Line Ninja; The simplest, hardest game you’ll ever try [Review]
Concept:
You’re a ninja, and you have exactly two goals in life; dodge giant spikes, and collect ninja stars.
Mechanics:
If you run into a spike – even if it’s the flat, not-pointy side – you die. If you manage to run into the red ninja stars – which are as large as you and pointy on all sides – you score a point. How this is possible when the spikes are only pointy in one spot but ninja stars are pointy in all spots, I do not know; but that’s how it works.
While this is a simple concept, sometimes the implementation is inconsistent. As far as I can tell, as you’re traversing this mono-directional tunnel lined with spikes, there is a chance that any spike may, in fact, spawn as a ninja star. As such, you may come across a stretch with multiple stars in a row…or no stars at all. I have had runs where I got five stars right off the bat, and I have had runs where I never found a single star before meeting my end splattered against a spike. As such, it’s tough to gauge if you’re actually doing well…or if you just had a lucky run.
Random Aside:This game has a very Flappy Bird feel to it. The utter simplicity of the game leads to me to wonder why Flappy Bird gained such immense popularity but, as of the time of this writing, Line Ninja only had 10 downloads. That struck me as odd.
Price:
Free. No in-app purchases, though it is ad-supported in the most clever way possible. See, the whole game revolves around you tapping the screen to make the ninja jump back and forth between sides of the tunnel; single taps, throughout the entire game. No swipes, or scrolls, or anything like that. So when you’re tapping through once you’ve inevitably run headlong into a spike wall going a bazillion miles an hour, the game has a tendency to fling an ad your way and, in your hurry to restart your inevitably short, frantic life, you will inadvertently tap on an ad – generating not only an ad appearance, but an ad tap.
Like I said; clever.
Music:
The best about this game, for me, is the delightfully retro musical stylings of Azureflux. Playing this game in silence is a boring endeavor; but playing with the music cranked brings me back to the days of Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis; absolute nostalgia. If you need one single reason to download this game, it’s for the music. Give it a listen.
Things I like:
- The MUSIC.
- The minimalist style. My only gripe is that the ninja is a little too detailed compared to the rest of the game
Things I didn’t:
- The inconsistency of the scoring.
- Jump trajectory is not as predictable as I’d like.
- Lack of variety in game mechanics.
Google Play Store – Line Ninja
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Google pulls Samsung-backed ad blocker from the Play Store
Samsung may have stirred up more trouble than it was expecting when it started blocking ads in its Android web browser. Google has pulled Adblock Fast, the app partner for Samsung’s feature, from the Play Store. Allegedly, the title (made by Rocketship Apps) violates Google Play’s policies by interfering with other apps and services. That’s a bit baffling, since Adblock Fast uses Samsung’s own code and had the Korean firm’s explicit blessing — Adblock Plus is using the same code and hasn’t run into trouble. The concern, as you can imagine, is that Google might be retaliating against Samsung for daring to hurt its bread-and-butter ad business.
Don’t cry “conspiracy!” just yet, though. While Google isn’t directly commenting on the removal, The Next Web hears that the concern may be how Samsung does ad blocking, rather than the fact that it’s blocking ads at all. If so, Samsung could theoretically solve its problems by merging Adblock Fast’s technology into the browser. For now, at least, you’ll have to look at alternatives if you just can’t stand web marketing on your Galaxy S.
Source: The Next Web
Apple Music for Android Now Supports Saving Songs to SD Card
Apple today updated its Apple Music app for Android users, adding a new feature that allows them to save downloaded songs to an SD card on compatible smartphones. “You can now keep more music offline,” reads the update note.
Several Android-based phones allow users to upgrade their storage using SD and microSD cards. As The Verge points out, with the ability to save downloaded content, Android users can potentially have access to more music than iOS users who are limited to a maximum of 128GB of storage on iPhones and iPads.
Today’s Android update also adds a full schedule for Beats 1 shows and it includes My Music options for browsing by Composers and Compilations, features previously available to iOS users.
Apple Music for Android first launched in November, marking Apple’s first major app for Android users. The Android-based app, available in all the countries where Apple Music for iOS is available, allows Android users to subscribe to the Apple Music service.
