Death Rally Mobile Review

I had never heard of Death Rally for the iOS platform before Touch Arcade posted that it was going to be free for a limited time. Never one to pass up a free game if it looks even remotely interesting; I downloaded it for my iPod Touch (3^rd gen or newer only can play the game).

Death Rally is published by Remedy Entertainment and developed by Cornfox & Brothers and Mountain Sheep, Inc. The game is an action racer where you compete against 5 opponents in a race to the death. Your opponents can be computer run (single player career) or computer/humans in the multiplayer campaign. Depending on how you do in each race, you earn points that can be spent to upgrade your car, weapons or increase your overall fame.

The game starts with you driving a beetle-like little car with a gun attached. In each race, you compete to be first, to destroy your opponents or both. During the race, you can also shoot barrels that will explode or crates that will give you power-ups or cash (adds to your points at the end of the race) all the while watching your own health hoping you don’t get killed. There are a total of 8 cars and 6 main tracks to race along with multiple weapons to choose from. New cars and tracks are unlocked by picking up parts during races (not sure if the same mechanic is used in Multiplayer). This allows you to earn all of the cars and tracks in single player mode without having to make in app purchases (except the flamer weapon, which seems to be IAP only).

The controls for Death Rally consist of a virtual stick on the lower left part of the screen to control the car and a button on the lower right part of the screen to activate your weapon. I found that having no tactile feel of exactly where I was pushing the virtual stick to be a little difficult at times, but not overly so.

What I liked best about Death Rally is how accessible it is. Have 90 seconds to spare? That is more than enough time for a race. I also like that there are multiple ways to score points in each race – meaning that winning isn’t always necessary to make enough points to reach that next car/weapon upgrade (you score points for cash pickups, killing opponents, what place you come in and if you beat your lap or race time on the track). There are also multiple difficulties for each track and challenge races including a marathon race that will take 15 – 20 minutes or more to complete.

I highly recommend Death Rally even for the $0.99 it currently costs on iTunes. Unless you are impatient, you shouldn’t need to make any IAP in single player at all. You will also get a lot of replay value out of the various tracks and cars to choose from. Death Rally gets four and a half Mick Happies. Go get your rally on.

Quick Reviews – Recent Movies

I have been to the movies quite a bit since May and thought I would give some quick reviews of what I’ve seen. Here they are (most recent to oldest):

Katy Perry: Part of Me

My daughter and I just got back from seeing Katy Perry’s documentary/concert film depicting her California Dreams tour in 2011. The film is comprised of fan videos talking about what Katy Perry and her music mean to them, backstage footage, details of how Katy reached pop stardom and concert footage. The mixture works well to give you a sense of how great Katy is with her fans, how much she gives of herself and that behind the massive fame and popularity is a dedicated and hardworking professional.

The film is touching and sad at times as you see the toll her tour and relationship take on her, but in the end Katy doesn’t disappoint fans. It is hard to know exactly what it is like to live that kind of life, but Part of Me seems to give you a pretty open look into Katy Perry’s. I enjoyed the use of fan videos, which further helped to illustrate the link between the star and her fans. Definitely worth seeing even if you are only a casual fan of her music, which is well represented in the film (of course).  A four and a half Mick Happy film... see (hear) it soon.

Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection

Enjoying Eugene Levy, we went to see Witness Protection. This was the first of Tyler Perry’s Madea movies we have seen, so it was a new experience for us. The movie is about a CFO of a hedge fund who is going to be indicted for running a Ponzi scheme. He is placed in witness protection until he can help the FBI take down the mob; who had laundered money through the fund.

Witness Protection is a fish out of water comedy about a white family staying with Madea and her dad in Atlanta. There are some laughs and the cast seems to have fun with their parts. The movie felt a lot like Martin Lawrence’s Big Momma’s House. I can give this on 3 Mick Happies.

Men in Black 3

Men in Black 3 reunites Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as secret agents tasked with protecting earth from alien threats. This particular installment of the series centers on a villain named Boris who is out to kill K (Jones) in the past. J (Smith) goes back in time to stop Boris. In the past J teams up with a younger K played well by Josh Brolin.

Men in Black 3 is a romp through 1969 with twists and turns interplayed with historical events. If you like your science fiction a bit tongue in cheek, this is movie is for you. Men in Black 3 is a return to the fun of the first Men in Black movie and I give it 3 and a half Mick Happies.

