Mugshot Games' CastleMine [$0.99] is one of those rare mobile titles that did not make its initial debut on iOS. In fact, the tower defense game was first introduced on Windows Phone and garnered enough popularity to hit a million downloads across the platform. In celebration of that milestone, the developers have now ported CastleMine over to iOS. While the game's basic TD premise is relatively simplistic, its deep upgrade system, tons of missions and digging mechanic offer a lot worth checking out.

CastleMine doesn't pretend to offer a compelling narrative to set up the game; all you need to know is there are baddies underground coming towards your castle and you need to defend your fortress from them. As this is a TD title, defending your castle is done via placing towers along the enemies' path. Missions are graded with a three star system, and players earn experience after each level that allow them to buy permanent tower upgrades.

Unlike many other TD titles, CastleMine allows the players to set the enemies path by digging into the ground. Players can dig nearly any path they desire for enemies to follow. In addition, the underground is littered with gold and crystal, which are used to purchase attack and support towers, respectively. Special crosses can also be dug up which increase experience earned at the end, and skulls can be found which increase the difficulty (more to come on that later). There are some caveats however, as stone tiles littered across the ground cannot be dug and the game ends if players dig themselves into a corner.

Otherwise, CastleMine's gameplay is pretty basic for a tower defense title. Players have a choice of three attack towers (which can be improved and eventually upgraded down two different paths per tower) and three support towers, which augment the towers that are physically touching them. Enemies come in waves which occur whenever a player digs down a new level. The understated motif also extends to the game's visuals and enemy design, which really don't offer much to differentiate itself from other games.

However, beneath CastleMine's basic visuals and classic TD gameplay lies a few additions that go a long way towards adding some replayability. For starters, the game's upgrade system offers a multitude of different ways to improve towers, resource collection and tower strength across three different tiers. Players can also replay missions for additional experience, affording the opportunity to improve your arsenal in case current missions prove to be too difficult. I'm grateful for this option as later missions can be quite challenging (which is not a bad thing).

The other differentiator for CastleMine lies in the actual digging mechanic and the opportunity for custom paths. While players are encouraged to dig however they wish, smart players realize that there are typically two different paths that must be chosen from. The first places an emphasis on collecting experience and resources while the second is focused on collecting skulls which increase enemy stats but afford the opportunity to obtain a full three star rating. Missions will rarely allow players to collect both, leading to decisions that must be made. I'm a fan of this sort of mechanic and I think it's done well in CastleMine.

It's probably a safe bet that a lot of iOS gamers looking at screen shots of CastleMine wouldn't think much of the simplistic visuals. However, I'd employ TD fans to look beyond the visuals and give CastleMine a chance. Mugshot Games does a good job combining established TD gameplay with some neat twists such as the dig mechanics, leading to a game with longevity and enjoyable elements.

This week on the TouchArcade Show, we spit some more game about the next-generation. At the top, we discuss the reveal of Microsoft's streaming TV box that also happens to play video games, Xbox One. Topics include: streaming TV and how you won't be able to do that with a smaller ISP, the need for an always-on connection, NFL Sunday ticket, and a bunch of other stuff relating to next-generation gaming.

In the second segment, we do manage to bring it back to iOS. Poker Night 2 leads off our games section, while other titles like Warhammer Quest, Combo Breakers and more bring up the rear. Oh -- and while we don't get to news, we do manage to answer a handful of your user questions. Thanks for the e-mails, guys!

If you'd like to listen, just click one of the links below. You can also subscribe to us on iTunes or Xbox Music. Blah, blah, blah, you know the drill:

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
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Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-105.mp3, 36.2MB

Thanks for listening and have a great weekend! Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Combo Crew - [$1.99]
• Poker Night 2 - [$4.99]
• Warhammer Quest
• Space Hulk

FRONT PAGE

• Pre-Xbox Reveal Rumors Indicate Phones And Tablets Will Be A Big Deal For the Console
• Watch the Next Xbox Unveiling With us Live Right Here

I expected to play Magicka [$1.99 (HD)] lying on the couch with my feet up, slowly tapping the iPad in relaxing rhythms. Instead I found myself sitting-up, hunched over like a mad scientist franticly rapping on a touch-screen. I never expected to be as engaged as I would be, nor as impacted by its combat system. I did, though, expect this game to be great.

At least I got that one right.

Up to 4 players can adventure, as merry-men of magic, through Wizards of the Square Tablet’s comic-mischief story-beats. Its writing is as charming as its voice-acting and never misses an opportunity to crack a joke or make a few good references. More importantly, the story is paced perfectly for those using their iPad on the go, and never loses its charm because of it.

