Price: $1.99
Publisher: Thunder Game Works
Buy now on
I just beat the campaign mode in Trenches, the new game from Thunder Game Works. My first thought was that I was sad it ended so soon. The gameplay of Trenches is a lot of fun, the graphics are clean and despite a few control issues, this game is a must buy. Sorry for ruining the surprise. For those of you still looking to read a 600 word review, please read on.
The idea of the game is a lot like a tower defense game but with a twist. The twist is that the game is set during World War 1 (I am thankful beyond belief it wasn’t set during the much overused WW2). You take the role of a British commander who needs to push back the Huns (Again, I'm so glad it's not the Nazis for once). In that role, you have different troops at your disposal, each having a different weapon to use. That arsenal slowly builds as you go through the campaign which is composed of several levels. You start with just a basic rifleman at your disposal and eventually are able to add machine gunners, artillery, mustard gas, and a couple of others.
The real gameplay comes in when you try to push the Hun back. You are constantly trying to move forward but the Germans have other ideas. It's an epic battle of tug of war. You could be moving ahead fairly easily and all of a sudden too many of your guys get bunched together and all of a sudden – BOOM - you get blasted to hell by the German artillery. Even on medium difficulty the computer gives you a good challenge. As you push forward, you can climb into trenches, which if you know anything about WW1, you'll know how tantamount they were to the great war of attrition. The game allows for multiple strategies for moving forward and all the while it times your assault as well as giving you achievements using OpenFeint to compare yourself to the rest of the Trenches community.
There are a few issues in the game but no showstoppers. While the game is a 2d side-view, thinks Super Mario 3 on the NES, you need to be able to move the camera ahead so you can see the oncoming German assault and to move your troops effectively. To do this the game requires you either tilt the phone to move the map back and forth or to click on the sky on the map and drag it forward. Neither option is great when it comes to moving the map but the dragging functionality which is on by default is the best option. The only additional complaint I can lob at the game is that is a bit short. It took me 23 minutes to beat the campaign but the game isn’t without replay value. It includes multiple achievements you can go after, a hidden sub-game you can unlock, and more substantially a skirmish mode that allows you to create your own battles with varying characteristics and difficulties. Heck you can even fight off an incoming horde of zombies.
Overall, Trenches is a first rate game. It's great to see a whole new setting for a tower defense game, all the more so because of the professional manner in which it is done. In a future update the developer plans on releasing multiplayer mode so you can battle your online friends. Even without that mode, get this game now while you can at the $1.99 price point. It's really worth it.
Ratings:
Overall Value:
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jueves, 7 de enero de 2010
New Satellite iDirect Evolution Services for Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
TS2 Satellite Technologies was among the first telecommunications operators in the satellite technology field on the territory of Iraq and Afghanistan, and as such we have enjoyed a successful cooperation with the US Department of Defense and individual soldiers from several years.
The Internet connection can be shared with other soldiers via wireless or wired network. Most soldiers deploy with a laptop in hand and a hookup to the Internet in their barracks. This is especially important for the many who are married, and have young children. The Internet access has resulted in major morale improvements. Troops no longer feel cut off from home.
iDirect is the industry leader in satellite-based broadband access solutions delivering all the benefits of high speed IP networking beyond the constraints of traditional landline networks. Developed specifically to meet the communication needs of satellite customers, iDirect powered networks deliver the speed, performance and flexibility to fulfill the most demanding requirements of today's end users - anywhere.
The one iDirect Infinity system provides following services:
* Broadband access to the internet (www, e-mail, ftp etc.)
* Data transfer
* Access to application programs
* Telephone connections including VoIP, IP phone
* Video-conference connections
* The transfer of data, or image to many other users simultaneously
Advantages of the system:
* Short set-up time, (1-2 weeks for a system)
* Fast and easy upgrades
* Possibility of guaranteed CIR
* Transmission in almost all weather conditions
* Cheap and quick delivery of equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan (5-7 days)
TS2 provides in the Middle East & North African region following services: two way internet broadband access, VSAT Private Network, broadcasting services, SCPC/SCPC, SCPC/DVB, MESH services, STAR/DAMA, VSAT Mini Hub Solution, VNO and many more...
