Droid Gamers reviews DynamoKid Touch
29.04.2010 - no comments

Our friends over at OrangePixel sent us a copy of their persistent scrolling platform game called DynamoKid Touch to review last week. As with all of our full reviews, we like to take our time playing the game giving it some good gameplay before coming up with our final verdicts. After playing this game for about a week I will say this: Addicting.

Gameplay: In this game you are DynamoKid running your butt off constantly. The background of the game is a piece of paper with landscape sketched onto it which looks really good but also plays a part in the game because as you run along each stage you have to tap various elements to fill them in so you can continue running such as little pieces of rocks. As you run through each stage you want to collect as many stars as you can including super stars which, like the landscape, you have to fill in to make them drop so you can collect them as you run by. However everything isn’t as easy as it sounds…

You have moving platforms to jump onto, other rock areas will drop out from beneath you, boulders dropping down, enemies running at you or floating above you dropping bombs. Tapping is your main weapon here and you have to be quick on the draw (pun intended) when it comes to the enemies and falling rocks. Tap an enemy running at you to destroy him or the floating ones to shoo them away. Tap a boulder to destroy it and keep your little DynamoKid safe. Of course you have to do all of this while collecting stars, jumping platforms (moving or not) and filling in other parts of the landscape. Just to make sure you don’t memorize each stage, they are dynamically made every time you start over so they are never the same.

Controls:
As mentioned already, all you have to worry about is tapping, a lot of tapping. The response time is pretty much instant between tapping your guy and him actually jumping or when you need to fill in land or destroy enemies. The quicker your reflexes are, the further you’ll progress. I seriously suggest getting used to using two fingers (one on each hand).

Features:
Online High Score Rankings
Cool 2D Graphics and Animations
3 available profiles to use
Twitter share
Achievements

Graphics:
The graphics fit the game perfectly. Nothing too fancy to make sure there is no rendering lag which means this game should play fine on all Android devices and believe me when I say, at times, I wish there was some lag because the game is intense and fast paced. Actually no not really but it is a fast and intense game.

Overall:
Continuing in the series of DynamoKid (Touch is actually #4 in the series), this is a great scrolling platform game where even though you want to pull your hair out, at the same time, you just can’t stop playing. It’s addicting, very addicting and fun. Every time you die you know you can get further and further even though the stage changes each time. With the stages changing dynamically every restart, this produces a game with a huge amount of replay value as well. In the end this is a great addition to anyone’s game collection regardless if you are a casual or hardcore gamer. The only thing that would make this perfect would be the option to save, maybe not every level but a save point after a certain amount of distance covered.

We also have some tips and tricks for DynamoKid should you need any help posted in our guides section!

Rating: 4.75/5

Source: Droid Gamers

Mini Plane review by App Spy
26.04.2010 - no comments

As a simple touch-based endless game, you’ll dive, climb and dodge incoming planes with ease while rescuing stranded victims and claiming stars for bonus points in Mini Plane by OrangePixel. But it isn’t always smooth sailing as you slowly progress through the game’s content.

By touching the screen your plane is given a boost of power, pulling its nose up and out of your initial nose-dive. As you progress, planes and helicopters will provide aerial obstacles to avoid, while the cityscape prevents you from coasting your way to victory at the bottom of the screen. Stars can be collected to unlock levels and purchase new planes or upgrades, while civilians can be rescued to add to your score. Movement is smooth and your plane is amazingly agile once you’ve grasped the game’s physics, but the game’s collision detection is slightly off, with regular moments of ‘I completely missed him’ punctuating the end of a solid run.

The game’s 2D art-style is clean, cartoon-ish and extremely well designed, using a modern pixel art style for the sprites. A bonus mode can be activated, giving you a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the level and access to extra stars. There’s no music track to speak of, but the sound effects are neat and only a few minor graphical glitches ruin the otherwise perfectly fun atmosphere.

Mini Plane is a fun little endless title that will keep casual gamers coming back for more, but until issues like collision detection are fixed it’ll only keep you occupied for so long.

Verdict: Mini Plane is a fun endless side-scroller with a cute style and gameplay that will keep you coming back for more despite a few obvious minor glitches.

