Firemint's Real Racing [App Store] is the game to show people when you're showing off the graphical capabilities of your phone. The immersion experienced in the cockpit view is substantial, and the remarkably lifelike AI makes the game extremely fun to play. I even made note of how great it felt playing against the AI opponents who actually play like people do when playing against others online in my review of  Real Racing:

Real Racing is an entirely different animal. In my previous hands-on / first impressions post I mentioned how great the AI is, and countless races later I still feel this is Real Racing’s greatest asset. The AI opponents play how they should play; they’re not mindless drones following a simple line around the track, they’re extremely competitive racers that just flat out won’t put up with you trying to cut in front of them, or leaving yourself open on a turn.

Now imagine this, but not against one or two racers, but forty. Allow me to introduce you to an excerpt from the latest post on the Firemint blog:

Real Racing has up to six cars on the track at any one time. Since the game uses a high fidelity physics engine, adding cars is a good test for pushing the hardware. We started our tech demo with 8 cars on the track, then 10, 12, 16 and 20, and the 3GS still didn't break a sweat. We finally stopped when we got to 40 cars on the track at the same time, still with no perceptible drop in frame rate. We think the results are mind blowing.

Unfortunately, this is just a tech demo by Firemint. They don't actually have plans to release a version of Real Racing to allow for 40 racers at once. Regardless, this serves as a remarkable benchmark of what the iPhone 3GS is capable of.

App Store Link: Real Racing, $9.99

I ran in to Yoshiyuki Miyagawa, CEO of Geppetto, Inc at WWDC as he was walking around with his phone slung around his neck telling anyone who would listen about himself and his games. Miyagawa has an impressive resume which includes 14 years at Square-Enix where he had his fingers in Dawn of Mana and served as the Lead Programmer for the console version of Final Fantasy XI.

Geppetto's latest offering, iYamato [App Store], allows players to play as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet during World War 2, the Yamato. When the Yamato and her sister ship, the Musashi were formally commissioned in late 1941, they were the largest and heaviest battleships ever constructed and were armed with massive 18.1 inch main guns.

iYamato provides an interesting approach not often seen in Western video games, since playing as the Japanese in a World War 2 game obviously pits you against the Americans and their Allied forces, presumably Task Force 58 during Operation Ten-Go. (Read more about the Yamato and its battles on Wikipedia.)

The gameplay is fairly simple, the Yamato is armed with its standard guns that have unlimited ammo, as well as larger and more powerful cannons which take a few seconds to reload after each shot. Using these weapons, you defend yourself against waves of fighter planes, bombers, blimps, and other aircraft.

The unique mechanic of iYamato is as your ship takes damage, it will start to sink either towards the bow or the stern depending on where you've been hit. As the ship sinks, the angle of your guns change and at times you will lose access to some of your guns as they sink underwater.

iYamato has a really cool feel to it, and as your ship starts sinking it does a great job of giving you the feeling of desperation as you attempt to defend yourself with half of your ship underwater. The graphics and sounds are top notch, and with headphones provide a eerily immersive experience.

That said, it would be really nice if the game had some kind of power-up or upgrade system to add some variety and overall depth to the game. Currently, you defend the Yamato with the same array of weaponry until you're sunk, your score gets transmitted to a worldwide leaderboard, and you start over.

However, the developer is actively posting on our forums, and seems to be taking in ideas for future updates. So, if you've got something to say or a suggestion to add, don't hestitate to stop by the iYamato thread and post it. With iYamato surging to the overall top ten of the Japanese App Store overnight, it wouldn't surprise me to see continued support from Geppetto.

If you're a history buff, like high score games, or just generally enjoy shooting down swarms of aircraft with a massive battleship, at 99¢, iYamato is certainly worth a look.

App Store Link: iYamato, 99¢

During WWDC we spent some time with IUGO and were given previews of both Star Hogs and A.D.D. Similar to Nintendo's WarioWare, A.D.D. consists of a series of microgames, or "channels", which are only played for a few seconds before flipping to the next one.

