retro

Review of Super Hydorah for iPhone and iPad: an ode to “alien” retro shooters of the 80s

14/01/2022 by

Are you a Gradius or R-Type fan? Do you like pixel retro graphics? Then you’ll love Super Hydorah, which was released on mobile a few months after the game’s release on PC and PS4/Vita.

Download Super Hydorah for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

Released in 2017, Super Hydorah has everything true fans of horizontal shoot ’em ups could ask for. The player moves forward towards the exit from left to right, avoiding obstacles, avoiding enemies and dodging bombs. If you are crazy about bursts of adrenaline and gambling to the point of trembling in your hands, Super Hydorah is the game for you!

In the game, you will control a spaceship that shoots automatically, so you only need to avoid obstacles and aim accurately. Don’t worry, you’ll have to work hard on other things (such as weapon customization, which we’ll cover below), so you won’t be bored. If you press both sides of the screen at the same time, the ship will stop firing. This feature comes in handy on levels where you don’t want to destroy certain objects, or want to know who is shooting where in the most intense firefights.

The parallax scrolling works great and you can zoom in on objects in all levels of the game and view them from different angles. That is, Super Hydorah is still not one hundred percent horizontal shooter. In addition, you can go back if you suddenly want to finish off the enemy or bomb the tower. However, this is not always possible, as different mechanics and layers are used at different levels.

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If I may say so, the game is polished to a shine. The spirit of retro blows not only from pixel graphics – “old school” is also added by a well-chosen soundtrack. There are explosion sound effects and other goodies that add to Super Hydorah’s 1980s tech noir vibe.

During the game, you will try on the role of a pilot fighting against alien invaders. The cost of Super Hydorah in the App Store is 529 rubles. Such a price may seem too high for a mobile game. However, do not forget that the mobile version is a fully ported version for desktops and consoles, which costs twice as much. Plus, the game looks great on iPads or larger iPhones.

Super Hydorah has two display modes – standard and CRT. The CRT mode is based on how similar games looked on the screen of old cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions. This mode will be a real gift for those who played such video games 20 years ago and want to get nostalgic.

I must say, Super Hydorah is laced with nostalgia. It has a lot of references to the classics of yesteryear, more specifically Konami’s Gradius series. You can upgrade weapons after you deal with the leaders of the aliens and complete levels before moving on to the next. The game provides three classes of weapons from which you can choose. In addition, you can improve your weapons by flying through the green (primary) and red (secondary) orbits left behind by downed aliens.

Before choosing a direction of flight, check the map, which shows the forking paths. You will have to work hard in the fight against alien enemies, but the game can not be called too difficult, especially in easy mode. It is worth noting that Super Hydorah has two difficulty modes. In normal mode, you have one shield and resistance to one enemy shot. In easy mode, you have three shields at your disposal that can absorb three enemy hits, and another one for the ship that protects from explosions. In other words, you can survive four attacks, but the fifth shot will kill your character.

Unlike other shooters, in Super Hydorah the virtual control panel works perfectly on the touch screen. It is very convenient to play with the thumb of the right hand. If you’re a fan of the shoot ’em up subgenre, be sure to download Super Hydorah. The game is also great for fans of classic 80s shooters.

Download Super Hydorah for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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Thimbleweed Park for iPhone and iPad: the ultimate retro adventure game from the creators of Maniac Mansion and Secret of Monkey Island

25/09/2021 by

Terrible Toybox, which is largely made up of former LucasArts employees, ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2014 to develop an old-school adventure game codenamed Thimbleweed Park.

Download Thimbleweed Park for iPhone and iPad (App Store)
Download Thimbleweed Park for macOS (Mac App Store)

Then they managed to collect over 600 thousand dollars, which were then spent on the development of a promising project. Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, known in the world as the authors of Maniac Mansion and Secret of Monkey Island, were responsible for the plot, characters and the overall implementation of the concept. Based on this, it should be clear why the game seemed promising to users.

Did the legendary developers live up to the aspirations of users? How acquitted. The game was released this spring, and simultaneously on all major platforms. The Thimbleweed Park project also appeared for iPhone and iPad. Reviews of journalists, critics and ordinary gamers unambiguously identified the novelty as a good thing and moderately nostalgic. There were also disappointed exclamations that the game was “unfortunately not a masterpiece,” but putting their hand on their hearts: Gilber and Winnick were unlikely to try to write themselves with this project in history. To recall the past and pamper the “oldies” with competent and cleverly tailored stylization for their own projects of the late 80s – yes, to say a new weighty word in the genre – definitely not.

