Celebrate Friday with some free and reduced games. Up first is Urban Ninja, a puzzle-platformer with a French ninja main character who likes to jump. After that is Tank Warz, in which you build your own tank to take on 2D enemies in this side-scroller. Finally, the third is Phoenix Spirit, a game in which you get to fly, shoot and explore like crazy. Think Metroid, but with a flying squirrel. Download all three below.
Urban Ninja (iPhone, iPad) Free (was $0.99)
You are the urban ninja in this puzzle-platform game. You’ll guide the ninja left and right with some arrow keys in hopes of reaching the helicopter that airlifts him away at the end of every level, but you can also tap the ninja and drag your finger away to direct him into a jump. Jumping can get you to lots of places, and if you hit a wall, you can actually get even higher by jumping off it.
You get more than 40 missions as French ninja Francois to climb and sneak through. It also includes a trainer mode, to teach you the basics about Urban Ninja, and global leaderboards to check and see where you stack up against other players.
Tank Warz (iPhone, iPad) Free (was $1.99)
You build a custom tank, outfit it with weapons and take it into battle in this 2D side-scroller. Your mission: prevent the launching of missiles in various stages. To do that, you have to roll across the levels, target the missiles and determine what arc you need to hit them, and then hold the fire button down to determine how much juice your attack needs. You only have two attempts to take down each missile — if one gets off, it’s game over.
The cool thing about Tank Warz is the amount of inherent customization. You can choose your weapons, your secondary abilities like tank repair, and even how your tank is made up. New upgrades are purchased using the money gained from successfully completing missions, helping you to a better tank. You’ll fight across nine different battlefields in one of five different tanks by the end.
Phoenix Spirit (iPhone, iPad) $0.99 (was $1.99)
Gamers will recognize the classic mechanics found in Phoenix Spirit, which encourages players to work through a large, labyrinthine area and explore. If you’ve played some of the classics in video games, you’ll immediately see similarities between Super Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and this iOS title about a flying squirrel.
As you explore the world to try to find a cure for the Mother Tree, your forest’s heart, you’ll discover new power-ups for your character. Expect to do a fair amount of backtracking after you finally end up receiving new abilities to access new areas that were previously closed to you. Phoenix Spirit mixes shooting mechanics with the freedom of flying as your squirrel, coupling those with the spirit of exploration to create a winner that’s free for a limited time.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
