Gather Your Party

 

Sorry about last week, dear readers!  I’d like to attempt to make up for my lack of a showing past Wednesday by getting back On The Crapper for you, and giving one reader a gift!  Thanks to a few recent releases that have hit Apple’s App Store I’ve been spending some quality time On The Crapper.

First up is a game I don’t rightly know how to talk about.  Instead I’ll show you a video.

I read about this odd title over on Touch Arcade and decided it was worth my $0.99 for at least being weird.  And if it’s nothing else, it is certainly weird.  There’s no real point, no story, and nothing to collect per-se.  So what do you do?  Why even ‘play’–I use that word loosely here–this little oddball of a title?  Because Melodive isn’t like anything else $0.99 will buy you on the App Store.

The next game I grabbed is called King Cashing 2 and is indeed a game in the more traditional sense.

This is the sequel to a game I never played.  From what reviews I’ve seen the first wasn’t bad, but this second entry is better in every possible way.  The game idea is simple: it’s an RPG, but instead of having a battle system that you’ve ever seen before (at least for me) you use a slot machine mechanic.  There are three reels.  Your party reel is the left most, with your weapons in the middle, and the enemy on the most right.  To get a ‘hit’ you need an enemy and something else to line up.  You do extra damage if you get a party member and do even greater damage if that party member matches their weapon type.

Seen above I’m going to land hits with my Rambo looking zombie (top left reel), my magnum (very middle), and the blade-master zombie gal.  The bikini lass won’t be smiling for long.  Had Rambo lined up with his gun he’d have put some some serious hurt on.  If you like turn based RPGs then you’ll like this game.  I’m loving it.  When I saw there were no IAPs (in-app-purchases) it was a no-brainier buy.  IAPs could have been abused to no end in this game, but the developers didn’t do it.  A noble move and well worth the $2.99 asking price.

Another game to land on my phone this past week is Ridiculous Fishing and if you don’t believe that title I suggest you watch the trailer after the jump.  The idea behind the game is so simple I’m amazed it hasn’t been done sooner in some form.  I suppose it has, but not in as complete and refined of a package (it took the two fellows that made the game two years to complete).  The game goes as follows:  Tap the screen to drop your lure into the depths, avoid fish, jellies, and other critters on your way down; once you reach the bottom you start reeling your line back in; on your way up you now want to hit fish–but not jellies–and as many as you can.  Think that’s it?  Think again!  Instead of simply pulling those fish into his boat our little fishing fiend slings his catch sky-high only to blast each flipping fish out of the air with his chosen gun.

 

As you progress through the game you earn cash from your fish killings while shooting a jelly reduces your income.  With said money you buy new lures, new guns, and other tools of the fishing-and-blasting trade.  Better lures have chainsaws on them allowing you to saw through fish.  Better guns include shotguns, miniguns, and an orbital ray–I’m very serious.

 

There’s not too much of a story until the very end of the game.  Or rather once you reach the bottom of the second-to-last fishing location (the very last is an endless pit).  Once you catch whats at the floor of Arctic Floes you’re treated to the most emotional and moving story packed into 30 seconds that I can recall in a game.  A game with a very goofy, fun, and anything but serious tone changes all of that in less than a minute with a simple black and white comic.

 

If you have an iPhone I highly recommend this one.  Heck, I’m so convinced that you should play this game that I’ll buy it for one lucky reader.  Follow me on Twitter (this is so I can privately message you) and leave a comment below with why you’d like to play this.  Please, for the love of fairness, do not enter if you don’t have an iDevice* able to play it.

*Disclaimer about contest: Ridiculous Fishing is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.