When I was in high school I spent a lot of time playing games like Bard’s Tale and Might & Magic (back when they were RPGs and not strategy games).  After spending some time with QuestLord I remembered why I used to like these games so much.  Sure 3D open ended worlds are nifty – I guess – and there’s no question that action / RPGs have their place in this fast paced mobile world.  Still, there’s something to be said about old fashioned tile based world exploration, and it manages to engross me just about every time.  QuestLord is no exception to that rule.

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Read the rest of QuestLord in Review – Retro Done Right

© EricPankoke for TouchMyApps, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Games, Laval Level, QuestLord, rating-grab, Review, Role Playing

Back in the day, by which I mean a time I barely remember and which many of you probably weren’t born yet for, there existed a game called Rogue that quite possibly started one of the first trends of copycats, known as rouge-likes.  The games were simple in some ways such as consisting of only ASCII graphics, but complex in others like having a myriad of commands to remember and randomly generated dungeons that were revealed as you moved through them.  While I actually enjoyed several games of this type, I’m happy to see that modern variants such as Dungelot have revamped graphics and streamlined control schemes.  Unfortunately one challenging feature still remains in many modern rogue-likes: death is death.

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Read the rest of Dungelot in Review – Rogue-like At Its Best

© EricPankoke for TouchMyApps, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Action, Dungelot, Games, rating-kiss, Red Winter Software Limited, Review, Role Playing

The concept of combining the RPG with match 3 mechanics seems to be pretty popular, though few entries come close to either Puzzle Quest for a more hardcore experience or Dungeon Raid for the casual folks.  Still, many of the options at least offer a few things that make them worth giving a chace, and Dungeon Story is no exception.  While there are no quests to speak of, it’s more persistent than Dungeon Raid in that you can build up your character between plays.  It still provides a more casual experience than Puzzle Quest, however, because even if you get “stuck” in a dungeon all you have to remember between sessions is that when you come back there is another monster to fight.

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Read the rest of Dungeon Story in Review – Have I Heard This Tale Before?

© EricPankoke for TouchMyApps, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dungeon Story, Games, Match 3, Pantazis Deligiannis, Puzzle, Review, RPG

Imagine how disappointed this Ultima idiot was to discover that Ultima V for iPad is nothing but a fan page – sort of. Its author links to various Ultima sundries: Ultima news, fonts, upcoming games, maps, and does it in the classic Ultima style, that promises something dark – something role playing – under the surface. Real Ultima fans still append Dragon to their name. The bloke who made Ultima V for iPad, for example, is Edric Dragon; I’m shigzeo Dragon. I’ve had that nickname for years. I’m sure it’s the same for Edric. What other game series can boast such nerdy fans? And honestly, my lead in is rubbish: I love Edric Dragon’s site. Bookmarked it.

Edric Dragon pointed out something I somehow missed: Exult for iOS. (Exult is a reverse-engineered Ultima 7 engine for modern operating systems. I’ve blogged about it before.) If there is ANYTHING I’m waiting for (apart from soul-pleasing employment), it’s Ultima 7 for iPad. Edric, as much as he is a fisherman, has rekindled hope.

© shigzeo for TouchMyApps, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: iPad, RPG, Ultima

As someone who spends quite a bit of time with the many forms of iOS, I see roughly as many Tower Defense games in a month as there are base foot soldiers in any given TD game. However, every so often one of them is good enough to break through my defenses and march straight into my good books. Such is the challenge facing Gimka Entertainment with their offering of Defender Chronicles II: Heroes of Athelia.

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Read the rest of Defender Chronicles II: Heroes of Athelia in Review – Skeletal Genocide on an Evil Scale

© mikey for TouchMyApps, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Defender Chronicles II: Heroes Of Athelia, Games, Gimka Entertainment, rating-tap, Review, Strategy, tower defense

At first it sounded like the perfect marriage – dungeon crawling and classic point and click adventuring.  That alone was enough to entice me into trying Dungeon of the Damned, never mind the cool “old but new” graphics and nostalgic interface.  Unfortunately execution isn’t always as good as concept, and sadly what Dungeon Of The Damned has turned out to be for me so far is a boring traipse through a lifeless dungeon with no adventure game elements, little combat and frustrating puzzles.  The lack of a map doesn’t help anything either.