Included initially are going to be 72 "channels", with three free updates to bring the total to 108. Gameplay involves simple tasks using the iPhone's various control systems set in various humorous scenarios. These mini games are presented in rapid succession and part of the challenge is figuring you what you need to do. The game does tip you off with what control mechanism needs to be used (tilt, shake, tap etc…).

The full game is still in the App Store approval queue, but A.D.D. Lite [App Store] went live yesterday, featuring 16 "channels" that will have you doing things like slamming shots at a bar, dropping a pencil down a butt crack, stealing underwear off a clothes line, popping pimples, and other silly things.

A.D.D. Lite is fast paced and is packed with content that's a little too edgy to ever be found in WarioWare, featuring a total of six warnings on its App Store listing under the app rating, which has to set some kind of record. I've been having fun with it, and optimistically have my fingers crossed awaiting the approval of the full game which hopefully will be released shortly for $3.99.

App Store Link: A.D.D. Lite, Free

Zenonia [App Store] is an epic action RPG has seen a phenomenal reception both from review sites and on our forums. I reviewed it when it was released last month, and aside from a few minor 1.0 annoyances, I really enjoyed the game.

At $5.99, it is an unbelievable value for the amount of gameplay you're getting. At over 40 hours per play-through, three classes, along with the good and evil alignment system, Zenonia should provide for at least a second fresh play-through as you choose the opposite alignment of your previous game. There really isn't anything like it on the App Store, and if you're looking for a solid RPG to settle in and sink your teeth in to, look no further than Zenonia.

Gamevil has once again reaffirmed their reputation of listening to community feedback with Zenonia 1.1, as every change implimented is something that the players have asked for. The controls have been substantially improved in this update. The touch area that activates the virtual D-Pad has been expanded, and they added quite a bit of transparency to the on-screen controls along with tweaking the inventory navigation controls.

A major complaint of mine was how often your character needed to eat and how quickly your equipment degraded. Thankfully, in Zenonia 1.1, these things have been completely rebalanced. Item durability and hunger both advance at much more reasonable rates, and running back to town to repair and eat before finishing your active quests seems to be a think of the past.

Also, you can now toggle the background music, allowing iPod playback during play.

While nothing has been done to address the amount of grinding required to level up in some areas of the game, the improvements in 1.1 have made playing Zenonia substantially more enjoyable. Since most of my original problems with the game having been addressed, I highly recommend Zenonia to anyone looking for a great action RPG with enough content to keep you busy for weeks.

App Store Link: Zenonia, $5.99

Gameprom's decision to make their first iPhone game Wild Wild West Pinball [App Store] free was met with some lively discussion about App Store pricing. We saw the move as an effective marketing strategy for their next game Deep Pinball.

The move seems to have paid off in terms of exposure for the company as Wild Wild West Pinball is now the number one downloaded free app in the App Store. Gameprom also reveals that they now have over 2 million players around the world.

And they seem to be putting some significant efforts into the push of their next pinball game with this impressively produced promotional trailer:

The game is expected "soon" in the App Store.

Besides all the news about Doom Classic, DOS-era gamers were also happy to see a port of Tyian [$1.99] appear in the App Store yesterday.

Tyrian was originally a 1995 vertical shoot 'em up that was subsequently released as freeware in 2004. The game is a typical shooter with a significant weapon upgrade system. The iPhone version of the game is based on the open source code project and does not come bundled with the data files due to licensing issues. This means the app will need to download the files (4.6MB) upon first launch so you should make sure you are on a fast and inexpensive connection (Wi-Fi or unlimited cellular) before launching the first time.

The game uses touch controls to control the ship and feels pretty responsive. Overall, the game has been well received by old fans of the game, but there is at least one major issue that prevents you from upgrading your weapons:

So for the people that havn't played it before, the game has "full game" mode and arcade mode. Full game mode allows you to change/upgrade your different weapons and components (front, back, left, right weapons, shiptype and generator). The better weapons cost more, some of them are specific to certain levels, you collect money as you play and upgrade in between levels. Arcade mode has all those weapons but they appear after killing certain enemies and you have to catch them. Upgrades are picked up in the form of common purple orbs that slowly upgrade you over time.