Magicka’s story weaves in-between 2D battle scenarios where the player – or players – is tasked to kill enemies, avoid and set traps, slay giant bosses, fight off hordes of ghouls, or simply survive. To do this one must learn the craft of Magicka; mixing and matching between 7 elements – earth, fire, water, shield, life, cold and lightning - to cast a spell. It’s up to the player to evaluate each battle's situation and cast the most effective attacks and defenses possible.

These elements line the bottom of the display and, when tapped, queue up your wizards attack. Up to 4 elements can be combined, in the queue, to cast a spell. Moving your wizard about the battlefield is as simple as tapping. While this control scheme remains similar to other iOS action-RPGs, the speed at which the player inputs commands is not. Here I found myself franticly tapping every inch of my retina display often, struggling to stay alive in some of the most enjoyable yet panic-inducing moments of combat. And I loved every minute of it.

Much of my panic stemmed from a lack of knowledge in the arts of spell crafting. Magicka isn’t holding your hand during battle with on-screen spell lists, instead forcing the player to test their memory with a long list of possible spell combinations. While a handy-dandy spell book menu is a simple tap away - with tons of tips, enemy data, spell combinations, etc. – I strayed from using it, to bask in the challenges Magicka lay before me.  As multiple elemental-powered enemies stumble on screen it becomes difficult keeping composure, often testing your ability to avoid wrongly queueing up a spell or just simply forgetting a combination.

There’s a lot to micro-manage during times of blood in Wizards of the Square Tablet, and that’s one reason I enjoyed its battles so much. Combat wasn’t simply a reactionary challenge but also a mental one. Where I stood on the battlefield, which element I had cast upon myself, which elements my enemies were weakest to, and where traps sat is only the beginning. If franticly managing all that sounds like a daunting-task, Magicka might not be your witches’ brew of choice on the App Store.

Combining random elements and revealing the secrets of your spell book is satisfying and fun, but even more so during co-op campaign sessions. Coordinating battle strategies and playing specific roles during combat with friends revealed multiplayer to be the mode of choice for me. When all 4 wizards are working in conjunction with another the results are glorious, with possibilities of attack combinations multiplying four-fold. And don’t worry about co-op being a cakewalk with Quadra-wizards; the difficulty seems to ramp-up dynamically based on how many partners are with you.

Ludosity did a fine-job reimagining Magicka for iPad, and left behind nothing but minor gripes from me; all of which the game itself transcends. Lack of a quick-restart, Game Center, and the occasional uncontrollable enemy-clutter during battle are the only issues I had with Wizards of the Square Tablet, and rarely added enough frustration to note here.

Magicka isn’t for everyone - especially if you prefer not testing your reaction-time at lightning speeds during combat scenarios - but it’s exactly what I wanted in a real-time action-RPG on iPad. It provides enough entertaining content without ever over-staying its welcome or feeling repetitive. More importantly, it plays nearly flawlessly, never leaving the player stumbling over poor controls even during the most chaotic of combat situations. If you’ve been looking to drop a little spell crafting, enemy-splatting charm onto your iPad, look no further than Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet. 

We called it whack-a-mole, back when I was a raid healer in World of Warcraft. It's been a while, but I'll bet things haven't changed all that much. You watch a screen of green boxes slowly deplete, and do your damndest to tag them with heals as they drop. Whack - a heal-over-time on the off-tank. Whack - a big heal on the main tank. Whack - a last second save for someone squishy. On and on until the boxes stop dropping, you look up, and hey—the boss is dead.

If you ever want to get that experience without all the fuss and pressure of actually raiding—to try it for yourself, to get a little practice in, or to remember the good old days, say—Healer: A Light in the Darkness [$4.99 (HD)] has pulled it together just about perfectly. All the tension and tedium of healing big raids on the go.

In Healer, the experience of raid healing is whittled down to its finer points. There's no positioning to fuss about, no interactive widgets to interact with, nothing but pure, clean healing. You're not the raid leader, so you can't help your imaginary friends figure out that they should focus fire or, you know, tank better. You just heal.

That means watching a screen of green boxes slowly deplete while you do your damndest to tag them with heals as they drop. Heals-over-time, big heals, quick heals, group heals, cleanses—you name it, you'll have to handle it. It took about ten minutes for me to start wishing for my stable of WoW add-ons, and about twenty to miss having even a single other healer on my team. Being the main healer for a difficult raid is stressful. Being the only healer is just unfair.