The Internet connection can be shared with other soldiers via wireless or wired network. Most soldiers deploy with a laptop in hand and a hookup to the Internet in their barracks. This is especially important for the many who are married, and have young children. The Internet access has resulted in major morale improvements. Troops no longer feel cut off from home.
iDirect is the industry leader in satellite-based broadband access solutions delivering all the benefits of high speed IP networking beyond the constraints of traditional landline networks. Developed specifically to meet the communication needs of satellite customers, iDirect powered networks deliver the speed, performance and flexibility to fulfill the most demanding requirements of today's end users - anywhere.
The one iDirect Infinity system provides following services:
* Broadband access to the internet (www, e-mail, ftp etc.)
* Data transfer
* Access to application programs
* Telephone connections including VoIP, IP phone
* Video-conference connections
* The transfer of data, or image to many other users simultaneously
Advantages of the system:
* Short set-up time, (1-2 weeks for a system)
* Fast and easy upgrades
* Possibility of guaranteed CIR
* Transmission in almost all weather conditions
* Cheap and quick delivery of equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan (5-7 days)
TS2 provides in the Middle East & North African region following services: two way internet broadband access, VSAT Private Network, broadcasting services, SCPC/SCPC, SCPC/DVB, MESH services, STAR/DAMA, VSAT Mini Hub Solution, VNO and many more...
The Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone Review
Price: $7.99
Publisher: Com2Us
Buy now on
The Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone is everything you would expect from a Korean based developer that makes RPG's. It has anime based characters, horrible storylines, bad translations and Diablo-esque gameplay. If that doesn't sound like fun to you then this probably isn't your game. If you don’t mind the above issues, the game certainly will give you hours of gameplay.
Let’s start by looking at the graphics which are actually pretty good. The animations aren't great but the actual characters themselves look pretty decent. I would almost compare them to my all time favorite Japanese based RPG, ChronoTrigger, but I can't quite make myself do it. ChronoTrigger is a much, much better game. Nevertheless, the character models aren't bad and one nice thing is the models actually change depending on what weapons/shield you are carrying. It's a nice touch and something I didn't expect. The scenery and the backgrounds are all standard faire but that doesn’t make them bad. For the most part, the graphics are clean and help the game.
The sound is very ordinary. The music is your typical midi style RPG music. The developers could learn a few lessons on how to build up suspense from the aforementioned SNES classic. One nice thing is the ability to use your own music catalog for the in-game music. What I decided to do was download the ChronoTrigger music into my iPhone and play them on repeat during the game. That worked pretty well and gave the game a more epic feel.
The controls are one of the weirdest things about this game. There are two control modes. A virtual d-pad which is what most games on the iPhone have been using and also a point and click control scheme. Basically you hit where you want to go on the screen and your character walks there. Neither is very good because the d-pad control tends to not pick up your movements and the point and click can get annoying because occasionally when you are trying to fight an enemy it won't pick up your tap to fight. You end up getting hit over and over again because your character won't do any fighting until you click on each enemy individually.
The gameplay of Inotia involves fighting enemies in real time. There are no cuts to a fight like you would find in a Final Fantasy game. All fights happen when you walk up to an enemy (or they walk up to you) and begin hitting each other as fast as you can. When your character "levels up" you are able to pick from several different special categories that will allow you to either hit an enemy harder or protect you better. You are not able to pick specific stats for your character to level up in. These special power ups have a regeneration time period that will allow you to use them again and again during battles after waiting a certain period of time.
Besides the fighting there are also quests that a player can do through the game. These quests are generally pretty bad. For example, an inn keeper says to get him 10 wolf pelts. Then after you bring them back he asks for you to bring him 10 more pelts of a different wolf. After that he asks you to bring him 10 fangs... you get the picture right? Boring level upping and quests do not make for an interesting RPG. The main storyline doesn't make any sense and isn’t really worth delving into.
It's not all bland; you do have the ability to bring additional party members along with you. These members can all have different abilities and you can level them up as you please. It's a nice touch for an iPhone based game. There is also a multiplayer component that allows you to do one on one battle with other user's characters that have been created and uploaded from the single player campaign. The characters you fight are user based but automated by the computer but the random fights make for some fun times. If nothing else, it adds a bit of variety to the game and allows you to unlock new items.
The Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone certainly does give you many hours of play time. It will likely take you at least 10 hours to go through the storyline and do the side quests, maybe more. For the price, that doesn't seem like such a bad deal. The unfortunate part is that this story was seemingly made for 10 year olds that play Pokemon Ruby (which is a better game by the way) and has no problem falling into the same old RPG pitfalls as many games before it. If you aren't looking for anything original and just want to hack and slash your way around a map for hours at a time, then this game is for you.
Overall Value for it's $7.99 price point
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
Publisher: Com2Us
Buy now on
The Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone is everything you would expect from a Korean based developer that makes RPG's. It has anime based characters, horrible storylines, bad translations and Diablo-esque gameplay. If that doesn't sound like fun to you then this probably isn't your game. If you don’t mind the above issues, the game certainly will give you hours of gameplay.
Let’s start by looking at the graphics which are actually pretty good. The animations aren't great but the actual characters themselves look pretty decent. I would almost compare them to my all time favorite Japanese based RPG, ChronoTrigger, but I can't quite make myself do it. ChronoTrigger is a much, much better game. Nevertheless, the character models aren't bad and one nice thing is the models actually change depending on what weapons/shield you are carrying. It's a nice touch and something I didn't expect. The scenery and the backgrounds are all standard faire but that doesn’t make them bad. For the most part, the graphics are clean and help the game.
The sound is very ordinary. The music is your typical midi style RPG music. The developers could learn a few lessons on how to build up suspense from the aforementioned SNES classic. One nice thing is the ability to use your own music catalog for the in-game music. What I decided to do was download the ChronoTrigger music into my iPhone and play them on repeat during the game. That worked pretty well and gave the game a more epic feel.
The controls are one of the weirdest things about this game. There are two control modes. A virtual d-pad which is what most games on the iPhone have been using and also a point and click control scheme. Basically you hit where you want to go on the screen and your character walks there. Neither is very good because the d-pad control tends to not pick up your movements and the point and click can get annoying because occasionally when you are trying to fight an enemy it won't pick up your tap to fight. You end up getting hit over and over again because your character won't do any fighting until you click on each enemy individually.
The gameplay of Inotia involves fighting enemies in real time. There are no cuts to a fight like you would find in a Final Fantasy game. All fights happen when you walk up to an enemy (or they walk up to you) and begin hitting each other as fast as you can. When your character "levels up" you are able to pick from several different special categories that will allow you to either hit an enemy harder or protect you better. You are not able to pick specific stats for your character to level up in. These special power ups have a regeneration time period that will allow you to use them again and again during battles after waiting a certain period of time.
Besides the fighting there are also quests that a player can do through the game. These quests are generally pretty bad. For example, an inn keeper says to get him 10 wolf pelts. Then after you bring them back he asks for you to bring him 10 more pelts of a different wolf. After that he asks you to bring him 10 fangs... you get the picture right? Boring level upping and quests do not make for an interesting RPG. The main storyline doesn't make any sense and isn’t really worth delving into.
It's not all bland; you do have the ability to bring additional party members along with you. These members can all have different abilities and you can level them up as you please. It's a nice touch for an iPhone based game. There is also a multiplayer component that allows you to do one on one battle with other user's characters that have been created and uploaded from the single player campaign. The characters you fight are user based but automated by the computer but the random fights make for some fun times. If nothing else, it adds a bit of variety to the game and allows you to unlock new items.
The Chronicles of Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone certainly does give you many hours of play time. It will likely take you at least 10 hours to go through the storyline and do the side quests, maybe more. For the price, that doesn't seem like such a bad deal. The unfortunate part is that this story was seemingly made for 10 year olds that play Pokemon Ruby (which is a better game by the way) and has no problem falling into the same old RPG pitfalls as many games before it. If you aren't looking for anything original and just want to hack and slash your way around a map for hours at a time, then this game is for you.
