iPhone Savior

Plumber Crack Gets A Real Full-Figured Update

 

After hovering for a short time at the number 3 spot on the iTunes Free iPhone and iPad App charts, Fluik Entertainment has delivered a significant update to Plumber Crack and she's a beauty.

Say hello to Betty the plumber — a curvaceous redhead who likes tattoos and playing dress up. This game has doubled it's appeal by putting some much needed "lady lumps" into the addictive gameplay. But you'll find Miss Betty's backside cleavage a tad more challenging as a moving target.

The developers at Fluik wasted no time delivering this clever update that brings much more than just a battle of the sexes including; Leaderboards and Achievements, faster throw rates, more significant power ups and Game Center integration.

There was already so much to love about Plumber Crack (free) before this meaningful update, but now there's truly something to cheer about. Unlocking levels opens up multiple outfit changes for these characters which include a skimpy cowgirl outfit for Betty, several more objects to throw and even a zombie outfit for the undead fans.

If you haven't taken this classic cliche for a proper test drive, I'm not sure what you've been waiting for. Did I mention it's free?

Plumber Crack Leaps Into Top 5 App Store Games

 

There's just no better way to kill time than tossing melting chunks of ice into a plumber's crack for the better part of an hour. Fluik Entertainment has just added a certified juggernaut to their short list of casual games with Plumber Crack (free).

The creators of such wildly popular iOS games as "Office Jerk" and my own favorite "Office Zombie" have moved past the workplace into a longtime cliche that is brilliantly fun to play. The Edmonton-based indie developers who've seen over 8 million downloads from their lineup of casual games in the past year are rapidly becoming masters of the medium.

This new freemium app is certain to have many independent developers rushing to brainstorm their own titles by following Fluik's lead to "keep it simple", which seems to be resonating with iOS gamers.

The iPad version of this game looks amazing, even though the graphic design here is kept deliberately simple. In-app purchases allow users to buy "Crack Bucks" from anywhere between $4.99 and $99.99 in order to unlock levels and alternate costumes to play dress-up with "crack boy."

Launched only on March 1st, Plumber Crack has already worked its way up into the number 3 spot on the iTunes Free iPhone and iPad App charts. With this kind of repeated success, I'm certain that it won't be long before the dangerous minds at Fluik Entertainment become an acquisition target by any number of companies seeking a turbo launch into the mobile game space.

Plumber Crack has plenty of room to grow on the back end (pun intended) if Fluick adds social features, regular updates, leaderboards and the potential of Game Center support which should boost this one into hyper-success mode.

I can easily see an office version of this game I'd call "Quarter Slots", but I would imagine the visual design not being too kid-friendly. 

Stay Alive Is A Fast, Fun Shooter Game With No Buyer's Remorse

 

Hurtling through space at what seems like lightspeed, your goal in Stay Alive ($.99) is exactly that — you must stay alive as you navigate through asteroids and fend off enemies, all while collecting orbs to upgrade your ship. It becomes a vicious cycle, collecting orbs to upgrade your ship just so you can collect more orbs — but you'll find this addicting game is the best of its kind.

Your reflexes will be tested as you blast through space in the newest title from Drummer Games. There are 21 levels to play, but the real challenge comes in "endless mode". In this mode of gameplay your only objective is to fly as far as you can without dying while trying to beat your previous best distance. Each time you play the endless mode the level is randomly generated, presenting a new challenge at all times. 

Stay Alive has a simple but very appealing art style, but what stands out most to me in this game is the wonderful 8bit music. As you fly through deep space it's very important to have an enjoyable soundtrack, and the music in Stay Alive is exactly that.

If you're looking for a game to keep you on your toes, this is a perfect choice. Your reflexes will be pushed to the limit as you shoot bad guys and dodge flying space rocks. For the competitive, the endless mode will have you glued to your phone trying to beat your own high score as you seek to scale up the leaderboards.

Stay Alive is a real steal for just $.99, but if you're still not convinced there's a free version available for nonbelivers to test drive. 

 

Guest post by Jordan Schmidt - @JSchmidty

It's Time To Play Angry Birds on Facebook!

 

Rovio has chosen Valentine's Day to launch Angry Birds on Facebook. The fierce fowl have arrived just in time to give the other half of the planet not celebrating undying love today a needed distraction.

Even though you'll find some heart-themed content on the Angry Birds Facebook wall, getting into the game is all that really matters. 

How to play Angry Birds on Facebook:

• Log into Facebook and type Angry Birds in search or paste this link into your browser http://apps.facebook.com/angrybirds/ 

• Then click on the option to Play Game.

