Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9

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Monkey Man
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PostApple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Monkey Man » Sun Jun 13, 2010 1:42 am

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Download link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/Produ ... 0258550b4d
Platform: Xbox Live Indie games
Price: 80 points (64p)
Developer: My Owl Software
Genre: Platformer/Puzzler



9/10 from Eurogamer - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... k-2-review





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Download link:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games ... 0&p=1&of=0
Platform: Xbox Live Indie games
Price: 80 points (64p)
Developer: My Owl Software
Genre: Platformer/Puzzler

Ever felt the urge to throw a washing machine at a panda? Apple Jack is a platform/puzzle game in which you DESTROY enemies by picking them up and HURLING them at each other! Journey west through five counties and 100 levels on a quest to rescue your beloved dog from the icy summit of Mount Snowdon!



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Eurogamer review, 9/10:-

There I was, throwing washing machines at Pandas in Suffolk, wondering how it had come to this. A poor boy. A lost dog. An apple for a head. A plaintive Robert Florence ballad. What better way to spend your last 64 pence.

Like a lost 2D platformer from the Amiga era, Apple Jack is a fuzzy throwback to the days when cheerful wanton destruction of appliances and endangered animals was considered socially acceptable.

With its garish colours, hand-drawn appearance and mechanics casually half-inched from Super Mario Bros., there's an effortless knocked-up-in-my-shed charm that makes it way more fun than it has any right to be. Progress is simply a case of killing everything in the level, but how you go about that evolves My Owl's quirky effort from simple retro platform game into something approaching a puzzler.

At first, merely standing on an enemy's head, picking it up and lobbing it at another enemy does the trick, but before long you're carefully plotting a path, ensuring that like-coloured objects smash into one another to open a barrier elsewhere.

If you manage to smash another object within a time limit, you set up a multiplier, adding a scoring element to proceedings.

With wistful acoustic guitar melancholy providing a pastoral innocence to the rural wildlife genocide, it's like Syd Barrett and Matthew Smith got together, dropped some tabs and fashioned this purely for our benefit.

9/10

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/downl ... 010?page=3


Digital Spy's Indie game pick of the week:-

This week's Indie Pick on Level Up sees us looking at fruit-based title Apple Jack, which is available now on Xbox 360 via the Indie Games service.

It's a simple platformer that has you kill all the enemies in each stage by throwing them into one other. Levels naturally start out in a straightforward manner but soon the game adopts a very puzzle-like design, with certain enemies that only disappear when combined with those of the same colour and having to use foes as platforms to reach faraway areas. These head-scratchers are evened out with the occasional action-packed stage, with areas completely covered in pandas, washing machines and hopping astronauts, as well as spike-filled mazes that have you roll up into an apple to survive.

Another element is the combo system. While we usually wouldn't give a hoot about scoring, the longer you keep up your combo, the more coins appear when enemies bite the dust. And when we say more, we mean really it: string together a combo long enough and the stage will shower with literally hundreds of coins, making for an incredibly exciting visual feedback to an otherwise common scoring feature.

Not only is Apple Jack very solid mechanically, but it contains a great sense of humour, from the wacky enemy choices to stage titles named after British towns and counties. It also looks fantastic, more so in motion since it's filled with all kinds of impressive visual effects and transitions.

The Xbox 360 rarely sees a polished 2D platformer, so be sure to download a trial version here if side-scrollers at all interest you. You can download the full game for 80 Microsoft Points (65p).

