Stories By Jordan Minor

Back when Hudson Soft was still an independent videogame publisher and not just a subsidiary of Konami, they put out a game on the TurboGrafx-16 called Military Madness, or in some parts of the world, Nectaris. Along with the Advance Wars predecessor Famicom Wars, Military Madness was an early example of a great console turn-based strategy game. However, while Nintendo’s franchise flourished, Hudson’s went somewhat dormant. Now, Military Madness is back on several platforms, including the iPhone. But has its time passed?

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We really should come up with a clever name for this emerging strategy sub-genre. If you have ever played Cartoon Wars, Ancient War or any other 2D side-scrolling RTS, then you’ll feel right at home with Battle of Puppets. However, while Small Wonders’ newest title may not win you over with its originality, its abundance of charm and adorable atmosphere will.

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Ever since Frogger hit arcades back in 1981, videogame frogs have all had to face incredible obstacles whenever moving from one place to another. In Dizzypad from Nimblebit, not even their lily pad-filled pond is a safe haven for these unfortunate amphibians. However, what may be an arduous quest for frogs ends up being an entertaining distraction for gamers.

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Necromancer Rising may go down in history for having the most awesomely straightforward name for its main character: the Battle Priest. With a name like that, it should come as no surprise that the newest app from Ryan Mitchell Games is about taking down the forces of the underworld through rather violent means. But if that initial premise sounds a little too mindless for you, don’t worry. In fact, for better or for worse, Nercromancer Rising may be one of the deeper RPGs on the iDevice.

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Between N.O.V.A. and Eliminate Pro, first-person shooters on the iPhone are starting to take off in a big way. While it doesn’t raise the bar in the same way those two did, The Infinity Project from Crazy Robot succeeds by borrowing ideas seen in more familiar console shooters. The Infinity Project combines the corridor shootouts of Doom with the openness of Metroid Prime.

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Let’s get one thing out of the way: Aztec Quest is not a Civilization-style strategy game where the goal is to play as invading Spaniards and brutally conquer a continent. Instead, Aztec Quest is an entertaining puzzle game where you have to lead a ball through chutes, springs, and teleporters. As the game challenges you to solve increasingly difficult puzzles with more elaborate mazes, it'll help keep your mind feeling sharp.

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When Com2us put out the first Inotia RPG back in March, we praised it for its beautiful style but criticized its lack of substance. The sequel attempts to compensate on both fronts by beefing up the content as well as sprucing up its already impressive visuals. Luckily for us would-be adventurers, the result is largely a success.

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Sword of Fargoal was originally released on the Commodore 64 in 1983 and was an early example of the simpler role-playing game subgenre known as “roguelikes". Roguelikes eschewed the long, winding tales of traditional RPGs in favor of crushing difficulty and randomized dungeon layouts and enemy placement. By having the player constantly die and restart in order to reach their goal, roguelikes were able compensate for their shorter lengths and maintain the illusion of depth on early computers with limited memory. The genre lives on today through titles like Shiren the Wanderer and the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, but those have evolved somewhat along with the times. For better or for worse, Sword of Fargoal arrives on the App Store relatively untouched.

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Despite the somewhat serious way it presents itself, the Ace Combat series has always been more about arcade action-packed dog fighting that true flight simulation. The result has been a consistently fun and well-received franchise spanning many generations of consoles, handhelds, and now, mobile phones and MP3 players. Ace Combat Xi upholds the series’ reputation, despite the technical problems that affect the game on some older devices.

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You could easily confuse Carnival Games Live with the piles of similarly named shovelware that plague the casual games market. However, after playing Digital Chocolate’s latest concoction, you will be surprised by its quality. Make no mistake, it’s still a simple and casual minigame collection that’s a little light even for its genre, but it is fun and well-produced enough to be enjoyable even if your tastes are a little more hardcore.

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Remember that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest when Orlando Bloom is running and fighting on top of that giant wheel thing? Well, our friends at Two Lives Left have decided to turn that scene into an iPhone game: the aptly titled Wheeler’s Treasure. Touting procedurally generated tracks and plenty of collectibles to unlock, Wheeler’s Treasure is deeper than it initially seems. At its core it is a platformer with some racing elements designed for short bursts.

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Aliens have invaded Earth and are repeatedly attacking the city, or rather, the same street. With no one left to help them, in a move straight out of Pixar’s The Incredibles, the people turn to a bloated and retired superhero named Captain Binary. With his glory days behind him, however, old Captain B is going to use more than just his fists to stop this crisis: Captain Binary is packing heat. We hope you like shooting aliens as much as Captain Binary does, because that is all you’ll be doing throughout this entire game.

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Enigmo 2 is not that bad, it's just disappointing. Both it and its predecessor are ports of the fairly popular Enigmo games available for several systems, including the Mac. However, in the transition from one Apple platform to another, something has been lost along the way. In Enigmo 2 specifically, the things they added make the game worse.

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A trend you may have noticed on the App Store is developers using fresh themes and graphics to mask the fact that they are making a somewhat pedestrian game. Case in point: While the puzzle gameplay of Red Rocket Games’ Dark Harvest isn’t stale per se, it certainly isn’t the evil Harvest Moon clone or whatever other sort of game you imagine when you hear its title.

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Hey, you know that one puzzle game where you’re that thing that shoots colored marbles at other colored marbles? You know, that one game? Well, Tumblebugs is one of those games and a fine version of it at that. However, if you already own one those games (Luxor, Stoneloops of Jurassica, Atlantis Sky Patrol, etc.) then there is absolutely no reason for you to care about Tumblebugs.

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Two major updates for Ancient War have now been released, and although neither one adds any variety to the graphics, they do provide a substantial amount of new content. Four new campaign missions have been added, each with four diffculties, for a total of 50% more levels.

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If you’ve always wanted to play Lemmings, but have found the idea of sending countless living creatures to their deaths slightly disturbing, maybe the soulless machine minions of SCRAPS are more up your alley. SCRAPS, or “Specialty Construct: Robotic Articulated Property Salvage”, innovates in the puzzle-platformer genre with some genuinely new gameplay ideas, which almost makes up for its repetitive graphics and sound.

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Elven Chronicles, by Big Blue Bubble Inc., is exactly what one thinks a game called Elven Chronicles would be like. In this high fantasy RPG, darkness threatens the realm and two adventurers must rise up and travel across several magical lands in order to vanquish it. For an iPhone RPG it's perfectly functional and even pretty fun, but it's also somewhat forgettable.

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