What a week. Not only did we get finally get the bizarre and unique God of Blades, Rovio went ahead and hit us with our top game of the week, Bad Piggies. Revisit the world of Angry Birds in this vehicle-building puzzler, packed with charm. We’ve also got a remake of The Last Express, a great adventure game from the creator of Prince of Persia, a continuation of the Cartoon Wars saga, a sequel to Monsters Ate My Condo, and a great apocalyptic shooter. Here are this week’s top iPhone games.
Bad Piggies ($0.99)
Whether it’s playing as Bowser in one of the many Super Mario RPGs or teaming with Doctor Eggman in a Sonic game, every big villain eventually gets their own time in the spotlight. The boys who brought us the Angry Birds are back, but this time, that avian anger is nowhere in sight. Those mean, green, egg-stealing machines, the Bad Piggies, get to be the protagonists this time around. Your job is to use a grid and a pre-set group of items to build your own quirky, out-of-the-box vehicle for the pigs to ride in. Suddenly, Rovio’s Casey’s Contraptions acquisition makes a lot more sense. It’s a totally different kind of game, but like Angry Birds, it’s streamlined and accessible to anyone. It’s great to see something truly new from the Angry Birds universe.
The Last Express ($4.99)
Now here is an interesting title. It’s a port of a late nineties adventure game that takes place on the Orient Express just before the start of World War I. It wasn’t very popular, but it was critically acclaimed, and it’s great that this game has this chance to reach a new audience thanks to DotEmu, with updated production values to boot. It was actually created by Jordan Mechner, the creator of the Prince of Persia. It’s has a great, character-driven story, and is very non-linear with multiple possible outcomes. Many elements of the game are historically accurate as well. Definitely give it a look.
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God of Blades ($2.99)
This game would easily have topped our list this week if not for a new Rovio release, but it deserves your attention just as much, if not more so than Bad Piggies, especially if you’re a core gamer. It’s a side-scrolling hack-and-slash adventure game inspire by the Conan-style pulp fantasy of the seventies, with synthetic / progressive rock aesthetics. It creates a mythos and universe that feels right at home in those seventies fantasy/sci-fi hybrid titles, with a fantastically strange art style. The combat is fluid and fun, with even a bit of rhythm to it. Definitely give this one a look. It’s unlike anything else you’ll play this year, I assure you.
Super Monsters Ate My Condo ($0.99)
Monsters Ate My Condo was one of the first games to come from a third-party partnership with Adult Swim, kick starting what has been a great series of witty or wacky titles. Now, they revisit that game with this sequel, where the monsters are bigger, the condos are tastier, and the fun is non-stop. Some of the cool features include new types of condos and special boosts that you can equip to help yourself out. PikPok even took a page from Team Fortress 2‘s book, letting you unlock different hats for the monsters, raising your multipliers. The visuals are as colorful and eye-popping as ever, and you just need to download this if you’re looking for a casual arcade title. Simple as that.
Apocalypse Max: Better Dead Than Undead ($2.99)
And here we have a game for more old school gamers. It’s a side scrolling shoot-em-up, not unlike Metal Slug or Contra, only in a post apocalyptic Mad Max style world with lots and lots of zombies in it. The hand-drawn art style is unique and beautiful, with a great use of color. This game is packed with enemies, and even more so with weapons, and most importantly, it actually plays and controls very well. Don’t let the fact that this is a zombie game put you off; it’s more than worth playing.
Cartoon Wars Blade ($0.99)
While I was never in great love with the franchise, the massively popular Cartoon Wars universe has returned in Cartoon Wars Blade. We had Cartoon Wars 2: Heroes earlier this year as a sequel to the castle defense side of things, but this is more like a sequel to Cartoon Wars: Gunner, only with a melee focus. You can unlock and tri-wield various weapons as you cut your way through swathes of enemies in this never-ending action game. Gamevil has added some new features as well, including the ability to unlock various wacky or cool-looking helmets. This should easily satisfy fans of the previous games.
