The Lane Splitter Android App by fractiv is a an accelerometer based motorcycle racing game where the object is to get as far as you can without crashing. As you drive along the road you will need to maneuver through traffic while maintaining control of your motorcycle. Each car that you successfully maneuver past will give you some points. You will also gain points by performing a wheelie for as long as you can without crashing. When you finish your wheelie a time in seconds will be displayed and the number of points that you get for it.
Performing wheelies while maneuvering through traffic can be quite difficult. Steering also becomes a challenge while performing wheelies because your speed will increase quite a bit while performing a wheelie. Your speed will increase periodically as you advance in general. To control the rider simply tilt your phone to the right or left to move the rider to the right or to the left. To perform a wheelie, press and hold on the screen. When you want to finish the wheelie simply release.
Overall, this is a pretty cool accelerometer based motorcycle game that can be quite challenging. The controls are very responsive and the graphics are of high quality. At the time of this review the Lane Splitter Android App is free. Thumbs Up.
Minecraft is one of the world’s most loved world editing game and now the pocket edition of the same has made its way in the Android marketplace as well and has also blasted its way to the top of the rankings. For those of you who have not played the game before; you are free to do anything you can imagine of, with over 36 different kinds of blocks of formation of the world. It is an amazing world of possibilities now for you to carry anywhere you go.
Raging Thunder 2 is the sequel from Raging Thunder 3D racer car game for Android byPolarbits AB. This version is far more intensive, faster and showcases superior 3D game play capabilities and graphics for Android phones! Use the accelerometer to control your vehicle in racking up bonuses, dodging other obstacles and drivers while causing them mayhem in the fastest time possible to win the race. The game features single play with Time Attack, Survival, Career Mode, Instant Race or Arcade; plus online multi-player modes.
Pros & Cons:
Pros
Awesome 3D accelerometer racing game… best thus far!
Multi-player online racing
Very fun, challenging and addictive
Amazing graphics, sound and smooth game play
Competitive AI drivers
Cons
Free version stores 20MB in phones internal memory storage (Paid version highly recommended)
Shouldn’t be played on lower-end or less powerful Android phones
Krazy Kart Racing Download now, Don’t miss it! Start your engines – the most extensive iPhone Kart Racing game of all times is now available! Get into your kart and experience the thrill of speed on 16 varied race tracks. Compete in 5 different singleplayer modes with 10 well-known Konami characters in 3D cartoon style or challenge up to 6 of your friends in local or internet wifi multiplayer mode. Use the countless extras to activate the nitro boost, slow down your opponents with obstacles and take the lead. Dynamic camera balancing helps you focus completely on racing, leading to an outstanding playability. Can you cross the finish line in first place?
Krazy Kart Racing game Hints:
• Red bells give you random weapons while blue bells always give you a speed boost. Consider the layout of the track ahead of you as well as your position in the race and select which bell to go for accordingly.
• If you are having problems completing a race, try it out with different characters. Some courses are made for high-speed, some are not.
• Save your boosts for the optimal moment. Sometimes you will be able to clear obstacles that would otherwise be impossible. It’s quicker to go over something than around it.
• If you have trouble staying on course try using Robbie the Rabbit. He’s a bit slow but easiest to control.
Krazy Kart Racing game was developed for Android by Konami
With World Cup fever about to grip the entire planet there really hasn’t been a better time to download a soccer-related game to your Android phone. The trouble is that the platform has been starved of a digital decent kick about almost since day one. Thankfully Gameloft has stepped up to the challenge by porting over its popular Real Football 2010 title from Apple’s iPhone.
A veteran of mobile gaming for some time, the Real Football franchise is seen by many as the only “premier league” option for portable footy fanatics. Almost from the moment you boot up the game it’s clear why this is the case – the presentation and sheer range of options is incredible, putting Real Football 2010 on par with most fully-fledged home console representations of the sport.
The usual exhibition and training modes are available but Real Football 2010 also boasts a full season component where you can pick a club side and lead them to glory throughout an entire campaign. Not only do you control the action on the pitch but you also take care of the day-to-day organisation of the club, making this a lot like the classic “Player Manager” titles of old.