ON THIS TOPIC: The best games for iPhone and iPad according to Yablyk.com: 100 most-most.

Five angles to kill

In the prologue of the game, we are briefly introduced to a resident of the town of Timbluid Park, investor Boris. In passing, because as soon as he appears before us, he will be unexpectedly killed. The investigation is assigned to two FBI agents who vaguely resemble Mulder and Scully. Soon, three more residents of the city join them: an embittered clown Ransom, an aspiring game developer Dolores, and a local ghost named Chuck. All of them are united by a common task: to find Boris’s killer. Moreover, this must be done in just a day.

After some time, our main task will fade into the background, because fascinating stories of the main characters will appear in all their glory, full of references to all the works of mass culture that are familiar to all. So, the line with the clown borrowed something from Stephen King’s It and American Horror Story, and Dolores’s life twists and turns will hint at Siberia. Each character we meet will willingly share the facts of his biography, in which there are also places for half-hints and not always obvious allusions. Acquaintance with the way of life of everyone and everything is necessary, since in the dialogues with the inhabitants of the city we will find leads for the investigation of the murder.

Back in the 80s

Pixel animation, which is found in the vast majority of indie projects, has already specifically bothered gamers. However, here we have a rare case: the visual component was handled by Mark Ferrari, the artist of the games Monkey Island and Loom. And this means that everything that could be squeezed out of it was squeezed out of the pixel art. It is enough to look at the landscapes in the game to understand that this time the pixel rendering is not a consequence of the developers’ desire to save money. Since the project is nevertheless with an unspoken label “retro”, the music, which at the same time successfully complements the noir atmosphere of Thimbleweed Park, has not escaped the stylization “old-fashioned”.

Management also hails from the 80s. We will have nine commands that can be given to the heroes: “speak”, “take”, “give”, “open”, “close”, “pull”, “push”, “go” and “use”. Such a system is not very convenient, and for many it is not at all familiar, but since it was decided to create a retro game, it was impossible to do without retro control. As for the complexity of the riddles, then, as in many classic point’n’click quests, at times you will have to think about it thoroughly. To complete the investigation, we will need to collect six pieces of evidence: two with fingerprints, two with blood and two with photographs. Something can be found without much difficulty, but there will be moments of complete despair arising from not understanding how to solve a particular problem.

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A little about humor

If you are one of those people who open the settings before the game, then an amazing discovery awaits you: next to all sorts of standard parameters you will find the item “toilet paper orientation”. This will be the first joke, one of very many that you will meet in the process of passing. In general, you will find a sea of sarcastic dives between the heroes, mountains of puns and tons of black humor. There will be everything and enough for everyone. The episodes with a visit to the bookstore or the library of the mansion are noteworthy: all the titles of the books there are comic allusions to famous works. Moreover, there are really a lot of books, and each of them can be turned in your hands. Thimbleweed Park has enough of such trifles, one has only to mention the telephone directory, all numbers of which you can call and hear the voices of different people.

From time to time, the characters begin to joke about the very process of the game. For example, one of the heroes in a particularly tense moment asks if it’s time for him to save. To which he will receive an answer, they say, this is superfluous, since the deaths of key characters were done away with in Maniac Mansion. There will be many similar moments in the game, and all of them will be more than appropriate.

Summing up, it should be noted that journalists, critics and ordinary gamers speak about Thimbleweed Park mostly in a positive way. Indeed, this is not a pass-through game, but it is not something that transcends the boundaries of the genre. Therefore, obviously, not everyone will like the project. Nevertheless, he is more than worthy of the attention that is still willingly given to him.

Download Thimbleweed Park for iPhone and iPad (App Store)
Download Thimbleweed Park for macOS (Mac App Store)

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Huntdown Review: A Quality Retro Shooter

07/06/2021 by ALOK DAS

Perhaps one can easily explain the rise in popularity of retro games. Despite the clearly simplified graphics in relation to their modern heavyweight counterparts, these products have their own attractive magic. As a result, teenagers become interested in playing something new and seemingly primitive, just for the sake of switching focus. And the older generation, in search of leisure, returns to those games that filled time with themselves a long time ago.

Download game Huntdown for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

In addition, it makes it possible to regain lost feelings and emotions and again feel like a child, whose eyes light up from the opportunity to play on the console. And the quality of the graphics here fades into the background, especially since the game mechanics have not gone anywhere and still require attention, reaction and are able to give joy from playing in co-op and killing a difficult boss. The number of retro games is growing, different emulators are multiplying, and the good old 16-bit consoles are on the shelves again. It is these motives that prompted the Swedish studio Easy Trigger Games to release the game Huntdown.