The Android Apple Music app, which remains in beta, can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for free. It comes with a free three-month Apple Music trial.
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‘Alto’s Adventure’ is coming to Android next week, and it’s free
Alto’s Adventure was one of the best games to launch on the iPhone last year — the beautiful visuals, addictive gameplay, and chill soundtrack made for a uniquely laid-back and satisfying experience. Developer Ryan Cash from Snowman announced this would happen way back in September, but the launch date is finally here. The game will arrive on February 11th and will offer an identical experience to the iOS version, with one key exception. Alto’s Adventure will be free for Android players.
Cash posted a blog post today to explain why he’s going free on Android, and the reasons are about what you’d expect. We thought long and hard with [publisher] Noodlecake about how we could best monetize the game — to launch as a premium title (like on iOS), or to explore other alternatives that stayed true to our core values and vision for the game,” Cash writes. Ultimately his team decided that going free-to-play was the way to go.
That’s because of the rampant Android piracy that still makes it hard to launch premium games on the platform. Cash cited an “incredibly insightful” infographic from Monument Valley developer Ustwo that showed only 5 percent of Android players actually paid for the game.
However, it wasn’t just piracy that caused Cash to go for a free-to-play system. He cited titles like Crossy Road and Threes as games that offered free versions that respected players and didn’t overwhelm them with opportunities to plunk down cash.
In the end, Alto’s Adventure will offer some paid opt-in bonuses for players who “might need a little extra help, or otherwise want to show their support.” But, Cash stresses that the core experience is identical between iOS and Android — the whole game “can be enjoyed start to finish, exactly as it can be on iOS.” Given the quality of the title, we’re willing to trust Cash here and believe that Alto’s Adventure won’t nickel and dim Android players. Indeed, that’ll be better for the entire gaming ecosystem. The more free-to-play games that treat players as human beings instead of bank accounts, the better we’ll all be.
Source: Built By Snowman
Zombie vs. Gunman; a pleasant surprise in the vein of PvZ. [Review]
The Plants vs. Zombies formula is simple; protect your lanes from onrushing zombies using units of varying utility. Zombie vs. Gunman, at face value, is yet another game hoping to piggy-back on this blueprint. The setting is different – half, at least – with cartoony, era-ambiguous soldiers replacing the plants that’ve spawned half a dozen games.
The first thing that catches your eye – ear – is the music. Simple, ominous and brassy and sets the tone well. The menu screen (below) is well designed and minimalist, and would fit right in with any Triple-A title – except for the damned artwork. To be perfectly honest, it’s bad. It is. Every bit of the game is detailed and shaded – heck, there’s even lighting effects – but the quality of the actual linework, the style it’s drawn in, is objectively poor. It’s simple but not in a good way. Simple in the way that South Park is simple – works for a satirical comedy show, not so much for a game that, in every other way, takes itself seriously.
Look at that! The menu screams “Take me seriously!” but the art screams “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” Not okay. A basic game of this particular branch of PvZ goes as follows:
- Zombies attack one or more of your “lanes.”
- You use Gold (which zombies inexplicably drop when they die) to summon soldiers in one of eight spaces along each of your lanes.
- The soldiers then dutifully march their way toward the zombies, stopping to fire once they’re within range.
- Kill zombies, tap to collect gold.
- Rinse.
- Repeat until they’re all dead (again).
There are a couple fun little quirks added to this game that aren’t present in Plants vs. Zombies, such as your soldiers running out of ammunition and literally needing to be poked in order to remember to reload. It adds a bit of babysitting to the game that wasn’t present in PvZ once you established your plants. Unlike PvZ, when you “recall” a unit from the field you are refunded the full cost of the unit an may re-deploy them immediately. Very handy for those times when the zombie hordes are bearing down on your frontline and you want to save them a very painful death.
