2861

I’ve been playing it on an iPad and I like it so far. I agree that the UI can get in the way of the gameplay, and it must be even worse on a smaller screen. That’s not a roguelike thing, it’s more of a boardgame skeuomorphism thing. The main roguelike elements here are permadeath, dungeon map exploration, and loot-seeking.

Some loot gives you passive modifiers, but most loot is spell cards. And those are the real stars of this game. You have room for only three spell cards (at least at the start, I don’t know if this ever changes). And every spell card degrades with use. But spell cards are sprinkled like candy throughout the dungeon, and they encourage widely differing approaches to combat.

For instance, I initially found spell cards that allowed me to teleport away from monsters, shoot them at range, and charm monsters to fight each other. They worked great together, but eventually those spells degraded. So then I picked up a melee spell with cleave, and found a few more that stunned enemies or healed me. Suddenly, I was a tank. Then those spells degraded, and I stumbled into a seriously overpowered spell that turned the floor into lava. Another spell pushed enemies away from me, and whenever possible I sent them back into the still-simmering lava. Now I’m an unstoppable trap-laying machine, but I know that sooner or later I’ll be forced to try something else.

Certainly the interface will be a huge obstacle for some, but if you can deal with inefficient UIs then I recommend trying this out.

2862

You not liking a game does not make it a ‘bad game’, it just makes it a ‘game not for you’. Gt is quite fun for me and many of my friends are having a blast with it.

2863

Pokemon for iPad is out.

2864

To be clear, that’s the Pokemon card game, not one of the actual Pokemon RPG games. Before anyone gets too excited.

2865

The UI/camera nonsense isn’t getting any better as I go. It’s a superficially cool look with what seem like obvious and terrible gameplay consequences that I can’t believe no one bothered to address. If you enter a room from any direction other than the south/bottom, you can’t see what’s in the room without rotating the camera, and if you rotate the camera, you can’t see what you’re looking at. Either you can’t see the stats, or sometimes from the side, you can’t even see what the creature is. It’s maddening.

And yet, the three card gameplay is really fun. I was getting into it until it crashed on the boss fight in 1-3. I suspect I’ll probably stick with it.

2866

It would’ve worked better if your character were centered in the field of view, as in isometric RPGs. That way, you just avoid rotating the map at all from the default, and always keep north up. Unfortunately, the camera has more of a over-the-shoulder perspective and it’s harder to see things below you than above you. Maybe this will be addressed in a patch.

Anyway, after you finish off a location, be sure to re-examine the world map for an amusing easter egg.

2867

I never thought I’d see those words. What a world we live in.

-Tom

2868

I know, right? It’s a very sensible first true game foray onto iOS for Nintendo. It’s a product that was already only available on (and optimal on) non-Nintendo devices, so by that measure this isn’t a huge deal.

Execution is pretty good, and because it’s an extension of the game that’s been on PC for years, there’s a pretty big card pool to choose from. There seems like a good mix of single player and multi-player options.

Ironically, even though Pokemon is aimed at kids, it’s still a somewhat complicated CCG . While most games work to reduce card complexity, especially CCGs aimed at kids, Pokemon has around 10 pieces of functional information, plus around another 10 pieces of non-functional information.

2869

I see what they did there, but literally can’t quite actually read it.

2870

Disney yanks Tiny Death Star and others without telling the devs.

2871

I loose badly in this game while my two other friends builds death stars and the like, I hold a more positive look on this game, but I’m rubbish at it

2872

Does anyone play The Simpsons: Tapped Out still? It’s so old in game years, but I’m still getting enjoyment out of it without having spent any money on it. While the show has gone so far off the rails as to cross over with The Family Guy, the writing in the game has kept me entertained throughout and the various holiday updates have been fun. Last years Krustyland update was a lot of fun, also. The most recent “storyline” adds a Clash of _____ game mechanic that’s just as annoying as those games, but tempers it with some forth wall breaking humor. It even works on my iPad 1!

2873

Excellent!

2874

Does anyone play The Simpsons: Tapped Out still?

No. It’s online only, which makes it a non-starter for me (and it’s really slow to load even with a connection, which defeats the purpose of a low-gameplay timer based game). Also I tired of the core mechanic pretty quickly and the writing wasn’t enough to keep me tapping. For some reason I prefer the tap-and-timer gameplay in Nimblebit’s games, though even their latest Tiny Tower sequel left me cold.

2875

The official release date for Sentinels of the Multiverse is 10/16, for Android and iOS.

2876

Tablets only?

2877

Yes, tablets only according to their website.

2878

Card Dungeon is pretty fun, but the crashes are getting a little annoying. I had a few runs where I didn’t draw enough offensive cards and was basically left to get pummeled all day long while I ran around searching rooms for offense.

But now I’ve got a character (with essentially the default traits) that just made it to the fifth location, but I may be SOL because two of my three cards are completely used up after that last boss battle.

2879

Am I missing anything, or is there no way to save progress within a level? Any time my phone has to relaunch the app, my cards seem to be the same as what I left them, but I’m reset to a new version of the current level.

2880

Anyone know of a Might and Magic (the RPGs) style game for iOS that’s any good? I have a vacation trip next week and it looks to be…rainy…