So with the menu issues right now you cant upgrade your weapons in full game mode unless there is some trick I'm not seeing. Issue also doesn't allow the control of sound/music volume.

Update: The developer reports that "the weapons upgrade issue is patched, and the new binary resubmitted for appstore review."

App Store Link: Tyrian, $1.99

On Monday TouchArcade.com interviewed id Software's John Carmack and Escalation Studio's Tom Mustaine about their new game Doom Resurrection [App Store] but we also delved into id's future plans for the iPhone, and they are many.

In fact, Carmack said that they were hoping to release a new id title to the iPhone every 2-3 months for the next year. These titles will include a mix of their classic PC games such as Doom and Quake as well as newer mobile games including Wolfenstein RPG.

The complete list of titles and add-ons mentioned in the interview are listed here:

• Doom Resurrection - Bluetooth Cooperative Multiplayer coming
• Wi-Fi Multiplayer is currently working in Doom Classic (not yet released)
• Doom Classic closing in on being ready for initial release
• Plans for 3.0 support in Doom Classic with Bluetooth Multiplayer and downloadable content including Doom 2, Ultimate Doom, Final Doom, Master Levels
• Considering competitive internet multiplayer in later update to Doom Classic
• Planning Quake, Quake 2 for the iPhone and maybe all the way up to Quake Arena
• Plans to do a Rage themed from-scratch iPhone title
• Wolfenstein RPG ready to go but being held by EA due to concern about confusion with Wolfenstein Classic
• Doom 2 RPG is in works for mobile and that will be ported to iPhone too
• Very early talks about a modernized Doom ("Doom++") release with new levels and story

We had a sneak peek at the cooperative multiplayer of Doom Resurrection at WWDC which allowed two Bluetooth connected players to play simultaneously -- each player with their own reticule on the other's screen.

The currently unavailable Wolfenstein RPG title was accidentally released in Japan for a brief period of time, and one site was able to get video of it before it was pulled. Carmack hopes that the game will be released soon, but the decision seems to be with EA.

Overall, Carmack is very excited about the iPhone, and clearly it shows given id's aggressive plans to launch a massive number of titles over the next year for the platform. Carmack said that while they'd had fun with traditional mobile games, he's "had a lot more fun on the iPhone".

We've included the full transcript after the jump and is certainly worth a read if you have any interest in these upcoming games.

(more...)

Over the weekend, we reported that Ngmoco had planned to remove the original Rolando from the App Store once Rolando 2 was released on July 1st.

This announcement sparked a bit of an outcry of concern amongst current and future Rolando customers. In response to the complaints, Ngmoco just announced that will not be pulling the original Rolando as originally planned:

You've roared and we've listened. Rolando will stay put on the App Store. Topple is coming back. That's how we roll.

The original reason for the removal was said to be putting the "spotlight" on Rolando 2 upon its release. Rolando 2 is scheduled for release on July 1st, while the original version of Rolando remains available at $5.99 [App Store].

Escalation Studios and id Software has just released the first original Doom title to the iPhone and iPod Touch platform: Doom Resurrection [App Store].

The Doom name carries with it an enormous 16 year legacy that results in some massive expectations for any adaptation. This iPhone version of Doom has been in development for over 6 months and utilizes many of the assets originally created for Doom 3. As a result, the game will look quite familiar to those who have played Doom 3.

The best compliment I can offer to Doom Resurrection is that despite some controversial changes, it "feels" like Doom and is a lot of fun. And as a reviewer, there are games I have to play to the end and games I want to play to the end, and Doom Resurrection easily fell in the latter category. The game makes good use of the Doom 3 graphics and audio to provide an immersive game that sucks you in for the duration.

