We released a long awaited 2.0 update to HungrySquid yesterday and it’s been climbing the charts ever since. If you haven’t played it already it’s only 99c On the App Store but of course there’s also a Lite/Free version. The game has been announced by many reviewers as one of the best iOS puzzle games for the iPhone, while others called it a super-innovative experience. We believe it’s worth checking out, especially now when the price has dropped :)

A lot of work went into the development and the game has almost 50,000 players from around the world, with an average App Store rating of 4.5 (after about 150 total ratings in all stores). That’s good, but the current update makes it even better!

• We changed the graphics (new backgrounds, updated squids and planets)
• Added 30 new levels (including earth!)
• Updated the gameplay and fixed some bugs
• Updated the French translation thanks to Claire Servolle

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This game is a fruit of passion and it's visible in every single detail. Simply beautiful!

Since this is a cooperation that CM took a part in, one of our outside reviewers decided to cover this one for us.

Hello, my name is Mike and I’m a guest reviewer here. Today we’ll focus on the new Hungry Squid game, that was just released yesterday. It’s a puzzler unlike any other – there’s a story (and a promised free ebook that will further push the story), amazing graphics and music (the soundtrack will be available for free too). First thing of notice is how much heart went into making this little game. It’s innovative, but also beautiful beyond what’s on the app store most of the time.

The idea is to rotate hexagons to create a path from a squid, sitting conveniently in the center, towards the outer rim. The more exits you find the better, but it also has some arcade elements and is strictly time based. The faster you are, the higher your scores.

I seriously can’t find anything wrong with this game – it’s addicting, beautiful and there’s promise of more levels and a level editor, so anyone can create their own puzzles. If you haven’t started downloading already, do it now:

App Store link

Size: 26mb

Price: $0,99

Rating:

Bumpy Road is a beautiful, story driven “driving” game where you don’t get to control the car. The idea is simple – the car slowly rolls towards the right side, and you can influence the movement by making “bumps” in the road itself – i.e. moving the terrain with your finger. It even has a story, which for casual games is a novelty, and it’s so sweet and heartwarming that it actually encourages you to play more and more. It’s a love story wrapped in a driving game with no driving, in which nothing can actually kill you, you can just have a dive in shallow water and stop. You need to collect various elements for the ride, like screws, plugs, lightbulbs, gears, batteries, radios and more. It’s not that you really need them, but they’re a nice bonus to add up to your highscore and are fun to collect.

That type of games is a rarity – both the graphics are amazingly beautiful, the music is at times addicting, and the gameplay and controls are top notch. It shows that guys from Simogo are not a one hit wonder (they released “Kosmo Spin” before), and they will surprise us even more in the future, with their enigmatic “game 3″ that they’re working on. I definitely recommend to try it. It’s not for fast-paced arcade shooter gamers, but if you crave something “different” then it’s definitely going to be the thing for you. That type of quality at ?2 is quite rare in the app store.

Download it at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/bumpy-road/id423855879?mt=8

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Solipskier is one of those iOS classics that Apple has made a separate category for in the App Store. It’s by far one of the most playable titles available, and as far as arcade goes it’s hard to top it. Mainly due to an ingenious concept, thought-out controls and addictive gameplay mechanics.

The latter is actually something that keeps you engaged in the game despite it’s visual side and overall simplicity. Somehow the creators of Solipskier found a perfect combination of gameplay elements, that causes the typical “one last game” syndrome. Too bad it’s almost never really the last one 

The controls are all about “drawing” the snow, on which our skier can gain speed, to jump high in the air and do tricks. The more time he spends airborne, the more points we have, so drawing a straight line is not going to be a good idea. The whole point is to predict the speed-up gates and tunnels, and draw snow only when needed. The more gates he crosses while in the air, the faster he goes, and that even includes faster music. It can get pretty frantic at some point which only raises the adrenaline levels.

The visuals are mostly grayscale shapes, and at first glance it seems unpolished, or even simple. But as soon as we get the flow of this game, we start focusing only on the gates and tunnels and the speed. Oh, the speed!

