Zookeeper Battle Mobile App Review

Downloaded Zookeeper Battle for free on Google Play or Itunes
Developed by Kiteretsu
Genre: Brain & Puzzle
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8.5/10

Bejeweled Battle type games are a real hit with the flash and mobile game crowds and luckily developers do get quite creative with their iterations so the genre doesn't get too bland. For instance one of my first mobile app reviews was on Witch Wars which was a Bejeweled Battle type clone. Now I am reviewing one I like even better than Witch Wars; Zookeeper Battle.

So Zookeeper Battle is obviously the battle version of the normal Zookeeper mobile app which for all points and purposes is just like Bejeweled. The difference of course is that you are matching cute little pixelated zoo animals in Zookeeper Battle instead of jewels and gold. Now where the battle comes into play is like every other game of this sub-genre. The more matches you make the better off you will be against your opponent.

However, Zookeeper Battle takes an interesting take on the game. Wherein Witch Wars where you faced head to head in real time and you attack as you go along, Zookeeper Battle takes advantage of rounds much like a boxing match. Each zoo animal corresponds to either attack or defense attributes. So  hippopotamuses and elephants are defense and lions, frogs, panda bears, giraffes, and monkeys are attack. You also have a random animal each round which can act as both. So each round is timed and in that time period you try and match as many as you can. The round then ends and it shows how much attack and defense power you have. You then attack your opponent and if you're attack points beat his defense points then you do damage equal to the remainder, and vice verse. There are also random special tiles you can use to help you such as binoculars which show you all the possible matches, hearts which heal you, paint buckets which causes your opponents tiles to all be grey and the boss tile which creates useless boss tiles that do neither attack or defense.

What makes me like Zookeeper Battle over the other Bejeweled Battle type game I reviewed, Witch Wars, is that with the boxing style rounds it just gets more intense. I also like the cute zoo animals better as well. Overall, Zookeeper Battle is a great mobile game that you can easily sink hours into.

The End Mobile App Review

Download The End for free from Google Play or Itunes
Developed by Goroid
Genre: Arcade & Action
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8.5/10

If there is one genre that has exploded in recent years it is the endless running genre. First it was popular in the 2D sense brought along by Canabalt and then later with the touch screen phenomena there was a rise in 3D-ish endless running games brought to popularity by Temple Run. Since Temple Run there have been countless feeble attempts at recreating its success and most just end up being blatant copies. However, when Google Play released their latest "best endless running games" list I found The End which has the typical Temple Run style but is much more fleshed out.

Since I compared The End with Temple Run you all should know the general idea of gameplay. You play a character who is running and you need to swipe on your touchscreen device to jump over obstacles, slide under obstacles and turn left and right. You also can tilt your device to avoid other obstacles. Now, those are the basic gameplay dynamics that Temple Run sort of pioneered in my opinion or at least brought into popular light. The foundations if you will. From there, though, The End takes it and makes it 10x better.

First off the sheer amount of obstacles and different environments in The End completely blows Temple Run out of the water. In Temple Run there were trees, overhands and skinny lanes. The End features a multitude of obstacles you need to jump over including lava pits, wrecked cars, rubble, etc. All of which have multiple iterations of. You can also slide under a lot of these same obstacles such as semi trucks and buses parked in the way.

Perhaps the best way that The End beats out Temple Run is in the atmosphere aspect. The whole atmosphere surrounding The End is fairly obvious, it is during and post apocalypse  but not by generic zombies, nope by lava! Natural disasters I suppose. And to further propagate this there are missions you need to do in The End which go along with surviving in this apocalyptic world. The missions themselves are fairly generic like run this far, collect this amount of points, etc. But missions in general give incentive to play and increase replay value and addictiveness, all of which The End has plenty of. So if you want to step up your Temple Run game, try out a real game; The End.

Pixel Twist Mobile App Review

Download Pixel Twist free on Android
Developed by NoodleCake Studios
Genre: Brain & Puzzle
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8/10

I don't know about you all but for me it is finals week also known as hell week or just generally a very stressful time. Luckily for me and others in my situation the folks over at Google Play decided to release their top zen games, in other words games that will help you relax. I already got my time out of Zen Bound 2 and was looking for a new squeeze. Luckily I found Pixel Twist.