Overall Value for it's $7.99 price point
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
martes, 5 de enero de 2010
Tap Jockey Review
Price: $1.99
Publisher: Hiroshi Kobayashi
Buy now on
Tap Jockey has all of the makings of a fun game. The setup: You are a jockey that picks a horse to ride. Upon starting the game, you pick the difficulty level you would like to play. Once you pick a level, you are taken to a screen with 5 different horses that each have a different color and name. On the right side of the screen you are given the opportunity to add 15 points to 3 different attribute categories (speed, stamina and sense). Upon moving to the next track, the game gives the player additional points to spend for any of the three categories.
Once you have given your horse all 15 points you are taken to race day. There are 6 different race tracks available within the game. You must win the previous track in order to move to the next as so you cannot go back and play the 4th or 5th track without going through the rest. Each track has their own requirements for advancing to the next race. For example, maybe you have to be in the top 3 in one race and the next you need to finish in the top 2. The actual action on race day consists of tapping one of three buttons that will make your horse move faster. Once you bring him up to his maximum speed, in order to keep him there you need to time your button tapping to maximize your speed. Basically it works a lot like Excite Bike's turbo button.
The graphics are fairly decent. You can certainly tell you are racing 7 other horses at once and there is no slow down on my 3GS. The sound could be better. As it is, it's extremely minimal and doesn't really give you the atmosphere you would expect at a horse track. The controls work ok but any time you have a rapid tapping game on the iPhone, it isn’t the same as you would find on a control pad. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not you are tapping a button at all.
The game really has a lot of potential and that's why I was so sad to see a lot of things missing. Once you begin a career, if you lose a single race or mission, you lose not only the race but all of the information about the horse you created and have no chance to retry. It would have been nice to be able to save the horse and his stats you created but there is no save at all. As it is, it feels like the strategy of picking the horses attributes doesn't mean a whole lot because you’ll be starting all over again the next time you load up the game.
The game also lacks when it comes to sharing your score or having an online community to see how well you did compared to others. The only stats the game keeps are each tracks best times. By now, most games have some way of comparing your times and scores to the rest of the world. Finally, this is a horse racing game without cash awards, odds, or even the ability to name your horse. It would have been nice to be able to place a bet on each race and keep track of your career winnings (but first there would have to be winnings given for winning the race).
I hate to be so tough on this game because it is fun but it could have been a lot more. This game may be worth it for ardent horse racing enthusiasts for $1.99 but for those of us that want some more depth to our games, it might make sense to hold off until its closer to a dollar. Update: I do have to warn you about something I recently read. If you have a 3rd Generation iPod Touch you may want to hold off. I have heard this game doesn’t load right at this point. More info as I hear about it.
Ratings
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
Publisher: Hiroshi Kobayashi
Buy now on
Tap Jockey has all of the makings of a fun game. The setup: You are a jockey that picks a horse to ride. Upon starting the game, you pick the difficulty level you would like to play. Once you pick a level, you are taken to a screen with 5 different horses that each have a different color and name. On the right side of the screen you are given the opportunity to add 15 points to 3 different attribute categories (speed, stamina and sense). Upon moving to the next track, the game gives the player additional points to spend for any of the three categories.
Once you have given your horse all 15 points you are taken to race day. There are 6 different race tracks available within the game. You must win the previous track in order to move to the next as so you cannot go back and play the 4th or 5th track without going through the rest. Each track has their own requirements for advancing to the next race. For example, maybe you have to be in the top 3 in one race and the next you need to finish in the top 2. The actual action on race day consists of tapping one of three buttons that will make your horse move faster. Once you bring him up to his maximum speed, in order to keep him there you need to time your button tapping to maximize your speed. Basically it works a lot like Excite Bike's turbo button.
The graphics are fairly decent. You can certainly tell you are racing 7 other horses at once and there is no slow down on my 3GS. The sound could be better. As it is, it's extremely minimal and doesn't really give you the atmosphere you would expect at a horse track. The controls work ok but any time you have a rapid tapping game on the iPhone, it isn’t the same as you would find on a control pad. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not you are tapping a button at all.
The game really has a lot of potential and that's why I was so sad to see a lot of things missing. Once you begin a career, if you lose a single race or mission, you lose not only the race but all of the information about the horse you created and have no chance to retry. It would have been nice to be able to save the horse and his stats you created but there is no save at all. As it is, it feels like the strategy of picking the horses attributes doesn't mean a whole lot because you’ll be starting all over again the next time you load up the game.
