An interesting take on puzzler platformers leads today’s Fresh Games list. Karoshi has been well-received by critics in its PC iteration, and the iPhone version is a pretty great translation of the original concept. It’s a touch violent, though, so if crayon graphics and point-and-click puzzle play are more your style, check out Cardboard Castle. We’ve got details on both, and more, below.
Karoshi (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
A port of the acclaimed PC puzzler of the same name, Karoshi’s got a bit of a unique spin on similar games: rather than help Karoshi across a level, avoiding obstacles and dangers, your goal is actually to help him affect his own demise. You do that by figuring out how best to get him to the hazards, like spikes or flame jets, and then basically throwing his goofy 8-bit body upon them.
You get 50 levels of Karoshi to puzzle through. Several stages also include hard-to-reach coins that add to the challenge, and you’ll be able to match your abilities against other players with Karoshi’s Game Center support.
Cardboard Castle (iPhone) $0.99
A cool crayon-on-cardboard art style will be the first thing about Cardboard Castle to catch your eye, but the second will likely be its fun point-and-click slash puzzle-platform gameplay. You’ll need to help your knight pass from one side of the screen to the other, and to do so, you’ll solve various puzzles that include dragging objects around to interact with other objects. For example, dragging an ax over a tree cuts it down; dragging the lumber from the tree to a gap in the ground makes a bridge.
You’ll work through three different quests during the course of your play in Cardboard Castle, and the game includes an endurance mode that challenges you to pass through as many levels as possible, rather than discover the story.
Real Racing 2 update (iPhone) $4.99
Firemint’s highly realistic racing simulator packs 30 real cars and 3D graphics to bring you into the racing action. It’s multiplayer modes allow for 16 racers in a single event at a time, which is pretty much unprecedented in iPhone gaming, and Firemint claims you’ll get 10 hours worth of single-player racing besides.
The latest big update to Real Racing includes six new racing events for you to challenge yourself with. You’ll get new events in several different racing modes, including cup, head-to-head, elimination and time trial. Firemint has also amped up its multiplayer servers to make the whole game run better when you’re online and given prospective buyers even more of a reason to check it out by reducing the price to $4.99, at least temporarily.
