Mobile Monday

Previously on Mobile Monday: mobile games! Currently on Mobile Monday: mobile games! The future of Mobile Monday: ultra mobile games you can play on your ocular implants!

Hard Lines (universal) - Attention everyone who loves the classic arcade game Snake: Hard Lines is Snake times one billion! Guide Lionel, the glowing yellow line, through several game types as he undertakes epic tasks such as killing all of the other lines, collecting glowing light things, and just generally not crashing into anything. It's classic Snake mixed with the lightcycle game from Tron with a whole lot of style and twists and turns, and you'll have a hard time putting it down.



Velocispider (universal) - In addition to being the scariest thing you could imagine finding in your bathroom late at night, Velocispider is also the lone defender of a trio of endangered araknasaur eggs. Armed with an auto-firing gun, tilt your iOS device left and right to slide along the bottom of the screen, shooting at the aliens above Space Invaders-style. On occasion you'll pick up a nice power-up that temporarily boosts your firepower, but other than that, it's just you and a seemingly endless supply of aliens. Protect those eggs! The free Velocispider Zero is also available.


4Towers (iPhone/iPod Touch) - It's been several years since the first big breakout browser tower defense games started capturing big audiences. The genre has rolled along just fine on the mobile platform, featuring some very stylish interpretations of the strategic genre. As 4Towers wants to prove, you can also have an interesting story to go along with deep, customizable gameplay. Start with a few basic towers defending your base from creeps. Then, when the terrain allows it, combine units to form brand new towers that do some wonderful, wonderful things. It looks great, plays well, and gradually increases the complexity to keep you hooked wave after wave.


Orbital Slingshot (universal) - Every space-based game of orbital gravity physics (see Gravitee Wars for a fine example) rolled into a lovely mobile package, Orbital Slingshot is two parts puzzle, one part arcade game. Your overall goal is to aim a probe and fire its sensors at nearby objects, picking a spot to fire at and adjusting your target to compensate for gravitational pull of the planets. It's never as easy as it sounds! Featuring six modes of play ranging from "hit the planet with the beam" to "try to almost hit planets with the beam" and well beyond, there's plenty of strategy and plenty of arcade action to be had in this tense game. Orbital Slingshot FREE is also available.

NOTE: Games noted as 'universal' have been designed for iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone devices alike. Any game not listed for iPad will work on the system, but native full screen will not be present. Games listed may not be available outside of North America. Prices are subject to change and are therefore unlisted. Please see the individual game pages for purchasing info.

Cloned mobile games hurt indie developers

We don't normally feature articles that aren't game reviews or round-ups on our site, but this bit of news is a special case, as it affects everyone who plays and enjoys independently created games, both in our browsers and beyond.

In the past few months (arguably even longer than that), a pattern of blatant plagiarism has surged in the gaming community. Studios large and small have taken creative, original ideas released by independent developers and repackaged them for release on the iTunes App Store. These products are not merely "based upon" or "inspired by" another game, they are blatant, shameless copies of the original with only minor differences in appearance and gameplay. The screenshot you see above is a prime example of this, showing Andrew Moorish's free game Super Puzzle Platformer as compared to its iOS clone on the right.
Now, everybody knows that stealing is wrong, but this kind of thievery manages to slide by for a number of reasons. Some of our favorite indie developers have fallen victim to this mobile thievery, including Vlambeer, creator of Super Crate Box and Radical Fishing, Andrew Moorish with Super Puzzle Platformer, as well as Halfbot that found its game, The Blocks Cometh, "released" on iOS devices with the exact same name before it was even finished!

"The best weapon against game cloning is us, the players, who can vote with our wallets, report clones when we spot them, and support indie developers whenever we can."

Independent developers make unique, often free games that push creativity beyond its normal bounds. It's largely indie content that fills our pages on a daily basis. Developers and artists are hurt by this practice, and there are very few ways to fight back. The best weapon against game cloning is us, the players, who can vote with our wallets, report clones when we spot them, and support indie developers whenever we can.
If you want to read more about the cloning business that's been going on, feel free to check out the following articles on some of our favorite gaming sites:

Thanks, and remember to enjoy and support indie games!