The Huntdown game itself is a 2D shooter. There is not much to be surprised at – there were not so many genres and possibilities then, so almost half of the games copied the mechanics of each other. And 2D shooters stood out for their popularity. The essence of such games is clear – through labyrinths and obstacles to make your way to the end of the level, shooting in different directions, destroying hordes of enemies.

At the start, the game offers to choose one of two modes – Arcade and Story. For beginners, it is better to choose the second mode, which is clear and classic. In arcade mode, you can compete in a set of points or start a co-op. Then you need to choose one of four difficulty levels – the higher it is, the less lives you will have. At the very beginning of the game, we are asked to choose one of three heroes. And here we can already fall into thoughtfulness for a while, because the characters differ both in their history and in their fighting skills. For example, Anna Konda is a 32-year-old Special Forces soldier, a brave woman specializing in firearms (very handy, isn’t it?). Her pistol fires in short bursts. John Sawyer is a veteran, 148-year-old police officer who lost several body parts in battle, but was partially restored with mechanized prostheses. He prefers not to trade in turns, rarely shoots, but deals a lot of damage. Finally, the 7-year-old scout droid Mow Man prefers to scribble with a submachine gun.

A small plot sketch is quickly replaced by immersion in the action itself. We find ourselves in a certain world of the future, where legality has clearly faded into the background or even the third plan. Here the main one is who has strength, or rather, a weapon. This world corresponds in its spirit to the films of the 1980s, the same “Blade Runner”, “The Terminator” or “Judge Dredd”.

Cityscapes are strewn with graffiti and illuminated with neon. And the most striking here are not gentle, spiritualized personalities, but the most frostbitten ones – all these punks, hockey hooligans, karatekas and bikers.

Through their hordes, we will have to make our way to the boss of the level. On the way, there are quite a few checkpoints and various events in which we will have to help the cops and put things in order. Either the street was blocked by colorful bandits, hiding behind a bus, then the enemy will simply run away from us, taking with him a valuable case. The two-dimensionality of Huntdown implies movement not only to the right and forward, but also up and down – there is where to jump and practice your eye.

Visually, everything looks bright and even with a touch of grotesque. And this is understandable – the background is an integral part of the game, which forms its flavor. The visuals aren’t full of details, but we’re talking about a retro game in the style of 8- and 16-bit consoles. But the sound is quite helpful for the immersion. Obviously synthetic disturbing losses are mixed with the cues of the villains, the sounds of numerous events.

An important part of the game is its interactivity. Bullets leave marks on the walls, bottles can scatter into fragments from an unsuccessful hit, barrels explode, opening caches, an alarm is triggered, and even shelters are saved only for a while. All this really revives the world, which now does not seem to be a background, but appears as a full participant in the events.

At first, the gameplay seems simple, and most of us have some experience in much more complex shooters. Run, shoot, dodge, find cases with money, and change weapons. Of course, you will have to tinker with the bosses. But gradually the game becomes more complicated, which creates the effect of involvement. It turns out that the enemies are becoming inventive and shelter is not a hindrance to them, and the range of weapons is expanding. Taking into account his proposal, you have to puzzle over which option to use against which enemy. The opponents themselves are very diverse, differing in both skills and colors. At the end of each level, a boss is waiting for us in the arena. Each of them has its own peculiarity – phases, armor, manner of fighting. You will not be able to pass the arena on “relax” – you will have to tinker.

The game Huntdown with a banal plot, albeit bright, but banal graphics, for some reason gets rave reviews from players and critics. The thing is that the creators tried not only to make a dull tracing paper from a retro game, but also to create it in accordance with the modern desires of gamers. Here you will not find a situation where death at the end of the level forces you to go through it again or the difficulty level goes off the scale. Long gone are the days when level design standards were just being formed and you could experiment with them to your heart’s content. Today the player knows what he wants, certainly not to get upset in vain because of the negligence of game designers. The levels themselves are quite passable, it will take 10-15 minutes to overcome each of them. This is just enough so as not to get tired of them. And with death, the loss of progress does not seem excessive – the player wants to repeat the test again and again, simply by changing the plan of action. This approach contains respect for gamers and for their time, which cannot but be tempting.