Rating: 3/5

Source: App Spy

We Do Tech: Mini Plane iPhone Review
21.04.2010 - no comments

OK – so if you’re wondering what the concept of Mini Plane is – think the ‘Helicopter game’. The aim of the game is to keep your plane in the air for as long as possible. The longer you are in the air the more distance you can travel, press the screen to ascend and release to descend whilst avoiding planes and buildings and collecting star pick ups and petrol to keep your plane in the air. The game is very pick up and play; it should be accessible to most ages and is something you’ll find yourself playing in a spare 5 minutes traveling.

The further you travel the more points awarded. More points can be gained by collecting the star pick ups; which can also be used to buy new planes, picking up characters from the top of the buildings and flying close to the top of the buildings.

This is where the games encounters some quite problematic glitches. The collision detection is- to put it nicely – ridiculous, if you fly even remotely near a plane or building your plane ‘crashes’ and plummets into oblivion, this makes the game frustrating and detracts from the overall experience as more time is spent guessing and hoping how far away from away from the planes you need to fly to avoid crashing. This makes picking up the people from the buildings not worth it due to the fear of crashing, it really is a off-putting problem.

Graphically the game is good, funky backgrounds and plane designs give a good visual experience.

Sound wise the game falters a bit, it mainly consists of the sound of the planes engine with a couple of bleeps and bloops when the pick ups are collected. I think it would have benefited more from some groovy and catchy electronic songs that would increase the experience tenfold.

Mini Plane is a decent game, not spectacular – it has it’s flaws which are easily fixable by the developers. Really it comes down whether or not the free ‘Helicopter game’ will suit your purpose; it’s free, addictive, largely the same and doesn’t suffer from the glitches that hound mini plane.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Source: We do tech

Droid Gamers reviews Mini Plane
21.04.2010 - no comments

OrangePixel has developed a decent amount of games for Android that are usually both interesting and unique. Unlike the billion game clones that are floating around out there, OrangePixel tends to lean towards the different. Their new game Mini Plane is no different. Mini Plane is a continuous flight game where you have to keep flying as long as you can.

While trying to keep your little plane up in the air, you can gain extra points by doing flybys and collecting bonuses. There are also bonuses along the way that help with keeping your fuel supply topped up. While this may seem fairly simple you also have to avoid enemy planes, buildings and other items that shoot at you. Your score can also be displayed on the global high score board should you become a master pilot.

OrangePixel also have plans to update the game with even more features including various types of planes, new worlds, more upgrades, new gameplay modes and more. Definitely a fun little game for the casual gamer. We’ve also posted the Tip and Tricks OrangePixel has released on their site here on Droid Gamers in our guides section so if you need any help, just jump over to there.

Source: Droid Gamers

Droid Gamers reviews Drill Panic!
12.04.2010 - no comments

Drill Panic, Developed by OrangePixel, is a fast paced game sort of like Abduction! but instead of bouncing your way up platforms, here you have to roll downwards and stay ahead of the drill while collecting gems and other items to help you along. You move by tilting your phone left or right in order to roll into gaps in the ground to get to the next level below you.

The graphics are pretty good and the game play is very fast. There isn’t a whole lot of room between you and the giant drill above you that’s chasing you down. Get hit by the drill and you’re dead.

Some people have complained on the Android market about the controls of this game including some people who notice that once in awhile when you tilt a certain way you go in the opposite direction. What is actually happening is you rolled into a mushroom which ‘confuses’ you and makes your controls reverse for a few seconds. However, the controls are actually extremely sensitive and you barely have to tilt your phone to go in whatever direction you want to. It also features a global high score board and the ability to post your scores to Twitter.

Overall it’s a pretty fun game and a good time killer, especially if you liked Abduction!, then you’ll probably enjoy this game a lot.

A couple of things to note:
- You can only exit the game right now if you press the home button. Pressing back won’t work and there is no exit button in game. Why? I have no idea but it was a bit of a pain to figure out at first.

- If you like the game a lot, buy the full version. The only difference between the Free and Full version are the ads which get kind of annoying rather quickly.

Source: Droid gamers