Mobile Monday – Cocktail Mania, Burnout Crash, Aero Vacation, The Legend of Zelda

It’s Monday again, which means that it’s time for another Mobile Monday feature from GodisaGeek.com. This week we’re doing things a little bit differently, as we’ve got two guest reviews from Adam Cook and Sean Smith. First off is Cocktail Mania, a game that would put Tom Cruise to shame, then we’ve got Adam reviewing Burnout Crash, a game that tasks players with causing as much damage as possible within a single crash. Thirdly there’s Aero Vacation from Chillingo, a management game in the air (and it about as addictive as they come). Lastly we’ve got Sean Smith reviewing a game that needs no introduction at all, the first The Legend of Zelda game, which was recently re-released on the Nintendo 3DS.

Check out the full review for each game below and don’t forget to come back next week to have a look at four more games. Get downloading and get playing!

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

COCKTAIL MANIA: by Martin Baker

Cocktails, some of us love them, some of us hate them, then there are other that wish they could create them just like Tom Cruise in the film of the same name. While most of us were still practising at throwing glasses around in the air without letting them drop to the floor, Maysalward was hard at work creating a game that allowed people to mix cocktails, have fun and not have any mess to clean up once they’ve done so. What we’re left with is Cocktail Mania, a game where the player taps on the fruity ingredients in order to add them to the cocktail in the order that they’re told to. Sounds appealing on paper, but how does it play?

The main crux of the gameplay has the player tapping on the various fruits that appear on the screen, in the order that they’re told to. In the top left hand corner of the screen will be a picture of some fruit, this is the fruit that you’re supposed to be tapping on until you’re told otherwise. Things can get pretty difficult rather quickly at times, as half an apple can look rather similar to half a peach, meaning that you’ll be finding yourself tapping on the wrong fruit if you’re not being observant enough. That’s where the game part of Cocktail Mania comes in; and it’s surprisingly fun for the most part.

You will be awarded a different award at the end of each level depending on how far up you managed to fill the cocktail jug. Fill it up to the required level and you’ll be awarded the diamond, which is what you’re going to want to get for each of the levels in the game. Getting three diamonds in a row will allow you to play the bonus level, which is a little bit more fun than the actual game and something that you’re definitely going to want to get to. In these bonus levels you’re given a specific time limit in which to make as many cocktails as you can manage. You’re given the ingredients and just have to tap them in the correct order to add them to the jug. The more cocktail you manage to make in the given time, the more points you’ll get. Simple.

The control scheme couldn’t be simpler either, all the player is required to do is tap the screen when they see the fruit that they’re supposed to be adding to the cocktail. As long as you can see the fruit that you’re supposed to be tapping on, you can play the game without any problem. This simple control scheme really helps the game on the whole as it screams casual. There’s nothing in the game that will hold a more avid gamer’s attention for more than a few minutes at a time, however, the more casual player could potentially play the game for hours on end without any problem at all.

All in all, Cocktail Mania is a simple, yet fun, game that at least deserves to be played. The colourful visuals really do stand out in a marketplace that’s usually rather bland. The gameplay isn’t the best in the world, and it probably wouldn’t hold the attention of most people for more than a few minutes, but it’s certainly something that could be played quite easily while waiting for a bus. Maysalward haven’t broken the mould with Cocktail Mania but they’ve shown that they’re a competent developer with the capabilities of producing a half decent iOS game. A few more weeks in the polishing stage, or perhaps a few more game modes, and we might have had something specials; as it stands we’ve just got something that’s decent.

BURNOUT CRASH: by Adam Cook

Burnout Crash has been available on Xbox LIVE now for some time, but it’s a testament to the quality of this iPad version that I now want to go and try out the original console version. A long time coming, the iOS release has definitely been worth the wait, throwing in Origin support along with EA’s incredible autolog functionality for multiplayer, there’s plenty to do here, in a game that is both colourful, entertaining and glorious in its wanton joy of destruction.

Each level in Burnout Crash starts with a vehicle driving toward traffic. You can choose the path of your vehicle simply by dragging your finger across the screen, but this is a very short part of the game, leading towards the actual crash part. Simplicity is the key though – as you’d expect from a touch screen device – and simply swiping your vehicle in the direction you want it to go will move it. The task? Destroy everything; vehicles, houses, garages, you get the idea. There’s so much quality on show in Burnout Crash, from the very get go with licensed music (The Primitives’ Crash is a stroke of genius) showing just why iOS, as a gaming platform, is so popular.

Each of the zones has numerous alternate takes, which are unlocked as you progress by collecting up to five stars per event. Gaining stars also unlocks new vehicles which have different levels of strength and after touch. During the events there are plenty of additional challenges that add even more gameplay to them, for example if you destroy an ice cream truck you get to spin a wheel that gives you one of the rewards that enhance potential score abilities. More fun however, is when you do well enough that you can finish things off with a hurricane that truly annihilates everything on screen.

