I’ve been quoting Bruce Campbell’s Ash—hero of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films—for nearly 25 years. That made this game, which is loaded with lines lifted straight from the third film in the trilogy, an easy sell. Beyond the humour, there’s a compelling little tug-of-war style game here, complete with upgradeable units and defences. Plus, some of the special powers—including the movie’s famous 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 outfitted with a helicopter-like blade—are satisfyingly destructive. I wish there was more than just one environment, but that didn’t stop me from completing all 50 missions.
BackStab ($6.99)
Another attempt to create a console-like game on Apple’s tablet, BackStab offers strong production values and play mechanics vaguely similar to those found in Ubisoft's Assassin’s Creed games. Set in the era of swashbucklers and privateers, players explore semi-open environments and carry out sword attacks via a virtual joystick and action buttons. Players can climb the sides of buildings simply by running up to them, and even carry out stylishly graphic finishing moves. The controls are a little loose and unpredictable, and the narrative scenes suffer from unnaturaly long pauses between speakers, but these qualms are at least partially tempered by the price. How many console action games can you think of that cost seven bucks?
War Grimiore ($4.99)
War Grimoire is an interesting specimen in the popular tower defence genre. On the downside, it suffers from sloppy menu design, some significant bugs (occasional freezes being the worst), and terrible English translation. However, overlook these problems and you’ll find lots of room to experiment with weapons and tower upgrades and a lovely variety of environments that sometimes force players to work with pre-made routes and other times allow them to sculpt their own tower paths. Replay value is excellent. I’ll only recommend it to hardcore genre fans for now, but it’s just a few tweaks and updates away from being the kind of game that any casual player could sink hours into.
Haunted Manor: Lord of Mirrors ($2.99)
I found half a dozen hidden object games ranked in the 40 top selling apps this week—a strong indication of their persistant popularity. They’re generally a bit too Where’s Waldo for my taste, but my wife downloads them frequently and I occasionally get sucked in. This one has a nice haunted house vibe thanks to some nicely rendered dilapidated rooms and spooky sound effects. Plus, objects are generally properly sized and found in logical places (no enormous pencil-shaped clouds in the sky, thanks very much). We can even put some of the items we find to use in simple puzzles by, say, taping up a severed electrical cord to restore power to light a room. It’s not terribly original, but if you’re the type who likes to hunt and peck you probably won’t be disappointed.
Death Rally ($0.99)
Death Rally reminds me a lot of the black-and-white top-down racers I played in arcades when I was six or seven years old, just with better graphics and a lot more shooting. Players race around short, curvy tracks using a virtual thumbstick and tap the screen when they want to fire off a few rounds at a nearby car or explosive barrel. You can collect repair kits to heal and cash that can be used to upgrade your ride between races. It looks great, and is quite palatable in quick, simple bursts—which is lucky, since there’s really not much here. More tracks and cars would definitely be an improvement. And perhaps one of those big plastic arcade wheels I used to spin violently when I was a kid.
