The holiday week has seen a freeze on adding new games to the iTunes App Store, but there are still plenty of great ones floating around. Leading this week’s charge is Terra Noctis, a side-scrolling platforming game that will remind players of the greats in the genre. Check it out, and four other quality titles, below.
Terra Noctis (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
A retro platformer with a great art style, Terra Noctis looks great and will remind you of the 2-D side-scrolling platformers of years past. The game’s touch controls are pretty solid on iOS, and there’s plenty of content to go around including hours of gameplay and massive boss fights. Terra Noctis does an admirable job of invoking classic games in the genre while adding a little something new to the equation. It looks and sounds great and includes support for achievements and leaderboards from Open Feint, as well as support for iCade.
Gravity Rocks (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Space is filled with valuable fuels, but powerful gravity wells created by huge asteroids make it impossible for spaceships to retrieve them. That’s where you and your remote-controlled probes come in. You’ll need to control your probe by firing its thrusters and using the gravity of asteroids to navigate each level. It’s your goal to grab the crystals and get out as fast as you can and with as little maneuvering as you can manage. The faster you go and the less fuel you use, the higher your score. It’s a pretty difficult game, but Gravity Rocks also requires some serious skills, which will appeal to players with a penchant for punishment.
Crazy Hedgy (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
A 3-D platformer, Crazy Hedgy looks a lot like console classics Crash Bandicoot or Sonic the Hedgehog, with a similar playing style. The main character is even a hedgehog himself, but instead of running around, Hedgy the Hedgehog chooses to roll, and you control him using your iOS device’s internal gyroscope. Tilting your device directs Hedgy around the screen, where you’ll need to snag gems to upgrade your abilities and fight off enemies. The game looks great, it’s optimized for newer iOS devices and its developers say Crazy Hedgy includes 10 or more hours of gameplay.
Wind Up Robots (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Great graphics and a challenging style mark Wind Up Robots, a base-defense strategy game that bucks the usual setup. The game’s controls are pretty simplistic. You choose which robots will be in your defense force at the beginning of each level, and then you deploy them as necessary. The idea is to defend your charge: a sleeping boy assaulted by nightmares. The nightmares fly across the level towards the boy with your robots standing in between, and you control them by tapping them and giving them orders on where to go. The robots do the rest, but the real strategy of the game is in choosing your forces, directing them in anticipation of enemies, and changing them out with other robots to keep them alive. Wind Up Robots looks good and offers plenty of challenge.
Law & Order: Legacies (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
The latest of Telltale Games’ licensed point-and-click adventure games takes on the iconic police/prosecutor drama, putting players in a story that includes appearances by tons of cast members from Law & Order. The first episode is a little straightforward, but it’s hard to argue with the quality of Telltale’s titles or with the production values found in this game. You’ll need to purchase future episodes through in-app purchases as they come out each month, but if you’re a fan of the Law & Order TV show, this is a fun way to get into the action in a new and different way.