• After clicking on Play Game let it load - then click on the desired version to play.

• You'll get 14 power-up points for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

 

It was great to see the original illustrations by Scooterek on how Angry Birds look after the game included in photos. It's a great day to be angry!

Adventure Game Pulls In Over 1.2 Million of Fan Funding In 24 Hours

 

If you can't hear the entire internet buzzing outside your window by now it must be because you have the TV turned up way too loud. The internet has just handed Double Fine Productions over 1.2 million dollars literally overnight in return for a fan funded old school, point-and-click adventure game to be named later. The original funding goal was only $400,000 dollars.

Tim Schafer, the dangerous mind behind Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts decided to side step publishers and seek committed gamers to back his newest adventure game through Kickstarter.com. One day later over 32,382 fans have jumped into the process with him — one that Schafer estimates will take "over a six-to-eight month period" to complete with a small team under his supervision.

Terra Noctis Is One Retro-Platformer That Should Not Be Missed

Terra Noctis ($.99) is reminiscent of classic 2D platformers that require the player to navigate from one side of the map to the other while collecting items used to unlock levels and additional worlds along the way.

Staying alive as you kill enemies and find secret collectibles is both addicting and challenging. You then spend these items on unlocking bonus levels or new worlds. This game has great replay value because of the three unique difficulty levels and multiple collectibles that keep gameplay interesting.

The game has you playing as Allen, the incarnation of a "small nightmare", but he isn't as scary as the ones that keep you up at night. You guide Allen through the levels with different items and abilities, trying to collect everything you can. The pixel art graphics and music here are notable, especially the layered backgrounds that blend with the environment. Each world looks and sounds better than the last.

What I like most about this game is the retro-platformer feel that is reinforced by finding secret areas and collectibles, and by the simplicity of its controls. Playing levels multiple times for 100% completion never gets old.

For only a buck, Terra Noctis is a game that anyone who loves Mario or other classic platformers should definitely pick up. It's a beautiful game on both the iPhone and the iPad that gives you hours of classic side-scrolling gameplay.

Guest post by Jordan Schmidt - @JSchmidty

[Terra Noctis Review]

Siege Hero Puts Some Serious Fun Into Physics

 

Many of us have spent countless hours flinging birds at buildings trying to kill pigs, and plenty of developers have attempted to create a game as addicting as Angry Birds, but almost all have failed.

Siege Hero ($.99) truly stands out in a crowd of games with similarities to the ever-popular Angry Birds by making the gameplay unique but still nicely familiar. Siege Hero is based off of a popular iOS app and Flash physics puzzle game which involves throwing some sort of projectile at structures to kill the evil armies inside.

When you touch your finger to the area you want to destroy, a rock or some other destructive item, gets chucked at the tower-like structures. Your goal is to annihilate all the bad guys with as few strategic throws as possible. Instead of using a slingshot to catapult birds, Siege Hero uses a first person view as you toss rocks and bombs at various towers to destroy the pint size inhabitants.

Unfortunately, in the first sets of levels many of the items you throw act like the birds in Angry Birds. As you progress through the game Siege Hero does begin to add new destructive tools, but I feel that the game would stand out more from Angry Birds with even more deadly things to hurl at the evil ones.

One welcomed difference from Angry Birds is that some levels require you to also save villagers while destroying the structures, offering a nice change of pace from previous levels.

As it is, Siege Hero is a seriously fun game and people who love Angry Birds should love this one, but some (like myself) may be left wanting a little bit more out of the gameplay. Even though I think this game could be improved with added weaponry and more level variations, Armor Games is updating Siege Hero on a regular basis, which means there is still plenty of room for it to evolve.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for new updates that will make this game even better than it already is.

Guest post by Jordan Schmidt - @JSchmidty

Baby Got Back: Oh my god Becky, look at this app

Sir Mix-A-Lot has launched a classic booty busting iPhone app that lets you put some essential ba dunka dunk in your lady's trunk. Baby Got Back ($.99), has a buttload of features on board starting with Mix's Makeover which provides several transforming options including move, shrink and grow for perfectly sculpting the ultimate lady lumps of your dreams.

You'll also discover "Ba Dunka Dunk", an on board game that has users dressing up booty girls for points and a chance to take over the leaderboard. Mix-A-Lot also chimes in with his own "Booty Call" feature where he describes 7 styles of buttage including The Crash Helmet, his Kim Kardashian (Thong Blesser) and the classic Donkey. So kick them nasty thoughts!

