Perform tricks and avoid deadly obstacles in DynaStunts, this week’s best game to grace the iPhone. The side-scrolling dirt bike game has a tendency to become an addiction, and it’s not the only game that’ll grab you this week. Check out EPOCH, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints from Gameloft, and more below on this week’s list.
DynaStunts (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Side-scrolling stunt dirt bike-riding titles seem to be pretty popular in the iTunes App Store, but DynaStunts is something special. The game’s cartoony graphics make it fun to watch your rider get his bones broken by the slightly ridiculous courses, which is good because you’ll be dying a lot as you botch wheelies and crash into objects on each of the courses. But DynaStunts remains addictive, challenging you to max-out each course by performing stunts, collecting stars and finishing quickly and efficiently. DynaStunts requires enough skill that you’ll feel like you’re getting better, but is difficult enough to keep players coming back in hopes of improving.
EPOCH (iPhone, iPad) $5.99
The power of the Unreal Engine 3 (the same game engine behind games such as Infinity Blade and The Dark Meadow) makes EPOCH look great, but it’s the game’s arcade-style shooting action that makes it fun. You play a robot working to find a missing princess in a world ravaged by a robot uprising. In each level, you’ll automatically take cover behind debris and use it to protect yourself as you fire away at various other kinds of robots. Controls are simple – swiping moves your robot behind cover, tapping targets enemies – but Epoch can be deceptively challenging, requiring careful attention and expert timing to dodge attacks while dishing out bullets of your own.
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Gangstar Rio: City of Saints (iPhone, iPad) $6.99
Another win from Gameloft, Gangstar Rio takes the Grand Theft Auto formula to Rio de Janeiro, complete with the game company’s trademark high-quality production values, console-like story and great graphics. Adult content and language mean Gangstar Rio isn’t for all ages, but fans of the Grand Theft Auto series on video game consoles will have a good time with Gameloft’s copy. The supposedly Brazilian accents of the characters in the game are a bit grating, but tilt-based driving and adult-themed missions make Gangstar Rio feel like a full-scale video game on your smartphone.
W.E.L.D.E.R. (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Another crossword game, W.E.L.D.E.R. might become your new vocabulary-infused addiction. Sort of like Boggle, the game is about taking random letters on a square grid and creating words out of them by swapping them around. It plays a bit like Bejeweled and a bit like Scrabble. You earn points for your words but you only have so many swaps per level, which keeps the challenge up. Online leaderboards make seeing how good you are compared to other players a snap, which is great because W.E.L.D.E.R. feels like it’s meant to help you prove you’re the smartest.
Sky Gamblers: Rise of Glory (iPhone, iPad) $4.99
Nice graphics make Sky Gamblers easy to get into, but it really benefits from solid controls. Marrying buttons with tilt and accelerometer controls gives a fairly accurate representation of flying (or at least as close as you’re likely to get with an iOS device). Dogfighting, strafing runs and just plain flying fun await in Rise of Glory, as well as the ability to buy and upgrade additional World War I planes to make yourself more of a force in the air. There’s a lot of depth on offer in Sky Gamblers, but more than anything, the game does a great job with its flying mechanics.
