Entries Categorized as 'Games: Sports'
July 28, 2009
This is the part where I insert the “Aw, geez, not this s–t again!” image macro. Or I would if I didn’t willingly elect to do this review.
But never let it be said that I never someone a fair shake. I can be mean and snarky and rip crap apps to shreds, but I’m always willing to give their developers a second — or third, or fourth — chance. Technicat is one of those developers that I keep giving chances to. Frapstr readers from the earlier days may recall that I’ve reviewed Technicat’s earliest endeavours, FuguTilt, FuguBowl (which is almost the spiritual predecessor to this) and the well-deserved Hall…
Posted in Games: Sports, Paid Apps 
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June 16, 2009
Casual sports games have been a popular topic the last few months, particularly with the likes of Skyworks capitalizing on it — and why not? It takes otherwise long-winded if entertaining sports and boils them down to basics that can be picked up and played in minutes, which is ideal for a mobile device.
Jeff King knows this, so he’s devised his own take on casual football. Pigskin Pass puts you in the cleats of the quarterback and essentially reduces the game of football down to a progression of passing plays, only without the possibility of getting sacked because all of the other “players” are made of wood…
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June 14, 2009
It seems like Artificial Life are trying to beat Skyworks for most frequent releases, as now they’re back again with yet another original title. iSoccer Backstreet wasn’t at all what I was expecting it to be — though bits of what I was expecting it to be are in there. Instead, I was rather surprised at how varied the game ended up being.
If I had to boil it down to something, I’d say that iSoccer Backstreet is half rhythm game and half ball tricking. I know, that sounds weird, but frankly it’s impossible to peg this into any one particular category or hold it up against…
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June 1, 2009
Moving right along with the second new Skyworks joint we come to a horse of a different colour. Or a horseshoe, anyway.
I probably don’t need to explain that this is the classic game of Horseshoes, but I will anyway: Grab one and fling it at a metal stakes pounded into the middle of a sandbox to try and score “ringers” — that is, hook the shoe around the stake. Ringers score points; near-ringers score less points; misses score ridicule. Like most of Skyworks’ games, you fling a horseshoe by flicking upward on the screen. You can move the shoe horizontally before you take the shot if you’re more comfortable taking…
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June 1, 2009
I’ll say one thing for Skyworks: They don’t take naps. It’s only been about five weeks since I did the Skyworks Week spotlight here and reviewed five of their games, three of which were new. Now they’ve got three more titles in my review queue, so I guess you could say this is another mini Skyworks Week, though unofficially. I’d like to start by pointing out that I must be a little slow because I just realized a couple of days ago who’s behind Skyworks. See, all of the press releases I get are sent to me by someone with a familiar last name — one I’ve known since the early…
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April 23, 2009
We’re almost through Skyworks Week here at Frapstr, so I wanted to cover their latest updated app, Batter Up! Baseball.
I’d never played this one before, but I love single-player arcade type games like this, especially in the context of an activity or sport you couldn’t normally play indoors. Batter Up! Baseball is a lot like other physical arcade games like skeeball or target shooters, except you play on a normal baseball field in a normal stadium and try to hit home runs. Batter Up! Baseball featuers two play modes: Home Run Rally and Arcade Mode.
In Home Run Rally, the object is to hit as many home runs as you…
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April 22, 2009
Since we’re on the topic of table-based sports games, we’ll move into day 3 of the Skyworks spotlight with World Cup Air Hockey, which dovetails rather nicely with yesterday’s coverage of Ping Pong.
There are a lot of similarities here, since I’m certain both games share a lot of code; the same global leaderboard is here, and the same three-tiered tournament mode is here, as are the head-to-head and practice modes. The only thing really missing is a single-player arcade mode — though I’m not really certain what they’d be able to do with such a mode. The graphics and sounds here are all up to Skyworks’ level of…
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April 21, 2009
Moving on to the next game on the week-long list of Skyworks games, we come to one of their most recent releases, World Cup Ping Pong.
Everyone knows ping pong. It’s tennis for leprechauns. Now, it’s tennis for fingers, and Skyworks have managed to do a surprisingly good little game of table tennis. Where the gameplay is concerned, it’s all touch controlled as you’d expect; tap and drag around to move your paddle as you’d expect; swipe upwards to hit the ball. Standard ping pong (and for that matter, tennis) rules apply: The ball must clear the net; it must bounce once on the opponent’s side before it can…
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April 8, 2009
Another newcomer to the iPhone scene, Monte Boyd, isn’t a complete newbie. He wrote a popular 3D snowboarding game on the Mac called Slope Rider. Now he’s gone and ported it to the iPhone, and I must say, he’s done a fine job. I mean, I haven’t played the Mac version, but the iPhone version is certainly no slouch when it comes to trick snowboarding games.
Slope Rider lets you strap on a board and either kick it freestyle or race against a computer player down the hills, through the moguls, and over ramps while pulling off tricks, collecting bonuses, and involuntarily eating tree bark across 13 unique courses.…
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April 6, 2009
There are quite a few bowling games on the App Store — that’s pretty much to be expected. For some reason though, bowling games are really hit or miss, and it’s hard for one to hit all the marks such that it really feels like a complete bowling game. Either the physics are off (or virtually non-existent), the animation is choppy, the graphics are lackluster, the sound is bad, the controls lack response or are poorly implemented, or any combination thereof. I’ve played a number of the existing bowling games, and there just haven’t been any that really grabbed me for one or more of these stated…
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February 8, 2009
What would you get if you were to combine skiing or snowboarding with the age-old classic game of bowling? If you said “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so here’s a bunny with a pancake on its head,” I’ll give you points for trying amid the confusion of such an unlikely pairing. Fortunately, GameResort figured it out, and the result of this unholy union is Downhill Bowling, possibly the strangest yet most enjoyable bowling game I’ve played.
Downhill Bowling takes the game and brings it to the great outdoors, where the object is to control your bowling ball as it travels downhill and around obstacles to…
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December 4, 2008
Back in the early 80s, when video arcades were still in vogue and plentiful, I spent plenty of time playing foosball with friends. Back then though, in Canada, we knew it by its Italian name: Gitoni. (I’m not sure where this comes from since they don’t call it that in Italy. Oddly, this seems to be an Italo-Canadian thing.) We had tons of fun on those tables, both scoing goals and beaning people when we executed a particularly vicious spin manoever.
This here is Rashid’s attempt at bringing foosball to the iPhone, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. I realize that it’s impossible to…
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