STP: Band Together is interesting, but its negative quirks prevent us from wholeheartedly recommending it.
Chris Buffa (Modojo): We can't believe it's already July, which is a nice way of saying, bring on the fall already. Like most years, summer is a video game wasteland. A few titles hit store shelves (this year, it's Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and New Super Mario Bros. 2), but for the most part, consumers have slim pickings. At the end of the day, you don't want to find yourself debating whether to pick up movie licensed game X, or cookie cutter sports game Y, two situations many people fall into.
Pocket Gamer: The puzzle genre is so broad that it may as well not exist. Any game that presents you with a problem and expects you to figure out the solution could claim to have puzzles, and that pretty much covers every release since the year dot.
Chris Buffa (Modojo): Game programmer Dave Taylor is best known for his contributions at id Software, where he lent his expertise on such titles as DOOM and Quake. More recently, he taught an experimental class called "Game Production" at the Academy of Art University (San Francisco, CA) in the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters, where the goal was to inspire students to create and ship games on a regular basis. The most famous, Band Together, hit the App Store last week and was featured by Apple, much to the delight of everyone involved. Unfortunately, the game's $4.99 price tag may have slowed its momentum, forcing publisher Backflip Studios to lower it to $2.99 and then make it free for a limited time.
On that note, we spoke with Dave about the initial price, and what he and his students learned from the experience.
