Tag: Mikey Shorts »

Yes, it's time. Your favorite day of the week has rolled around once more. It's Wednesday, which means its time to scope out the biggest deals in mobile gaming this week. There are games old and new on this list -- plenty to scratch that gaming itch should you need something to play on the cheap. Let's hop to it, shall we?

BeaverTap, the minds behind Mikey Shorts, are all set to release their next big thing on the App Store later this week. That "next big thing" being Move the Walls.

Noodlecake Studios (and BeaverTap Games) is in a giving mood, and is putting sequenced platformer Mikey Hooks on sale for $0.99 for a limited time.

Additionally, Noodlecake is offering fans a sneak peek of yet another sequel in the Mikey series: Mikey Shorts.

We had an opportunity to review Mikey Hooks last year and COMPLETELY adored it; as noted, it is currently available on sale for $0.99.

BeaverTap Games is having a limited time sale on its two games, Mikey Shorts and Mikey Hooks. Mikey Shorts is now available for free while Mikey Hooks has its price cut in half to $0.99.

Both titles received Editor's Choice, and in our review of Mikey Shorts, Carter Dotson said, "Mikey Shorts is a speedrun platformer designed to appeal to both casual players and hardcore gamers that succeeds thanks to its fantastic controls."

2012 was an amazing year. It was full of new things, old things, and big changes. But of everything that came about in the past year, these are my favorite things:

"Super" Challenging Games

In particular, Super Crate Box and Super Hexagon both left me in states of constant desire, wanting to get that high score while tackling the immense difficulty both games presented. Yet there was one consistent thread in both: failure was usually my fault, the factor of poor execution rather than random chance. It makes success feel all that more empowering. The byproduct of it is constant failure, and frequent profanity usage.

The Story of Mikey Shorts

Another one of my favorite games of the year, and one of the cooler stories too. Developers Mike Gaughen and Mike Meade met on the TouchArcade forums while competing for high scores, and eventually they got together to make the kind of speedrun game that they wanted, and they absolutely stuck the landing on this one.

The indie spirit lives on

2012 was not an easy year for indie developers, and it didn’t get easier. Yet, there were still so many great games from small studios, trying to just execute a great idea or hopefully hit it big. I fear for the future of indies on iOS, but the fact that they keep on trucking is inspiring.

Getting to Attend Game Developers Conference

This was my first GDC, and it was an amazing experience. To go around and talk to the people who create the games we love to play in person is a fantastic experience. And it’s refreshing to see that even those who have hit the mobile gaming jackpot still talk with those who have not had that kind of success get. And hey, nothing makes you feel important like having a press pass and getting into exclusive events. And San Francisco is a beautiful city.

Chicago

But Chicago is now my home. 2012 was a year of big life events for me, and I finally was able to make a big move, to leave Texas (where I had lived my entire life) and move out far away on my own. I live in a bustling and exciting city, I get to talk to a community game developers and writers that also live here, and the food ain’t bad either.

Note that this is a list of my favorite things of 2012 – I keep getting reminded that winter is coming and it is awful. As such, Chicago may not be on my 2013 list.

148Apps

Finally, 148Apps. Being part of one of the best app review sites on the Internet has changed my life in innumerable ways. The two and a half years I have been here have opened up new opportunities for me, and allow me to pursue the things that I am passionate about as a career. So for everyone that reads the site and listens to the podcast, I thank you for your support.

We enter the middle portion of our rundown of 2012's best games, covering numbers 20-11 of our favorite games. Have an opinion of your own? Let us know in the comments!

20. Girls Like Robots: Based on quality, Adult Swim Games probably had the best 2012 of any mobile publisher, with a succession of high-quality games with absurd premises. The silliness made it a great fit on a surface level for the publisher. The high quality of the game, which transcends its silly people-organization concept by just continuously iterating and evolving on it throughout the game, made it something special.

19. Polara: This endless runner mixes in the color-switching of classic shmup Ikaruga with endless runner gameplay. But it shines because it is never content to keep throwing the same tricks at players, as Eli Cymet explains: "Polara boasts tight and varied gameplay, and consummately constructed stages. Rather than rest on the laurels of novelty and squander the core mechanic, developer Hope This Works Games offers a new way to think about color matching in almost every level."

18. Polymer: Play the "One Polymer" mode in this unique sliding puzzle game from indie-musician-turned-developer Whitaker Trebella to see its genius: it encourages long-term strategizing and planning to make a high-scoring match, not just quick reactions like in other puzzle games. Sure, there's modes that require quick thinking as well that are plenty of fun, but the premise of One Polymer is what kept me coming back.

17. Pocket Planes: Nimblebit hates our free time. Last year's Tiny Tower was addictive. So was Pocket Planes, thanks in no small part to the fact that there was more surface strategy to employ, and the ability for players to have a say in their fate as they expand their airline's reach into a globe-traversing empire. Plus, what other game has people in frog suits flying planes? It's the only game on this list, for sure...