There’s even the option to take your skills online and play against other people in the Real Football League, which is essentially a leader board that ranks the best players in the world.
Of course with the 2010 World Cup about to start there’s the obligatory Cup mode which allows you to replicate the thrills and spills of the planet’s biggest sporting spectacle. To round things off there’s the awkwardly-named “Enter the Legend” mode, which is a clone of similar modes seen in EA’s FIFA and Konami’s Pro Evo Soccer. Here you only control one player as opposed to the entire team, and it’s your job to guide your digital avatar to fame and glory.
As if all this wasn’t enough you can also tinker around with the game’s comprehensive Editor mode. This allows you to effectively create your own team and re-name certain players. From here you can also connect to Gameloft’s database to download the latest team rosters. Although Real Football 2010 doesn’t feature actual club sides (Manchester United are Manchester Red, for example) it does boast authentic player names.
After such an overwhelming collection of modes and options, actually getting into the game mode itself feels like something of an anticlimax. The visuals are seriously impressive, and like Gameloft’s other Android titles Real Football 2010 proves what a yawning gap there is between the developer’s output and that of its rivals.
Considering the limitations of a touchscreen interface the controls manage to hold up pretty well – players are commanded using a virtual D-pad and the interface is kept to a minimum by only using two buttons: one for pass and one for shoot. These controls change depending on the context of the action, though. For example, the shoot button unleashes a sliding tackle if you’re not in possession of the ball.
The game engine is surprisingly complicated with various commands unlocking cunning tricks such as feints, turns and other creative play. The slippery and often imprecise nature of the controls can take some getting used to but once you do you’ll find yourself skilfully twisting and turning around the opposition before pulling the trigger on long-distance shots on goal.
As usual, Gameloft’s distribution method means that Real Football 2010 isn’t available for download direct from the Android Market, so you’ll have to visit Gameloft’s site and then wait for an SMS message to arrive that contains the download link.
If you’re looking forward to the World Cup in South Africa then Real Football 2010 is the ideal way to get yourself even more in the mood. It’s packed with content and boasts game play that most people would pay four times as much for. (From:http://www.knowyourmobile.com/)
Back in May, Gameloft released a series of games for Android to mixed reactions. On one hand, the company was praised for the impressive graphics its lavish games featured, but at the same time Gameloft received criticism for not making the titles available in the Android Market. To add insult to injury, Gameloft initially had a strict DRM policy and its own game story didn’t allow for games to be downloaded more than once.
There may be a number of reasons why the publisher decided to go down this route, and Android and Me even presented a conspiracy theory. I personally believe that it purely is a monetary move from Gameloft: if its games are purchased from the Android Market, they have to give a percentage of the income to Google; while the company can keep all the profit if it sells the games from its own store.
There is also the simple fact that paid Android apps still aren’t available in most countries yet, a failure that Androinica recently discussed, and if Gameloft had released its games solely to the Android Market, it would have missed out on a huge user base and risked getting plundered even further by pirates. Still, they could always do both, and would probably make more money from it.
Android gaming has without a doubt slowly but steadily taken a huge leap forward in 2010, following the release of phones with powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processors with massive amounts of RAM – a development that is pretty astounding. And with more and more devices getting Froyo, full openGL ES 2.0 support and speed boosts thanks to Android’s new just-in-time compiler (JIT), games will only continue to progress.
Gameloft is a French video game developer that has been focusing on games for handhelds since 1999. The company is founded by the Guillemot brothers, who also are the founders and owners ofUbisoft: a major player with games such as Far Cry and Heroes of Might and Magic. One can imagine that the company is able to put a bit more resources into creating its games than your average Android game developer, but is Dungeon Hunter any good? Does it measure up, or is it all smoke and mirrors and French wizardry? Read on to find out.
Before I get to the good stuff, I have to tell you this: you need a phone with second generation hardware to play Dungeon Hunter: a 1GHz CPU and/or a powerful GPU, and at least 256 MB of RAM. Some say Gameloft’s titles are optimized for the PowerVR graphics processor, but I haven’t noticed any lag on my HTC Desire, even before I updated it to Android 2.2.
