Know your mobile reviews Time Chaos
02.07.2010 - no comments

Nintendo’s legendary Game Boy may have been limited to displaying just four shades of grey but it has nevertheless gone down in video gaming history as a classic system – so much so that mobile developer Orange Pixel has created this tender love letter to the machine and its library of brilliant titles.

To put it simply, Time Chaos is a Game Boy game programmed almost twenty years too late.
Continue reading Know your mobile reviews Time Chaos…

Loud Mouthed Gamers review DynamoKid Touch
25.05.2010 - no comments

Gameplay: DynamoKid is a classic platformer with a few twists that definitely deserve a look. You jump, destroy enemies, collect stars, and ultimately try and make it to the end of each level without dying. Since it is on the iPhone, touch controls come into play in various fashions. You tap the Kid to make him jump, you can swipe along dotted areas to let the world become more solid, you can tap to destroy or move enemies, and you can swipe/tap stars to drop them down to where the Kid can get to them.
Continue reading Loud Mouthed Gamers review DynamoKid Touch…

IGN reviews DynamoKid on the iPhone
19.05.2010 - no comments

A cute Cannabalt clone that needs a little tweaking.
I could try to distill DynamoKid Touch into something deep – rhapsodizing about its themes of perseverance, destiny, and determination – but really, this is pretty much just a super-cute Canabalt. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Canabalt remains a very special iPhone game and there are far worse titles to model after.

Your role in DynamoKid is to make sure the titular runner is able to get as far to the right as possible and collect as many stars as you can along the way. You tap the kid to make him jump. Touching enemies eliminates them. Swiping across hanging stars drops them into the kid’s path for easy collecting. Sounds easy, right? DynamoKid’s challenge comes from the need for you to color objects that keep him from tumbling into the void. For example, as you rush up to a black-and-white bridge, you must rub it to fill in the missing colors and make it usable for the kid. It’s a cool idea.

The french site LiveGeek reviews DynamoKid Touch
13.05.2010 - no comments

Tout droit échappé de Android, Dynamo Kid ne peut s’empêcher de courir. C’est à pleine vitesse qu’il débarque donc sur iPhone et iPod Touch grâce au travail effectué par Orange Pixel. D’autres jeux d’arcade ont déjà su séduire les amateurs de scoring et de challenge, et DynamoKid Touch vient s’ajouter à la ludothèque de l’App Store en y apportant une ambiance et une jouabilité à part entière qui offre un peu de variété au genre. Les plus courageux peuvent d’ores et déjà terminer de nouer leurs lacets tandis que les flemmards opteront sagement pour la fuite en prenant leurs jambes à leur cou.

DynamoKid Touch allie jeu de course et d’arcade en y ajoutant une large touche de plateforme et d’action qui saura séduire les amateurs du genre, les joueurs avides de challenge ou tout simplement ceux qui apprécient les jeux auxquels on joue par courtes sessions. Après avoir déboursé 1,59€, on installera donc le soft de Orange Pixel sur son iPhone ou son iPod Touch (ou son mobile Android) de manière rapide puisqu’il ne pèse que 1,3Mo.

Read full review: LiveGeek

Raiting: 14/20

Interview with Gamers with Casts
12.05.2010 - no comments

We recently reviewed the iPhone / iPod Touch game DynamoKid Touch by OrangePixel, a mobile game studio.  Given the opportunity to ask some questions about the game and the studio’s upcoming projects, we jumped at the chance to find out more.

Scott Morse: On OrangePixel’s website it’s mentioned that upcoming updates for DynamoKid Touch include a bug fix and the addition of a new world.  Are there any other updates we can look forward to in the future?

OrangePixel: The update mentioned on the site is now live, but we are already hard at work on real updates. A new world will be added, together with a world-selection map (like the old school Mario games). The update will contain many small enhancements on top of the new world… and after that we plan to add more worlds in following updates… we are not done with this game yet! – check the site for a great trailer of the new world we are introducing.. it’s hot!

Read full interview:  Gamers With Casts

Gaming Bits first to review DynamoKid on the iPhone
11.05.2010 - no comments

Review Summary:
DynamoKid Touch is a two dollar App Store game that encompasses everything we use to know about platform games. It is a challenging touch-based control game. The challenge that DynamoKid Touch brings is entertaining, but can lead to some inappropriate words being said. I just couldn’t put the game down. With a 8-bit art style, some great touch controls and solid gameplay, DynamoKid Touch is well worth your time and space on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

DynamoKid Touch review:
The platformer genre has seen a great amount of change in recent years, moving more and more from the console space into the handhelds. We have seen a resurgence of these platform games on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, but it is the iPhone and iPod touch where the largest growth is happening. One company, Orange Pixel, has seen this trend and release DynamoKid Touch. This game takes all of the fun of platformers and mixes in some touch controls to create a truly unique experience. DynamoKid Touch is a perfect fit for Apple’s handhelds because of its great, quick gameplay and retro visual style. I don’t think you can find a better example of a tough, addicting platform game.