Of course, my favorite extra was finding the original Baby Got Back music video inside this app. It offers an instant flashback to 1992 any time I choose. Even though Baby Got Back for iPhone is not a full throttle, thrill ride of nonstop action, I'm calling it a definite must-have app for 2011, because everybody should get the chance to add a little boom boom in the zoom zoom anytime they want. I expect this one to go big once word finally gets out.

Sir Mix-A-Lot is a certified marketing genuis for imagining a way to reinvent his ridonkulous Baby Got Back anthem for a new generation of fanatical iPhone users to experience. For that I say Bravo Sir. Bravo!

[via Chip Chick]

MinoMonsters Coming To iPhone December 6th

 

What would you do if you had a million dollars? Joshua Buckley, a 19-year-old serial entrepreneur is betting a cool $1 million bucks of fresh funding on bringing his Pokemon inspired MinoMonsters to iPhone.

Buckley has created his own spin on Nintendo’s hit game Pokemon for iPhone and he intends to get a leg up on the gaming giant by focusing on mobile, an area where Pokemon games have not yet taken off.

“Nintendo has dropped the ball on these people,” Buckley told AllThingsD. “They’ve focused on their declining consoles, and the eyeballs are moving to other platforms. We are targeting people in their early to mid-20s, who have a nostalgic feeling for Pokemon.”

The iOS app that will sell for $.99, centers around users capturing and training MinoMonsters to participate in a series of one-on-one battles. The goal of the game is to protect the peace of the “legendary Kingdom of Zancardi”, but MinoMonsters faithful know that the real payoff is winning through the art of battle against friends. The game will offer both single player and multiplayer modes.

Buckley has set his sights on not only creating a mobile version of his creature feature, but on building a megabrand similar to the Angry Birds franchise. His end game is focused on turning MinoMonsters into an iconic brand and entertainment experience with ultimate plans to launch into comics, TV, and movies.

Josh told Forbes that he "Sees Angry Birds’ graphics as relatively limited compared to what he is doing and wants to do."

To accomplish the lofy task of taking on Angry Birds Josh Buckley recruited TJ Murphy, who will man the helm as president and co-founder of MinoMonsters. Murphy is well known for his role as product manager at Zynga, where he participated in the company's success on such hit titles as FarmVille, CityVille and Adventure World.

Investors participating in the MinoMonsers million dollar push include Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Yuri Milner, General Catalyst, Ignition Partners, Raymond Tonsing and Alexis Ohanian.

The real challenge ahead for Buckley and Murphy will be not only to capture an iPhone hit with MinoMonsters, but to rise up on the App Store leaderboard–and stay there. MinoMonsters battles its way into the iTunes App Store on December 6th. Let the games begin!

Office Zombie A Top Monster Hit In The App Store

 

Slap a zombie theme on anything these days and it's almost certain you'll have a breakout hit on your hands before you know it. The gamer nerds at Edmonton-based Fluik Entertainment have done just that with their latest free Office Zombie app which rocketed to number one in the iPhone App Store virtually overnight since arriving on September 21, 2011.

Fluik cleverly reanimated their original chart topping iPhone game Office Jerk, to become a wildly zombified treat that allows players to poke out a zombie's eyeballs by tossing claw hammers, bricks or even dislodging a huge anvil to trigger an epic skull bashing. Sounds gory right? Not really.

The Fluik gang have managed to create a perfect mix of violent amusement in a relatively bloodless environment, which makes Office Zombie ideal for the younger zombie-obsessed gamer geeks. In order to move forward in this game, a checklist of challenges must be completed. In-App purchases are offered to add weapons or you can choose to view a video advert so you can sample new weaponry for free.

I found myself hooked after just minutes of hurling killer fish and using a gold vinyl record to instantly decapitate the snarky desk zombie who taunts by chanting "braaains" every so often. Office Zombie has great illustrations and plenty of room to evolve as long as developers continue to add creative items to hurl at the working dead and include the choice of buying new zombie characters in future updates.

Although the graphics hold up well on iPad, I'm convinced a paid HD version for iPadders would be a big winner. There's also plenty of filthy luker to be earned by creating an In-App 'gore upgrade' for the endless throngs who love a good raging bloodbath.

Office Zombie is a number one monster hit in the App Store for the right reason. It's friggin fun to play! It's that simple. Fluik Entertainment merged their collective brains and decided not to reinvent the wheel, they just zombified it with great skill. If you don't think that's a brilliant idea, then EAT ME! I mean that literally for all you walking dead iPhone gamer zombies out there. Mmmmm Braaains!

[Zombiewagon.com]