Take on other recruits as an Imperial stormtooper trainee in today’s leading Fresh Game, for free over a Wi-Fi connection. Star Wars fans will want to read about that one below, along with a space shooter and an iPad puzzler that might cramp your fingers with its frenzied pace.
Star Wars: Imperial Academy (iPhone) Free
If you’re a fan of iPhone first-person shooters, you’ll probably recognize ngmoco’s Star Wars: Imperial Academy pretty quickly — it’s basically the company’s Eliminate Pro with a fresh coat of Star Wars paint splashed over it.
That’s not necessarily bad, though, and I always recommend grabbing free apps and giving them a whirl before passing judgment, or being too harsh a critic. You’ll get to take the fight to other Empire cadets over an Internet connection in this multiplayer shooter, using a host of Imperial stormtrooper weaponry and over several well-known Star Wars environments. Sounds good to the fanboy in me.
Super Blast 2 (iPhone) $0.99
This sequel has a one very important new feature that sets it apart from its original: the bad guy shoot back now. Oh, and there are also bosses. Oh, and it supports Game Center. And there are achievements. So there are a lot of new features.
Super Blast 2, like its predecessor, is a top-down space shooter that probably won’t blow the doors of your app gaming world — it’s a lot like other Space Invaders-type shooters of this variety — but at just a buck, it’s by no means a bad deal. Phantoom Entertainment has taken an already solid base in their last game and augmented the enemies, power-ups and number of levels.
Halcyon (iPad) $3.99
Halcyon is a puzzler that looks simple enough at first, but quickly becomes frantic. The game involves horizontal lines drawn over the screen, with triangles of different colors slowly moving from the outside of the screen toward the center. Your job is to draw paths from one line to another in order to draw the triangles, called currents, so that those of like color meet. If two different colors touch, the game ends.
One part puzzle game, one part dynamic musical instrument, Halcyon presents some pretty intriguing play. It requires you to keep a lot on your mind at once, and on the iPad’s screen it’s a lot to look at, which means more challenge. The game packs 36 levels, plus two endless modes and Game Center and OpenFeint support. And the moves you make on the screen affect the soundtrack, creating a sort of stringed instrument feel that adds another interesting, if somewhat weird, dynamic to the gameplay.
