Tag: Cartoon »

Gameloft is bringing us a chilly newpuzzle adventure, Ice Age Avalanche, to ward off those rising temperatures of the oncoming summer.

Cartoon Survivor, a 3D adventure runnerby Spunge Games, looks like a colorful riot of a good time. Your character, DooDoo, is trying to be the next cartoon reality TV star and is the only applicant for a failing TV show called "Cartoon Survivor."

The Flintstones : Bring Back Bedrock, by Ludia, is now available on the app store. Meteors have destroyed the Town of Bedrock and it is up to you to rebuild. And there are a ton of classic characters to play with while you do: Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Bamm-Bamm, Pebbles, Hoppy, Dino, and Baby-Puss.

As in the cartoon, all of the technology in Bedrock City is dinosaur based. You can collect over 100 of these "Gizmosaurs," from the Mammoth Vacuum to the Pterodactyl Jackhammer, along with a huge amount of items that you can use to customize the city. The Flintstones : Bring Back Bedrock will also let you visit your friends' cities and check out their progress.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on The Flintstones: Bring Back Bedrock game, which promises to elate generations of players who love these Hanna-Barbera characters”, said Alex Thabet, President and CEO of Ludia Inc. “The Flintstones cartoons remain one of the top television family favorites and we are proud to bring the characters to brand new platforms! Gamers are in for hours of fun.”

The Flintstones : Bring Back Bedrock is available for free on the App Store.

Even to those unfamiliar with the Canadian animated series, Scaredy Squirrel: Look Out instantly feels like a licensed game. It looks and plays like a game trying to capture the essence of a chaotic cartoon. This gives the game its charm but it’s also what holds it back.

Scaredy Squirrel: Look Out is structured like a classic arcade game and that includes a lack of plot. It figures anyone interested is probably watching the show or reading the books anyway. The game’s 36 bite-sized levels are just about getting the titular rodent to the top while avoiding desks, boats, televisions, and other dangerous debris falling from the sky. As the trash piles up it forms helpful platforms but get hit three times and it’s lights out. The debris has physics applied to it as well, making each round feel different and random. Luckily, there are always a few mid-mission checkpoints and power-ups, like cranes and beanstalks, to help players reach the sky. Plus, a helicopter is always ready to yank players to safety if they get trapped.

It is a frantic game that evokes the typical frantic atmosphere of a children’s cartoon. However, leaping over junk eventually devolves into an act so uncontrollable and unwieldy it actually gets dull. This is why making mechanics more skill-based keeps players more engaged. Scaredy Squirrel: Look Out isn’t totally mindless. It even rewards players for narrowly avoiding falling garbage while nabbing power-ups. However, so much of it can be won through haphazard swiping it gets boring. This is mostly due to the controls that favor broad strokes over more precise ones. 

This feeling of detrimental cartoon fidelity applies to the presentation too. The wacky music is good, and the art all looks great when it’s not in motion. However, the jerky animation and apparent lack of frames reminds one of cheap kid’s shows in a bad way.  

Still, Scaredy Squirrel: Look Out is a noble attempt at translating the dumb, insane fun of a cartoon to a video game. In the least condescending way possible, it’s perfect for its target audience. 

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CatfishBlues Games has just introduced a new hack-n-slash game for iOS called Zantetsuken. After trying to pronounce Zantetsuken out loud a few more times, let’s take a look at the game.

Unlike most hack-n-slash games, it isn’t just the monsters the player slashes, it’s the game environment as well. Literally everything is slashable! The game follows Ran the Kunoichi (give a go at pronouncing that one too) as she hacks through enemies with her legendary sword, Zantetsu (at least that’s one syllable less than the name of the game). The game is a platformer, so the goal is to get to the end of the level. Bonuses are hidden in the game’s environment. So not only is it possible to hack apart the levels, it’s encouraged!

The game has 50 levels in five different worlds.

Zantetsuken is 50% for the launch at $0.99. So anyone sick of the traditional hack-n-slashers need look no farther than Zantetsuken. Or, as the app description says, “Are you tired of always and only cutting fruit?”