bit Ate Bit?

To make more successful great games.

Lastly, did I miss something that you want to tell our readers?

Go buy They Need To Be Fed 1 & 2 if you haven’t already!

Thanks for the interview!

They Need To Be Fed 2 Bit Ate Bit Arcade & Action $ 1.95 Download