The game also lacks when it comes to sharing your score or having an online community to see how well you did compared to others. The only stats the game keeps are each tracks best times. By now, most games have some way of comparing your times and scores to the rest of the world. Finally, this is a horse racing game without cash awards, odds, or even the ability to name your horse. It would have been nice to be able to place a bet on each race and keep track of your career winnings (but first there would have to be winnings given for winning the race).
I hate to be so tough on this game because it is fun but it could have been a lot more. This game may be worth it for ardent horse racing enthusiasts for $1.99 but for those of us that want some more depth to our games, it might make sense to hold off until its closer to a dollar. Update: I do have to warn you about something I recently read. If you have a 3rd Generation iPod Touch you may want to hold off. I have heard this game doesn’t load right at this point. More info as I hear about it.
Ratings
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
lunes, 4 de enero de 2010
Doodle Jump Review
Price: .99
Publisher: Lima Sky
Buy now on
I came late to the Doodle Jump party but since I started playing it just now, I wanted to write up a few quick thoughts. The game is remarkably simple. One of my favorite things about the game is that you only need access to one hand to control your on screen character which makes it nice for guys like me trying to feed a baby with the other hand.
The idea of the game is that you use a weirdly shaped cartoon character that jumps from platform to platform indefinitely earning points along the way. That's it. In the way stand flying monsters, black holes, ufo's and the constant possibility of missing a level and falling. To control your character, you simply hold your iPod Touch or iPhone upright and tilt it. There is only one button on the screen at all times. You can push to shoot the monsters to ensure a safe route upwards.
Throughout the level jumping, there are several fun pickups to make your ascent faster. Items like rocket packs, hats with helicopter blades and spring shoes make the game more interesting. Along with the powerups, springs and trampolines attached to the platforms add another way to jump higher and faster.
In another game, all of this jumping could get boring pretty quick. In this one, it just feels fun and if you need to waste 3 or 4 minutes at a time, this game will make it go a lot faster. The graphics and sound are perfect for this game. The games recent update even gives you a transformed graphic set that allows you to play in winter. The game keeps quite a few statistics like your average score, how many games you played, and many more. The game also allows you to see how many hours’ minutes, etc you have played the game. For me it’s a scary big number indeed. If you don't own this game, go buy it.
Ratings:
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
Publisher: Lima Sky
Buy now on
I came late to the Doodle Jump party but since I started playing it just now, I wanted to write up a few quick thoughts. The game is remarkably simple. One of my favorite things about the game is that you only need access to one hand to control your on screen character which makes it nice for guys like me trying to feed a baby with the other hand.
The idea of the game is that you use a weirdly shaped cartoon character that jumps from platform to platform indefinitely earning points along the way. That's it. In the way stand flying monsters, black holes, ufo's and the constant possibility of missing a level and falling. To control your character, you simply hold your iPod Touch or iPhone upright and tilt it. There is only one button on the screen at all times. You can push to shoot the monsters to ensure a safe route upwards.
Throughout the level jumping, there are several fun pickups to make your ascent faster. Items like rocket packs, hats with helicopter blades and spring shoes make the game more interesting. Along with the powerups, springs and trampolines attached to the platforms add another way to jump higher and faster.
In another game, all of this jumping could get boring pretty quick. In this one, it just feels fun and if you need to waste 3 or 4 minutes at a time, this game will make it go a lot faster. The graphics and sound are perfect for this game. The games recent update even gives you a transformed graphic set that allows you to play in winter. The game keeps quite a few statistics like your average score, how many games you played, and many more. The game also allows you to see how many hours’ minutes, etc you have played the game. For me it’s a scary big number indeed. If you don't own this game, go buy it.
