Game Review: Newton Lite

Newton is the sniper to Asteroids spray and pray. According to the developer, a lone coder named Mario from Graz, Austria, Newton is a physics puzzler heavily inspired by the great flash game Gravity Pods and some old DOS and Amiga classics with similar game play mechanics.

The point of the game is simple: you have a gun and you have to shoot the target. There are currently 21 levels which use pushers, pullers, and obstacles to show off a great physics engine. Though there are not very many levels yet, the last few are pretty tricky and may take a nice chunk of time to complete.

The graphics in the game are basic but look great, and run smoothly. The game play is very intriguing to me. I can't wait to see where the developer takes it. I've had a chance to test the level editor, it is almost ready to go live. I can't wait to see whats up next for this game.

As I was sitting down to write this review, I noticed an update to Newton Lite already up on the market. Turns out 3-D graphics were added. They have since been made optional. It is great to see the developer for this game churning out the updates quick. If he continues to add content to the game, it may quickly become one of my favorite go-to games for killing a few moments here and there.

I've spoken with the developer about his plans for Newton. The level editor is almost completed. Next up is online high score tracking. Check out This Community Page it is a thread by the developer with the dialog between him and the testers providing feedback. Feel free to post thoughts or ideas if you have them. He was also quick to respond via email if you've got questions or ideas. He has also written a tutorial on Android game programing. It's written in German, but he is working on translation to English; it should be done soon.

This App Was Tested Using: T-Mobile myTouch 3G
Presentation: Very basic, but it looks nice.
Value: Free, but limited content at this time.
Stability/Resources: Everything is pretty smooth. I noticed minor lag on the bullet trail a few times. But overall it runs great.
Bottom Line: Interesting game, lots of potential if the dev keeps up with it.

Source: Android Guys

Review: Gameboid

by Damien McFerran

We review Gameboid, a Game Boy Advance emulator for Android phones that'll let you relive some gaming memories

Of all of yongzh’s Android-based emulators, GameBoid is the one that is tackling the most up-to-date hardware - it emulates Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance console, which was released at the start of this decade. With this in mind, you might expect the performance of this app to be sub-par. Astonishingly, it actually ends up being the best of the bunch.

First up though, a short history lesson. The Game Boy Advance – or GBA as it’s often called – was an update of Nintendo’s insanely popular Game Boy line, which can trace its roots back to 1989 with the launch of the first black and white handheld.

The Game Boy Advance proved to be just as lucrative as its predecessor, shifting millions of units and playing host to countless fantastic games, including ports of notable SNES titles (The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past) and brilliant exclusives (Metroid Fusion, Zelda: Minish Cap, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow).

Despite the fact that the GBA offers many of the visual tricks present in SNES titles – such as sprite rotation and scaling effects – GameBoid never seems to struggle like the unfortunate SNesoid does. It’s possible to play pretty much any GBA title with sound at an acceptable speed.

As you’ll be aware if you’ve already read our reviews of yongzh’s other Android-based efforts, GameBoid comes packed with options that enable you to tailor your experience to your own personal preference. You can tinker with screen size and aspect ratio, assign action buttons to your phone’s keyboard (you’ll need an Android phone with a physical keyboard to get the most enjoyment out of this) and even save your progress using one-click save states.

As is the case with all emulators, using ROMs you’ve obtained from the internet carries with it certain legal risks, but we’re not going to bore you with those. Suffice to say, ROMs are copyrighted no matter how old there are, and unless you own the original cartridge, you’re effectively breaking copyright law.

It’s rather ironic that GameBoid ends up out-doing its fellow emulators when you consider how recent the Game Boy Advance actually is. We threw loads of different titles at the emulator and it managed to play them all; granted, there are occasional stutters and slowdown, but it’s no worse than what we’ve seen in Nesoid or Gensoid, and it blows the disappointing SNesoid clean out of the water.

We get the felling that the developer is aware of GameBoid’s quality as it’s the most expensive yongzh-created emulator at $3.99. Still, it’s well worth that price – just try out the free Lite version if you need convincing of this.