Solipskier is just ?0,69 and can be downloaded here:http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/solipskier/id383281764?mt=8

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Kosmo Spin is a simple and fun casual game, in which you manipulate the space itself, in order to save the creatures of a little planet. By rotating the space, you move your character so it can bounce off the soccer, tennis and basketballs (and other kinds too) that an “evil” alien is shooting at your planet. You also have to collect little “cupcakes” to “save” them. It can’t really get much cuter than that, seriously. Kosmo Spin is uber cute and there’s absolutely no violence inside the game. It’s pretty entertaining though, with the simple, cut-out textured graphics, nice music and very good character design that Simogo is now known for (it was their first game).

Visually this game really stands out from the crowd – the graphics and textures seem so different, that you’ve probably never seen anything like it in the App Store before. That’s a good thing, because frankly, that 8-bit retro thing is getting pretty old now. Nice to see something refreshing Simogo!

The levels are of course more and more challenging as you finish them, but don’t expect a high difficulty level in this one. It’s more of a casual game that you can play every now and then without worrying about “dying” in-game. For that price it’s a no-brainer – you get a nice looking, fun to play, simple casual game that has that “special something” in it.

You can download it for 0.69 in the App Store:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/kosmo-spin/id404446780?mt=8

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Astroslugs is a beautiful puzzle game that takes some ideas from other games and packs it all up with beautiful graphics and sounds. Your job is to connect meteors drifting in space in predefined shapes that you get for each level. The design is so stunning, that half the time I kept looking at the graphics instead of playing. The price is quite high, but seriously, we’re talking a premium game here. There aren’t many better looking puzzle games in the App Store, and that includes Cut the Rope. The gameplay is addictive enough to lure you in for long hours of gameplay before you feel ANY boredom. That’s mostly due to the fact that the visual side corresponds well with animations and gameplay so it constantly has something a little bit different to show you.

The music in the background is one of those beautiful pieces that I’d like to have in my iPod. Job well done! The idea isn’t all that new, but the execution here is close to perfect. If you like great looking puzzle games then head to the App Store right now to get if for 5 Eur. Here’s the link: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/astroslugs-deluxe-for-ipad/id442411315?mt=8

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Contre Jour is an arcade/puzzle mix with stunning visuals and atmosphere, released by Chillingo. At first the game wows you with amazing graphics – toned blacks and blues create a world that seems odd and believable at the same time. That’s not really easy to do without cliches, and the company behind CJ did just that.

Your goal as an odd, sperm-like-looking black ball with one eye (or a one-eyed-snake if you must  ) needs to travel towards an exit from a level by means of moving the ground and connecting it to various types of “leech-like” ropes. If you played the other Chillingo Classic – Cut the Rope, you’ll recognize some of the gameplay from there – it can be pretty similar at times. But here we don’t have the cut dinosaur and those pastel boxes. No, here we have darkness, mood and out-of-this world atmosphere. The basic mechanics remain the same, but that’s not really a problem. It’s more suitable for older players, if Cut the Rope is considered to be more childish. The music is ok, but it can get pretty annoying after a while, so I turned it off and put some Snoop Dogg on 

Overall it’s a beautifully designed and fun to play game, so for 0,69 pounds (iPhone version) it’s a steal! The iPad version shines even brighter with bigger, HD graphics it’s simply a pleasure to play, so the price is bumped up to 2 quid. Here are the links:

iPhone

iPad

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Jetpack Joyride is an universal (one price for iPhone and iPad versions) gem of an App by Halfbrick studios – guys who brought fruit chopping to the masses in their highly popular Fruit Ninja. This time though, there are no fruits, just a secret agent, that steals a jetpack from a VERY LARGE lab, and wants to have some fun. Our goal, as Barry Steakfries is to fly right (literally), using a jetpack and a couple of powerups, to get as far as possible. On our way we encounter lasers, zappers, guided missiles that all have the goal to stop our joyride and turn Barry into fish food.

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