Ratings:
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
domingo, 3 de enero de 2010
iPhone Developers are Missing Out on a Huge Demographic
I have a theory. My theory is that iPhone and iPod Touch app developers, especially in certain genres, have no idea who their audience really is. So many games I have played recently have seemingly been made for someone much younger than I am and I'm only 27. My main issue has been that the stories don't make any sense; they leave the player with no emotional attachment to the characters, they are slim to begin with and are generally very bad. This is the same whether you look at an RPG (Inotia 2 review coming shortly) or a FPS like NOVA or Modern Combat: Sandstorm. It really bothers me that iPhone and iPod Touch developers feel their target market are the same high school kids that are playing console games. After thinking about the age of the people I personally know who own an iPhone or iPod Touch, I believe these developers are trying to appeal to the wrong demographic, a much younger demographic. In fact, after doing some research, I know they are.
Fortunately there was already a report by a company named AdMob which showed some age demographics of the average iPhone and iPod Touch owner. This information would help get me part of the way towards an answer. It would assist me in figuring out if iPhone and iPod Touch users are just high school kids and young adults that play games that have bad storylines like Halo, or if instead my hypothesis was correct, the users belong to an older demographic that would prefer to play a game like Deus Ex or Dragons Age: Origins, with a rich storyline and setting. Before reading the demographics from AdMob, I was sure that nearly every iPhone owner would be older than 18 and that though the iPod Touch demographic would skew more towards younger people, the 18+ demgraophic would remain a large proportion of its users.
After going through Admob's numbers I felt somewhat validated. 94% of iPhone owners are over the age of 18 and an astounding 74% of them are over the age of 25. On the other hand, the iPod Touch user base is nearly HALF (47%) composed of 13-17 year olds. Only 31% of its users are over the age of 25. I was taken aback by how many younger people have an iPod Touch. After thinking about it, I realized maybe I was wrong. “Maybe”, I thought, “there is a good reason for so many developers creating games for a younger demographic.” Before giving up, I went back to Google to continue my research. I needed to find out how many iPhones are sold compared to iPod Touch devices.
In March of 2009 (the most recent comparison I could find) the number of iPhones sold stood at 17 million while the number of iPod Touch units sold was around 13 million. That means that of the 30 million iPod Touch and iPhone units sold, a bit more than 7 million were purchased by/for 13-17 year olds. Out of all of the units sold, 16.6 million have been sold to people over the age of 25. Obviously, not all of these people are gamers but a large portion of the public now games. In fact, one recent report suggests that 53% of all adults play video games of some kind. Since there isn’t a good report that shows how many users buy games on the App Store, I will improvise a bit. Since iPhone and iPod Touch users are usually more technological inclined, I think 60% of them playing games on their device is a fairly reasonable guesstimate. Using 60% as a basis, we can extrapolate that of those 16.6 million adults ages 25+ that use an iPhone or iPod Touch, 9.6 million play games. Finally we have a hard number.
So if nearly 10 million people age 25-65 playing iPhone and iPod Touch games, when are games going to arrive for that demographic? Just because we are older (I am part of this group), doesn’t mean we don't want to play a FPS or a role playing game. By creating games that have a more robust storyline, better character development, etc; a developer could meet a target demographic of 25-65 year olds that isn’t being reached by the games currently in the App Store. And who wouldn’t want to reach that demographic? After all, the people in this demographic are wealthier and therefore have more disposable income. Personally, I’d gladly pay 10-15 dollars for a game on the iPhone that when I beat it, I feel something other than relief. I want to win a game and feel like I want to talk with someone about the ending. I want a story where I feel some kind of emotion. I want a story that draws me in. I want it on my iPhone. Who's with me?
References:
metrics.admob.com/2009/06/ipod-touch-users-younger-than-iphone-users/
pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/11--Cheats-for-Video-Game-Marketers.aspx - Slide 6
itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/3/18/apple-sold-30-million-iphones-ipod-touch-launch/
Fortunately there was already a report by a company named AdMob which showed some age demographics of the average iPhone and iPod Touch owner. This information would help get me part of the way towards an answer. It would assist me in figuring out if iPhone and iPod Touch users are just high school kids and young adults that play games that have bad storylines like Halo, or if instead my hypothesis was correct, the users belong to an older demographic that would prefer to play a game like Deus Ex or Dragons Age: Origins, with a rich storyline and setting. Before reading the demographics from AdMob, I was sure that nearly every iPhone owner would be older than 18 and that though the iPod Touch demographic would skew more towards younger people, the 18+ demgraophic would remain a large proportion of its users.
