Like a great summer popcorn movie (Transformers 3, anyone?) Swords and Soldiers offers up a perfect excuse to stay indoors where it’s cool, turn down the lights, and fire up some side-scrolling RTS, button-mashing, all-out troop destruction mayhem. With three playable classes to master, you’ll be unleashing attacks and enjoying panoramic battlefields of destruction for days to come.
Add in a fresh, high-powered arcade golf simulation inside Flick Golf Extreme, all-out melee action for nary a penny in Eternity Warriors, and overhead tank destruction fun in Touch Tanks 2: Europe, and you’ve got our iPad Games of the Week.
Swords and Soldiers HD ($4.99)
When you come right down to it, a solid side-scrolling RTS iPad game needs just three things to make its mark: Excellent graphics and quirky story lines, at least three factions to pit against each other, and wide-open spaces to unleash ammo and special attacks against each side. Swords and Soldiers HD brings all three in spades, with a silly storyline that keeps you engaged, Chinese, Aztec, and Viking factions with their own unique strengths, weaknesses, and weaponry, plus a litany of special attacks that rain death from above. Start with the mini-campaigns for each faction to get a feel for their side, where management of build orders and resource collection has been minimized, and the focus put on attacking and resource-collection presented in easy waves of action. Sit back, relax, and zone-out in the comfort of your own dark room as this hot, hot summer continues.
Flick Golf Extreme! HD ($4.99)
Remember those mid-’90s McDonald’s ads with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird making trick basketball shots to win a burger: “Off the floor, off the scoreboard, nothing but net?” If they’d been playing Flick Golf Extreme! HD today, they might have said this instead: “Off the helicopter, onto the aircraft carrier, off the F-16, nothing but a hole-in-one.” The premise is simple, just like real golf: Hit the little white ball, chase it until it gets near the hole, then sink it. This time you’ll travel to richly-rendered locations (including an oil rig, aircraft carrier, and more) and flick the screen to launch your ball towards the hole. Whilst in the air, you can swipe the screen to control its direction and add spin to the ball. iPad 2 owners get an extra package of graphics to take full advantage of their devices, while everyone gets a full set of game modes, including nine or five shots to the highest score possible, and a quick-shot mode with 60 seconds to rack up your score. If you’re a fan of arcade golf games, Flick Golf Extreme! HD is your ticket to fun!
Eternity Warriors (Free)
Freemium games are all the rage these days. They’re free to buy from the App Store, with premium content available for a small fee embedded inside the app itself. Glu has essentially converted Gun Bros. into this new game, moving away from ranged combat into close-quarter melee warfare. You’ll battle across Udar with your Facebook and Game Center friends in tow, destroying enemies and then turning in their mangled corpses for coins. These slay-coins are free, but you can buy premium gems in the in-app store. Buying new weapons, armor, potions, and more will make you even more effective on the battlefield, where you’ll need to button-mash your way to victory. Fantasy fans will love the arcade-style action, while anyone tired of Glu’s reskinning efforts (Men vs. Machine, Star Blitz anyone?) may want to give this rehash a pass.
Touch Tanks 2: Europe (Free)
Europe is ablaze with war, and it’s your job to man a tank and put your shells into the front, back, and sides of your enemies. The top-down view, solid controls, and power-ups add up to a solid free game, although the training offered up a slew of AI opponents who pulled off one-shot kills far too often for this gamer’s taste. Use the dual joysticks to steer and shoot, then use your finger to aim your shots by rotating your barrel. You’ll need to stay out of range and keep moving to take out the top scorers. With 30 tanks to choose from, two-dozen upgrades to apply, both four- and six-player modes, and tons of maps, there’s a whole lot of free action to be had in Touch Tanks 2: Europe.
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