Source: Know Your Mobile

Game Review: Abduction! World Attack

by Damien McFerran

If UFO spotters are to be believed and we really aren't alone in this universe then the kind of activities our extraterrestrial visitors get up to don't really paint them in the best light.

Creating obscure crop circles and buzzing military aircraft strike us as pretty low-level pranks. Perhaps Douglas Adams was right when he hypothesised (via his excellent Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series) that these occurrences were down to bored, rich alien kids with nothing better to do than confuse us dim-witted earthlings.

Stealing cows is another rather daft activity that our xenomorphic guests seem to get up to, and this unusual pastime is the focus of the cute-looking Abduction! World Attack.

Produced by Sydney-based ex-pat bedroom coder Phil Symonds, Abduction! World Attack is based on his earlier Abduction! game, which is still available free of charge via the Android Marketplace and essentially serves as the 'Lite' version of this release.

The aim in both titles remains the same: you assume the role of a heroic cow (other animals are available as you unlock them) whose herd has been sucked up by an alien tractor-beam.

Thankfully the alien abductors have unwittingly ripped up several parts of the landscape as well and these hover peculiarly in mid-air, providing ideal platforms for your bovine avatar to jump on.

As you bounce up the screen from platform to platform you'll get the opportunity to rescue some of your beloved herd, who are parachuting down from the alien mother ship. You can also pick up various present-shaped bonus items, although it should be noted that not all of these are beneficial.

Granted, some of the packages will give you an additional life (so should your cow fall off the bottom of the screen – an event that usually leads to instant death and a rather unsightly mess on the ground below – you actually bounce back up unharmed) or even give you a higher bounce, but others temporarily make it hard for you by reducing the number of platforms or making them crumble beneath your hooves when you jump on them.

The game is controlled using the phone's accelerometer, so tilting from right to left affects the direction in which your heroic cow bounces. We were pleasantly surprised by the accuracy and effectiveness of this interface – even the most subtle of movements is picked up by the game and translated perfectly on-screen.

While the general gameplay in both the original Abduction! and Abduction! World Attack is essentially the same, the sequel adds a little more longevity to the concept by including additional characters to unlock (so you can choose to be other courageous animals, such as a goat or deer), more backgrounds and even an objective-based challenge mode.

These tasks range from getting to the top of the screen in a certain time to successfully rescuing a set number of friendly animals. You're awarded a grade upon completing each assignment and securing a gold in each one results in a neat unlockable bonus.

However, the core part of the game is the Adventure mode, which sees you traversing a map level-by-level until you've liberated all of the unfortunate beasts that have been kidnapped by the unkindly spacemen.

All of this additional content clearly makes Abduction! World Attack a worthwhile investment if you liked the original, but the biggest issue is that while the game is fun in short bursts, it fares less well under intense scrutiny.

The score-attack element is naturally a big draw, but only if you have friends that are also hooked on the game. The ability to post your best scores online (you have to install the separate ScoreNinja Android application in order to do this) will obviously give the more competitive gamers out there the excuse to pour hours into this title, but even then it won't be long before boredom sets in.

It's just not well-suited for longer periods of play, see, and if you're craving for something meaty to get your teeth into on Android you're probably better off beaming up another experience. But in short bursts, you'll find Abduction! World Attack to be an ideal way to fill the odd spare moment.

Source: Pocket Gamer

Game Review: Trap!

AndroidGuys have rediscovered an old PC game refitted with the coolness of Android. Here's an excerpt of their review:

Ok call me crazy, but up until now I really haven’t used my phone for gaming purposes.  Perhaps it’s just that I haven’t been in any situations that have called for something to simply occupy my time.  All that changed on Friday when I was stuck waiting for a friend in a very public place with little to do.  I jumped into the Android Market and perused through the new applications available.  When nothing piqued my interest I thought to myself, “Why not?” and I went into some unknown territory… the games section.


What a wellspring of awesomeness!  I was soon downloading games like a madman: Amazed, Abduction, Colorix, Bonsai Blast, etc.  There is one game, however, that has managed to consume a great deal of my time as of late.  It’s called Trap! I can’t explain why it is so addictive, but whenever I start playing, I have a hard time putting it down.

Read here for more, or simply go to the Android Market and stuff your phone with games!