Huntdown is a success. The developers have kept the spirit of retro, which allows you to return to the atmosphere of the distant 1980s. At the same time, the game did not become a blind tracing of past hits, important details were carefully and accurately introduced into it, which allow modern players to pay attention to it. The experience gained in the game industry has helped to create a hit that will surely not make you bored. And if you’ve completed the Huntdown, but you still have a slight feeling of dissatisfaction, try the arcade or co-op mode, so the game can open up to you in a new way.

Download game Huntdown for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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June 7, 2021

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Gleam of Fire review for iPhone and iPad: retro action platformer

11/05/2021 by ALOK DAS

Aspiring developer Su Min Kim undoubtedly knows what a spectacular exit is. Proof of this is his first mobile game, Gleam of Fire. Fans of action platformers will surely appreciate this retro arcade game full of enemies, battles, attacks and combos, monsters and their bosses. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the project does not need any “advanced troubles” to attract the attention of the players.

Download Gleam of Fire for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

In terms of gameplay, Gleam of Fire is an excellent platformer. Along with an aging Batman-like character with a beer belly, you have to complete over 30 hand-drawn levels, lighting torches with an arrow along the way. Three torches are hidden at each level, if you find and set fire to all of them, then at the end of the level you will receive three stars.

The main character can jump, shoot a bow and use different types of attacks to avoid obstacles and fight monsters. However, the game is by no means as simple as it seems – according to the tradition of the genre, you will have to die often.

Each death returns you to the beginning of the current level, which you have to go through again, which is sometimes a little annoying. The gameplay itself largely depends on timing – even a slight delay or premature movement can lead to the death of the hero.

Separately, it is worth noting the control of the game, which may seem uncomfortable to someone. In addition, there is no way to speed up or slow down the movement – the hero either just moves, or stands still.

♥ BY TOPIC: The best games for iPhone and iPad according to the Yablyk edition: 100 most-most.

Despite some control features, Gleam of Fire is a project with great potential, capable of captivating for a long time, not least thanks to the gothic graphics, executed in black and blue tones.

The game offers three worlds with 10 levels, at the end of which you will find a battle with a boss. At the top of the menu there is an upgrade button, with which you can add additional features and resources to your “Batman”, using the stars and balls of light collected at the levels. There are not too many options: health, mana, standard and special attacks.

As you progress through the levels, it becomes more difficult, so you will have to upgrade your character often. Gleam of Fire can be very insidious – once you’ve learned how to deal with monsters, a new obstacle appears in the path of your character. What’s interesting is that if you run, the enemies won’t catch up with you. In addition, they do not change position when your hero dies and you have to start the level all over again, providing an opportunity to study the environment and prepare for a meeting with the enemy.

Contrary to the description of the game in the App Store and the words of the developer, Gleam of Fire cannot be called a full-fledged metroidvania. The game lacks two important elements: the connectivity of one level with another and the ability to backtrack to previously inaccessible places when gaining new opportunities and skills.

Gleam of Fire is a great gift for all fans of 2D platformers, challenging gameplay and metroidvania-style games.

The game Gleam of Fire is offered in the App Store at a price of 379 rubles. To download the app, you need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 11.0 or later.

Download Gleam of Fire for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

In the meantime, there is no need to worry about it. ”

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DISCOUNT (499r → 99r) Review of Super Hydorah for iPhone and iPad: an ode to the “alien” retro shooters of the 80s

30/11/2020 by ALOK DAS

Are you a fan of Gradius or R-Type? Do you like pixelated retro graphics? Then you will definitely love Super Hydorah, the mobile version of which was released a few months after the release of the game for PC and PS4 / Vita.

Download Super Hydorah for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

Released in 2017, Super Hydorah has everything that true fans of horizontal shoot ’em ups might want. The player moves forward to the exit from left to right, dodging obstacles, avoiding enemies and dodging bombs. If you are crazy about adrenaline rush and recklessness to shaking hands, Super Hydorah is the game for you!

In the game, you will control a spaceship that shoots automatically, so all you need to do is dodge obstacles and aim accurately. Don’t worry, you will have to work hard on other things (for example, customizing weapons, which we will discuss below), so you definitely won’t get bored. If you simultaneously press on both sides of the screen, the ship will cease fire. This feature will come in handy in levels where you don’t want to destroy certain objects, or want to understand who is shooting and where in the most violent gunfights.

Parallax scrolling works great, and you can zoom in on objects in all levels of the game and view them from different angles. That is, Super Hydorah is still not one hundred percent horizontal shooter. In addition, you can go back if you suddenly want to finish off the enemy or bomb the tower. However, this is not always possible, since different mechanics and layers are used at different levels.

