Minigore app review (Dec 2010)

Name: Minigore
Version: 4.0
Social gaming: Game Center
Lite: No
Company/publisher: Mountain Sheep / Chillingo
Price: $1.19
Size: 28.5
Universal: No
iPad price: $4.99

Minigore has been around for a while now, with Chillingo being pressured and pressured to bring out their next update which includes new characters. Finally, it's here!

What's new in Episode 4 (version 4.0):

1. Cooperative multiplayer over Wireless LAN
   
2. All new Elder Gore character pack featuring Grandpa & Grandma gore.
3. Improved Retina display
4. Numerous bug fixes & improvements.
   

Game play
The game play in Minigore is great, whereas it is similar to iDracula in which there are unlimited levels, which is good, but the downside of the game play is that there is really no progress being made while you play. So really you shoot furries while running around a big field. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game to play as it's style and textures are really unique.

This game replays span is great as you don't have to start from the 0 points every time, instead once you unlock the Expert 2000 point or the Insane 6000 points, you can play off from those scores, which makes it a lot less frustrating once you lose.

The Furries
The enemies you will be fighting against are called furries, these are creatures that are black and you guessed it, furry. They vary in shape & size - small, normal, giant furry and the fire-furry, the bigger the furry, the more furries it will explode into when you kill it. You need to run away in order to escape being killed. You can tell your 'health' by simply looking at John, he starts off in pyjamas, and then he gets a cut on his head, then finally killed.

*Once you hit around 10,000 points, the furries will all be flamers and you have to run around much much alert of the flaming furries in your way. My technique is to go around the outskirts of the screen, not to close to the border.

Weapons & Specials
During your time killing furries in Minigore, you will need assistance from some other items, such as a shotgun, an explosive booby trap or power ups. The power ups I've come across so far is when you get three 4 leaf clovers, there is a chance that a small flame furry dropped it, so the power up is a flaming bull. This is basically another character you control for approx 10secs and involves running around with invincibility as a flaming bull killing all the furries in your way.

*The boxes when they spawn rotate from 2 items, the grenade launcher and the shotgun. I prefer to leave these until I really need them, or shoot them so they blow up and cause damage to the furries around at the time.

19 Characters:
The new character selection screen is great, it has a wide range of chracters to pick from once you unlock them. The point system is a good idea, it invloves your kills being added as 'money' which you can then spend on your chracter of choice. They do cost quite a lot, so spend them wisely. A downer about this game is that Chillingo decided to make lots of new characters in-app purchases.
- John Gore (Default)
- Jerry Gore (costs 100 Kills)
- Zombieville Guy (costs 1,500 Kills)
- Hook Champ (costs 2,000 Kills)
- Sway's Lizzy (costs 3,000 kills)
- Sway's Ninja Man (costs 5,000 kills)
- Evan Hsu (costs 14,000 Kills)
- Enviro-Bear (costs 32,000 Kills)
- Xmas Gore (costs 100,000 Kills)
- Sensei Evan (costs 1,000,000 Kills)
- Gangster Gore (Costs $1.19 AUD, includes Kid Gore & White Gangster Gore)
- Santa (costs $1.19 AUD, includes Easter Bunny, Zombie Gore & Undead Jenny)
- Grandpa Gore (costs $1.19 AUD, includes Grandma Gore)

Updates direct from Mountain Sheep:

• We have already tested Game Center online multiplayer and it worked very well from Helsinki to London over 3g network. Still needs some minor adjustments and of course beta testing. This considered we are expecting online multiplayer to be ready quite soon.
  
  

Overall, this game is a 'bang for it's buck', but I think they should have more characters that you don't need to pay for. Minigore is made by one of the biggest appstore gaming companies, Chillingo. Go check it out now and get it while it's cheap!