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Read the rest of Dungeon Of The Damned in Review – A Name Says So Much…

© EricPankoke for TouchMyApps, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Adventure, Digi-chain Games, Dungeon of the Damned, Games, rating-tap, Review, Role Playing

I’ve never been a fan of the freemium model employed by so many games on the App Store these days, but ever since I’ve had my iPad I’ve been hooked on two of them.  The first is Mystery Manor , which I reviewed just before Christmas, and the other is Appy Entertainment’s latest release, SpellCraft School of Magic.  Like everything else in their portfolio it’s different from anything else they’ve done, and it’s also not quite like any other dungeon crawler I’ve played.  In addition to the combat you actually have to grow your own ingredients to cook your own spells, and you can even get a pet to care for that will help protect you in exchange.  This may be a dungeon crawler “lite” in some regards, but it offers enough to keep me coming back for more on a daily basis.

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Read the rest of SpellCraft School Of Magic in Review – Hogwarts has some competition

© EricPankoke for TouchMyApps, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Appy Entertainment Inc., Games, rating-grab, Review, Role Playing, Simulation, SpellCraft School Of Magic

Slowly but surely, the App Store is being populated by all manner of Privateer-style games. We’ve already seen a superb space sim in Galaxy on Fire 2 (TMA Review), the original boardgame-like Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space (TMA Review), as well as a more adventure oriented experience in the amazing Warpgate (TMA Review). For fans of the latter, a new title recently hit the App Store that may well fill their spare time while waiting for a sequel – Galaxy Pirate Adventure. All aboard!

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Read the rest of Galaxy Pirate Adventure in Review – Ahoy there, space mateys!

© ChiffaN for TouchMyApps, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Adventure, Galaxy Pirate Adventure, Games, rating-grab, Review, Role Playing, Sunfish Studio Limited, Universal

Have you wondered what’s out there in the great beyond? Are you a fan of Star Trek, Star Wars or Babylon 5? Have you ever dreamt of exploring new worlds, discovering ancient artifacts and meeting aliens? Well, settle in my dear friend, as now you can do all of that in the comfort of your own living room! Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and the creativity of some indie devs, the full experience has essentially been recreated in Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space.

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Read the rest of Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space in Review – Unlock the mysteries of the universe in 30 minutes or less

© ChiffaN for TouchMyApps, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Adventure, Astraware Limited, Games, iPad, rating-kiss, Review, Role Playing, Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space

When the iPad first arrived on the scene many called it “just a big iPod Touch”. To which others often replied “Well, yeah!” Indeed even if in principal it IS just a big iPod Touch, the real estate of 9.7 inches is much much more comfortable to play with than that of the iPhone’s 3.5″. And it makes such games as Companions – a real-time tactical strategy/RPG game – possible.

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Read the rest of Companions in Review – All for one and one for all!

© ChiffaN for TouchMyApps, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Action, Companions, Games, rating-kiss, Review, Role Playing, smuttlewerk interactive, Strategy

One of my first ever reviews for TMA was of Palm Heroes Classic, an adaptation of the legendary classic Heroes of Might and Magic 3, for the iPhone. Of course, having been originally developed for Windows Mobile, it had its flaws – mostly on the interface side. Still even in those early App Store day, it offered a unique experience on par with the classic desktop Strategy/RPG. But time doesn’t stand still and now almost 2 years later, the developers have released the sequel Palm Heroes 2 Deluxe for iPhone, this time built from the ground up for the iOS.

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Read the rest of Palm Heroes 2 Deluxe in Review – It’s time to HoMMnify your iPhone once more!

© ChiffaN for TouchMyApps, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Featured, Games, iosoftware, Palm Heroes 2 Deluxe for iPhone, rating-kiss, Review, Role Playing, Strategy

Considering the main audience of Apple’s iOS devices, it’s no wonder there is a noticeable lack of hardcore old-school RPGs. Some of the few titles coming to mind are, of course, the now Free Undercroft (TMA Review) and the never-ending The Quest with over a dozen expansions out already. But for some reason the iPad has stayed devoid of an optimized hardcore RPG experience ever since its release in Spring 2010. Until recently that is, when Spiderweb Software finally released Avadon: The Black Fortress HD on the iPad, which was previously available only for the Mac..

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Read the rest of Avadon: The Black Fortress HD in Review – Definitely not about King Arthur

© ChiffaN for TouchMyApps, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Avadon: The Black Fortress HD, Games, rating-grab, Review, Role Playing, Spiderweb Software