Unlike Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 3, Doom Resurrection is not quite a traditional first person shooter. The character movement in the game is scripted along a pre-determined path. This means that you move along from scene to scene automatically as you combat demons and zombies with your available arsenal of weapons. The shooting component of the game, however, uses an accelerometer controlled reticule that is used to target the enemies. Incoming projectiles can be dodged with well-timed presses of the "dodge/cover" button, while cover can be temporarily sought from machine gun wielding enemies using the same button. Escalation Studio's Tom Mustaine had explained to us at WWDC that they had originally experimented with a tap-to-shoot mechanic but the game simply wasn't any fun. The accelerometer controlled aiming mechanism, however, really does work well and manages to offer an immersive Doom-like experience on your iPhone.

Doom fanatics will find familiarity with the variety of weapons strewn throughout the game. Some of these include a double barreled shotgun, plasma rifle, chainsaw and yes, the BFG. Weapon selection is more than just for visuals, as different weapons are more or less effective on different enemies. Health and ammo pickups are available throughout levels and are picked up by tapping on items directly.

The game includes 4 levels of difficulty from Recruit to Nightmare. Your performance in each of the eight levels is graded on an A-F scale based on your headshots, time, and item pickups and secrets found. Long term replayability involves the ability to replay individual levels at different difficulties for higher scores. While the gameplay remains similar throughout, the addition of new weapons and enemies do tend to keep things interesting.

Here's our gameplay video showing the controls:

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The 8 levels went by relatively quickly with my first time through taking somewhere between 2-3 hours on the 2nd level of difficulty (Marine). The story line of the game, however, is a bit weak though it introduces the first dialog from the Doom marine himself. These cut scenes, pre-scripted sequences and dialog screens are ok the first time through, but when playing through again, you wish you could cut past them quicker than you can. While lengthy dialog can be skipped, you still have to go through the motions of some of the cut scenes. My only real gameplay gripe was that the cover mechanic becomes repetitive in some of the later levels.

Based our interview with both Escalation Studios' Tom Mustaine and id Software's John Carmack, it seems they are really proud of this release, and I can certainly see why especially given the realistic constraints of the platform. I believe Doom Resurrection will be a huge hit amongst both casual and hardcore iPhone gamers. There will, of course, be a vocal few that simply won't be able to get past the "on rails" aspect of the game, and to those, I suggest trying the game before passing judgement.

Game Details Name: Doom Resurrection (v1.0.1) Price: $9.99 [Buy] Developer: id Software Size: 79.6 MB Device: Tested on iPhone 3G Doom Resurrection brings id Software's first original title to the iPhone and it really is great. While the game dispenses with the free-roam aspect of the original, the iPhone specific changes work really well and makes for a very fun and immersive experience.

TouchArcade Rating:

Doom Resurrection was released today [App Store] and we had an opportunity to speak with id Software's John Carmack and Escalation Studios' Tom Mustaine about the brand new title today in a telephone interview. We have also had time to play through the final version of the game and will be posting our review momentarily.

Clearly, one of the most talked about aspect of the game is the control system that has been called an "on rails" experience. Carmack and Mustaine both object to that characterization, however, and feel that by removing the free-roam aspect, it becomes far more accessible and better experience overall.

One of the things I like to say is if you compare this to one of our traditional FPS games like Wolfenstein 3D Classic to a lesser extent and even more with Doom Classic... but those games can look really good when you've got somebody who knows what they're doing playing around with it, somebody who is comfortable with the controls. But, the first pick up response on it generally is not that great even from a FPS person because it's a control set people aren't familiar with.
....
And with Doom Resurrection because you do trade off some freedom, you don't have the ability to roam everywhere, but the game looks good all the time. .... And it does have that sort of skill based progression just like you would have with a traditional FPS game but it just has a generally more sort of positive feedback on there without the downside of making people feel like they have no idea what they're supposed to be doing.