It's not so bad when you have a party of five to keep on top of, maybe a single angry troll trying to take 'em down. With twenty to take care of, things get a little dicier. There's a lot of tapping back and forth between your abilities and your raid, and not so much in the way of time to breathe. The difficulty curve doesn't cooperate, either, jumping by great leaps between your choice of five difficulty levels.

If you get to a fight and just can't keep your team up, chances are you'll do better if you unlock a better ability or two. These cost coins—earned in-game, not bought. On one hand, no IAP. On the other hand, that means you have to farm if you want new abilities sooner. Joy. Farming in an MMO means a new chance for the thrill of random loot. Farming in Healer means a set number of extra coins into your pot.

But with each new ability you get you'll wind up closer to being able to customize an arsenal that fits your healing style. Then you'll pick up talents to tweak things even further. As you make progress, you'll fight enemies that are tuned specifically to provide interesting healing challenges. You'll be able to measure your own success at keeping your raid members alive, avoiding overhealing, and maintaining your mana. It's a loving tribute to the world of the raid healer.

It could be prettier, sound better, borrow (much) less from World of Warcraft's iconography. Any of those things would make it a more appealing game. But Healer: A Light in the Darkness has the two things down it truly needs: a sea of green boxes, and the desperation you'll feel as you watch them empty.

If you can muster the energy to think back to January of 2012 (that is a very long time ago in the mobile world) then you should remember the exciting announcement that Capcom was remastering and rereleasing the original Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy for iOS. The game was said to be coming "shortly," and while it did indeed launch the following month in Japan, here in America and elsewhere we waited, and waited, and waited some more with no game in sight.

Then the following August, Capcom stated that the game would finally be out in the fall. Again we waited and again Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD stood us up. This past April, Capcom again broke some news about the game but this time it wasn't anything good: for reasons unknown the game would be delayed even further with a tentative release for July of this year.

It's been a long and dramatic road for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD, but things are finally looking up as over on the Capcom Unity blog the company surprised everybody and has announced that the game won't be delayed after all and instead will be showing up in the App Store next week on May 30th. Exciting!

Pricing for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD is also rather nice. The game will be free to download and you'll be able to play the first two cases from the original game Ace Attorney, and if you like it you can unlock the whole original game for $5.99. The other two games in the trilogy, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations, will be available for $6.99 apiece. Alternatively, you can just buy all three games in their entirety in one fell swoop for a price of $16.99.

Hold on to your briefs as we finally – barring some additional cataclysmic disaster – get our hands on Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD when it launches next week, and add the game to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List to get alerts when more news hits.

[Capcom-Unity via Joystiq]

Ninja Theory, the UK-based studio behind some of this generation's more stylish games, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and the Devil May Cry re-imagining, is working on a brawler for iOS and Android. It's called Fightback, and according to the PR, it'll feature a "striking 80's action movie vibe and a revolutionary touch-based combat system." Also, it'll be free-to-play because of course.

Chillingo is handling the publishing duties. Word is that it'll hit this summer across the App Store and Google Play. We've got a screenshot below:

It's exciting to see Ninja Theory do mobile. These guys are tremendous world builders, in addition to being pretty good at the whole making action games thing.

YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.

Sorry, I'm excited about this one. In Pizza Vs. Skeletons [$4.99] creator Riverman Media's next game, The Executive, you play as the CEO of a company that has been infiltrated by well-dressed werewolves. Naturally, your job is save your company -- and eventually the city.

We've got video of the game in action just below, and you'll want to see it. It's got an amazing hand-drawn look, as well as some pretty sick animation. Also, werewolves:

Riverman says The Executive will launch in 2014, which is totally forever from now. I'm at a loss as to how I'll live my life without this in it.

Zynga gets a lot of flack for a myriad of reasons. This is typically due to ripping off other people's original ideas, spamming your Facebook feed (and your friends) with useless requests, or making a game that primarily exists to be an IAP cash cow. Did the inevitable finally happen, and they actually delivered a game that at its core is designed to be fun and playable?

Running With Friends [Free / Free (HD)] has been out in Canada for a while and was finally released worldwide a couple of weeks ago. I decided to check the game out for myself since it's free, and much to my delight, Zynga has added a successful social component to separate this runner from other games in the genre.

A comparison to Temple Run [Free / Free] is quite unavoidable at this point, so let's address that elephant in this review already. Frankly, Temple Run is indeed considered the father of all iOS runners. However if anyone's going to have beef with this game, Subway Surfers' [Free] is definitely its rival. In its core, Running With Friends is a touch-controlled lane-based runner as a opposed to Temple Run's tilt-based method of moving side to side within the game's levels.

