New iPhone games in 2013: apps to let you relive the 80s

Friday, August 30, 2013

As a child of the 80′s I grew up on a healthy dose of cartoons and video games, so as an adult I always am nostalgic for things to remind me of those days. Fortunately for me and many others who I know share these memories, the iPhone now has a few games available to scratch that nostalgia for me wherever I am. Mobage has two games that every male who grew up in the 80′s is familiar with, G.I. Joe and Transformers. Both games are essentially a game of accumulating characters who you can take into missions and special limited time events where you either compete with other players or progress through missions to unlock characters and items. The fun part about these games is just accumulating characters and reminded you of how many characters they managed to get into those cartoons.

Chillingo has created a game based on the old He-Man cartoon. This is a side scrolling game of essentially hack and slash nature with occasional run-ins with villains or allies. It is a fun little game especially when you unlock some of the power-ups.

Nickelodeon has created a game that can be summed up with the acronym TMNT. Yes the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have their own game as well. I haven’t tried this game as of yet, but it definitely looks like it is based off the new version of the show which breaks some of the Nostalgia for me, but heck it is still everyone’s favorite Turtles named after Renaissance artists so you can’t go wrong!

Now for me the following game is the one that made me the most happy when it came out and it actually came out and it came out a couple of years back…and that is Voltron! Unfortunately as I check the iTunes store it appears that the game is no longer available, which is a shame. This game was a fun little action game with lion missions and Voltron formed boss fights. Sony did a pretty good job with this game and I can’t understand why they took the game away. If any of you out there happened to have snagged this game in the past then you are lucky.

I conclude this with one last 80′s nostalgic game, but not a cartoon based this time…unless you consider the cartoon created following the success of the movies and that is for Ghostbusters. Everyone’s favorite Ghostbusters are in the game, unfortunately not right away as you have to accumulate enough of the in game currency to purchase them, but the game is fun even before you can get them. You accumulate money and slime on busts to help you proceed through the game. The RPG feel is fun and it is a joy to call upon a special ability while on a bust.

Hopefully this makes you remember your childhood and you call upon some of those fond memories to reminisce with these characters that are now available in the iTunes app store. Now if they would only make a Gremlins game…