The companies also spent a large amount of time experimenting with controls systems for the game, almost scrapping the game altogether about half way through. The original iteration of the game had a "tap to shoot" mechanic which was simply not-fun. It wasn't until they discovered the tilt to aim mechanic that they felt they had a compelling enough game. They are particularly proud of their implementation which has not been used in other iPhone games yet, and expect it will be imitated in the near future.

Yeah I do take some pride in that traditionally as like id invented the FPS genre on the other platforms, I think we will be a bit of a trailblazer in control methods etcetera on the iPhone as well. It's a platform that I care quite a bit about and we are making an effort across all the products to make sure that they do all come out well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I do expect this to be imitated.

In response to the question of App Store pricing, Carmack stressed that that was a very important part of the equation for the future of big-title games in the App Store. He believes that for the market to be able to sustain big AAA titles in the future, the App Store market is going to have to be able to support higher priced titles of at least $9.99.

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A full transcript of the interview is included after the jump. We have more information on Doom Classic, Wolfenstein RPG and id's future iPhone plans which we will report in a separate article.

App Store Link: Doom Resurrection, $9.99

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Another one of new games we previewed at WWDC arrived in the App Store last night: Big Top 10 [$0.99].

This number puzzle game is one I previously described as "Wurdle with numbers". In Big Top 10 you use the iPhone's touch screen to connect adjacent numbers in an effort to add up to a total 10. Longer chains offer you more time and more points. So, the better you are, the longer you can play. The game gets harder over time with higher valued numbers. If you find yourself stuck, you simply shake the iPhone for a new set of numbers.

Special items including bombs, clocks and multipliers to aid in your task while negative numbers make it possible to make super long combos.

Despite our constant desire for more massive gaming experiences, these sort of self-challenging puzzle games really seem to be the perfect type of game for the iPhone. Big Top 10 fits the bill with simple fun pick-up gameplay and unlimited replayability.

There is an ongoing discussion of the game in our forums with participation from the developer.

App Store Link: Big Top 10, $0.99.

Freeverse's Warpack Grunts appeared in the App Store tonight for only $0.99 [App Store].

The game will have immediate appeal to fans of the Amiga game Cannon Fodder which used a very similar squad-based game design. In fact, one of the first reactions to the game acknowledges "It's a light weight Cannon Fodder. Not as deep as CF was. Still maintains the general spirit of CF, and adds to it somewhat on it's own ways."

We've spent a brief amount of time with the new release and have compiled these first impressions. The game is an action shooter in which you control the movements of your squad of fighters with a single touch control system. Tap on the screen and your squad will walk towards it. Double tap and the squad will fire with their machine guns. Additional weapons, tools and health can be found scattered around the map and each level has a very specific objective. There are 40 missions total in campaign mode as well as a Zombie Survival mode (yep, pretty much how it sounds) and the game has 4 levels of difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard and Nnnnnaarrgh!). That last difficulty level should give you an idea of the tone of the game, itself, which is amusingly lighthearted for a war game.

Here's a developer provided video of the game:

The game is very much an action-arcade shooter so while each level seems to have its tricks and challenges, its feels like more of an old-school arcade game rather than a deep strategy game that some might have expected.

There seem to be a few valid early complaints about the game. One is that campaign mode always restarts you at the very first level. In theory, this might be expected for an arcade-type game, but the early levels are basically tutorial levels, so it's hard to get excited about playing them again and again. (Note: you can temporarily circumvent this with the inadvertent ability to practice any level.) The next potential issue is that the control system (touch screen) just doesn't seem ideal... at least not with our brief time with the game. While it's certainly passable as you put a little time into it, it just still feels a bit awkward as you are frequently obscuring your view.

The game is still quite fun and offers plenty of dramatic explosions and cartoon violence for only $0.99. So, if you're looking for arcade action or just want to feel like you have an Amiga again, Warpack Grunts seems to be a good bet.