Read the rest of this entry »

You smash down into the outside of an airport. There are a swarm of yellow baddies attacking the place. J.A.R.V.I.S. tells you to get going while you can. You touch a button on your suit. You’re flying through the air.

This is how Iron Man 3 [Free] begins, the iOS game based on the $1B grossing film of its namesake. Gameloft’s latest casts you as the famous Tony Stark, on a quest to save the world from the evil ne'er-do-wells. While fun, the game sadly is in stark contrast to its business model, which partly goes against the protagonist.

The first thing you’ll notice are Iron Man 3’s graphics; they are outstanding. Gameloft has definitely gone to great lengths to make the game look good. Iron Man’s suit is reflective, which slightly shows off the world surrounding him. The environment is lush and detailed, making you feel like you’re actually in a living, breathing world, not laying in bed with your iOS device on your lap. However, the environments are also very limited, and you’ll quickly wish for some variety.

Read the rest of this entry »

Appearances can be deceiving. In the App Store, Mosaique [$0.99] looks like it might be a generic block-pusher game, or some sort of warped Tetris clone. The truth is that developer Winning Blimp uses these familiar aesthetics to create something altogether completely different.

In Mosaique, Colored squares assemble onscreen in a seemingly random pattern, and you must navigate the screen’s perimeter to clear them by going to the side you want and then dispatching your colored square out into the field. You can only remove same-colored squares – send it out against something not matching your color, and the new color comes boomeranging back, and what you sent out originally takes its place.

It might sound somewhat complicated, but it really isn’t. It’s your level of mastery with this mechanic that will determine whether you’re a skillful player or merely just okay. It can be a little confusing at first, even with the tutorial, but the best way to understand Mosaique, alas, is to just try it for yourself. After spending a few hours with it, though, I can tell you: This is not a time-suck game in the traditional sense.

With soothing, almost meditative music playing, and a hyper-focus on the game’s sole mechanic, Mosaique can be downright distracting to the extent that the rest of the world can seemingly fall away and disappear. Falling under Mosaique’s spell, my entire world became these giant, differently hued pixels. Even though there's not a ton of depth here, there's something very absorbing about the game that's difficult to articulate.

What prevents Mosaique from being too easy is your shot meter. Every time you spew a square out to try to remove more, it dissipates slightly. If you’re careless, your play sessions will be rather short. The only way to survive is by strategizing, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, when Indy is trying to grab the idol. If you’re in a rush and just go for the easy shots, you’ll be penalized. But if you’re crafty and realize, “Hey, if I shoot this blue one here for this green one… then I can use it to line up all these purple ones after I move the yellow one,” well, then, you’ll fare much, much better. You’ll also be able to continue on, because obliterating two or more squares in one go is the only way to extend your shot meter.

“Winning” is defined by completing seven different, increasingly more difficult puzzles. The game isn’t timed, so you can take as long as you want to hem and haw, but unless you have a chess-master’s mind, you probably will need to dive in and just start square-swapping to crack how to best survive the world of Mosaique.

I woke up to some very exciting and unexpected news today as HyperDevbox Japan has announced that ExZeus 2 is in the works and is heading to the App Store soon. If you aren't familiar (and I won't blame you if you aren't), the original ExZeus [$2.99] was a somewhat obscure arcade game that came out in 2003 and went on to see limited releases on various other platforms like the PlayStation 2, PC, and even as a Wii title in 2007 under the name Counter Force.

In 2009 ExZeus released for the iPhone, and we took a close look at it as well as a hands-on video of the game in motion, as in those early days of the App Store it was a pretty impressive title and used the accelerometer functionality of the iPhone really well. The iPhone was my first time experiencing ExZeus, and it went on to become one of my very favorite games.

ExZeus was an arcade game through and through, and was a similar behind-the-back on-rails shooter to something like Space Harrier. It was hard, but tons of fun. ExZeus 2 looks to bring back that same style of play but will be throwing in tons of other things, too. Seriously, it's nuts how many different things are going on in this game. In between the flying there are parts where you'll face off against enemies on the ground brawler-style, there's a part that looks like a top-down shooter, vehicle sections, giant turrets you can sit in and blast dudes away with, and more. Check out all the craziness in this early trailer for ExZeus 2.

I really loved the simplicity of the first ExZeus. It did one thing and it did it really well. I'm not totally sure how mashing up so many types game styles will work out in the sequel, but it'll be interesting to see nonetheless. Basically I'm just super excited that the ExZeus franchise lives, as very recently I was reminiscing at how much I loved that game and how sad I was it hadn't been updated in so long.