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/leve ... -jack.html


Gets a Yay! from Gaygamer:-

Apple Jack - 80 MS points. It looks like there's a new top platformer on the Xbox 360. Apple Jack is a platformer starring a boy with an apple for a head as he chucks enemies across the game's 100 levels Mario 2 style. There's something oddly satisfying about throwing a panda at a dishwasher, and watching as they explode into a shower of coins. And then if you throw enemies into each other in succession you can build up a combo to rain even more coins everywhere. The controls are as solid as you can get, the character sprites utterly charming, and the combo system reaches dangerous levels of addiction. As you progress, the levels open up into more puzzle elements, forcing you to only throw enemies at others of the same color, or to ride atop some enemies to reach new areas, keeping the gameplay variety high throughout the long adventure. Did I mention that there are 100 levels? Yeah, we're definitely getting way more bang for our buck than we have any right to. If you miss the days of mascot platformers, or just 2D platformers in general, then download Apple Jack. If you think animals like owls and pandas are adorable, then download Apple Jack. If you enjoy happiness, then download Apple Jack. Maybe I'm going a little overboard, but you definitely owe it to yourself to at least give Apple Jack a try, you won't be disappointed.

http://gaygamer.net/2010/06/weekly_xbox ... _6210.html


GameFAQ user review, 10/10:-

Review by vyse_1986
"Not a Bomb Jack clone, probably the best Indy Game so far, and practically freeware"
Picture this: You are a man with an apple for a head and stuck in a deep pit in Norfolk. Washing machines keep raining from the sky, and you can pick them up and throw them at each other to knock them unconscious or, if the colors of their shields match up, kill them. Have you gone insane? Hardly. You are playing a perfectly normal level in Apple Jack, a 2D platformer recently released on Xbox Live's Indy Game service.

The basic premise is incredibly simple. You play as an applehead who wants to rescue his dog from a mountain. In order to do that, you play through 100 levels. Every level is relatively small, and you have to defeat every enemy in a level to advance. The controls are equally simple: A jumps, X picks an enemy up. Jump onto enemies to pick them up, but run into them and you die. You can only kill enemies in pairs by throwing an enemy at another one, after which both of them die. There are a few other random ideas thrown into the mix: Some enemies are protected by a shield, and they can only be killed if you throw another enemy at them that is protected by a shield of the same color. Levels loop vertically, and Jack can duck to transform into an apple and roll around. You can also press LT to enter aim mode and toss enemies around in an arc, much like shooting projectiles in Worms.

The enemies themselves are extremely varied in appearance and behavior. The most basic ones are pandas and washing machines, who just run straight ahead. Then there's bubbles covered in barbed wire that float around, stationary owls that shoot eye lasers, teddy bears that throw their stuffing at you and more. Every enemy has a clearly predictable behaviour, and more often than not, you have to use it against them.

What really makes Apple Jack stand out is the level design. The game is very simple in its concept, but the level design is incredibly varied and not a single level feels like filler. You never know what the next level will throw at you: Some are like an arena, have a simple design and several enemies that aren't protected by shields, so you can fight them as you wish. Others are puzzles, forcing you to take advantage of the enemies' behavior or use them as platforms to reach higher grounds or ride across death spikes. There's many other ideas thrown into there, but I won't spoil them for you.

Be warned, though: Apple Jack is not an easy game. I wouldn't call it hard, either: It's just really tricky. Levels are quite short and some have a checkpoint in them, so you never lose a lot of progress, but it's not unheard of to die several dozen times in a single stage. For some reason, though, it's never frsutrating: I'm very prone to cussing and controller-tossing, yet in Apple Jack, I can die 30 times in the same level and still sit there with a smile on my face. The game is never overwhelming and there's always an easy way to solve things: Even the hardest level only took me about 15-20 minutes to beat. Most levels can be completed in about five minutes, though. With a hundred levels, it will still take you quite a few hours to beat this game; the game's size would be more than acceptable on the Xbox Live Arcade. As an Indy Game, it's just amazing.

Graphics are amateurish (well, duh) but still do the job perfectly well and look very crisp. The soundtrack, though, is just wonderful. Just download the free trial and you'll hear it. The music prominently features an acoustic guitar and other "clean" instruments, and it's very soothing. It perfectly fits the earlier levels and later on, it keeps you calm and prevents you from flipping out when you die constantly. The soundtrack alone is worth the purchase, really.

