Back from Hell

 

Apologies to all our followers, but the last few weeks have literally been hell. Exams and me getting food poisoning- in between all this we have....uh...kind of forgotten to update.
But no matter! PLease forgive us, and we ill bring back EVEN MORE awesome reviews!
Looking forward to a great spring (Here in down-under) with all the team!

The Fabled Project Team

Retro Rollback: Gameboy Gaga

Twas' only recently when I found y gameboy, and I am quite happy with it! For those who were born or lived in the nineties, then this thing,  a Gameboy Colour, certainly brought all the 'nerds to the yard'.
Along with the gameboy, I found my childhood implanted in Pokemon: Crystal, and have suceeded in re-animating 'the good ol' days'.

Therefore, this week's retro roundup will be called '6 Things Pokemon: Crystal introduced and why they made the game good'. Let's start with #6.

#6. Girl Protagonist

"Hooray," cried all the tomboys! Krystal is actually fairly cool as a girl...  

#5. Whitney

I honestly love this gym leader. She gives a challenge, irritates noobs and her little tantrums entertain me. That's three awesome things in one!
Her Milk tank is a beast, as it's moves are STOMP, MILK-DRINK, ROLLOUT & ATTRACT.
Basically, it will flirt with your pokemon so it becomes infatuated, then it will stomp all over. Afterwards it will roll-over your team, and even if it's health drops, it can regenerate by sucking from it's own udder  using a disturbing move. Ghastly...  

#4. Crobats

This pokemon actually makes having a Zubat worth it. It makes me almost want to go to Dark cave to find one....just kidding, I  
                                                      hate that cave. 
#3. Kanto + Jhoto

Upon completing the game (or obtaining surf) you can go to Kanto, a short swim from your home-town. I loved this option, as it re-introduces the cast of the first games and created a bigger world to play in.

#2. Animations

It is a known fact that Crystal was the first game to introduce special animations as the pokemon was released into battle. New generation players should be thankful that Gamefreak took this step, as the games of nowadays would not be like this...

AND FINALLY...

#1. Day/Night/Weekday VIP areas

Introduced for the first time, Crystal created a schedule of the week, allowing only certain pokemon, people and items to appear either at night/day or on a certain weekday. Example: Martha, an NPC, only appears on Mondays near Olivine City, and will give you a sharp beak for finding her! How nice.

Also, phanpys only appear in mornings.....really early. I haven't been able to get one yet...

So that's it! Thanks for reading, we will see you next week for our next 'Retro Roll-back'..

ZED

Organ Trail: Here comes retro for iOS!

To my delight this evening as I opened up the Applications icon on my phone, I was greeted in the Featured section with a brand new game titled Organ Trail. The picture had what looked like a zombie on it, so immediately it caught my interest.

After much reading of the game and it's reviews (tip: on the app store, always read the reviews!) I found myself needing to buy the game immediately! Organ trail is a remake of the classic 70's retro game where you and 5 friends must reach other cities to survive a zombocalypse. It's a 64-bit, pixelated world of creatures, navigation issues and insane executions, all riddles into the price of $2.99!

The Good:
- A choose-your-own-adventure style game. 

Our team tried to ram through a horde. We failed...

- Every action you make has consequences. (I chose to stop off in a city teeming with rodents because I needed food, and now two party members have diseases)
- The pixel art is fantastic
- The music is fantastic
- Your taken back to the 'retro' days, which I love!

The Bad:
-It crashes a lot (Please note that the developers are working on this)
- There is no multiplayer
- There is no female protagonist

One of the game-modes, where you move around and shoot stuff!

The game-play itself has many different styles: a birds eye view side scroller as you shoot down undead, a side-scrolling road-trip where you experience many mishaps. The difference is really good, it shows originality.  
Although it is limited to a 2D world, Organ Trail shows promise of bringing back Retro to iOS. So many elements in this game have been well thought out, and it was my pleasure to have experienced a game still loved even years after it's first release.
ZED  

For Narniaaa!!!

"For Narnia!!!!" These are precisely the words I screamed as I begun the battle. My towers were ready, my forces stood strong, but the enemy approached like waves upon waves, obliterating my kingdom. I sat there, slumping in my seat, before I hit restart and begun the level again with fierce determination in my eyes...



Kingdom Rush has been an app that I have thouroughly enjoyed, and it brings me great pleasure to review this game. At first, I found the controls annoying and the gameplay a little dull, but if you just delve in a little bit more, you can find a real treasure of a game on the app store.

The app is a tower defense raider game, with various levels that follow a typical medieval story. There a multiple enemies, but not that many towers. Only four actually.
That's right, four towers to choose: barracks, archer tower, mage lair and bomb dispenser. Now, you may be thinking, "Four towers!? How gay" but I will stop you there good sir, as there is more then meets the eye.
My first arguement is that the developers, Ironhide Games Studio, have promised more towers. Great!
My second arguement is that these towers develop into 8 different specialty towers that look cool and
work great! This adds more units and more fun!

Even so, there are tower upgrades, hero's, and special 'God' abilities to turn the tide.