There is one word that best describes Dungeon Hunter: Diablo. If you’ve ever cut your way through hordes of underground beasts in Blizzard Entertainment’s action RPG / hack ‘n’ slash classic from 1997, and most gamers that were young in the 90s have, you’ll feel right at home playing Dungeon Hunter. In fact, it’s obvious that Gameloft must have used Diablo for inspiration when making it.
To underline just how quickly things progress in the world of technology, current high-end Android phones actually have more than 16 times faster processors and 72 times more RAM than what was required to run Diablo on a PC 13 years ago. And now we literally have this hardware power in the palm of our hands. It’s a quite astonishing evolution. When dual-core 1.5 GHz processors are released later this year (or in early 2011), who knows what levels of mobile gaming awesomeness they will bring?
When you create a new game in Dungeon Hunter, you first select one of four save slots and get to choose the name of your character. There are three different character classes, each with unique strengths and weaknesses: Knight, Rogue and Mage. In the opening scene, you rise from the dead and step out of your coffin. You’re greeted by a fairy that only the dead, or undead, can see, and have to make your way through zombie-infested catacombs.
The story Dungeon Hunter revolves around is rather basic, and similar to those found in most RPGs: basically, the goal is to kill the bad guys, restore order in the kingdom and help out villagers with their problems (side-quests). The story is neither good enough to impress, nor bad enough to annoy. Since Dungeon Hunter is a classic hack and slash role-playing game, you will face monsters almost constantly, and plenty of them: both on the ground and in the air. Some are small and some are massive, and Gameloft has done an excellent job letting you fight a wide mixture of opponents in various surroundings. You have fairies that accompany you in your quest to fight evil. The fairies all have different abilities and personalities, and you need to choose wisely which one to use depending on the situation. You can have up to five fairies, and they will join your party as the game progresses.
To engage in combat, simply move towards an enemy and tap the attack icon. You don’t need to press the icon more than once; your character will keep attacking until either you or the opponent is dead. To charge another monster, however, you need to press the attack icon again.
In my experience, Dungeon Hunter’s game controls couldn’t have worked any better, really. You move your axe wielding, zombie-slashing male protagonist using a virtual stick in the lower-left corner of the screen, and to the right are buttons for attacking and for various spells and special strikes. There is also a button for using the fairy you currently have selected to fight alongside you. You can have different layouts for the spells and special-attacks: a scroll-mode versus all buttons displayed at once. I definitely prefer the latter since it’s more convenient. Like all games in the same genre, you can open chests and crush barrels in order to find valuable items or gold. The action button changes depending on the context; when you open a chest, for example, the sword icon is replaced by an image representing an open chest. To pick up items on the ground, simply walk over or near them. They are then stored in your inventory, and part of the charm with Dungeon Hunter (an element of all RPGs) is trying to make your character have as powerful equipment as possible. Some weapons and armor have magical qualities that will improve your defense/attack rating, your strength, dexterity, endurance and so forth. Quality items may require your character to have a certain level to use them, and wearing some items with a magical bonus may allow you to equip yourself with another item that you couldn’t use before. Consequently, you can improve your hero quite a bit just by being wise and methodical when you equip him. You may unlock bonuses, such as “Epic Equipment”, when you’ve done a particularly god job using your items. There is an option to auto-equip your character, but that takes the fun out of it, right?
One of the main thrills of all role-playing games is to make your character grow, level-up and improve his stats. You gain experience when you kill monsters, and as the difficulty of the challenge increases, the experience rewarded for overcoming it increases as well. In Dungeon Hunter, you always get to allocatetwo points to your attributes when you level-up, which I think is unfortunate. It would be more entertaining if you got awarded points depending on how well you have performed in the game. In addition to increasing your stats when you level up, you also get a skill point that allows you to learn a new skill or improve an existing one. Skills are either active or passive: an active skill needs to be used by pressing an icon – a passive one will benefit you all the time. In my experience, it’s better to focus on just a few skills and be really good at them, than be so-so at many. When you’re running low on health or mana and are about to die, you can take a potion to improve your condition. You are only allowed to carry 12 potions at the same time, or the game would be too easy. In fact, when I first started playing Dungeon Hunter, I was a bit worried that it would be too simple. A game needs to be challenging in order to entertain and keep you interested, and while I didn’t die once for the first few hours of game-play, I did indeed die on occasion later on.