When I started doing reviews, I thought that a perfect 10 from me is pretty much unattainable. Hand me any game, and no matter how much I like it, I can still give you a list of flaws and things that could have been better. Not so with Apple Jack. The only thing I'd want is a dedicated duck button, because rolling around with the analog stick is uncomfortable, but that's it. Of course I'm going easy on this game because it's an Indy Game and, most importantly, it's $1. That's almost a symbolic asking price, and if the incredibly creative level design didn't already give it away, this proves that whoever made this game simply enjoys creating games and doesn't really intend to make a profit. This philosophy shines through every facet of the game, and that's what makes it so much fun. And that's what you're looking at with Apple Jack: Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. And you get 100 levels for a buck. Buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/10

Game Release: Apple Jack (US, 05/29/10)

http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/997434- ... iew-141682


Gamespot community review, 9.5/10:-

Apple Jack, released May 29 2010 by My Owl Software, is perhaps the best indie platformer to date on xbox live, and a steal at 80 MS points. Minimally it's in good company with Supercow and Weapon of Choice, the two other great platformers out there. Rather than Sonic (Supercow) or Contra (Weapon of Choice), Apple Jack most resembles that all-time favorite, Super Mario Bros. Instead of the mushroom, however, you'll encounter Panda Bears, Washing Machines, Ghosts, Rooks, and other random enemies, each of which utilizes different movement and killer abilities.

Like an, albeit strange, combination of the original Arcade Mario Bros and SM2, Apple Jack's main gameplay features include 100 levels (1-1 to 1-20, through 5-20), each of which is a self-contained unit which is completed when all the enemies are destroyed. Instead of simply stomping on enemies, however, you'll need to jump onto them and pick them up to throw at other enemies. Each time you do so, an explosion of coins will flower, which is connected to a timer, such that if you are able to chain your kills, you'll get a mulitiplier for your troubles.

The element of speed is therefore, tied to your cumulative score, so Apple Jack could be easily played as a performance-driven platformer. To see it simply as such, however, would be reductionist. What makes Apple Jack so good (aside from relatively tight controls and interesting level design) is the variety of elements which go into each level. Some levels are heavy on puzzle-elements (for instance, you'll need to throw enemies in yellow bubbles at other enemies with yellow bubbles, or decide which enemies to eliminate in which order to be able to reach them all, etc) while others are very much focused on precision and timing (speed elements, memorized jumping and maneuvers, tight spaces, etc). Underlying the overall progression, as well, is a steady, though not entirely smooth, ramp-up in difficulty from level to level. While the first 20 are pretty easy, the second 20 start to get pretty challenging. By the third 20 you'll be up to your neck with each stage, questioning the fairness of it all. The difficulty is implemented both with scenarios in which you'll have less room for mistakes (in time and space) as well as with the introduction of new enemies with greater offensive abilities (lasers, follow-mechanics, speed, etc). Which is all to say that just when you think you're comfortable, you'll get a new challenge that'll continually push your skills and abilities. With 100 levels, you'll have enough to keep you busy for a long long time.

The visuals are simple yet hold together well, and are also reminiscent of the basic yet sharp presentation of Mario. The music, acoustic guitar, is also pretty decent, and thankfully isn't terribly frantic or boring. Each 20-level group has a different overall theme, as well, which is a very nice change and keeps the overall feel fresh (for instance, depending on what stage you're on, the start-up screen background will adjust accordingly too).

The sheer combination of gameplay elements combined into a sharp game that will keep you busy for hours and hours alone makes Apple Jack a game worthy of your time and money. It's resemblance to the mario games of yore may be more in terms of spirit than anything else, but i don't throw such comparisons around lightly either. Apple Jack is a great example of wonderfully fun platforming evolved with contemporary sensibilities and takes into consideration the great skill that today's gamers bring to the table. Every gamer, especially those who grew up with the platforming genre, ought to take a look and support such projects as this. What the future of the platforming genre promises, Apple Jack delivers.

