iPhone App Review: Game Dev Story
This review should have been done two weeks ago.
I lead off with that because this review isn’t going to be like past reviews I’ve done for Geek Shui Living.
Generally I give the information about the game, tell you a bit about it, go over the pluses and minuses (the good ol’ FTW and WTF, respectively), and wrap it up. I approached Justin [i.e. Mr. Geek Shui himself] with the title and thought it would be a good one to cover, since it stood out from the rest of the games that were in the Top 25. Most games in the Top 25 were either 99 cents, established franchises (such as Monopoly or Tetris), or produced by an established name like Electronic Arts. Game Dev Story was $3.99, unknown before its release on the iPhone (at least in America), and produced by Kairosoft, whose English website is a one page (mobile-formatted) ad for – you guessed it – Game Dev Story. Yet here it was, in the Top 25, with hundreds of reviews and a five star rating. Not 4.5 stars like many successful games end up having (there’s always bound to be the Armond Whites of the App Store that give a one-star rating to a game or app because its doing so well) but a legit five stars. The genre was a favorite of mine (I’ve always enjoyed simulations), so I wanted to dig in. I downloaded and started.
8 hours later, I needed to get sleep.
Let’s get this out of the way: Game Dev Story is a fun game, and you will get enough gameplay out of it to justify your $4. I recommend it. But the game itself is exactly that – fun. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not innovative, and it doesn’t have a great deal of depth. When you’ve played it for 10 minutes, you’ve pretty much explored every aspect of the game. So why 8 hours?
iPhone App Review: Risk
Risk was always one of those board games that was off limits to me growing up. The main excuse I was given was that it was more of a “complex” game than games like Monopoly or Battleship. Indeed, Risk is a little complex for a classic board game (as evidenced by the “ages 12+” guideline instead of the usual 7 to 9 most classic board games start at), but I think in reality it was the cost (Risk, even today, lists for at least $9 more than other classic Hasbro board games) and that you needed three people to play – the kiss of death for an only child. EA’s release of Risk for iPhone eliminates many of the stumbling blocks someone looking for an introduction to Risk might have, but is it enough for long time fans of the original?
iPhone App Review: Phoenix Wright
I’m surprised that the “courtroom/lawyer simulation” genre is so small. After all, courtroom dramas are usually some of the highest rated and most memorable television shows, from the Law & Order series all the way back to Perry Mason. Classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and Twelve Angry Men are based around courtroom settings. However, those looking to recreate the courtroom experience were hard pressed to find a game to satisfy that desire.
This explains some of the popularity of the Ace Attorney series by Capcom. The original title from the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was released exclusively in Japan for the Game Boy Advance back in 2001 and has since been re-released for the Nintendo DS (in 2005), received an American release, and produced four sequels and spinoffs. The series is very successful in Japan, and demand for it in the United States has caused the Ace Attorney games to be difficult to find at times. Recently, Capcom has released the first game from the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, for the iPhone.
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iPhone App Review: Blokus
Growing up, I’ve always loved board games. Problem was that I was an only child, and my parents hated board games, so I was left with the less-than-enjoyable task of playing board games “against myself”, meaning I’d play all the turns using several different game pieces. As you can imagine, this generally sucked.
Fast forward several (OK, lots) of years later, and now it seems like every board game is out for the iPhone. That includes one of our recent favorites, Blokus.