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Zombie vs. Gunman also has an RPG element to it, in which you utilize “Medals” (which replace Stars from PvZ) to upgrade your units in various ways – Health, Range, Damage, Bullet Penetration, etc. These medals are accumulated through good performance in each level, though attaining a 3-medal rating is nigh impossible in the later levels – you must finish the mission while losing exactly zero soldiers. These medals can also be bought in the form of micro-transactions which are by no means required to complete the game, but do make it significantly easier.
The sound design is decent, not great. There are a couple sound effects lifted straight from other sources (the reload effect, for instance, is a DOOM favorite) and some of the fun sounds are drowned out by other, less important ones. There a few minor grievances here as well, such as the “Empty” sound and the “Reload” sound being 100% identical.
There are some random text errors, or perhaps mistranslations, that keep the game from feeling polished. This is a running theme throughout, with only the menus feeling truly complete. Sound effects and graphics both feel rough and in-progress.
Throughout my experience with this game, I had a recurring thought – Zombie vs. Gunman is one strong animator/graphic artist away from being a very good game. A professional sound designer wouldn’t hurt either, nor would a proper translator, but the game really suffers in the graphics area.
Wish List:
- More unique upgrades for the units.
- More than three unit slots to begin with.
- Better graphics/animations.
- Better sound design.
- Play Games integration.
- Professional translations.
What I liked:
- Fresh-ish take on PvZ’s proven formula.
- Lots of nifty little details.
- UI design is quite well done.
- RPG-style progression.
What I didn’t like:
- Steep, steep difficulty curve.
- Graphics and sound design feel unfinished.
- Minor translation errors.
- The name. Seriously. Zombies vs. Soldiers or something would be better.
Google Play Store – Zombie vs. Gunman
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LG will unveil the G5 on February 21st
It’s no secret that LG has something planned for Mobile World Congress this month (it mentioned an event weeks ago), but the Korean tech giant is now making it clear as to what’s up. It’s posting teasers confirming a G5 unveiling just ahead of MWC, on February 21st. Yes, that’s the same day that Samsung announces the Galaxy S7 — unlike last year, LG isn’t waiting until sometime after the big mobile trade show to debut its latest flagship smartphone.
The company is shy on details right now, although history suggests that it’ll dribble out facts to whet your appetite. That isn’t stopping the rumor mill, though. Historically reliable leaker Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) hears that the G5 may borrow a few pages from the V10, including a secondary display, a fingerprint reader and a dual-lens camera (this time, on the back). You might also get a speedier Snapdragon 820 processor, an “all-metal” enclosure and a “Magic Slot” that alters your phone’s functionality through modules. If this is accurate, the G5 definitely won’t be a me-too device.
#LGG5, February 21st. #MWC16 pic.twitter.com/yvQU3FZ2kq
— LG USA Mobile (@LGUSAMobile) February 3, 2016
Source: LG USA Mobile (Twitter 1), (2)
Google staffer makes his own smart bathroom mirror
Smart mirrors are everywhere in tech companies’ visions of future homes, but they never seem to show up in real homes — at best, you might find them in fitting rooms. That just wasn’t good enough for Google’s Max Braun, though. He recently built his own smart bathroom mirror, and it even matches some of the lofty expectations set by concept videos and sci-fi movies. Thanks to the combination of a two-way mirror, an Amazon Fire TV Stick and a display board, Max gets the weather, news headlines and other key facts while he’s busy brushing his teeth. All it’s doing is calling on data that would normally go into a Google Now card — Max can even use his voice to search for info, like a tech-savvy version of Snow White‘s Evil Queen.
This is just a “messy” prototype at the moment, and Max hasn’t been too specific about how it works. However, he’s teasing the possibility of a more detailed making-of post, and notes that the mirror only needs a “few hundred lines” of code to work as slickly as it does. There’s a chance that you’ll get enough info to build your own smart mirror well before you can find one sitting in your local home supply store.
Source: Max Braun (Medium)
110 Super high resolution abstract wallpapers for your mobile devices
Your phone probably has a fantastic display and there is no better way to see the beauty of it than through a wallpaper. We’ve collected a huge library of over 100 HD (1080p) and QHD (1440p) wallpapers of abstract art for your backgrounds. These are perfect to show off the pixels and color gamut on your Android, iOS or Windows smartphones. They’ll also look great on your tablets as well.