App Store Link: Warpack Grunts, $0.99

Digital Chocolate has recently released 3D Rollercoaster Rush [App Store], a physics-based rollercoaster simulation of sorts, based on the studio's earlier, 2D title Rollercoaster Rush [App Store].

3D Rollercoaster Rush is a game that puts you in control of the fate of a rather overly-trusting group of riders who would probably have done well to have picked another, safer rollercoaster to get their thrillkicks.  You see, you are in control of the speed of said coaster (via accelerometer tilt) as it hurtles down its rather ambitious track layout -- and the thing is, the coaster is free to fly from the track as physics may dictate.  It's a harrowing proposition, as it's up to you to keep the riders...alive. Similarly played iPhone games include Stunt Car Racing, Monster Trucks Nitro, and GI Joyride.

The game is fairly impressive visually, and really just boils down to leaping the crest of the tracks' various hills hill at the right velocity in order to land smoothly, as opposed to crashing out perpendicular to the track, which causes certain riders to fall or -- in the worst case -- a total crash of the coaster.

Features listed by the developer:

• Two great games in one:
  • Career Mode – Play 40 different action-packed rollercoaster tracks in a Wild West theme park
  • Challenge Race Mode – Replay all 40 rollercoaster tracks to out race the game designer’s time!
• Expertly crafted tracks with realistic coaster physics
• Stunning and detailed 3D graphics
• Perform insane stunts to get a higher score!
• Unique iPhone and iPod touch controls -- users can use the accelerometer feature by tilting the device to make the carts go faster and slower.
• Bright and stunning 3D art graphics
• Adrenaline pumping and exciting real music!

3D Rollercoaster Rush is not the meatiest of games, being rather basic in its focus, but physics-gaming fans will enjoy it.  And, as a bonus, you can even race against the ghost of gaming gaming legend, EA-founder, and Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins.  (He was toast the first time we shared tracks...just saying...)

You can try the a free, lite version [App Store] for those wanting to test the waters before jumping in.

See the developer's gameplay video for a closer look.

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App Store Link: 3D Rollercoaster Rush, $4.99, 3D Rollercoaster Rush FREE, free

Ngmoco representative mjmoco has revealed on our forums that Rolando 2 will be released on July 1st.

To celebrate the release they have put WordFu [App Store] and Dr. Awesome [App Store] on sale for $0.99.

A particularly curious announcement, however, is that the original Rolando [App Store] will be removed from the App Store at that time:

Also, make sure you snag a copy of the original Rolando while you still can. We'll be moving Rolando and Rolando Lite off the App Store on July 1 to make room for Rolando 2.

Rolando was originally released on December 17th, 2008. We're not sure the reasoning behind the removal, but we'll let you know what we find out.

Here's the trailer for Rolando 2:

Update: MJ from Ngmoco has clarified the status of Rolando:

Basically, we want the spotlight on Rolando 2 when it hits the App Store. We're not discontinuing support for Rolando, we're just discontinuing sales. And Rolando may return to the App Store in the future, but if and when it does we'll want to include Plus+ support for it.

Firemint's Flight Control is one of the early games to support the 3.0 firmware's Bluetooth peer to peer gameplay. Prior to 3.0, players would have to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network in order to play any local networking games. With 3.0, all you need are two iPhones (or iPod Touches) with Bluetooth.

When you set up a Peer to Peer game, you are sharing flight control duties with your friend. In this level example, one person lands all the red planes, while the other lands the yellow planes and helicopters.

Click for larger image

Seems simple but all types of planes still appear in on each screen and you need to divert them to the other player's screen still while avoiding collisions. You both share a common cumulative score for the session. A very exciting new use for the Peer to Peer gaming option in 3.0.

Meanwhile, it seems that Firemint is branching out into merchandising with a new shop set up to sell Flight Control branded mugs and steins.

To turn on Bluetooth, you have to go to Settings -> General -> Bluetooth and turn it on. Only the iPhone 3G, 3G S and the 2nd Generation iPod Touch can use Peer to Peer Bluetooth.

App Store Link: Flight Control, $0.99