Games are excellent teaching tools. After all, what are they if not mechanisms that teach us how to use themselves through interaction? By playing, we learn how to play. It's something of a no-brainer that those same loops of feedback and reinforcement can be used for more than training us to be really good at headshots. Here to illustrate the point is Hiragana Pixel Party, one of many apps tha Read More... app      day      hiragana      pixel      party      All     

The Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita have suffered slower sales than their predecessors in the UK. The 3DS has sold nearly 950,000 after 61 weeks on sale in the UK, according to Gfk Chart-Track data reported by PocketGamer.biz. It expects the console to pass through the one million sales mark next month. If it does, it will have taken around three months longer than the DS did to reach one mi Read More... nintendo      ds           ps      vita      uk      sales      slower      predecessors      All     

When you hear the word "safari" you probably get pretty distinct mental images: the savannah, lions and elephants, straw yellow and burnt earth. But this is not what Brisbane-based Defiant Development had in mind, at least if Ski Safari is any indication. Maybe it has something to do with living in a country where a mundane trip into your backyard could yield a wildlife encounter considered exo Read More... app      day      ski      safari      All     

One of the beauties of smartphones, and especially tablets, is how beautifully they fit traditional board games. The daddy of them all is chess. It's been rather brutalised by technology in the past, one of computing's pre-emininent challenges being a program that could defeat a human grandmaster, until, in 1997, Deep Blue finally felled Kasparov. It's a mighty achievement, tinged with tragedy. Read More... app      day      social      chess      All     

Poor Mr Legs, eh? Look at his bleached potato head, with those hollow eye sockets staring blindly. Observe that spooky, hovering bowler hat, and those weird stumpy flippers in place of arms. Most of all, though, what's up with the legs, Mr Legs? They're fragile, insect-thin filaments of gristle, and they can stretch so that your skull is pushed up against the ceiling, or squash, until your fat l Read More... app      day      legs      All     

Beneath my bearded, haggard exterior and receding hairline lies the soul of a 13 year old girl. I like my drinks neon and sweet, got teary during The Muppets and often emit high pitched squeals around fluffy creatures - cats in particular. Though the App Store has no shortage of adorable games starring felines, Kitten Sanctuary might manage to out-cute them all with its delightful mix of traditi Read More... app      day      kitten      sanctuary      All     

It's funny to think that Remedy, that most verbose of modern developers, actually started life building a grubby top-down PC racer. The original Death Rally boasted no existential angst, zero trench coats and even fewer spiralling monologues about the nature of morality, and thankfully nor does its glistening iOS remake. No, this is unadulterated action from green light to chequered flag; a cla Read More... app      day      death      rally      All     

This week saw the 30th anniversary of the launch of Sir Clive Sinclair's legendary ZX Spectrum - the more powerful, full-colour follow-up to the seminal ZX80 and ZX81 - and a genuine gaming phenomenon. While the Spectrum's place in gaming history is indisputable, it was not the only computer launched in 1982 that offered a generational leap in power over its predecessor; later that year, the br Read More... faceoff      zx      spectrum      vs      commodore           All