Lots of people are fans of the award-winning sword-fighting title Infinity Blade, and it seems to have inspired some riffs by other developers. A particularly good one is RobotGladi8tor, a title that has you fighting robots with slash mechanics while exploring an abandoned space station. Read about it, and the rest of the games we enjoyed this week, below.
RobotGladi8tor (iPhone, iPad) $4.99
The award-winning Infinity Blade series has gotten quite a few imitators since the first title was released, and RobotGladi8tor at least falls into the “inspired by” category. That said, it effectively uses the “swipe-fighting” system popularized by Infinity Blade and translates it into a first-person science fiction game. You play a man with bionic arms stranded on a space station filled with killer robots, forced to fight them as you progress through the station and search for a way off it. Throwing in a fair amount of exploration does well to distinguish RobotGladi8tor and make it worth a look, especially for fans of swipe and slash gameplay.
VR Mission (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Based somewhat on the popular Metal Gear series on consoles, VR Mission puts you in the role of a lone operative charged with infiltrating enemy bases, sneaking past the guards, stealing stuff and getting out. The better you are at sneaking, avoiding getting seen and completing your goals as quickly as possible, the higher your score in each level. VR Mission takes on a top-down viewpoint and has players moving carefully to avoid the field of view of enemies – just like in Metal Gear. And, like in Metal Gear, you have access to a few weapons to take out your enemies like a knife and a gun, but direct conflict will basically be the end of you every time. It’s a fun action-puzzler that does its stealth gameplay pretty well, without costing a lot.
Hyper Snake (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Hearkening back to the early days of cell phone gaming is Hyper Snake, a game modeled after the original Snake game. In that game, you controlled a snake that you directed to eat apples. As the snake ate, it grew longer, and the goal was to eat as many apples as possible without running the snake’s head into part of its body. Hyper Snake brings that concept into the modern smartphone era, with great neon graphics and tilt-based controls. It also packs lots of different game modes based on the original Snake. In one, you dodge your own tail; in another, you fight off enemies while struggling to keep eating. There is a total of six modes in all. It’s a great take on a classic and provides a lot of content.
Pizza vs. Skeletons (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
At first glance, Pizza vs. Skeletons is a pretty simplistic arcade title in which you play a giant pizza, rolling over evil skeletons using tilt controls. However, Pizza vs. Skeletons manages to throw plenty of different objectives at you as you progress through its levels, all centered around a big rolling pizza and tilt controls. You’ll race in one level type, chase down missing dogs in another, and slaughter lots of undead throughout. There are 100 levels on offer, the game’s developer plans to release more updates in the future, and you can even customize your giant pizza hero.
Munch Time (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Puzzle title Munch Time has simple controls but a compelling gimmick – it puts you in control of a chameleon that can swing about each of the game’s levels by using its tongue and flowers. The puzzles actually get pretty complicated. You need to use the right flowers to swing around on in order to get the right amount of momentum, height and distance to get where you need to land. Interacting with the flowers also requires a little more brain power, as flowers of a certain color are only available if you change your chameleon’s color by eating specific bugs. The end result is a puzzler in which players have lots of elements to keep track of in order to get the best scores.