With full game centre integration, EA could have been forgiven for stopping there, but Origin is also included, as is autolog, which allows you to set challenges for friends to beat. A really nice touch that adds even more gameplay to an already excellent value proposition. You can only set one challenge per friend at any time, but with a populated friends list this isn’t an issue at all.

Burnout Crash is a superb game, full stop. There’s no caveat needed in terms of the platform it appears on. You’ll come back to Crash time and time again, thanks to autolog going from strength to strength. Now, time to see how the Xbox 360 version plays!

AERO VACATION: by Martin Baker

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are a hell of a lot of management games on the iOS App Store. They more or less started on Facebook with the likes of Farmville from Zynga and have progressed, over time, to something that doesn’t really resemble those games, yet the heart of it is still in there somewhere if you know where to look. Aero Vacation – published by Chillingo and developed by Black Pearl Games – is another one of those games. Here, your main task is to create a new airline and make it successful by keeping all your customers happy, then “farming” them for money.

There’s a fairly well fleshed out tutorial at the start of the game that will get you up and running in absolutely no time at all, once you’ve gotten through that you’ll be well on your way to creating your own flying palace; building restaurants, gyms, pubs and just about anything else that could bring you in some money along the way. Don’t forget that you’re a company that, at the end of the day, needs to get the passengers to somewhere where they want to go. So don’t just sit around in one city all day, do some travelling.

The second part of the game comes with the flying, which is simple enough, requiring the player to simply touch on the city that they want to visit on the world map. Visiting cities is how you get the blueprints to build the higher level stuff, and how you start to earn the big bucks. You’re not going to get very far if you’ve only got the low level items in your airship, you’re going to want something pretty special to make you stand out above the competition. Travelling is how you do that. It’s also a good source of income, as you’d expect, people are paying you to get to these far off places, it’s only right that you get to see some of the profit.

Controlling the game is as easy as tapping the screen, tap to collect money, tap to select a location that you may want to sell, upgrade or move and tap the map screen to tell the pilot where he needs to be setting of to next. At first glance the Aero Vacation could look a little bit daunting, there are a lot of buttons and not much explanation about what you’re going to want to do in order to become a success within the game, but once it all falls into place you’ll wonder why you were confused in the first place.

If you’re looking for a new management game that you can get addicted to, then Aero Vacation is the game for you. You’ll find yourself coming back to the game time and time again, probably a lot more often than you initially intended when you first downloaded the game. The visuals are bright and colourful and will appeal to a wide range of people, as will the game. It’s safe to say that Chillingo are the master at publishing well-made games, and they’ve done it again with Aero Vacation.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: by Sean Smith

I wonder what the review would have read like, if I had picked up a pen and cast my 7 or 8 year old critical eye over the sparkling gold cartridge wedged into the NES I was playing. I was probably just as cheeky and crude back then as I am now, and it would have been difficult to get the prose subject moving past the coolness of the metallic cart, which was the most awesome thing most NES gamers had ever seen, but I am sure I appreciated The Legend of Zelda just as much then as I do now.

A staggeringly lengthy (for the time), extremely unforgiving open-world adventure, the first game in what would have to rank as my favourite game series of all time introduced many mainstays that would remain with the series right up to the present day. The Master Sword. The Hylian Shield, Link’s iconic green tunic, the Triforce of Power – as recognisable a symbol as you will find in the whole of gaming – and the classic Zelda inventory screen – which has only just been overhauled as recently as Skyward Sword. Classic Link sprite aside, most of the enemies are instantly recognisable, even if we are now more used to seeing them rendered with more graphical finesse. Classic Nintendo chiptune compositions of 1986 are still used by those composing Zelda scores beyond 2011, the 25th Anniversary of the seminal top-down romp.

Does it still play well? In a nutshell, yes, but don’t expect the same amount of hand-holding as you will receive from a modern title. You will often find yourself conquering the dungeons in an incorrect order; basically, as you find them. There are some extremely cryptic clues from the people you encounter on your quest which sometimes hinders things rather than helps. The game is bloody difficult, so expect to die a fair bit along the way. Running out of arrows and bombs frequently becomes an issue, 3DS owners now have the added bonus of item restock points that were not in the original, something which is either extremely handy or sacrilege, depending on your stance. The map you are provided with is effectively useless, and you will get lost. Plenty of times.

That doesn’t stop this from being a memorable, extremely playable title. Finding a new item that affords your pixie man-child with a new ability, and therefore progress, is still gleefully satisfying and an experience that echoes throughout the series’ history.