Rating 9.5/10

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/a ... ntinue%3B1


Had a great time playing this after the England game so thought I'd throw together a thread.

Last edited by Monkey Man on Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Dante
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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by Dante » Sun Jun 13, 2010 1:46 am

:wub:

The Independent Charles Show sold this to me. Tis a lovely game

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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by Monkey Man » Sun Jun 13, 2010 1:51 am

Dante wrote::wub:

The Independent Charles Show sold this to me. Tis a lovely game


Unfortunately it's not on youtube yet but people can check it out on inside xbox.

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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by Garth » Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:01 am


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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by tomvek » Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:15 am

This game definitely needs more promotion/pimping. It's such a great game which costs practically nothing and is a fantastic example of why 'Indie Games' on 360 is such a good service.

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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by Squinty » Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:20 am

Played this yesterday, I might buy it today. Still have to beat Breath of death though.

It was pretty well put together.

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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by The Alchemist Penguin » Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:31 am

It was very well made, and easily worth the 80 points! Everyone should grab this next time they're at the Xbox.

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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by Tineash » Tue Jun 15, 2010 12:39 am

This game is genuinely excellent. It's got puzzle-platforming elements, score attack elements, a lovely relaxing soundtrack, and beautiful blue skies & parallax scrolling :wub:

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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'gamer 9
by Monkey Man » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:07 am

Update is up now:-

the update has just passed peer review so if you got stuck on a level or found the game too hard, now might be the time to have another go! Improvements include:

- Tweaks to many levels, mainly to smooth out some of the sticking points (including levels 1-6, 4-1, 5-13 to name a few).
- Players can now crouch by holding 'RB'.
- Slightly fairer collision detection.
- A nice glowy effect in Warwickshire.
- Option to manually save the game has been removed, and auto save is always on.
- Various little bugs have been fixed, including a crash bug on level 1-4.
- Players of the trial now have the option the buy the game from the main menu.
- I'm sure there's something else but I've forgotten.


PS) Saying all that, the game is still rock hard. I'm not Barney the strawberry floating dinosaur.

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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Monkey Man » Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:55 pm

Apple Jack 2 got 9/10 from Eurogamer today - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... k-2-review

It's been out for a while, anyone play it?

The 1st few levels -


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PostRe: Core blimey, it's the Apple Jack thread (80pts) - E'game
by skarmachild » Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:24 pm

Dante wrote::wub:

The Independent Charles Show sold this to me. Tis a lovely game


QFT, same here, was a decent game (: havent played 2

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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by tomvek » Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:42 pm

Thanks for updating us MM, had no idea AJ2 was out :shock:

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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Venom » Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:52 pm

Whilst I know I won't think it a 9/10 it does look like a good bit of retro fun. And for 64p is a steal - I've just ordered it for automatic download from the Xbox website. Ta!

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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Rubix » Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:13 pm

Why have I missed this? looks amazing for the price!

I have spare MS points!

Do not pre order games from Amazon!
PLAY | Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [59h]
WATCH | Ted Lasso S2, HiJack S1
RACE | Rome Marathon (March), Chew Valley 10k (June), GNR (Sept)
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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Squinty » Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:28 pm

I got to level 50 something in Apple Jack 2 and could not get any further. You had to trick shot various items onto switches and it was a nightmare.

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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Venom » Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:27 am

I played about 4 levels yesterday of Apple Jack 1. I liked it! Old school fun. I especially loved the guitar music which is unusual for a computer game. Got killed a few times and found myself trying the same thing over and over again but I didn't mind. Will play some more tonight if I get the chance.

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PostRe: Apple Jack thread (80pts each) - Apple Jack 2 out, EG 9
by Rubix » Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:27 am

Picked this up yesterday too. Very nice to play for £1

Do not pre order games from Amazon!
PLAY | Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [59h]
WATCH | Ted Lasso S2, HiJack S1
RACE | Rome Marathon (March), Chew Valley 10k (June), GNR (Sept)

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