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The 3 best iOS games this week - The Taekwondo Game, Platform Panic, and more

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The 3 best iOS games this week - The Taekwondo Game, Platform Panic, and more

Every Friday, Pocket Gamer offers hands-on impressions of the week's three best new iPhone and iPad games.

The Taekwondo Game - Global Tournament
By Hello There - download on iOS (Free)

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Solid fighting games on iOS aren't all that common, unfortunately. Clumsy virtual buttons can severely screw up the effectiveness of your fisticuffs.

But that's where The Taekwondo Game steps it up. It may have six virtual buttons in total (three on each thumb) but it works superbly.

Part of this may be down to the design of the game itself. It's not the kind of game where you're spamming combos together.

It's a game in which movement and stamina management is more crucial. And so you pick your shots carefully.

This also works well with online multiplayer over wi-fi, as it usually means lag isn't as much a problem as it would be for a faster frame-by-frame fighting game.

This is a highly competitive, skill-based 1v1 fighting game that works really well on touchscreen. That's a rare thing.

The only catch is that to play the single player mode you will need to purchase the full game at 69p / 99c. The free download only gets you multiplayer matches.

Platform Panic
By Nitrome - download on iOS (Free)

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Ho ho ho! This is a little trickster of a game wrapped up in sweet pink pixels. The rascal.

Platform Panic is a swipe-based (don't run off yet) procedurally generated platformer. You're an adorable pink cream whip with feet, which constantly runs, and that you must keep out of harm's way.

Swipe left, it goes left. Swipe right, it goes right. And if you swipe up it jumps. Simple. And, surprisingly, the swipe controls are bang on here.

With that established, you then attempt to rollick your way through a dangerous robot facility. There are blades, spikes, lasers, and all kinds of metallic nasties to avoid.

What makes Platform Panic brill, though, is that each new room is a surprise. You never know what you'll be up against next. This makes it very easy to replay over and over, as I found out.

It's certainly worth a go, especially if you're a fan of Nitrome's jubilant pixel games. Just don't blame me if you can't put it down.

Electro Terrestrials
By Georgia Tech Game Studio - download on iOS (Free)

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Electro Terrestrials should, ideally, be played with two people. But you'll have plenty of fun trying to beat the AI if you haven't got anyone around.

It's a head-to-head competition, with both sides starting with a gun turret each. One will be blue, the other will be orange.

Around the single-screen arena there will be neutral turrets. By shooting these with your fizzing projectiles you'll turn the turrets your colour.

Once you do, you can then control that turret. This opens up new angles to you between the walls that divide the arena up. This is how you can reach turrets that you couldn't before.

But the problem is that your opponent is trying to do the same thing. And the winner is the person who manages to turn all the turrets their colour.

It leads to some frantic, often intense, panic-playing. As said, it's great with another person to scream in the face of.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.