The Avengers

Having seen all of the recent Marvel superhero movies (except the Hulk movies), I was looking forward to The Avengers and it didn’t disappoint. The story for The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, centers on a team of superheroes assembled to stop Loki from taking over the earth. The Avengers team consists of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye who work for Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson).

The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble in the UK) does a great job of giving each character screen time and doesn’t feel rushed. The interactions between the independent heroes as they assemble to fight Loki are great. This is the best of the Marvel movies to date and a must see if you are a fan (though if you are a fan you have probably already seen it). The only thing keeping it from getting 5 Mick Happies is the over-the-top action in the some of the later battle scenes – they really weren’t necessary. In any case, a nearly perfect superhero movie, 4 and a half Mick Happies…the next one can’t get here soon enough.

Diablo 3 Review

Diablo 3 is the latest entry in the Diablo series of computer games. The first game in the series was released in 1996 and the three games (plus expansions) are what are universally known as action role-playing games. The main story of any of the games consist of you as a hero trying to stop a major evil from destroying the world. In practice this consists of using the mouse to click on monsters on screen until they die and then picking up their loot.

In Diablo 3 you are a hero just arrived in the town of Tristram following a shooting star that hit the old cathedral outside town. You are trying to find out what the star is and why it has caused the dead to rise and threaten the town. Along the way you find out that this is part of a greater problem facing the world of Sanctuary and over the four Acts of the story you will try to end the evil threatening everything.

If you have played any of the Diablo games (or similar action RPGs), you know that the main goal in the game is to become as powerful as possible through gaining higher levels with your character (raising stats and skills) and obtaining better items (loot). Diablo 3 is the same as any other aRPG in this respect, but perhaps with the minutiae of character development removed. In Diablo 3, each of the four character types (I played the bow-wielding Demon Hunter class) has a set number of skills they can learn as they progress and by choosing them you determine what feats your character can call on to survive the demons and evil you will face. Diablo 3 has a level cap at 60 and has four difficulties to play through (Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno). Other customization for your character really comes from the items you find and use and the modifications they make to your abilities and skills.

After 32 hours of playing, my Demon Hunter completed the game on the easiest difficulty (Normal) and is currently level 32. I have found the graphics for the game to be stunning and there is a lot of variety in the environments you will explore throughout the game. The game also supports playing through the regular game and for those masochists, a hardcore mode where if you die, your character is gone and you lose all of his/her items, which I am sure to try. Over the course of the game, you also pick up companions (non-player characters) who help you and provide interesting side dialogues as you run around killing things (though they can get repetitive).

A couple of drawbacks did emerge during my play through, some of which are pretty serious for the re-playability of the game. The game requires that you be connected to Blizzard’s servers to ensure that no cheating occurs (since you can sell your items through an Auction House for in-game gold or real money). This has lead to problems accessing the game or at times to lag, which can be very annoying. Additionally, the end of Act 2 has a very difficult battle, which I was not equipped for. In order to avoid going back to earlier parts of the game I had already finished and replaying them to find better items, I used the auction house to upgrade. It was a bit annoying that I was unable to progress through the Normal difficulty without replaying sections of the game or buying equipment (for gold) from the Auction House.

There are also only a limited number of actions/skills you can have active for your character at a time (2 main commands for the mouse and 5 more on the keyboard). The controls felt ready made for using a console controller, but that functionality isn’t pre-coded into the game – a great opportunity for improvement here. However, probably the biggest concern for me is that to reach the highest levels you have to replay the whole game 3 times in order to unlock Inferno and the best items (read the ones that will be worth the most gold/money). While the story was fine once and I enjoyed learning the back story for the companions I met, I am sure it will get old – especially if I have to replay sections of each difficulty to get equipment to progress.

All those concerns aside, Blizzard is continually updating the game with patches and fixes, so it will get better. Additionally, each Act has some side quests/events that randomly appear meaning there is a little variety in each play through. If you are into killing things and the excitement of finding better and better equipment in a game that looks great, Diablo 3 is right for you. You can play multiplayer with up to 3 other people and in the future there will be player versus player play to allow you to fight it out to see who is the best. I found Diablo 3 to be worth 3.5 Mick Happies. I am certainly going to keep playing, but I may end up enjoying hardcore mode and the fight to stay alive more than the slog progression to get to level 60 and Inferno mode. Either way, as the Templar says…it will be “Glorious”.