The free iPhone game Trawler Report - iSponge soaks up the blood left by Gundead Defense’s rowdy gunslingers
8th May 2010
Everything’s getting bigger. Big is in, apparently. This week saw the release of the DSi XL, which slaps 4.2-inch screens on the classic DS lite dual-screen design, while the iPad’s release date has been set in stone with a press release from Apple itself.
Are you all going to make the leap to big screen portable gaming? Are we going to have to re-name the site Briefcase Gamer? Unless you all run off en masse and buy these new chunky gadgets, we think a full big-screen revolution is unlikely.
You’d have to spend the best part of a grand to get in with the cool, big-pocketed kids, and as we saw last week that would mean giving up on a whole load of paid-for games.
This week, some old favourites have returned - the tower defence genre is back with the stylish, undead-themed Gundead Defense, while Volkswagen and Fishlabs have teamed-up again to bring us the environmentally aware Volkswagen Think Blue Challenge. Start those engines...
The best free iPhone games on the App StoreVolkswagen Think Blue Challenge
By Volkswagen
Type Full
Volkswagen has treated us to a pair of decent freebies already, but Volkswagen Think Blue is its most left-field idea yet. Volkswagen Think Blue isn’t so much a racer as a scrimping simulator.
Your aim is to drive as far as possible using a set amount of fuel. To do this, you have to be very careful with your accelerator pedal, which is controlled like a fader with your right thumb.
You also have to make sure you don’t hit any kerbs, as that’s never good for keeping up your speed. Although not quite as hi-octane as Volkswagen Polo Challenge, there’s still something oddly engrossing about this driving freebie. Plus, produced by Fishlabs, it’s just as gorgeous as any of the other 3D Volkswagen racers.
By Telect
Type Full Ever wondered why you can’t get a good mobile signal in that one area of town, even though it’s a pretty built-up area? You’ll find out in Telecom Tycoon. It’s a sim-style game where you play as a telecoms giant, planting 2G, 3G, and 4G towers around towns and cities to rake in the cash - and supply people with a mobile signal.
Telecom Tycoon looks a bit like Sim City, but it’s a lot less involved. All you have to do is build towers, trying to get as much coverage of populated areas as possible, while making sure you make more cash than your competitors.
Telecom Tycoon is an advergame of sorts, raising awareness about, erm, fascinating telecoms issues. The gameplay’s not stellar, but it’s an interesting enough look into the crazy world of telecoms towers.
Thumpies Zero
By Big Blue Bubble
Type Demo
Rhythm games are running out of steam, many claim. Our houses are filled with fake plastic guitars and flimsy drum kits that take up half the living room, and - whatever you say - you’re no closer to being able to actually play an instrument.
Thumpies dumps the traditional realistic approach of rhythm games, making you tap on mushrooms and the Thumpies land on them. Thumpies are half-cute, half-horrific disembodied heads. Furry and toothy, they’re rendered in 3D and you can spend a while just staring at them. Like furry boglins.
You’re still tapping away on the screen as you would in most other rhythm games, but there are also butterflies that you can grab for bonuses - if you manage to nab them before the Thumpies gobble them up, that is.
By ideaBox
Type Full
He’s no Spongebob Squarepants, but the star of iSponge is good at doing one thing - absorbing water. iSponge is a casual game of the lightest order, and charges you with taking control of this little sponge.
You control him with the touchscreen and have to get him to suck up all the blue water droplets falling down from the top of the screen, while avoiding the yellow ones. We dread to think what they represent.
As you collect more water, your sponge gets bigger, making it even trickier to avoid the curious yellow droplets. iSponge could do with online scores to keep you hooked for longer, but it’s a fun dose of ultra-simple gaming.
Pick of the weekGundead Defense
By Longtail Studios
Type Demo
We’ve played more tower defence games than we care to admit, and it’s not often you see a game that really tries to do something a little different. Gundead Defense excels in two areas that tower defence games don’t usually.
Firstly, it really tries to set up a story that means something to the game, which is propelled along by the excellent comic-style visuals - Longtail Studio’s visuals have always been fab, as we saw in mobile games like My Bridezilla.
Plus, this defence game sees you play attacker, too. In some levels, you have to attack an enemy base while your own is being attacked. So, not only do you have to plan your defences, but you have to choose attack units, too.
This ups the attrition factor, but Gundead Defense breathes a fresh - if undead - breeze across a largely stagnant genre.
By Devin Snipes
Type Full You don’t get much more damning endorsements than “From the friend of the developer of Am I Fat?” From one crap app to another, Am I Ugly? lets you find out how ugly you are with a series of random comments - all of which seem to say that, guess what, you are indeed ugly.
It even pretends that it’s actually doing something intelligent. You select a picture to be assessed, but it’s not based on any kind of facial recognition.
Am I Ugly? even admits its own crapness within, saying that its results aren’t based on anything to do with the picture in the “about” section. If we put this app through our own Am I Crap? App, the result would be a resounding “yes”.