We’ve changed things up lately and will be sharing the entire collection through Google Photos rather than hosting them on our servers. There are thousands of you who love these wallpapers and rather than drain the speed on our server, we’re offloading that responsibility to Google. All you have to do is join the collection through this link and you’re free to download all of the wallpapers to your device.
We would also love it if you tweeted screenshots of your home screens to us at Twitter.com. We might feature your background in an upcoming wallpapers collection!
See the entire collection by clicking on this LINK to Google Photos.
Here some of our favorites from the collection.
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Get the XIAOMI Mi4C Android Lollipop smartphone for just $250
Do you know who the world’s fifth largest smartphone manufacturer is? You would probably guess LG, Motorola, or HTC but you’re very wrong. Xiaomi is the fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but hasn’t made its way into the U.S. just yet. The four other manufacturers who are bigger are Samsung, Apple, Huawei, and Lenovo in that order. Xiaomi sold over 70 million smartphones in 2015 and for good reason: phones like the Xiaomi Mi4C are fully loaded and cost less than $300.
For a limited time only you can get the Xiaomi Mi4C at gearbest.com for just $249.99. It even comes with the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor that powers Google’s Nexus 5X.
Get the Xiaomi Mi4C at gearbest.com.
Main features:
Display: 5.0 inch, 1920×1080 Pixel
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 64bit Hexa Core 1.44GHz
GPU: Adreno 418
System: Android 5.1
RAM + ROM: 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM
Camera: 5.0MP with 85 degree wide-angle, f/2.0 aperture front camera + 13.0MP 5 element lens, f/2.0 aperture back camera
Sensor: Light sensor, G-sensor, Proximity sensor, Hall Sensor
Feature: Gyroscope, Electronic Compass
Bluetooth: 4.1
GPS: Yes
SIM Card: Dual SIM dual standby, Dual Micro SIM
Network:
2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
4G: FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz
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The Turing Phone will ship with Sailfish OS, not Android
The Turing Phone promises to be the sturdiest, most secure smartphone around, and now it boasts one more unique feature: Jolla’s Sailfish operating system. The Turing Phone will not use Android as promised, Turing Robotic Industries revealed in an email to “fans.” The message isn’t addressed to “owners” because the Turing Phone hasn’t hit the market yet; it was supposed to ship in December, complete with Android, but it was delayed into 2016 at the last moment.
Turing Phone pre-orders went live in September, when the device was still advertised as an Android product. The Sailfish-equipped Turing Phone is now set to ship in April, as noted by Android Police. Plus, TRI plans to host a Turing Developers Conference in Q2 2016, though the company hasn’t offered details on that event.
“Sailfish OS runs exceptionally fast on the Turing,” the company’s email reads. “You will not have to worry about performance issues with Turing’s Snapdragon 801 because Sailfish OS has been optimized to run fast on your Turing Phone. The Turing Phone will still be able to run Android Apps on the Sailfish OS without issue. An Android application store will be available for you to download your favorite apps.”
Sailfish is the Linux-based mobile OS favored by the now-defunct Jolla Tablet. Jolla is still working on Sailfish OS alongside its user community, but last time we checked it out, we discovered it wasn’t exactly on par with Android. The core apps on the Jolla Tablet were largely elegant and useful, but there was a serious lack of third-party support. Plus, Sailfish presented a few jarring glitches.
“There’s no question that Sailfish is still a young platform, with some buggy behavior to match,” our review reads. “The web browser is very quick, but it will make the occasional rendering mistake you rarely see elsewhere. …The catalog of Sailfish-native apps is pretty threadbare, and there are some very conspicuous gaps.”
The Turing Phone starts at $610 and runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801, a chipset that hit the market in 2014. Compared with its fancy liquidmorphium frame, the Turing’s guts are “pretty pedestrian,” as we noted in July.
Or, as TRI says in today’s email, “This essentially means you have one of the world’s fastest mobile device running the fastest mobile OS with the capability of running your favorite apps in a secure environment.” That’s one way to put it.
Via: Droid Life
Source: Android Police
AIVAnet 