After going through Admob's numbers I felt somewhat validated. 94% of iPhone owners are over the age of 18 and an astounding 74% of them are over the age of 25. On the other hand, the iPod Touch user base is nearly HALF (47%) composed of 13-17 year olds. Only 31% of its users are over the age of 25. I was taken aback by how many younger people have an iPod Touch. After thinking about it, I realized maybe I was wrong. “Maybe”, I thought, “there is a good reason for so many developers creating games for a younger demographic.” Before giving up, I went back to Google to continue my research. I needed to find out how many iPhones are sold compared to iPod Touch devices.
In March of 2009 (the most recent comparison I could find) the number of iPhones sold stood at 17 million while the number of iPod Touch units sold was around 13 million. That means that of the 30 million iPod Touch and iPhone units sold, a bit more than 7 million were purchased by/for 13-17 year olds. Out of all of the units sold, 16.6 million have been sold to people over the age of 25. Obviously, not all of these people are gamers but a large portion of the public now games. In fact, one recent report suggests that 53% of all adults play video games of some kind. Since there isn’t a good report that shows how many users buy games on the App Store, I will improvise a bit. Since iPhone and iPod Touch users are usually more technological inclined, I think 60% of them playing games on their device is a fairly reasonable guesstimate. Using 60% as a basis, we can extrapolate that of those 16.6 million adults ages 25+ that use an iPhone or iPod Touch, 9.6 million play games. Finally we have a hard number.
So if nearly 10 million people age 25-65 playing iPhone and iPod Touch games, when are games going to arrive for that demographic? Just because we are older (I am part of this group), doesn’t mean we don't want to play a FPS or a role playing game. By creating games that have a more robust storyline, better character development, etc; a developer could meet a target demographic of 25-65 year olds that isn’t being reached by the games currently in the App Store. And who wouldn’t want to reach that demographic? After all, the people in this demographic are wealthier and therefore have more disposable income. Personally, I’d gladly pay 10-15 dollars for a game on the iPhone that when I beat it, I feel something other than relief. I want to win a game and feel like I want to talk with someone about the ending. I want a story where I feel some kind of emotion. I want a story that draws me in. I want it on my iPhone. Who's with me?
References:
metrics.admob.com/2009/06/ipod-touch-users-younger-than-iphone-users/
pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/11--Cheats-for-Video-Game-Marketers.aspx - Slide 6
itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/3/18/apple-sold-30-million-iphones-ipod-touch-launch/
viernes, 1 de enero de 2010
Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins Review
Price: .99
Publisher: Advanced Mobile Applications
Buy now on
For me, Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins was a welcome sight in the app store. Both the skateboard and snowboarding genres that are both so popular in the console gaming world have been noticeably sparse in the appstore. This game is a decent start. A game like this has quite a few challenges for a mobile device since even on the console, the controls can be challenging. On a virtual stick, a developer needs to give the player enough variety when it comes to tricks and moves but at the same time keep things simple. For the most part, this important aspect of the game is a success.
Loading up the game you can see right away that the game modes are few. A single player free play mode coupled with some ghost competition options. If you aren't familiar with competing against a ghost, imagine competing against you or a friend’s replay of an existing run down the mountain. The end result is you can see what they do, when they do it, giving you a sense of real time competition despite the lack of true multiplayer. This mode is welcome but unfortunately doesn't make up fully for the lack of Wi Fi or even the ubiquitous Bluetooth multiplayer support in the game.
Once you do get into the game, you will likely find the controls easy to learn and quick to respond. The trickiest (and often the most frustrating) part of this game is trying to make as many moves as you can while going down the mountain and not timing the landings correctly resulting in a crash and a loss of all of the points you made during that jump/series of tricks. However, since the controls are easily learned, practice should help quite a bit. The game offers 4 different mountains to go down with each having a different layout and course. The game integrates with an online community that allows you to track your progress as you go. The achievement system is really fleshed out and there are quite a few to keep you busy.
