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Tom Orry, Editor – Liqua Pop, iChromo
I won’t lie. My main reason for picking this out is that it looked pretty in a video I saw on YouTube. I suppose it could be lumped in the colour matching genre headed by Bejeweled, but that’s not really explaining what Liqua Pop is like to play. Yes, you have to match up coloured bubbles, but here they join together to form bigger ones, which can then be popped – all while squishing around in a rather lovely, colourful way.
Once a blob reaches a certain size it will start a countdown to exploding, but a double tap will reset the counter, allowing you to build up more large blobs and then chain them together to earn more points. Insects appear in bubbles, and depending on their colour cause different effects when released. Some earn you extra points while others paint all the surrounding bubbles the same colour. Despite the tranquil bird song in the background, Liqua Pop becomes quite intense beyond the opening stages. While all this is going on a toad is crawling up a branch trying to get to a water droplet, which ends the level once reached.
Liqua Pop doesn’t have a great deal to it, with only a single game mode, but there are high scores to aim for and Facebook integration. For less than the price of a bottle of Coke Liqua Pop provides a neat and gorgeous twist on the colour matching genre, but is unlikely to be dominating the App Store in months to come.
Jamin Smith, Staff Writer – Land-a Panda, Big Pixel Studios
In Land-a Panda, you fire an endangered animal out of a series of floating canons. Fret not as this reckless behaviour is with the sole purpose of reuniting the little chap – Yang Guang as he’s known – with his soul mate, Tian Tian. Then they can make babies and stuff, and everybody’s happy. By tapping a canon, Yang is fired through the air in whatever direction it happens to be facing. As the difficulty gradually increases, canons start moving, rotating and firing of their own accord, which you’ll have to factor into your strategy for delivering Yang safely to his Mrs.
Despite risking life and limb to be with her, Tian Tian is only really interested in money. Each level plays host to three coins, each requiring a slight deviation from the main route. Collecting all three with a respectable time is where the real challenge lies here. Complimenting the competitive nature of the game is both Game Center and OpenFeint, making it incredibly easy to compare scores and achievements. Land-a Panda might be another cute and simple game with an animal inspired theme, but it’s well worth 59p nonetheless.
Emily Gera, Staff Writer – Grim Joggers, 10tons Ltd
There are few things in real life that I can imagine enjoying less than perpetually running. In between running after buses and away from my neighbour’s dog I have little interest in it as an activity but some genres enjoy little more than using it as the main form of gameplay. Forget shooting or hitting things or even reading words, Grim Joggers makes running the focal point of the entire title in a game that’s basically Monster Dash.
The game has you simultaneously controlling a team of joggers across a platform littered with mines, monsters and surprise cliffs, forcing you to react as quickly as your hands can manage. Therein lies the message of the game: don’t jog around cliffsides. Their numbers will begin to dwindle after every jump you miss or baddy you fail to avoid. One by one they’ll disappear until you’re left with the sole jogger, left alone to jog forever. Fair enough, a decent game but generally speaking it functions as any perpetual jogger does: Run right, keep going, hope for the best. Or, you know, don’t jog at all.