Pixel Twist plays exactly like the name implies. You have a cloud of individual pixels and the goal is to twist and turn that pixel cloud into the full pixel art picture that you are shown in the top corner. Sounds easy but trust me it is not. However, while twisting and turning these pixel clouds can be kind of difficult at times I must hand it to them, it sure is relaxing.

It could be based on my love of pixel art in general but I found this game instantly addicting. Played for a good long time and what is even better is there is a whole slew of pixel art clouds so the game takes a while to get stagnant and at that point it is not like you memorized the exact solutions to every cloud. I will say that there are a few tricks which make the game easier but I found it doesn't work for all so my enjoyment wasn't ruined and still found Pixel Twist to be a blast during my finals week!

Jellyflop Mobile App Review

Download Jellyflop for free for Android
Developed by Concrete Software
Genre: Brain & Puzzle
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8/10

If there is one thing that Jellyfish love to do it is flop around, hence the title of this Android mobile app, Jellyflop. Draw lines to bounce this brave little jellyfish all around the sea and beach to victory!

Jellyflop employs a simple gameplay dynamic. You draw lines so that when the jellyfish falls down it bounces to where you want it to go. Of course you have a limited amount of jelly juice to draw lines and you also should go for stars to get that coveted perfect 3 Stars rating. While not a unqiue concept by a long shot, Jellyflop does manage to still be a fun game and a relevant mobile app with this concept due to a few factors.

One of those factors is that Jellyflop has a lot of levels to keep people occupied and to satisfy them for their free purchase. Specifically Jellyflop has 5 zones with 100 levels. Crazy I know. Jellyflop also tries and keeps levels interesting by having various environmental aspects around such as fans to blow the jellyfish around, teleports to teleport the jellyfish, etc. As far as mobile touch screen devices go, Jellyflop is perfectly adapted to this as you can just swipe your finger and draw all the jelly lines you want. So if you're looking for a fun puzzle mobile app game then try out Jellyflop, it is free and well worth it!

Rune Raiders Mobile App Review

Download Rune Raiders on Google Play or Itunes
Developed by Retro64
Genre: Brain & Puzzle
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8/10

So awhile back on FlashMush Reviews I reviewed a little game called Rune Raiders. Flash forward to today and I downloaded it on my Nexus 7 and felt the need to do a more mobile app centric review here at MobileMush Reviews.

If you're not familiar with Rune Raiders it really is a simple game to pick up and learn. You get together a party of characters ranging from archers to dwarves to fireworks salesmen. Each has different skills and attack patterns. You then place them on a grid like board and move them forward to battle! You will encounter plenty of enemies which also have various attack patterns (for example some may only attack in a straight line, others at angles, etc.) and you must formulate a strategy on how to win or even have to rework your team structure.

Rune Raiders offers tons of enemy types to battle and even better they offer tons of characters you can play with. There are also tons of levels and a survival mode to keep you busy. As a mobile game I feel Rune Raiders is perfectly adapted to the touch screen capabilities and really is a fun game to play. The only issue I have with Rune Raiders is exactly surprisingly completely different than my main issue from my flash game review on it; the difficulty. Before I found the game to be too hard, but now I found it to be too easy. Once you reach a certain point (at the fireworks salesmen) I just power housed through all the levels. Still a fun game, don't get me wrong, but at that point there was literally no challenge. Overall though Rune Raiders is a great mobile game and will keep you busy for a while.

Hanger Mobile App Review

Download Hanger on Google Play or Itunes
Developed by A Small Game
Genre: Arcade & Action
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8/10

Hanger has been around for a while and even has a sequel you can play on flash game sites, but fairly recently the developer studio, A Small Game, decided to go the mobile route and have been fairly successful with that endeavor I would say.

If you don't know what the Hanger series is about it is fairly simple as it is kind of like Spiderman. You play as a character who can shoot strings or ropes or maybe even web from his hands and the goal is to get from point A to point B without losing too many limbs which you lose by hitting obstacles. Sounds easy but with the physics system in place it actually is quite hard and can get very hectic quickly.

The mobile version is pretty much the same as the browser based versions but with more touch based controls. You have arrows on the left side of the screen to help you move in those directions and a button on the right side to release and shoot new ropes out. This part is actually the hardest part to get used to in Hanger but I can't think of any other way to accomplish the controls in a touch based mobile device. For what it is Hanger is a great time killer and for only $0.99 it is a steal for how much entertainment you will get out of it.

