Leading today’s Fresh Games list is an interesting and slightly weird puzzler that’s all about growing trees. Swiping back and forth in this puzzler helps you give your tree water and sunlight, but too much of a good thing can kill them, so you’ll spend your time constantly balancing between three elements. Three Trees is fast-paced and challenging, so you’ll definitely want to give it a try, along with the rest of the offerings on today’s list. Read about them below.
Three Trees (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
You wouldn’t think attempting to grow three virtual trees simultaneously would be fast-paced and hectic, but that’s what you’re getting when you download Three Trees. The puzzler has you growing an arboreal triad using three different elements — sun, wind and rain. Swiping between the three swaps the elements between them, and balance is the key to a high score.
Too much of any one element will kill a tree and end the game, and if you let an element go for a few seconds on a single tree, “block” will build up. Water and sun grow the tree, but not too much of a good thing; wind clears off extra heat and water, but cracks the ground. It’s kind of like rock-paper-scissors, and you’ll need to balance a lot of metaphorical plates to do well.
EggRollin (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Tilting and tapping become egg controls in EggRollin, a puzzle side-scroller in which you need to figure out the best way to roll an egg between moving and stationary platforms. Spread throughout each level are bubbles you must collect in order to finish it, so planning is as important as speed toward getting a high score and moving on to a new puzzle.
The 72 levels of puzzle-solving egg-rolling fun aren’t the only thing you get for your dollar. EggRollin also includes a level editor, allowing you to create and share your own puzzle-platformer levels, or to try those built by other users in the community.
Big Time Gangsta (iPhone, iPad) Free
Lots of iPhone owners and Facebook users have probably given Mafia Wars a go by now — the game requires you to use “energy” to complete “missions,” but the whole thing is text-based. Even though you gather other mafioso types to join your crew and buy them weapons and supplies, there’s never any real action; it’s more like you issue orders and send your guys out to do things for you without your involvement.
Big Time Gangsta is like Mafia Wars if it had a more traditional video game bent. You’ll do a lot of the same things — procure minions and teammates, earn money and buy weapons and equipment to complete missions — but you’ll also have action-oriented sequences in which you can use strategy and fast tapping to win actual gun battles. The game still has the free-to-play feel and long completion times of Mafia Wars and those like it, but it actually has you playing along with it, as well.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