But, there is a downside... this game is hard! Like, seriously, take a rock, put it in concrete, then cover it with diamonds and then make it Chuck Norris's abs; it's almost as hard as that!!
I have spent many agonizing days having to restart endless battles, because in the end they overkill my units and I end up with butthurt >.> Not cool.
In other negative aspects, the monetary unit, gold, is extremely difficult to get in game. Defeating an enemy or summoning the next wave gets you more money, but in the end it's easily spent.

Even though there are these negatives, I still find it a fun game! Trust me, I have wasted many hours on this amazing game. Don't believe me that it's fun? Then read these reviews:

"Kingdom Rush is a beaut of a tower defense game, with new ideas that make it feel extremely polished and refined." Slidetoplay
                  
"This is easily one of the best tower defense games currently in the App Store." Gamezeebo
                  
"Kingdom Rush is an instant classic and is guaranteed to turn up on 2012 "best of" lists." IGN
                  
"Kingdom Rush can be filed in the thin folder marked -games that are pretty much perfect-." Jayisgames

I give this game a 5/5 for fun, a 3/5 for originality, a 4/5 for gameplay and a 3/5 for development. I like this app guys, it's a real beauty.

ZED

Swordigo: Child's Fantasy game popular with oldies.

For those of you who rememeber Mario, it was the age of revolutionary platforming systems. A little italian plumber runs across the screen dodging fireballs and jumping on enemies: ingenius gameplay! Well these platformer style games have arrived for the Iphone, and they look better then ever.

The main opening screen.

Swordigo, recently released by Touch Foo, has ingeniusly created a 2D world of fantasy that includes multiple gear, level up systems, power ups and enemies.
The game is simple in design, but incredible as a puzzle solver. A gamer can spend a max of four hours gameplay to finish the storyline, but spend another hour unlocking the maxed out items and weapons.

Pros:
Creative system- The user interface is smart. There are no moving buttons to imitate where your fingers touch the screen; the buttons stay where they are.
Level Up System- The classic level up system provides a prior goal to gamers should they finish the story-line quickly.
Puzzle Play!- Most maps have ingenius puzzles that require a lot of thinking and magic from the player.
Trinkets- THis was my most favourite aspect of the game. Throughout the worlds, certain places give you a 'trinket'. These magical spheres enchant your weapons, magic spells and armour to give it special abilitis. Currently I use the shadow trinket on my iron sword, giving it a purple aura. But it doesn't just change the image, it gives it special powerups too! But, if I was to use it on my armour, it would allow me to pass through enemies when I chose to! Amazing! (NOTE: In the above image of the app icon, the 'fire trinket, can be seen on the sword)
Multiple Bosses- Bosses unlock different achievments, and can be found in secret 'coves' under or abve the map. Defeating them will unlock trinkets for you character.

One of the many bosses of the 'Shadow Lord'. His minions will try to defeat you!

Cons:
Childish Graphics/Gameplay- The animation makes it look like a child's game. There is no detail in the characters, and the story-line is really simple to pick up (Which makes the ending easier to guess). 
4 hours!!!- That's right, depending on your thumb skill, this game has a max of 4-5 hours gameplay. The abd news: there is nothing online except for achievments. Unfortunetly, history in the appstore tells us that apps without online gameplay are rarely bought, due to their entertainment factyor decreasing by the time everything has been experienced.

Gameplay is very '2D' based. Like Mario!

Glitchy- Sometimes shuts down. Very aggravating. 'Nuff said.

My rating: 4/5 for creativity, 2/5 for gameplay, a 3/5 for price and a 3/5 for originality. Well done Touch Foo, you created a game that I thouroughly enjoyed!

Zed

You wanted to lose weight? Here you go!

Get the ultimate workout!

Yes I know that I already posted up about a zombie app, but this one takes the cake. 'Zombies. Run!' has become one of the mosty recent apps to combine fitness with zombies, which is quite an interesting combination.
It's hard to describe just what this game is like, so I will give you a blurb instead. Yeah, I'm good at blurbs:

The game places the runner in a zombie apocalypse, where you take on the role of Runner 5 (In the game, runners are the people who leave hot-spots to find medical and food supplies). Whilst running, the game will be simulating sounds, noises and echoes of different zombies that increase your running time.
Whilst doing this, the device picks up different items on the run, which can be used when running from Zeds. The opening menu shows an RTS style base, where you can distribute these supplies and increase your population. The game is mission based, and currently has up to 30 chapters
Here is the good news: This app updates weekly.
New Content YAY!

But there is a bit of a downside. The missions are difficult to get into, and a lot of the game requires you to use your imagination. Sometimes the charachters speech impairment can be aggravating, and other times the app will randomlty shut down on you, forcing you back to the beginning of the mission.

My rating: 3/5 for graphics, 4/5 for Gameplay, 3/5 for Development and a 6/5 for originality. This is a very interesting game, and I definetley recommend for those who want to lose weight but have fun at the same time. Zombies. Run! Is a well thought out app.

ZED

For more info on the app, see http://www.zombiesrungame.com/