Nitrome Touchy App Spotlight

Download Nitrome Touchy for free on Android or Itunes
Developed by Nitrome
Genre: Entertainment

Everyone should have heard of the developer Nitrome. They are a force to be reckoned with in the online flash game business as they publish many games which are all unique and well polished. Personally I love all of Nitrome's games and love that they like to branch out and try new things. Whether it be their first downloadable game hoping for Steam Greenlight called Flightless or their small 8-bit experimental games. Now Nitrome is back with a new crazy idea called Nitrome Touchy.

What is Nitrome Touchy? Well it is not directly a game but rather a downloadable controller for Nitrome games in your browser. Sounds weird I know. But basically you download Nitrome Touchy and then can sync it to your computer and then when you play select Nitrome games you can use your mobile device to control the character on screen. For now only 10 Nitrome games are compatible but they are great titles. They include: Swindler 1 & 2, Worm Food, Aquanaut, Off the Rails, Thin Ice, Flash Cat, Mega Mash, Super Snotput, Double Edged, and Magic Touch. Each game has a different user interface on the actual Nitrome Touchy app which further customizes the look of it all. I really applaud Nitrome for coming up with something so innovative and new in both the flash game and mobile app markets with Nitrome Touchy.

Tap Shoot Zombie! Mobile App Review

Download Tap Shoot Zombie! for Android
Developed by RotatingCanvas
Genre: Casual
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 6/10

RotatingCanvas is back with another name-centric rotating mobile app! This time its about shooting some zombies and who doesn't love shooting down zombies? Especially with cannons and magic spells!

Yes, I said shooting down zombies with magic spells. Anyways, the idea behind Tap Shoot Zombie! is simple. You tap, you shoot zombies. The way it works is you choose a weapon which then rotates around, you tap the screen to shoot and you aim for zombies. There are also powerups you can get such as money, powered up weapons, bombs, etc. Now the catch with Tap Shoot Zombie! is you can't miss three times. It is the old baseball rule, three strikes and you're out.

I appreciate the core idea behind Tap Shoot Zombie! I just feel it didn't reach full potential for a few reasons. Now, before I list those I will say Tap Shoot Zombie! is fairly addictive and a great casual game...just lacking in professional polish and feel the idea is getting squandered away. What I mean by this is for one the graphics are very poorly done and just do not fit well with each other. I mention this issue over at FlashMush Reviews quite a lot about how having mediocre graphics gives an unfair allusion of bad quality. I fell Tap Shoot Zombie! falls into that. I also feel that a lot more could be done with Tap Shoot Zombie! to make it better. Maybe moving zombies, different types of zombies (or at least more noticeable differences), better upgrades and a more fair shop (prices are ridiculous as of now). Overall though, I see the direction Tap Shoot Zombies! was going in and maybe someone will come along and make a stellar similar mobile app.

Pakkuman's Defense Mobile App Review

Get Pakkuman's Defense for: Android, Itunes, or Blackberry
Developed by Tametick
Genre: Arcade & Action
MobileMush Reviews Rating: 8.5/10

Pacman is a classic video game and almost literally everyone knows about it and has played some version or iteration of it. But classic as Pacman is, in today's gaming, both console or mobile, environment it would be considered boring. Retro but still boring. So how would you make Pacman more interesting? Well, Pakkuman's Defense did exactly this by combining the simplistic and retro Pacman game ideas with tower defense elements. Yes, Pacman Tower Defense. Who would have thought?

Gameplay in Pakkuman's Defense is actually quite simple. You have various maze levels a la Pacman and the goal is the same; collect all the pellets and not to get caught by the ghosts. However, in Pakkuman's Defense each pellet now is money and with that money you can place turrets on the walls of the maze which then shoot the ghosts as they come near effectively turning Pacman into a tower defense game.

Of course with each new level things get harder and harder and it actually gets quite challenging. There are also various powerups you can collect in Pakkuman's Defense to help you in your ghost killing quest. Overall I really enjoy the retro throwback with new age elements thrown in with Pakkuman's Defense and think Tametick is ingenious!