Getting killed, by the way, doesn’t have a negative impact on your character (after all, he has already been dead once).You do not lose any experience points or items, but you have to start all over again in the map you were in when you died and wait for it to reload, which can be tiresome. In a way, that’s a good thing, because it makes you a bit scared of dying. The game also hints that next time, you may not be so lucky, but I’m pretty sure you’ll resurrect every time you pass on. While we’re on the topic of loading maps: because of the complexity of the game, loading maps take time. Usually around 30 seconds, up to a minute on occasion. Even though tips are displayed while maps are being loaded, they soon get shown over and over again. It’s worth the wait, though, but it can still be frustrating when all you want to do is get right back to slaying those unholy packs of fiends.
Another nuisance with Dungeon Hunter is the Quest log, from which you’re supposed to get an overview of all your currently active quests. It has a bug, however, which prevents you from opening some quests. Also, particularly the first couple of hours when I played the game, I thought that the high resolution made text items too small on my Desire’s 3.7” screen. I got used to it the more I played, but Dungeon Hunter certainly would benefit from performing on 4” screens and above.
I have played Gameloft’s RPG for many hours now, and I still haven’t gotten bored with it. In my opinion, if you rock a high-end Android phone today, there is no need to carry a dedicated portable gaming device, unless you’re a hardcore gamer who sleeps with a PSP under your pillow. The games may not have autostereoscopy 3D effects like Nintendo’s forthcoming 3DS (yet, that is, a 3D phone is actually coming later this year), but some of them already have graphics that easily are on par with the PlayStation Portable.
With the risk of sounding biased, Gameloft’s HD games are to all appearances the top of the crops for Android at the moment. I have played quite a few games on phones, including many current 3-D titles, and Dungeon Hunter is definitely one of the better, if not the very best of the lot. If you’re into action RPGs and have a powerful Android device, Dungeon Hunter will not disappoint. Now if the people in the Gameloft headquarters only would come to their senses and make their games available in the Android Market, perhaps more Android users would be able to enjoy them.
THE GOOD,
Superb, console quality graphics
Atmospheric music, excellent sound-effects
Offers many hours of game-play
Varied environments, plenty of quests
Numerous different monsters, ghosts and beasts
Massive amount of weapons and items
THE BAD & THE UGLY
Long load times
Hack ‘n’ Slash games can become rather repetitive in the long run
Quest log bug
Cannot be purchased from the Android Market
Gameloft has a confusing store: it called Dungeon Master “Dark Quest HD” when I paid for the game, and I got an .apk titled DungeonHunter_Motorola_Droid when I had specifically ordered the HTC Desire version. I emailed the support regarding this, though, and got fast responses.
One idea I've tossed about for a great game on the Android (and the iPhone) is a BeachHead style game. If you haven't played it, essentially you're in a bunker on a beach and troops are invading. The version I've played at Chuck E. Cheese's has a set of goggles that you look through and control is done by spinning around (yes, you look like a fool while playing) and tilting up and down to aim and then pressing buttons to fire machine guns and bombs. Unfortunately, the motion detection in a Droid wouldn't be up to that task based on how well it tracks in Google's Sky Map application. Enter Heavy Gunner 3D...
Heavy Gunner 3D appeared in the Android Market last month and has been on my try list primarily because it's a Com2Us title. I really like their HomeRun Battle 3D game and have a respect for their work (despite some recent issues reported with the Android version of HomeRun Battle 3D). The screenshots made me think it was some 3D space flight shooter... close, but not quite.
Heavy Gunner 3D puts you in the role of defending your home world against the alien hordes. And you have two guns that you control with left and right virtual thumb pads. The aliens then appear and you have to blast them out of the sky one by one. One of my initial complaints was that lack of any instructions, but they are there buried in the Extras menu.
