[WWW.TECHLIFE.NET] [ 045 ]
IF YOU’RE LIKE me,cityandcivilisation
strategy games are really a perfect fit for
phones. They can be picked up and dropped
off without any time commitment, but at the
same time, much of what monetises them
involves staggeringly long timers and pointless
farming of resources. Many of these factors are
what puts most players off in the late game
stages, as the requirements become
significantly more time intensive and grindy.
Million Lords aims to change tact, removing
timers and resources almost entirely, leaving
nothing but cities, gold and soldiers. Each
season of play, which lasts 30 days, starts with
you dropped into a new map with a single city,
surrounded a bunch of other players and a host
of “neutral cities”. Neutral cities are easy
captures, and over time each city gradually
accrues both gold and armies.
As there are no timers, or restrictions,
players can attack and conquer at will,
generally only stopped by the risk of spreading
their forces too thin across a wide area.
If you are looking for unrestrained strategy,
the simple to play, hard to master elements of
Million Lords is certainly worth a look.
I LOVE TETRIS. FromthemomentI laidmy
hands on an original Game Boy during my
early years I have never gotten sick of the
perfect symmetry of sliding blocks into stacks
of lines. Regardless of what the spin on the
game was – pills, aliens, speed, colours – it was
something I have always played regularly
throughout my life. It’s a constant, and likely
one of the games that will outlive the first
generation to play it.
Te t r i s B l i t z was the inevitable landing of the
game on Mobile, which on the surface seems
kind of obvious. Te t r i s is one of the few games
that can be played on almost any computer.
But EA decided to spin things a little bit and
instead of allowing the standard “infinite”
mode of stacking lines until you crater, there
are now time limits, random modifiers,
powerups and leaderboards.
At its core, Blitz is great fun – the time limits
mean that you can jump in and out of games
quickly and the leader boards allow you to
challenge friends and randoms. Unfortunately,
a lot of the initial pleasure is worn down by the
excessive number of ads, and the paid
powerups and finishers tend to spike scores far
too easily, although thankfully the game does
take note if you don’t use them and ranks
accordingly.QUITE A FEW sportstitleshavediscovered that
the best way to play on mobile devices is to aim
straight for the sweet spot. In both a literal and
figurative way, 8 Ball Hero fast forwards
through the boring parts of Snooker and sets up
a tricky set of final shots for you to figure out
and pull off. Like a hero... Ahem. Each shot
becomes increasingly difficult, but you can be
buffed by several skills and abilities that make
things a little simpler.
There’s even a slightly surreal story to follow,
the ability to customise your avatar, and easily
my favourite bit – commentary that follows your
actual play and includes pithy comments when
you make an awful shot. The graphics are solid,
the game has a fun presentation and quirky flow
to it, with lots of personality in the overall design.
There are some minor issues with control and
accuracy, which is always a problem when you
need to make precise movements across multiple
angles with your thumbs.
That said, it’s very easy to get the hang of and
the short level system means you can play for as
long or as little as you like. I did find the
difficulty to spike a little at times, and some of
the trick shots don’t generally have a clear guide
for success which can be frustrating, but on the
whole 8 Ball Hero is a fun distraction for
anyone who’s enjoyed a night on the tables.Million Lords
CIT Y BASED STRATEGY
SANS TIMERS.
Free with IAPTetris Blitz
TETRIS IN 90 SECONDS.
Free with IAP8 Ball Hero
TRICK SHOTS ON THE GO.
Free with IAPDISCOVERMOBILEGAMES41 / 2 4 4WINNERED’sCHOICE
AWA RDWINNERAPPROVED
AWA RDWINNERAPPROVED
AWA RD