♥ BY TOPIC: The best games for iPhone and iPad according to the Yablyk edition: 100 most-most.

If I may say so, the game is polished to a shine. The retro spirit is emanating not only from pixel graphics – “old school” is also added by a well-chosen soundtrack. There are explosive sound effects and other goodies to add to Super Hydorah’s 1980s tech noir vibe.

During the game, you will try on the role of a pilot fighting alien invaders. The cost of Super Hydorah in the App Store is 529 rubles. This price may seem too high, like for a mobile game. Keep in mind, however, that the mobile version is a fully ported version for desktops and consoles that costs twice as much. Plus, the game looks great on iPad or larger iPhones.

Super Hydorah has two display modes – Standard and CRT. The CRT mode is based on how similar games looked on the screen of old cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions. This mode will be a real gift for those who played such video games 20 years ago and want to feel nostalgic.

I must say, Super Hydorah is riddled with nostalgia. It contains many references to the classics of bygone times, or rather, to the Gradius series from Konami. You can upgrade weapons after you deal with the alien leaders and complete levels before moving on to the next. There are three weapon classes in the game that you can choose from. In addition, you can upgrade your weapons by flying in green (primary) and red (secondary) orbits left by downed aliens.

Before choosing a direction to fly, check the map for branching paths. You will have to work hard in the fight against alien enemies, but the game cannot be called too difficult, especially in easy mode. It’s worth noting that Super Hydorah has two difficulty modes. In normal mode, you have one shield and resistance to one enemy shot. In easy mode, you have three shields at your disposal, capable of absorbing three enemy hits, and one more for the ship to protect against an explosion. In other words, you can survive four attacks, but the fifth shot will kill your character.

In the meantime, there is no need to know about it. ”

Unlike other shooters, Super Hydorah has a virtual control panel that works great on the touchscreen. It is very convenient to play with your right thumb. If you’re a fan of the shoot ’em up subgenre, be sure to download Super Hydorah. The game is also perfect for fans of classic 80s shooters.

Download Super Hydorah for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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DISCOUNT (599r → 379r) Review of Bendy and the Ink Machine for iPhone and iPad – the original horror adventure in the style of retro cartoons

07/05/2020 by ALOK DAS

Bendy and the ink machine in 2017, it became the first and so far the only project of the indie studio Joey Drew Studios Inc, but at the same time, for two years now the development and support of the game has not stopped, and fans are constantly demanding the release of new parts and chapters of an entertaining adventure.

Download Bendy and the Ink Machine for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

Atmosphere and graphic design

For such adventurers, the general atmosphere of what is happening on the screen and the originality of the setting in particular are extremely important. You can without hesitation place the hero in a cemetery with rebellious zombies or an anti-utopia of the future with bad robots, but then the game will most likely dissolve in hundreds of similar ones. And you can come up with your own, nothing like a story, as the creators did Bendy and the ink machine.

The design and plot move the player in the 30s of the last century, when through the efforts of Walt Disney and other animators, many recognizable characters today saw the light, such as Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, etc. In this case, the protagonist is a real person, and the reality surrounding him is made in a solid cartoon graphics.

Plot

A protagonist named Henry 30 years ago worked as a cartoonist at the studio of a certain Joey Drew (hence the name of the game development studio, or vice versa), and now receives an invitation to return to the company. However, having arrived at a familiar address, Henry does not find employees (at least alive) in place, but he discovers a lot of strange tape recordings that gradually shed light on the tragedy played out here.

As you progress through the game, it becomes apparent that Joey Drew became seriously involved in occultism, and Henry now has to be wary of the Ink Machine and the animated cartoon character named Bendy.

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Gameplay

The player controls the character in a first-person view, which is very convenient for horror developers – at any time you can use a hard screamer with a Bendy figure in full screen. At the same time, the game is nevertheless created for those who like to study the limited location to the smallest detail, find all the necessary items and solve not the simplest puzzles.

It is worth mentioning that Bendy and the ink machine Now it has Russian localization, which greatly simplifies the passage – users who do not know the English language of the first versions of the adventure were forced to independently think out the plot and guess the objectives of the tasks.

Bendy and the ink machine – A great reason to wrap yourself up in a blanket late in the evening and tickle your nerves with sound elements of horror, of which there are enough in the game. At the same time, an experienced amateur adventurer will spend only a few hours on the full passage, which means that they will have to enroll in a community group of fans waiting for new parts of the story.

Download Bendy and the Ink Machine for iPhone and iPad (App Store)

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