HyperDevbox says ExZeus 2 should be coming "very soon" so join in on the forum discussion and add it to your TouchArcade [Free] Watch List and we'll let you know when more news is available.

Earlier this month, EA soft-launched a new version of the iconic block-clearing game Tetris in the Canadian App Store, called Tetris Blitz [Free], and we took the title for a spin in a TA Plays video to see what it was all about. Basically, it's the Tetris block-dropping-and-clearing that we all know and love, but stuffed into a fast-paced timed mode similar to Bejeweled Blitz [Free]. It's pretty good, despite being littered with all the freemium trappings that we've come to expect on the App Store.

Today, Tetris Blitz graduated from its soft-launch status and has released outside of Canada and into the world at large. Here's an official trailer showing the game in action.

Tetris Blitz is actually a great version of the classic game, and out of all the various Tetris games that have been released on the App Store over the years this one really nails the touchscreen controls the best. The downfall, of course, is the freemium-ness of the game, but at least it's not completely in your face and is pretty easily ignored. Anyway, it's free to check out, so if interested definitely give Tetris Blitz a look.

We recently mentioned how having a Minecraft style game, or even just sticking the word Minecraft into your title or search terms, is the flavor of the moment to try and snatch some downloads from mobile Minecraft fans. Sometimes, though, the block-building formula is actually used in a unique way that complements the game. Naquatic's recently-released Guncrafter [Free] is one of those games.

I never really understood the appeal of "gun apps" that let you either build, clean or just admire various types of 3D-rendered firearms, but they sure have been popular in the past. In Guncrafter you're given a grid and a set of block types that you'll use to build a firearm piece by piece. There are different size grids and different kinds of blocks that you'll slowly unlock as you play which will affect how large your weapon is and the kinds of attributes it has.

Once you've created a firearm in Guncrafter you can then take it into a shoot range scenario where you get to actually test it out by blasting away at various targets, also made up of blocks. This portion of the game actually pits you online against another player and their created weapon to see who can blast away more of the target terrain.

It's actually really fun, both to build a creative weapon and to see how it performs in competition. The formula really works in Guncrafter. However, there is one major negative that seems to be the sticking point for most players: the actual build of your weapon has no bearing on its performance. So, an elaborately-built weapon will fire exactly the same as one that's literally just a barrel.

That's too bad too, because Guncrafter could be a really deep title if the actual designs of your weapons had meaning. As it is now it's still a fun shooting gallery game, and there's something strangely compelling about creating crazy weapons of your own design, but at the end of the day the game just feels a bit too hollow to have much lasting appeal.

Like I said, though, it's still fun for what it is, and it's free-to-play so worth giving a look. I still need to spend some more time diving into it, but so far I've found that Guncrafter is way cooler than I originally thought it would be. People in the forums have been enjoying it too, so if you fancy making your own weapons and blasting away at stuff against online competition, check out Guncrafter.

According to Wikipedia, "Snotlings" are cousins of Goblins and Orks. They're smaller and are used by their much larger brethren as "cannon fodder, food, or cannon missiles." You can imagine tough life must be for these little dudes, but you'll probably find yourself being an even bigger bully to them when you get your hands on Warhammer Quest later next week. Snotlings appear randomly in dungeons, mostly as buffers between you and important enemies that can actually hurt you. Tear through them quickly, and you'll be better able to prioritize. Poor little Snotlings, always receiving hammers and swords to the face.

If you didn't catch it, Warhammer Quest (and its legion of Snotlings) is coming to iPad and iPhone next week. Specifically, it's hitting May 30. Rodeo says Quest supports iOS 6 and above, cloud saves, and it'll debut as a Universal app. The price will be $4.99, which seems perfect.

Quest is one of those games that I can't get enough of. It's an insanely fluid loot-driven turn-based game with a lot of care put into the look, style, and mechanics. You can read more of my thoughts on that stuff in that link, but we've also got some video above, too. It's coming so soon, guys!

If you're among the, like, 12 people who don't own Angry Birds Space [Free / Free (HD)], now's an awesome time to fix that. The outer space-themed take on the series is free to download across iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. You got zero dollars, right? Get clicking!

My favorite thing to do in Space is watch my birds helplessly orbit objects without any hope of actually colliding into something that can break. It's funny in that troll-y kind of way. These brave birds braved space and, possibly, travelled light years to do a job, but can't because their operator is a jerk. Eli, on the other hand, found a couple of better things to like about Space, including the level design.

We hear folks really like Space, so chances are the remaining 12 of you will, too. We're guessing this is free courtesy Apple's own Free App of the Week promotion, so you've got seven or so days to jump on the game's new $0 price.