Leading the charge in new games this week is Gameloft’s premium third-person shooter, 9mm. If you’re a Max Payne fan, you’ll want to check it out, as it’s very similar and just as hard-edged. After that is Captain America, a Mirror’s Edge-like title that puts players in the boots of the superhero. Blobster from Chillingo is an inventive platformer with physics puzzle elements, and Reckless Getaway gives players some arcade driving action as they flee the cops after a bank heist. Enjoy.
9mm
The latest offering from Gameloft borrows a lot from the Max Payne series from console video gaming, but it’s still a solid and cinematic third-person shooter. You play as cop John Kannon, a narcotics officer who gets wrapped up in a plot for revenge by a local drug-peddling gang after stealing a whole lot of drug money during a raid.
The principle action of 9mm is gunfighting, which benefits from the ability to slow down time at the touch of a button. Kannon can dive through the air in slow motion, dodging bullets and lining up headshots, to give players an advantage in any fight. There’s a fairly complete single-player campaign, plus a 12-player multiplayer mode, to keep 9mm interesting.
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty
Borrowing somewhat liberally from Electronic Arts’ Mirror’s Edge title, Captain America nonetheless is a pretty fun and fast-paced game. You control the First Avenger as he runs through 2.5-D levels, jumping off walls, swinging on poles and taking out enemies. Cap is controlled by a series of gesture controls – a swipe one way or another sets him running, a swipe upward causes him to jump, and so on.
Captain America packs 24 levels, in which players are scored for racking up combos both by dodging objects in Cap’s path throughout each level, but also for putting together combat combos against enemies. You get access to all kinds of fighting skills as well as the speed and agility to avoid conflict. The game also packs an original comic-book story set during World War II and an original soundtrack.
Blobster
Blobster is a new puzzler from publisher Chillingo. It puts players in control of a red blob character, who can jump by tapping and dragging your finger in the direction opposite of where you want him to go. In each puzzle-platform level, your job is to gather as much stuff as you can, to rack up points and make Blobster bigger, which gives him a point bonus at the end of each stage.
You get 40 levels of physics-based platforming action in Blobster, in which you’ll need to use your head to collect everything and rack up the highest available score. Your scores are also saved to online leaderboards thanks to Game Center support.
Reckless Getaway
You’re the wheelman in charge of the getaway vehicle following a bank robbery, and it’s your job to keep from wrecking the car while evading the cops and racking up points doing it. This arcade-style driving game presents itself in a top-down perspective, leaving players to use arrow keys and a few power-ups – as well as all the skill and wit they can muster – to avoid the cops.
As you zig and zag through traffic, you’ll earn extra points for driving like a maniac: Cutting close to cars without hitting them earns you points, as does airtime and causing cop cars to crash. The more points you can earn in each level without dying, the higher your rank on each of Reckless Getaway’s 16 tracks. You’ll also earn bragging rights, as scores are tracked on Game Center leaderboards.
