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It’s Time to Wreak Havoc on Space Bugs as The Bug Butcher

The Bug Butcher ($3.99) by Noodlecake Studios Inc and Awfully Nice Studios is an action-packed arcade shooter that will keep you on your toes with all of the intensity of fighting off nasty space bugs. This is the mobile port of the original game that launched on Steam earlier this year. If you enjoyed games like Glorkian Warrior and Galaga, then chances are high that you’ll like what The Bug Butcher brings to the table.

When I’ve had a long, stressful day, I like to relieve my stress by playing video games. Preferably ones that involve outrageous weaponry so I can unleash my fury on unsuspecting critters that need to be exterminated anyway. Arcade shooter games are perfect for the job, because they’re always intense, full of action, and involve high score chasing with each round. I had not heard of The Bug Butcher until last week, to be honest, but I noticed that it looked like something that would be right up my alley when I needed to rage out on. So naturally, I had to check it out for myself.

Visually, The Bug Butcher is gorgeous, even though the alien bug creatures you’re fighting are kind of disgusting. The game features a fantastic cartoon art style that is sure to appeal to anyone who likes quirky graphics, and the 2-D is rendered well with the incredible backdrops of the rooms that you’re in. The colors in The Bug Butcher range from bright and vibrant hues to darker, more gloomy tones, and everything contrasts nicely with each other so it all stands out on your Retina screen. I found the animations to be smooth and fluid, and the techno dance music and sound effects are a fun, eccentric touch.

In The Bug Butcher, players take on the role of Harry, a bug exterminator in space. You get a new assignment that takes you to the planet of Zoit, where you find out about a futuristic research facility run by a dwindling number of surviving scientists, and the facility is infested with dangerous space bugs. Your goal is to survive the decontamination procedure initiated by the scientists by getting rid of all of the bugs that are brought in during the process. While it may sound easy, it truly gets difficult once things get insane and hectic in the room.

The Bug Butcher features two game modes: Arcade and Panic, and three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, and Hard). You start with Arcade mode and go through the campaign one level at a time. As you make progress in the Arcade mode, you’ll unlock maps for Panic mode, which is essentially an endless mode. Each stage in Arcade mode features several waves of enemy bugs coming in, and you must exterminate them all within the allotted time limit. Your score depends on racking up successful combos (kill enemies quickly without getting hit yourself), collecting coins, and completing it within the time frame (the faster, the better). The same objective is also for Panic mode, but it’s also a test to see how far you can get before you lose.

Controls in The Bug Butcher are simple enough to understand, though I think they’re far from perfect. The two directional arrow buttons in the bottom left let you move Harry left and right. On the right hand side, you have a button that allows you to perform a dash, and another button to shoot upwards (hold down for continuous fire) with your exterminator guns. When you get enough kills, you fill up your power-up gauge that sits above the attack button, and you can activate your power-up mode with a tap. The boost only lasts for a short amount of time, though, so you have to make sure to use it wisely, otherwise it may be a while before you can use it again.

My biggest concern with the controls is the fact that it seemed like the directional buttons got stuck often, because I found myself in one spot even though my thumb was on the button for the direction I wanted to move in. I wish that there was some customization for the controls, as I would like to change the spacing between the left and right buttons, because they seem too close together for me in the default setting. Hopefully the developers can consider letting players fine-tune the control positioning to better suit our individual needs.

As you shoot down nasty space bugs, they’ll drop gold coins that you can collect — the more coins you have by the end of the round, the more points you get. But you’ll have to be fast at collecting them since they will disappear after a few secodns. Plus, the coins can be spent on various upgrades for Harry, such as shields, guns, speed boosts, and more that can be unlocked as you play.

I only started The Bug Butcher this morning, but I’m loving the game so far. It’s the perfect little game for just unleashing my wrath on space bugs when I need to release some stress, and the graphics are stunning and the music is top-notch. The different game modes and difficulty levels provide players with plenty of replay value, especially since the levels get harder at a gradual pace, and all of the unlockables will keep you coming back for more. I just hope that the controls get better optimized in terms of responsiveness in the future, and allow us to tweak the positioning and spacing between buttons.

I highly recommend checking out The Bug Butcher if you’re into frantic arcade shooters and want a great stress reliever. The Bug Butcher is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for $3.99. There are no in-app purchases.