Lets get this straight, DynamoKid Touch is not for the feint of heart. It is just a challenging game, period. I found myself yelling at my iPod touch, but just starting over the second I died. The controls are simple: you tap the screen to make DynamoKid jump. That is the easy part. Then, when enemies come on screen, you have to use the same touch controls to “kill” them. Along the way, there are also balloon enemies that drop projectiles. These guys can’t be killed, just moved when you touch them. Also, there are moving platforms and blocks that only appear if you put your finger over them. The combination of manic movement, frantic touch controls and the great looking art just keeps me coming back for more. Orange Pixel also decided to have the colors pop in depending on how far in the level you are, which I thought was a great touch.

My biggest gripe with the game is sometimes I don’t feel like it is my fault if I miss a jump. The area you can touch around your character that makes you jump just doesn’t seem big enough. I found myself getting upset because I didn’t feel like my game over was due to anything I did. Other than that, the game does not have many issues. Orange Pixel has also said that updates will be coming soon to fix bugs and add more content.

At the low two dollar price tag, DynamoKid Touch is for those looking for a classic looking old school platforming game. It is simply a great buy. The game can get very frustrating, but for some gamers a challenge is what they truly enjoy. For me, I couldn’t put the game down. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. DynamoKid Touch just brought me back to the 8-bit and 16-bit era, and I hope it does for you too.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Source: Gaming Bits

Know your mobile reviews Mini Plane
06.05.2010 - no comments

We review Mini Plane for iPhone, a simple game from Orange Pixel

Mini Plane is what iPhone games should be about, in theory. It has such simple controls that even your cat could control it – with its eyes closed, but the feline would probably struggle to make it past the first level.

Simple pressing the screen makes your plane fly upwards. Not pressing the screen forces the plane down.

Thus, the trick is to time your upward and downward swoops with a series of taps.

To keep in the air, you’ll have to collect fuel and pick up stars to gain points and speed, while avoiding other planes, buildings and items like giant cannon balls.

It may be easy to play initially, but with numerous killer objects flying towards you, and the constant need for fuel, top-flight piloting is soon order of the day in the colourful 2D side-scroller.

More so, when you consider the collision detection area around an object is seemingly larger than the object itself. On a few occasions we crashed when there was what we thought to be an ample-sized gap.

Adding further frustration is certain moments in the game present no feasible path to progress – an issue when the premise is seeing how far you can go.

If it was a mistake on our behalf that meant our plane had ran out of juice, or we collided with a high-rise, we wouldn’t mind. That’s part of the learning curve, after all.

But when there are so many things on screen with seemingly no way to proceed, it feels as if unforgiving lady luck plays an unnecessarily integral part.

A great run can be ruined whenever the game’s programming feels like causing you pain, which is a shame when a lengthy run and the resulting hi-score – presentable to the world via RumbleX, is both intense and rewarding.

We like a challenge, and with a few planes to unlock, we did keep coming back initially, curious to see what was around the corner, but it wasn’t long before we felt the woes of airborne frustration just that bit too often.

Mini Plane offers a visually charming, slice of simple flying action, but when you’ve had to crawl from the wreckage one too many times, it’s unlikely you will keep find the experience anything but grounded.

Rating: 2,5/5

Source: Know your Mobile

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

Orangepixel talks about “iPhone” Development
13.03.2010 - Comments Off

We are busy with making our games availble on iPhone. We have choosen Mini Plane to start with and the others will follow soon. The development is a lot diffrent from the Android games. We have to learn a new language, and have tot start working on a different pc.

The dutch site Iphoneclub.nl has taken an interest in our first article and has asked us to write on their site on a weekly basis. So for all our Dutch readers you can find the first episode here: http://www.iphoneclub.nl/63893/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-1-dagboek

Update:
Second episode:  http://www.iphoneclub.nl/64313/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-2-dagboek

Third episode: http://www.iphoneclub.nl/64954/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-3-dagboek

Fourth episode: http://www.iphoneclub.nl/65607/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-4-dagboek

Fifth episode: http://www.iphoneclub.nl/66042/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-5-dagboek

Sixth episode: http://www.iphoneclub.nl/66601/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-6-dagboek

Seventh episode: http://www.iphoneclub.nl/68172/mini-plane-het-ontwikkelen-van-een-iphone-game-deel-7-dagboek