The graphics on this game are great in Com2Us style as is the audio. No question that this is a professionally developed title. The more interesting aspect of the game is the controls. You can choose to use the accelerometer to move around and scan the sky for aliens in conjunction with your radar or the touch screen. I found the accelerometer mode to be the much more interesting experience... besides, I want to save the touch screen for blasting. As stated each gun has its own virtual joypad to control it and they also aim independent of one another... each has its own on-screen site so you can double up the fire on one baddie or pick on two at the same time.
The game has three difficulty levels in a campaign mode, but also offers what is effectively a free play mode where you try and survive to specific lengths of time. I spent most of my time in the campaign mode. As you play you are able to upgrade your weapons and there's a dazzling array of armaments to choose from.
Problems? The game isn't without fault. At times it becomes a bit jerky, but I really think that has more to do with other apps running in the background. I also got my usual SportsTap crash during the game which has become a sign that "this game is really taxing the phone you have" and is more of a badge of honor for a game title in my mind (I only wish I could find a good replacement for SportsTap). The game also crashed outright on me once leaving my audio clicking away with gunfire while everything else froze. Finally, it took me SEVERAL tries to get the game to succeed at doing it's initial data download trying over both WiFi and 3G.
In summary, this is about as good of a Beachhead experience as I've had on a PC or mobile device. And at $2.99 this is a good deal of a game. I'm also really pleased to see Com2Us start offloading data to my SD card which starts becoming a moot point once Android 2.2 is widely available this time next year (yes, sarcasm). If you'd like to see more the iPhone trailer is below and it's pretty much a mirror image of the Android version. 4/5 stars.
If you were a fan of Ubisoft's ambitious Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 production, you know the set-up. An assassin named Altair is scouring the Holy Land for the means to bring down the Templar knights, an organization with sinister designs on the world in this narrative. The iPhone game serves as a prequel to the console game. Altair is in search of a specific artifact called "The Chalice," which possibly has the power to bring the ugly Crusades to an early, merciful end. But seeking this relic raises more questions than it answers, setting up the console game, which I consider to have one of the best fictions in videogames in quite some time despite its uneven game mechanics.
As Altair, you must use your stealth abilities to seek the Chalice. The rooftops, awning, and beams that stretch across the grand cities of the medieval Holy Land are your playground. Careful movement above the sandy streets will keep you out of harm's way for the most part, although occasionally you must descend to the avenues below and draw blood. Altair has a sword that can be upgraded, but there are other devices and items he uses in his quest, such as a grappling hook and bombs. Altair's signature weapon, though, is his hidden dagger that is used to silently execute enemies and not raise the alarm of dozens of guards and Templar reinforcements.
Some kills are just messy.
As you explore the Holy Land, you will pick up hundreds of blue orbs that can be traded in for upgrades, such as expanding Altair's health bar or the aforementioned sword. Personally, I tended to lean on sword upgrades because I wanted to make sure I could overpower enemies in any combat situation. I would accidentally blow a stealth situation by walking through a crowd too fast or stumble off a rooftop and land on the street below, just within striking distance of a Templar.
Naturally, this raises the issue of control. I think the control stick here is a little looser which does prevent absolute precision and will cause occasional mishaps, but for the most part, I really don't have any major problems with how the game handles. The combat buttons work great, although the shield button placement over by the control stick is awkward. While there are some automated actions, like scrambling up a wall, I do wish that some small jumps were also self-propelled. The jump button works without a problem, but an auto-jump would help casual gamers by taking one less button out of the mix.
One feature in Assassin's Creed I do not care for, though, are the minigames. I think they are pointless holdovers from the DS version. They felt tacked-on back then, like Gameloft was trying to integrate the DS touchscreen some way... any way. They don't fare much better here. They function, but add nothing to the overall game. They feel gimmicky in a game that needs no gimmicks.
As mentioned earlier in the review, Assassin's Creed looks fantastic. Everything -- from the textures on Altair's robes to the crackling fire effects -- is brighter, crisper, and more detailed in this edition of the game versus the DS. However, Assassin's Creed is not necessarily the smoothest play on a Droid. There is some framerate chugging here and there that mars the experience. However, some users have mentioned that Creed runs better on newer handsets.
