Posts with ‘Vlambeer’ Tag

A Few Good iGames

By: Derek Yu

On: January 19th, 2012

Super Crate Box, Fingle, Puzzlejuice

I’m not too in touch with the mobile market (see what I unintentionally did there?), but here are a handful of recent iOS releases that caught my eye:

Super Crate Box iOS – Vlambeer’s popular action game has made its way to iDevices. I’m pretty impressed with how they handled the controls, especially after the 1.1 update. It treats the buttons almost like they’re sliders, and once you get used to it, 90% of the deaths feel like your fault. The screen even scrolls to let you see crates that might be hiding under your fingers.

Fingle – An IGF Best Mobile Game finalist, Fingle plays kind of like Twister for your phalanges. A neat idea that should make for some steamy family gatherings!

Puzzlejuice – Asher Vollmer’s new puzzle game combines Tetris with match-3 and Boggle, and apparently those pieces fit together quite well (I swear I’m not doing this on purpose). Creating rows will turn the squares into letters, which can then be connected into words to make the blocks disappear. Multipliers are granted for spelling, but can also be extended by matching colors and making more letters.

A cool concept in and of itself, but the execution is what drives it home. A slick magnifying window pops up as you’re spelling words and overall, the interface feels very polished. Art direction by Greg Wohlwend (Solipskier) is as good as expected. (EDIT: You should also check out the soundtrack, by Jimmy Hinson. Had my audio turned down, so I didn’t realize how nice it is.)

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Luftrauser

By: Derek Yu

On: June 28th, 2011

Vlambeer has released a new game, called Luftrauser. It’s very simple – use the arrow keys to fly around and press X to shoot and take out enemy planes, jets, and boats. The controls are good, though, and the action ramps up quickly.

A few things to keep in mind: 1. your plane can hit the water at any speed without taking damage, and 2. it regenerates health.

TIGdb: Entry for Luftrauser

Super Crate Box

By: Derek Yu

On: November 3rd, 2010

Super Crate Box by Vlambeer

In Vlambeer’s Super Crate Box, the goal is not to kill as many enemies as you can, or even to last for as long as possible. Instead, the player scores points by collecting weapon crates that appear randomly around the room (a new crate appears as soon as the last one is collected). Enemies drop out of the top of the screen and make their way down to the bottom, where they fall into the pit and respawn up top as faster, red versions of themselves.

The game makes you think it should be a lot easier than it really is, partly due to the small map size. In reality, it’s quite challenging to find the right balance between clearing out enough enemies so that they don’t overwhelm you and actually scoring points. Also, the weapons vary in terms of their overall usefulness and collecting crates forces you to change up your strategy constantly.

So yeah, super-addictive platformer with nice graphics and a funkedified soundtrack by Eirik “Phlogiston” Suhrke. Super Crate Box also comes with 3 maps, an extra-hard SMFT mode, and various weapon and character unlockables, too. Good stuff!

TIGdb: Entry for Super Crate Box

Trailers: Platform Heaven

By: Derek Yu

On: October 17th, 2010

SUPER MEAT BOY (XBLA, OCT. 20)

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