[Secret Stage] Mobile Double Shot: Slash or Die and Simpsons Tapped Out

Slash or Die

Publisher: PNJ Inc.
Released: September 20, 2012
Platform: iPhone 4, 4S, 5, iPad

Slash or Die, the title pretty much says it all. You are Blade, the immortal hero who is bound and keep in check by Sword the spunky heroine who is the middle man between Blade and the United Nations. You are called into action when the “Mechanics” robots who humans have built to make their lives better go wild and crazy and start claiming dominance. As such you must go and save the world from the threat of the mechanics, and stronger allies as you continue to constantly defeat them.

Simple touch screen controls are present, you have a slide bar to determine your running speed, accelerate, decelerate. And two on screen buttons, jump and attack. The response time is decent when you touch the buttons, but on an iPhone it makes hitting them a bit of work since the jump and attack are so close you might just hit jump instead of attack or you end up not jumping at all because your press was a bit off. This does not take away from the controls at all. Since the gameplay pretty much consists of the run, jump, attack sequence there isn’t much to say, but there is an upgrade system in place where the coins you collect per mission can help Blade gain more skills and up his abilities.

The game is beautiful, the sprites are hand drawn and the backgrounds are great. Animation is fluid and works well. The game begins to lag when there are a lot of enemies on screen, but that doesn’t happen until the later parts of the game.The music is great and a good feel for it, but after a while it does get repedative since it is usually the same audio track per level except for the final boss.

This mobile game is great, and for a $0.99 price tag it isn’t so bad, but if you do not feel like this game is worth the dollar they do have a free version up that is the exact same thing, the only difference is that you receive less coins that are used for obtaining the advanced skills and abilities.

Secret Stage Rating: 7 out of 10

Simpsons: Tapped out

Publisher: EA Games
Released: August 12, 2012
Platform: All Android and iOS Devices

The Simpsons are at it again with their crazy adventures, but this time you are the all mighty creator of this world! The game starts you off with an original introduction animation to get you into the world of your Springfield. Homer seems to be at it again and he accidentally causes Springfield to disappear from existence. It is up to you, and Homer to start rebuilding Springfield to the way it was before, or more suitably to your own liking.

Tapped Out is pretty much your run of the mill Sim City/Sims game, but with Simpsons characters instead. You tap on characters on screen to make them do jobs, you build roads, rivers, houses, businesses and the like by spending money or premium items (which cost real world dollars to obtain). As you progress in the game you unlock other characters in the Simpsons universe like Mr. Burns, Principal Skinner, Luigi, Apu and the like. By spending premium items you can unlock guest characters like Hank Scorpio and his secret base. Drag, touch, and build Springfield to your liking. The downside is that after the first few initial “missions” the game starts to drag on since the tasks you give your characters can range from 1 minute all the way to a full 24 hours, with some characters and buildings not being available for more than a week, Apu, to a full 90 days, growing corn on Cletus’ farm. If you want a Simpsons game that can entertain you for several hours go play the Simpsons Game on your home consoles since this isn’t what you are looking for.

As far as the way the game looks, it is a pocket Springfield in your hands, the sprites are all taken from the show. They give you animated sequences when you achieve certain levels or unlocked certain buildings. The characters say a lot of their one liners when you tap on them to make them do missions, and it is great for Simpson fans to get a kick of those old line, like Comic Book Guy’s “Ooooh loneliness and cheeseburgers.”

Overall, this game is amazing and a good addition to your game library, if you are a fan of the Simpsons, and if you got the patience to build the town of Springfield. But hey, a free game is a free game. It is just difficult to keep away from spending real world dollars on the premium items to have to make your Springfield complete. Also, to add on, is the fact that EA does host seasonal games, since currently they had the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Event which allowed you to obtain Halloween items.

Secret Stage Rating: 10 out of 10, for Simpson’s Fans, otherwise 5 out of 10

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