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Sate Your Curiosity With Alchademy, a Mix-and-Collect Game

Alchademy (Free) by Apps-O-Rama is a fun, casual game about mixing ingredients and satisfying your curiosity. If you want to feel like a witch or warlock brewing some crazy concoctions just in time for Halloween, then Alchademy is a nice little time killer that will provide you with some entertainment this holiday season. It goes well with Puzzlepops! Trick or Treat, if you are looking for spooky, entertaining titles.

Halloween is coming up in a little over a week, so I’m pretty excited. It’s one of my favorite holidays, because who can resist the spooky decorations, candy, dressing up in costume, special events, and all the movies fit for the season? I certainly can’t. But since it’s like almost 100 degrees out here in Southern California, it doesn’t feel like fall or Halloween for me, so I’ve been turning to games to get my fill. Yesterday I talked about the delightful Puzzlepops! Trick or Treat, and today I’m diving into Alchademy.

Visually speaking, Alchademy is gorgeous. The game is filled with completely original graphics that have a cartoonish charm to them, similar to what you would find in a graphic novel of sorts. The alchemists that you unlock have their own distinctive outfits and sounds, which are fun to listen to when you poke around on the screen. The ingredients that you can put into the cauldron have their own unique aesthetics, and everything seems to be alive with cute eyes and whatnot. The colors used in Alchademy range from bright vivid hues to colder, darker tones. The cauldron also has gems along the side that indicate the potency of the ingredients you are mixing, and the color of the brew is also a sign of potential results. Animations are smooth and fluid as you select ingredients, pan the camera around, and pop bubbles for extra coins while waiting, and the spooky tunes fit the season nicely.

As I stated earlier, Alchademy is a fairly casual game that is meant to be played whenever you have a few minutes, just so you can check on your previous combination and start a new one. The game doesn’t have any different modes or things to solve — it’s just a game about combining ingredients to create new things and rinse and repeat. It’s not a real game, per say, but it is entertainment and one of those things that is fun to check up on every now and then. Plus, if you have any sense of curiosity, you’d be interested to know what weird things can come out from this game.

So how do you combine things? Behind your cauldron and alchemist is a wall with shelves for various ingredients that you can put into the pot. To throw it in, just tap or drag the item you want to use, and repeat the process for the second item. If you’re satisfied with your choices, hit the “stir” button at the bottom of the screen and the two ingredients will be mixed. This is when the timers come in — at first, the timers will be relatively short, but as you make more combinations, the timers get longer, pushing you to spend your gold coins for the hourglass to get instant results.

Either way, after the timer is done, you’ll be able to see your new creation, or get let down with a disappointing “Mixture Failed” message. To gauge the possibility of success, look at the lights on the cauldron as well as the color of the brew when you select your ingredients — the number of lit up dots represent how many combinations a particular ingredient still has left. And when you pick the second ingredient and the water turns red, then that means that you’ve already tried this combination and you should try a different ingredient.

The results of your concoctions can be new ingredients, garbage, or you can get “Creations,” which are cool items that two ingredients end up making. The creations cannot be used in the cauldron and are stashed away in your collection of creations, so they’re mainly there to look pretty. But if you’re a collector, then it’s fun to see how many of them you can discover and make on your own. Once you collect all of the ingredients and creations that a book has to offer, you’ll unlock the next one for free.

Whether you make a new ingredient, junk, or creation, you’ll be awarded some gold coins after each combination. You can also share your success and get another 100 coins for free, and there are opportunities to watch a video ad for coins. And once you fill up the totem (each mix fills it up 10 percent), you’ll get more gold coins in return. So the game gives players ample opportunities to get coins, including popping bubbles while waiting for the mix to finish, so you won’t be starved on currency at least. There are also the purple gems, which are the premium currency, and you can use these to purchase new recipe books and different alchemists to spice things up. Sometimes gems can be given by popping those bubbles, so make sure to keep at it. Or you can convert gold coins to gems and vice versa, or get more through in-app purchases.

Even though there is not much gameplay to Alchademy, I’m still finding it to be a fun and entertaining app on my iPhone 7. The graphics are stunning, the music is fun, and hey, I love to see what combinations make what. If you’re even the least bit curious about things, then this game will keep you busy, and it’s perfect for Halloween.

Alchademy is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for free. There are in-app purchases.

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Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews