Tag: Graphical adventure »

I wasn’t entirely sold on Ku: Shroud of the Morrigan right away. Those all-important first minutes were mostly a confusing mixture of important story elements that had zero context and coming to grips with the game’s slightly awkward movement controls. But I stuck with it, and I’m glad that I did. Turns out it’s actually a pretty awesome adventure game.

Ku, engineer’s apprentice, troubled kid, and hero in-the-making, is ripped away from his hammering one day when a bunch of really nasty warning sirens start to blare. A key component to his village’s generator, a power source that the entire settlement was built around, has gone missing. Fast forward a bit and he’s the only one who can venture outside the safety of the village walls and attempt to recover or possibly steal a replacement. All of Ku’s controls are gesture-based, with tapping or tapping and holding on the screen for movement, tapping enemies to attack, double-tapping to roll, tapping and holding specific objects to move them around the screen, and swiping in a general direction to fire off some kind of electric jai-alai stun ball. It’s a lot handier than it sounds.

The models and animations are a teensy bit awkward due to their being constructed of a number of assorted hand-drawn elements, but they still look good. And the environments are pretty fantastic on their own. A lot of attention went into Ku’s visuals and it shows. I also thought it was impressive to be playing an iOS adventure game that actually had me caring about the story. I wouldn’t exactly call it riveting or anything, but there’s an interesting plot at work here that actually had me thinking about what might happen next. On top of that it’s actually a pretty fun adventure game

Of course being fun doesn’t mean it’s flawless. I definitely give bitSmith credit for making the controls fairly forgiving, but sometimes they can still be troublesome. Specifically I’m referring to the roll, which has a tendency to either not work when I want it to during combat or to work at exactly the wrong time in the middle of a fight. Another problem I ran into was the environments. They’re most definitely well illustrated but they also have a tendency to be fairly large and spread out, which becomes an issue when there’s no map or even a zoom out option.

Ku: Shroud of the Morrigan isn’t a perfect iOS adventure game, but it’s definitely a good one. I honestly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who might have enjoyed others in the genre like Horn or even Bastion, so long as they remember that it’s a slightly different beast with a smaller budget (and a massive heart).

It's a series that may not be as insanely popular as other Capcom franchises, but it's certainly no less loved by its fans. The Ace Attorney series is about to get its fifth title - only in Japan thus far and no confirmed platform, no other details are available at present - but it seems like the developer is also interested in giving the series' roots some love. Andriasang has reported that they've also announced Ace Attorney 123HD, an HD remake of the first three Ace Attorney games (back when they were called Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) for iOS and other platforms.

The original has already been brought to iOS, but it was pretty much a straight port. Once this Turnabout HD is released (sorry, couldn't resist) anyone who owns this port can upgrade to the HD version. For everyone else, they can download the first two episodes/turnabouts for free then unlock more via in-app purchases. The prospect of digging into HD renditions of some of my favorite Nintendo DS games (all conveniently located in one place no less) has me very, very excited.

There's no confirmed release date yet, but Capcom says Ace Attorney 123HD should be available "shortly." Gotta love that intentionally obscure information.

[Via: Andriasang]

Rob like-a-the point-and-click adventure games. He's also rather fond of hyphens. Only one of those things is on SkyGoblin's agenda right now, but it's the more important of the two by far.

The Journey Down is (surprise, surprise) an adventure game that looks like it would fit right in with any of those classic Lucasarts titles. Seriously, Bwana there looks like he'd fit right in with the likes of Guybrush Threepwood and Manny Calavera. In fact, the use of African masks as artistic inspiration (coupled with the use of some reggae and jazz music) isn't all that different from Grim Fandango's incorporation of the Dia de los Muertos motif.

Episode one, which is slated for a Q1 2012 release, sees Bwana and his sidekick Kito getting torn from the drudgery of their down-and-out gas station and thrust into a web of intrigue and corruption. No word yet on pricing or a more solid date (or high resolution in-game footage), but The Journey Down definitely seems like a game worth looking out for.