The graphics and sound of the game are both fairly decent. It would have been nice to be able to listen to your own music catalog as you push yourself down the mountain side but that's a small issue. The graphics do tend to be glitchy at times and occasionally you fall down the side of the hill and get your head stuck until you hit the jump button but thankfully it doesn't happen too often. The rest of the environments in the game are fairly pretty and the player models vary a bit as well. This game isn’t going to throw all of your friends into an uproar about the graphics but they are more than serviceable.
The game gives you the aforementioned 4 levels and also includes several different characters with varying ranges of abilities. Some are quicker, a few are better at tricks, etc. The real shame is that this game offers no customization at all. You can't create a new snowboarder and nor can you take part in career events, earn money, etc that are all part of most games of this type. For me, that was a pretty big letdown as a lack of career mode means the replay value for this game is fairly limited. Even more bizarre, the game doesn't include any races at all against ai opponents. Just the ghost racing mentioned above. It seems like this would have been an afterthought for most games of this type but here it isn't even included.
Overall, this game is no dud. It has good controls, nice graphics and is pretty fun when you learn to piece a bunch of tricks together in a row. However, if you are looking for live racing, multiplayer, customization of characters, or a ton of replay value on the virtual mountains of the world, you may need to wait for another snowboarding game to come out. I have a feeling this isn’t the last Shaun White game we will see on the iPhone and that’s not a bad thing.
Overall Value for it's $.99 price point
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
Publisher: Advanced Mobile Applications
Buy now on
For me, Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins was a welcome sight in the app store. Both the skateboard and snowboarding genres that are both so popular in the console gaming world have been noticeably sparse in the appstore. This game is a decent start. A game like this has quite a few challenges for a mobile device since even on the console, the controls can be challenging. On a virtual stick, a developer needs to give the player enough variety when it comes to tricks and moves but at the same time keep things simple. For the most part, this important aspect of the game is a success.
Loading up the game you can see right away that the game modes are few. A single player free play mode coupled with some ghost competition options. If you aren't familiar with competing against a ghost, imagine competing against you or a friend’s replay of an existing run down the mountain. The end result is you can see what they do, when they do it, giving you a sense of real time competition despite the lack of true multiplayer. This mode is welcome but unfortunately doesn't make up fully for the lack of Wi Fi or even the ubiquitous Bluetooth multiplayer support in the game.
Once you do get into the game, you will likely find the controls easy to learn and quick to respond. The trickiest (and often the most frustrating) part of this game is trying to make as many moves as you can while going down the mountain and not timing the landings correctly resulting in a crash and a loss of all of the points you made during that jump/series of tricks. However, since the controls are easily learned, practice should help quite a bit. The game offers 4 different mountains to go down with each having a different layout and course. The game integrates with an online community that allows you to track your progress as you go. The achievement system is really fleshed out and there are quite a few to keep you busy.
The graphics and sound of the game are both fairly decent. It would have been nice to be able to listen to your own music catalog as you push yourself down the mountain side but that's a small issue. The graphics do tend to be glitchy at times and occasionally you fall down the side of the hill and get your head stuck until you hit the jump button but thankfully it doesn't happen too often. The rest of the environments in the game are fairly pretty and the player models vary a bit as well. This game isn’t going to throw all of your friends into an uproar about the graphics but they are more than serviceable.
The game gives you the aforementioned 4 levels and also includes several different characters with varying ranges of abilities. Some are quicker, a few are better at tricks, etc. The real shame is that this game offers no customization at all. You can't create a new snowboarder and nor can you take part in career events, earn money, etc that are all part of most games of this type. For me, that was a pretty big letdown as a lack of career mode means the replay value for this game is fairly limited. Even more bizarre, the game doesn't include any races at all against ai opponents. Just the ghost racing mentioned above. It seems like this would have been an afterthought for most games of this type but here it isn't even included.
Overall, this game is no dud. It has good controls, nice graphics and is pretty fun when you learn to piece a bunch of tricks together in a row. However, if you are looking for live racing, multiplayer, customization of characters, or a ton of replay value on the virtual mountains of the world, you may need to wait for another snowboarding game to come out. I have a feeling this isn’t the last Shaun White game we will see on the iPhone and that’s not a bad thing.
Overall Value for it's $.99 price point
Overall Value:
Graphics:
Sound:
Controls:
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