16. Need For Speed Most Wanted: If one game was to define how far iOS gaming came this year, EA and Criterion's racer, adapted to iOS by Firemonkeys, might be it. From being packed full of features, and looking absolutely amazing to boot, it's showing that the difference between consoles and mobile, at least on a technical level, is a rapidly-shrinking gulf. Yet despite the good looks, it is definitely a keeper for its gameplay according to Blake Grundman: "Even with the most critical of eyes, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is still easily one of the best racers on the platform to date. You would have to be crazy not to take this hot rod out for a nice long joy ride."

15. Organ Trail: Director's Cut: Often times, pixel art is used just as an art style, and not to convey an actual retro feel. Not so here. By combining the look and feel of an 80's PC Oregon Trail game, and combining its mechanics with a modern-day zombie apocalypse, the elements brilliantly wind up informing each other and forming a sublime take on a classic. Rob Rich feels the same way: "Virtually every aspect of Organ Trail: Director’s Cut oozes style and cleverness. Also pus. It’s a game that’s likely to please zombie fans as well as anyone who remembers the one without the green-skinned shamblers fondly. And it’s with no hesitation or trepidation that I suggest that everyone reading this should buy it. If they haven’t already, of course."

14. Ski Safari: There are endless runners, and then there's Ski Safari. I'll let Rob Rich explain why it made our list: "Penguins, snowmobiles, eagles, and yeti can all be used to put some real distance between the accident prone man and the avalanche. Not only are they useful, they’re also pretty funny. Watching the yeti run wildly or slide along on its stomach never gets old. The same can be said for seeing a penguin ride along on the fuzzy mythological beast." If a man and a penguin riding a yeti while outrunning an avalanche ever gets old, I will weep bitterly. An easy choice for this list.

13. Super Crate Box: It would be easy to forget that this was actually a 2012 title, since it came out in the first week of January. I don't forget sitting for hours on end, either on touchscreen or at my iCade, trying to last just a little bit longer, cursing out that disc gun, the giant walking green skulls, or the stupid fire pit at the bottom. Yet, after those countless hours, no game revealed itself to give the players the control over their fate, to be about pure skill far more than randomness, quite like this one did.

12. Fieldrunners 2: Remember 2008? That's when the first Fieldrunners came out. 2012 is like an eternity since then, but Fieldrunners is still a ton of fun. As Rob LeFebvre writes: "Fieldrunners 2 HD is a brilliant combination of action and strategy with a depth of gameplay that’s hard to ignore. I find myself thinking of solutions to particularly difficult maps while I’m driving, or showering, or making dinner for the kids." Just don't burn the food while protecting your base.

11. Mikey Shorts: The laser precision of the controls is a significant part of what made this so good: trying to shave fractions of seconds off one's time in order to beat a friend on the leaderboards could be nigh-impossible with virtual controls, nay it should be. But instead, it's about as perfect as it could be. Not bad for a first-time effort, and challenging friends to try and one up their times added a ton of value to this one. Plus, there's silly hats.

Warning: this episode may offend Siberians!

On This Episode:

Carter and co-host Brett Nolan dicuss a variety of new releases, including the sublime controls of Mikey Shorts, the Portal-esque fun of Blast-A-Way, and more.

Episode Cast:

Host: Carter Dotson

Co-Host: Brett Nolan, AppAddict.net

Contact The Show: Email | Twitter

Music:

• "Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

  

• "Nanocarp" by The Eternal

How to Listen:

• Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:



• Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.
• Listen Here: [powerpress]

Apps Mentioned in this Episode:

The birth of Jeffrey Trousers.

On This Episode:

The origins of Mikey Shorts from BeaverTap Games are revealed, and why fans of games like Hook Champ may be cursing the name of developer Mike Meade.

Tiny Heroes developer Simutronics talks about their new endless runner spinoff One Epic Knight, and some of the directions that the game took are discussed.

Episode Cast:

Host: Carter Dotson

Guest: Mike Meade and Michael Gaughen, BeaverTap Games

Guest: Nathan Lutz and Sam Coster, Simutronics

Contact The Show: Email | Twitter

Music:

• "Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

  



• "Nanocarp" by The Eternal

How to Listen:

• Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:



• Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.


• Listen Here: [powerpress]

Apps Mentioned in this Episode:

Back back from Cali Cali..

On This Episode:
Host Carter Dotson traverses all over GDC, from the show floor to press events and even the parties, to get quick interviews with developers' newest games and upcoming technologies.


Interviews, in Chronological Order:

Kunal Patel, Phyken Media: Wizard Ops

Tomas Vetrovsky, LunarG: SeeMeGaming

Tyler Munden, N-Fusion Games: Air Mail

Jimmiek Rankin, Mega World Studios: Omegatech

Chris Murphy, Pub Games: Primal Carnage Mobile

Mike Meade, BeaverTap Games: Mikey Shorts

Jeremy Gross, EA Mobile: Flight Control Rocket

Daniel Jacobs, Spaceport: MiniQuest

Paul Farley, Tag Games: Funpark Friends

Daniel Kraus, React Entertainment: The Act

Music:

"Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

"Nanocarp" by The Eternal

How to Listen:

Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:

Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.

Listen Here: [powerpress]